I don't see Laba for allocation happening, unless it is part of another deal that directly sees another player come in at the same time. And as far as I know (or anyone knows with the magical world of allocation) we have a ton of it thanks to Payne collecting it, and likely don't need more. There is talk that Laba can be paid down to a non-DP level with. Even if neither happen, the Don will bend/change the rules to make it happen for a player like Bradley to return.
That one article that made that claim would have been true two years ago. But lately we've seen Omar Gonzalez and Osvaldo Alonso get big money deals which would never have happened before. Beckerman, Chara, Laba and Bernardello also get good paychecks. The fact is that an elite two way mid is a true separator of quality in MLS and teams are paying more and more in that area.
While this is a bit insane on the surface, if you look behind the scenes at TFC's owners it matters very little. Everything changed financially when Bell & Rogers bought MLSE. Prior to that, MLSE was an investment for a pension fund, and maximizing profit was the goal. When Bell and Rogers bought them out, all of that changed. Now, TFC (and the Leafs and Raptors) are a vehicles for them to sell content - drive cell phone contracts, increased mobile data consumption for exclusive content, drive cable TV subs with exclusive content, ect, ect. That is the play here. They could care less at turning a profit with TFC. The whole point is to drive profit into their main business lines (cell phones & cable). They had a combined revenue stream of 32 billion in 2011. Rogers just paid 5.2 billion for NHL rights for 12 years. 100 million on players is peanuts to them. These guys operate in a different stratosphere financially.
These numbers that get thrown around usually turn out to be false (i.e. Beckhams salary, Dempsey's salary, etc.).
To us, yes. To them, they don't care. It's a business decision. Does splashing that money turn TFC into a better team, one that will be more popular and drive enough revenue into their other business streams to recoup the money spent + drive further profits. If the answer to them is yes, which it obviously is, then it's a go. They could care less about whether or not it's overpaying, silly, good/bad for the league. It's a basic business decision based on profits. No more, no less.
I'm very sure that MLS would pay for MB. Invaluable exposure to have another major USMNT player be from MLS. Millions of American soccer fans will find out that the best American players are in MLS. I think only Howard and Altidore can claim to have a similar profile.
What I meant is that those two players aren't worth that much money in transfer fees. I suppose that they're counting the salary across the contract years. The salary for those two would be anywhere from 5 to 10 million a year. Add the transfer fees and I can see it being well over 50 million.
I would love to see a straight Laba to RSL for Sebastian Velasquez and some money Beckerman has no one to replace him and he's getting old. But Laba AND Bradley boss most midfield in MLS, including RSL's and Portland's if they can get a decent pure attacking mid. Freddy, anyone ?
Not a chance. If Toronto is in a position where they MUST move Laba to get Bradley and Defoe, Toronto is the desperate party. They will get what scraps some team offers, and they will be forced to like it.
That same news story quoted an internal source who was hoping for a 30-40 goal haul from Defoe this season. I highly doubt even TFC is that delusional. Let's just say Canadian soccer journalists have proven to be.... unreliable.
with reported 1.5 mil transfer fee paid for Laba, more likely TFC will try to sell Laba outside of MLS, unless getting something nearly as good as Laba. seriously, this kid has potential to be one of best DMs in MLS. goes after balls like a squirrel chasing a nut, but Laba is one smart squirrel. his sense of positioning and anticipation is really good