That's pretty weak. I'm not going to go back to the winter and figure it out. When DC won the Open Cup, and got that extra allocation money for the CCL, they made a choice to use that money on available veterans. At the time, that roster philosophy worked very well. They made the CCL the next year, too, buy finishing first in the East. (Right?) Anyway, once that extra budget stopped coming in, spending money on proven but pricey vets stopped working. But that's still the type of player Ben wanted. And they weren't recycling the vets either, replacing the guy who was hungry 2 years ago at age 29 but was now really injury prone with the next iteration of a 29 year old his old team wanted to dump. The Rolfe issues were sort of random luck, but not exactly either, since we gave an old player who had had injury issues a 2 year deal. This is an example of why I question Ben's core intelligence. He doesn't adjust...in anything. He's like a colonel who would have his soldiers march in battle exactly like they did on the parade ground. That's sort of my point...Ben insisted on a roster philosophy that paid dividends when DC was getting extra allocation money stopped working once we weren't, but we still collect fossils like Sarvas and LeToux.
If your budget rules out most good players, what are your options other than sorting through the rest trying to find some decent ones?
That statement, in general, makes sense. The problem is the application. The LeToux acquisition can be defended somewhat because he took a low-dollar deal. He had a good history in the league and I can see taking a gamble on getting another productive year from him as a sub off the bench. That really hasn't worked out, but OK -- give that a pass. What is unpardonable was paying about $400K to Sarvas and over $200K to Franklin. Franklin is a particularly poor choice. At the end of last season, it was obvious that Ben thought NDL's latest "best" position was RB. That made Franklin substitute material at best. Then Ben and Franklin decided he would get time at CB which was an awful experiment. To add insult to injury, no other team in the league was really interested in Franklin who was true "free agent". There just was no need to re-sign him and especially to sign him to a $200K deal. Realize that both Vincent and Jeffrey make around $100K. With the $600K spent on Sarvas and Franklin you could pick up 6 Jeffreys and maybe the odds would be you might find the Ozzie Alonso in that group of 6. Even if you didn't, you probably would get the same production as Sarvas and Franklin, with hopefully younger, faster players and a better squad rotation.
So, that was a terrible game. But a few things: When we resigned Franklin we had exactly two other outside backs, and one of them was just learning the position. He hasn't panned out in limited minutes in the middle, which is too bad, but outside, he's still a good enough player to get time in MLS, so signing him to a middling contract wasn't a huge risk (he's tradeable, even if we take a small salary hit). In my mind, he didn't become surplus until Robinson showed well and we signed Korb, which is to say, 4 months later. At the end of last season Boswell was looking like the only guy who could organize our back line, and a guy who can do that at $250K is well worth it. Given the kind of errors we've seen the last two games, I'm not sure that's still not true. I'm glad we kept Birnbaum, but I don't think he's been significantly better than anyone else out there, and he's one concussion away from being Chris Rolfe, so you could just as easily make the argument that we shouldn't have spent DP money on resigning him. That contract's worth a LOT more than Boswell will make this year. Keep in mind, we picked up Sarvas after Perry left, Nocerino fell through and it became obvious Davy wasn't coming back, all in the span of 3 months. These guys are not as common as air molecules, and the DM position isn't like CF - you're integrated, 100%. We paid like half his salary last year and all of it this year, so if it makes you feel worse, think of it as $310K guaranteed for two years. That was the deal going in, and looking at where we were and what he did for us on and off the field last season, not a terrible one, even if he's (please God) relegated to a backup by the end of this season. Kitchen's out at Hearts because they lost their manager, and the new one doesn't like pure DMs. The new coach asked Perry to play more like an 8. Perry's a great 6, but a middling 8. Their defense suffered - which should have been no surprise. He's out because the manager changed the system and it doesn't favor Perry. Not for nothing, they went from best of the rest with Perry in DM as captain to middle of the pack at season's end. Just because Olsen's job is relatively safe doesn't mean he isn't motivated. You can bet he's 10x more frustrated with that performance than any of us are. The guy bleeds black and red. It's reasonable to question his coaching ability, but the assumption that you need to have someone swinging for your neck to be motivated is a false one, at least in my experience. For guys like Ben, the response to that kind of pressure is just as likely to be "Who needs this ****?" There's more than one dent in his refrigerator door that has nothing to do with job security, and frankly, I like that. Was that a rant? I can't tell if it was a rant. I don't think it was.
I have always thought Franklin was overpaid. Sarvas, I thought he was our best player in the first half of last year. Certainly seems over the hill at this point, though. As far as getting 6 Jeffries, that approach might work if we had bigger rosters / a real reserve team, but otherwise I don't see how you could get each enough playing time to evaluate if they are any good. Also, keep in mind that every other team is looking over the same list of free agents - we aren't the only ones browsing in the flea market. Ultimately I think the nice run we had at the end of last season was a fluke and it is unrealistic to expect that any coach/GM could have that kind of success repeatedly - especially given what an unattractive destination DC must be right now.
Sarvas, at 35, has gone 90' many times this season, often in back to back games. He's due a rest against Dallas, where we'll probably see Jeffrey, or maybe Vincent. But the fact that neither Jeffrey nor Vincent has been able to relegate this veteran to the bench speaks volumes about the strength of our roster.
The quibble about the Sarvas acquisition is that in MLS he wasn't a "6", he was more of an "8" in other locations. In that way, he was not a like for like quickie replacement for Kitchen after the Nocerino fiasco. (BTW, I'm glad that deal fell through based on his play in Orlando.) Last year, United's best run of play occurred after Sarvas got injured and Vincent and Jeffrey were in the middle. It's a stretch to call his acquisition a panic move, but it sure smelled at the time like a "do something, anything" type of move.
It was definitely not a first-choice kind of move. When the move was made, I recall thinking at least the midfield wouldn't be completely rudderless... but for how long. I really think Vincent might have surpassed him by this point but for injury.
Collecting veterans whose collective upside gets you 5th place in the East is a stupid strategy. Go get some youngsters and try to get better. I bet we could have had Poku for a song, for example. That McLaughlin kid for Cincinnati looks lively. I'm sure there are young central mids more or less as good as what we have all over Central America.
The owners have publicly said that they are OK with getting 5th place in the East, so don't expect them to spend any money on scouts to find these great players that are out there. I don't like it, but that's the way it is.
"Great," "better," whatever. Don't expect the team to go out and spend money to identify or develop these players, because it is cheaper/easier to just look in MLS. And to be fair, most of the over-the-hill MLS vets used to be pretty good - Boswell, Franklin, LeToux, Sarvas, Rolfe, Arnaud. It's a strategy that, most years, gets them to their depressingly low goal of simply making the playoffs. It's not a great strategy because you have to retool every year or two, and it is disappointing in its lack of ambition, but it seems to be what ownership wants.
Hamid, Worra, Kesuntheit, OA, DeLeon, Birnbaum, Opare, Robinson, Kemp, Durkin, Vincent, Harkes, Buescher, Acosta, Mullins, Ortiz, Brown. All 26 or under - that's basically the "new guard" cut-off. Then you've got Jeffrey and Korb in no-mans-land, and then I see old people. When you sign a veteran, you are trying to get better. It usually works for a time. Collecting them is problematic. But to be fair, this seems to have been a phase, while we retooled the supporting cast. The question is, will we muddle through this year with the midfield we have, or hire one more old hand so we can be patient with our opportunities. Remember when we had 14 midfielders? Good times. Didn't he go for a $750K transfer fee and is making a $500K salary at Miami FC? If I were NYCFC, I'd take that deal. Sign him!! Wait, John Harkes isn't coaching there anymore? @$#*!%. Scouting is easy!