I just talked to Garth Lagerwey in an attempt to glean additional information about the reported move of Yura Movsisyan to Danish side Randers. Unfortunately, there weren't alot of details available as Lagerwey can't discuss specifics of an ongoing negotiation. However, I did get some impressions about this, and some indication of how it affects potential moves that the club makes in the upcoming transfer window.
First of all, there are ongoing transfer negotiations, but it doesn't seem like there is much motivation on the side of RSL to make a deal here. First of all, transfer fees are split between the league and the team and tend to be modest in amount. Second, Yura is not at the stage that Jozy Altidore was a couple of years back when he was able to fetch a large transfer fee. And most importantly transfer fees are largely a function of time remaining on a contract, and Yura's is nearly up. Lagerwey expects this process to clarify itself "within about 48 hours."
I did ask Garth if there was any consideration to a transfer because they might get a lameduck approach by Yura during his final months in Salt Lake. He rejected this notion, "Absolutely not. We expect 100% out of all of our players all of the time, and this doesn't change that."
Randers isn't exactly a household name even among European soccer clubs, but it does allow Yura to ply his trade on a potentially bigger stage. However, its likely that Movsisyan views this as a springboard to a larger European club down the road. Randers participation in UEFA Cup (Europa League) allows some visibility throughout the European soccer community that could give Movsisyan a platform to show his wares.
The important thing that this brings to RSL is a new perspective on how to shape this club in the future. Last week Lagerwey indicated that the team would be looking for a complementary player during this transfer window, when asked if this would impact that approach even if Movsisyan remains through season-end his response was, "Absolutely. Everything is affected by how this comes out."
It's believed that RSL had "reserved" some salary cap space for dealing with Movsisyan's contract after the end of the season. Movsisyan was making around $60K, but was likely to receive a decent increase to this depending on his performance this season. Now RSL can consider "spending" that amount. If a transfer deal is reached they would also receive some allocation dollars to spend.
