Optional

Now that the 2006 season is fully behind us, everybody is turning their attention to what happens next. First, there's the expansion draft this week, but the damage from that will be minimal -- one player maximum per team, and the only way that can really hurt is if the Fire front office gambles on what they think Mo Johnston wants and loses.

The bigger issue, right now, is whose options get picked up. My understanding is that Nate Jaqua is the only player of significance actually out of contract, while head coach Dave Sarachan and veterans Chris Armas, Tony Sanneh and Zach Thornton all have options that the team has to decide on.

After reading Logan's Revenge, and considering that he was a finalist for coach of the year, I don't think Sarachan is going anywhere. If, as "Not Doug Logan" suggests, another MLS coach is tabbed as an assistant for the national team, that's three vacancies before we even start talking about whether or not Peter Nowak returns to DC United after two playoff flameouts, and two of them already have a headstart on Chicago.

The burning question here is obviously about the depth of the coaching pool. If not Dave, then who? More specifically, if not Dave, and if the top prospects are already gobbled up by FC Dallas and Kansas City, then who's left? Sarachan's detractors tend to take the position that anyone would be better, but that's just not an opinion based in reality.

So, anyway, count Dave in. I figure Armas gets his option picked up. Zach Thorton, on the other hand, does not. Matt Pickens just looked too good over the second half of the season. My totally made-up scenario for the future has Peter Nowak leaving DC United for a European club, with Tommy Soehn taking over, and the former Chicago defender hires Daryl Shore away from the Fire, paving the way for Zach to become the Fire's goalkeeping coach. I have no basis for this at all, other than the vague notion that Thornton helped Pickens out this year. Plus, it makes it even easier for the casual fan to confuse Zach with Denis Hamlett.

Tony Sanneh is obviously a tough decision. On the one hand, he played at the level many of us knew was possible since forcing his way back into the starting lineup. On the other, he's the highest-paid player on the team, and you've still got Jim Curtin, C.J. Brown and even rookie sensation Dasan Robinson as central defensive options. My gut says keep him, because he brings calm and composure and a "soccer brain" to a team that relies a lot on heart and tenacity from other positions.

As for the out-of-contract Jaqua, I think he'll entertain offers from Scandinavian clubs, as rumored, but will come back to Chicago. Mostly because he got called up to the national team based on his performance with the Fire, and which Americans abroad in Northern Europe can say that? Has anyone heard from Danny Califf lately?

I'm going to refrain from any other predictions until we hear about these contracts and get through the expansion draft, although my ideal scenario has Brian McBride and Ronnie O'Brien wearing red next year.