You've chosen an odd hill to die on dB. Comparing Polster to Gazza or Laudrup is just bizarre. Polster has played 3 seasons with struggling MLS side and has one US cap, a friendly against Bosnia. Gascoigne was one of the most high profile players in the world when he joined Rangers, a first choice internationalist who's played and starred in top flight football in England and Italy. Laudrup was also joining from Serie A, having previously starred in the Bundesliga, he was also a first choice international and had played in the winning European Champions team. Weir was an experienced player who'd worked with Smith successfully and was seen as a short term stop gap. Polster, on the other hand, is the very definition of 'unproven'. He might turn into a Kamara or a Goldson or he might be a Grezda or an Ojaria. He's unproven, so we'll just have to see.