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Marry/Boff/Kill: Wells Thompson

Everyone's favorite moppy-headed, black sheep.

Jonathan Daniel

"Marry/F**k/Kill" is a game of the Internet age, and the rules are simple: name a group of three people ("Iron Man and Thor and Captain America," "Blanche, Rose or Dorothy"), and ask the crowd to choose one fate for each of them - one to partner with for good, one explored for a connection but not kept, and one cast off into the outer darkness. Fans of 30 Rock will recognize this game in its safe-for-primetime version, Marry/Boff/Kill, which name we're borrowing because we do not want SB Nation getting angry emails.

Here at Hot Time, we're going to use the game to talk about players - specifically Chicago Fire players, naturally. We're going to use it as a way to talk about the roster. It works like this: ‘Marry' indicates a willingness to keep the player regardless of cap issues or any other considerations; ‘Boff' (i.e., ‘F**k) means that we're, uhh, f**king the player over, asking for modifications to their contract or running them through the Re-Entry Draft process - we're interested but not on these terms; and ‘Kill' means terminating the player's contact with CF97.

We're going to present some kind of argument for each outcome, and let the community have their say. I mean, why not? We already have an entire week of marrying, boffing and killing under our proverbial belts, and if you missed any of it, it can all be found under our Marry/Boff/Kill Story Stream, including our M/B/K: Week 1 Wrap-up.

First up for Week 2 - Wells Thompson.

Wells Thompson, #15, 29 years old

2013: 8 appearances (6 starts), 542 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists

MLS career: 158 appearances (82 starts), 8,081 minutes, 7 goals, 7 assists

$105,000 base salary, $113,125 guaranteed

Wells Thompson spent a majority of his season as the Fire's make-shift rightback, and he caught a lot of flak over it. On the one hand, it was not necessarily Wells' fault that the Fire did not have a contingency plan at rightback. On the other hand, Wells probably would not have cracked the 100 minute mark this year if it was not for the rightback debacle.

The case for ‘Marry'

Wells' last appearance for the Fire was against Dallas in October as late game sub for Dilly Duka. While his final appearance was not flawless, Wells did a lot of things right in those 22 minutes and helped the Fire kill off the game. He won a foul in the 83rd minute and killed some time near the corner flag in added time. Wells could serve as a option off the bench in Frank Yallop's system.

The case for ‘Boff'

Wells currently makes more than teammate Daniel Paladini, who saw a bit more playing time (281 minutes more) than Wells this season. That argument might be better suited towards Paladini getting a pay raise than Wells getting a pay cut. As it stands, Wells makes below the MLS average for midfielders, which is just a hair above $129,573. If the Fire try to "boff" him, he might look for employment elsewhere.

The case for ‘Kill'

As mentioned above, Wells does not crack the 100 minute mark for playing time if it wasn't for the poorly handled situation on defense. Towards the end of the season, Wells was not even regularly making the game day roster. Even if Joel Lindpere, Egidio Arévalo Rios and Daniel Paladini do not return next season, Wells is still likely going to struggle to get playing minutes.