I think there is a big difference between having someone under contract that is performing and someone that has failed to meet expectations. If the FO let Higuain or Arrieta go free that would be one thing, but when Milo was making what he was and not delivering, you cut bait and move on. Happens all the time around the league and other major sports.
Given that MLS and not the Crew hold the contract, I would bet they had something to say about that. But MLS is known for being extremely closed-mouthed regarding such matters.
I get you're overall point and appreciate that you're acting the part of "Keep Calm and Carry On", which some people need, but how many players do you expect to have over half the possible minutes? It's only possible to have 11 players play more than half the available minutes.
My concern was more that only 4 got at least 75% of the minutes available. You would like a little larger core than that.
Meh. Like you said Higs and Jairo would have been on that list if they were here and uninjured. So that's 6.
Milo was making around 240K which is a typical amount for a starting AM in MLS. We paid Ekpo about that and Duka too. The problem isn't that we paid him too much, it's that we don't have a replacement for him and have to add it to the list of positions where we still need to find the starter. At the moment it seems our starting central midfield is probably Tchani and O'Rourke. When O'Rourke gets hurt then we're probably on to Kevan George. We can afford to offer salaries that should attract decent players from South America but getting a deal done seems to be hard for us.
Sorry--too many different arguments. I got that one backwards just now. We have an ok core. The injuries prevented that core from being more solid but picking up Higs and Jairo makes us ok but not great. It's not quite as bad as it looks. We are not starting completely from scratch.
We are now trying to go for guys still under contract and not guys who out of contact and/or are past their sell-by dates in their current leagues (as, for all his greatness here, GBS *was*). That means transfer fees *and* competition for those players. So I expect it to be tougher. MLS and especially Columbus are not top destinations on most players lists--yet. We do not know how much the league meddles in contracts these days. That adds to the challenge as it adds another negotiator.
For all of those saying we had better receive some type of fee for him, I could have sworn I remember reading back in January that Milo still actually had a year to run on his deal at UC, yet they allowed him to move to us for nothing because (1.) he was excited about the move and (2.) as a popular veteran for them, he had earned it. Seeing as how he's returning to the same club, and the fact that he's no spring chicken, it seems unreasonable to demand a paltry fee for him.
Adding to this, cutting up his contract saves us $240K+ in salary cap space. While a token transfer fee would be nice to have, I'm happy to part ways as friends with both UC and Milo and move on. I feel he was WAY overpaid for what he did for us last year. He didn't pan out for whatever reason so not having to be saddled with his salary is a boon.
I can get behind this, but I would have preferred say a Matias Sanchez deal be done first. I was just more comfortable with Miro than our remaining CM options.
No question. Personally, the only thing that annoys me about all of it is our "top brass" saying publicly that we expect him back in 48 hrs, when nearly anyone that can fog a mirror would have told you not to expect him in on Monday. And they could've told you that for at least the last week or so. So now we have this weird, balanced but nuanced appearance of being blindsided by it on one hand, yet pleasantly surprised by the development on the other.
Ok, I know this article is in spanish, and Google translate isn't the greatest, but Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle he wasn't happy here at all. I think I read (with sh*tty translation) that 1) He made up his mind to leave as soon as Seba left, 2) Seba did decline a contract offer, 3) He was very unhappy playing as a defensive mid, 4) He loved it here and would have stayed if his family was closer. This all makes my head spin.
And Jardy just tweeted this nugget: ..and he confirmed that we just let him walk away. This FO is making me thirsty.
It doesn't bother me that we let him walk away for free. It's more disconcerting that our FO will do jack squat with the freed up space. We keep seeming to free up space but aren't bringing anyone in for the start of the season. Of course they'll try and not get it done until the summer window. Oh, wait we did bring in some new guys: Tyson Wahl who is on his 4th team in 3 years and some rookies.
Keep in mind: we're not alone in this boat http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/01/21/whitecaps-part-ways-midfielder-barry-robson
JB is probably referring to the persistent questions about how our team news compares to other teams around the league as opposed to a team from ... I don't know ... say ... Germany.
You know, that's true. If only there were someone who could regale us with tales of how a German team handles it when player weasels his way out of a legally binding contract, with no recourse or remorse. If only...
It happens all the time in Germany. I remember one particular occasion in 1978 when Energie Cottbus lost a talented attacking midfielder who had been misassigned to a defensive mid role, when the team chased his Chilean countrymen out of town and the midfielder left on a free for purported family reasons. This happens so often in Germany that there's a word for it: SpielerdieBlätter- dadieTrainereinIdiottenhaupf