Donovan signing with the Cosmos wouldn't surprise me at all. He's been saying for a while now that he doesn't want to play anymore.
Fear? Why would anyone be afraid of that? This reminds me of when people used to say the rest of the world was "afraid" that the U.S. national team might someday become a soccer power. In short, don't flatter yourself. Soccer snobs care exclusively about the top four or so leagues. If MLS ever joins that club, they'll jump on the bandwagon, end of story. Has nothing to do with fear.
Sure, they're are old and washed up*. So what? In a league of 19 teams, 209 starters, and over 550 players, you're going to have to do better than a list of 7 to honestly be able to characterize MLS as a league for old wannabe retirees. It would be interesting to see how many players X and older signed new contracts in various leagues each year. My guess is that for values of X greater than 30, the average number per team in the league in MLS is not measurably different than the big leagues in Europe. The Galaxy signs Cudicini and Tottenham signs Friedel. It all comes out in the wash. * meh, not all really washed up, but even conceding the point doesn't affect my argument.
well for a retirement league the overall average roster ages aren't very high: NYR 26.4 SEA 26.2 MTL 26.0 VAN 26.0 SJE 26.0 CHI 25.9 HOU 25.5 COL 25.2 CHV 25.2 RSL 25.1 DCU 25.0 FCD 24.8 LAG 24.7 SKC 24.7 TFC 24.6 NER 24.5 CLB 24.2 POR 24.0 PHI 23.8 this is for everybody currently on each team's roster, including draft picks.
Can you not read? I never said MLS was a league for washed up players or wannabe retirees. I specifically said Fiosfan in fact never brought that up or used any of the terms being thrown around. What you're replying to (post of mine) was in reference to Fiosfan being accused of saying MLS was essentially a retirement league when all he said was he preferred a younger DP, and then a poster saying Fiosfan should be attacked because he's arguing against "verifiable facts". When he was attacked I just pointed out attacking him didn't make much sense because older vs younger is subjective, as well an "name" DP's are subjective. Since the term "verifiable facts" was thrown about, I asked what the criteria would be. That's the post you're quoting. The evidence showing it's subjective is that in fact 16 of 30 DP's are 30 or over, so it's fair to think while many might be fine with that someone like Fiosfan might prefer younger DP targets, which again shows Fiosfan's opinion wasn't worth bashing him over nor that we're arguing verifiable facts. I never actually stated my opinion on the age of DP's other than that 16 of 30 were 30 or older and agree or disagree with Fiosfan he didn't say anything factually wrong or anything which isn't anything but a subjective opinion, and in fact I said Lampard was a good signing for LAG. But here you go manufacturing some crap argument based on something I never said or a point I never made. The complex some of you have is so ridiculous you can't even follow the actual dialogue. Fiosfan says I wish it was a younger DP and a few of you jump down his throat and act like he called MLS a retirement league and completely spun what he said out of context.
MLS isn't a retirement league and all this retirement league talk started simply because the OP said he wished LAG signed a younger DP. Then a couple posters jumped down his throat and accused him of calling MLS a retirement league. While your post is 100% accurate, no one is disputing it either.
No. That's not Fiosfan calling MLS a retirement league. That's Fiosfan saying others view it that way, not Fiosfan himself. And while I don't think it's a retirement league, there are recent stories in the UK since Lampard signed with LAG saying it most likely spells the end of his NT career, as Hodgson wouldn't keep him in the picture much longer if he's playing in MLS. And that itself doesn't mean MLS is a retirement league, it's a perception which I believe to be wrong, but Fiosfan is saying that perception is out there, which it is. Learn to read, dude. This is a perception, which I think is wrong, but it's still the perception and not rare. Fiosfan isn't wrong that this perception is still out there, and as much as you don't want to acknowledge it it still is there. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...lace-jeopardy-chooses-LA-Galaxy-AC-Milan.html
There's no way you can compare those three with Denilson. Gallardo, to his credit, was limited only by injuries- when he was healthy, he was clearly one of (if not the) best players in the league.
And doing so in the context of signing Lampard whose signing he had responded to by saying he wished he was younger.
I also think what Jond is missing is people are not just reacting to this one dumb comment Fios made but more an accumulation of dumb comments spanning various topics and usually just assume the worst because of his posting history.
Hmmm, I don't know what history or reputation he has here. I was just responding to his posts in this thread and know him from regularly posting the "news of the day" threads. But, if he has some reputation I'm unaware of than that might be part of the venom posted towards him. My posts in this thread however are only in regards to what he's said here.
Link? At the risk of I was merely showing how the "precipitation" that he mentioned was stupid, and not based in fact.
Hell, a lot of people have hard time believing that Arne Friedlich and Nesta are playing for less than DP money
True. Friedrich said he could easily make a lot more anywhere but chose to play in the US (he also had some health issues while with Wolfsburg). Nesta was basically semi-retired in Florida anyway. We'll see how much allocation money that the Galaxy gained by offloading Edson Buddle is using to buy down the cap hit. Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20121220/galaxy-carlo-cudicini/#ixzz2IdE6ZLY6 But then there's this : http://sports.yahoo.com/news/galaxy-acquire-goalie-cudicini-tottenham-021007459--mls.html The "contract has been sold" implies that the Galz are continuing with the terms of the existing contract... which had to be in the seven figures. PS. FWIW, the English media reports that Frank might still want to play for England in the 2014 WC, something he will have harder time doing as a Galaxy player, compared to - say - an AC Milan or a Juventus player.
no need to suspend your belief or to try and guess. We will know what he makes once the Players Union releases the salaries as they do every season. My guess is that he will be making a little over $400k a season and will be bought down with allocation money but that is just a guess.
Those report the "bought down" figures too, as they did with GBS. If Cudicini were on a $1M/Y wage, his 3rd DP contract would only count for what .... $270K or so? And even that can written down by allocations for the accounting/MLS cap purposes.
The salary reports show two numbers. The base salary, which I believe is related closer to the salary budget/cap, and the full compensation each player makes, which goes well beyond the cap. You can go through the list and see who is a DP and who is being bought down with allocation money http://www.mlsplayers.org/salary_info.html
I don't understand this question. 1) We don't know what he makes yet so we don't know what the buy down will be if he is over the max salary cap number 2) He is not going to count as a DP for LA so he will not be LA's 3rd DP. Here are all of the DP's, both current and former in the league. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_Player_Rule#Current_Designated_Players Note that we do not yet have the 2013 Roster Rules available to us so we do not even know yet what the max salary cap number will be, but it has been speculated that it will be in the $367k range if memory serves.