That's a valid point but the best leaders surround themselves with smart people that fill in their gaps in knowledge. It's why the best companies are run by an executive team, not an executive dictatorship. Heaps would do well to acknowledge he has a lot to learn around tactics, subs etc and could benefit from a guy with JJ's experience (no disrespect to Tom Soehn). If he feels threatened, he's insecure in his own coaching abilities.
My feeling on JJ is this: ideally, he would like to play in LA, but there's no way MLS can bend the rules for the Galaxy this time - Keane, Gerrard and Dos Santos are the 3 DPs, and I'm assuming Omar is the TAM. I can't imagine JJ will take that big of a pay cut (even if Omar leaves and he could get the TAM slot) just to play close to home ASAP. My guess is he re-signs with the Revs for a year since he can get the most money from them in MLS right now, then signs with LAFC when they launch and finishes out his career with them. He'd be a good name to help get the team off the ground.
This. I understand the team's reluctance to give him what he wants and I understand why they'd want a less risky, more reasonable contract. But, I want him back.
Apparently the expectations are so high that 1) A DP can't get injured and 2) He is supposed to over come the drop in level of play of many of the key starters around him. Needing your one and only DP to dominate "in order to win anything" as you put it succinctly defines the problems with this team's front office inability to build a deep roster. We've seen how many one and only DP's carry their team in the history of the rule? Beckham in LA? IMHO no. Kaka in Orlando? IMHO no. Henri @ RBNY? IMHO no. Lampard + Villa + Pirlo? IMHO no. I know I'm more prone to injuries. Pessimistic me, I think Jones can potentially play better than this year again and, with some luck, with a supporting cast that is playing better and a little deeper. I'm not sure I said they should guarantee him a raise. I was questioning why I saw posts mentioning a 1/3 pay cut. Again, I don't recall explicitly saying he should get a raise. I know when I was typing I was perplexed that I saw 1/3 pay cuts mentioned. Are you inferring too much from my question about how many of us "mediocre" people get small raises even in a mediocre performance year? IMHO, if you look at Jones performances with the REVs through the last game he gets an above average. There are still a few games to play ( well at least one) before his contract is up. So, I'm arguing that you don't start cutting DP (or any other) player's salaries by 1/3 just because, over 15 months they've been above average. I don't think it is a great message to send. I'll stand by my parity statement which was as much a complaint about MLS fans (us) as about MLS. If Jones carries this team to the finals, win or lose, my money is on everyone singing his praises and insisting he be re-signed for a decent raise. Parity + >50% in the Playoffs brings on short sighted judgements like "Player A is a superstud because he was able to string together 4 good performances that happened to be in the playoffs; or, like our team is great; we don't need to restock because, hey, we lost in the finals last year. We were THIS close. Well, I predict he will play better than this year and have a positive impact on the team, if he stays healthy. The REVs have highly paid doctors. Hopefully they can say whether these surgeries had the intended results. Many injuries are age neutral. Heck he could hit his head on a goalie's knee at 17, 22, or 35. A bad challenge could break his leg at any age too. If you're going to dismiss DPs based on age based injury risk then that will eliminate even more potential DPs from the REVs MX9 CX1 processes. Compliments to the REVs if they can get him to take lower pay or a more incentive based contract. As long as he is happy enough to give his all. A disgruntled DP doesn't make much sense to me (remember the speculation that Lee N wasn't playing as hard because of contract unhappiness? Ditto Goncalves at one point last year?).
That's it in a nutshell. No team, even going back to the early Metros, was able to win with only one highly paid marquee star. In Beckham's first year with the Galaxy, they were terrible, even with Landon Donovan. It wasn't until they brought in a better supporting cast (and Arena) that they started to win. For us, we caught lightning in a bottle last year, and while we all enjoyed the ride, I knew that it was a one-shot deal of all the planets aligning perfectly. MVLee didn't live up to his 2014 year (although he was still pretty good), same for Jones and others. Having a key player at a "better than average" instead of "world-beater" level shouldn't doom our season. The lack of adequate depth is what has been, and will be, the undoing of this team. By contrast, the toothless, inbred cow-shaggers picked up a player like Jack Mac for the stretch run, even though they had golden boot contender Kai Kamara. Kamara (and Huigain) were suspended in their crucial game vs DC, and they won 5-0 anyway, with Mac scoring a goal. We never make moves like that, ever. For the Revs to win, everything, and I do mean everything, has to fall in place perfectly. No significant injuries to key players, no drop in form, no suspensions for critical games, no unlucky bounces of the ball that cause freak things to go against us, no horrible ref decisions costing us a game, no nothing. Unfortunately, that isn't how things work. You might get lucky some of the time, like 2014, but you can't count on it being that way all the time. Sadly, the Revs seem to bank on the best-case scenario happening all the time, and there is no fallback plan if it doesn't go that way.
This point absolutely nails it! For this reason, I feel strongly that one of the less noticed values of what JJ has done for us is how he lifts the overall level of play when he is on the pitch.
No one player can carry their entire team. Over the past two seasons we've seen players like Drogba and Jones come in mid-season and drastically improve a team, but those were teams that were on the brink of success. Also, it's not really fair to say that Beckham was a one man team in LA (Keane, LD, Gonzo, etc.) or Henry was a one man team in NY (they won a SS with a deep squad in 2013, and they weren't too shabby last year either).
You're seriously arguing that Jones' drop in play is because of the starters around him? Diego's been better than last year, Davies has scored more, Caldwell's gotten significantly better, the central defense is better, goalkeeping's been better ... The only significant drop-offs have been Nguyen, Bunbury and ... JONES. Is it because of the players around him that Jones hasn't even been trying those long cross-field, pressure-beating passes that made the Revs so hard to defend last year? The only reasons he's been subpar are the two surgeries, that seemed to have robbed him of some physical strength and probably a fair measure of confidence in his body. I think we've all been thinking he just needs to get back to game shape, but it's starting to look like this may take a full off-season. Who said he has to dominate? He just needs to play like a DP. The Revs have lots of talent, but he added some elements that they were clearly lacking. That's much more of a complimentary role (filling in the gaps), than a dominant one. I'm not sure what you've been looking at if you give him above average. He was good against NYC, but fairly invisible in much of the 3 or 4 games preceding that. Any message being sent is one both sides already know - they'll both use whatever leverage they have to get the most favorable terms on a contract. It's business - and a pretty ruthless one at that. And, Jones' final offer will be more based on what he's worth in the market that how well he's played this season. He'll get over this "condition", but based on his age and his own history, he'll have other injuries and miss time. After what the Krafts, the team and the fans went through with the highest-paid player (Twellman) missing major time over several seasons, everyone's going to be pretty nervous about guaranteeing big money for a player who does have a history of injuries and is at an age where they are more likely. Wow, that sounds more like something I'd say than you would.
I believe the whole team, without Jones which we saw a good bit, was playing at a lower level. The two you admit were pretty key the prior year. Daigo, Dorman, the much documented defensive challenges apply too IMHO. I think a healthy Jones lifts the 2014 version and an injured/healing jones can't lift the 2015 version enough. It might take an off season, I agree. . Did you read the quote above what I wrote? He said dominate So you agree with me. We all measure over 3-4 games. I gave him above average over the 15-16 months he's been here. Fantastic 2014 + Mediocre most of 2015 + injury + a few good games in 2015 is a little above average. It's just one opinion. We pretty much agree on the negotiations and final offer. In my opinion, I argued last winter that Jones could get injured as could Ngyun, Bunberry, Davies, etc. I also argued that some players (Lee for example) might drop a little after a near MVP year. So I agree that Jones could get hurt again. But he isn't the only player or even DP who is playing at his age. Unless the Revs are going to suddenly develop an ability to locate numerous players who "check all the boxes" and sign at least one in this coming off season I say try to keep this one. I hated the Twellman saga but I think you can't plan for the last war. Move on (or maybe pay a little more for multiple 1 year options) Once a century...
Basing the Jones negotiations on the Twellman saga is like the person who was burned in a prior relationship and takes it out on their new partner, even though s/he had nothing to do with how the other person mistreated them. The "Assistant Coach" loophole is the simplest way to have Jones' influence around, even if/when he can't play. Obviously it doesn't work for every aging player who has lost a step, but it is clear by all accounts (other than that one guy with an axe to grind who ran and hid when called out) that Jones is a "coach on the field" and would be a natural fit for that kind of role.
Both with and without JJ, Scott Caldwell really put his mark on the squad this year. I would argue that much of this is to to how much he benefited from the tutelage of Jones over that past year. This is one of the intangible values of having an experienced DP on the squad.
That's not what he said. Diego's somewhat better, Davies scored more but didn't play well in general, Caldwell was up and down. We had some serious issues with opponents running right down the middle of the pitch when Jones wasn't in there. The central defense was generally better (improved as the season went on). I don't think the goaltending was that different from 2014 to 2015. He's tried them, but clearly with limited success, probably due to injury. The other reason he was subpar was the amount of (fairly) healthy playing time he spent playing out of position on defense.
I haven't heard anyone confirm that there is an "Assistant Coach" loophole. If there was, I think we'd see teams exploiting it (and then it would be outlawed ... ). No doubt Jones has helped him, but I think we saw that Caldwell had a steep improvement curve from the moment he stepped on the field for the Revs (reminds me of Larentowicz in that way). He's always had great vision and quick mind; those are things a player can really build upon.
Well, it isn't really a loophole, but it is a creative way for the Revs to get around something without a huge cap hit (not an issue anymore with DPs) and, since they are all about value, getting value from Jones even if he isn't playing. He would be a legit assistant coach, and it would be an easier way to create a win-win scenario for both sides. And it would be far less dodgy than DC United giving Marco Etcheverrry a bonus of $5,000 every time he tied his shoes on the correct feet before a game. Or they can just pay him as a straight player and someone like that hit-n-run guy can come in here and whinge that "someone in the organization" is pissed off that they aren't getting "value" for all the money they are paying him. It doesn't matter either way, but if he is helping the other players even if he can't play, everyone benefits.
Yes, but do we know that a player/assistant coach's salary could be split where part wouldn't count against the cap? I've never seen that confirmed.
Of course we don't know if that's the case, just like we don't know if Burns' inability to walk an pick his nose at the same time is based on the Krafts' "system of excellence" or his own incompetence. However, I do recall many years ago this being how someone did something like this. Either way, I would expect Jones to have a DP cap hit, no matter what. The purposes of this is to give the Krafts the warm and fuzzies that they are getting some "value" for their money if Jones can't play due to injury.
I'd let Jones go if we received the #1 draft pick in return. That Yaro kid from Georgetown is supposed to be a fantastic centerback. Him and Farrell together would be a great long-term and short-term pairing. That way the front office could just concentrate on signing a midfielder, since we know they won't be able to make two significant signings in one off season.