Tommy Smith (Braintree Town FC | England)

Full game in a 3-2 loss at Toronto 

No Wynne

Kei Kamara with a costly pen miss for Rapids.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/09/15/highlights-toronto-fc-vs-colorado-rapids-september-15-2019?autoplay=true

Remarkably Colorado are only 7 points off playoffs, but with just 3 regular round games to go - probably season over.

Another Kiwi OG goal in the MLS, this time Smith as Rapids trail Sporting KC 1-2 at HT.

Kansas down to 10 men, so Rapids still in with a good shout to get something from the game.

Pops up with the winner in the 85th minute. Good to see the oggie didn't rattle his confidence

Heavy involvement in Highlights. OG, assist for equaliser, winning goal

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/09/21/sporting-kansas-city-2-colorado-rapids-3-2019-mls-match-recap

Smith in the Rapids (9th & 39 points) lineup, as they host Dallas (7th & 45 points).

Colorado can do Portland a big favour with a win.

Rapids do Portland a huge favour by spanking Dallas 3-0.

Smith full game. Wynne still absent.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/09/29/highlights-colorado-rapids-vs-fc-dallas-september-29-2019?autoplay=true

Colorado in 9th (42 pts) actually now lie only 3 points off Dallas in 7th (45 pts & last playoff spot) with 1 game left. San Jose lie 8th (44 pts). So mathematically Rapids still have a chance to make playoffs, but their GD is inferior to both above teams.

Rapids also have top team in the West, LAFC away next week.

Still an impressive recovery after terrible start to season under Huddo. What could have been.

Be interesting to see if both Wynne (contract expiring?) and Smith (one year left?, but a Hudson signing) stay on.

Note Tim Howard (part owner of Collier's Memphis USL side) is retiring.

Rapids season is over with a 3-1 loss at LAFC.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/10/06/highlights-los-angeles-football-club-vs-colorado-rapids-october-6-2019?autoplay=true

They finished 9th in the West, 6 points off the playoffs.

Full game for Smith. Vela sneaks in front of him to score a hat trick, and set a new MLS scoring record.

Be interesting to what future holds for both him & Wynne.

From this week's Flying Kiwis. Sounds complicated, but will likely need to take a pay cut to remain at Colorado. Otherwise back to East Anglia?

And Collier won’t be alone in all this waiver process thing either. Michael Boxall has signed a multi-year deal and Bill Tuiloma had his contract picked up for next year but over on the Colorado Rapids there was action. You’d have figured that might be Deklan Wynne but no, actually it was Tommy Smith who got dumped on the waiver wire. Wynne had his contract option picked up while Smith is easily the most high profile of the players the Rapids have left exposed to potentially leaving the club.

Not completely out of the blue though. Smithy will have been on significant dollars which always tips the scale but more importantly Colorado recently traded for USA U23 international Auston Trusty as well as negotiating a permanent deal for Lalas Abubukar who had played the second half of 2019 on loan with the Rapids and significantly improved their defence when he did. Two new central defenders in town, decisions were going to have to be made.

But Smith’s not necessarily out of there yet. The club general manager has been on the record saying that negotiations are continuing and with Smithy happy and settled in Colorado it could be a matter of accepting lower terms. His current contract, for a player who’s been inconsistent in his time in the MLS, and considered an import player as well, the market place might not be huge for him, dunno.

Padraig Smith, Rapids GM: “We’ve declined the team option and we’re still in discussions with Tommy. There’s different avenues to ensure that we’re giving [Head Coach] Robin [Fraser] the best squad that we can for next year. We’re going to make the right decisions for the club.”

And based on these comments from a couple weeks ago, unless something has changed it seems more likely than not that he and Colorado will be able to come up with some solution.

Tommy Smith: “At some stage it would be great to come and play for Ipswich Town, whether or not that's possible, who knows? Contract negotiations are underway with Colorado and it looks likely that that will be get done, which is great for me personally. But at some stage myself and my wife are looking to come back to England to settle. Whether that's at the end of this next contract or another time, who knows?”

Smithy has played 60 games in two seasons for Colorado Rapids, with 7 goals to his name in that time. All 60 games were starts, adding up for 5384 minutes. 5 assists too, sneakily. Tommy Smith’s always been a set piece beast after all.

Up Next: Best wait and see...

Daily Telegraph UK reporting: Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley is leading the chase for New Zealand centre-back Tommy Smith.

Huh, would be cool. They already had a defender called Tommy Smith who they sold to Stoke at the start of the season, filling the quota I guess

Maybe he's getting them mixed up

All we want is a team of Tommy Smiths, a team of....??

And another Flying Kiwis player feature. More of a Smith update than Wynne.

Deklan Wynne (Colorado Rapids) – The forgotten man in the MLS in a lot of ways. Uncle Tony Hudson might have gone but Dekkers is still there and is finally back to playing footy again after a foot injury ended his 2019 season very prematurely. So prematurely that Anthony Hudson was still his manager when he was injured. When he took the park at left back for the Rapids in their first preseason clash it was the first time he’d ever played for the new Rapids gaffer Robin Fraser, who had taken over as caretaker before getting the full time gig after almost taking them to the playoffs despite the handicap that Huddo left him with. 

Tommy Smith was supposed to be in favourable negotiations to return to Colorado as well but those would seem to have broken down considering his name has been floating around a few Football League clubs back in England. Smithy had been training back at Ipswich with the U23s to keep fit but their manager Paul Lambert shot down any ideas of re-signing the fella. Wigan and Portsmouth have been mentioned as possible landing zones, with Huddersfield also in the mix.

sign him

He'd do veeery well here I feel. Taylor/Smith with DeVere and the likes of Payne/TAHW for cover and we'd be safe as house at the back!

do you reckon he'd want to come and finish up his career with the nix?

Before you look at that, what are his wage demands? I doubt he would want to come down in price to what we would pay.

This is all over before you can even dream it

Wage expectations, fact that he's lived most of his life in England, and wife being English too all mean that it's extremely unlikely he'd want to come here.

He was on close to a million at Colorado. Obviously they didn't want to pay that much again, but you'd think he'd be well above our budget.

His salary expectations might drop if he struggles to find a new home. Is he likely to be picked up by another MLS club? or does he look at the lower leagues in the UK?

Reckon he'll end up in League 1. Or a lower Championship club if he's lucky.

Probably not - from what I've read he's looking at the UK which makes sense given his background and family.

I never said we could afford or that he'd want to come here, just that he'd do really well :)

Also, not sure we have that kind of $$$ to spend, but hey one can dream!

A couple of poms seem to be very happy playing here for the Nix

so are you saying that hooper thinks it's shark here?

Seems to be having a bit of fun judging by his instagram

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/119730301/all-whites-defender-tommy-smith-returns-to-english-football-with-sunderland

Not unexpected.

Unfortunately Sunderland have already played Ipswich (2 points lower on the table) twice this season.

Mods please remove from Unattached FC.

Good stuff Tommy, looking fwd to seeing how you go there

Despite their recent troubles, Sunderland are a massive club.  Good move for him

Straight onto the bench, as Bristol Rovers visit Stadium of Light.

Stays on the pine as Black Cats win 3-0.

Was 0-0 up until Rovers had player sent off at 59 mins.

Crowd 31,541

Sunderland 4th (57 pts) 3 pts behind the top 2 sides Rotherham & Coventry (both 60 pts).

Host Fleetwood Town (6th) on Tuesday.

Fleetwood Town up 1-0 at Sunderland after 5 mins.

Smith on the bench again.

A 97th min equaliser sees Black Caps Cats grab a 1-1.

They stay 4th for now, but Pompey 2 pts back in 5th have a game in hand.

Smith stays on the pine

Impressive considering the amount of travel in short amount of time they'd have had after the win against India.

Mark Burgess with the goal. Jacob Oram with a couple of great saves.

Correction made.

Not in match day squad as Sunderland (5th) lose 1-0 at Coventry (1st).

Not in match day squad as Sunderland (5th) host Gillingham (11th).

Not in match day squad as Sunderland draw 2-2 with Gillingham (11th).

Black Cats concede 2nd goal at 94 mins, which may end up being costly re their promotion dreams.

They remain in the promotion playoff spots for now on GD, as both Oxford & Peterborough who started the day below them won.

Is 5 teams (incl Sunderland) from positions 4 to 8, all on 59 points.

Next away to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.

Conceding late like that, may improve Smith's chances of getting some future match day action.

Not in match day squad, as Sunderland lose 2-0 at Bristol Rovers (14th).

Black Cats drop to 7th and out of promotion spots on GD.

Next up a trip to 13th placed Blackpool.

Possible Nix signing for next season?  Wage demands can't be any worse then 2 ex Prem players in the squad.