Chicago, IL - Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez announced, today, that owner Andrew Hauptman gave him permission to approach Major League Soccer about aquiring more Targeted Allocation Money for the future rights they plan to give up for current Manchester United player Bastian Schweinsteiger.
"It was in our best interest to figure out how to leverage the rights to a player we don't have that we aren't interested in acquiring for assets we plan on not spending," stated Rodriguez to The Nutmeg News. "As the worst team in Major League Soccer, we are empowered to act as an intermediary to the exchange of the rights of a player entering the league for theoretical financial assets we plan on either not using later or utilizing for a player that likely will not fully pan out for our team."
Rodriguez stated that while Schweinsteiger was a target of the club, it had more to do with the value of the player than the actual player himself.
"The Chicago Fire don't need Schweinsteiger. Rather Schweinsteiger needs The Chicago Fire to hold his assets hostage until a team that actually wants him pays the requisite ransom."
The Nutmeg News will have more on this as something similar to this situation happens.