Post-match: Colorado Rapids - San Jose Earthquakes (Wednesday, 9/23) postgame thread [R]

I’m wrong, Rios is at $729,000 according to 2019 numbers.

 

Oh I've been raving against Fisher for a long while now, dude is cheap, no doubt about it.

But I don't know if he is to take the entire blame here. Jesse and MA have been atrocious at their jobs. Real academy, poor first team facilities, all of that, sure, Fisher can be seen as responsible--or perhaps his team president, Shawlee and Fox before him, were also incompetent in these areas as well? But those things doesn't figure into field performance and tactics and recruitment of players...

I mean, with our roster, yes, we are not Cup worthy. But considering that 8 of 12 teams in the West go to the playoffs, I would at least say that our team can scratch at the playoff door. And yet here we are rock bottom in the entire league with blowouts after blowouts.

 

So Rios + Fierro = Vako money. They're all midfielders. Let's see how they compare:

2019:
Rios - 2 goals
Fierro - 0 goals
Vako - 8 goals/5 assists

2020 so far:
Rios - 1 goal
Fierro - 1 goal/1 assist
Vako - 3 goals/1 assist

Damn...with all the whinging and toxicity thrown at Vako all these years, you would think that Vako would barely outscored Fierro and Rios combined. Turned out he outscored them by a ********ing million miles.

 

No doubt Fierro and Rios have to be way better for over $700k each. That’s on Matias and Jesse.

But Vela alone is at $6.3 million. That’s what we’re up against, world class players, teams to the north and south that are ramping up the pressure, getting better every year, while we send our DP back to Sweden just as the season gets rolling. Our other DP is at $800k and ready to retire and then there’s Vako, as the highest paid player in Quakes history, he has to be better if we’re going anywhere. So it’s both really, a relatively small amount of money to work with and trouble finding relatively inexpensive players who can make a difference.

 

What I'm trying to point out is that our team is a middling team in terms of salary, and yet here we are at the bottom of the league. Forget about the teams with Vela-caliber players, we aren't even able to win against teams that have our caliber of rosters. Sure, we can spend more money, but if we continue to have a shit coach and shit GM, then it would take a $12M player for us just to play at the same level as a Vela-led team.

And with those players there will be other issues: Can you imagine asking a player like Vela to come back and defend his own box every time the opponent advances the ball? LOL

As I have already argued a few times, even puts up a spreadsheet by someone (could be me?): Vako holds his own when it comes to playing up to his salary when compared to other players that are being paid around the same ballpark as he is. I remembered when putting up the spreadsheet that only Portland's Sebastian Blanco has clearly outperformed the same salary bracket.

Vako put up 10 goals/4 assists in 2018. 8 goals/5 assists in 2019. He's on pace for roughly the same again this year once game reductions are taken into account. Can he do better? Yes, everyone can. But is he the biggest problem? No. Is he even a problem? NO.

The problem isn't him. The problem is paying him $1.4M and thinking that if he plays like a $3M player will get us into the playoffs. Well, he plays like a $1.4M player. And even if he plays like a $3M player, we are not going to get into the playoffs without a fight.

Like I've said before, if Vako is our highest player, then we are clearly not going to be a good team. Look at Portland, Sebastian is not just their only good players--they have so many others (like that Valeri guy). Blanco is out for the season, yet their team is continuing strong. Vako is a good player in his own right, but the team needs several Vakos to compete for the Cup. Just one of him is not enough, even if he play lights out.

Look at Wondo. For years, he played lights out compared to how pitiful the Quakes paid him, and the team still went nowhere. Because instead of just one Wondo, we needed several Wondos to win in this league back then, and more so now.

 

Anyways, here I am doing Vako another favor LOL. Let's get back to the meat of the current team problem: shitty GM, shitty coach, and cheap owner.

Christ...what did we do to deserve this fcuking pile of shit? I swear to God, I searched my childhood memories so hard and still could not remember if I ever stole anybody's lunch money...but here I am....

 

I think we both agree we need to spend more money, and should be better for the amount of money we do spend. I’m not convinced we’re middle of the pack spenders, haven’t seen the 2020 numbers, plus we just offloaded our DP, so he’s off the books, but even so, we should be getting more bang for our buck, and that’s on Jesse and MA. I’ve lost faith in Jesse completely, MA brought in our most hopeful new players, Espinoza looks good, great at times, the others not so much...Rios and Fierro in particular, but Vega too...struggling out there. MA is still relatively new to the league, I think it makes sense to give him more time, but only if the team commits to serious roster upgrades otherwise, well these next 10 games are going to reflect the otherwise. Pointless futility.

On Vako we just disagree, sure $1.5m isn’t big DP money by MLS standards but it is by Quakes standards and if we’re getting out of the basement, he has to be better.

 

There are teams that spend less than the Quakes, do they get pushed by Garber to invest more as well?

 

I believe when the single entity began , there was in fact a time where the league office was heavily involved in how teams performed on the field.

They wanted to create competition and have more parity and allocated players. I even remember how there were officers assigned to each club to view how each team was playing and all the contracts were signed by the league along with Sunil Gulati and Ivan Guzitas. That was maybe 15 -20 years ago though and when there were only 10-12 teams.

Now that the league has grown and teams are all self sufficient with individual ownership groups, I don’t think the league is involved as much. I’m sure they still want to see the books and payrolls and be in control somewhat against overspending but not sure if they care as much about the rosters as they did in the early days.

 

Please ask for your deposit back, it will send a hard message to the front office to get their shit together.

 

The players always say that the coach has them on the right track, because you can't bad-mouth your coach. See: Alashe, Fatai. Who is starting for Columbus, by the by.

 

That has to be one of the most shameful episodes in Quakes history...

 

Why do we keep saying more expensive players? What exactly would be expensive? Our salary isn't the lowest and its no where near the highest but we are within the league average of 10.5 million. Many playoff teams have lower salary payrolls then us.

Total Salary Spending
5,062,505.44 - 2015
6,751,900.25 - 2016
9,343,679.37 - 2017
8,267,510.08 - 2018
10,778,981 - 2019
9,842,519 - 2020

Why are we clamoring that JT is some how our savior in goal? It's idiocracy to put him in goal and then get iced. Again he's the first keeper in MLS history to go winless in his first 10 matches. He's 0-4-2. Granted he has 4 to go to see if he can get a win, but would you throw a promising prospect in goal with an abysmal team to get lit up? Keeper is a very fragile position. For a keeper who doesn't have a reputation yet, having a piss poor GAA, and W/L record can kill a keepers career. Ask Steve Cronin about how he felt in 2008 with the Galaxy and how his career went after. I don't want anymore Band-Aids. I want this team to implode so we can get shit moving towards the fix.

I like JT but he's no Thomas Hasal who came in and TOOK that position. Vancouver didn't look bad until they played LAFC using Brian Merideth in goal due to a Hasal injury.

 

And that's a high bar!!

 

Where are you finding 2020 player payroll numbers?

Also, if we're looking at "CY Guaranteed Comp (Annual)" Veya is at $6.3m, not $4.5m, at least for 2019, which I believe were the last official MLS player salary numbers to be released.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/mlspa/Salary-List-September-2019.pdf?mtime=20190927180551

 

Are there any teams in MLS that have been in a rut for as long as the Quakes and have pulled themselves out of it? If so, what were the leading causes for getting out of the rut?

The most obvious example I can think of is Toronto. They stunk for many years. The ownership was absolutely determined to make them a good team and they did it by spending on players. They really spent a ton of money and the turnaround didn't happen over night. It took them years of spending as mistakes were made but they finally landed with Giovinco, Altidore, Bradley, Pozeulo. Totally in another spending level from the Quakes and even most of the rest of the league.

MN isn't as good an example because they were bad for a season or two when they first joined the league and they still aren't considered to be a great team, but I think they did have a turn around of sorts. They made a big shift in their spending as well. I've seen people make the mistake to think that MN spends about the same as the Quakes - that's false. MN has spent around 4m/year for the last 3 years on transfer fees alone. The Quakes spend about 1m on transfer fees with the exception of Espinoza at 2.5m. So MN is spending millions more than the Quakes for the last few years.

A trend I've noticed is that when a team spends big on players they often make bad mistakes on the players themselves but get gifted in some other way. Sometimes young players on the team turn out to be looking better than the player that cost a lot. I suspect this is not just a coincidence - the experienced players tend to elevate the rest of the team even if they themselves don't perform well. For that reason If Wondo decides not to play next year I think it will impact our team much worse than just the goals he contributes. It's very possible that if the Quakes don't increase their spending by an order of magnitude next year will be even worse than this year.

 

hard to believe Toronto's paying Bradley $6,500,000.00/yr.

 

Must be money laundering.

Actually I think he triggered a clause in his contract last year that meant he gets another year. I think at this point Toronto wants him off the books.

I've never thought Bradley was very good but he is a big part of the team that has been cup contenders for years. So only the owners can say if they are getting a good value or not depending on what ever it is they want.

 

Very few of us are saying more expensive players.

Most of us want us to spend our money more wisely, and to implement a system that makes the most of the players that we have.

And we want JT because Vega plays like he doesn't have any hands. He blocks the ball, he knocks it down, but he very rarely catches the ball. He doesn't control his box. He either doesn't direct his defenders or they don't listen to him.

And you're right, we should grab an MLS veteran GK. There are at least a few available, and any one of those guys would be a big upgrade over Vega, and would give JT another couple of years to gain experience and skills.

And why did we get rid of Mussovski and Thiaw? We knew for certain that we needed more forwards, so we threw two away. They might not be great, but Mussovski at least is better than Rios.

We've known for years that we needed to have some CBs in the pipeline. I discussed this is Kaval, so years ago, and he agreed. And we did crap all in that regard.

Our failures are legion. We're spending enough money on the roster to do better than we are, but we don't scout well, we sign bad players, we sign players who are too old, we aren't developing players at positions where we need help (positions where we can see that years in advance), and we don't have an analytics department.

We suck in many areas and spending more money on scouting, analytics, the academy, and Reno would definitely help our club without spending another nickel on the roster. But, it would still cost money. Money that Fisher is not willing to spend.

Go Quakesfans!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

At this rate I really don't think JT will be the future goalkeeper for us. I could even see us letting him go when his deal is up by not renewing his option. But who knows, keepers can be found anywhere at anytime, but sometimes you get a lemon like Vega. We could have easily taken Klabaugh from Reno instead at the time.

Ian suggested Musovski to us, but Fioranelli and Almeyda declined his services, Ian then suggested him to Bob Bradley and LAFC, and now he's there first man off the bench and has a couple goals. Thiaw sucked.

 

Fioranelli and Almeyda with all our goal troubles couldn't find a place for this guy on our roster full of shmucks?!



https://www.angelsonparade.com/2019...-musovski-reno-1868-san-jose-earthquakes-unlv

 

He may have helped us, but it's a bit of apples to oranges. Quakes forwards rarely get service. With LAFC you're going to get some stuff on a platter, especially when you play the Quakes.

 

Repped.

 

This is true, but we are really short of decent forwards right now and that’s a weakness we have seen coming for years!!! We should have redressed this years ago, or at least two years, or last year, or this year. Instead, we signed a 16 year old who has promise, but come on, he’s 16. And we sign Rios who is crap. Now Danny is hurt, and Wondo is finally slowing down. We are stupid!!

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

Last time i checked that doesn't add up to 10.