brian mcbride upset with MLS [Archive] - Page 3

352klr

30 Jul 2002, 11:32 PM

No way Brian"I'm perfect in every way in the eyes of crew fans" McBRide could actually be doing something like this. It's just impossible. The man wants to play in Europe. MLS should let him. $1mil is reasonable for him. He's 30 years old and has had trouble staying healthy for an entire season for the past 3. Plus it's not like the Crew are going to lose all their season ticket holders over this. It seems like Crew supporters are behind Brian and his desire to go to Europe after everything he's done for the club as well as the league. Last I checked, those strike force posters ain't flying off the shelves. The only ones going anywhere are going as prizes in the fantasy league. Mine sure ain't going on my wall neither.

Elizabeth

30 Jul 2002, 11:40 PM

Originally posted by FootyMundo

Why? Presumably he's honest and is reporting facts. If anyone screwed up it was the Crew PR guy.
Because journalist don't have typos. It's an automatic relfex to check your mistakes. Unless the rules are quite different in Europe. Journalists type blindfolded and he obviously can't. Adding in the other grammatical errors. No way. Somebody is having a bit of fun.

They capitalize when they should. Period. They type for a living for Christsakes. Maybe he relaxes on boards and gets lazy. That would be odd. McBride...yes, his attitude has changed dramaticaly. His first match back home...he whined like a baby for 90. he never used to be that way. I think he got spoiled and wants out of the low league. Let's see if anyone bites...he's older, he's injury prone, and he is known for one thing. Aerial.

352klr

30 Jul 2002, 11:52 PM

Elizabeth

31 Jul 2002, 12:01 AM

Originally posted by 352klr

Are you a journalist? Do your journalist friends tell you they never make mistakes, especially when typing something for such an esteemed site as bigsoccer.com? Do you talk to the dolphins? Do they speak to you? Do they say akkkkaaa, akkkkaa?

I graduated from journalism school. I make a lot more money doing something else. When you type, you type the same all the time. That is all I'm saying. If you miss a capital, so what. But he missed every single one. That isn't somebody who types often.

I thought he was a journalist and had to write...but realized he is a sports talk show host. My bad. Big difference. Whoops....sorry. doubt he types much at all.

type_32

31 Jul 2002, 12:06 AM

partha

31 Jul 2002, 12:15 AM

Mark,

Think of it this way (transfer fees and minor/major leagues complicate matters, but bear with me):

The Wheeling Nailers have a really good 30 year old center... the star of the team... he's played in Wheeling for 7 years and all the fans love him.

He wants to try his hand at the big leagues... he wants to go to the Penguins. Patrick brother number 1 calls Patrick brother number 2 and says, sure, I'll take him, while he's good, he's not as good as Mario or Kovey or Straka, he's not going to get much better since he's 30, so I'll play him occasionally as a 4th line center, but, more often than not, he'll be a healthy scratch. It's not too much of a risk; I'll take him, won't play him much and he might turn into a Dave Michayluk and play seven super games on the way to a Cup.

Patrick brother number 1 thinks about this... he won't be playing much up I-79, and down here, he sells lots of tickets and the fans love him, and he'll get to be a star, maybe not on a world stage, but on the stage we have. And Patrick #1 doesn't have that many already-made stars to replace him with.

So, Patrick #1 decides to keep him in Wheeling.

The player gets really pissed. Who wouldn't want to play in the NHL (or EPL?)? And why is the stupid system keeping me from going if they want me up there.

I think this is similar to what's happening to McBride. He's a star here, he's not going to get much better (he is 30 after all), and the transfer fee isn't that high. If some EPL team was willing to pay $5 million, I'd sure he'd be on the next flight out. The MLS just doesn't see how it's worth their while in losing him.

And, when, oh when, is Patrick number two going to sign Kovalev? For pete's sake.

Elizabeth

31 Jul 2002, 12:26 AM

Originally posted by type_32

FYI, in your first post in this thread you misspelled the word "would" and in your second post in this thread you misspelled the word "reflex".

Oh, and congratulations on making a lot more money doing something else.

Spellcheck...we use it...not when it's unimportant. The pt. was...typing. You automatically capitalize. It's second nature. Again, he's not a typist...he's broadcast. My mistake. And thank you, journalist don't make squat.

HaywoodJablome

31 Jul 2002, 12:42 AM

Mike Segroves kicks ass, suckas!

Tejas

31 Jul 2002, 12:56 AM

Getting back on topic...

In my view McBride is one of the few "stars" of MLS that the league could afford to lose. That being said, losing him does lessen the options that Columbus has during the season. I can imagine that MLS is hesitant to send away any player from a team that percieves him as a necessary part of the team for the remainder of the season. However, by the end of the season I don't see much excuse either way for the Crew or MLS to hold him against his will, even if the offers are peanuts. There are a number of young prospects both in Columbus and elsewhere who are not getting full game minutes who arguably could develope better and faster with those minutes.

As for his betterment for National team purposes, at this point I wouldn't put to much focus on him for 06 since by that time I would hope a number of better options would have developed. In the short term it might help, but only minimally. Ideally you want your prospects to head overseas at ages 22-26 and play real minutes for at least 2-6 years.

FootyMundo

31 Jul 2002, 08:44 AM

Originally posted by Elizabeth

Because journalist don't have typos. It's an automatic relfex to check your mistakes. Unless the rules are quite different in Europe. Journalists type blindfolded and he obviously can't. Adding in the other grammatical errors. No way. Somebody is having a bit of fun.

They capitalize when they should. Period. They type for a living for Christsakes. Maybe he relaxes on boards and gets lazy. That would be odd. McBride...yes, his attitude has changed dramaticaly. His first match back home...he whined like a baby for 90. he never used to be that way. I think he got spoiled and wants out of the low league. Let's see if anyone bites...he's older, he's injury prone, and he is known for one thing. Aerial.

You are kidding right? This is ridiculous. I was once a journalist. I can assure you that I have typos that often go undetected.

Casper

31 Jul 2002, 08:48 AM

Elizabeth, many journalists with lots of integrity have posted in many BigSoccer threads, particularly those discussing their own work. They treat these posts differently - some are anal retentive, some are not. Look up Jeff Bradley or Beau Dure's posts - I think most of us are more than convinced that those guys are actually who they say they are - and maybe that will help you feel like Madden's posts here are more credible.

One of the reasons I'm not crazy about e-mail is that people don't bother correcting typos. We're stuck with that, though.

Dixie

31 Jul 2002, 08:49 AM

Originally posted by falcon6

I agree with your assertion that Mcbride won't be a major contributor in 06, he'll be more of a role player who will probably be used in the same sort of role that Ireland used Niall Quinn at this years world cup. A guy that goes in the second half when your trailing, a guy who can get up in the air and make plays. In terms of Mcbride being upset with MLS, whatever happened to honoring a contract that you sign.

2006 isn't what should be in question with Mcbride. In my opinion he will be somewhere on that team. He'll probably play a role similar to the one Cobi Jones played in Korea. Still not the point. We are going to need him in qualifying as he'll still be effective enough to help us in 2 years. The US can't go into Costa Rica with a team of youngters who haven't played in Central America before and expect to compete. We need the veterans to teach the youngsters, you can't just discard them or we will fail to qualify for Germany.

monster

31 Jul 2002, 09:16 AM

Originally posted by Elizabeth

I graduated from journalism school. I make a lot more money doing something else. When you type, you type the same all the time. That is all I'm saying. If you miss a capital, so what. But he missed every single one. That isn't somebody who types often.

I thought he was a journalist and had to write...but realized he is a sports talk show host. My bad. Big difference. Whoops....sorry. doubt he types much at all.

If you were such a crack-fire journalism expert, you'd know the proper damn use of an ellipsis, says the ex-copy editor.

Mark is a pretty versatile guy from my limited knowledge of his work. And given that I went to college with one of his television counterparts in the Burgh, I can say with great certainty that he's at worst the second slowest person on the Pittsburgh sports scene. :D

And Elizabeth - sad thing the database has crashed because I could pick between 5 and 10 very respected journalists who have posted here, some on a regular basis. Hell, I can find MLS players and coaches and GMs in the archives in they ever come back.

Back to topic, how is the way MLS handled this any different from how Leeds handled Ferdinand? The employer has put a value on a player and the suitor hasn't met that value yet. This is no different than any other transfer. That doesn't mean Brian doesn't have a right to be upset, but this is not all MLS' fault. There are three sides to a transfer.

Alberto

31 Jul 2002, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by BuffloSoldier

But the USSF has little do with how MLS does business, at least when it comes to player movement. Ivan Gazidas doesn't depend upon Bruce Arena or Robert Contigulia to make decisions--I'm sure from time to time he seeks insight from peope at the Fed, but it's not the deciding factor.

Let's call a spade, a spade. MLS believes that players like McBride are more use playing (under their contract terms) in the US than the capital they could get from their transfers.

With the current depressed transfer market/economy, teams simply do not have the cash to throw around. If the World Cup was played in the summer of '01, then teams would most likely be bidding in figures that MLS would consider.

But reported 1m offers for McBride, 1.3 and 2m offers for Beasley, among others--MLS doesn't want to sell at those figures. Of course, they run the risk of angering these players and seeing them leave on a free transfer at the end of their contracts.

I can see both sides of the argument. But the Fed's main concern is the state of the game in the US, and the national team--and while those goals run hand in hand with a healthy MLS--the Fed doesn't make player decisions for MLS.

Excellent post Aris. This puts it all in prespective. I agree MLS will not sell their best players for only 1-2 million. Hopefully, for a player like McBride, his contract runs out at the end of the season and he can go make some serious money in Europe on a free transfer.

There is another issue that needs resolution. When will the MLS get out of the position of acting as a super general manager and allow the clubs to transfer players and act on their best interest.

FootyMundo

31 Jul 2002, 10:07 AM

Originally posted by Dixie

2006 isn't what should be in question with Mcbride. In my opinion he will be somewhere on that team. He'll probably play a role similar to the one Cobi Jones played in Korea. Still not the point. We are going to need him in qualifying as he'll still be effective enough to help us in 2 years. The US can't go into Costa Rica with a team of youngters who haven't played in Central America before and expect to compete. We need the veterans to teach the youngsters, you can't just discard them or we will fail to qualify for Germany.

McBride is 30. If we don't have him replaced and off the team by 2006, we have some real problems in developing competent strikers. Twellman, Donovan, Razov, Wolff, Mathis, Kreis are all younger than McBride. And there are other guys out there as well. I understand that only Razov might be considered a "target" guy in this group I've listed, but I just don't see a 34 year old striker contributing much to our team. And before anyone points to a guy like Batistuta - let's be real. McBride isn't even remotely close to the player Batistuta is and was.

Further, we did just fine without McBride on the field in more than one qualifier in C.A. We won at Honduras and tied at Guatemala - and if memory serves me correct he wasn't on the pitch for either game. Mind you we lost in C.R. and Mexico, but McBride would have made ZERO difference in those games IMO. We lost those games in the midfield and were soundly outplayed in each case.

eric515

31 Jul 2002, 11:33 AM

Originally posted by Elizabeth

Spellcheck...we use it...not when it's unimportant. The pt. was...typing. You automatically capitalize. It's second nature. Again, he's not a typist...he's broadcast. My mistake. And thank you, journalist don't make squat.

Judging by your typing skills, it's no wonder you got out of journalism. Some journalists make money, but not those whose grasp of written English is on par with Uzbeki schoolchildren!!

As for McBride, I had heard the league was going to possibly "reward" him at the end of the season by letting him go to Europe. Hopefully, they will get a little bit of cash for him. It will suck, though, having him arrive in Europe 2 months into the season. I hope he can get into someone's 4 man striker rotation, it might even be best for him to play for a team with a hefty European schedule as well.

I think he could have 3 or 4 decent years in Europe. Considering there are plenty of productive strikers at his age or older in the Europe right now, and very few of them scored 2 goals in the last WC!

Plus, if he goes, that will just pave the way for Columbus to call back their 2nd round pick from last year's SuperDraft: John Barry Nusum!! Think McBride size, with a little more speed, and linebacker bulk!

dheck

31 Jul 2002, 12:31 PM

Originally posted by BoulderBuck
As for McB, the league is in a tough situation. He is a player who does not dominate MLS like many other players who went overseas, but unlike them, he is one of the most, if not the most identifiable players in the league.

I can't think of a single player so far that dominated MLS then went overseas.

Sanneh?
Hejduk?
Moore?
Vanney?
Bartlett?

I suppose you could argue for Stern John of Brad Friedel, but they never took their team anywhere, so I don't think you could say they dominated MLS.

Am I missing something?
Who are we talking about here?

As for McBride, if the premise of this thread is true, then he is just showing his class IMO. Using an interview to badmouth the league would be classless. So would giving an interview and glossing over what's really on his mind. Brian McBride is anything but classless. If any of the original thread is true, he's done exactly what he should do in avoiding taking this issue public.

There are certain posters on BS, I won't name names but I think we all know who they are, that have questioned McBride's contributions to the national team or the Crew. I have no problem with that. However, questioning McBride's integrity is totally off-base IMO.

Jayhawk

31 Jul 2002, 12:44 PM

First off, allow me to join the chorus of posters welcoming Mark Madden to bigsoccer! I always enjoy your columns in the PG, and look forward to reading your thoughts here.
As for McBride, yes, he is being a baby, but selling him is not a bad idea. The development of the USMNT will in part rest on the ability of the soccer pezzanovanti here in the states to grow the sport's base, and MLS will have to be an integral part of that. Therefore, why not sell the almost-washed-up malcontent? For what they could get, they could probably buy a couple of talented teenage South Americans.

Sinko

31 Jul 2002, 12:47 PM

Originally posted by mark madden
i host a sports radio talk show in pittsburgh, and we attempted to get brian mcbride of columbus/US nat'l team as a guest. the crew PR guy told us that brian is upset because MLS will not let him leave to go overseas (presumably to everton) and so will not do any more interviews which he perceives as promoting MLS. i think mcbride is being a baby when he refuses to do interviews, but i totally see his point. it also makes me think that ussf is more committed to MLS than to building a strong nat'l team, and it makes me think that the US showing at WC'02 might turn out to be a peak, not a stepping stone. you can only get so good in MLS. to turn the corner as a player, you need to go to europe. if guys like landon donovan want to stay in MLS, fine. but i don't like the idea of MLS preventing a player who wants to go overseas to improve (and cash in) from doing so. thoughts?
Hey Ayatollah of Rockin' Rollah, good to see you here.

Just curious, but did you give an advanced script of questions that would have given McBride the impression that the interview was an MLS fluff piece?

I mean, I'd have expected you to be focusing on his time in England, his injuries, his apirations to go back over there, his experience in Korea, and his hot wife. I'd think you'd pay MLS little time.

Smack that dufus Jim Colony for me, would you?