Company line says that it's cause he's with the Colombian U20s rn, so obviously he wouldn't be in the preseason squad rn.
Exactly. Let’s make sure we don’t doom ourselves and sell at $17M. $60M to get out of Toyota Park? $5M a year to keep using TP as the training facility? How many millions to build a new training facility? DPs? Let’s stay financially healthy.
Jeff Carlisle article this morning says Duran to Aston Villa for $18m guaranteed plus up to $4m for achieving certain performance goals. Fire also to get sell-on percentage of future transfer. Deal subject to AV reaching agreement with Duran on other terms, passing medical and obtaining international transfer papers. Sounds like deal (nearly) done as AV posted this info. WOW! No need to worry because we are all sure that Heitz has an upgrade replacement player already tied up. Yeah, Right!
From a pure business view, it makes sense...ring the register. From a club and supporter view, it would make sense to actually start Duran this season and sell in June. Was really looking forward to seeing his (and Guti's) growth...this highlight was arguably the best offensive play of the year...wanted more. It also makes me feel the club is always going to "sell" and not let us enjoy the part of an 'up and comer's' development that is the most entertaining...and we will end up feeling like 'just a farm club'...and fall into the old MLS rut, relying on retirement talent to compete
So...do we take 40% of that cash and buy Arango for $8m (reported asking price) from LAFC? Or just turn around and hand it all to Giroud? Or? Business wise, the sell-on clauses that Heitz has baked into the last couple of deals has been "savy". But the lack of MLS GAM transparency sure makes it hard to know what we have to work with. I mean is it 'just cash" we are getting, or is there a conversion rate process for GAM? Duran was only hitting the roster salary cap for $120k...a DP replacement will hit $651k and (presumably) require a crap ton of GAM...ya?
Duran sale: total no-brainer Heitz has a flippin' huge opportunity here. Hopefully, he parlays the windfall into massive team improvement. Am prepared to be underwhelmed.
I was looking forward to a full year with Duran as a starter, but the money seems crazy for a player who only started for us for half a season. Lots of potential upside with Duran, but his value could drop in the wrong circumstances if he'd stayed.
I don’t think it’s fair to see this singular transaction as a sign the club will always sell- let’s not forget Durán had an outburst on social media last year where he disparaged MLS and the club and the insane amount of cash the team is getting for him. If they were selling, say, Guti for half a million bucks, that’s one thing, but the writing has kind of been on the wall for Durán for a bit and the fact that he had a hot second half to the season that generated a lot of interest (and extra $$$) make this a bit of a unique situation, at least to me, rather than an indication that we’re happy to be a farm club. It does suck not being able to see him and Guti develop their chemistry further, though, no doubt.
Agree. $18 million plus whatever bonuses for a guy with essentially a 1/2 season of pro experience? We'll take your cash.
Well seeing what the value of the '22 Fire was, I would say missing the playoffs looks worse now. You can't make the playoffs with 3 players valued at $10 million plus in MLS? I'm shocked teams got into a bidding war for Duran. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia cost Napoli $10 million, and at 21 is putting up numbers in Serie A that Duran never began to approach in MLS.
Can't really blame Duran when Ezra just didn't play him for a large stretch of the season despite him being ready to play. I think about June I'd have put him in over Kacper.
You are correct that GAM would be needed for most of the possible major acquisitions. MLS rules indicate teams can chose to take a portion of player sales proceeds as GAM. It looks to me like the Fire could use this clause to take the max.allowable GAM of $1,102,500 each for the Slonina and Duran sales. Likely $2.2 mIllion GAM would be a big help.
I hear you, but it's not just this one...Djordje, Gaga, Duran. Can't argue that it's not been "good business" (it's been very good business!), but I can argue that it would be more fun to watch 2023 with those 3 starting for us.
Djordje was a different situation though, we didn’t sell him after he showed potential, we moved him when it began to appear that he wasn’t a good fit. And with Durán, again, there were signs he was unhappy and now we’re getting millions for him. Gaga is really the only one that feels like a ‘sell off’, but even with him, that price at his age is tough to turn down. If we just start selling off other young players like him that appear happy to be here, I’d be a bit more concerned, but I didn’t see a scenario where Durán lasted here very long after his outburst, and I think he did us a huge favor by driving up his value -A LOT- before leaving.
That is the key part of the deal (in that Papa Joe has 18m in his change jar)... how much of the deal can be used to manipulate our total Salary Budget ($5.2m in 2023) is the only true impact to the product on the field. The DP tag already makes an unlimited amount that Papa Joe spends on a player hit the budget at $651k...except the potential impact of any transfer fees. Senior Roster Up to 20 players, occupying roster slots 1-20, count against the club's 2023 Salary Budget of $5,210,000 and are referred to collectively as the club's Senior Roster. And $9,830,000 is "Available Roster Spend" that doesn’t account for Designated Players or U-22 Initiative signings (outside of their budget charge, which doesn’t include their transfer fees). Designated Player The Designated Player Rule allows clubs to acquire up to three players whose total compensation and acquisition costs exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge, with the club bearing financial responsibility for the amount of compensation above each player's Salary Budget Charge. I think the primary impact of the deal will be on what we typically call TAM players (buying down players with a salary between 651k & 1.651m) by being able to replace Duran's ($160k) roster charge with 1 more TAM player than we were already targeting....giving Heitz 1 DP, 2 TAM, & 1 U22 to work with. AND MAYBE EVEN 2 MORE TAM (giving us 3 total to work with) because you can buy down the budget of other players to make room for another...say Czichos & Kacper are at last years max (612), we could buy them both down to 300 and free up 651 in the budget to fit another $651k roster spot in under the budget cap!?!? Use against a Salary Budget Charge A club cannot use General Allocation Money to reduce more than 50% of a player's Salary Budget Charge. This restriction does not apply where General Allocation Money is being used on a loan or transfer fee; a club may reduce 100% of a loan or transfer fee. I can't find 2023 rules, but the other interesting topic (besides GAM conversion) from the 2022 rules are around the U22 tag...I don't think we got clarity on Duran being U22 tagged or not, but I'm going to suggest he was NOT. IF not U22, we have to share 5% of the sale with the league and the cash to GAM conversion is capped at $1.1m per deal. IF U22 tagged, we get to keep 100% of the sale and the GAM conversion is on a sliding scale: Revenue share convertible to GAM in 2022 (increases by five percent (5%) annually thereafter) ≤ $2,500,000 is $1,050,000 | $3,000,000 is $840,000 | $3,500,000 is $630,000 | $4,000,000 is $420,000 | $4,500,000 is $210,000 | ≥ $5,000,000 is $0 If I'm reading it correctly, this is why Duran was never tagged as a U22! Because at his price tag we knew it would squelch the resulting GAM...and that is what provides Heitz the roster flexibility (as Papa Joe has plenty of $ for the DPs)! Now trying to guesstimate total GAM "in hand" is tricky...as there is no accounting of it being spent and it doesn't expire at the end of the season (it's good for 3 transfer windows)...and this is needed to determine the impact to the total budget. Starting with our sources of GAM... General Allocation Money Each club receives an annual allotment of General Allocation Money. In 2023, that allotment is $1.9m. A club may also receive General Allocation Money in the following cases: Failure to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs The transfer of a club’s player to non-MLS club outside MLS No clue the amount of GAM given for sucking, er, not making the playoffs... The Transfers look to add up to ~$4.1m: Duran, Gaga, & Frankowski(2transfer windows old GAM) should all have provided $1.1, so that's $3.3m Although I think we used all of what we got for Djordje to acquire Kacper, I think were able to convert 10% of his $6m sell on (to AZ) to GAM...so that's 600k GAM Sold Offor for $375k GAM Not expired amount remaining: Presume all 2022 annual allocation of GAM was spent for the 2 TAM (Czichos & Przybylko) and buying folks down to get under the total budget number. And then we spent ~1m GAM to buy Gimenez down and open up the DP slot So Annual GAM + unused & unexpired GAM + GAM for sucking, er, not making the playoffs + GAM from Sell/Transfers...1.9-1+?+4.1 We should have 5m plus GAM! That is about the same amount as the 2023 total Salary Budget! TL/DR: I think this means Heitz now has the salary budget room to bring in more impact players than we were expecting! Potentially 1 DP, 2 (or3!?)TAM(making up to $1.651m), & 1 U22 (making up to $651k) What do I have incorrect???????????????????????
I disagree. Unless we would make more money with a June sale (and that is speculative at best), selling know would be best for the team. It would make no sense to have be our "go to" forward for the first half of the season, then we sell him without a replacement. Even if we do sign a replacement (and I hope we do, of course) there will be the breaking in time for the new "star" striker. We also run the risk that he hurts himself in the first half of the season, and damages his "value"- to the team and on the transfer market. Of course, that line of reasoning extends to every player ever. It is just that the risk is higher with Duran. I do largely agree with this statement. Good point.
or futility. (Edit: once again, he was decent as a back up forward and not decent as a midfielder. So much for "versatility." I guess every player is versatile as the coach could move players into unsuitable positions, but should they?
Thank you for all your work. Lots to digest here. Some initial comments now, possibly more later. Regarding U22, sliding scale is applied to initial acquisition fee, not resale price. Best info I have seen for Duran is $1.7 million fee plus $0.5 million in add-on for performance plus a small percentage of any subsequent sale. This would less than $2.5million threshold so max allowable of $1,102,500 should apply. If teams pay high dollars for U22 players, this amount scales down. “You Suck” GAM was $200K a couple years ago, not sure what is now. Not sure if $375 Offor GAM was made available or if it had to be applied against unamortized initial fee.
EDIT: Based on schroncar's post that was posted while I typed this....it may be moot. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hmm, Duran MAY have been U22 tagged to keep us in salary budget compliance...but can it be removed? Like could Heitz have removed the tag when he sold Offor in preparation for maximizing the impact of Duran's sell?????? I mean, that would be savy AF...so now I doubt it. I know I looked on the CFFC Roster page he was NOT shown as a U22...oddly he is still on the page but with less info than before. If Duran WAS U22 tagged that would reduce our total GAM in hand by 1.1m