2nd dp?

We may not have to trade for a second DP spot. MLS is negotiating a new CBA with the players' union and several teams are apparently pushing for the new CBA to include a second DP.

If a second DP spot is not included in the CBA, I wouldn't want the Sounders to trade for one. Those haven't tended to work out very well and I'd much rather keep the players/money that we would trade for the second DP.

Anyways, I suspect our second DP is already on the team. Montero. Depending on how serious the European teams that are looking at him are, the Sounders are looking at a fairly high increase in salary in order to keep him.

 

Whether he breaks in as a starter or not isn't that important really. Considering the amount of money Euros can toss around, he'll likely jump at a chance to make a million plus a year and ride the pine in Europe before he'll take a sub-400k and be a starter in MLS.

I think Spain is a good choice from him. I'm also not sure if he qualifies for a British work permit or not. They made their work permit requirements a lot squishier than they were a couple of years ago, so I suspect if a team wants him bad enough, FA will approve the permit. I'm also thinking a Dutch team is more likely to take him over a Scandinavian team, but the Ljungberg connection might bump him up in Sweden.

 

As much as I like Montero, just being honest here, the diving and embellishing would go down better in Spain too.

 

300-years-old is over-the-hill, as far as I'm concerned.

 

That's his bowling score

 

I lived too long with the internet to not chuckle everytime someone writes "dp"

 

If I were making the choice I would love to see a attacking mid fielder or a withdrawn striker . The three best internationals in MLS history in my mind are Valderrama, Etcheverry and Schellotto. I think there are 2 reasons why signing this type of player makes sense:

First they make the players around them better: All three of these guys were MLS assists leaders and fantastic at setting up the players around them.

Second they age well: an attacking mid fielders skill set is less likely to decline as quickly as other positions. All three of the payers I listed were productive well into their mid thirties and their success depended more upon their Soccer IQ than their physical prowess.

Now their have been notable exceptions to this rule (Cough Gallardo cough) but in general I think you get more bang for your buck out of gifted AM then you do any other position on the field.

 

Agreed. It'd be nice to plow our profits back into a top-caliber CAM. Not sure who'd be dumb enough to trade us a 2nd DP though.

 

Colorado.

 

Be honest now. You don't watch any Spanish footy do you?

 

I think he means Serie A. Lots of foul embellishment in that league. But I'm not sure if you could honestly say that any league is worse than another in the foul embellishment front. Every league has it and every player does it and on average the leagues are reasonably close in the percentages. Some leagues just have a bad reputation for it.

 

GOOCH! Don't know his wages at AC Milan could be high... but Marshall will be done in a couple years or less most likely. We do have two good relatively cheap CBs with size in Graham and Ianni but I think Hurtado and Onyewu would work really well.

 

I suggest, humbly, that it is a little premature to assume a second DP slot is being negotiated into the next bargaining agreement. We don't know really, we're blind to the negotiations, all we have is rumor.

Even it were in the next deal, the details of the slot would needed to be sorted out for Seattle to know if the slot made sense. If the second slot was dinged at another 400K and the salary cap didn't raise much to accomodate this - a second slot could severely hamstring us.

The fact is, we don't know much about what the next barganing chips will be. The Union will want a payoff from all the expansion - Garber will want to keep expenses to a minimum as he contends the league is not profitable. It becomes harder for Garber to peddle the "we're losing money" angle however, when he's over in Europe preaching how financially stable and intelligent his league is - and all these additional owners are lining up to join his league.

It is possible, this off-season could yield a massive brawl between the league and the union. I don't think a second DP slot is feasible for most teams, if there are not additional rules on how they can be traded/accumulated and if the salary cap doesn't rise so teams can fit two/three DPs on their team and not ruin the rest of their team.

Given, how we've seen MLS has serious issues with depth, and a crowded schedule that pounds the rosters into injuries and B-teams playing at mid-summer, roster depth might be more of a priority than another DP.

I don't know the answers of course. I will say that I think this off-season is very important to the league. The next few steps it takes will have a significant bearing on the success of the league - and the sport - in the next decade.

 

It's at the point with Serie A that the refs tell people to get up after they actually have been fouled. Of course they still miss the cheats too. Honestly I see more diving in MLS than Serie A these days. It could be my imagination though

FIFA needs to support post match video reviews with suspensions for diving.

 

I doubt the union is fighting for more DP slots

I'd much rather see 6 more spots on the roster and an extra 500 grand to pay them with than a second DP. However if they want to throw in a second dp and have it not count against the payroll that would be neat.

I'll commence breath holding any second now.

Oh and since I am here in the thread, I'd rather see more of a regista CM than a CAM or withdrawn forward.

 

Good analysis.

I wonder if the league will have some extra $$$ from expansion fees... I would hope that before a second DP, the league raised the minimum wage (and of course the overall cap)

 

I keep thinking of how great Donovan and Ljungberg looked when they played together in the All-Star game in the 2nd half. Granted, we're not getting Landycakes, but a fast and creative midfielder with great vision to complement Freddie would be awesome.

 

I'd almost rather see a DP striker than midfielder and then a MLS quality right mid. That way Ljungberg can be CAM or withdrawn forward and we don't have to worry about the @#$%@# congestion in the center we currently have. Not to mention we could kill the Jaqua at RM experiment, which seems to only mean we have four guys standing in the center of the field instead of the usual three.

 

True, we know jack crap about DP, or the CBA in general, but we do know that Seattle, Houston, Toronto, LA, and NYRB are pushing for a second DP spot and a fairly significant cap increase. Of course, for every team wanting a significant cap increase and second DP spot, you've got a San Jose, KC, NE, and FCD not wanting a significant cap increase or second DP spot.

It's also not a benefit for the player's union to add DPs, this would purely be a league initiative. The Union is more worried about getting an increase in the minimum salary, free agency established, and larger squad sizes than a second DP.

 

No one laugh. I think we should bring in Stuart Holden. I think he would do really good with Freddie L. in the midfield.

 

Who's laughing? I think Holden's awesome.

 

MLS would never let us use a DP on him. How about Henry?