Guch Staying Put

An impressive World Cup stint for Oguchi Onyewu drew an offer from Middlesbrough, but the American central defender has opted to remain with Standard Liege in Belgium.

The details surrounding his rejection of the move are fuzzy but it was reported that Onyewu found some aspects of the proposed contract with Middlesbrough to be troublesome. Only 24 years-old, Onyewu was right to wait for an appropriate offer before making the leap into England's cutthroat league.

While there are some American youngsters who have excelled in the top European leagues (see Carlos Bocanegra at Fulham), there are also a number that have struggled. We all know about Landon Donovan's unfortunately close relationship with the bench during his stay at Bayer Leverkusen. Perhaps Onyewu was wary of his career hitting the rocks in a more prestigious league.

It's more likely, though, that he feels that with the inherent risk of taking his game to a more challenging environment, he might as well hold out for some extra cash in case his ship starts to take on water in the Premier League. As Ty Law would say: "Hell, we all gotta eat."