Offseason Moves, Summer 2012

The season just ended in mexico but it ahs already been a busy offseason for both players and coaches on the move.

Starting with coaches, here are the new coaches:

Hugo Sanchez (Pachuca)
Enrique Meza (Toluca)
Guillermo Vazquez (Cruz Azul)
Ruben Omar Romano (Morelia)
Ricardo LaVolpe (Atlante)
Juan Carlos Chavez (Atlas)
Carlos de los Cobos (Queretaro)
Jose Luis Trejo (San Luis)
Joaquin del Olmo (UNAM)
John van't Schip (GUadalajara)

You can see it has been a busy offseason for coaching changes!

Now some players:
Adrian Alderete (America from Morelia)
Emanuel Villa (UNAM from Cruz Azul)
Martin Romagnoli (UNAM from Toluca)
Luis Garcia (UNAM from Puebla)
Jaime Lozano (UNAM from Morelia)
Juan Carlos Cacho (Toluca from UNAM)
Vicente Matias Vuoso (Atlas from America)
Sergio Amaury Ponce (Atlas from Queretaro)
Fidel Martinez (Tijuana from Deportivo Quito)

UNAM finally are buying some players after 3 straight poor seasons relying on the same set of players.

America with the bizarre signing of Rubens Sambueza, an Argentine left sided midfielder who was last with Estudiantes Tecos. Sambueza is an average player at best. I thought America only wanted to make impact signings, especially with foreign players?

Chivas are sending defender Jonny Magallon, an ex international who has lost form, and midfielder Eduardo "Chori" Mejia to newly promoted Leon and winger Alberto Medina, another former Tri player in a slump, also leaves Guadalajara and will play for Hugo Sanchez at Pachuca.

Atlas with another signing too, another Ecuadorian coming to Mexico, winger/forward Luis Bolaņos coming from LDU Quito.

The league is separating itself from the federation, even if the federation really is the club presidents who control it. The new name will be the Liga MX. Looks more like a stock ticker symbol than anything else but despite some grandiose pronouncements, very little will change about the league. One noticable chnage will be the introduction of a Copa Mexico, something which was discontinued about a decade ago. More calendar congestion.

On the player movement front, Hector Mancilla, the Chilean forward who lost his starting place at Tigres is moving to Atlas who are really looking to reinforce themselves so they will not get dragged into a relegation fight.

America are trying to get national team player Efrain Juarez from Celtic in Scotland and may be successful but nothing is yet official. Nor is Chivas' attempts to pry another national team player, midfielder Luis Perez, away from Monterrey.

A potential big story is Pachuca's attempts to get Nery Castillo currently on loan from Shakhtar to Aris of Greece. Nery Castillo did his best with mexico when Pachuca's new coach Hugo Sanchez was leading El Tri.

Yes, it is the same league with different packaging, nothing else.

It is official, Efrain Juarez is coming to America, so the club's offseason acquisitions are left back Adrian Aldrete, left midfielder Rubens Sambuena and right back/midfielder Efrain Juarez. I am not sure where Juarez will play but this should give him the stage to regain his spot on the national team.

Some bad news for America as goalie Moises Munoz broke his hand in an auto accident and will be out for two months.

The infamous "draft" took place the other day and ESPN Deportes has a list of all the player movement, this includes officializing some of the moves we already mentioned, including Luis Perez to Chivas and Efrain Juarez to America.


Other significant moves were (old club in parentheses):

Rafael Marquez Lugo to Chivas (Morelia)
Gerardo Lugo to Santos (Morelia)
Carlos Morales to Morelia (Santos)
Francisco Javier Torres to Morelia (Santos)
Jose Antonio Olvera to Morelia (Santos)
Edy Brambila to Toluca (Pachuca)
Diego de Buen to Puebla (UNAM)
Franco Arizala to Jaguares (Pachuca)
Nestor Calderon to Pachuca (Toluca)
Jorge Hernandez to Pachuca (Jaguares)
Jonathan Bornstein to Atlante (Tigres)
Luis Landin to Queretaro (Puebla)
Adrian Garcia Arias to Queretaro (San Luis)
Alan Pulido to Queretaro (Tigres)
Adolfo "Bofo" Bautista to Queretaro (Chivas)
Fernando Navarro to Morelia (Tigres)
Esteban Paredes to Atlante (Colo Colo)
Luis Alfonso Sandoval to Atlas (Morelia)
Duilio Davino to Leon (Estudiantes)
Alfredo Moreno to Tijuana (San Luis)
Oscar Rojas to Pachuca (America)
Carlos Ochoa to Morelia (Santos)
Jose Antonio Castro to San Luis (Tigres)
Emanuel Cerda to San Luis (Tigres)
Juan Carlos Silva to San Luis (Pachuca)
Luis Miguel Noriega to Jaguares (Morelia)
Edgar Pacheco to Leon (Tigres)
Gonzalo Pineda to Queretaro (Puebla)
Jehu Chiapas to UNAM (San Luis)

Plenty of moves, the most significant of the past day are Gerardo Lugo going to Santos, a big signing for the champions as they take the best young attacking midfielder in the league. This is probably a sign they recognize Daniel Luduena is getting up in years. Chivas signed Rafael Marquez Lugo and got the experienced forward they needed to go along with signing Perez who will provide balance in midfield. Looks like Morelia are disasembling the fine team Tomas Boy had built up there, first the coach goes, replaced by Ruben Omar Romano and then Marquez Lugo, Aldrete, Lugo, Sandoval and Noriega leave and their replacements are average players at best. I do not expect Morelia to remain as one of the leading clubs next season.

A surprising move to me was Tigres getting rid of both the Chilean Mancilla and sub23 star Pulido, both of their center forwards. They are now likely scouting South America for a new number 9.

UNAM were surprisingly active in this draft, as opposed to recent years when they stood pat, and they look to have bettered themselves. Surprisingly keeping quiet was Cruz Azul, a team in transition.

Pachuca are opening up the checkbook, first they sign Hugo Sanchez as coach, and you know he did not come cheaply and now in the past two days they have signed two forwards, Spaniard Raul Tamudo who last year played with Rayo Vallecano but spent most of his career at Espanyol where he often inflicted pain on Barcelona. And their other signing announced today is Nery Castillo coming to Mexico to play for the team. They will be a club worth watching next season.

As a Barca fan I will be glad the club are through playing against Tamudo!

An interesting signing and he becomes the third Spanish player in the Mexican league, forward Luis Garcia was recently transferred from Puebla to Pumas while midfielder Marc Crosas just won the league title with Santos Laguna. Tamudo can still score goals and is only 34. i think he will help Pachuca.

As should Nery Castillo who thrived in the national team when Hugo coached him. But he better be prepared for the press to come after him mercilessly after several years ago he criticized some media hack who was getting on him by implying he knew nothing about futbol because he was in Mexico while Nery was in Europe. And look where Nery is now. The media will love it!

Cruz Azul have been active while we have been away from this thread, they signed Colombian international defender Luis Amaranto Perea from Atletico Madrid, who should be a top class centerback. The club also acquired Argentinian forward Mariano Pavone from Lanus. Two good acquisitions.

A couple of other arrivals, Cruz Azul have repatriated national team midfielder Pablo Barrera. He needs to play, something he was not always doing in Europe. Good move for both Barrera and Cruz Azul.

Another Spaniard, and another one named Luis Garcia, this one an attacking midfielder last with Zaragoza, is coming to Mexico, he's signing with Tigres. Another good signing and a demonstration of the financial strength of the Mexican league where players like Crosas, Tamudo and both Luis Garcias, who all had other options in Europe, have decided to sign with Mexican clubs. It only strengthens the league.

And now a player leaving, it looks for good from the sport. The Uruguayan forward Ivan Alonso, last season's top scorer with Toluca says he is quitting the sport because of a heart condition. The strange thing is his club are incredibly against it, saying more tests need to be made. But Alonso, who was a teammate at Espanyol in Spain with Dani Jarque when he collapsed and died several years ago in preseaosn trianing, says his life and family mean more to him than futbol. And nobody but Toluca it seems, can blame him for saying that.

This is a fascinating trend about Spanish players going to Mexico and I too feel it speaks well for the league that these players are now going to Mexico. Over a decade ago Hugo Sanchez had convinced his friends Emilio Butragueno and Michel to end their careers with him at Atletico Celaya and many people forget but Pep Guardiola also ended his career playing in Mexico for the Dorados de Culiacan. But those three greats were all at the very end of their careers. Of the current Spanish imports I think only Raul Tamudo is nearing the end of his career, the others, both Luis Garcias and Crosas, still have some years to go. They may not be big names like Butragueno, Michel and Guardiola but this is a good group of players leaving Spain for Mexico. And they are not alone as two other players, although both South Americans, also left Spain for Mexico, chacal already wrote about Luis Amaranto Perea going from Atletico Madrid to Cruz Azul and the Paraguayan central defender Paulo DaSilva leaves Zaragoza to play for Hugo Sanchez at Pachuca.

Atletico Celaya were a fun team to watch back when they had Hugol, Butragueno and Michel. If I recall correctly they even made a league final but lost (I think to Necaxa.) But sadly the club soon fell into financial trouble, their license was bought by an industrialist from Cuernavaca and they moved from Celaya to Cuernavaca for one year then disappeared altogether. A new club from Celaya was formed and is working its way up the ladder of Mexican futbol, they are now in the Liga de Ascenso, Mexico's version of a 2nd division.

Some more player transactions, Puebla have signed the Argentinian froward Matias Aulstiza from Deportivo Quito in Ecuador. Alustiza was the joint top scorer, along with Neymar, in this last Copa Libertadores with 8 goals.

Two more signings of foreign forwards, Carlos Bueno, an Uruguayan who led Queretaro, and the league, in scoring just 2 seasons ago when Queretaro were shock finalists, has returned to Queretaro from Argentina. And the Colombian forward Santiago Trelles has signed with San Luis.

Jaguares sold the Colombian striker Jackson Martinez to Porto and to replace him bought another Colombian forward, Jhon Cordoba from Envigado. Martinez had his share of injuries but he also could be unstoppable at times.

I am very happy about Barrera coming to Cruz Azul but I am wondering how both he and Javier Aquino will fit into the team together? Both are right sided midfielders even if one or the other can occasionally play on the left. Although if Aquino plays in the Olympics like he did today in Mexico's Olympic team's friendly with Spain, he will be pursued by European clubs.

A couple of other recent transactions, Argentinian Cristian Pellerano goes to Tijuana to replace uruguayan Egidio Arevalo Rips who left there for Palermo in Italy. Matias Abelairas another Argentinian midfielder comes to Puebla.

Toluca's handling of Ivan Alonso's injury is just atrocious, today they banned him from the club's training ground! Paraguayan Edgar Benitez, who once played for Pachuca but wa sback in paraguay most recently, will try and fill Alonso's shoes. Won't be easy as Alonso has been the best scorer in the league the past few seasons. Wilson Tiago, a Brazilian defensive midfielder last with Internacional in his home country but once a Morelia player, also has signed with Toluca.

Toluca's coach Enrique Meza, an honorable man, has said he is sorry the club denied Alonso entry to its facilities. Meza is a gentleman and both he and Alonso deserve better than being associated with Toluca.

A couple of transactions which we discussed earlier, or at least I posted after the "draft" last month never went through. Tigres, for instance, did not lose Alan Pulido, Fernando Navarro or Jonathan Bornstein. In fact Pulido and Navarro are starting for them tonight in the opener of the new season away to Jaguares, and Bornstein is on the bench for that game too.

The new season is starting tonight so I guess we better start a new thread for the Apertura 2012.