The best explanation is that his deal is much like Ibra’s first contract year with LAG. Low first year salary that is much, much higher in subsequent years.
@goobx , if blowing up the whole thing doesn’t include a new owner it won’t make a difference. And the chances of that are pretty slim. It’s sad to think about, but, imo, this season is probably representative of all foreseeable future seasons.
under this ownership we've only had, honestly, one GM. The transition to Waibel happened more or less with Checketts selling out of his position. I understand the fear with DLH, but we only have one GM's worth of evidence that things are rough. I'm not going to fully buy into that excuse until we have at least one more GM given a chance.
I don't deny that Dell Loy probably interferes with roster/coaching decisions to some extent, but I also have a hard time seeing Dell Loy insisting we bring back Donny Toia and not sign any other left backs. The amount of money spent on this roster should be enough to be a top-tier club. Dell Loy shouldn't have insisted we bring back Yura (if that's what happened) but he did pony up to buy out his contract. There's more than enough investment in this team to be a contender.
So the hiring of Tom Spall as Academy Director . . . I am not informed enough to know how good/not a signing this is, but it may well be the most important "news" for the organization this season - good, bad, or in between.
I'm not there yet on Dear Leader. My hope is that he see's the error of his ways and invests in quality soccer minds in the future. I don't really like people getting fired but I do think that Waibel and Petke have taken this team as far as they are capable of so doing. I don't see Craig bringing in anyone of real game changing substance for the team or adding to the team through subtraction or a trade. From what I understand the rules in MLS are kinda hard. I don't see Petke building a championship contending team year in and year out either. I like the guy but RSL is right where they will always be with him, average or slightly below. I've been wrong before but I have zero faith that Mike and whatever his "system" is will find success here. Maybe a player in the transfer window and that new license will change everything but I doubt it rather severely. For the owner he can stay. Outside of the on field stuff the guy has been top notch. He hasn't stopped trying to add value to the team off the field and I really appreciate that fact. I just hope that he comes to the realization that no matter how much "fun" it is to come to the games and how much he makes the game day experience exciting winning fixes everything. And to win you need to invest in the right people. Will he get there? Who knows? But until then I will let him keep investing in the team to the point that he can't keep high quality FO and Coaching talent from wanting to join RSL. If he would just do something about the southend that would be great.
It’s not just the money. There are other red flags. Who hires and fires the GM? Who is ultimately responsible for establishing a obvious vision? Who is it that can make sure the Academy-Monarchs-Senior Team relationship is symbiotic rather than piecemeal?
After Pastorino/Ellinger, RSL became a model franchise. Journalists everywhere were writing about how RSL was so well run, managed, coached. The organization had a transparent and professional culture that fans and season ticket holders bought in to. I'd go to meet the leaders meetings and walk away understanding the plan and the focus, and I felt like I was part of building soccer in Utah - and was HAPPY to spend thousands on tickets to do so. With the exception of overpaying for the stadium land lease, the success of was remarkable. Those days are LONG gone.
Uncle Dave knew what he was doing. His experience in the world of professional sports were the key to Salt Lake getting a franchise and for its success in those early years. To me, he’s the reason we had a higher ceiling back then. He was also very approachable, as you indicate. I went to the airport to welcome back the team after winning the MLS Cup. Dave was standing off to the side by himself, just watching....so I walked over and talked to him for about 5 minutes. He didn’t know me from Adam and was as nice as he could be.
Bobby Warshaw is one of the four main writers/commentators at the league website. His new article features a takeaway for each team, and here's ours: "What’s at the root of the inconsistency? I’ve never followed a team and been so unsure of what to expect on any given night. In RSL’s last 35 regular-season games, 10 of them have been decided by three goals or more. RSL won five of those and lost five of them. They can beat anyone, as we saw in their victory at LAFC in last year’s playoffs, and they can lose to anybody. When they are good, you wouldn’t want to change anything about them. When they are bad, you want to cut the whole team. I struggle to dissect anything about the team given the coin flip of which RSL shows up." The whole piece (this is it about RSL) is here.
The article has a picture of Petke before the RSL part. So I think they're putting a hint at who they think it falls on... Anyways, the bolded part (my emphasis) is why arguments about this team tend to go nowhere. We, as fans, tend to fall into two groups with this club. You have a group that sticks to the former side of the statement, and states that any issues the team runs into (the second part) are because of the coaching staff. Then you have people that hold to the latter part of the statement (myself included) and say it doesn't honestly much matter who the coach is, even when the former happens, the team is not designed to be successful. This is all ignoring the half speculated half known issues that ownership and the front office bring to the club before anything soccer specific happens.
Report: West Ham and Newcastle United interested in Jefferson Savarino Couldn't see this one coming, could we?
<Parties sitting at the negotiation table> Newcastle: We'd like to offer $7.5 million for Jefferson Savarino. Waibel: Really? He's not even a consistent starter. Newcastle: I think you misheard us. We'd like to offer $750k for Jefferson Savarino. Waibel: I figured that comma was in the wrong place. Give me the weekend to run it up the flagpole. I'll get back to you on Monday.
He's not because of Petke and this perception that others are more valuable to the team. He is, as I've said elsewhere, the guy I think with the biggest upside of anyone on the roster. Past Rusnak at this point. His ability to consistently beat players 1v1 is extremely undervalued by fans, I think.
The Athletic (which has the best soccer coverage I've ever read in an American outlet) published its inaugural "MLS Roster Construction Rankings" today. Teams were both ranked 1-24 and put into one of four categories: Best of the Best, Strong and Balanced, Flawed but Manageable, and More Bad than Good. Two people with years of covering the league generally and RSL specifically - Paul Tenorio and Sam Stejskal - pulled it together. They write "Total spending was naturally a huge factor, as was the performance of individual players relative to their acquisition costs. Roster balance also played a big role; Teams that are overly reliant on their highest-paid players got docked, while teams who get solid contributions from the middle and lowest earners on their rosters gained points. We also weighed how many contracts teams have in what has become a dead-zone of cap management: salaries below the maximum budget charge of $530,000, but above what is considered a manageable general allocation money (GAM) buydown, around $350,000. (There are barely more players in this category, 43, than there are players making more than $1.5 million, 39.)" RSL is in the "More Bad than Good" category, at number 17. The whole thing is behind their paywall. I feel very good about the bang-for-the-buck I get at $42 a year for all the sports coverage I could ever want.
Is the reasoning for the rating tied to the dead weight contracts (Yura and Pool Boy) or the general construction?
[two years later] Newcastle: We'd like to welcome our newest signing, Jefferson Savarino. How amazing it was that we were able to get him for free after his contract expired
1) Yura (they mention Pool Boy, but not Pool Boy's salary - because Yura at $2.3 million is simply stunning); 2) The combined cost of Silva, Onuoha, and Glad when we don't have a top-quadrant-in-the-league center back tandem; 3) Everton and Damir both being a) expensive for the return at roughly $1m each and b) both being poor fits to play with Kyle; 4) Sam Johnson not delivering at his salary.
Combared to Yura, pool boy, Silva, Everton, Damir and Glad, Johnson is a bargain for the return RSL is getting from him. Oh, and anyone they put next to Kyle is a poor fit because they need to be able to play two positions because Kyle sure as heck ain't playing his. This team sucks. But it's the deepest bunch of suckiest, sucks that ever sucked and we love them!
Not sure I agree with the Jonson evaluation. By no means is he amazing, but his conversion rate is pretty respectable.
Strikers are expensive and Johnson is about what I'd expect for $650K. The rest seems fair. I was pleasantly surprised that Kyle took a pay cut this year, but we really need a coach with the guts to admit that he shouldn't start anymore.