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In a not too surprising move, the Chicago Fire have announced today that Kellen Gulley and Brendan King have been released. Gulley was the Fire's second homegrown signing who joined the team back in 2011, and King was signed last season after a failed stint in Europe.
For Kellen Gulley, it seemed like he was not adapting to the professional game. Gulley was signed from the Fire Juniors in Mississippi and, aside from a few minutes in a friendly against Chivas de Guadalajara, he saw no playing time in his first season. In 2013, Gulley went out on loan to the Atlanta Silverbacks in the NASL, but he saw very little playing time there as well. Gulley had been struggling this preseason under Yallop. He signed a one year extension right before Yallop joined so Frank must have made up his mind fairly quickly that Gulley couldn't cut it.
Brendan King joined the Fire last year after short stints in Norway and Ireland. The local Chicago kid also never got to make an appearance with the first team. He was not likely to see much playing time this year with the way Harrison Shipp and Benji Joya have been performing this preseason, so this move is not too concerning.
The Fire roster is slowly coming together as the season draws closer. Neither of these two moves shock me much or worry me.
Sad to see the Fire give up on Gulley already? Think King could have been serviceable? Let us know in the comments.
