BROCK AND SALK

Should Seattle sports fans be more upset at star players leaving?

Feb 16, 2016, 10:21 AM | Updated: 3:37 pm

Seattle Sounders’ Obafemi Martins, center, passes around teammateTyrone Mears, right, during ...

Seattle Sounders' Obafemi Martins, center, passes around teammateTyrone Mears, right, during MLS soccer training in Tukwila. Martins is reportedly leaving the Sounders to go play in China. (AP)

(AP)

Just a few weeks before the start of the MLS season, Seattle Sounders forward Obafemi Martins has reportedly decided to join a Chinese league.

Though it’s a big move, it’s a part of the game soccer fans have come to know well. It isn’t uncommon for a player, even as one as respected as Martins, to up and leave in what seems like a sudden fashion.

Related: Seahawks have running backs to replace Marshawn Lynch

Sounders fans make it seem like it’s fine, 710 ESPN’s Mike Salk said. Is it really that easy to find another top player for the team?

Co-host Brock Huard wonders if the move is something that has been discussed for a while.

The reported decision by Martins brought back Marshawn Lynch’s decision to retire back to the forefront of the radio hosts’ conversation.

“It made me think, ‘should we be more upset that Marshawn is leaving?'” Salk asked.

Lynch was arguably still one of the best running backs in the NFL. He wasn’t done and still had good football left to play, Salk said. For whatever reason, however, Lynch decided to call it quits.

Should there be some question about whether or not fans &#8211 and maybe even the team &#8211 are upset over Lynch’s seemingly early departure? And, should we question a player’s decision to leave two weeks before the start of the MLS season?

Brock says there is a lot of unseen work that goes on behind the scenes. Whether it’s a soccer forward or running back, there has been planning going on out of the public’s eye and teams are preparing to lose players.

“You know they have no idea what goes on through that man’s mind,” Brock said of Lynch. “And they needed to have contingency plans…”

Salk says whether or not Martins has been thinking about leaving for a while, it’s still strange that he is reportedly leaving just two weeks before the season begins.

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