The contrast between Juninho and someone like Beckham, Morales, Rosales, Davis, etc is that they contribute to both the defensive and creation solidarity of the whole team when the ball isn’t sitting on the pitch waiting for the kicker to do his deed. The uncertainty surrounding the full abilities of a 37 year old being brought into a team under entirely new management is immense. Not all have the ability to watch the Brazilian Serie A to see a full 90 minutes of this guy and what he can contribute other than set pieces.

If he’s in shape and can run the whole pitch for 90 minutes, then great. But if he’s not going to fill in where a #10 needs to fill in during run-of-play settings, then he’ll end up dragging players like McCarty or Lindpere or even Henry out of position when they try to over-compensate. This will ultimately lead to susceptibility to counter-attacks, and could even reduce their newly revised back line to 2011 or 2012 quality, negating any of those improvements. Additionally, set piece help wasn’t something I thought NYRB needed, as Henry’s countless strikes (even off corners) are enough to make a defense anxious.

Without seeing this guy actually playing, I can’t make any final judgement on him or his abilities off the ball. But if someone asked me if I’d sign him to my squad, it’d be an absolute and resounding “no”. Even without DP money, I couldn’t honestly spend the resources on a player that I’m not 100% comfortable with representing my team on the field.