MacManus Cometh: Is Buying Scottish Buying Enough?

By: Jeff | March 11th, 2008

To catch up on day-old news, there’s talk of a Scottish striker joining the Colorado Rapids: as you might have read on such sites as Black Panther: A Soccer Blog and Rapids Class VI, Colorado is negotiating with Dunfermline’s Thomas Kelly “Tam” MacManus. Now, to complete The Simpsons allusions, consider me the comic book dude as I spent the last day saying something like, “I’m not getting off this stool for that.”

I kid, I kid. In truth, I was hella busy yesterday and wanted to do a little digging before posting. Fortunately for my preoccupied ass, FC Rocky not only provided the latest status report, but did the only legwork that occurred to me: they checked Dunfermline’s site for MacManus’ profile - and the player stats contained therein.

So…the numbers…what to call them? Underwhelming, perhaps? On the upside, MacManus saw decent, regular action with his previous clubs; it’s his haul of goals that sews doubts. Putting the numbers in perspective doesn’t come easily given I know little about the Scottish Premier League beyond the Glasgow clubs’ semi-permanent dominance - and MacManus didn’t play for either. For what it’s worth, the numbers argue MacManus had his best days in about 5 years ago with Hibernian FC, though he did return to regular action more recently with Dundee - the club that made Sir Alex Ferguson’s reputation…I think. In the current campaign, he’s managed more yellow cards than goals - a claim that one expects from a defender, rather than a forward.

Still, you get the feeling the Rapids like him well enough and it’s not like they’re over-stocked in the forward department. So, what’s the harm? It depends on what they pay him, I suppose (let’s just say everyone deserves a shot, but they have to earn a fat paycheck). In any case, good luck to Tam. If he does half as well as the last Scot to play for the Rapids, they’ll do fine.

In other Rapids news, The Official Organ hypes the Rapids’ effort at spreading word of the team’s existence. Good for them, though I’ll have to ask local Rapids fans how this latest P.R. campaign looks against past efforts (and did Ugo Ihemelu get a sharp-looking haircut?). Second, it looks like the Rapids decided to return from England by way of Bermuda: they arranged a mutually beneficial warm-up with the Bermudan National Team this Friday. Having covered the New England Revolution in years past, I know a couple Bermudan media outlets, which should help with digging up match reports. I’ll pass those on when I get ‘em.