Simple deduction. When I look at the other DP salaries across the league and compare them to Chris Wondolowsk's 116 goals in 232 games, his worth to me or anyone should be noted and recognized. Looking at the leagues top 20 paid players, its sad that Wondo is not on it. Probably another reason on why he recently sold his house... Being his own agent (which was something I'm betting Doyle wanted), I'm sure saves or earns him some money on his contract. For what he has done in this league since 2009 however, he deserves more than any of these guys. Why shouldn't Wondo get Shkëlzen Gashi or Yura Movsisyan's salary? If I were him, I'd hold out for as much as he can get because no one on that list can do what Wondo has done in 7 seasons.
mistake number 1 by Wondo, having him and his father serve as his agent.....gotta have an outside party looking out for you....Wondo's biggest problem (in terms of contract negotiations) is he's a nice guy...... but this is a Lenhart thread so I digress......
Let's talk about Lenhart! He is 30 years old, unemployed , possibly without insurance , with concussion symptoms, and bad knees. I don't blame him one bit for milking as much as he could while he was playing.
Knowing Lenny, he doesn't care too much about money. He will probably stay and live in Japan because he seems to love it so much. He can teach English or soccer and make a decent living. And their medical system is very inexpensive for everybody (I assume also for gaijin who reside in Japan permanently).
Actually yes. They were caused by his professional playing days. I think the NFL are now providing healthcare to inured and concussed former players insurance and MLS should start doing the same.
There is not doubt that relative to his production, Wondolowski has been underpaid. One problem that MLS faces is that the market does not truly reward success on the field in a straight forward way due to its positioning in the global soccer market. There is no justification for spending that much money on Tim Howard when basically every other MLS goalkeeper is going to get you comparable results. But, Colorado felt they needed to spend a lot of cash in order to make a run in the playoffs and chose the worse possible position to go big on. Kaka has been paid a hilarious amount. That seems to be paying some dividends now for Orlando, but it didn't last year due to poor coaching and a very unbalanced team. MLS is a weird beast. You get very overpaid players and some drastically underpaid. All the guys in the middle are difficult to label as their salaries are generally low enough that you can't really complain one way or the other. I still think Wondolowski has been underpaid in his career, even by MLS standards, but you can't expect a team to pay you what you want. If he was willing to take less money in order to stay close to his family, or simply to stay with the same team for the majority of his career, well, that's how it goes. People make all kinds of choices when they seek employment. Maybe at some point in the future he'll regret not having tried to earn as much as he could at his most valuable, it's impossible for us to say. The expectation that the Earthquakes should have paid him more, though, is strange to me. They didn't need to, so you should not expect them to. Like with everything, you have to learn to negotiate.
Wondo and Lenny before getting injured deserved just as much or almost as much as either Shkëlzen Gashi or Yura Movsisyan. The same goes for what they paid Freddy Adu. To believe these salaries are fair is ludicrous. I was a Kaka and Pirlo fan in Italy but their MLS salary hasn't equaled their production on the field. If they bring in fans or create exposure then maybe it's worth it but I've never been in awe of either player since coming to America. In most leagues, Lenny would have easily been paid around $1 million more or less. I've seen very few forwards on the Quakes with his workrate and it's sad that his career was finished at 27 years of age.
It is a theft when you don't sign your contract in good faith and then take a 2-yr vacation....and then suddenly can play again. I do blame the Quakes for not making him train and then force the retirement if he's too wimpy to take the pain.
Lol. I would hardly call a two month spell, (or whatever it was) in the Japanese 4th division as playing again.
I do think there was more to the Lenny not playing situation other than just injury. Not sure exactly what happened but that is the clubs fault. They (Doyle , Kaval or whomever signed him) were the ones who gave him the contract. Just like they gave Innocent $ 2 million dollars for 13 games. Call it being unlucky ,injured or whatever, I still don't see how Lenny can be at fault for not playing.
Biggest issue I had with Lenny was the fact that while he was out injured, he was photographed doing skateboard tricks, surfing and other physical activities. Doing rehab exercises is one thing, but goofing around with things that could potentially injure you while under contract to play for a team is negligence.
You think the Japanese team didn't do any due diligence on him? They took a chance on him just like the Quakes did. Blame stupid FO's, not the player.
Fourth division Japanese soccer? I think his pay was a couple of nigiri sushi and a bowl of ramen per week. I don't think they were motivated to do "due diligence".
Hey, any quick search on Lenhart would have brought someone here, where they could have learned all they needed.
Or maybe kakkoii (cool)? Kawaii is usually used more for small cute things. Or maybe they found him to be "kowai" (scary)
"Where in the world is Steven Lenhart?" (Center Line Soccer - Friday, 2/16/18) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
I'm trying to think of all the questions that interest me less than this one.... it's not a very long list.
Lenny showing off his dance moves for TT. This is why I love this guy 🚦@ChrisWondo @Dskuta51 @MLS https://t.co/0dwQ8anFNm pic.twitter.com/3AGSkQ5QAL— Tommy Thompson (@tomthom11) February 22, 2018
Well, we like the sentiment directed towards the Scum and the Flounders, even if having to endure the intersection twerk was necessary. TT getting lessons in Quakes weirdness, but Wondo surely warned him beforehand.