After all last year's clever moving of parts to stockpile targeted allocation money (TAM) and general allocation money (GAM) funds, and the shrewd offseason acquisition of MLS experience in Juninho and Dax McCarty, Chicago Fire GM Nelson Rodriguez is fully aware that he has just made the move that ensures none of those decisions are the ones his regime will come to be judged by.

For reasons technical, cultural and sporting, signing the player Rodriguez describes as the "singular" Bastian Schweinsteiger will be all Chicago sporting historians look at when it comes to assessing Rodriguez's and coach Veljko Paunovic's time in charge. And answering an ESPN FC question during a conference call on Tuesday, Rodriguez insists he can live with that:

"I would say this: If I have to go down, and I go down with one of the greatest champions in the history of soccer, I'll feel pretty good that I made a good choice. But I suspect that Bastian is going to make me a better pro, a better general manager; he's going to make us all better. And in the end, I think we'll look at this and say, 'This was a signal moment where our ambition and our vision caught up with our execution to make us a global club.'"

It's a measure of how far we've come in assessing the designated player era that the first question that occurs to most neutrals when assessing the big investment the Fire have made in Schweinsteiger is not "How did they get him?" but "How will this work?"

There was a time when name recognition was enough; a new marquee signing would be announced and the impact would immediately be discussed in terms of jersey sales, global recognition for the league and perhaps a snarky sidebar or two on MLS as a "retirement league." But generally the underlying and largely unquestioned assumption was that the player would automatically improve whatever MLS franchise he happened to arrive in.

But the past few years have seen something of a paradigm shift that makes Schweinsteiger's signing an intriguing one. As time has gone on, MLS teams have come to realize that the splash that a big signing appears to make can sometimes be the sound of a lopsided boat capsizing.

In its debut season, New York City FC struggled to incorporate the star names of Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa among an otherwise unremarkable team. Last year, even the best exponents of the designated player design, LA Galaxy, found that transforming a team from "best-ever on paper" to "effective on the field" was trickier in practice than in theory, as they struggled to incorporate a series of expensive misfit toys.

What has consistently proved to be the case is that parachuting even the most world-class of players into a team does not automatically produce success. Much depends on who they're surrounded by and how they're deployed. The most productive period of David Beckham's tenure in L.A., for example, was when he was partnered with Juninho to do a lot of the running in midfield -- freeing the Englishman to quarterback the ball up the field.

And Juninho may be about to play a crucial role again, because with Schweinsteiger about to be dropped into a Fire midfield that features the former Galaxy player and former New York Red Bulls captain McCarty, that key question comes up: "How will this work?"

McCarty was a part of one of the most effective midfield trios in the league in New York, as he and Felipe Martins anchored a triangle topped by the advanced playmaking of Sacha Kljestan. And at first glance, that looks to be the optimum way for Chicago to set up with Schweinsteiger in the team. McCarty will stay deep, Juninho will also hold but play a step or two further up the field, and Schweinsteiger will be charged with opening up defenses.

Certainly his new coach Paunovic has no doubt about his potential impact:

"Having the strongest possible midfield is essential for how we want to play," the manager said in a release. "We see Bastian helping our organization of the attack, and impacting the final third build-up with his vision and creativity to produce the final pass, as well as his capacity to score goals. His versatility on the field, and his immense experience at the highest levels of this sport will be a great benefit to our team."

That's the idea, anyway. A supplementary question to add might be: "Will this work now?" And that may be the most important question of all.

After last season's steep learning curve and stockpiling of TAM and GAM, the Chicago brain trust of Paunovic and Rodriguez had already made its intentions clear with its offseason moves, particularly in midfield. Never mind steady improvement, this has already been marked as a year when the Fire expect to make a statement on the field.

MLS pragmatism means that McCarty, rather than Schweinsteiger, was the prized move in that approach -- the type of player his peers wanted at the club, or spoke about as what was missing. Yet Schweinsteiger, brought in on a one-year contract at a reported $4.5 million in salary, is a move that not only suggests "win now" writ large, it's a structural and financial commitment to the necessity of doing so.

That means a new-look midfield gelling immediately, spearheaded by a player who's barely played competitively this year and who will be joining the team without a preseason with them. The Fire have shown signs of life already this year -- and in that regard, a 10-man loss to Atlanta last weekend might be regarded as an aberration -- but the team essentially has an international break for the new man to hit full speed. Anything less than a strong playoff showing this year will be seen as an expensive failure for a franchise that needs to reignite the imagination of its fans beyond a few jersey sales.

It's a risk, however good Schweinsteiger's attitude and ideals might be, and Rodriguez acknowledged as much in suggesting that the Fire had pressed United "politely" to get the deal done now or not at all. At least beyond Schweinsteiger's obvious world champion pedigree, Chicago feel that he is a good cultural match for the team ("a giver"), and that is important. After all, the Fire have written their own chapter on designated player misadventures during the past 10 years, so it's no small thing that Schweinsteiger wants to be there and has already bonded with Paunovic since their first meeting in Manchester last fall.

But there's no time for a bedding-in period. Chicago has already suggested it wants to win now, but with this move, it needs to win now.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by GRAHAM PARKER

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]