Central defense is the one spot where we don't really need help right now. That said, here's an update on Ghana and Mensah: -pre-tournament training camp in UAE right now with all 29 players -friendly/warmup vs Namibia on Sunday -final squad of 23 named on Monday -addition game vs South Africa next Friday before full tournament starts a week later Though actually the camp is down to 28 right now as one of their young defenders picked up an injury and already went back to his Euro club team for treatment.
Mensah started the game against Namibia yesterday (and was apparently captain). And they gave up a goal in the first half to lose to Namibia 1-0. Apparently Ghana used like 25 players, so it was one of those games, and also played behind closed doors. (Though media seem to have been present.) Anyways, no great surprise, Mensah was named in the final squad of 23 today. We won't see him again until mid or late July.
Both teams started an entirely different 11 players in the first and second halves. Ghana played everyone on the roster except their regular captain and their star striker, which is kind of an indication that they didn't give a shit about the result. This was a dressed up scrimmage, a warm up, nothing more. Some writers are suggesting that this was a "wake up call" for Ghana, who should have easily dispatched an utterly wretched Namibia team, and maybe so, but it seems more likely they were more focused on working kinks out than in the bottom line.
Still don’t like that we have no option to keep Accam . I hope this means they are getting 2 quality players in the future. We should sign Pedro but under DP level Zardes is only attacking player with a contract that shows he is in future plans.
Also I never weighed in on Sauro. First of all we should not let any starting player get to the last year of their contract. He is clearly quality MLS CB with experience. We may have CB depth but our young guys are inexperienced and Williams is a career back up type talent. To lose Sauro means we plan to Start Crognale in his place because he is the only similar player that would pair well with Mensah in my opinion. Lalas and Keita are more like the back ups for Can we go over the list of players who are on the last year of their contract please? We need to change the roster but it’s better if starters become back ups and you get better players to improve depth rather than keeping the bottom of the roster and letting starters go away on free transfers. I trust Bez but i just want to better speculate for next season lol
Salaries have been released. Goalkeepers Bendik, Joe - $144,000 / $144,000 Kempin, Jonathan - $84,269 / $84,269 Lundgaard, Ben - $57,225 / $57,225 Steffen, Zack - $260,000 / $260,000 Defenders Afful, Harrison - $288,100 / $363,800 Crognale, Alex - $104,504 / $104,504 Francis, Waylon - $160,000 / $199,167 Jimenez, Hector - $200,000 / $200,000 Keita, Aboubacar - $90,000 / $110,000 Maloney, Connor - $70,250 / $70,250 Mensah, Jonathan - $800,004 / $894,004 Sauro, Gaston - $360,000 / $360,000 Valenzuela, Milton - $290,000 / $321,300 Williams, Joshua - $215,000 / $215,000 Midfielders Accam, David - $1,010,004 / $1,137,920 Argudo, Luis - $57,225 / $57,225 Artur - $360,000 / $411,633 Clark, Ricardo - $160,000 / $160,000 Guzman, David - $300,000 / $320,000 Hansen, Niko - $71,663 / $79,163 Higuain, Federico - $1,100,000 / $1,100,000 Opoku, Edward - $85,000 / $106,000 Robinho - $198,000 / $198,000 Santos, Pedro - $817,560 / $864,560 Sosa, Eduardo - $100,000 / $120,200 Trapp, Wil - $549,996 / $593,746 Forwards Mullins, Patrick - $260,004 / $260,004 Williams, JJ - $95,000 / $149,750 Zardes, Gyasi - $2,261,667 / $2,311,667 The first number is base salary, and the second is the guaranteed. Total guaranteed goalkeeper salary = $545,494 Total guaranteed defender salary = $2,838,025 Total guaranteed midfielder salary = $5,148,447 Total guaranteed forward salary = $2,721,421 Total guaranteed salary = $11,253,387
Gyasi getting paid. well done gyasi pic.twitter.com/MUVLyQAxjG— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) June 12, 2019 And here's where we stand against other clubs: You may have already seen the MLSPA salary release. You probably haven’t taken a deep look at them.Some notes: Columbus is way up, NYCFC is spending far less in salary but not much less overall and DPs take home a whopping 40% of the entire salary pool. https://t.co/nEZCNX275x pic.twitter.com/WJUMqqbr3g— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) June 12, 2019
As Patrick Murphy points out, we'll be clearing at least $2,237,920 off the books at the end of the season, assuming Pipa is not re-signed. We're looking at $2,497,920 if you include Steffen. Accam’s deal comes off the books, as he heads to Nashville next year. Higuain's (out for the year with an ACL tear) contract is up after this season. Zardes just signed a new deal that made him a DP and paid him the $2.3M.— Patrick Murphy (@_Pat_Murphy) June 12, 2019
Zardes, Gyasi - $2,261,667 / $2,311,667 Accam, David - $1,010,004 / $1,137,920 Higuain, Federico - $1,100,000 / $1,100,000 Mensah, Jonathan - $800,004 / $894,004 Santos, Pedro - $817,560 / $864,560 Trapp, Wil - $549,996 / $593,746 These are our 5 highest paid players. Zardes is what he is, Porter and Bez obviously think he can be the guy, we're unlikely to have a 2nd DP forward unless we change how we play completely. Accam is a loan and we know for a fact that he won't be back. Higuain seems very likely to be gone. I can't see him coming back based on his production when he was healthy, his wage and that he will be returning from a knee injury. Santos is kind of a tweener. No question he has been a bright spot this year. But not that bright and certainly not top 20 MLS winger/forwards. Same kind of goes for Mensah. He's been...fine. Better last year and this year than previously. But is he such a rock/stud/leader/winner that you want to build your defense around him for the next 3 years? I think both these guys should be gone. That's 4 of our top 5 highest paid players that I'd be fine not having back next year. Finally Trapp. It's interesting that Artur is not far behind him in salary. He got a nice bump as I remember him being in that $250k range previously. I am way down on Trapp and I don't think, based solely on his on-field performances, that I want this team built around him as captain/locked in CDM starter for the next 3 years. Not sure how easy it would be to part ways with him though. He obviously brings some off-field benefits but I can't imagine it's that much. Anyway, clearly there is a lot of rebuilding that has to happen between now and next March.
This deserves a repeat. I'm all for spending more money, but we're overpaying by a lot for what we have. I do trust Bez will get it sorted by next season to next Summer. In Bez we trust.
Back in the '90s I wanted the Columbus Crew to be the Manchester United of MLS. This isn't what I meant.
I agree it's a bit excessive. But I'm choosing to think it was a combination of, the man deserved a good raise combined with not having the time and resources this year to find someone better/comparable/cheaper if he walked or played out his contact as a locker room problem for being disgruntled. So they overpayed because we could right now. I could be wrong, and as much as I think Bez has the chops, he was also involved in paying Altidore and Bradley unseemly salaries for their value. But I'm not going to hang the man out for one thing. Hopefully his overall portfolio is better. And I believe it can be. On the same side of that coin, as much as I'd find it insane, if we overpay at every position and Haslem is happy footing the bill and the team is getting results, who am I to care? Time will tell.
It's really only an issue if it's the only $2M+ salary we can have. I think if we're going to have 3 DPs in that range, he can be one of them. If we're going to only get 1 or even 2 that might be bad. If it makes no difference to Dee and Pete whether they fork over $4 or $5M for DP salaries next year, I'm ok with Zardes, a known MLS striker, his money. If we only have $2M to spend on DP salaries out of the owners' pockets, giving $1.5M of that to Zardes seems rash if not downright detrimental to our success long term. If we could have Zardes and 2 $1M players (one we pay down with funny money, other out of owners' pockets) then all 3 better be great for us.
I don't mind Zades getting paid. I don't think we would have given him "highest paid player in Crew history" cash, but him not occupying an international spot at the forward position, not having missed many games with us for injuries, being fairly young, and being a known commodity that has produced goals is worth something. That gives us more room to work with in finding a Pipa replacement in the future, and gives us stability on not spending a lot of money on a forward who may end up being a total bust, or being a Kei Kamara. I'm torn about Santos. Coming into this season I would have wanted him gone as soon as possible. He has grown on me, and if he keeps producing in Pipa's absence and doesn't command a huge raise..I wouldn't be opposed to giving him a couple more years here to at least secure one side of our wings. I look at Trapp's salary and wonder what other teams out there are willing to pay him that.
The Zardes who scored 20 goals last year is worth 2.3 mil. But he doesn't seem to be repeating his career year in 2019. If Porter continues to play a 1 forward formation next season, then we really need upgrades at CAM and both wings. We might be able to get by with Pedro as our weaker winger if we add a Pozuelo type CAM.
Yeah, in my scenario, I keep Pedro if he is the weakest of our two wingers. Then I type this and think about how much diving he does and then I start to question that again.
We will have 3 DP slots next year with Zardes and Valenzuela likely occupying 2 of them. Pedro or Mensah can be bought down. Pipa should be gone but his replacement is likely to be a DP. That means we need a good winger who can be bought down to a non-DP level.
I'm confused about Milton occupying the DP slot. His wage is 350kish, right? Is it still from the transfer fee?
Why is Valenzuela a DP? At 300k, that’s under the threshold of DP status. The only shocking number is the over 2 million for Zardes.