After a month of trials and courtships, the Red Bulls expect to finally have closure on target Bradley Wright-Phillips by tomorrow – if not sooner.
“I think that issue will certainly be resolved – and I might be thinking very, very optimistic – but within a day,’’ said coach Mike Petke, adding “One way or the other.’’
Despite Petke’s caveat, it is clear that the Red Bulls want to sign Wright-Phillips, and he’d like to be here in New York. The only thing standing in the way was ironing out the finer details.
The speedy former Charlton man has left a positive impression on both Petke and sporting director Andy Roxburgh, who said earlier “I hope we can sign him.’’ Here is a clip of the 28-year-old in action.
A source also told the Post that the Red Bulls had cleared enough space under the salary cap to have been able to sign Wright-Phillips even before they terminated Digao’s $200,000 contract last week.
Parting ways with the little-used Brazilian – whom cynics would say was only acquired to entice his more famous and accomplished brother Kaka to come to New York – just gives them more space should they decide to add more players during the transfer window, or make trades or even sign a third Designated Player. More on that front later.
Petke said that “unless the head coach was left completely in the dark,’’ the Red Bulls had not signed academy product Steven Echevarria to a homegrown contract. But he did praise the recent work of young rookie Marius Obekop, an exciting 18-year-old midfielder from Cameroon who saw time a week ago today against Lyon and last weekend in Toronto.
“I inserted him because while he definitely has long way to go to grasp the tactical side – he’s young and raw – he likes to receive the ball and just go. You saw in the Lyon game the half he was on how dangerous he as,’’ said Petke. “If we were up or dominating (in Toronto) you might not have seen Marius. But I felt we needed a spark. The one run he had shows how dangerous he is.
“He’s the type of guy (when) he goes on, the defender will be baffled because he’s not going to know what Marius is going to do. I joked with the other coaches Maruius might not know either. (But) on the tactical side he’s raw.’’