I would like to put Flo Sports aside for a moment and ask how you think the FO (OK, Dave Kasper) performed during the unrequited Lucho/PSG romance.
DK did drop everything to fly over there and try to hammer out a deal face to face at the last minute. The sides seemed close enough that you would just take the money, but in the end DC would probably end up with less than 6M, which is a pittance for Lucho. I understand why they really couldn't take the deal. I would have given them Lucho on a three month loan for free if he signed the contract we offered him first, just to avoid the drama and extra expense we are about to go through to re sign him now. However, post Almiron, Lucho's asking price is probably north of 15M, and we would be stupid to not do everything in our power to get him to sign. The bulk of DKs work in this saga is still ahead of him. I'll judge him by that.
I agree with @GumbyG. There are many moving parts to this saga and the most important part -- getting Lucho to agree to a new deal -- remains to be accomplished. Played incorrectly, DCU could be stuck with a pouting Acosta, a sunk 2019 season and Lucho's departing on a free at the end of the season. That result would make the $5M "pittance" offered by PSG look pretty good in comparison.
PSG left the table and wanted to upgrade Rabiot's contract. Go figure. On a side note, I do not think Lucho moving to Europe is best for him. He's 5'3" !!! I don't think he would survive more physical leagues. I think he would get more cheap shots here in MLS, but tackles on the ball would be more physical in Europe.
https://www.flosports.tv/faq/ Sorry, I've got to switch back to Flo for a sec, if I understand correctly (please remember, me poor dago who just got off the boat), you can still get the $5.99 / mo (if STH) or an $8.99 / mo and discontinue that at any time... No annual contract obligation. I also do not see a $14 and cents per month anywhere. Unless this is an obsolete version.
Without doing the math I’m guessing the $14.xx is the yearly cost amortized over the months in the season. The STH discount is only available if you pay for 12 months($72)
I don't see where it says that. If it is like that, it's not well explained. MONTHLY: This option grants you access to all premium content on the site you join and across all FloSports sites. You’ll be billed once per month on the date that you originally signed up for your PRO subscription. For example, if you join on April 8th, you’ll be billed the monthly fee on May 8th, June 8th, and so on. You can cancel your PRO subscription at any time. Simply log in to your account, select “account settings” on desktop or mobile, and choose the “my subscription” option.
From what I have read from Goff, it seems that Kasper and DCU did about as good a job as could have. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they have confidence they will resign him, otherwise, they would have certainly taken the lower offer. That said, Swansea really bungled the transfer window and Levien had a big hand in it. He agreed to sell their top youth prospect to Leeds behind the back of his staff. Swansea sold 3 starters and tried to sell 5, but the last two were thwarted (including the Leeds transfer) by a board member and the coach. The board member has now resigned and the club is in massive turmoil. I can't help but worry about those things creeping into DCU.
It is confusing. I actually emailed my rep after getting the email message about the discount. You have to sign up for a year to get the 5.99 price. The discount is applied after you select the the annual subscription option and then you pay at checkout. To the best of my limited knowledge, the 5.99 price is not available on a monthly basis to STH or anyone else for that matter.
This was what I found as well. I was unable to find the pricing and terms all presented together, but this is what I think they are offering. I've rounded some figures a few pennies. nominal month-to-month rate $30 nominal yearly purchase rate $150 ($12.50/month) discount rate when buying through DCU month-to-month ~$21.60 discount rate through DCU yearly purchase $108 ($9/month) discount rate for STH/SGM month-to-month ~$14.40 discount rate for STH/SGM yearly purchase $72 ($6/month)
The only thing that leaves me scratching my head is how serious we thought this deal was, given the tie to a somewhat shady middle man. But I can live with that mistake given that pretty much all of MLS is pretty green with respect to more mid-range international sales. There is also some talk of discourse between Tuchel and the sporting director at PSG which probably didn't help things either. At this point, I just hope that it doesn't impact our chances of extending Lucho's deal, because in his mind, he's got to believe that based on the PSG interest, he can start for a lot of teams in France, Italy and Spain as well as a healthy number in Germany and England. The idea of being able to walk into any of those teams on a Bosman free transfer will only bolster his appeal to a number of potential suitors. He and his agent have to know that.
I don't have cable. Flo is an improvement for me in that it's $6 a month rather than an extra $50 a month for cable.
Am I missing something? I thought "Bosman" only applied to EU players (free movement of labor) ... how does Lucho qualify being Argentinian?
I don't doubt it! I'd wager there are people who don't have TVs at all, but consume streaming content on their computers and mobile devices. This would be great for them, too, especially if they're season ticket holders. I'd argue these people are the exception, rather than the rule.
I think it’s just being used as a general term. Whereas Lucho can sign a pre-contract with anyone once he reaches the last six months of his current deal. Thx, Jay!
Does the EPL still have the rule that newly signed foreign players must be on their country's national team?
You're prolly right on that. I was thinking that it would be roughly the same ... a free transfer into whatever European side would have him and obviously give him more freedom to choose where he went and likely get more money in the absence of a substantial fee being paid, outside of the intermediaries who seem to be rife in the game right now.
Its not a hard and fast rule, but it does factor into the calculus of whether a work permit is granted and not playing with your national team would hurt any player's chance of making his case that a domestic player/EU player couldn't fill the "need".
Interesting to see what Brexit will do to the EPL. The megastars still will get contracts. My guess is the very good players will now gravitate to Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Their places filled by lesser quality domestic players.
I think it will be very interesting. Teams currently pay a premium for stars when they're English. I think your top 5-8 teams who are pulling national team guys will continue to be able to do so. Perhaps their depth players will suffer. Its the guys from outside of the top national teams who make up the depth of the mid and lower tier EPL teams that will suffer IMO. What's more interesting will be where those guys go and how those leagues are effected. Especially because the EPL is the fountain of money along with Real, Barca and PSG. Seems like every other dollar/Euro/GBP is just respent money from the EPL or one of those big 3 teams. For years Germany has been about Bayern and Dortmund with a group of another 4-6 teams who rotate in and out of the UCL slots. Will anyone in Italy challenge Juventus? The remaining top teams have always been the teams in Rome & Milan plus Napoli. Same in Spain, with Barca, the Madrid teams, Sevilla, Valencia and Villareal (who are prolly going down). The last year or two has been one of the more interesting stretches, in Spain that I can recall. I wonder if those players from Africa and other non-traditional markets will end up in France where there's only 1 team that doesn't have an excuse for not finishing 2nd. That league is really the joke league (2-20) in among the big 5. Not that I see the Eredivisie, Scottish PL or Belgian first division overtaking any of them. It seems to take forever to move, but the UEFA coefficients should be interesting to watch, not that France will ever take a UCL spot from England, but they only recently lost their 4th to Italy, I think.