I'm still not sure I believe you need to pay that kind of money in the back line for that production, but he had a great year. He earned it, but he still owes for last season. Underpaid? That's Mango territory.
A guy like Ciani was a weird acquisition because hes like 33 or 34 and not some huge freaking talent. That was a desperation move on Galaxys part. Skelvik at least made a little sense on paper....he was one of the best defenders in Scandinavia and in his prime....but he still probably should've only been on half the money hes making. Similar situation with Mensah. He was kind of a desperation signing for us so we definitely overpaid seeing as there was nothing particular special about his record prior besides being a fringe Ghana player. On the other hand....I didn't have a problem paying Sauro 600k or whatever when he came here. I think 500 or 600k is a good and fair expenditure for a quality foreign CB in their prime in this league.
Sure. Definitely not saying Mensah should be on his current salary, but compare him to what other CBs did this year, and he's worth his salary relatively speaking. Here are the top 30 CBs (including a couple guys who played a lot of CB this year that aren't traditionally CBs), all of which make over the DP limit of $504,375: Michael Mancienne (New England) - $1,370,000 Rod Fanni (Montreal) - $1,230,000 Jorgen Skjelvik (LA Galaxy) - $1,000,000 Andreu Fontas (Kansas City) - $1,000,000 Claude Dielna (New England) - $910,000 Jonathan Mensah (Columbus) - $869,000 Lamine Sane (Orlando) - $855,000 Gregory Van Der Wiel (Toronto) - $835,000 Reto Ziegler (Dallas) - $800,000 Larrys Mabiala (Portland) $793,000 Matt Besler (Kansas City) - $782,000 Marcelo Silva (Salt Lake) - $727,000 Liam Ridgewell (Portland) - $700,000 Rudy Camacho (Montreal) - $699,000 Leandro Gonzalez Pirez (Atlanta) - $685,000 Roman Torres (Seattle) - $645,000 Tommy Smith (Colorado) - $640,000 Jonathan Spector (Orlando) - $637,000 Kim Kee-hee (Seattle) - $632,000 Michael Ciani (LA Galaxy) - $620,000 Kendall Waston (Vancouver) - $604,000 Johan Kappelhof (Chicago) - $595,000 Florian Jungwirth (San Jose) - $567,000 Alexander Callens (NYCFC) - $564,000 Chris Mavinga (Toronto) - $563,000 Guram Kashia (San Jose) - $550,000 Danny Wilson (Colorado) - $540,000 Steve Birbaum (DC United) - $535,000 Matt Hedges (Dallas) - $525,000 Francisco Calvo (Minnestota) - $523,000 55% of the teams in the league this year made the playoffs. Only 43% of the players on this list made the playoffs with their respective teams. Looking at this list, you can make a legit case that when you combine the team's performance, along with the player's individual performance, Mensah is easily a top 5 player on this list. Of course, some players aren't included here, like MLS defender of the Year Aaron Long ($73,000 lol), Tim Parker ($116,000 secondary lol), Walker Zimmerman ($235,000), and Chad Marshall ($341,000). I'm not saying Mensah's salary is justifiable, because it's not. You could literally get 10 Aaron Long's for Mensah's salary. But, when you look at how much other team's have grossly overspent at CB, and you at least recognize that Columbus had the 6th best defense in all of MLS, at least Mensah played well. It's not an ideal situation, but at least the guy we are overpaying is performing at a high level this year, which can't be said for many of the players on this list.
GB near US job: https://sports.yahoo.com/mcintyres-...-job-berhalter-finalizing-deal-144020153.html Pareja has been interviewed, along with GB, and two other people, one of which was a foreigner from outside MLS. GB deal could be done as early as early December.
As everyone watches it implode and him cry like a baby every single week about how shit everyone is? I would seriously stop watching and paying attention if he was our coach. I can't stand that guy. On top of that, his tactics are unbelievably boring. Thankfully, he'll never be our coach, so no worries
Mourinho is one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time, a magnetic personality, and a born winner. I'd take him at my club any day of the week.
They're different? I just though "pound" was British for "dollar" and that "euro" was some snooty highfalutin French for "dollar". Learn something new everyday.
Your sense of superior intelligence is about as inflated as a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon.
There were many times in this thread that nerds, losers, and apologists would lash out at those who wanted to fire Gregg Berhalter. "Well who would we get to replace him? There is nobody available that is better. YoU hAvE nO NaMEs!!!!" Of course people had suggestions. Of course there were better options out there. And of course some of those options were put forth in this very thread. In fact, way back on page 34 of this very thread, some townie, probably drunk off of Coco Locos, suggested a name....Gio Savarase. Way back in December of 2016, fresh off one of the most disgusting and embarrassing seasons in Columbus Crew history. Of course, we know what happened. We didn't get Gio. That piece of shit Merritt Paulson did. And what has Gio done? Well in just one season he has already equaled Gregg's greatest achievement, getting Portland to MLS Cup. Some nerds may even claim Gio already had a major trophy just by achieving this. Our 5 year nightmare looks near an end, and hopefully we are rid of Gregg soon. However, other options were always out there. They were often suggested. But, in the end we'll always have he memories of the Desert Challenge Cup to keep us warm when the cold hard truth of the Berhalter Era becomes too unbearable.
Looking at that list, several things strike you, the first being of course how wretchedly bad half of them are. Another thing is that I recall the promises we heard back in the 90's about how MLS was going to be our Great Leap Forward in terms of developing American players who would finally have a place where they could get experience and professional training. Yet here we are some 23 years into it and we can't even come up with a decent crop of native center backs, a position which requires savvy, technique and athleticism but is not demanding in terms of the kinds of ball skills that make strikers and middies. Then you come across names like Jonathan Specter, once the darling and golden future of US Soccer, endlessly written about, (and in fairness has had more than his share of injuries), now can be lumped in with such names as Oguchi Onyewu in the pantheon of disappointments. Jovan Kirovski should have been a cautionary tale instead of a blueprint.Sign with ManU, get loaned out to Shithole FC, maybe do a turn in Switzerland and then slink back to MLS when nobody else is interested. Meanwhile MLS teams are still scouring the world's lower leagues for back line defenders.
When MLS announced its Designated Player spot, I remember thinking, "I hope my team never has to use that spot on center backs or goalkeepers. Those are positions where the US should be able to produce good enough players."
Why Chad Marshall never got a significant look with the Nats is beyond me. What, a 3-4 time MLS defender of the year isn’t good enough? Give me a break.