Pure Unadulterated Speculation

One of the persistent rumors/questions around the Fire these days is "will Brian McBride come home to Chicago?" According to Soccer America, however, Chicago sits a lowly 12th in the allocation pecking order, while his former club the Columbus Crew sits in second.

Meanwhile, one of the other big questions in Chicago is "what happens to Zach Thornton?" The longtime Fire goalkeeper lost his starting spot to Matt Pickens over the summer, and it's not likely the team wants to spend the kind of salary Thornton commands on a backup 'keeper.

Theoretically, Columbus has five goalies on its roster, but only two of them actually have MLS experience, and the one they recently went out of their way to acquire has none. So would Columbus sacrifice their allocation, and McBride, for a package including Big Zach and maybe some other, younger prospects like Floyd Franks and Logan Pause? Or even Calen Carr? The hardcore fans would shriek at the prospect of losing Carr to gain McBride, but speedy forwards seem to be a dime a dozen in the SuperDraft.

I'm not saying this is in any way likely, and still think that Zach might end up as the goalkeeping coach here in town if one of the many Fire alums coaching domestically were to hire Daryl Shore. But it seems that soccer writers make their living on the hot stove circuit, so I just want to fit in.