Apart from that, though, not much news. I know many of you yearn to hear Sarachan has been canned, and I don’t blame you, but I don’t see it happening unless the Fire’s abysmal form stretches a couple more weeks, and really endangers their playoff hopes ahead of Blanco’s arrival.

And I also know many of you are sick of waiting for Blanco. Well, if he keeps elbowing people in the chest, at least he won’t be worn out from playing too many games for Mexico. The video below of the incident is quite fantastic, if only for the music and graphics appended.

Anyway, I haven’t been updating much as my blogging time has been taken up launching a new site. Please go and check it out if you have a moment: pitchinvasion.net. It’s all about football fan culture around the world, and I’ll be covering MLS and the Fire there periodically too.

Here’s his scoop and correction:

According to Fire coach Dave Sarachan, the team spoke with Chilean striker Marcelo Salas and his representatives on Wednesday.

“There’s still dialogue with his people,” Sarachan said. “We’re going to continue talking with him and his people in the next 24-48 hours to see if we can come to a conclusion.

“We hear good things from his side, but it’s going to come down to a financial offer.”

Is the team considering trading for a designated player spot to acquire Salas?

“No,” responded Sarachan without hesitation.

[CORRECTION ON SALARIES: From what the Fire tells me, the team could pay a player the maximum ($400,000) and increase that salary by using available allocation money--all without needing a second designated player spot.]

So, that’s interesting. I didn’t see the Fire signing a guy once transferred for $18 million and still only 32 without using a designated player spot, which made me seriously doubt they could get him when I saw Luis’ original Sarachan quote. But the correction makes me confident a deal can be done.

I can’t say I understand, being new to MLS, what “available allocation money” actually means, and how much of it the Fire might have. Is this similar to the Landon Donovan situation in LA? Can anyone help out a Brit? In exchange, I’ll let you know what black pudding is made of.

Picture credit: Many thanks to Fire fan Farid Andres Farias, who took the above picture with Marcelo Salas in Fire training gear on June 1st, during his visit to Toyota Park.

Interestingly, SportsYa also cites the same newspaper, and has more details, some of which are a bit alarming:

The Chilean newspaper La Tercera says that Salas is considering the offer of 1.4 million dollars the American team made to him to play for five months. This contract may bind the player from July 1 on.

However, the South American player thinks the offer is not good enough, and his manager is trying to negotiate a salary of approximately 2.6 million dollars, which is the same amount of money Mexican Cuauhtemoc Blanco will earn.

The key is, unsurprisingly, the amount of money Salas wants. I’m not personally too troubled by the state of AEGs bank balance, but I am concerned about what the Fire would have to give up if they need to spend Designated Player money to get him: since they would have to trade for a second Designated Player spot. Of course, MLS still being an incestuous league, AEG do handily own another spot the Fire could acquire from the Houston Dynamo. But it would still likely cost them a good young player to obtain it.

There’s also the possibility that Salas resigns with his old club, Universidad de Chile. Salas left the club last December after the club entered bankruptcy, but they were bought last Friday and apparently Salas has stated he would return.

Meanwhile, according to the Trib, Fire GM John Guppy has poured a little cold water on the deal, saying it’s far from done. I’m not sure if Salas will start training with the Fire today or tomorrow.

It’s worth emphasising that Salas is 32, which is hardly decrepit, and his record is one of outstanding success for the most part. My opinion is signing him would be worthwhile for the Fire. Our younger forwards have had a chance this season, but apart from Rolfe, they’ve not looked ready for MLS. MLS is not just a developmental league for young American soccer players. The Fire need to win games and score goals, and if it’s a 34-year old Mexican setting-up a 32-year old Chilean, I personally could not care less, as long as it brings the Fire success. If Salas is in good condition, the Fire should sign him.

Others, judging from the comments here yesterday, disagree. I see that side too, but my overwhelming desire is to see the Fire win and play some good football; a fit Salas would help do that.

Salas’ official website has a statement on his trip to the U.S.. My Spanish is, as I’ve mentioned, worse than poor, so if anyone wants to translate beyond Babelfish, that’d be great. It closes with the words, in bold, “Muchachos, hay Matador para mucho tiempo más”. Or possibly, “Boys, it has more Killing for long time” (sounds good to me).

If any more news surfaces today, I’ll post here, of course.

You all know how much I love rumours. So I only report them when they’re particularly juicy and have some kind of source. It’s particularly good if the source is in another language, since then I can claim all kinds of misunderstandings about the credibility of the source and meaning of the article.

Anyway, from el mercurio online:

Marcelo Salas viajó con pasajes y todos los demás gastos pagados, en una nueva demostración de los esfuerzos que el Chicago Fire está haciendo para formar una escuadra competitiva. La escuadra roja ya fichó al delantero mexicano del América Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

Unfortunately my Russian is better than my Spanish (I kid you not). Here’s the obligatory Babelfish gibberish:

Marcelo Rooms traveled with passages and all the other paid expenses, in a new demonstration of the efforts that the Chicago Fire is making to form a competitive square. The red square already fichó to the Mexican forward of America White Cuauhtemoc.

So, yeah. I like the “red square” name for the Fire. Beats “The Men In Red”, anyway. Well, there you go. Nothing like unsubstantiated internet rumours. I do know Salas was released by his team in Chile, which means that (a) he is available; and (b) he’s probably not in very good shape or very good anymore. On the other hand, the Fire could use some…firepower.

Thanks to Bob Morocco at the Section 8 messageboard for the original find. He also linked the below video, which does excite me just a bit about this possibility.