Perkins the Latest Name in Winter Rumor Mill

If you've gotten tired of reading through the same rumors about Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark, fear not, because there's a new name in the USMNT pool that's drawing speculation about his club situation. Troy Perkins, who has had a successful stint at Norwegian side Valerenga over the past two seasons, is being linked to a return to MLS, per Steven Goff of the Washington Post.

It's not completely certain why Perkins would want to return to the States, but it very well could be for personal or family reasons. It's definitely not for money, considering he would almost surely take a pay cut to come back to MLS. Further looking into the financial side of things, I wonder how much the looming possibility of an MLS lockout will play into Perkins' decision. If he were to make the move back to MLS, a lockout would not leave Perkins out of a job in the long run (since Federal labor law only allows for the hiring of temporary replacements in the event of a lockout), but in the short term he would suffer financially without his main stream of income. Then again, this might not be too big of a deterrent for Perkins, who worked as a mortgage loan processor while playing with DC United earlier in his career to earn some extra cash.

From a USMNT perspective, it's hard to say that the move is for World Cup purposes; he's battling Marcus Hahnemann for the third GK spot, but a move to MLS would be a fairly lateral one and would not substantially raise his stock. One could argue that he'd be a lot more visible for Bob Bradley, playing in the US rather than the far-less covered (in the US, that is) Norwegian Tippeligaen, which could give him a little boost in his quest for a ticket to South Africa. Though Perkins had the benefit of showcasing his ability as the Gold Cup starter last summer, Marcus Hahnemann's recent promotion to starter and relative success at Wolves has made for a tight depth chart battle that will likely go until May.

All in all, it's still unclear what the motivation behind this move would be, but the rumor does appear to be more of serious possibility than just simply wild speculation. If he were to return to MLS, he would be subject to the league's allocation process. We will keep you updated on this topic, as well as other potential transfer news regarding USMNT players as the month goes on.