Our long wait for Metro to sign an academy graduate is coming to an end... possibly. According to the NY Post, RBNY is trying to sign Rutgers and US U-20 midfielder Dilly Duka, making him the first player to go directly from the academy to the senior team.

But... there's always a "but" with this team. "That's a player that I want to sign. Unfortunately with all the rules we haven't been able to do it," Juan Carlos Osorio told the Post. "It's difficult sometimes with MLS rules but he's a guy we'd like to have...they'd like to have," added RBNY Youth Director Bob Montgomery.

Oh boy. What rules are they talking about? MLS relaxed its academy graduation rules this year, so Metro can sign not one, but TWO youth products, and will not lose any, like feared before. Moreover, they currently have two open spots on the SENIOR roster (and one more that could be open if and when Khano Smith gets his walking papers). So they can sign Duka to either a senior contract of a Generation Adidas one (or a developmental one, of course, but Duka is unlikely to go for that).

So what does it come down to? Money, most likely. And if Jeff Agoos and Osorio want to pay a semi-retired Serb mercenary or an Austrian second division player over someone who will likely start for the US at the Under-20 World Cup... then they need to get their priorities in check, to say the least.