The marquee acquisition last off-season was the loan that brought US National Maurice Edu into the Union family. Hopes were high that Edu's leadership qualities and physical, defensive mentality would bring more Philly toughness to the squad. The season didn't turn out as expected, and while Edu was a vocal leader and played a tough physical game, the rest of the team didn't take on his demeanor.

Edu came over on loan from Stoke City in the Premier League. The Union now have the option to buy Edu's contract and presumably sign him to a long term deal. Expectations are that such a deal would be more expensive than the $600k in salary Edu earned this past season.

Here are some facts and stats about Edu's season:

Edu had a salary of $600K this past season...that was the highest salary on the team by far....Edu played the 3rd most minutes on the team with 2,790....he played 1,170 of his minutes at defensive center back....he also played 1,170 minutes as a defensive midfielder...Edu scored all of his 3 goals when playing defensive midfield....he also played 450 minutes as the box-to-box midfielder....Edu was 2nd on the team in tackles per game with 2.9....he was 2nd on the team, for players who played more than 12 games, in interceptions, averaging 2.3 per game.

Maurice Edu Whoscored.com Stats Games Minutes Goals Assists Key Passes/Gm Pass % Tackles/Gm Int/Gm Clear/Gm Rating 2014 31 2790 3 1 0.5 82.1 2.9 2.3 2.8 7.12

Maurice Edu compiled solid statistics across the board. His overall whoscored rating of 7.12 ranked 44th in the league out of 267 players who played more than 17 games.

Maurice Edu had a solid first season for the Union. The question is did he do enough to potentially earn a raise, continue to take up a good portion of the Union's player budget and a valuable Designated Player spot? Does he bring enough leadership, quality and toughness to the team to earn that kind of money?

What do you think? Should Maurice Edu stay or should he go?

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Amobi Okugo