2013-2014 Columbus Crew Offseason Roster Thread

No kidding. As much as some had really positioned themselves against Warzycha, they sure are lamenting the era of players and contacts from that era. 2010-11 was a really unhappy offseason, but this one may just take the cake.

 

Anyone ever consider that Clark was possibly part of the Marshall deal?

 

Why would Marshall count a half mil? He's schedule to make that much in 2015 but was at 361K last year and isn't a DP this year so he's somewhere below 368K. Even next year he won't count at 500K on the cap, since the limit is 368K (or actually less than that for Seattle since they have other DPs).

Last year we had Marshall at 361K plus Glauber at 263K plus Williams at 52K plus O'Rourke at 175K plus Wahl at 81K plus Gehrig and George at 46.5 each. Those are the guys who played CB for us last year. They cost 1.025 mil in guaranteed compensation.

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/September 15, 2013 Salary Information - By Club.pdf

George and O'Rourke could also play D-mid. We're fine at Dmid with Trapp backed up by Viana and George. Baiden and some of the other youngsters can play there too. So back to CB: if desired, we could easily afford Marshall (at worst his cap hit is 368K) plus Parkhurst at his rumored 300K plus Williams at 80-100K plus Wahl, Gehrig, and George. Worst case we cut Wahl's 81K because Williams has become the 3rd CB with Gehrig and George as depth. That group would cost less than we paid last year, 841K without Wahl or 922 with him.

Berhalter can't simultaneously claim we spend too much on defense, then dump our 3 highest paid CBs and complain about lack of depth. We would still have 425K available from the departure of Gaven and Sanchez plus whatever we saved on Arrieta's paycut vs the raise Oduro got.

 

Sorry but I don't want to tie up that much $$ in our center backs.

 

With all the other cuts we made (Gaven, Glauber, O'Rourke, Sanchez, Arrieta's reduction, etc), yes, we could have easily afforded Parkhurst and Marshall. That is basic math, and a fact. That's close to a million in savings (if not more). Chad's cap bump couldn't be more than 60k or so (max for DP is $368) + Parkhursts $300k = + $360 or so. Easily can afford that under the cap with the savings we got elsewhere.

And while I'm not a huge fan of spending that much on CBs, your categorization of Parkhurst as a CB isn't accurate. He'll be playing some RB for us for certain before the WC, we know that now. And likely after as well. He can play all over the place. If we upgrade over Barson at RB (or Barson turns into a real quality RB) then fine, play him centrally. But if we get another good CB and Williams blossoms at CB, I could easily see moving Parkhurst outside.

 

Jon Busch still lives here in the offseason, doesn't he? And don't forget Gino Padula. I have ran into Kevin Burns too.

 

Was he trying to tackle you--and missed??

 

I have been wondering for a while if GG realizes that (SA v. EU contacts aside) his style of play is not as suited to South American players as much as Euro. We saw this with RW trying to force Euro tactics onto a squad that was much more South American in style and composition when Sigi left and we saw how that didn't mesh well. It would be great if our coach was aware that round pegs do not fit in square holes as out last certainly delighted in trying to prove that saying wrong.

 

I've never understood this "Euro style vs. "South American Style" debate. Soccer is soccer, football is football. Good players can make it in any league. Of course players play better in the positions and formations they are familiar with but we see South Americans perform well in Europe all the time as well as Americans, Asians, and Africans. I agree with "not fitting round pegs in square holes" but that has much more to do with playing guys out of position than what continent they are from.

 

THIS. I really believe that RW and maybe BB really didn't have a good knowledge of the players and how to integrate them 1) when they got them and 2) as they got to know them.

 

Some of the estimates made by people so far this off season makes it apparent we wouldn't even be able to afford Marshall as our roster stands right now, not sure how anyone could argue we could afford both.

 

I believe they have to disclose that if he was. If may have been an under the table sort of thing, but who knows.

 

Both TrueCrew and I have gone through the math. We don't know what the salaries for everyone will be in 2014 but the team is well under the cap currently and can easily afford to add a DP if we find one we like. We could also afford to keep Marshall in addition to Parkhurst and still add a DP. We'll run out of roster spots before we run out of cap space as currently we have a team of mostly low paid guys.

 

The deals for Clark and Marshall were separate. They could have been combined (ie Seattle didn't have to sign Clark to trade his MLS rights to us) but weren't.

 

So with Chad's injury history is it worth it to the organization keeping him around with is salary? I don't think so. It was a smart move in my opinion. Being able to afford it and it being the right choice are two different things.

 

Exactly... As much as I would love to see 2014 Chad be like 2008 Chad, he was more likely to be 2005 Ross Paule.

 

If people think McCullers, who rose through the ranks as stadium manager, has significant soccer connections in Argentina or even in the United States, they are delusional. McCullers has no clue and hasn't had one since HSG promoted him from stadium manager. He just sails with the prevailing winds and does what he is told.

 

Except that I've seen good players struggle to acclimate to the different styles. Yes, good players make it--eventually. But I'm also thinking of an Federico Insua--an Argentine (14 caps) who was supposed to be the next great 10 for my team. He wasn't. And then there's Juan Arango--who almost didn't make it but finally got the hang of it and has been a great player since.

 

100% agree with this statement.

I love Marshall and what he did and meant to the club, but we all know that he is clearly on the downslope. I also think the meeting between Marshall and Gregg when G's got hired had a lot to do with why the move went down. And since nothing was disclosed about that meeting, we don't really have anything to go with.

I personally don't care that we COULD have kept Marshall and had Parkhurst and another DP. It just doesn't matter.

 

Everything I've read in this thread seems to indicate we have about 500k left right now. So Marshall costs something like 300-350k.

How much of a cap hit does the DP add? I know it's less at half season, but I was thinking it was around 300k.

 

It's probably changed, but it used to be a little bit under the max salary, somewhere in the 350,000 range, and if they came in during the summer transfer it was about half of that.

 

Yes, that's the key question. But apparently we're replacing Chad with Wahl or Gehrig in the starting lineup if Parkhurst is going to play at RB. I don't have any worries about MP's ability to shut down the right side but we'd be weak in the middle with that configuration. Also it would slow Barson's development. If Parkhurst moves back to the middle after the cup (or after the team is named if he doesn't make it), then not only does that slow Barson's development (I thought CB played well last year) but it means midseason change in the middle of the defense. We may well be calling for that anyway if the Williams-Wahl combo is leaky.

It's also worth considering that a better soccer mind than any in Columbus thinks Chad is worth his salary.

 

The second and third DPs count at reduced numbers for cap purposes. Higuain is currently a DP and should count on the cap at 368K. The next guy would count 350 as you mention. And of course players who are slightly above the max salary can have their contracts bought down with allocation money. We received some in the Marshall trade and gave some up along with the high draft pick for Parkhurst's rights. Still, we got the fabled "You Suck" allocation this offseason so the Crew should have plenty of money to spend outside the cap.