MLS Offseason News and Rumors Thread I

Steve Davis has provided some interesting Galaxy rumors over at Pro Soccer Talk.

- The Galaxy were negotiating with both Didier Drogba and Giovani Dos Santos earlier this season for their vacant DP spot.
- The Galaxy have set their sights on a DP who can connect with Latin market, and thus have set their sights on Kaka. Meanwhile it appears that they have little to no interest in Frank Lampard.
- The Galaxy are interested in acquiring Chivas USA GK Dan Kennedy.

 

With Boskovic and Salihi (most likely) leaving the club, it will be interesting to see if DC's new owners will splash some cash on some new DPs.

 

I think we'll see a lot of owners splashing some cash this winter. In MLS N&A, someone pointed out that the league is making $300-350 million in revenue, but only spending $100 million on players.

 

RSL completes their 3rd trade of the day, sending Will Johnson to Portland for allocation money.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's the 4th player (along with Justin Braun, Fabian Espindola and Jamison Olave) the Royals have shipped out today.

Also, 'Caps send Atiba Harris to Colorado for international slot.

 

Man this off season trading has started out like a school yard snowball fight after the years first snowfall.

 

.......And the Rev's sit tight.

Who double dog dared Mike Burns to stick his tongue to the pole?

 

I have a feeling that is about where MLS would like to keep it, pay roll as gotten out of control in most sports leagues around the world.

 

Confirmed here:
Thanks to Stoke City, Dynamo head into offseason with plenty of flexibility
Houston Chronicle
Dec 3, 2012

 

For now. Revenue continues to grow and we still have many players making less the $70k a season. As owners slowly make up for some of the losses they took in the early years, the salary cap will surely increase substantially.

 

Agreed, but I'm talking more in turns of percentage revenue not total dollar amount.

 

Interesting move by the Zolos, sending 17-year-old to Germany for a year on loan:

Pfeffer taking his talents to Hoffenheim via year loan deal
Homegrown stud Pfeffer taking great step to better self, Union
December 4, 2012
By Kerith Gabriel
philadelphiaunion.com

 

Where does the Zolos nickname come from?

 

Zolo looks like "2010", which is the year they started playing.

See: Leet

 

Wikipedia sums it up nicely: "At the "Meet the Owners" event held two days before the official expansion press conference in Chester, the Sons of Ben wore nametags with handwritten numbers intended to read "2010." The number was mistakenly interpreted as "ZOLO" by team ownership group member, Nick Sakiewicz. This led to Philadelphia Union being referred to as the "Zolos" in a series of inside jokes by the group."

 

George John, once close to a move the EPL, has re-signed with FC Dallas.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...e-sign-former-epl-target-john-multi-year-deal

 

DCU has a lot of cash available now after last Friday's purge of their FO. Some management folks had been there from the beginning including Kevin Payne.

No Longer Employed at DCU as of 11/30/12:

• Kevin Payne -- President and Chief Executive Officer
• Stephen Zack -- Executive Vice President
• Dawn Ridley -- Vice President, Business Development
• Pete Calabrese -- Assistant Athletic Trainer
• Boris Flores -- Director of Hispanic Marketing Communications
• Skip Kruger -- Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships (apparently left earlier to become GM of a minor-league baseball team in Indiana)
• Fred Matthes -- Director of Ticket Operations & Customer Service
• Mark McClure -- Director of Digital Media
• Jaime Moreno -- Youth Academy Technical Training Coach & U-23 Head Coach (not fired! moved to the academy coaches page)
• Maria Paez -- Executive Assistant to the President
• Kyle Sheldon -- Director of Marketing Communications
• Andy Sides -- Graphic Designer

 

Yeah, even stupider than "Doop!"

 

About 40% of that 100M was made by 30ish players (DPs). I think MLS needs to get more players making a decent income.

 

While most of us are hoping we can snag a few good players from other teams, the Revs would do well to see if they can upgrade some of their front office people. Like, do we even have a Director of Hispanic Marketing Communications? Do we even have one for English?

 

We don't even have an actual Director of Communications, let alone a Director of Marketing Communications or Director of Marketing Communications for other languages/cultures.