I put the question marks and exclamation points because the Washington Post doesn't claim to have 100% confirmation of any of the details, but here's the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020803493.html While I'm sure that DCU fans probably would like to have another marquee star, I think everyone can agree that Luciano Emilio probably deserves this slot and a payraise due to his effectiveness last season.
yeah emilio has definately earned it and if we wanna hold onto him for a while its probably the best course of action.
I guess we can dump Emilio for an upgrade with the DP slot just like what we did with Gomez -> Gallardo. It'll be best we can keep Emilio and sign a DP, but...
I'm not sold on making Emilio a DP yet. Yes, he had a great year. Lots of players have had standout first seasons in MLS. Then defenses figure them out and they're held to single digits the next few years. Let's wait and see if he can at least knock 15 in before we begin thinking about applying the DP label to him. Even with 15 goals, I'd pay him MLS non-DP max, and maybe use some allocation money to increase it just a bit, but not much. Save those DP slots for guys who will either sell jerseys and put butts in seats, or truly make the difference. Yes, he knocked in 20 last year. He also disappeared against Chivas in CCC and Copa Sud, and didn't make any waves in the Superliga either. I won't blame his poor performance in the playoffs entirely on him. He got injured at the absolute worst time.
I don't think you can realistically keep Emilio and get another DP. If you do, you'd be looking at right around $1MM of the cap tied up in three players. You won't be able to afford anyone else. It's an LA-like situation.
The way I read it, DC could anytime within the next 2 years have first dibs in trading for Colorado's DP slot. Why wouldn't the front office just go out and say they had acquired a DP slot if this wasn't the case (instead of using the 'future considerations' term)?
Gomez was a bigger influence on this team and if we weren't prepared to use a DP spot on Gomez it would be a colossal mistake and an insult to Gomez to now give one to Emilio. Let's face it, Emilio is a good finisher but not a creator. He thrived in our team because we had several creators feeding him last year. I mean his strike partner Moreno would probably pass him the ball even with an open net. Another way of looking at this is to look back at some of the other 20+ goal scorers in league history. Even Twellman, who I rate roughly equal to Emilio, can't get a DP spot and he's American. IMO Emilio is not worth more than $500,000 against the cap. If he thinks he can have more, let his agent find a buyer and we'll gladly sell him for some profit.
i have to say that i agree with you. Emilio is a very good player, but creates nothing. I guess that Emilio is younger, so that's one point for him. However, Gomez was a bigger influence on whether this team was going to win big than Emilio was, in my opinion.
Ives might not be welcome in The Dick pressbox after that story I'm waiting to see what the actual "future considerations" and DP status are before I'd declare Colorado a sucker. They got a great AM.
Well, gathering what has been said on this thread, I'm wondering how many of you would call DC suckers if they use the DP on Emilio. I imagine it might be short sighted to use it on him now and if they ever did to wait for his renegotiation to come up. If they use it to add another star it would undoubtedly be a great coup for an already talented team.
How is this such a bad thing? - We used our own DP slot for a internationally known AMid who led his Argentinian team to glory - And he's younger than the guy we had previously! - And on top of that, by trading that other guy to another team we got their DP slot !! - So bottom line is that we significantly upgraded our team by not using a DP slot! - And its in the bank to use on a current player as an incentive for this year - Or to use later this year for yet another mega-acquisition - This clearly worked out really well for us And for Colorado - How in the world did they persuade the guy we traded to them to accept a contract NOT as the DP ??? - Sure their paying him absolute max-plus and for extra years, but not as a DP - We can only surmise they had no other plans to use their own DP slot for a year or so anyways, so why not use it to seal the deal for the trade? - The only other options in the trade were PLAYERS, or MONEY, or DRAFT picks - DCU didn't want the last option and Colorado wasn't willing to part with the first two - So use something you weren't going to use otherwise - Colorado significantly improved their roster and the bottom line is that it didn't cost them a DP slot, since they weren't going to use it anyways Yes - DC United got the better of the whole sequence, but they had the better starting position too - And Colorado made out pretty well too
About using the second DP spot (assuming that DCU does indeed have it)... I don't think I've seen it discussed, but is it possible that we might have acquired it to make a specific planned signing? Namely, there was this guy who we talked about signing all winter who decided to go to Argentina and play in Copa Libertadores instead. And Libertadores ends in the summer... So, maybe it's simply that we might have a verbal agreement to sign Veron in the summer transfer window and need the DP spot for that. He seemed keen on both playing for MLS/DCU but also going back to Argentina and playing in CL. This scenerio would enable Veron to do both and make some good money in the process.
Yes, this would be fun. Let's just try to piece together if this is possible under the cap, both this year and in future years. I just don't get how it's gonna work under the cap without being an LA-like situation where you have two players and a bunch of scrubs. Maybe for this season you can get away with it because we only have a second DP (Veron) for half the season, so instead of counting 325K towards the cap he only counts 160K. (BTW, if that's true they need to fix that loophole - the idea that a team can sign a player to a multimillion dollar contract and only have him count for a little over 160K against the cap is criminal.) But how does this work next year? Maybe Jaime retires after this year and you get savings on his salary. But even so you still have to reward Emilio for the great season he's gonna have this year (knock on wood) and I just don't see how you could re-sign him if you've already got 700K tied up in two DP's.
What about allocation money? Depending on how much Colorado might have given DC in addition to the DP slot, that could be used towards signing a fresh DP. But you're right, the biggest x-factor on what is done with the DP slot is Emilio. Do you undercut what you can offer him in the future by signing another DP? Do you offer the DP to him? Lot of possibilities.
best course of action is to hang onto DP slot and wait and see. there is no reason to rush here for anything.
I think the best course of action would be to use the DP as trade bait for either a starting-level winger or a boatload of allocation dollars which could be used to pay emilio next year and/or sign a new foreigner. While the idea of another DP intriuges me, I feel that would be getting to far away from this team´s philosphy and winning tradition. Namely, having a very solid group of players and a dominate #10.
But depending on the year he has, he may want more than 400K a la Christian Gomez. Would DC United be better served in keeping the DP to re-sign him, or trading it for allocation money and signing another striker?
I think the biggest variable is the question of what will the salary cap look like next year ... With the clock ticking on the current CBA agreement, there probably will be a boost sometime soon ... If for example our salary cap gets a significant boost, let's say to over 3 mil., than I think this extra DP spot would be brilliant. It would allow us to keep together our current winning core, and at the same time add one more superstar. Shevchenko? Veron? Now if the the cap stays the same, I agree using 2 DPs would leave you with a very unbalanced roster ala Galaxy and Red Bull. And one last factor to consider is a potential 2nd DP spot approved by the league. That could give us 3 for next year which gives us even more flexibility going forward.