Who's Playing Who?

Everton and Australia midfielder/forward/champion Tim Cahill is off to the New York Red Bulls, after Everton and the MLS agreed on a “nominal fee”.

Unlike much of the footballing world, clubs in the US don’t dictate their terms, rather, the MLS itself puts prices on players.

A statement on the Everton club website said:

“Tim, 32, will move to the Red Bulls for a nominal fee, subject to agreeing personal terms and passing a medical. He will travel to the US in the next few days.”

UPDATE: A statement from the NY Red Bulls site:

“We are aware of Everton’s statement regarding midfielder Tim Cahill and our club. However, we have no comment at this time regarding him or any other non-New York player.”

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Adrian Considers: A shock move, but not bad for all parties involved. From the player’s perspective, the level of competition in the MLS is growing by the season, and he’ll get to play alongside Thierry Henry, who showed he can still play during his loan back to Arsenal last season.

Having said that, the league obviously doesn’t provide the same intensity the Premier League offers, but hopefully this means Cahill will be able to extend his international career – the goal of Brazil 2014 certainly looks even more achievable now.

Everton may be without one of their most prolific goal scorers of recent years, but I’m sure they’ll cope. There’s even more pressure on Nikica Jelavic to perform now, and I’ll be interested to see who the Toffees bring in to replace Cahill (if anyone).

What do you make of the move? Are you as surprised as everyone else? Leave a comment below.