The Crew have a small roster. In fact it's the smallest roster in the league as of this post. This should bother you if you are a fan of the Columbus Crew because - teams with few returning players or those clubs with Major League Soccer experience - do rather poorly.
If reports about a few players are true then the Crew are just barely hanging on to a league low of 21 players signed. Emilio Renteria and Sebastian Miranda have recently been confirmed as not coming back and Danny O'Rourke and Tony Tchani were very close to not making it back.
Could it be that the difference between a disastrous/embarrassing 2013 campaign and a mid-table team rests on re-signing O'Rourke and Tchani? Right now, the answer is 'yes'.
Below is the club's current signed roster with estimated salaries. I will group them based on how they will be played in 2013. An asterisk* will be put next to players of whom I am estimating.
STARTERS
324,000 : Federico Higuain
310,000 : Chad Marshall
225,375 : Jairo Arrieta
223,333 : Milovan Mirosevic
190,000 : Eddie Gaven
100,000 : Danny O'Rourke*
78,667 : Andy Gruenebaum
70,560 : Josh Williams*
GAMEDAY 18 AND/OR IN RESERVE
100,000 : Tony Tchani*
75,000 : Tyson Wahl*
70,575 : Justin Meram
70,500 : Aaron Horton
60,000 : William Trapp*
59,000 : Ethan Finlay
58,000 : Ben Speas
47,187 : Bernardo Anor
47,080 : Eric Gehrig
47,080 : Matt Lampson
44,000 : Aaron Schoenfeld
44,000 : Kevan George
TRANSFER LISTED
110,000 : Dilaver Duka
This puts the club at $2.3 MIL towards the 2.95 MIL cap (Schoenfeld, George not counting towards cap). I expect the difference betwixt current salaries and cap will be used on starters.
YOUR 2013 CREW STARTING LINEUP
GK : Andy Gruenebaum
RB : Josh Williams
CB : Chad Marshall
CB : OPEN
LB : OPEN
MF : Danny O'Rourke
MF : OPEN
MF : Eddie Gaven
MF : Milovan Mirosevic
CAM : Federico Higuain
ST : Jairo Arrieta
With preseason just around the corner it's hard to say the Crew are in good shape. I don't feel it should be this hard to argue that success is in the cards. Too much change. No player development. Too little consistency. Questionable direction.
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