{"id":24688,"date":"2014-03-24T23:18:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T03:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24688"},"modified":"2014-03-24T23:43:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T03:43:26","slug":"burns-decision-on-shalrie-coming-in-next-week-or-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24688","title":{"rendered":"Burns: Decision on Shalrie Coming in ‘Next Week or So’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Revolution general manager Michael Burns will be the first to tell you that he\u2019s got a young team on his hands.\u00a0 A team that, in many respects, is coming into its own right before his eyes.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t room for a grizzled veteran on the roster, which currently has two vacancies. Especially if that veteran happens to be none other than Shalrie Joseph.<\/p>\n

Joseph, the former captain who returned to the\u00a0team on trial during the preseason, has\u00a0continued to train\u00a0in Foxboro during the\u00a0past\u00a0few weeks in the hopes of landing what could be the final contract of the 35-year-old\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cShalrie’s been great,\u201d Burns told the media prior to Saturday\u2019s home opener. \u201cI give Shalrie a lot of credit for him to come back here and be willing to go on trial. (It) says a lot about him, says a lot about his character, because that\u2019s not easy for an older player with his resume to come in and say \u2018OK, I’m going to show you what I can and can’t do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s far cry from the situation that led to Joseph being jettisoned two summers ago. After\u00a0clashing with coach Jay Heaps – something Joseph\u00a0later admitted to<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0the Revolution traded him to Chivas USA, a move that was met with shock and despair by many supporters.<\/p>\n

But two years later, after unproductive stints with the Goats (2012) and Sounders (2013), Burns believes that Joseph\u2019s perspective has changed. No longer is he the Best XI holding midfielder that terrorized opponents and stabilized the Revolution attack.<\/p>\n

In fact, Burns believes that the Grenadian\u00a0midfielder is coming to grips with the\u00a0realization that he\u2019s approaching the twilight of his career, and has humbled himself in order to get one last chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe clearly knows that he’s closer to the end line than the starting line,\u201d said Burns.<\/p>\n

According to both Burns and Heaps, Joseph has been nothing but a model citizen since rejoining his old side. He\u2019s been seen interacting with former teammates and putting in extra work after training to show that the opportunity before him is something he intends to seize.<\/p>\n

Of course, before an offer can be made, Burns acknowledged that there would have to be dialogue with the league first. Although Joseph was released from his contract with the Sounders last month, Burns alluded to the idea that\u00a0adding the former skipper to the roster\u00a0won’t be as\u00a0simple as him signing on the dotted line.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there is no free agency in MLS,\u201d Burns said. \u201cAlthough he’s not with Seattle, there’s not a 100 percent guarantee that, even if we wanted to sign him, he would end up in New England. So we have to work that though with the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever mechanisms may be need to be worked through for a potential return, Burns said that a decision on whether to bring Joseph back isn\u2019t far off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to make a decision in the next week or so on whether we’re going to decide to offer him something to have him remain here or not,\u201d said Burns. \u201cWe’re trying to get a couple of more pieces (with) some leadership and some experience, so (with) Shalrie, it would be more all-encompassing in terms of what we think and not only what we hope he can do on the field, but what we think he can provide in the locker room, because that’s really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revs GM Michael Burns is impressed by what he’s seen from former skipper turned trialist Shalrie Joseph, who’s hoping to earn a contract with the club. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Shalrie-1.png?fit=495%2C259&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24688"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24697,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24688\/revisions\/24697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}