Osorio Set To Take Over Red Bulls, But At What Price?

Chicago Fire's Colombian coach Juan Carlos Osorio is set to become the successor to Bruce Arena as head coach of the New York Red Bulls. So report Ives Galarcep and Steve Goff on their respective blogs. Individually, those guys are rarely wrong on anything. If they're both reporting the same thing I think it's pretty safe to lock it down. Expect an official announcement from the team shortly.

Osorio just joined Chicago in July and has two years remaining on his contract, which necessitates a compensation agreement between the two teams. This is where things get interesting, because I don't doubt that Osorio is a great choice as coach in his own right. But if the team has to give up multiple draft picks and/or a young starter (Dane Richards' name has been bandied about) it becomes a little more questionable--especially if Osorio ends up leaving the team after a year or two (not a longshot considering he's already one of the up-and-coming coaches and would put himself in a good position for European or Latin American jobs if he turns the New York franchise around).

Obviously Osorio is no stranger to the team or the area, having received his first managerial job (as assistant/conditioning manager) with the then-Metrostars in 2000. He then spent five years at Manchester City in a similar capacity before taking over Bogotá club Millonarios in 2006. Readers of this blog will of course be familiar with the Colombian team due to their run to the semifinals of this year's Copa Sudamericana (mainly with Osorio's players). Actually, his ties to the region go deeper than the two years as Metros assistant; he earned a Bachelor's from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn., in 1990.

Red Bulls fans can delve through Millos' roster looking for potential stars Osorio can summon to the Big Apple. This site's primer on the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinalists might be a good place to start. Seems the club has a plethora of young defenders, which just happens to be one area the Red Bulls could really use the help...