http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23780-2002Jul30.html Hudson says it's his decision. Goff reports the Saturday night out on the town.
Pull the trigger Ray! You've come too far and strung us Gazza supporters too far not to. It'll be worth it for the ticket sales and publicity alone!
Yeah, all that talk about the league interfering in personnel decisions, and no mention of the finagling required to actually sign somebody. One would assume something's gonna have to happen for DC to sign him. On a side note, more injuries!?! Just what we frickin' need.
Very interesting. I expect a flurry of activity over the next few days climaxing with the signing of Gazza by the end of the week. Discovery player who?!?!? TS.
Hasn't this season been all about hurry up and wait? First Moreno, then Reyes, then Daglish, then the Brazilians, then Q2, now Gazza. I'm sending Ray my bar tab at the end of season.
I think the tripper is finding a team to make a deal with, and deciding what he wants to give up to get Gazza.
At this rate, we'll sign him just in time for him to be injured. Then, we'll have even less depth and we'll end up playing Dennis Ludwig and Justin Mapp in defense or something.
I think at this point if the other teams in the league don't want to play, I'm certain that the league is working on something. I mean, can you imagine the egged faces should DC not be able to sign Gazza, when both sides want to, because another team won't trade with them - the league would become a world-wide laughing stock. Certainly we can give up our next two discovery picks to make this one now. I mean did we have to use a discovery pick to discover Q2? No. Come on MLS, remove the thumbs from your asses.
He'd cost league max. http://www.soccertimes.com/mls/2002/jul30.htm "If Hudson and United technical director Dave Kasper make the decision they want Gascoigne, the league office would have to sign off on the deal. Reportedly, the financial details have already been worked out for a contract running through the end of 2003, which would pay the player the league maximum of $260,000 next season and a pro-rated portion for the remainder of this year, approximately $80,000, maybe even less." Still want him?
What if the league really doesn't want him but doesn't want to state that publicly? The way they prevent the signing is by not stepping in to get us the discovery slot we need knowing that without that, we can't sign him. The league looks good because it appears to have let the team's front office make the decision when in fact, all it did was hamstring the team.
Bryan: I don't care what he's worth, I care what DC United can afford to pay. Let's assume that the team salary cap is $1.8 million next year. If Gazza gobbles up a league max $260,000, and players like Moreno, Etcheverry and Pope are in that neighborhood, too, that's a million dollars already gone. Kinda hard to build a solid roster of players under that fiscal scenario. Of course, Ray could be planning on some major roster changes in the off-season that might create some cap space. But, to me, signing a guy who'll be 36 next year to a league max salary would be a huge gamble for this team.
Exactly, it is nothing personal against Gazza. on a personal level I would love to see him give it a go here. However I would consider it bad business to give him that kind of money, with the salary cap restraints of this league.
Ammann salary will be cleared allowing us to bring in two 75k players or 3 50k, that alone will give us greater flexibilty in our offseason dealings. I understand your concerns, but I was making a statement about his worth from a world wide perspective. The guy was man of the match in several games last year in the Premiership before going to a first divsion side, and he is reportedly in better shape now than he was then. What are we going to do, score less? For the cash freed by Ammann we could bring in an underrated defender and a 2nd striker, preferably a target forward. I would expect Dante Washington or a player of his caliber to add depth at forward for us next year.
On the salary issue I expect that Moreno may get a "tale less or leave us" contract next year, and that they'll want to "renegotiate" with Pope as well. Benny may also be asked to play for less for a while. With MLS dropping players salary is always an option
Gazza to replace El Diablo? If the report on a league max salary for Gazza is true, it suggests to me that this is definitely Etch's last year, and that Hudson would like to have Gascoinge step in as playmaker for a year while we develop or acquire a suitable long term replacement for el Diablo. BTW, does Etch still make league max? If he does, then why would Gazza not be worth this? But when Etcheverry took a paycut I seem to remember that it was going from a figure that was substantially over league max (400K?) down to around 200K? Or where the reported figures including endorsements, and not just salary? Does anyone have a better memory for this than me? Also, in addition to clearing Amman's near 100K salary room for next year, who knows if Moreno is in Hudson's long term plans given his chronic injury problems. That's another huge chunk of change. I suspect that Ray will be actualy given the opportunity to really make this "his team." Thus some of DCU's sacred cows will be gone next year - my prediciton is Etch and possibly Moreno - I still think that Pope is here for keeps, and Convey and Quaranta for the foreseeable future. I would also expect that Reyes, Olsen and Nelsen will also be back. And probably ABMOD also. Even though Hudson has praised Etcheverry and Moreno's quality, they have not really been effective and reliable team leaders for the past two years now. Just a hunch, but look for Hudson to try to bring in another proven and healthy forward in the off-season to replace Moreno. So the idea of having Gazza for next year at league max is not really a huge problem, IMHO, given the direction that Hudson is likely going anyway.
With Ammann off the books, that will free up money. I would not cry to see Etch retire as well. I love Etch but it seems his heart is no longer in it. Right now though those moveas have not been made. So a this point it would have to be considered a poor financial move, until the whole scope of it is revealed.
I think Etcheverry said he was quitting at the end of the season. Something about his voice always being hoarse from complaining to and about the refs. Plus, we get cap space back for Amman. I don't have a problem switching out Etch for Gazza. Etch seems to have lost his desire to play, whereas Gazza is looking to rebuild his reputation and finish his career on a positive note. I don't see Moreno going anywhere. He has too much left to give to the team, if he can get healthy.
Initially, I got the impression that it was Ray/DC that would be deciding if Gazza joined, but reading these links it sounds like it is the league that doesn't want Gazza, but Ray does (he was after him for the Fusion, too). I think it would be great for DC and the league to get Gazza. Not only will he generate excitement locally, but will also raise the league awareness elsewhere, for what Ray refers to as the price of "salt of a peanut" (cute). It seems a win/win situation to me. If he plays crap and is no better than the rest, then it sends the message that the league is better than others realized; if he plays great, then the league benefits by getting a crowd-drawing player for almost nothing. If he goes on a bender, then the league fires him... its not that that would cause the league any terminal embarrassment. Sometimes you just have to take risks, especially with so little to lose.