Alright guys, so far....who do you all think has been the worst Designated Player in MLS? I'm not including Freddie Ljundberg in this poll since he hasn't even played a game yet so that's not fair to include him in this list. As far as I'm concerned, Denilson has to be worst.
I chose Denilson. But it was a tough decision between him and Reyna. Denilson was a bust. Reyna was more of a disappointment. In that in mean Denilson seemingly wasn't on the downside. He was just removed from a halfway decent season with Bordeaux (he actually came from Al Nassr I think) still appeared to have legs, just played like shit. Then he leaves and was done well, from what I've read, at Palmerias. Reyna, on the other hand, you could see over his last few years he was winding down a bit. But there was hope that moving home would reenergize him. He started out okay but then it all went to hell rapidly. That was disappointing to see and quite sad. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Denilson was a shock and Reyna you have a feeling it could end bad. Seeing how Denilson was more of a shock I chose him as the worst.
1. Denilson 2. Reyna 3. Gallardo 4. Emilio With a healthy season, Gallardo can easily move off the list. Emilio's a good player and had an excellent '07 (when I believe he wasn't a DP.) I don't think he's worth a DP slot, however, and his '08 wasn't up to his '07, and at a year older next year, I wonder how productive he'll be. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong.
Well, I just checked Emilio's stats for '08: at 11 goals & 5 assists, better than I thought. I should probbaly take him off the list and just keep it at 3: 1. Denilson 2. Reyna 3. Gallardo
Well, I already took Emilio off the list. I just checked Gallardo's stats: 15g, 4g, 3a. Better than I remembered for him too (in my head he was more like 9g, 2g, 2a), but if he has another season where he only plays half the games due to injuries, I imagine even DCU fans would consider him a major disappointment. Believe me, I think he's a fantastic player. I just hope he's gotten himself healthy and can stay so this year.
Denilson set the bar for the worst on-field contribution. Anyone who watched the guy play was left scratching his head asking "what was FCD's front office thinking?" He was incredibly easy to steal the ball from and had zero sense of how to put the ball in the back of the net. Seriously, we had reserve team members that were way better. Biggest waste of money in MLS history. But, hey, FCD wasn't finished after Denilson. Trying to top that, they went out and signed the Human Traffic Cone who has now gone back to Mexico. Hey, FCD, try watching some game film before you sign these guys.
I voted for Beckham! Beckham has been mostly good when available and healthy. But that has not been often enough. Meanwhile, the team has to field more and more amateur / semi-pro players because they can't pay decent wages to the full roster. This past year in DC lots of folks complained because $30K a year Rod Dyachenko was a poor replacement for $1.6 million a year injury prone Gallardo. Duh. I think MLS went down the wrong path with Beckham's acquisition which was geared more toward generating publicity than raising the level of play. Meanwhile decent (MLS level) prospects coming out of college have to sign developmental contracts if they're not 1st Round picks or Generation Adidas. So David Beckham epitomizes the 2 most negative recent trends in MLS: glitz and style to attract fans seeking what's trendy instead of good fundamental soccer to attract soccer fans, and the imbalanced salary structure that can lead to Beckham sharing time on the field w players that earn 1/382 per year* as much as he does. I hope Beckham doesn't come back from Milan but thanks for the opportunity to grind my ax! * I divided $6.5 million by $17K after pulling those numbers (and Dyachenko & Gallardo's salaries) out of my occasionally correct memory.
I think if you weigh in expectations Reyna has to be considered, but he did well while he played. Now Denilson was a huge bust on so many levels and actually made some of the players who make 12k look pretty skilled. The guy could move the ball alright, but he was a cocky self-serving player who seemed to just be there to showboat and thus contributed NOTHING.
I think the first thing you have to look at is what exactly is expected of a DP. In my opinion it's two things. 1) Consistent top quality play game in and game out 2) The ability to sell tickets. Based on these two criteria, you have to say that Denilson was absolutely the worst. He looked like the lord of the dance on the field with all his stepovers and trying to pull tricks like he was on the And1 mix tape tour. The guy clearly thought he would dominate MLS based on his reputation alone and when he realized that he couldn't, he mailed it in. My understanding is that he was a horrible locker room guy as well. I can kind of understand where people are coming from with Reyna, but I think the blame for his "dissapointment" can be leveled squarely on the shoulders of Giants Stadium. You have a player that has had a recent rash of injuries and then ask him to play a minimum of 15 games a year on what basically ammounts to concrete? Reyna had no chance. And when he was healthy, he was good. Not to mention the fact that players like Jozy credit Reyna with dramatically improving his development. For the Beckham hater in the room, sorry to say this but he is probably the third or even second best DP based on the above criteria. Blanco clearly is the best, and then it's a toss up between JPA and Beckham. As far as butts in seats, Beckham dominates that category. As far as consistency goes JPA had a slow start to the season but still finished atop the East in scoring. Beckham arrived in MLS injured and was overused by MLS and AEG. That's hardly his fault. This season, his 10 assists were 5th best in MLS and his 5 goals on top of that isn't too bad for a right wing. I don't blame a guy for getting injured so Gallardo gets a pass from me. Emilio proved that you can't jump the gun and give a guy a DP salary bump based on one good year in the league (which is perhaps why MLS isn't allowing Dallas to give Cooper a pay bump). Still Emilio finished second in the East in scoring this year after a dreadful start. If you're talking about a guy that is absolutely 100% worthless, then it has to be Denilson.
Consider the fact that Dallas was able to dump Denilson after the half season he played. Claudio was forced to retire in his second season and cost much more in salary than Denilson. For that, Claudio was the bigger bust.
Everything you said is spot on. Which is why I said anyone who didn't vote for Denilson had an axe to grind. I'm glad the guy who admitted to voting for Beckham also admitted to grinding an axe.
Here's my list (as much as I hate putting Blanco at the top...) 1) Blanco 2) Beckham 3) Angel 4) Schelloto 5) Emilio 6) Lopez 7) Gallardo 8) Reyna 9) Denilson
well denilson was cut from his contract early on which they should have done with reyna. I voted for captain america for all the "lil things" he didnt do. Bruce the goose knew captain america was damaged goods but had this Bromance with him ever since his college days an his hard on for him wouldnt go away until he had him in giants stadium. Bruce knew he was not gonna sell seats an he knew he wasnt gonna be a game changer which is the whole point of a dp. Denilson was different since he was in good shape an was suppose to be a game changer, he had great statistics to back it up.. Only he failed to live up to the hype. Reyna all he had was "Oh he does the lil things",,hmm lil things,i didnt know the lil things ,, like getting swallowed whole by that Ghana defender in the 06 world cup that led to the U.S crashing an burning.I didnt know the Lil things were good enough to make u DP STATUS.. Those lil things he does so great. Captain America without a doubt Worst DP Signing Ever