The rumors about Juan Sebastian Veron are up to a fever pitch again. Soccer Insider reported yesterday that Veron's agent was in town. Of course this could be just a coincidence, but the timing is pretty convenient following United's playoff loss.

Not sure how I feel about this.

Veron is a great player, who could change the complexion of the entire team. But is that necessarily a good thing? DC United was the best team in the league over the course of the year. And I think you could argue that even right now, they are probably the second or third best team in the league.

The Designated Player slot has worked to varying degrees of success for MLS teams. So will Veron be more like a Blanco, and inspire his team to play almost beyond their own capabilities? Or will Veron be more like a Reyna or Denilson?

The way I see it, there are two possibilities here…

1) Veron signs with United and joins a midfield already occupied by Christian Gomez, Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, Fred, and Josh Gros. Where does Veron fit here? Do we switch our formation to a 3-5-2? That can't be smart, because defense has arguably been our weakness the last two years. I guess you could use a 4-4-2 and move Gomez up to the withdrawn forward role (pending Moreno's departure?), but that's not where he's been his most productive.

2) Veron signs with United and Christian Gomez takes that as a hint that he should leave. I think this would be a mistake for us. Because if the front office makes a move on Veron, and then fails to bring back Gomez, then we would be operating under the assumption that Veron is a better player than Gomez. That's a real risky assumption, and I don't think its true. Emilio is a great finisher, and Moreno is our leader, but Gomez has been our best player the last two years. No doubt.

So I'm not sure that I feel good about either of these possibilities. Are there any good international central defenders out there interested in being our DP?