oh. dear. lord. 1-$3 million? try no more than $1M as it stands... and that probably doubled in the last 3 weeks 2-there is no way EJ is ready for the premiership... and crystal palace? what are you trying to do? kill his career? 3-fulham needs a forward? they have like 90 - they need defenders 4-turn down arsenal? please lord give me the strength to not strangle fulhamfc3!!!
EJ is an intriguing prospect. The question is really all about timing. If EJ continues his rapid progression and has a stellar World Cup, his value increases exponentially. Do teams jump the gun and take a chance on him before the World Cup? What is his value? He is a raw but extremely talented player. Is he worth an expensive gamble? I doubt MLS will sell him for less than 3 million.
Yea but, Crystal Palace need someone to score besides Andy Johnson. Arsenal have so many great attacking players if he went there no way would he even get to the bench over Bergkamp,Henry,Reyes,Van Persie etc etc.Fulham have forwards ea but whos are their forwards. Mcbride,Cole,John,Radz wow real great. Radz has done nothing all year(well he did score one goal and did well against Boston but, hasnt done much in the past 2 matches.Mcbride is 32 Cole is 32 and John never starts but, is probably the only one that will be there in another 2 years.
I love getting excited about our players but come on guys. He had two good games against horrible international teams and now what you think he's buying plane tickets to Europe. I say we close this thread for at least a year or two. On second thought this should be a sticky so everyone knows where to post their EJ comments for the next two years. It will come in time for him but not now.
I agree. This talk is all premature. Eddie needs to spend the next couple of years building up his USMNT resume so he can get a work permit in England. This will make him capable of generating a bigger tranfer fee. 2005 will have a lot of WCQ games and also the Gold Cup. And if things turn out right, EJ could also get a lot of time in Germany in 2006. After that, he might be a very valuable commodity indeed.
I think Eddie Johnson will get at least 15 million dollars in 15 years so MLS should sign him to a basic 24K salary for 16 years. That way when he is around 35, MLS will make MILLIONS! God, I should run MLS because my speculation dictates facts!
EJ will be going over to train with Man U in the off season, as he has in the past. If any club has their eye on him, its not Arsenal, its United. Regardless, the two option years (and I can't believe I have to explain this) are MLS's option, not EJ's. They will take the option of extending his current deal. If he has another outstanding season in 2005 (15+ goals) then he will probably be a target for the January 06 transfer window. Or MLS could risk it and hold on to him for the first half of the 06 season and try to squeeze out a transfer fee in the August window, with clubs knowing he will be available on a free in the Jan 07 window. If he is looking to be a major factor for WC06 they might do this, hoping a good Cup peformance will sky rocket his value. More then likely, though, they will try and sell him in Jan 06 and not take this risk. That means one more year of EJ in MLS....that's the way I assume things are going to go as a FC Dallas fan.
texagator, you frankly are making way too many logical and informed decisions. You need to understand that sound business practices and rule of law are not applicable when it comes to MLS players being sold to Europe. Player transfer figures are arbitrary as are their contract obligations. Remeber, MLS is always being low-balled and players are always asking for too much money.
I'm can't tell if your post is tongue-in-cheek, so I will respond as if it isn't. I think this is changing, just look at the DMB situation. I believe MLS made the proper business decision by refusing Southampton's offer and waiting for something that was more appropriate. DMB's contract was set to run out in time for the next transfer window, so he would have been available on a free, MLS didn't want to risk losing him for nothing. It was a tough decision to make, had PSV not come in with a better offer they would have been SOL. The boys at MLS HQ are quickly figuring out the whole transfer game....particularly when it comes to selling off their young stars.
IMO, MLS should seriously consider selling him if it can retain 50% of his future rights. (and if he wants to go, obviously) This is not to say that Eddie won't improve in MLS, playing and practicing next to a very technically skilled forward in Jason Kreis. Within the last year, Eddie's game has improved tremendously. On the other hand, if a decent Euro club came up with a good offer with the MLS retaining some of the resell rights, the Yanks will have 50% of an established Euro player a couple of years down the road, which may be worth more than a 100% of an MLS star. My guess is that Eddie will resign with MLS if he can get a significant bump in salary from his $85K. If the raise is not forthcoming, he'd likely to express his desire to leave. In case anyone hadn't noticed, either "going to Europe" or "staying in the MLS" can be used as a ploy.
I don't think there's any question that Eddie will resign with MLS and will receive a very significant boost in his earnings. He's in the league for at least another year and deserves more money. MLS has done a pretty good job of demonstrating to younger players that they will not stand in the way of a move to Europe, when a decent offer is received. So this is a good deal for both sides.
I don't know what you guys are talking about in regards to EJ re-signing with the league. He doesn't have to, they own two option years on his contract. They have him for two more seasons at his current pay. Why would they re-sign him for more? He has already made overtures that he is interested in going to Europe when this contract runs out. Why pay him more for the next two seasons if he is bound for Europe regardless?
It's in the nature of the personal service contracts. You can't make someone perform for you just because you've got their name on a piece of paper. In other words, if someone doesn't want to play/sing/act/cook your dinner for you, you may as well let them go and concentrate on getting something in return.
There is absolutely no reason to think that EJ won't play his ass off knowing that the better he does the more he will make in Europe. How many times do you hear about a player who's performance drops off right after they sign the big contract. I don't know, doesn't make sense to me. Plus, you have to consider Dallas and its cap room. There really isn't any, and they will be trying to re-sign Ronnie O'Brien, bring in an allocation to pair up with EJ and a discover to play on the left side of the field. Sorry, but I don't see MLS redoing EJ's deal.
For exactly the reasons you stated before. MLS is in a bit of a quandary. Either they sell him off january 06, or they risk not getting any money for him in a transfer. if they lock him into an additional 2 years, they can take their time and sell him after a performance in the next WC AND with 2 years remaining on his contract .......... 2 facts that will most likely up the transfer fee. It's about timing. With only 6 months or a year left on a deal, MLS will get less money for him. I am not for just upping his salary, but for extending it. The extension is most important.
Personally I don't think EJ will WANT to lock himself into MLS for two more years. Why would he? He's better off going to Europe as soon as makes sense, and if there is interest in Jan 06 he should go. Any decent European side will be able to pay him MUCH MUCH more then MLS ever will.
Well, that's a whole different issue. I'm talking about what MLS should be trying to do and not speaking from EJ's perspective. However, keep in mind that EJ has stated that he is still open to re-upping with MLS. So it would seem that you may be jumping the gun on your statement of what he wants and doesn't want.
The rule of thumb these days is that whatever the player transfer price may be, it's ~ halved with a year to go in his contract (to wit, Michael Owen's $14M transfer to Real) and zeroed any time after that. In other words, if Eddie doesn't extent beyond the current 2 years, MLS will have to allow him to move a year from now or get nothing in return. If he is asked to extend beyond 2,006, I don't see how any agent worth a nickel wouldn't ask for something in return. You just don't give away your rights like that. Also, a good agent would get a slew of conditions built into the deal, which may allow Eddie to escape to any of the specified leagues provided he is offered an X-amount, etc.
Understood. Which is why I said that I'm not JUST for upping his salary, but also extending it. This is money in the bank for MLS to get him with at least 1 more year on his contract. Then, at worst, they could let him go with a year and a half left on the contract, right after the WC. They are not complete idiots in MLS headquarters (despite what some here believe), and I'm sure that they understand that reasonable concessions to EJ would benefit them long-term if they could get a deal done.
Yes, he did make that one statement recently....he also made a statement not to long before saying he wasn't interested in re-signing with the league. Lest we forget, you should NEVER trust what a player says publicly about his future for it rarely matches up with what he truly wants. They say all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons: to keep in the good graces of the fans, for negotiation position, to give hints to interested clubs. Regardless, I'm still not convinced MLS would want to re-sign him. They would have to pay him for 2005 and 2006 to lock him up for 2007 and 2008. Being that it is extremely doubtful he will be seeing opening day 2007, what's the point? DMB was up against the end of his contract and it didn't prevent a good deal from being struck. As long as there are multiple clubs interested, good deals for the league will be out there. Clubs won't want to wait for the free if they risk losing him altogether to a club willing to put in a lowball transfer offer. So they will put in for a transfer too. It all comes down to how many clubs are interested and what their real interest level is.
That's not necessarily the case. For example, the league was able to cough up about half a mil for Josh Wolff and I doubt that he'd have been able to get the same compensation from a Euro team, once you calculate the local tax levels and the cost of living overseas. MLS can not compete visavis the Europeans at the very top level/league but it can for the developmental to the smaller Euro Leagues performers.
It might be wise, just for PR reasons alone, to give Eddie a new contract with a higher salery, even if they don't add any years to his contract, and only sign him through '06. I would think eventually we're going to see more and more interest in American players abroad, and teams might try to sign them young enough so as to not have to pay a transfer fee to the MLS. If the MLS shows that they're willing to give exceptional players a raise it might help them in the future to keep the Eddie Johnson's or Freddy Adu's, if only for a little while, from jumping overseas before we even get a chance to see them play at home.
That's because he wasn't worth it....as we have seen. Maybe in this case the Euro clubs were right about Wolff. In certain cases, returning USMNT player, they can get a better deal with MLS. But in the case of a young star like EJ....there is no question, he can get more from Europe. Wolff had the leverage of already being on a good salary. Do you think MLS will raise him from $85k a year to $350k?? HIGHLY UNLIKELY. And again FC Dallas won't be able to afford that under their cap AND re-sign Ronnie O'Brien AND bring in an allocation AND sign a discovery.
The only statement that I've seen about EJ not wanting to re-sign was from the word of a 3rd party, not from a quoted interview. Also, it was stated that this was said to this 3rd party a year or so ago. Sorry, but a year is a long time. EJ had his breakout year this year. He wasnt getting the playing time he felt he deserved, and might have been disgruntled at the time he made that statement. Surely, you wouldn't say that statement BEFORE this year carried as much weight as a recent quoted statement coming from his mouth for all to see. Second, you are fooling yourself if you think that MLS wouldn't want to re-up him for a couple of years. Extending EJ's contract is money in the bank. As sidefootsitter has said, the closer EJ gets to being out of contract, the less money MLS stands to get in a transfer. Extending his contract nets MLS more money. Remember, if MLS extends his contract to 2007 and 2008, they probably will never even give him the money for those years. He will be sold in summer 2006 or january 2007 before he ever fulfills those years. However, because of the time left on his contract, MLS would net more money. Your DMB analogy forgets the point that if DMB had more time left on his contract, MLS would have gotten more money as well. Less time on contract remaining equals less money in transfer. It's as simple as that.