Tea Light in the Dark Universe: Bobby Wood at Hamburg

*prays that Wood will score if he's selected to play*

 

Bobby Wood, the U.S. national team forward employed by a relegation-threatened Bundesliga club, is exploring the possibility of moving to MLS this summer, multiple sources told the Insider on Monday.

The Hawaii native has three years left on his contract with Hamburg, which is 5-18-7 and next to last in the 18-team league, eight points from earning a place in a relegation playoff. The club has been in the top flight since the Bundesliga was formed in 1963.

It’s unclear how serious Wood is about moving stateside or whether he is more likely to seek opportunity elsewhere in Europe. However, Hamburg would almost certainly request a transfer fee — Transfermarkt lists his value at $3.8 million — and an MLS club would have to pay him well over $1 million annually.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ng-to-mls-this-summer/?utm_term=.53edd324687f

Even with his horrific slump this season, I still feel like Wood is one of two US internationals not already in MLS (the other obviously Pulisic) who could get a $2+ million a season contract or more in MLS.

 

I'd imagine he's testing the waters. He's on 3 million euros a year, but not sure how much of that is taxed. I'd guess he'd want to be Cali to be close to his family back in Hawaii. I hope he stays in Germany.

 

Don't think he is worth $1M

 

he's worth that but whether MLS recognizes that is another thing

 

He is just hugely overpaid frequently injured BL2 forward.

 

Disagree immensely with this.

Before he was forced to play through pain on his knee to help hamburg survive relegation last season, he was an absolute force. I know because I watched his games and witnessed a kid who by himself was taking on the entire Bayer Leverkusen defense and causing havoc. His goal vs schalke was pure class last season. After playing in pain on his knee to survive relegation last season he hasent been the same.

So maybe only right now is he high BL2-level...but that's only because of a knee injury that he could finally shake-off within the next year or two.

 

Nobody will pay for someone who might be OK in a year or two. As of now if he goes to MLS he must prove that he is better than someone like Dwyer or Morris who aren't that great either.

 

I could see Seattle moving for him.

 

I think he is appealing for many mls teams, and he is a confidence player, so if he scored from the run of play again it is on. I think being back in this country could be big for his comfort and ability to rebound from the things that shake his confidence. If he comes back I hope to see a more mentally robust, confident 15-20 goal striker.

I don’t know if Seattle is a good fit, isn’t turf just awful for knee issues. He seems like one of this players that is running out of cartilage.

 

He's scored against Mexico in games that matter.

He's worth the $2m.

 

I think he could be picked up by another Bundesliga club as a bench striker

 

Worth 1M?

His current contract pays him 3.7M USD per year, through 2021. He's due approx another 11M USD over the next three years.

Why'd he leave that for 1M/Y?

 

Don’t relegation clauses include paycuts, assuming of course that’s in his contract.

 

These types of comments frustrate me as much as the "MLS sucks" ones.

Not being able to cut it in the majors (while injured) doesn't mean that he's equivalent to average minor league players. The best comp to Wood is Jozy, who flushed out of the majors, but has been a leading MLS player. If Jozy is worth almost $5M and MB worth almost $7M, Wood should be equal to/above both of them.

My god, comparing Wood USMNT performances to Dwyer/Morris, it's obvious who is better and has more upside.

Sheesh.

 

most people are horrid at comparing players from different leagues. to be fair, it's not easy.

on top of that, most fans of usmnt/mls put way too much weight into "stats" i.e. a player's worth....and not nearly enough weight into situation, health, team/coach they are working with etc......especially true of strikers.....(i've posted previously in this threasd that lewandwoski would struggle to score at hamburg if he had been at hsv this year....but i think many people don't realize that soccer isnt a solo sport....and somehow think that every player would produce similar stats no matter what team they are on....as a reverse example, i think jozy would score a ton if he started every game for bayern or dortmund etc,.....even though i know that would never happen cuz he failed in the epl...so he "sucks")

it's really annoying to see players written off time and again b/c of these supposedly objective factors that are anything but absolute.

wood is at a low point right now for sure and there's no guarantee he gets back to where he was but obviously he would be a sought-after player in MLS. i think the dwyer comparisons are fair...he's a better version of dom, imo.

 

They usually do. However, when he signed his new deal in the summer, Hamburg were certainly aware that Bobby was fielding enquiries from other clubs. Most of HSV's problems strategic problems have stemmed from an outside benefactor who writes cheques that the club can't who successive Sporting Directors have been too subservient to. Those guys are in it to be loved, all the time, so headlines in fan forums like "Workhorse striker who played through pain to keep us up last season is being let go!! WTF?!?!" would make clubs less able to hold the line.

Bottom line is that he may not have a relegation clause, the relegation clause may not affect his pay as much as others, or the relegation clause refers to his buyout clause rather than his wages.

 

How much is Bradley and Jozy making? This guy is worth more.

 

Good post. For an illustration, look at the Roma-Barcelona tie. Edin Dzeko was a bit of a disappointment at City and Frederico Fazio flopped badly at Spurs (rumour has it that Spurs were initially paying 75% of his wages just to be rid of him). They were both key performers in the CL

 

I bet he'd be better than Agudelo but not as good as Altidore in MLS. 1.5 mil a year tops sounds about right, but then again that buys you a Zlatan these days, so maybe he should just collect the German money while it's there.

 

That sounds about right to me.

I'm not a huge fan of Bobby, but I'd absolutely take him on the Red Bulls on a lower-to-mid DP salary to play as a second striker with BWP.

I'd rather see him come to MLS than go through another 2. Bundesliga season. He has already shown that he can perform there, and I feel like he could use a change of scenery.

 

The other problem is few people seem to want to contextualize situation. When no one is scoring on a given team, when a style of play is clearly awful for the player's skill set, when the player is playing hurt, or dealing with family issues etc. it's silly to make blanket statements like "they're bad" - then when they score/play well "they're good."

Using Jozy at S'land for an example it was clear to anyone actually watching him and his USMNT performance that he was basically playing at around the level he always played - in a situation that was not good for him to score. And of course, when he moved to a situation that was good for him to score, both on field and off, he went back to his AZ level, if not a bit above.

If Wood's knee injury is not chronic, I would expect similar. Wood is much like Jozy, probably a "decent" top D1 striker in the right situation, but not so good he can shine in any situation. Likely to be his old Union self if he drops on the right side (assuming knee is not ongoing issue) in the B2 or were to go to Ered or MLS. Likely to do well on the right team in the B1 but also likely to struggle if he returns with Hamburg in the same set-up/philosophy/personnel.

Bobby is effective but not good enough to seriously tip the scale for a top division team in over their heads.

 

How much would be he paid in Ered considering uneasiness about the knee? How much the club would pay for his transfer?

 

Strong, strong disagree.

Wood scored 20 in 40 (.5/game) in the 2. Bundesliga. He has 11 in 37 (.3/game) with the US. Respectable, sure, but not great.

Altidore scored 39 in 67 (.58/game) in the Eredivisie, which is much better than the 2. Bundesliga. He has 41 in 110 (.37/game) with the US. Again, respectable, not great, but better than Wood.

More importantly, we're in a much different economic and competitive environment now than we were in 2015 when Altidore signed with Toronto. He was coming from a Premier League salary to a league that hadn't signed a ton of players like him in recent history. Therefore, he commanded more money than the market would normally dictate.

If Wood were to come to MLS, he'd be coming from a (likely) relegated Bundesliga team, where his salary is almost certain to be cut, to a league where Zlatan just signed for $1.5 million/year, and where players like Altidore, Bradley, Guzan, Howard, Spector, and Bedoya have all signed in recent memory. The returning USMNT player isn't a novelty anymore, so Wood's salary expectations have to be reduced as a result.

The best comparison for Wood isn't Jozy - it's Josef Martinez. They're close in age, they have similar strike rates for their national teams, and they have similar club-level pedigree and performance. Wood has the disadvantage of coming, like I said, from a situation where his salary is going to be cut because of relegation, while Martinez came midseason. Martinez made a shade over $1 million in 2017. Wood has the benefit of being a domestic player, so he might get a little bump over that to something like $1.25 million, but not much more. That should be his salary target, not Jozy's. No one with Jozy's background is ever going to get paid like that in MLS again.

 

Not enough, I would imagine. Unless HSV were willing to fire sale in the event of relegation. If some dutch club saw a chance at a deal and sell-on profit, it could happen. But otherwise, I very much doubt it. Even cheap he's probably too expensive for them. MLS or someone else would outbid any Dutch team that wanted to take a chance on him.