The rumor going around since this past weekend is that veteran Philadelphia Union defender Danny Califf would be traded to Chivas USA. An initial rumor that Union forward Jack McInerney would be included and it would be in exchange for Chivas forward Juan Pablo Angel has not persisted, but today Union coach Peter Nowak announced during his regular weekly press conference that Califf was indeed headed to Chivas, but offered no other details. He made it clear in his remarks that the deal was done, and the only hurdle left was clearing standard league approval of the deal.

Guess what? When asked for comment today, Chivas coach Robin Fraser and General Manager Jose Domene denied the veracity of Nowak's comments. While they acknowledged reports of ongoing negotiations with Philadelphia, today they denied a deal was complete, according to Scott French over at ESPN LA. Both Fraser and Domene seemed dumfounded that Nowak discussed the negotiations publicly, and they didn't even confirm if Califf is part of the proposed deal, although Fraser did apparently indicate that a deal would probably be complete "by the weekend," according to Adam Serrano on twitter.

All of this is to say that the perceptions are vastly different between Carson and Philadelphia. While writers who are following the Union have taken Nowak at his word, on the Chivas side, the writers are taking Fraser and Domene at their word. I don't blame the Philly writers for running with the "trade is done" story, but I'm going to listen to Chivas and hold off before I declare it 100% complete. Thus, it is truly difficult to know what the status of this trade is at the moment. I have to cynically wonder if Nowak publicly released the trade of Califf for two reasons: to further humiliate the team captain, who he's been battling against for months, and/or to press Chivas into finalizing the deal before Chivas are ready to sign off on it. Sorry, that could be totally off base, but Nowak's track record the past several months makes you wonder if the guy has any idea what he's doing, or if he's being difficult for the sake of being difficult.

And no word on Chivas' side of the deal, as even Nowak refused to discuss any details on that side. But French and Serrano both reported that Domene confirmed that Juan Pablo Angel is not part of a potential deal, so no need to worry about the possibility of him leaving, it appears. We will, however, have to wait and see who is included in the deal, and whether it truly takes place. And unless Chivas are desperate to get a future Union player under Nowak's watch, I think Fraser and Domene will not be eager to deal with him anytime soon.

Needless to say, this has been a rather bizarre story on both sides.

As always, we'll keep you posted on news about this (potential) deal.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!