Per reports, #NERevs are eyeing Stoke attacker Bojan Krkic for a potential DP deal: https://t.co/pQBTpVKWnN pic.twitter.com/22EYMaVDs2— Major League Soccer (@MLS) January 21, 2019 Feel like this signing is about a decade too late. Which is sad since he is only 28. Basically he is the Spanish Freddy Adu that people kept giving chances to.
So pretty much what you would expect from the Revs for a DP signing. If it's not handed to them by the Don, dont expect anything big from Burns.
True but just after Glass City posted the Venuto news... 1087116238633889792 is not a valid tweet id So we'll see what comes of this.
They may not have seen this coming so weren't ready with a replacement, so wanted more. And/or last time they deal with big numbers, MLS told them no and got more money for the team, but took longer to accomplish (Cameron transfer). Just my two guesses.
I’m told University of Virginia and #USMNT U-20 defender Aboubacar Keita has signed a homegrown player deal with the Columbus Crew. A 6-2 central defender, Keita impressed at the recent U.S. U-20 camp.— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) January 21, 2019
33 goals and 18 assists in 129 Russian Premier League games and 9 goals and 9 assists across 2500 minutes in the last season and a half is a massive signing? I mean, he has a nice pedigree at his age but I'm not sure if he would be a massive signing. Especially since I think with what he will go for that you can get a better player elsewhere.
Wasn't too impressed either. Hadn't seen him play, so I watched some highlights. Pretty good speed and movement. Decent in the air. Completely right foot dominant, though and hasn't scored all that much at the club level. Hope they don't pay the 9 mln Euros he's valued at.
As we revealed on tonight's AFTN Soccer Show, 23-year-old Chilean born Canadian right back Juan Cordova looks set to be heading to Vancouver. His Chile club Huachipato have agreed terms for a one year loan with an option to buy. Up to the Whitecaps to get the deal done now. #VWFC— AFTN (@aftncanada) January 21, 2019
Not to invoke a certain poster, but I wonder if CPL is influencing this? Based on the extremely narrow slice of Canadian soccer social media I’ve seen, there seems to be a good amount of appetite in Canada for watching Canadian players on Canadian teams.
Juan Fernando Mejía, president of Deportivo Cali, has come out and claimed that Minnesota United is in contention AGAIN for 21-year-old Colombian international Nicolas Benedetti."The offer by Nicholas of Minnesota United is still in play and is for the same value." #MLS #MNUFC pic.twitter.com/6BPd1IisFs— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 21, 2019
So, we got #Kakuwatch again this year. Kaku to @ClubAmerica_EN update: I'm told @NewYorkRedBulls asked for $12 million to sell, countering América's offer in the $7-8 million range, hoping the #LigaMXeng club will "compromise" at $10 million, which is what RBNY wanted initially. América said no.— Eric Gomez (@EricGomez86) January 21, 2019
9g, 9a in 2,500 minutes in Russia is very respectable. The league is way better than MLS, not even close.
There is that appetite but I think it more has to do with the Caps hiring a Canadian manager and also trying to go back to their stated philosophy (in the beginning at least) of trying to play as many Canadians as possible as opposed to any competition with the CPL.
Zenit and several of the Moscow clubs are better (and probably Krasnodar right now). Yes. The rest of the league? Not to me. Once you get out of the top 5 you basically have a couple decent foreign players and a bunch of Russian players that aren't good enough for the top few teams. And those Russians are not better than a starter on an MLS squad. And of all his goals and assists only 3 have come against a side that finished in the top 5 last year or are in the top 5 this year. And all of those were against Krasnodar. Again, this is all a judgement call since we have no real crossover in the past few years except for Mensah and Poku. Feel like it is another case of seeing a couple teams that are good and assuming that their competition is better because they play in the same league.
A Canadian manager takes over and hires Canadian coaches and signs Canadian players. That's no coincidence. No one really gives Canadians a chance, whether it be coaches or players, no matter the league. I don't think the CPL is driving what's going on in Vancouver, MDS is. I wish there were more Canadian managers in MLS. MDS is also a star in the making, in my opinion.
All European leagues are unbalanced, no exceptions. Russian league is #6 in UEFA rankings. Ahead of Belgium and Portugal and way ahead of Denmark and Netherlands which are better than MLS. Rubin is above average team. Goal scoring in that league is quite low. Top goal scorer has 16-18 goals per season. 0.65 G+A per 90 mins is good there and probably everywhere else. Transfermarket values him around $11M.
The Russian league has one of the highest levels of parity in Europe. Right now there's only 14 points separating the top team from the last safe team. Zenit, the league leader, already has 5 losses this year. In addition to Krasnodar, I would say that Rostov, Rubin Kazan and Grozny are also competitive with the Moscow/St. Petersburg teams. I checked, and even outside the top 5, there is still an average of 10 foreign players per team. As for the average Russian starter, I wouldn't assume that they're any worse than the average American/Canadian starter in MLS. Russia is roughly on par with the US as far as developing talent, and they do a much better job of keeping their players at home. I follow the Russian Premier League, and I would say it's pretty similar to MLS. It's an entertaining league where all games are competitive. They have the same challenges as MLS in their continental competition ... long winter break right before the important games. The infrastructure is also much better since the World Cup. Their average attendance is approaching 18,000 this year. Even their 2nd division has a couple of teams that average over 20,000. As for Azmoun specifically, I think he'd be a great signing. He's still only 24. I wouldn't look at his scoring record on the surface. A lot of his work has been off the bench. Even considering that, it's still 33 goals in 129 games which is a good achievement for such a young player in a good league. If the 'Caps sign Azmoun, he won't be the reason the team struggles. The thing with Azmoun is that he's a bit of a poacher, so he's not going to create chances on his own. And looking at the 'Caps roster, I struggle to see who's going to be creating the scoring chances on a regular basis. Yordy Reyna is about it, and that's not enough in today's MLS.
Is there a reason goal scoring is so low? So far this season over half the league has less than 1 goal a game and in looking at the tables for previous seasons that isn’t unusual..
I would say there's a lot of factors. First of all Russia has never been known for attacking soccer. It's more of the brute force variety of soccer ... defending, hard work and long ball. The other factor is parity, so very few blowouts. And the last factor is the cold. Even with their winter break, half the games are played in near freezing conditions. Tough conditions lead to tough gritty soccer.
Where the average MLS salary sits compared to Europe6. Turkey🇹🇷- $864,0537. Belgium🇧🇪- $402,9418. MLS🇺🇸🇨🇦- $375,2579. Portugal🇵🇹- $357,54010. Switzerland🇨🇭- $324,02011. Netherlands🇳🇱- $323,48812. Austria🇦🇹- $233,11013. Scotland🏴- $231,891— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 16, 2019 Yes, Russia is a better league than MLS, however, at this point MLS has pulled ahead of every league you mentioned in terms of average wages except Belgium and it is close with them. Further, the league is FAR more balanced than every other league you mentioned. Denmark’s average wages are less than $160K and they are better? I mean pay isn’t a perfect indicator, but it’s a pretty good one. Comparing the median spending #MLS team against the median teams from leagues in Europe OUTSIDE of the big 5... (in millions per year)Turkey🇹🇷- $12.9mMLS🇺🇸🇨🇦- $9.1m (SKC)Netherlands🇳🇱- $7.7mAustria🇦🇹- $6mPortugal🇵🇹- $4.6mScotland🏴- $2.9mDenmark🇩🇰- $1.9mBelgium🇧🇪- $1.6m— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 17, 2019
When it comes to leagues like Portugal, Belgium and Netherlands, I think they get a little more quality per dollar simply because there's more cheap "homegrown" talent coming through the pipeline there. Russia and Turkey may have a bit more money than MLS, but we match up better with them as far as homegrown talent. Either way, it's impressive that MLS is even in the mix with these types of leagues. It wasn't that long ago that I would have barely ranked MLS in the top 20 in UEFA. Today I'd put them at 11th, just one notch below Netherlands. I know Ukraine is technically ranked #9, but I think that stock is falling rapidly with the war there really damaging the quality of their league.
The problem with using the average salary to draw conclusions about player quality is that MLS’s DPs lift it up a good amount. Yay that MLS has an average of almost $400k, but it’s not exactly fair to say that means anything when over half the league is making half of that. In other leagues, the average salary is more representative of the average player than it is in MLS.