Olave Rumors

So I have been asked by a couple people on facebook and via email about the rumors of Olave going to River Plate, well I doubt RSL would give up a player they consider to be a core part of their team and one they just last year paid a transfer fee on to get him off loan and under contract until the end of the 2012 season.

The only real news that I have seen is this blurb:

Colombian outlet Terra has River Plate interested in Real Salt Lake defender Jamison Olave, while Argentine daily La Nacion goes so far as to say that an offer has been made...

which comes from soccer365.com

The rough translations from some sites show that River is interested in a number of defenders, and their interest in Olave comes from watching video of him.  That would lead me to believe that the offer they might have made is probably something much lower than what RSL would value Olave at.

Consider that RSL has little depth on defense, there is Robbie Russell who can play a number of positions but struggled last year at time, but came up big in the playoffs.  After him it would be unproven David Horst that would be called on to fill in, and with low draft picks tomorrow I expect that RSL will do their very best to hold on to Mr. Olave.

I must say I find all of this interesting as just yesterday I posted my thoughts about RSL bringing back Ian Joy to boost the defensive depth, I refuse to believe that RSL is going to move Olave unless the deal is simply too much to refuse.  Just last week in my interviews with RSL president Bill Manning, he mentioned how important Olave is to the team and how the organization was impressed with his efforts in the 2nd half of the season.

(edit) I do believe that Olave will get a lot of attention from teams but the only one with a chance of getting him right now would be the Columbian National team, if Jamison can duplicate the last 3 months of the season for all of 2010 the offers will be from Europe and not from South America.

OFF MY SOAPBOX