Why in the world would the Galaxy want to get rid of Omar? Who knows if Gerrard will extend his contract (which expires at the end of 2016). If he doesn't, then Omar can go back to being a DP and there is no need to buy his contract down.
Futhermore, if Omar becomes a DP, that might clear the way to resign Zardes (if he regains last years scoring form and continues to develop otherwise) to this core player type of contract.
Initially I was just making a comment about the level of clubs interested, I'm not sure he can expect much better give his situation. I don't think he'll get offers from top half clubs, in a top 4 league after 2016. I did say I think we intend to keep him at least one more season. A sale wouldn't be against his will but a mutual decision, if it came to that. He's said he dreams of playing in Europe, maybe that has changed though as he's gotten older. Personally, I've never been a big fan of having defenders as DP's. After 2016 that's when things start to get interesting as far as potential DP's. Some of the heavy hitters will start to be available in 2017-2019. I mean in 2017 the decision could be keeping Omar as a DP or signing Yaya Toure to replace Gerrard. I guess one season with him as a DP wouldn't be bad. I'm not sure when Keane's contract is up, I never saw any information on the length of his new contract. If he's up in 2018 we should be aggressive and sign two attacking DP. That's the year when we likely will see a lot of big moves around the league. Even a guy like Rooney who's contract runs to 2019 might move in 2018.
I'm not a fan of defenders on DP's either. I think it's working right now because the new rule gives us wiggle room and also because we have Lleget who was a total coup. This could easily have gone badly, though. Say there was no "buy down" rule, and we whiffed on Lleget. (For instance, if NE had had any idea how good he actually is and said they wanted him). Then we're adding Gerrard to the midfield and that's it. Is that good enough to win the Cup? The SS? Maybe. Maybe not. Hard to say. There have also been extenuating circumstances, but it's not like our defense has been exactly lock-down this year, so we're not riding it to the Cup. Hard decisions in the long term, but they do get easier the more slots get added and nailing the Lleget move and that kind of thing sure helps. We are going to have issues though soon---Lleget and Zardes are going to need to get paid and deserve to get paid. Maybe not DP money (I wouldn't do it for either at this point) but definitely starting to inch into that Sarvas middle zone where they might deserve more than the team can afford to pay and keep all the balls in the air......
I agree. I just don't see us able to keep all of Lletget, Zardes and Gonzales in the long run. Managing the transition is the big challenge for Bruce/Chris.
I'm a little bit curious (and provoking, I agree), but what has Gyasi done this season in a Galaxy uniform that would earn him a significant pay rise? Omar has shown this season that we are dependant of him to have a good defense, and we all know how it's hard to find good defenders in MLS. If we lose him I think we'll be in deep trouble. Lletget has been great this year and I expect him to be one of the stars of this team in the next few years. I would be glad if we manage to keep Omar, Seba, Jose and Gyasi next season but is Zardes that important to this team? I think it will not be that hard to replace him. He counts 150K against the cap right now (223K guaranteed compensation), but what is he really deserving? I would say maybe 200K (salary against the cap), but not a lot more.
Does Gyasi's salary now count against the cap? I thought as a Homegrown player he was off the cap. Wikipedia shows him a HG in 2014.
That's why Zardes is so valuable to us currently. His salary doesn't count toward the cap, but he's a starter. However if we resign him to higher new contract I believe he starts counting towards the cap, and we have to protect him in expansion drafts.
It's tricky and something I've not seen clarified with the new rules. In years past, it worked this way: Not all homegrown players are off the cap. A homegrown player must fit into the regular roster rules. So a player like Villarreal doesn't count against the cap because he's a supplemental roster player (spots 21-30, now 21-28), not because he's homegrown. Same thing for a guy like Tommy Meyer or Rafael Garcia, despite them not being home grown. The minute you move them to the senior roster (spots 1-20), they count against the cap. Now, there were two special slots, which people liked to shorthand as HG/GA because the wording was something like "teams may sign two homegrown players to supplemental roster spots above minimum and similar to GA salaries". The upshot of this was that you had two roster spots for HG players which would remain on the supplemental roster despite having salaries that would normally qualify them for the senior roster. Though it was never clarified for the general public, the way those two spots worked was that each team had $150k to apply to those spots, so those two HG/GA players could total $150k above the minimum salary (so basically you could load it all on one player making $150k+min or split the $150k between two players). You could sign players to above that amount, but any excess would count against the cap. The player would remain on the supplemental roster, however. So in 2014 we had Zardes' guaranteed at $198k and no other above minimum HG player, so we had $150k + $48.5k (the min at the time)= $198.5k. So you can see how we used all of the $150k HG allowance to get Zardes' entire salary off budget. Onto 2015, we now see the wording for the GA/HG no longer exists. This means there is some change in how the league handles off-budget HG signings. The simplest explanation is that nothing has changed in essence but now you can split the HG allowance between as many HG players as you want. However, this does cause a problem as far as supplemental roster designations because previously you could only make two should-be-senior HG players supplemental. So now there is a case where you could potentially have more, and only buy down each a bit with the HG allowance, making several of your HG players off budget despite them mostly counting against the cap. Of course, there is a self limiter in that such that the cap wouldn't allow too much of that. The other explanation could simply be that there is no overage anymore and you can just split your extra HG allowance between your HGs as you see fit, but they're only on the supplemental roster if they're completely covered by the HG allowance. But the general upshot is that Zardes is, in all likelihood, still going to be supplemental roster and his salary basically completely off budget.
Thanks again for your insight on these rules. I sure hope your conclusion is correct because it speaks to our ability to keep him for a while. I do have a question, though. Are these designations and categories spelled out in the CBA or are the created by the league. My thought being that it is a lot harder to change anything spelled out in the CBA mid-stream but if the categories are a league creation, then who knows what next year will bring.
It's hard to know without actually reading this new CBA. Most of these mechanisms in the past existed outside the CBA but I could understand the MLSPU now wanting to have a little more control, or at least more transparency, with regards to rule changes and mechanisms since the last CBA was just an amendment to the 2004-2010 CBA rather than a totally new document like this one is. I would assume the CBA would have certain investment minimums rather than outlines of mechanisms and any changes would only increase the investment in players. I would also bet a lot of money that we'll see new and more complex rules and designations as the time period covered by the CBA progresses. Such is the life of a league which wants to suppress salaries on the low end while also leaving itself open to take advantage of investment opportunities (ie marketable players) at the top end.
Some reports he might be looking to move in 2017. Depending on how well he plays the next couple of seasons it's not that crazy. United pay him A LOT of money. If he's not playing at a very high level they need to do something.
We've done some big business but I would like to see more. Would like to see Buddle and Varynen moved on for space to sign some more depth or a solid CB or RB
Would absolutely LOVE to see Rooney and Ronaldo here at the same time together. Of course by then we have to expect to lose Zardes or sign him to a DP deal :\
Who knows what the roster rules will be in 2017? For that matter, who knows what the roster rules will be in a month?
My guess is Buddle retires at the end of the year and takes a job with the Galaxy, either as a coach or some sort of front office position. That seems to be the way Bruce operates when he brings in veterans on their last legs anyways. Wouldn't be surprised if Dunivant went the same route too.
yeah definitely. still would be good to improve some weak areas now just to make sure we dominate completely also, i hope we have a very competitive and longer than usual pre-season to get us ready for CCL
Both TA and HGP are in experiments in the same vein as the Designated Player. As with the DP rule expanding I fully expect the same to happen with the HGP when it comes to resigning Zardes, he’s simply too big a PR win for the league and the USMNT to let him slip through the cracks. I bet we see something like a HGDP. TA actually seems to be set up pretty nicely right now, it‘s an intriguing model that seems both self-correcting and self-sustaining, I’m really quite impressed with it. The only change I could see coming is an increase in the amount of TA money. LA seems to excel at living in the “this roster won’t work next year under existing rules” and then making the case, both on the field and I’m sure behind the scenes, that the rules should be changed to accommodate what’s clearly working. Seattle too.
Yeah me too. Word is Atlanta is pushing hard to sign him and make him the marquee player for that franchise. I could see them really focusing in on him, similar to Orlando and Kaka. Darren Eales (formerly of Tottenham) is well connected in England, I feel like he'll be spending the next two years trying to engineer that one. Rooney is a big fish but I could see him opting for a smaller pond in Atlanta, I don't think he's one of those guys who would default choose LA or NY, he would just need to be paid. If Rooney does come in 2017 they might break the record for highest paid player by some distance. .... Side note - I didn't know Boca was Atlanta's technical director.
Rooney playing on turf with a crappy expansion team will make for some priceless expressions of frustration.
eh, I can't see him signing in Atlanta. Kaka went to Orlando because the Brazilian connections but also because of TONS of Brazilians in Orlando. Might even be partly due to Disney, Brazilians freaking love that place. I know when I worked there I heard regularly that Brazilians chose to spend their sweet 16 flying to orlando for WDW