The rule sets a FMV price an introduces a modicum of sanity into the process. Just because he might be a relatively minor player in the grand scheme and LA might feel $50K is a steep price doesn't mean they shouldn't have to pay. LA has in any case ponied up the money. What if it was Paul Pogba and not Sebastien Lleget? NE might also be whining that $50K isn't enough value for giving up their claim. Let's put it this way, it didn't take long after the rules revision for someone to start bitching, and unsurprisingly it's the league's reigning dynasty team. No, they don't get any sympathy from me. Evidently NE saw his potential before LA. But maybe it's also true that LA had other higher profile players on their list and thus no room for Lleget. It was only after he got cut loose that they saw the opportunity. You can say this is about loopholes, but truly the rule was designed this way very explicitly. Just because NE at the moment is well stocked in central midfield doesn't mean they couldn't potentially have used a player such as him. Does not needing him mean they should just relinquish their option, just to play nice with the league kingpin? I don't get it.
If anything, wasn't the discovery claim rule put into place to AVOID setting a fair market value for players? Isn't it there to prevent competition between clubs by giving exclusive negotiation rights to whoever called dibs first? I don't see how it adds sanity, it just seems like another convoluted mechanism the league put in place to keep its expenses down. But how the rule affects the market value of a player even Bruce's point. Its that teams like NE are using discovery claims on players that they don't actually have any intention of signing, just so they can cash them in for allocation money. I can't imagine that's how the league intended the rule to be used, and I agree that it shouldn't be used that way. From what this Lletget kid's agent is saying, LA was the only team to scout him, the only team to bring him into their camp, and the only team to put a discovery claim on him prior to the CBA. Then NE, knowing that LA was interested, simply swooped in once the discovery claim list "reset" and beat LA to it. You can argue that LA shouldn't have let that happen, and you'd be right, but its still beside the point. NE never contacted the agent or the player to express interest, and they never made a contract offer. Their goal from the start was to force the $50k in allocation from LA in return for something that they a) never intended to use and b) didn't have to pay anything to obtain. Regardless of what teams are involved, that's shady business.
Again, if you snooze, you lose. I seriously doubt this was some kind of Ticketmaster situation with folks hitting the login repeatedly until the window opened. It kind of sounds to me like someone in the LA FO goofed on the paperwork. I won't bother defending NE's tactics except to point out that they recently picked up Will Packwood, another player who was released by his club in England, too. No doubt they've benefited from the deal with LA, but this is hardly the first time they've positioned themselves for the bargain bin pick-up. As far as that goes, LA also forced NE's hand. They no longer had the luxury of a courtship period. They either had to offer him a contract or take the $50K. In that sense, it is possible that LA actually comes out ahead in the deal. If they know Lletget is a quality player, they get a player for the future at a pretty cheap price. $50K isn't free, but it's pretty close.
Yeah no arguing there, I'm not saying that LA handled the situation perfectly, just that I can see their gripe with the rule as a whole. I've always felt it should be one of the first to go as MLS moves towards more of an actual free market.
FWIW, I do agree that if they had a preexisting claim on Lletget that the league should at least have recognized that it would be renewed. OTOH, if that "claim" was some kind of relationship/contact but not really formalized, I'm just not sure it means much, even if they took it to some friendly ears in the media. One more thing might be how to manage the the discovery claims throughout the year. Especially in situations where a "genuine offer" is made. If the player doesn't agree, I think it is reasonable that the club should lose that discovery slot for a year, or at least the rest of the season. That might further incentivize clubs to negotiate in good faith.
Is this really even worth discussing? The "discovery" process is so stupid and just another example of the training wheels that should no longer be in place in this league. There is a salary cap that by its nature prevents teams from exorbitant spending. Why does this league continue to have all these other tedious things in place and then trumpet the catch-all term "parity" as an explanation? It's bullshit.
Take this article with a big pinch of salt, but there are some decent counterpoints in here. I think the main one for me is that Lletget is a known player with potential value to lots of teams.
On a more relevant note, here's a rumor about Wigan's asking price for McClean. Rumor: Wigan names price for James McClean Even assuming there is some room for negotiation the likelihood that NYRB would have to fork over a multi-million dollar fee for an in-contract player certainly would put paid to the notion that taps are dry for the club. The other interesting thing to note is the club currently has all 28 roster spots filled. Obviously Luyindula's status looms large in this calculation. If this is some kind of hold-out, perhaps not about returning to the club, but how much of a buy-out he wants, then it will ultimately come down to exigency of circumstance and a number. I assume if they just terminate his contract then they still have to pay him off and take the cap hit. So Pegguy needs to agree to retire or they have to find some other way to buy him off.
McClean makes sense, but I'm not sure paying a transfer fee is something MLS will want to do for a guy with very little market appeal. I don't really understand the situation with Luyindula. If he is refusing to train and play then why would we have to pay him anything?
They may not be paying him at present as he's on a leave of absence and considering retirement. But he is under contract. Hence his salary still counts against the cap. Once the summer Euro window opens, he may decide he wants to play for say some French club and they will be able to agree on mutual terms to dissolve his contract. Until then, he's still technically a NYRB player.
I would be amazed if Peguy didn't mutually terminate his contract before the July 1 cut-off date, giving us his cap space for the second half of the season. Not that he costs all that much either way. It is really strange though that Marsch doesn't seem to have the slightest clue what his situation is.
Its not unheard of, plenty of guys of McCleans pedigree have had a transfer fee attached before, but its usually in the 500k-1M range instead of the $4M that Wigan is reportedly asking for. My guess is that the transfer fee would be all on Red Bull though, league doesn't care enough about McClean to step in and help like they did with Bradley and Dempsey. Tough to say whether they'd be willing to pay.
No way Wigan gets that type of money for him. With the political stuff, he's not going anywhere but MLS.
The team needs some attacking help... Between Zubar looking really good out there, DP being a good player, and Miazga improving a ton, the centerback position is more than fine. Right back sucks right now but we can kind of live with that. The issue is up top. We create too little offense.
Red Bulls Following Victoras Astafei How do they even find this guy? Never played a game outside the Romanian league.
Lawrence is the better option nowadays anyway, but definitely don't want to see Roy hurt. Has potential trade value and at the worst case is pretty good depth at LB. Should never play centerback in this league though. Also couldn't help but notice that Roy was a big culprit for that first goal Mexico got.
Forget about those two knuckleheads. The rule change is what's important. One thought is creating a new slot for the players who earn a minimally DP level salary or required a lot of allocation money to acquire. The league may also create an allowance for more allocation money. Whether there is an opportunity here for the Red Bulls to make a move for a high profile players, it is clear that the league wants to bring in more foreign talent. For the Red Bulls, they could use more allocation money to go out and sign an elite defender. Of course, some of the silly season rumors like Boateng may still come back around for another look or someone else for that matter. Anytime cash is being splashed around freely it is possible the Red Bull purse strings will loosen for the right player.