You earn playing time by having it be in the best interests of the club to play you. If the focus for playing time is anywhere else, the club is making a stupid error. The carrot and stick approach works best when it's a lot of carrot with some stick mixed in. A bunch of stick with the promise of a possible carrot in 18 months doesn't work. If it's not in the best interests of MLS Clubs to play it's most talented young players, the league needs to identify why exactly that is and fix it.
The issue is that most leagues have a place for players to get better in other than practice. Reserve leagues, loan spells, youth academy games. In MLS it's play or nothing really.
No because I don't think guys like Shea bring in that kind of money unique to them. The league needs it's young stars, but they'd likely be better off financially if those stars were of higher quality but because of that quality were impossible to keep. A cycle of talents like that coming into the league at 17 or 18 and being gone by 20 or 21 would I think be much more profitable than the cycling of Altidores and Sheas, guys with enough raw talent to fetch a decent price, but not really future stars in any likelihood (the occasional Deco always pops up from time to time though). And it isn't as if the league doesn't gut its teams with regularity anyway. The 2003 MLS Cup teams had almost all of its best players leave the league within two years (Bocanegra, Beasley, Donovan, Damani Ralph). The really good Revs teams lost Dempsey and Parkhurst and would have lost Twellman eventually if not for the injury. Until it comes up with a way to worm itself into the UEFA Champions League, the league is fighting a losing battle. Unlike most other leagues, it can afford to do so until doomsday, but being financially able to fight a battle is not the same as actually winning it. Why not have the players for roughly the same amount of time in the league, but start playing them earlier and then selling them earlier in their careers? The future of MLS is star teenaged and 20 year old players (mixed in with veterans at positions without young talent on the team). The sooner it realizes this, the better.
I do agree it could be better, but the solution isn't to give a young player playing time that he's not earned by competing against his teammates for over 2 years. That sets a precendence that will crush team dynamics. I don't discount professional practice as many on these boards do. I agree they should have more games but the solution isn't handing first team minutes to someone who the team coaches don't think is good enough to contribute to winning. Let's fix the root of the issue by fixing reserve team football and the integration of lower division teams into the wholistic player development process.
Well we have a couple different issues here. I think what we are seeing is MLS trying to hold onto it's star players longer than in the past. Realizing it's better to get as much out of say a Stuart Holden than a $2-3 million transfer fee. Second I think the issue is producing better players. The two issues are a bit different, but slightly connected. I think that's the issue is that Vancouver isn't thinking, oh if we have Salgado turn into a great player we can sell him for millions. They are just thinking of putting a good team out and if Salgado can help do that great, if not, well then he can wait around. The point being that I don't think MLS is looking for transfer money, but that Vancouver is being short sighted and slightly odd ignoring Salgado's development a bit.
Yes you are right. The issue is that these teams and MLS need to find a way to get these guys on a field somewhere to develop. Putting out a player who isn't ready just because he's young is likely counter productive. But the issue is that a player like Salgado or Agudelo (who isn't that much older than Omar) maybe don't have the place to play to get better to push into the starting lineup.
Its because the US and MLS specifically doesn't have a fully functioning integrated, comprehensive, intensive, and flexible youth player development pyramid. MLS don't have access to top national youth players, have rules that restrict what players they can sign, don't have full functioning scouting systems, can't bring anyone in for trials, don't have all players competing for roster spots, have no codified path to first team professional football, have players in 4-5 'systems' all competing against each other and not with each other, don't have enough reserve games, don't have loan relationships with lower leagues, don't have enough money for residential academies, don't have any control over limits in how the game is played in one of their major talent developers in the NCAA. and a few more. That's what we need to fix. Right now Omar Salgado is in our best development environment for a player of his talent and age. He is competing vs other professionals vs players older than he is while he's growing into his body and fine tuning his game. Let's fix the problems and not just give him first team minutes his coaches don't thinkg he's earned. Patience will help.
Remember that churning out better high quality talent affects the ultimate transfer price of not just that talent, but everyone else in the league and country as well. As it is guys like Dempsey and Holden have probably helped in that regard, but an American Alexis Sanchez would really help. Show you can develop a Messi, and clubs will gladly chuck Bugs Bunny money at guys like Salvio and Lamela. Player evaluation is not an exact science, and signing players from places famous for great players might give you a slight edge and certainly provides less ammunition to your critics. Becoming one such country could prove quite lucrative to American soccer (of which Vancouver has cast their lot when they joined MLS whether they like it or not).
I think that's a symptom of a disease rather than the cause. The cause is they don't give a damn. And so they both don't develop star players and they don't have a fully functioning youth development system. If they cared, they'd have had the latter for a while now, and I suspect would just now start developing the former. How much does an NFL team spend on player development? That is, sadly, the historical view of MLS and, even more sadly, still a view that has a lot of backers in this league. That we had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the improved but still lowly youth development state we're currently in speaks volumes.
One last thing, as despicable as the industry can be, there are things MLS can learn from the way boxers are handled. An MLS coach would take his most promising fighter and throw him in against Pacquiao in his fifth fight. When he got his brains beat in, he'd probably have him stop fighting for a year and a half and then in his first fight back have him fight a re-match with Pacquiao. After he got his brains beat in again, he'd write the kid off and move on to the next guy. On the off chance the kid somehow did manage to beat Pacquaio or even lose a close decision, the coach would tell the player all the things he did wrong and force him to change his style of fighting because his current style will only work for so long. After successfully altering the fighter's style, he arranges a re-match with Pacquiao and the kid loses easily, but manages to avoid getting his brains beat in. The manager proclaims the transition a success and moves on to his next fighter. It's maddening...
I agree with you that its a matter of priorities and MLS right now have pushed youth player development down the list. We could discuss for hours on what they need to do. I guess we do disagree that my list is a 2 year project. Right now single entity and absolutely no free agency is at odds with what a top notch youth player development system looks like. True youth development is the free-est of markets. Competing, recruiting, building infrastructure to not only attract top talent but then develop what's been recruited. MLS right now seems content on attracting players from countries who's gone through that process from afar and not wanting to do the heavy financial lifting it takes to develop our own top players letting them go overseas instead. It takes time and money, both of which MLS don't want to use.
MLS teams are more than willing to spend money, they're paying Eric Hassli close to a million dollars a year for reasons I'm unable to contemplate. How about the money set ablaze on Nery Castillo and Julian DeGuzman? How much money are the Whitecaps paying Etienne Barbara? Every dime of it is a waste. Scrubbing the NFL mentality (players come from the produce stand of a supermarket and not a farm) from a league staffed with a whole bunch of NFL Owners and front office people is going to be difficult to be sure, but it's absolutely necessary.
I've used the R. Marquez example. $4.6 million per year for 3 years could have built a facility, hired an entire staff, and scouting network and funded its operation for almost 10 yrs. But why? NYRedBull staff said they looked at it but why would they when they can't bring in anyone from other countries, can't trial any youth they want, have so many league restrictions on who they can recruit and sign, so they rightfully decided its not a sound investment right now. Open up the rules and allow some sort of limited youth free agency and American teams will build the residential academies to give top youth comprehensive intensive training the world provides. Your Julian DeGuzman and Barbara example holds less weight because Toronto and Vanvouver already have gone down the road of professional residency. It seems to me Canada has less restrictions placed on them by CSA than USSF/MLS puts on American teams. Any Canadian player can travel to either one of those places and get signed.
The Chicago Fire vs FC Utrecht Chicago Fire Starters Corey Gibbs - 32 - USA Dominic Oduro - 26 - Ghana Jalil Anibaba - 23 - USA Paolo Tornaghi/Sean Johnson - 23 - Italy/USA Patrick Nyarko - 25 - Ghana Logan Pause - 30 - USA Sebastian Grazzini - 31 - Argentina Pavel Pardo - 35 - Mexico Gonzalo Segares - 29 - Costa Rica Marco Pappa - 24 - Guatemala Dan Gargan - 29 - USA FC Utrecht Rob Van Dijk - 43 - Netherlands Johan Martensson - 23 - Sweden Nana Asare - 25 - Ghana Rodney Sneijder - 21 - Netherlands Alexander Gerndt - 25 - Sweden Alje Schut - 31 - Netherlands Daan Bovenberg - 23 - Netherlands Frank Demouge - 29 - Netherlands Tommy Oar - 20 - Australia Mark van der Maarel - 22 - Netherlands Davy Bulthuis - 21 - Netherlands It's a striking comparison between a couple of mid-table teams in their respective leagues. And there doesn't seem to be any financial reason for the discrepancy. Which team has the bigger financial incentive to win? FC Utrecht easily, when you consider the benefits of potential European football and the costs of relegation. Which team has the larger pool of homegrown prospects? The Fire, easily as a Metropolitan area of close to 10 million and recently had two players from just one of its many suburbs playing in the Prem. Versus Utrecht which has 300,000 in an area where there are tons of other teams scouring for talent. Which team has more resources to spend on youth training and development? The Fire easily have far deeper pockets and more money to invest in the club. And yet the Fire have 1.5 Americans starting for them under the age of 29, while fairly well regarded young prospects like Barouch, Pineda and Gulley have amassed a grand total of 7 minutes in their first three matches. This has nothing to do with anything except the will to change. It just isn't there, and without it all the structural changes in the world won't matter.
I hope someday RSL and FC Dallas dominate MLS with nothing but homegrown talent and force the other teams to change.
They are just lying to the kid. Him playing left mid because Shea is playing left mid is a total bullshit. There is no such thing as 6'4" 210 pounds (and that's where he gonna be in a few years) left mid. It's like 6'4" 210 pounds marathon runners. They don't exist. He is either striker or nothing. If he is nothing and not good enough for your super club let him go. That's exactly the case when a player should say "f. you, you can play left wing yourself" and demand a trade. He has nothing to lose.
So do the Fire (Gulley and Pineda), but until they actually see the field such is meaningless. Jonathan Top is already 19 years old, the time for some substantial sub minutes is now. Ruben Luna, Victor Ulloa and Moises Hernandez are 20. Brazil and Colombia and Argentina are never going to run out of decent 29 year old players. If the league is waiting for that well to dry up before going to American youngsters, it's going to be waiting a long time.
I think many people are taking this out of context. How do we know they won't send him on loan, but can't right now because they are so hard by injuries there 7th striker is making the bench (Omar)....
Updates on the US U-20 team here.. Including news about Brooks, Henley, and Potts RAMOS SATISFIED WITH U-20 PROGRESS
I'd call this one a must read. There could easily be multiple articles in here. I remember reading the "Potts' father didn't live here long enough" angle on BigSoccer a while ago, so whoever figured that one out deserves a lot of credit, too.