2017/18 Offseason Player Movement & Rumors

Union have 3 GKs under contract for next season. Unless Sak comes back I don't see them signing another GK.

 

Via my own hazy recollections I believe the only players we've picked up via waiver/re-entry/free agency mechanisms are Nizar Khalfan, Conor Casey, and Corben Bone...

Or if Blake is sold ... Though I think Bingham (or even Rimando short-term) would be better options than going down the 2010 road again.

 

I’d be really surprised if they don’t finally cash in on Blake this year.

 

Could always sell him to Oka's new home, the GK-less Galaxy for a ton of allocation money...

 

Do it. It would be about the same on net as selling him for cheap because he couldn't get a UK work permit and then splitting the transfer money with MLS.

 

So you are suggesting we DOMDWYER! him to LA. I love Blake, but we could accomplish what we have with a regular keeper.

 

Right, he's totally wasted on us. Let him enjoy his prime elsewhere.

 

Yeah I mean any one of us could be keeper and they'd still miss the playoffs.

 

"accomplish"

 

With the exceptions of NT guys like Tim Howard and Brad Guzan, I don't see how a GK will earn a salary in a MLS that is any anywhere near what he could make in Europe because of the salary cap. So unless Blake really wants to stay in North America for personal reasons, I highly doubt he will sign an extension with the Union or any other MLS team before his contract expires and he can join any European that will have him on a free transfer next winter and make a lot more money. Knowing this, European teams would be unlikely to give us much of a transfer fee for him knowing that they will be able to get him for free in a year. Similarly, teams within MLS probably won't give us very much allocation $ for him knowing that he will almost certainly leave for Europe in a year for free.

 

Didn't stop Orlando from forking over a stack of Garber Bucks to bring Dom Dwyer "home."

 

I think free spenders like TFC or NYCFC would be happy to pay Blake significantly more than he’s making right now. Also, there’s no incentive to wait if you are one of the dozens of European teams that might conceivably be interested in Blake. You can agree to a transfer now and lock him into a long term contract instead of competing with a bunch of other teams in a year to sign him on a free.

 

I'm sure they'd like to, but I just don't see any MLS team, including the "free spenders", spending much on the GK position because of the salary cap and limited numbers of DP spots. Yes they will spend way over the cap on salaries, but they can only do it on 3-4 players because of the cap and limit of 3 DP's. After that, they still have the same amount of cap space as the Union to fill out the rest of their roster. I suppose Atlanta and Colorado chose to go for Guzan and Howard because of the visibilty/marketability of USMNT players. Maybe this will change now that we have entered this new era of mega-TAM.

I hadn't thought about it this way, and I am just speculating since i don't honestly know much about how transfers work. In this case, I think the team interested in Blake would be foolish to buy him unless a new long-term contract was agreed to concurrently with the transfer, or else he could still walk when his original MLS contract expires. So in a sense, all those teams would still be bidding against each other, but it would be a three-way negotiation with Blake and the Union instead of just with Blake a year from now.

I also am no expert on how teams determine the transfer fee they would be willing to pay/accept for a player. However, it seems that the more time that is left on the players contract, the higher the transfer fee will be (especially if the wages on the contract are low since it will be a long time until he can ask for a raise or leave for free). Conversely, a transfer fee would be lower if there isn't much time left on the contract. With only a year left on Blake's contract, the fee a team would be willing to give the Union for him will be low, and maybe below what the Union would accept to lose their fan-favorite, all-star GK who is still on his rookie contract (cheap) for his final year with the team, even if they know they won't be able to extend his contract.

In summary, I think the odds that the Union lose Blake at the end of this year when his contract expires are higher than they are for him being traded within MLS or sold him abroad before then.

 

In a league with a salary cap and limit of 3 DP's, teams will always be willing to pay a lot more for a a guy who scores goals than they will for a defender or GK.

 

My point is that Dwyer's contract also expires at the end of next season....he can walk away for and Orlando will have nothing

 

Point taken. I was not aware of that fact.

 

Germany does something similar

 

2018 STH video tagline nominee

 

Blake is what, 15th/16th in salary in MLS keepers?
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/28/tim-howard-salary-colorado-rapids/

If LAG offered whatever for him and he went from $138k to $200k, I'd bet he would jump at a 40% salary increase and to GTFOChester.

 

They should just give up the pretense of even wanting to build a real team. Hold a raffle for the gameday roster. Open it up to STHs. Like, $20 a ticket to enter and you can buy multiple tickets.

It'd be more entertaining than what they're doing now anyway.

 

Ilsinho has apparently been offered a contract by a team in Sao Paolo Brazil, and Herbers is currently training with a third division team in Germany. Seems to me that the Union front office better start solidifying contracts with players they want to keep (let alone sign new players).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcVxzZZlmEE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcU02BGFPu3/

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/12/08/mls-increases-tam-investment-2018-2019

New TAM rules:
4 million max
1.2 million provided by league (same as last year) + an additional 2.8 million availble for purchase by ownership.

Time for Jay “ready to spend” Sugarman to put his money where his mouth is.