oh I absolutely agree that Becks is a special case. There are not many others like him. But if others spend the money to bring over an Henry, Ronaldo or Ronaldinho they will see a return on their investment Not to the extent that we see with Beckham but it would be a league positive for sure.
I see the league's point in trying to control salaries while they try to grow the game here, but the other side of that is that bigger names will grow the game more quickly. Big market teams like L.A. and N.Y. have a real money advantage. Obviously, the league needs the smaller markets to make money too; a 2 team league won't remain very interesting. I think they should let the profitable teams, like L.A., spend over the salary cap. Every dollar they spend over the cap should be matched by a dollar distributed to non/less profitable teams. This protects the smaller market teams while allowing the league to attract (or keep) quality players. I heard a rumor of Parkhurst going to Fulham; that is great for Parkhurst and for the USMNT, but not for MSL. Also, I think the league needs a realistic minimum salary for the players. I just think it is wrong for an organization with the assets of the L.A. Galaxy to pay some of their players under $20K in a city as expensive as L.A.
And if that happens, remember that NE Revs have an UNUSED DP slot. They could pay Parkhurst what he's worth - and there is no rule stopping them. The only obstacle is that the Krafts are too cheap to risk any big bucks on Parkhurst.
I hold Chris Rolfe of the chicago fire with high regard. Last season he made a couple goals from WAY outside the box. We're missing someone like that, someone who isn't afraid to have a shot from far out. I'd like it if we could steal him away
Ditto Cyclonis. I don't know if Fire would be willing to part with him though - it seems they like pairing him with Blanco. But hey, if we can possibly woo him, by all means, go for it. Any thoughts to acquiring the services of Sacha Kljestan from Chivas? For a relatively new player (not to mention young, something we need more of), he's had an awesome season with them. He's scored four goals, nothing too out there, but 13 assists?! Crazy. He's a capable team player, and I would love it if we could spirit him away from the Goats, if only to piss them off . Eddie Johnson and Maurice Edu pretty much top my wish list - we somehow acquire one of the player's services, I think we'd be in ok shape. Johnson doesn't seem too happy with the Wizards, but rumor has it he is in talks with some big European clubs right now - so I say we gun for Edu. If we can somehow come up with a package to give to Toronto, (Jazic, Harmse, and Cannon perhaps?) to convince them to give up either Edu or a DP slot, it could be one more step in the right direction for the Galaxy.
Well, word has now come down that we don't have to acquire a DP to keep Donovan, that really opens up our options for team building. Obviously it means we won't have to trade away some of our few remaining valuable assets to keep grandpa Donovan.
We no longer NEED a 2nd DP to keep LD. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=623229 I say we keep Cannon (come on...he's a human wall) and trade Cronin (as much as I like him), Harmse, and Jazic for Maurice Edu. I can only wish. Harden and Randolph have shown signs of brilliance this year so I say keep them for their potential. I also say get rid of Pavon and Gordon and try to find a decent striker. Hurculez...maybe?
There's no way we're going to get Edu. He's turning into a star and you just can't trade a star for a couple mediocre starters, even if they're Canadian. Now, we could trade Jazic and Harmes for American players of equivalent value, maybe Dunivant plus something, but I don't think Toronto has anything I want (outside of the stars)
Totally man, I feel you, yeah with all the talk surrounding Donovan and the 2nd DP, I forgot that we got talented players within MLS. I'm sure there are plenty of role players around the league that nobody is talking about right now that could improve the quality of our team. Johnson and Edu would be sweet but there are probably some other fools out there that could help us for cheaper, but they remain icognito
No disrespect, but they sure as hell do. They need to improve quickly to solidify their fan base and increase the size of that stadium. Toronto fighting for the MLS Cup would be great for the league. It's possible that Toronto fans wouldn't be as patient next year.
I think Cadaver means there is no financial benefit in using the DP slot. TFC has already sold 16,000 season tickets (IIRC) for 08'. I'm sure they won't have any problems getting an extra 4k.
No disrespent to Venturadoc, but I think Cadaver is correct. If I was Toronto, I'd trade my DP slot for 2008 to LA for some combination of high draft pick, Harmse, and Jazic if LA was interested. Jazic could provide immediate left-footed options and depth. Harmse should develop nicely in the middle of the field. Both are Canadian of course and will help ease roster squeeze for other non-Canadians. (EDIT: I'm operating here under the assumption that the league has NOT decided to change any rules regarding Canadian internations for TFC or the rest of the league as we've heard nothing of it) Most importantly from a financial standpoint, they don't have to lay out the cash in '08 anyway for a DP as they should still have plenty of attendance, and although expectations are higher, they shouldn't have to add a DP to improve this year to improve on the field. Fans would be patient enough. Especially if they let it be known that they are planing for some seating expansion by '09 and bringing in a DP then. From a longterm success standpoint it makes a lot of sense for TFC. The only catch would be if Mo Johnston feels he needs to use that DP slot this year to save his job. I would hope for TFC's sake that is not the case (as a Galaxy fan I've seen where pressure to save your job can make a coach make some dumb moves).
Hey Galaxy fans… I know I’m not nearly as knowledgeable with the specifics as some of you regular BigSoccer forum-posters are. But, I wanted to post this breakdown for many who are definitely interested and waiting to see how 2008 Roster will turn out to be. In my opinion, I prefer the following Galaxy Team players below to stay: David Beckham (MID) - $ 400,000 (Designated Player) Landon Donovan (FWD) - $ 350,000 (“Grandfathering” Continuation into 2008) Abel Xavier (DEF) - $ 200,000 (Protected SI-Player) Chris Albright (R-DEF) - $ 140,000 Chris Klein (R-MID) - $ 98,000 Kyle Martino (L-MID) - $ 55,000 Edson Buddle (FWD) - $ 48,000 Steve Cronin (GOLK) - $ 42,000 Troy Roberts (L-DEF) - $ 36,000 Josh Tudela (MID) - $ 30,000 Mike Randolph (L-DEF) - $ 30,000 Ty Harden (DEF) - $ 30,000 Mike Caso (FWD) - $ 18,000 (Protected Developmental Player) Israel Sesay (FWD) - $18,000 (Protected Developmental Player) Lance Friesz (GOLK) - $18,000 (Protected Developmental Player) These 15 Players total $ 1,513,000 to be paid by the league. That should mean it should leave about $ 600,000 to use on acquiring the rest of the players our LA Galaxy would require, right ??? And, it is because of this left-over amount that I was telling myself that it certainly has to be so, so very important to hold onto our slotted 2008 MLS Draft Picks as long / as tightly as we can. I hope my reasoning is correct. Okay, so this would mean that Tim Leiwecke (AEG), Dir. Bravo (LAG), and Alexi Lalas (GM) has to pair & package the following players listed below in a way that gets us the best possible return-on-players trading: Joe Cannon (GOLK) – Very Experienced with Exceptional Saves on Play Peter Vagenas (MID) – Experienced MLS Player with At-Best Average Skills Ante Jazic (L-DEF) – Experienced MLS Player with Very Good Abilities Kelly Gray (DEF/MID) – Experienced MLS Player with Good Abilities Kevin Harmse (R-DEF) – Experienced MLS Player with Average Abilities Carlos Pavon (FWD) – Experienced International Player with Aging Legs & Asthma Alan Gordon (FWD) – Experienced MLS Player with Good Abilities, but not all-healthy Quavas Kirk (DEF) – Young Gen-Adidas Player with Good Abilities, but not all-healthy Kyle Veris (DEF) – Young Draft Player with lots-to-train & much-to-learn Gavin Glinton (FWD) – MLS Player still with great potential given the correct training With San Jose MLS team still needing players… I am hoping that quite a few of these above-listed “To Trade” players will be easy for them to gobble up. At least, in my mind, our LA Galaxy needs one(1) very good Forward, two(2) very good Right- & Left- MidForwards, and two(2) very good Right- & Left- MidDefenders. That’s five(5) more talented, strong, energetic 21 – 26 year old players! All this waiting / anticipation of how it’s all going to turn out is so nerve-wrecking… I think I’m getting ulcers.
I think if we're going to trade players we need to go for players already on the trading block. Alvarez, burciaga, and boswell are perfect examples. Edu would cost us way too much. Boswell would be on the top of my list. He's a defender, he's experienced and he'd add some depth to our Central D. Burciaga? Left sided Defender but I assume he can play left mid? And Alvarez is a talented midfielder. These players could be starters and would provide lots of depth. Burciaga and Boswell are rumored to almost leave for free in the expansion draft!
Wow, I didn't realize Boswell from DCU was on the list - he could be a good (and cheap) addition. I know Alvarez a while back mentioned in Dave's podcast that his contract was going to be up soon and that Dallas hadn't really talked to him yet about an extension, so I've been pimping for us to get him for a while now; Burciaga is a welcome addition to the lineup...we should move quickly and net these guys.
I think Alvarez is attempting to play overseas - or down in Mexico. Rumor has it he's off trialing with someone now, I'm just not familiar with who. But perhaps we could entice him to want to come to the Galaxy - there's a lot of perks to playing out here and his exposure would be greater worldwide. Also, according to Goff they are going to raise the salary cap by about $150,000 to $200,000; they are also going to chance the player requirements for Toronto so they don't have to use so many Canadians. Both of those situations will affect how we wheel and deal. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/
I mostly agree with you on the players, although I wouldn't want to churn all the players on the trade list just because I think turnover is bad. Did you get these salary numbers from a more recent list? The reason I ask is that they are slightly different from the players union's list. Randolph is graduated to the senior roster (30k instead of 18k; which is well deserved) and Xavier is at 200k rather than 156k (which is starting to get a little pricy).
He might have a shot with the Mexican league, considering he's of Hispanic descent, speaks Spanish and due to Mexico being the closest country to the US, but with all due respect to the guy, I really doubt he's got much of a chance playing for a first division league overseas. He's got little shot at the other top Spanish-speaking leagues, such as Argentina's or La Liga, and even if he does make it in, he might just be stuck on the Reserve team with little to no actual playtime. Those respective leagues seem to focus quite heavily on developing their country's own players (rightfully so) before giving a foreigner a shot, unless they are a Henry or Ronaldinho. I still think we should try to bring him over to the Galaxy though - I'm sure the Galaxians would like that greatly; they are a Salvadorian group right?
Just playing with some ideas: Could we manage another DP? Assuming that we are at the salary cap now, our situation is: +$150k increase in the salary cap (per Goff) -$100k for salary adjustments (this is just a wild guess) -$200k Beckham's salary no longer pro rated. +$150k for getting rid of Pavon (I forget the exact number) so all this stuff cancels out. We need to come up with $325k to pay for another DP. We have this year's and last year's YS allocations which should be more than that. Of course, that only covers this year. If we only wanted to use one allocation, then we would probably have to cut a few expensive players. Pete and ?? So, it looks like we could afford to carry another DP, although we probably couldn't add much else. If we can only add one player, how should we line up? Now that Yallop is gone, we can consider some different formations: --------Shevchenko--Buddle---------- --------------Donovan--------------- Randolph---Gray---Beckham---Albright ------Harden---Xavier---Roberts----- ---------------Cannon--------------- If you don't like Gray, add Tudela, Harmse or Vagenas.
Has Shevchenko expressed any desire to come to the US? I know his wife is American, but she's been quoted as calling Italy her "home". Rumor has it that AC Milan wants to take him back, or at least secure him on loan. Now that Boston has failed to win the MLS Cup for 3 seasons in a row, I wonder if Taylor Twellman has any desire to move on from Boston?
New rumor? I understood that when Milan wasn't able to get him back this summer, they renounced to him. They still believe in the quite young Gilardino and everybody is swearing that 18 yo. Pato will be better than Ronaldinho. It is true that Inzaghi is quite old and Ronaldo's health and motivation a continuous mystery (he should resume playing next weekend), but since they play with one forward alongside Kakà, I don't see Sheva returning. He is aging too and Milan NEEDS fresh blood. Is he playing at all with the new Chelsea coach?