News: MLS salary cap caused the Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey rift--Alan Hinton video

EJ wasn't going to get paid that much regardless of dempsey being here or not. If it wasn't dempsey it would been someone else.

 

he loses all credibility when he calls for MLS to ditch the salary cap. he should know that's never gonna happen. the NFL, which Garber idolizes and many MLS owners are a part of, is the most profitable sports league in the world and they still have a salary cap. i think the salary cap should be doubled, or tripled, but to think it could be dispensed with entirely is foolishness...

 

Surely you overstate here. Alan offers an opinion on which you disagree (as do I). But to question his integrity or truthfulness on the the matter is silly.

 

not questioning his integrity or truthfulness, just his grip on reality. we'll have pro-rel in MLS before we lose the salary cap...

 

I agree that the salary structure is a principle pillar upon which MLS rests, and see little reason for that to change. But the very definition of credibility is truthfulness and integrity, however much we perceive it to be misguided. Is it not?

 

sure.

 

i agree but i think the salary cap could be loosened considerably now and it wouldn't hurt the league. having to ship out players like Johnson b/c of salary cap weakens the depth of teams and hurts us considerably when it comes to competing outside of MLS

while EJ was never going to get Dempsey money his form certainly deserved a raise

 

If ME J had been classy he would have gotten a raise and probably still be here. From reports he was an ass and thats why he got shipped out.

 

eh i dont think you can oversimplify it that way. The bottom line was Johnson was clearly one of the best, if not the best, impact players on the team and you couldn't afford to pay him what he clearly thought he deserved. He might have been a prick, but teams put up with pricks that score goals usually. I think the bottom line was he came in cheap with something to prove and he proved it and you didn't have the space to pay him

 

I think you're both right. EJ's attitude once Dempsey was brought in apparently caused a lot of issues in the locker room. I think everyone, including the Sounders, agreed that EJ had earned a rather hefty raise, but what sunk him with the Sounders is that he was a complete and utter ass about it and, based on leaks from players, was a rather bad teammate. If EJ had been a better teammate and hadn't gone into his woes me attitude, the Sounders probably would have at least tried to work him in under the cap. They might not have been successful in doing it, but a large part of him getting the boot was the attitude.

 

Did he ever show disrespect to Dempsey? Or only to Ownership? Because he's borderline for the World Cup roster and if he and Dempsey are not getting along, I imagine Klinnsman would dump EJ if he worries about team chemistry.

 

interesting little thing to think about. EJ's attitude is pretty prevalent in Europe. Not that they are all premadonna aholes but a lot of those massive players are. Not saying EJ is anywhere as good as Ibra or Balotelli, BUT it's common. It's not that common in MLS i'd imagine so it's an interesting thought that as MLS gets better and better (i hope, since im unsure about that now thanks to the parity nonsense) managers that can manage players like that will become more and more important. Sigi and Bruce are both fantastic MLS manager but I don't think either have what it takes to handle those kinds of egos on a regular basis. (Becks was massive but he was always a humble and hardworking guy).


...dont know where i'm going with this but it's interesting to think that simply selling a player like EJ is not the answer in the future since a good manager has to work with players like that and know how to get the best out of them

 

Dempsey and EJ are good friends and I doubt that changed during this period. From what I understand EJ started taking his frustrations out on other players and coaching staff.

 

weren't they good friends? wasn't that the whole angle on getting dempsey to seattle?

i hope EJ goes to Brazil, he isn't starting caliber, no where near, but his knack for headers comes in handy when you are down late in a match when you are just pummeling balls into the box.

 

There is a difference in being a primadona and turning on your fellow players and coaches. EJ also started raging at a time when nothing could be done about his situation and after the FO said he was going to get paid during the off-season.

 

Im sure every effort was made to get him to be reasonable but Yoshou pretty much summed it up better than i did. No idea where the friendship is now but it sure looked strained at the end of last year but the team was in a tailspin.

 

Should- and know it is never going to happen; are not the conflicting ideas. War should end- will never happen. Would you loose respect for anyone who suggested it should end? I think, as he alluded; there are some very perverse things going on when you have a single entity business that is rewarding more successful clubs for it's own benefit.

An example of this would be when MLS came up with the money for Clint's transfer fee.
The reason they did was because they have a success in Seattle and want to stoke that fire; as well as the fact that Seattle pays more into the league. It is no different when a chain store has an outlet with very high visibility and traffic flow. It makes money from that store so they spend money remodeling it and enlarging it. In a chain store business people don't question that as unfair competition .

I don't think we have perfect parity now; sure the Sounders or Galaxy might be bad for one year or so but they, will most likely, be near the top again soon. This gap over time will only become more pronounced as the bigger teams work the system that is in place and spend more on player development and scouting and other small things that come from having more money. How many player has Seattle bought out without hesitation because of a change of plans or disagreement and then had the money as an organization to spend right away. The Cap is like that of a salt shaker- it has a lot of holes in it.

 

No matter how amazing our youth system gets, could be pumping out messis every year even, we can't afford them on the senior team and have to sell because of the salary cap. I personally think the salary cap and parity is holding back MLS at this point and people are completely delusional if they think MLS can constantly challenge Mexico for the champions league or dominance of concacaf every year, or even once in a while. Money, and to a smaller extent scheduling, hold us back from being on the world stage.

 

Having a salary cap is not holding back MLS from competing with Liga MX, per se. The level of the salary cap is a factor, if the salary cap were significantly higher than where it is now (maybe not even on par with Liga MX salaries), then it is entirely possible that MLS could be consistently competitive with Liga MX.

Mexico's youth development system also stomps a mud hole in MLS's youth development system and walks it dry. Until MLS's youth development system (and the US/Canada system in general) significantly improves the average US player will continue to develop later in their career and to a lesser quality than Mexico's average player.

 

For youth development we have a few clubs that actually have decent programs. However I think it's really a question of time before we can compete on that front and no amount of money can rush it. However the salary cap is something we can fix almost instantly and improve things on that end. I don't think it's a hard sell for foreign players to prefer playing in USA versus Mexico if the money was the same...

 

There are a few teams, but even those teams are inferior to the average Liga MX team, IMHO. I like what LA, RSL, VAN, FCD, etc are doing with their youth development, but the players that are coming out are still inferior to what the Liga MX teams are producing.

As far as the cap goes.. I agree that US is more attractive than Mexico for foreign players, I'd even go so far as to say MLS could get a player for less than what Mexico could get them, but a sudden jump in cap isn't a good thing. I happen to like parity and even though the low cap holds back the Sounders, I'd much rather have the Sounders playing competitive, entertaining games every week than only a couple games being competitive, with the remainder being walks in the park. I'm also not too worried about being competitive with Liga MX in CCL right now.

 

Ha. Repped for that .