News: RSL 2019 Season News

The "We almost signed X player but DLH wouldn't pay for him" is such a weird defense to me. Like yes, you could sign almost anyone if you could write a blank check. If you're talking to players who are out of your budget range, then that's not really a defense of anything.

 

No. He's not involved in the office stuff and he loves his job.

 

exactly. To have this come up so often screams that Waibel's expectations of his budget and the actual budget just aren't aligning. Which contradicts what he himself said at the townhall. He said that he is given a set budget to work with (beyond the cap) for the season and has to find a way to make it work. What this sounds to me like is that he's not that great at contract negotiation and is having to ask DLH to pay more than he's already been given.

And again, that budget he's been given looks to be a pretty significant amount. I'd think it's in the ~$5MM-$7MM range - thats beyond the cap and funny money of the league.

What is also extremely frustrating with Waibel is this fascination with Europe as opposed to South America of late. Savarino has the potential to be one of the biggest profits in league history given what we signed him at and what he's worth. And yet Waibel keeps going to Europe lately where you have to pay top dollar for guys like Rusnak, Kreilach, Luiz, and Johnson.

 

We haven't come this close to signing a major Mexican NT start since the heady days when Jared Borghetti was training with the team in Park City.

 

My guy also said that Waibel is pissed because his budget keeps changing and what he can spend keeps getting cut.

True or not the big takeaway for me is that there is quite the dysfunction in the FO which is really not that surprising.

 

I'd cut the guys budget after the whole Yura and Pool Boy fiasco too...

 

One of the many reasons I am skeptical about having reached an agreement with Vela is that neither he nor his agent/publicity people/others in his orbit have ever been shy about giving information about moves, contracts, negotiations, etc. - ongoing or hoped-for - and they would have done the same here.

 

... if we're on the same spending level of Seattle then I'm not sure what exactly people have to complain about.

 

I'd be cool spending less money on actual players if it meant bringing in a great coach.

 

Rep times one million.

 

All I said was that I can believe DLH wouldn’t pony up for a talent like Vela. Apparently you do not disagree. I don’t see where compensation for Rusnak or anyone else on the roster is salient to my post. He and they are not close to Vela’s talent level.

 

but that's a goal post that very few teams in the league reach. Maybe I read your post wrong, but I thought you were criticizing DLH for not shelling out that kind of money for players.

This all goes without bringing up that, even if DLH wants to shell that money out, the league wants their marquee players in the big metros. Take this Vela rumor: Lets say RSL agrees to pay the guy the same, if not a couple mil more than LAFC. The league still controls the final step in the contract negotiation. It's better for them to have Vela in LA as opposed to SLC. This is a fact.

Argue fairness all you want, it's a reality of the league. If Waibel is dumb enough to go try and sign a player like Vela (big name big talent) then he doesn't understand the club he works for or the league he operates in. He should be scouring South America for young players that can be better than Vela with the right grooming and paying a fraction of the price for them.

 

Yeah but for that we need a coach. We haven't had one of those in 6+ years.

 

I would say that there are probably a ton of players who would love to get out of Venezuela. Brazil would also be a good place to look if only for the fact that they are used to long road trips and their season coincides with the MLS.

 

I'd like to see this, too but I wonder how a team would do it effectively, though. Foreign coaches can have difficulty with the league rules and market idiosyncrasies. A team would have to have a very robust front office infrastructure to maximize probability of success with a great coach.

 

Brooks Lennon scored against Japan in a behind-closed-doors game with the U-23's.

http://www.americansoccernow.com/ar...teams-yield-solid-results-in-september-window

 

It's interesting that they let Lennon take the PK.

 

I have consistently criticized the spending, but purposely stayed away from it in my post. I was just addressing the rumor.

I agree with your points above. The Don will make sure that high profile names go to high profile markets. I also agree about South America. I don’t follow him, but does Andy Williams ever tweet from SA? Most of his tweets that get posted here seem to be from Europe. Is the organization focused there?

 

This is not directly specifically at @RSLer ; lots of people have made this statement.

I'm very skeptical of the idea that the Don prevents big name players from coming to small markets. It makes no sense. First, if this actually happened, small market owners would absolutely not stand for it. They likely wouldn't get into the business in the first place.

Second, this would not benefit the league. I think the argument goes that the Don wants teams in big markets to win trophies, so he forces big name players to big markets. But this argument only holds water if small market teams can attract big name players while big market teams cannot, so they need the Don to step in to help them out. That surely isn't true. If RSL gets Jared Borgetti, that is not going to prevent Thierry Henry from going to New York. So why stop Borgetti from coming to RSL? That would just harm the league; it's good for MLS if the quality is better and if the small market teams are healthy as well.

I think the only possible reason that the Don would really step in is if he thinks paying for the big name player is going to bankrupt the club. That could have happened a decade ago, I guess, but it seems terribly unlikely today.

Maybe this is crazy, but doesn't it seem likely that most big name players want to play in big cities? And that the richest owners also own teams in the biggest cities? And so therefore the biggest name players end up in the biggest cities, even without the Don doing anything?

I just don't buy this conspiracy theory.

 

I agree with this but would add the that league benefits *more* from a high profile player in a big city than the same player in a small city. I don't think that means the league could get away with telling RSL or KC or Cincinatti that they can't sign Vela and have to let him go to NYC or LA, though.

 

Maybe I would believe that this is just a conspiracy theory and not anything that The Don is doing specifically if The Don actually did something that would directly benefit the smaller clubs at the expense of the big city clubs.

Since it seems that clubs in cities like LA, NY, Seattle, Atlanta, etc., have no problems attracting big name players to play for their teams, why limit the number of DPs that those clubs can sign and allow teams like RSL to sign one more DP than those clubs, i.e., LAFC can sign three DPs, but RSL and other smaller market clubs can sign 4 DPs, or allow one of their DPs slots be to traded (ONLY FOR A ********IN' YEAR I'M LOOKING AT YOU RSL FRONT OFFICE) for any sum of money that they can get from a team like LAFC.

If The Don did something along these lines, then maybe I would believe that The Don is completely neutral when it comes to the different clubs in the MLS. Until that happens, I will continue to believe that The Don views all teams in the MLS as being equal, but some clubs are more equal than others.

 

There's a salary cap/budget that limits what the big teams spend. And "You Suck" money that favors teams that do poorly. And a reverse allocation order that helps smaller teams. Seven teams in each league make the playoffs, which helps small market teams compete.

And if it makes you feel any better, Seattle fans are pretty pissed off at Garth for the creaky roster, and for having Luis Silva be their midseason acquisition.

 

Actually that acquisition sort of makes me suspect he’s doing his internal sabotage thing prior to leaving for another club.