Over 20 seasons their best defender ever remains Parkhurst, and if you want to include defensive mids then it would be the great Shalrie Joseph. As for "ANY respectable league" then you'd be smart to restrict that to a top 6 league. Where does all this disregard for the quality of MLS come from, the nut of prop?
Yes I do. My name should indicate that I follow the Revs and Everton (England). I am unclear on how mine is an "absolutely absurd" assessment. A simple "I disagree" would suffice, but I digress. I think the top teams in MLS would be near or in the top half of the Championship. The middling/bottom teams in MLS would probably be in the bottom of the Championship or the top of League 1. An anecdote doesn't make a trend, but we're literally starting a goalie who couldn't stick with a MK Dons team that just got relegated to League 1. Philadelphia is starting a 28-year-old striker who made his bones starting for League 2 Leyton Orient. I believe MLS is gradually getting better. I believe there is positive momentum here. When Jonathan Spector was asked where MLS ranks during an interview on ExtraTime Radio, he indicated the Championship. As it stands, I think my assessment is fair.
You can certainly make a case for Parkhurst as the best Revs defender. It's a defensible choice. But, didn't the Revs let him go rather than pay him fair market value? Just askin'. The league's level of play is not to my taste. The Mexican, Honduran, and Costa Rican league teams seem to beat the MLS with disturbing regularity, and I don't think any of them are rated in the top ten.
I always like my new toys on Christmas morning and am grateful for the opportunity to see if they add anything to me life style. At this point I think I'll just hold any comment about this signing till there is something more objective about what he add to the 2017 Revs than conjecture.
MLS has raided the Honduran and Costa Rican leagues for talent over the past several off-seasons. MLS teams really only struggle against Mexican competition in CCL.
Supporting an EPL club and frequently watching the Championship and Leagues One and Two are two totally different things. People complain about the quality of play in MLS - I think they'd be shocked by what they see in England's second tier. There are very few teams that manage to play attractive, attacking football. Even though these leagues have a reputation for being tough, stout, defensive leagues, I often find that the mental blunders at the back are shocking. Also, the difference between the top of the Championship and the top of League One is staggering; I don't think you fully appreciate how big a difference there is in the quality of those 24-30 teams. MLS is a unique beast because of the disparity between the tops and bottoms of rosters. Simply put, there are few teams in the Championship that have the same top level talent of MLS clubs. Yes, the bottom half of rosters in MLS need to improve (depth is still a major issue) but I think that we've seen TAM already significantly improve starting XIs across the League. I'd argue the Cropper and Simpson examples specifically, but singling out examples of players that have played in England's lower divisions and succeeded in MLS is pointless. Every playing situation is different; we've seen DPs fail in MLS after having successful playing careers in top European leagues; we've seen Bradley Wright-Philips be a far better player than his more esteemed brother Shawn; etc.
I think the thing that makes these arguments difficult for the MLS is the league's insistence on parity. The league, allegedly, restricts teams on how much they can spend on players. If the top 5 teams in MLS played in any of the top leagues and could add a couple of players to improve the bottom of their rosters; they could compete in the bottom half of the table.
Look at how paltry some of these Ligue 1 salaries are!!!! https://www.francebleu.fr/sports/fo...club-par-club-reveles-par-l-equipe-1481820857 https://www.lequipe.fr/special/Football/guide/v2/salaires-ligue1-2016/ I mean some of these guys are ONLY making 20K Euros!!! A month, LOL
Parkhurst moved on to Scandinavia, which was a much better paying league. IIRC, he got a contract for ~$450,000, which was unheard of in MLS at the time for a player like him. Only big-name DPs were getting that kind of money.As much as I criticize the Revs for certain things, giving him that kind of money would have hamstrung the team in acquiring any kind of talent. Shalrie Joseph and Taylor Twellman were both offered serious money when they were at the top of their careers. I was torn because I knew there was no way in hell the Revs would/could replace them with guys who would be at even 60% of their levels, but it sucks to be denied the opportunity to make a lot more money, especially when careers are so short. Celtic and Preston North End certainly thought they were good enough. And Everton were glad to have Joe-Max Moore even before that.
I recall Nichol mentioning that to keep those two happy the Revs gave them a decent raise however that hampered the teams ability to bring in other players which is probably why we saw guys the caliber of Assengue and Mazzonelli
I do not recall exactly, but I think those offers for Twellman from PNE came in early 2008 before the season. That is the same year Parkhurst left (after 2008) and TT got injured (August 2008). Shalrie's offers might have come even sooner? I remember being torn at the time in the same way that Tom mentions above, but I also remember thinking that the players in question signed the contracts with MLS which gave them a level of financial security before even bigger offers came from overseas. The players took one risk to mitigate other risks. Then when bigger offers came, they wanted out. The players could not have it both ways. I think the experiences of Taylor and Shalrie with MLS contracts/Revs had a big impact on how Parkhurst and Lawrentowicz approached their contracts from an extension and re-signing point of view. I also think other clubs used these as case studies on how to deal with the same situations in their own backyards.
It all seems like funny money. Other teams in the league could support a Twellman and a Shalrie and have a DP (when introduced) or 2 and a solid roster. The limit has always more been what Kraft is willing to spend not league limits or rules. It is always dangerous to broach the spending subject on these boards but what the heck... Plus my flight go cancelled and I'm bored... https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes...leases-2016-mls-team-valuations/#1016e6d54f85 We have Forbes putting the Rev Franchise value at $185M in 2016 and Revenues at 27M. It further shows Franchise values growing 18% year over year and "80% since 2013". (4 years or about 15.6% per year). http://blogs.denverpost.com/rapids/...ased-major-league-soccer-players-union/27671/ So, we will forever have to face the "we don't know" argument but total compensation was, rounding, $6M on $27M of Revenue. I've never heard if MLS teams offer players benefits beyond their salaries but let's assume they do and that medical, dental, vision, life insurance, all those typical benefits plus per diems on travel double that to $12M. Then add in $500K for 17 games travel for 30 people at an average of almost $500 per airline ticket (I know what kind of deals my company gets on even cross country routes) and 2 nights average stay at $150/night. Let's double that to cover the pre-season trips, nah, triple it for errors, post season (Lol) and US Open Cup. So, we are at $13.5M. So half of the $27M revenue is eaten up by the obvious. We're left to argue over where the rest goes. Is the front office, the staff, the television production, some sort of rent to play in Gillette all adding up to MORE than $13.5M? But that was all lead in to go back to the Franchise Value. I know Kraft isn't liquidating it right now but that is a significant number. His franchise, at 15.6%, increased in value by just shy of $30M from 2016 to 2017. Back when he was shamed into signing Jermaine Jones, the total Jones contract ($3.25M for 18 months IIRC) represented about 1/5 to 1/6 of the increase in Franchise Vallue from '13 to '14. Bob Kraft clearly sees no value in investing a portion of his franchise bump into salaries on an ongoing basis. But, picking the LA Galaxy both because they were an original MLS team and because they spend significantly on DPs, I note that they have a franchise value that is $85M higher than New England and more than double the revenue (and significantly more hardware). I haven't tried to collect all of the DP money LA has spent since Beckham established the DP rules but I suspect it was well less than the delta in Franchise value and I suspect it played a part in LA having both a higher franchise value and more than double the revenue. I can't finish without admitting that Bob Kraft is probably being the savvy business man we joke about. Here in New England, at Gillette, attendance doesn't seem to have any correlation to how good the team is. I assume the same is true for television viewership. I can't honestly argue that 3 DPs a year would change his revenue or his Franchise value. But I can argue that he is, from a certain perspective, making money hand over fist and that, had he any passion for the game, we'd see him shell out a little for better players. Boo Hoo if he pays Twellman, Joseph AND Parkhurst a decent salary in 2008 (or, my major complaint, signs a Twellman replacement while he attempts to recover from his concussion rather than making us watch crap for a season and a half.)
Well, the specific timeframes around that era are a little hazy, but I agree. What would it have taken to replace the good players we had and remain competitive. Maybe even win a Cup, since we had come so close so many times. But they didn't. There was the story of the "20 South Americans" and one of them might have been a good player for us... But mroe recently, there was the Jones signing, where they did splash out some money for a major player and he brought them to the brink of a Cup again. Certainly there was an attendance boost, and for the first time in years there was a "face of the franchise." They probably sold a lot of jerseys and other merch too. It's a business to be sure, and it was a bottom-lne decision to let Jones walk. Not saying they were wrong, but it doesn't really refute the notion that they are more concerned with the bottom line than winning championships.
They didn't dump Okaroh - they lost him in the expansion draft. It was clearly a miscalculation and a major blunder, but there's no way they didn't want him back.
Shalrie's offer to join Celtic came either in the middle or end of the 2006 season, IIRC. The revs played them in a midsummer friendly that year so it was an opportunity for live "scouting". Getting back to Delamea, he has started off as an outstanding signing. Small sample obviously but his positioning, decision making and poise have all been outstanding - even in a place like Portland which is the toughest away venue in MLS. I liked his style of play from his first game with the revs and he's only improved since then. Doesn't matter to me that he's from Slovenia, he's a rock solid defender and stepped in to make an impact from day one, which is what a TAM signing should do. The FO did well with this signing so kudos to Burns and Heaps and whoever else was involved. Long may his consistent, positive, and healthy tenure with the revs continue.
Agreed - using TAM $ to help attract a level of player is what this clubs needs. Looks like one is working out so far, one maybe not so much so (Anguoa). That is okay - hopefully the Revs use that information to help improve the process going forward. You need to do these things to get better at them - the Revs were always so gun-shy, this is a good step forward for them.
It's so hard to predict how these things are going to work out. Anguoa had the better pedigree/resume but yet Delamea has looked to be the better signing. His grasp of the English language and his experience living in a country with cold winters has probably helped.
I'm going to wait and see with Anguoa. It's a long season, and he may take longer to adjust to the US than Delamea. Fortunately for us, Smith has emerged quickly, a demonstration of depth that we don't usually see from the Revs.
Two high priced foreign signings fighting for playing time alongside a later round America draft pick
After Saturday's impressive shutout against Houston, Delamea earned his second straight appearance on the MLS team of the week.
Great piece on @antonio_delamea in this week's New England Soccer Journal from @kylejmccarthy. May 2017 - 6 - https://t.co/uTRTCBnj8D pic.twitter.com/LwYM3vQszs— Cathal Conlon (@CathalConlon) May 10, 2017 Text view of the article. The link is not behaving as I anticipated. You might need to click to the next page and perhaps click the "text view" icon on the top right side of the article. The article speaks to the Revs pursuit of Delamea. It is not how the same as how Beckham was signed in LA or Dafoe by TFC, but it is nice to read something positive about how the Revs pursued and landed this player.
Definitely a good move by the Revs to land him. He seems like the kind of guy who was not all that well known, and maybe his other options were mid-tier European teams where the Revs were competitive in terms of salary. But since the Revs showed interest and came a long way to meet him and recriut him, that tipped the scales. Great that it worked out, and hopefully there will be similar players who arrive here in the future. Kudos to the Revs for making it work. But why do I have the nagging suspicion that there wasn't a plan B if he didn't sign, for whatever resason? Sure, they also got ANgoua at the same time, but if it took 4 guys--essentially the entire Revs player evaluation staff (Heaps, Burns, Roy and Soehn) to scout him and any other players they were after, I can't see them making another move like this while the season is in full swing.