Lots of other teams are signing players, many from South America. Is the stuff about the two DP's another example of the RFO's promises they don't deliver on?
Lets remember that the window doesn't open for MLS until February and for the teams we're signing players from to replace them until January or later. No need to panic yet. If we don't have a signing by camp opening in about a month or so, then I'll feel like we've dropped the ball (again).
Well, for what it's worth (not much), the Twittersphere over the past 24 revealed a couple indications from RFO and Rapids reporting that PERHAPS at least one DP arrangement MIGHT be in the works as we speak and soon approaching. Operative words: PERHAPS, MIGHT And, with other prior Twittersphere chatter, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a young DP from Central America. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have! Can’t say anything but the club will announce it soon... </p>— Colorado Rapids Fanpage (@insiderapids) <a href="1204184674265784320 is not a valid tweet id">December 9, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
My own sources have me leaning towards an announcement soon, like early next week, as well, but not coming out of Central/South America. Well, the player may be from there but that's not where he's playing now.
I wonder who, and how much. SKC just dropped 9.5mil (which was a new team record for them) on their guy. So...the RFO is gonna spend like 2mil right?
Question for the group...........Given the change in spending among other MLS teams and the willingness to spend 5mill+ on players, do you see the Pids being left behind as the league continues to evolve? We know that ownership will spend at times but the costs seem to be going up every year.
The pids are left behind by a few elite teams, but they can still make the play-offs, and from there, who knows? When we had that strangely good regular season 3 years ago, I was astonished how close we were to the Supporter's Shield. I'd give us better odds on winning MLS cup sometime, say in the next 5 years; than the Shield in the next 10.
Not that I'm aware of, what I've heard on that front is that was more long-term planning/scouting, not looking at somebody for an immediate signing.
This question boils down to the drivers behind the Willingness to Pay (WtP) economics principle, which can be affected by available funds and by the urge to "keep up with the Joneses" in this case. Given the seemingly exponential growth of other MLS clubs' WtP each year, the Rapids are certainly at risk of drifting further into irrelevance by being stuck in MLS 1.0 mode, or even 2.0 mode (the league is now at 3.0, it seems). However, as some have duly noted here over the past year, KSE has been somewhere in the middle of the pack on player spending in recent years... which is loosely encouraging. It has been more a question of HOW they spend (waste) their money. Being wise and frugal isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, if frugal and wise, they can perhaps lock in some bargains and steals with semi-young players who have big upside potential (Lewis, Trusty, etc.). However, for every bargain/steal they find, there's also an equal (or sometimes more likely) potential for "getting what you pay for"... crap. And in the absence of a couple experienced, big name, game-changer signings, the combination of a few wise bargains and a handful of Dollar Store duds can quickly leave us in this neverending land of mediocrity. In other words, IMO, if they stay the course of being (primarily) frugal bargain-shoppers, this club might remain marginally competitive in MLS (competing in playoffs every few years, but in the lower half of table most other years). But this certainly won't help with getting fans in the seats, as we have seen firsthand... which is the negative feedback loop for KSE not spending due to low revenues. So, frankly, I'm holding out hope in KSE's interest in to keep up with the Joneses by dropping some good cash on one or two seasoned, game-changer-caliber players to supplement their already-existing knack for finding the young bargains. Without that, DSGP will continue to be half-empty all year and the SwitchBacks will be the knew talk of soccer in Colorado. The 'Pids wouldn't be relegated literally (per MLS rules), but they most certainly would be relegated in every other sense of the word.
We were trying when he was in Greece before he return to LigaMX. Not sure if that jives with @JasonMa posted timing.
That kind of money for Cavallini, the reported $9.5 for Pulido... Remember this week. These are teams that have never really spent. Now they're shelling out major dollars.This is what it takes to compete now. Spend this much or fall behind.— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) December 11, 2019 Vancouver spending 5mill. Just to add to the conversation
I agree with this and would add that acquiring players from other leagues at high prices does come with the risk of that player not paying off in this league... for a wide variety of reasons (long list of players in this category across the league). Meaning that spending big is still no guarantee of positive impact on the team. Rapids have struggled with this particular phenom. in the past and that may keep them from really spending big on 1 or 2 players. My guess is $1 - 2.5 million for our newest high-paid, attacking, impact-player I reference the article below from this very website regarding teams overspending in order to "keep up with the Joneses" in England. Granted this tends to be the teams in leagues below EPL, but the fight to get into the cash cow that is Premier League leaves many teams in financial dire straights. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/dead-and-buryed.2105904/
Well, I can't find anything on the transfer fee we paid to bring Gaby Torres into the team, but he's the definition of a DP flop. His salaries were always in the 200-300k range from what I found as well Kevin Doyle was paid 1.1mil per year as our DP striker We only paid 600k to bring Howard in - buuuuut paid him 2+ mil per year in salaries. We paid "over 2mil" in transfer fees for Juan Ramirez, but his highest yearly salary topped out at 100k. I couldn't find any exact numbers reported on Gashi, but transfermarkt listed his transfer fee as 3mil. I don't buy that high of an amount, but say it was that high, he would be our highest transfer fee, especially when paired with his 1.7mil salary. Of all the people currently on our roster, Kei Kamara is now the highest paid at 750k. So, in order to break Rapids records for transfer fees and salaries, they would need to pay a $2+mil in transfer fee (3+mil if the Gashi number is accurate) and we would need to pay $2.1+mil in yearly base salary. It would be a dream to see the RFO spend 5+mil on a guy and pay 2-3mil in salaries. I highly doubt we go that large, but those numbers would be record breaking for the team. That said I would love to see an "impact" "attacking" player come in for that 1-3mil transfer fee and the 1-2mil yearly salary. I also can believe that those numbers are feasible given the current state of both the league and the RFO. Fingers crossed for whomever we bring in!
Given what Padraig has said in the past I can see us spending $2+ mil in a transfer fee but its unlikely we see another $2.5 mil salary on the books in the near future. He's mentioned the imbalance that creates in the locker room and the handcuff that puts on building the team around that player. Plus, with current DP rules, you can pay a high transfer fee for a player that would be a regular squad player or a TAM player at their salary. That makes them a DP the year you sign them (and pay the fee) but not a DP for the rest of the contract. Sign a $350K salary guy for $1.2M, he's a DP in year 1, in year 2 he's just a regular salary player and you can go do tht again because you have the DP slot open now.
Looks like the Rapids will finish preseason by playing games against Chicago and Toronto at the Galaxy's stadium on Feb. 15th and 22nd. https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2019/12/11/la-galaxy-announce-2020-preseason-schedule-25th-season-major-league-schedule
New Open Cup format was announced yesterday. The 11 American MLS teams that didn't qualify for the playoffs last year will now enter in the 3rd round instead of the 4th round.
I like the new format. Fingers crossed it provides a little more competition. USL Championship and League One clubs will entered the 2nd second giving more opportunities to face and upset MLS sides. IIRC, from reading, rounds will be spread out a bit 2-3 weeks apart so that home teams can market the game and allows away teams ample time to set up travel arrangements. I just wish there was a little more incentive for winning the Cup like a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.
You're only just now noticing this? The Rapids not keeping up with the league isn't a new thing. We've already been left behind by the league. We were left behind years ago...around the time when it started costing more than $1-2 million to bring in high impact players. And the few times when they seem to be (or at least appear) somewhat willing to spend more money, its typically invested pretty poorly. We probably have the worst record of any team in MLS when it comes to signing players with salaries over $300k...and that's not even something Padraig can blame on the previous regime like has has for basically every other failure this team has had.