http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2006/08/16/twellman_says_hes_underpaid/ This should stir some things up.
Can't really blame them. This is the big problem with our season schedule. I empathize with both the players and the fans here. Tough situation.
RB can use Twellman, then again Twellman is not good enough for Arena.As far as going to UK they both better off right here at least thet get playing time instead sitting on the bench.Dempsey and Twellman should be making as much as EJ.
I can understand the feeling of being underpaid. I AM UNDERPAID! However, when he says that he was told if he went out and "did it for the national team" Twellman would be compensated. Scoring a few goals in some warm-up games doesn't cut it in my mind. I don't believe he was on the roster in Germany. What he and Dempsey need to do is if they feel they are undercompensated - go out and win the whole thing. Show people that they are underpaid - don't whine about it. The article states that if Dempsey plays out his contract - he can transfer free! Where is the problem? Twellman needs to go to Europe and prove himself - or, does he want to be a Donovan wannabe - I wanna be a big fish in a little pond. Says he wants to finish his career in New England - WHAT LITTLE AMBITION!
Interesting story. MLS wants American stars. They probably want Dempsey to become the face of American soccer. But he wants to leave. Twellman is offering his dedication to the league and continued high effort and results in league play. But he didn't go to the World Cup, which hinders even his MLS marketability. Can you make Twellman a face of MLS and pay him for that, for being a league star? As for Dempsey, his value to MLS is a lot more than his transfer value. MLS wants him to stay, at least until the season ends. But he wants to leave. He's perhaps misbehaving right now. Not unusual for players these days. What MLS faces right now is a host of soccer realities. I hope all this stuff is dealt with wisely. MLS needs to decide what a league star is worth, what to offer teams for losing a Dempsey (you simply can't hold players out of the silly season transfer market - you can't), and how to use transfer money smartly instead of rattling on about how you don't care about it.
Clint needs to test himself overseas. Twellman needs to become a goal scorer for the nats and tear it up in MLS if he wants the money he wants....
Agreed. Er, you mean like Johnson money? Or Wolff money? Or Donovan money? Twellman's already done it in MLS. As some will tell you, his goal-per-game average for the US national team is better than McBride's. But I agree, he's got a lot to prove in that regard. Point is though, McBride wasn't exactly tearing up MLS before he went to Europe. If a guy wants to give it a shot in Europe, and can find a spot on a team - more power to him. BTW, I'm wonder if the general atmosphere of complacence and reticence by the ownership of their current club is appealing to either one.
No surprise that Twellman feels he is underpaid. Dempsey is underpaid as well. However, it's funny to remember how Dempsey, after returning from the WC, claimed he wanted to win MLS Cup this year (presumably before jetting off to Europe). Of course, as soon as the first offer from Europe came, MLS became the big bad wolf and the worst of the worst. Such a shame.
I basically agree with everything you said, but here, it depends on your definition of "tearing it up." McBride added a ton to the Crew beyond the goals he scored. He is a true target guy who can distribute which is worth a lot, especially in England. Twellman's worth is much more tied to the number of goals he scores. He's more like Michael Owen (I can't believe I just wrote that ) in that his job is to simply score goals -- a lot of goals.
Very true. McBride wasn't brought into Fulham with the expectation that he'd score a bazillion goals. He was brought in to be a part of the offense. Plus, the poster has to remember that in his last couple of years in CBus McBride was playing for Coach Zippy the Pinhead, whose idea of offense was to send McBirde into the box alone while everyone pounded forty yard balls at him as three defenders beat the crap out of him. The President of Everton, which club he almost landed with before Fulham upped the ante, publically sniffed that the coach in Columbus "doesn't know how to use him". But then, the coach in Columbus didn't know how to use anybody, so that was hardly news. For reference, see the couple of seasons he paired with Stern John in CBus under Tom Fitzgerald. John quickly realized that if you made runs off the guy you'd end up with shots and he tore up the league.
It's also a problem with the Revs in particular and their management. In general it's also a problem that all MLS teams have to deal with and some do it better then others. At this point, Nicol, Gulati and Co don't seem to be dealing with it very well. The Revs stars are under no particular reason to push themselves. The WC is over so that carrot is gone. They are basically guaranteed to start any MLS game they are healthy for since management doesn't bring in much in the way of new talent. Team management has created an environment where neither their players' jobs are open to competition nor are they looking to improve the team enough to make them the obvious best team in MLS. They are satisified with just being competitive. The players see this and they naturally start to look for environments that are more exciting in one way or another. Going to Europe fits that to a T. I mean to the Revs players (the stars) they've basically attained everything they could attain in MLS, they know that if they win the MLS Cup it will be by luck, so why not look abroad for more money and more competition? Be part of another team that's trying to get somewhere? That would be fun. As a DCU fan I've seen this happen to some DCU players (Moreno and Convey) when the team was just drifting along under Hudson and Rongen. Bill Archer, above, knows this phenomenon very well from what the Crew went through under Andrulis. But with the right management that attitude can change. You keep bringing in new players; keep pushing the talent level higher. It's not an easy job but it can be done. Winess Houston signing Dalglish. In part, Arena's bitter rants are about this problem.
The Revs consitently have amongst the lowest payroll in the league. What was it last year? $1.2m or something (against a cap of $1.8/1.9)? Those guys are woefully underpaid. I remember Sol Campbell at Spurs was ona YTS contract when he broke into the spurs first XI. That's 250 a week. He was almost immediately upped to 2500 a week (10x raise) and then when he hit the national team it went up by x10 again. Inter Milan offered him 200,000 A WEEK before he joined the Arse FC. Anyways, my point is as a player develops his contract should be renegotiated, and NE have the cap space to compensate them both properly. Twellman's goal record, and reigning MVP status warrant probably $300-350k a year, much like Ruiz. He's certainly better than Mathis and Wolff who are the wrong side of $400 each. Dempsey, as the league's burdgeoning star, should be on a wage comparable to EJ. Or at least something in the ballpark of 10x his current wage. To think that I make more than double arguably MLS's best player and a current international is laughable. No US International should make less than $250k a year IMO. Not someone who was good enough for the WC squad. I don't care if he's based in MLS or abroad....
Interesting statement, considering a few weeks or months ago Red Bull signed a sponsorship deal with him (if I remember correctly).
Yeah, I was wondering about that. Any updates from anyone? I havent seen him in any Red Bull ads or anything, maybe someone else has?
Great observations Ursala. I also think though that this gets to a league issue or decision. I almost started a thread on this, but this thread seems to be close enough. We have all talked in the past about whether MLS will be a feeder system to the 'Bigger Leagues' or will develop in and of itself; the tradeoff there being selling young talent or keeping and developing it to raise the perception of soccer in the US. The cases of Twellman, Dempsey and Johnson right now illustrate that perfectly. The dilemma is that if MLS is perceived as being too 'protective' of its young talent without paying them anywhere near what the 'Big Leagues' will pay them, they stand to lose out on an advantage they have right now: keeping the young US talent from starting their careers overseas. The lives of elite athletes is, on the average, very short. If you deny a guy like Clint two years worth of (for the sake of argument and round numbers) $1 million salary, while you are paying him $100K (and I don't think he is even making that much from MLS) that is a huge hit on a career that could be over in five to seven years due to an injury. It also will play VERY heavily on that player, no matter how committed they are to their team. Lastly, MLS will then also run the risk of not realizing ANY value from the player. Either injury, or a bad run (like Eddie Johnson) or the nearness of the end of the contract, can drastically reduce any transfer fee. OTOH...if they do sell off young US talent when their value is at a peak, then the US fan will have a tough time identifying with the players as they come up. Jay Heaps, Michael Parkhurst and Steve Ralston are all fan favorites for the Revs, but they don't carry near the weight fan-wise of Clint or Taylor. I'm not so sure I know where I fall on this one, though I think the world market is going to make that decision for us: MLS will have to make careful decisions about who to sell and who to keep (and therefore pay to keep happy.) Eventually the financials will lean towards the 'Big Leagues' as they are the ones with the money. Lastly, the returns of Sanneh and maybe Beasely from brief forays in Europe (even Alexi Lalas for those who remember) might indicate that it makes sense to let the players go when their value is high. They may return when they still have some cachet with the US public anyways. (That may not be so true of Tony, but it certainly is true of Beasely.) Anyways some food for thought and the Revs AND MLS need to be careful on this one.
just another reason i guess why the Revs have not come close to showing the form they showed last year. dempsey should definitely go to europe, preferably england. twellman should go too - he could bag a bunch of goals off some good service somewhere in Europe.
I remember pointing out way back before it happened that it was gonna cost the league money to publish its salaries. TnT can look around at the guys who are producing their paychecks and see he's (moderately) underpaid. The last kind of help this league needs is comparing him to the guys who aren't producing their checks. The above argument applies to EJ and Wolff. As to Donovan, what Twellman and Dempsey have not done is win 3 championships.
MLS is in a tough spot with this whole issue. If the league wants to grow it needs stars but if these guys arent interested in staying then what is the point? they will probably just dog it and pout the whole time they are here. The league can't continue to stay at this paltry salary cap forever because the players will always be bitter about it. Twellman's comments don't surprise me at all. I'm sure there are many who feel the same way. People have to remember that Dempsey signed a contract with the league and by doing that MLS is going to do whats best for them and not him. If they deem the offer from west brom to be weak or they feel he is more valuable to them finishing the season here then that is what they are going to do. They will not let him go unless its the right deal for them.
When do TT's Dempsey's and EJ's contracts expire? And I am also aware that Twellman has played in Germany before(hamburg I think)but that's only going to make him hungrier, failing once that is.
The biggest reason these situations come up is b/c MLS signs rookies to 4 year contracts. It creates laughable situations with Dempsey when he's an international star still making 40k a year. It may be a good decision overall but for those that really make it they become unhappy with a contract that has a good deal of time left. Hasn't Twellman regressed this year? He is nowhere near league MVP form anymore. Not the best time to ask for a raise.
Dempsey = International Star. Wow. Let's try a dose of reality. Has Dempsey risen to take his team to the MLS Cup and win it? Has he fully established himself on the USMNT? Does he look great in games and at the same time disappears? Just because he has the "desire" to play in Europe and scored a sitter in the WC doesn't mean he is a star and deserves to be paid millions. He is a talented player who still needs to learn to play on a daily basis (I.e. game to game) and play within the framework of his team (doesn't mean to limit his creativity).
It was. It was part of their collective bargaining agreement they agreed to a few years ago. That deal also included salary bumps for the lower paid players every few years, as well.
Biggest star in MLS besides Freddy. he's passed Donovan in popularity bigtime. Popularity is what makes a Star. I never said millions, but yeah over 4 years he's worth a few million. He will receive an offer in the 750k a year range to sign a contract extension, if he doesn't like it he will be sold either now or in the winter. That will put him under Johnson and Donovan which will properly reflect his playing ability, star power and transfer value. He knows he's close to the open market now and he would be valued higher than that as a free transfer a year from now. Right now his star power is slightly above his ability, but Dempsey has proven himself to many fans as a probable starter in the new USMNT. That's something only about 8 americans can say Dempsey is more consistent game to game than Donovan, Pablo, Johnson, Wolff, well basically every established USMNT member. Dempsey really is a driving force behind the revs along with Joseph. Twellman and Noonan are the support. Twellman if you ask me, is worth no more than 250k on an extension.