Jermaine Jones - should he get re-signed?

I'm pissed off at him because he sacrificed his (and the Revs) season for two meaningless FRIENDLIES. It's great that he's a key guy on the USNT and everyone, myself included, loves that about him. But, he had an injury that needed rehabbing (and maybe surgery) and instead of taking care of it, he chose to play in friendlies.

He certainly didn't in this case and there were big consequences for him and the Revs.

I wish I were as confident of that as you are, but I'm not. And you can go back to when we originally signed him and see that there were lots of posts with injury/age concerns then - and last season should only heighten those concerns. And then there is the insistence on a long-term contract, when much of this animosity could have been avoided if he had been willing to consider a one or two year (or incentive-based) deal.

I don't hate Jones, I'm ticked off at him for the specific reason I mentioned above. In fact, I've been as big a supporter of him as anyone - just go back and look beyond the last month or so. I've said numerous times that his 2014 season was everything we (and the Krafts) could have hoped for - that's pretty high praise in my book. But, pretending that last year was great (or even "okay") other than the injury is glossing over some alarming mediocrity. Look back at last season's stretch run, when a higher seed in the playoffs was within reach and Jones was supposedly recovered from his surgery - his play was just very ordinary; and yet he appeared to be playing much harder in his next USNT appearance not much later.

You know as well as anyone, that if the Revs were upset with his plans, they wouldn't be complaining about it in the media.

I didn't say you did. But, I think that's a pretty alarming fact (and if it's not true, I'd like to hear which outstanding game he did have in 2015).

It's always absurd to compare salaries at a single point in time. The most important factor is usually the timing of when a contract is negotiated. In this case, Jones undermined his own negotiating position by not dealing with his injury when he should have.

 

This is not about JJ's negotiating position, this is about the absurdly low value that NE has placed on Jones.

You are also making inaccurate claims about Jones' injury. Jones himself stated that the problem started before the World Cup, ie. before he ever signed with New England. There is a good chance that he first injured the groin when he joined Besiktas at the beginning of 2014 and have been playing through the pain.

 

I think you may have mis-read what I said or I said it unclearly. I think we are both equally confident that he would play through injuries again if he thought it benefited his (potentially not the REVs) priorities..

I'm not pretending last year was great. I tend to think his play, when available was okay but not great. He didn't play often enough. I don't think 14+15 average out to 1/5 of his prior annual salary. For a change, I seem to be more optimistic that he can do better than his 15 performance for a couple more years. Well enough to be somewhere in the broad middle of the 600K to $3M range.

Look, Jones isn't the first "High Maintenance" athlete in the world. IMHO they are a dime a dozen. I think the larger point was that the REVs didn't appear to successfully influence the player. Why? Since they stay quiet I feel it is equally probably that they 1) didn't care that he waited 2)supported the decision because they wanted their marquee player to be a well known NAT, 3)Insisted he attend to the injury and he refused.

You only mention the injury and I pretty much agree. I can imagine, if he had another year on his contract, that these boards might light up supporting him regarding his suspension. After all, the non-call was extremely horrible and I think his actions there could be considered pro-team not just pro-JJ.

As discussed above, the REVs aren't talking. But if item 1 or 2 happened then that would just be the team taking advantage. If Item 2 happened I'd call it pretty sleazy. We'll never know.

 

If that were the case, then why haven't other MLS teams tried to trade for his rights?

Based on what I saw last year, I'd say $600K was overly generous for a player who would play 26 games, at best. Maybe he'll end up playing more like his 2014 level than his 2015 level, but who can say?

No matter when he initially sustained the injury, it needed to be dealt with during the MLS off-season. Rather than doing that, he played with the injury for two USNT friendlies. Then, late in the offseason, he underwent surgery for it. That meant he missed training camp, missed the early season, re-injured it during the season, required a 2nd surgery and, finally, returned to play well below his 2014 level.

There is no doubt in my mind that he should have given healing that injury his top priority during the off-season. Failure to do so was disastrous for both he and the Revs.

 

It's going to be a moot discussion soon.

 

So, did JJ sign with the Rapids yet?

 

It's all well and good that we got a handful of magic beans for JJ... but at some point, they've got to bring in a player that has at least as big of an impact, right?

Because while I buy the idea that 30 games of Koffie is more valuable than 15 games of Jones, if you're playing a one or two game series at the end of the year, I'd rather have JJ. And I'm concerned that while Koffie is a good player, he doesn't give the Revs everything that JJ did. Jermaine's strengths covered up so many of the team's weaknesses over the past couple of years. In a short series, you want difference-makers. And they just traded one of them away.

There HAS to be another shoe that drops. And it has to be a big shoe.

 

Everything I have seen and know of this team say NOPE. At least not for a while.

In the meantime, someone please show me a college draft pick that within MLS turned into a Jones level player. Hell, show me any college draft choice that the Revs finely-tuned player development approach managed to turn into into anything even approaching a MLS All Star, never mind a part time Nats players.

After years sitting on the pot, they finally drop a deuce and get their needle mover. Arguably one of the most recognizable and toughest minded difference makers available, anywhere, at the time it happened. Then their master plan unfolded, and they skillfully parlay it into....well...as Mike says, a handful of magic beans.

For f__k sake, there are days where I say to myself I am so done with this team. Today is one of them. The Big Bungle. It's as if they only want to be able to say "but we did have a real DP, once. You can't criticize us. Leave us alone."

With this trade as the final resounding message before the 1st kick, let it begin -- the 21st year of celebrating Junior Varsity level on-field achievement and Junior Varsity level aspirations by the Revs!

WTF Revs, WTF. You are killing some of us.

 

Im sooooo tired of the Revs piss poor deals. Granted Jones is getting up there in age and granted the Revs are too cheap to pay ANYBODY a lot. But to trade his rights for useless cash (we never spend it) and even more useless draft picks is basically giving him away for nothing. The only good thing about draft picks is that the players drafted HAVE to play for us if they want to play at all. That being said... how are our other draft picks doing? The ones that play for the Revs that is. Meanwhile the endless search for a DP goes on, the season starts for us tomorrow and we are weaker than we ended last year. Even now Burns is looking under his bed or in the cellar for a DP but just can't find one. How come other teams can find and sign players while we can never seem to do it? The ones we have signed (not Jones) have stunk. Once again I got sucked in when they won Jones in a coin flip. I thought it was a "new day" for the Revs when we got Jones and spent some money. That the ownership finally was going to invest in the franchise and was showing some interest. Bull$%#@. Nothing ever changes here. We will muddle along at about 50% wins, while waiting for the next window to open and when that happens, nothing will happen then either. Even the guy they got to replace Jones is only good for a year and then he can walk on a free. If we sell him to someplace Euro, we have to split the transfer. WTF is in this for us? We develop a player for somebody else and don't even get 100% of the transfer. Wanna bet he walks for free and we're left with nothing again? There is no way we will compete to keep him if he expects $$$$, We never have. So a 1 year temp fix and from what Ive seen so far... he's no big deal.

I feel like charlie brown believing that Lucy won't yank the football away again when I try to kick it. Maybe they didnt want to pay Jones the money he wanted but he raised the team with his presence and was worth the money. Now he's gone, and you have failed to replace him with an equal player. Now what? More vague promises? More we're looking BULL? If I was as big a failure as Burn's is at his job, I'd be fired. Why does Burns continue to never be able to find a DP quality player and yet gets to keep failing year after year after year. It simply says that the ownership doesnt want to spend any money on the team and that Burns is following their business plan. BTW - any talk of a SSS is also pure bull. They could care less

 

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/201...-colorado-rapids-trade-new-england-revolution

Sooo disappointed in my Revs and glad that Jermaine will get to play -- he may be on the downslope of his career, but he's still a great talent and force on the field.

Thanks JJ -- best of luck to you.

 

Someday this summer we'll have both evidence of how he is playing and the union salary list. Then we'll get to revisit this. He apparently signed low enough that TAM bought him down.

 

A Colorado salary dollar must be worth more to a player than a New England salary dollar.

 

Does this feel like a Feilhaber redux to anyone else? Not that JJ wanted to play with the Revs any more than BF did, but I fully expect JJ to play better with the Rapids....

 

Whoever that pick turns out to be - I will forever think of him as "Magic Beans". I hope he is a Handful, at least.

And - will always think of him as the player who "replaced" JJ's "value". It is painful to even think about the possibility that the FO thinks of it this way.

 

Let's not defame JJ on his way out by comparing him in any way to BF. He only wanted out after he started having contract issues. Jermaine gave a crap - at times his problem was he gave too much of a crap. He was nothing short of sensational 2014, and if there was a dropoff in 2015 and a possible rebound in 2016, I'd be inclined to attribute that to injuries.

 

JJ is absolutely positively going to kick the Revs can up and down the field at will when they meet up.

Especially since the Revs are no longer in the subphylum Verterbrata. (Hell, they may no longer even be in the phylum Chordata.) Playing soccer is difficult when you have no spine or analogous cartilaginous rod.

 

Given that the situation had degenerated into an ugly mess, this is actually a good outcome for all concerned. And I for one don't think the Revs, or their fans, should feel a sense of shame here. With any player, the question has to be, is he worth the money? I know I can't be the only one going, "Nah."

Do we really think we can't get a really good, everyday Argentinian player for whatever Colorado is paying Jones?

 

We need to wait and see the full amount.

Gonzo made $1.5m last year and was bought down.

I am guessing Jones will be in the 800k to $1m range.

 

I think we only play Colorado once this year and it is a home game for us, both of which should hopefully reduce the revenge factor a touch.

 

I'm really not happy with this deal - Colorado fleeced the Revs (again).

A player of JJ's level should have netted at least a player of the starter or useful-sub type back. Granted Colorado doesn't have a ton of those, but nebulous compensation and picks is WAY below Jones' value to a team and the league.

Given that Colorado is intent on making a splash this year, that pick is going to be in the 10-15 range, not a top 5 (top 5 usually guarantees at least a solid rotational player in the SuperDraft - anything beyond that is a lottery ticket). I don't even remember who was the result of the draft pick trade for Benny.

If the Rapids win the Cup this year I'm going to laugh so hard.

Season for the Revs starts tomorrow and I don't think I've ever been less enthused. During the 2012 - 2014 seasons there seemed to be an honest attempt to restructure the team. The past 2 years we've been standing pat on bringing in new signings while also losing key players. I can't believe we're trying to psych ourselves up for Gershon Koffie as a marquee signing - nothing against Gershon, but compared to the rest of the league that's just sad.

 

I was going to wait but... If he plays marginally better than 2015 AND shows up For the overwhelming majority of games (tough with 6 + Gold Cup I know) then I'd be leaning towards, "the REVs really messed up the negotiations." If your salary prediction pans out...

 

We can but we won't.

 

What sort of dysfunctional FO decision making process lets this farce happen on the eve of kickoff? Talk about a misguided sense of timing.

Allowing the face of your franchise (the first TRUE designated player, and arguably the first world-stage "star" on the roster in YEARS) to be dealt away for scraps 48 hrs before opening day is so so so (SO) amateur. It displays such a lack of subtlety and situational awareness. This is Gillette DeflateGate II - this time, it's about sucking the air out of the fanbase just before the Big Game.

I have been asked twice now since yesterday by friends who are more casual fans "Why did the Revs trade the only player anyone knows?", one of which was followed by "Are there actually any really good players coming out of college?", the other asking "Why did the Revs do it now? Doesn't the season start tomorrow or something? I thought I heard about the Jones situation months ago?"

No good answers to any of that.

 

We traded a player who wasn't even on our team anymore for something. Sounds like a good deal to me.