Morrow - "Davids not during this transfer window"

FC Dallas Head Coach Steve Morrow

Hey everyone. It’s been a couple of hectic weeks recently, with a trip to Europe, to Florida, to Indianapolis, and a few to Dallas. I’ll touch on all of those trips in my next post, but I imagine today most have seen the news that it appears that Edgar Davids may be heading to Ajax – so I wanted to address it here for all of you.

Our talks with Edgar Davids’ representative began last December during my trip to London. We’d spoken about both sides’ interest, if it was a good fit for both sides, about finances, and other things. On the morning of January 11, while I was at the airport on the way to Indianopolis for the draft, is when the Edgar talks really got serious. That day was when we began talks to see what it would take to get Edgar here, the financial package involved, etc, etc. And those talks progressed a lot in the next two weeks.

The aftermath of David Beckham's signing sparked a lot of interest with players wanting to come into this league. A lot of big names have been mentioned and we’ve spoken to a lot of agents about different players, and have been working out which ones we think could be a good fit for the team. All the mean time continuing our talks with Edgar Davids.

We always knew there was another deal on the table for Edgar and it was a matter of timing, trying to do this before the transfer window closed at the end of January. Edgar had stressed that this was something that intrigued him and was a great opportunity to come to the United States. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s something we’ll be able to do during this transfer window.

We do feel we have a very strong squad, and for us to make the team better it needs to be a top quality player that will improve the quality that we already have, be the right mix, be the right target player, and fit into what we’re looking for moving forward. There are still some targets that I will be looking at in the coming weeks and even when we’re down in South America.

The soccer world kind of goes crazy during the transfer window in January, and we also know that outside the transfer window things will calm down. We’re also very aware that the prices are also more in favor outside the transfer window. Certain things can still happen, because our transfer window is open till March 1 and there are still deals that we make that happen - once things have calmed down a little bit.

As for the designated player, I wanted to address it since there is so much speculation out there, that we’re not just going to sign a big name just for the sake of it. We believe strongly that it has to make financial sense for the organization if we’re going to invest that money in a player that in the long term, FC Dallas are going to benefit from. And that means that it’s going to be a player who comes in and is a good influence on the young players, or, if it’s a younger player, that he’s a long term investment for the future. We consider all those and other things when a designated player is offered to us, and believe me, a lot of them have been offered to us in the last few weeks. It just has to be the right fit for us and we felt that Edgar Davids was that type of player. And some of the names that have been offered haven’t been the right fit – and some have, but have been out of our reach financially.

On Edgar, I think the initial offer that was mentioned was a reaction to the Beckham deal and that was something that FC Dallas would not have been able to accomplish. I think when everyone realized the David Beckham figures were not realistic, than those numbers came down dramatically. I think FC Dallas really stretched themselves to try to accommodate Edgar’s contract and really made a big commitment to try to make it happen. Both sides were pleased with the package that was put together, but I think again, that it came down to the timing - and we couldn’t get it done during this transfer window.