Bobby Convey has struggled to make an impact with the Quakes

The deal which brought Bobby Convey to the San Jose Earthquakes at the beginning of the 2009 season seemed like a classic win-win scenario for all concerned. Convey hoped to revive a promising career which had stagnated in England, mainly due to a serious knee injury sustained in 2006.  If he had any chance of getting back on the radar of Bob Bradley and the U.S. National Team, he needed regular playing time, and coming back to the MLS seemed an ideal way to play himself back into consideration.  For the Quakes, Convey appeared to be a perfect addition to a squad which many believed was only a few pieces shy of being truly competitive.  The loss of Francisco Lima in the off-season left a gaping hole in central midfield, and the Quakes were in dire need of a young player with attacking flair and vision, with high-level European experience a tasty bonus.  How could Frank Yallop not leap on the chance to pick up such a player with many years ahead of him?

With half the season gone, however, nothing has worked out as planned for either side.  The Quakes sit uneasily at the bottom of the West, a far cry from the playoff side that many predicted they would be.  Convey’s early season attempts at assuming the role of a central playmaker have quite simply failed, and it is clear that his positional destiny lies elsewhere.  While there are signs of hope for both the Quakes, whose play and results have clearly improved in recent weeks, and for Convey, whose move to a more natural left midfield spot while Darren Huckerby has been injured has seemingly given him life, the rest of the season is now largely a matter of damage control.

In hindsight, the signing of Convey was always destined to be a gamble at best.  It was clear as the season dawned that the area of the team that most needed strengthening was the central midfield.  The defense had proved itself fairly resilient in a tough expansion season, the forward line seemed in need of a shot in the arm but did possess the emerging Ryan Johnson, while the projected starting winger tandem of Arturo Alvarez and Huckerby looked dangerous.  However, the loss of Francisco Lima and the release of the disappointing Ned Grabavoy left the Quakes without a strong pair of central midfielders,  key components (if not the lynchpin itself) of Frank Yallop’s 4-4-2 system.  Convey, a left-sided midfielder for most of his career, was brought in to fill this hole and slot in alongside veteran Ramiro Corrales.

Of course, any player acquisition involves some element of risk, but signing a player for a role he has never played is an especially dangerous proposition.  If you add in Convey’s questionable fitness and form after his long injury and spell on the bench in Reading, then the matter becomes even more problematic.  To make matters worse, Convey didn’t join the team until the end of pre-season, meaning that he had no time to become accustomed to the system.  Still, many Quakes fans hoped that Convey’s experience in England had toughened him up for the task and that he possessed the requisite passing skills and vision to provide the necessary link to attack from the central midfield.  Within the first few games, however, it was clear that Convey was uncomfortable, tended to slip into anonymity, and allowed the opposition to dominate the midfield.  It didn’t help matters that Corrales, his midfield partner, was struggling to replicate his form of the previous season.

As the Quakes slipped down the table and acquired the worst defensive record in the league, it was clear that the central midfield was one of the key weaknesses, as opposing teams were allowed to control the game and dictate the tempo, leaving the defense to be overrun again and again.  Convey was shifted to left back, a more familiar position, where he scored his only goal of the season, and then to left midfield with Huckerby’s injury.  The central midfield problem, supposedly solved by Convey’s arrival, now awaits a new solution as the transfer window opens up on July 15.

Convey’s future seems uncertain.  It is not just on the field that he has seemed out of place.  He does not radiate the locker-room favorite joviality of a Joe Cannon, nor has he instantly endeared himself to fans with dazzling play and on-field leadership a la Huckerby.  Even as the season began, many Quakes fans construed his desire to come to the MLS to get back into national team consideration as demonstrating that he had no particular love for San Jose itself or any club for that matter.  Combined with his lackluster play on the field, every nuance of his behavior was soon examined for signs of disloyalty or ego.  Then Convey did the unthinkable.  Following the first match of the season against the Galaxy, he walked off the field not with his own teammates, but with an L.A. player, and not just any player, but Landon Donovan himself, known as “Judas” to San Jose fans.  There could be no greater symbolic slap to the face amongst Quakes supporters.

Thus, Convey has quickly become one of the most maligned players on a struggling San Jose squad.  To be fair, much of the criticism on the part of San Jose fans can largely be chalked up to the frustration of a disappointing season, when even old San Jose heroes such as Frank Yallop and Joe Cannon have been questioned.  He has performed well in more recent games as an outside midfielder.  His comments about national team concerns perhaps can be blamed on an excess of honesty, and his fraternizing with Donovan probably a result of simply not knowing better.  Yet Quakes fans want their players to bleed blue and disparage L.A. and know no ambition but the team.  The Quakes have been blessed with many such players in their recent history, an unforgiving standard for Convey to live up to.  If he was just another player brought in, perhaps he would have been given a pass, but he was the Great Hope of the season, handed the keys to the engine of the team.  No get out of jail free cards are available in such a scenario.

Huckerby continues to struggle with injury and seems destined to leave at the end of the season, so Convey may yet find his place and become an integral member of the squad for seasons to come.  The left back spot is still up for grabs as well, with Eric Denton waived and Mike Zaher performing well but largely green.  Still, it seems more likely that his future lies elsewhere.  He can undoubtedly prove to be a valuable piece to an MLS team in need of a quality wing player, but with the Quakes, it may be too late for him to shed his uncomfortable status as a square peg.

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