Kouassi signed

I am actually amazed that this is the guy. I realize that his highlight video shows the "best of," but I have to say he looked really good on both sides of the ball.

So the "reduced DP budget" that Kyle is referring to is the half-year contract? Let's say they sign him for $500,000 for a year, the half-year is $250k, so the above-cap hit would be only $87,500? Certainly they could use some form of TAM or regular allocation money to pay that down. Is that how it would work?

Of course, in every announcement it will have the standard line "Per MLS policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed."

 

The Jones train has left the building (unless they are trying some savvy way to sign Jones only till June).

Don't know if he brings the goods that Jones did to come in mid season, dominate, and have the same affect with his new teammates and locker room. But at least they took action on something.

How will Heaps integrate him - will it be a straight Jones swap and we stay with 4-2-3-1. (But then what about our forwards??)

 

Kouassi looks like a very good player. This looks to be a really good signing by the Revs. Good job by them. This has the makings of a decent offseason, aside from the mutual bungling by Jones and the Revs regarding their situation.

 

Agreed with Tom... mostly. I like some of the qualities I saw in the video. He clearly can win the ball in the midfield, he covers a ton of ground, it looks like he has a lot of pace, he can pass the ball, and it looks like he's good in tight spaces.

My biggest concern at this point is that the center of the park for the Revs is extremely small and slight. Kouassi is 5-8, 155, Caldwell is 5-8, 150, and Lee Nguyen is 5-8, 150. Worried we could struggle on set pieces against some of the bigger teams in the league.

 

Can't they just sign him for whatever dollars as a DP and have the rest of the league pay anything over $500,000?

 

Interview with Burns about the signing:

http://www.csnne.com/new-england-re...n-signs-Xavier-Kouassi-as-a-Designated-Player

 

No*. The league only pays up to the dp cap hit, which last year was $436,250.

Any amount over the cap hit is the responsibility of the local owner.


*This assumes no alloc money being used.

 

Here is the rule from last year

In 2015, a Designated Player over the age of 23** will carry a salary budget charge of $436,250, unless the player joins his club after the opening of the Secondary Transfer Window, in which case his budget charge will be $218,125.


I think we know they are not using any alloc money for this since he is being termed a dp. There is no reason to use alloc money on a player like this unless you want to buy him down under the dp cap hit and since he is termed a DP we know they are not planning that.

We also know his salary is north of the dp cap hit (what ever that will be for 2016) since this is a free transfer.

 

I am interested to see his salary. I figure it can't be too high because he does not fit the "tick all boxes" kind of player. I am guessing in the 600-800 range.

The optimist in me hopes that they are saving the TAM for another similar priced player and will buy that player down.

 

I'm happy with the player, but I'm curious why he's not coming to until the summer. Sion I've read have been in financial trouble for a few years now - they would probably accept a reasonable transfer fee/contract buyout to get Kouassi off the books.

This is a bit of a dig at the Revs' well-known frugality, but I'm curious if it's player preference.

Also, are the Revs ever going to use that TAM money? It's league-mandated to use it!

 

Who's the other Dmid till then? I'm guessing it's Neumann!

 

Neumann, Kobayashi, Herivaux, or hell maybe Farrell or Sambinha. Or even Rowe. My guess it's Kobayashi's job for as long as his lungs/legs take him into the game.

 

One thing to note - Kouassi is not a goalscoring midfielder, and only limited assists (something that people harped on Jones for this year).

I wonder if Heaps is thinking of changing formation this year without Jones (and the rumor regarding Fagundez) - maybe more like a 4-3-3 or 4-2-2-2 or even a 3-5-2.

All comes down to what is happening with Davies and Agudelo. in Heaps' eyes.

Big year for Mr Heaps - he scouted 2 players and lost a key one (so far). One is not coming till mid year. How does he handle?

 

Hopefully we'll foul less frequently in the attacking zone! A younger, quicker, more positionally conservative dmid is less likely to get caught upfield as often.

I know you said "mutual", but I don't know that the Revs bungled anything. I think Jones was just demanding more than made sense (if he weren't, there would be interest from within MLS).

The current roster is deepest and strongest (IMO) in defenders and midfielders, so I don't think Heaps is going to be looking to get more forwards on the field. I think he's going to be looking to get more scoring from his midfielders (and defenders, occasionally).

 

The Revs could easily give Jones an out by making him count as a DP this season as well. A front-loaded multi-year contract ($1.5 million this year, $250k in '17, '18) would avoid the potential of having a lot of cap space tied up on an aging player beyond this season, and would still allow Jones to save face and come here happy and motivated. The Revs would be "giving up" a DP slot that they likely wouldn't be using anyways (they still have two empty ones), and .0001% of Kraft's personal wealth.

 

1) we don't know that Jones would have gone for that (he was insisting on a 4 year deal)
2) that kind of contract is very problematic. The Sox gave John Lackey a deal like that and the concern is that once he got to the low-paying year, why would he be motivated to play as hard as he had for multi-millions. And, what is to stop him from holding out, since he'd already have pocketed the lion's share of the contract?

 

Interesting - he joined Sion in July 2013. Do we know if he renegotiated once? Did the club try and sign him so he would not leave on a free, did he say he was playing out, or they could not come to an agreement?

And for the right transfer price - the would have let the "vital" player go.

I am slightly getting concerned with all these adjectives to make us love this guy - it is starting to feel a little forced. Is it because we have to wait for the summer?

I will pay attention to next Europa league game though.

 

I don't know any more than anyone else here about this guy, but he seems like a key player for them. If the Captain of the team is not considered "vital," then who is? Sion are in the midst of the Europa League, so it makes sense from their POV to keep the player as long as they can.

It would be as if someone made a midsummer offer for Nguyen that we couldn't refuse, but we would want to keep him until the end of the playoffs, wouldn't we?

Yeah, I would have preferred to have him at the start of the season, but that is always going to be an issue.

 

I am beginning to come to the conclusion that there really is no other marriage that makes sense then the Revs and Jones...Heaps recent comments not withstanding...a 6 game suspension coupled with a dwindling European season makes it ALMOST, in my opinion, a foregone conclusion

 

Then the question comes in what will the strategy be moving forward....I will say this, Jones brings some size and attitude to what would be a tiny midfield...in fact I think the midfield as now constituted may be a serious concern going forward. There is no one there right now that can really assert their will

 

If get Jones for a half year stop gap, we will only have him for 8 of the 14 games before Kouassi arrives. Even if it was for a full season, I still don't see JJ coming back to the Revs.

I REALLY hate this 'our big signing comes to the team late' situation that the Revs seem to ALWAYS have. So, now the Front Office can tell us they've solved the problem and then we need to wait for the player to 'integrate' into the team and before you know it, we are in the last quarter of the season before we know if the problem is solved or not. They get a free pass for over half the season based upon a possibility. Still sucks.

I hope Kouassi is the person we are looking for, but this is going to a be a long first half of the season. I look around and I just don't see us getting better as quickly as the rest of the league.