Yes he was. His first season was awful. Lost the second to a knee injury. His third was "OK" but nothing special. There is a Boscovic myth here that he was Olsen's worst mistake in player evaluation because he admitted it. Actually, Olsen's errors in player evaluation are legion, but Boscovic comes up because he was one of the first.
Boskovic seems to be pretty good in limited time before he was injured in the U.S. Open Cup vs. New England. I'll never forget the "lights out" pass that Boskovic made to Lewis Neal to defeat Columbus and steal a playoff spot for the good guys.
What I remember most clearly about Boskovic's tenure is how, when he was subbed in, the midfield calmed down and the attack picked up. I sat just a few rows from the pitch at RFK and the change in the team's attack after he subbed in was remarkable - and obvious. I can't forgive that forgotten NE player who cut him down in the Open Cup ,match in Germantown (after he had scored twice).
Luciano Acosta. - Left because the team wouldn't pay him a fair salary not because we decided he was shit Wasn't Lucho making some 2-2.5 mln / season? That's a decent salary for MLS. But he wanted to make it pay to DCU for not having accepted PSG offer for him, that's how I remember it.
I wanna say he was on 650k. He'd have stayed for $2.5M instead of posting sad emoji's on his twitter and insta.
Career Statistics (Regular Season) Year GP GS G MINS A SHTS SOG FC OFF Y R 2012 26 12 1 1081 7 20 8 22 0 1 1 2011 4 1 0 124 0 8 2 1 0 0 0 2010 13 8 0 771 0 20 7 7 2 1 0 Career Totals - 43 21 1 1976 7 48 17 30 2 2 1 Career Statistics (Post Season) Year GP GS G MINS A SHTS SOG FC OFF Y R 2012 4 4 1 321 0 9 2 2 0 0 0
That doesn't sound right, hadn't be become DP at a certain point? I think when PSG wanted him and DCU did not let him go for a charity price, he thought he really was PSG level (he wasn't) and put up that big fuzz.
I thought they offered him the $2M+ deal in the off-season and he didn't take it, then they took it off the table after he kinda fell apart (soccer-wise)...? I think he was still on the $650K when his contract ran out.
I think you're right. After the PSG "event" he was never the same. Depending on who you listen to, DCU held out after PSG made a generous offer or, alternatively, no offer actually was made. Given that Acosta was seen as an emergency fill in for Neymar for a month or two, the price wouldn't have been astronomical. But then, Lucho was coming off the best half season of his career, so everyone -- DCU, Lucho, his agent -- though his shit didn't stink.
You know, as I recall the announced PSG offer was for $7M. Then, the PSG manager - probably, wisely - got cold feet and PSG lowered the bid unilaterally. You know, if I had been Levien, I would have taken $4M for Acosta. Losers, as we all know, can't be choosers. I would have taken the money and run.
While on loan he was just under the DP threshold. When purchased in 2017 for ~$1.4m he went to DP status at $500k. In 2019 he was on $702k ($600 + guarantees). DCU was offering to re-sign at $8m over 4 years while shopping him for $10m-$15m. According to various reports, PSG offered ~$8m and DCU was willing. But at that price DCU was not also willing to pay the commissions for all the mouth-breather hangers-on from its end, thought PSG should pay. PSG was not willing to do that.
DC was already about $4m into him, was offering him $8m, and at the time had every reason to believe his value would only continue to go up if Lucharoo continued to perform as expected. It makes sense to me they wouldn't accept a lowball offer.
An $8M offer for someone from MLS is not a "lowball offer." Remember, this league has little international credibility. It is neither a "premiere" league like EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A, etc. Nor is it considered a "selling league" like the Eredivisie or a club like RB Salzburg or other European teams that survive by developing and selling players and plowing that money back into more development and the occasional purchase of a "right priced" addition that meets a specific need. Tenorio and Stejskal talked about this and I agree with their general point that too many in MLS look at sales such as Alphonso Davies and think that is more "normal" that a "pigs are flying" exception to rule. Look at Durkin -- he went to Belgium for slightly over $1M with some sell-on provisions. Until MLS players demonstrate value in overseas markets, the selling price of an MLS player will be depressed somewhat. $8M for a guy with one good half season in MLS was a good deal -- shame on them for not taking it.
Keep in mind, if we're $4M into a player with an $8M value, a third of the profit gets kicked up to the Soccer Don. Based on those assumptions, I was ok with the team walking away from a $2.67M profit thinking it had the foundation of an MLS Cup contender, which we were if he'd kept his head together. Now, we had to have known that there were going to some challenges with him when the deal collapses. How much did they anticipate and should they have known that he was going to go full headcase and meltdown to no production is another question to evaluate Kasper, Levien & company on. You also don't know if he and/or his agent were entitled to a cut of the fee, which there was speculation on at the time. And a commission to the shady f-ck who was brokering the deal. That had to be some significant money too. And I am not sure that even for a $4M in profit, that I don't take my chances on getting a run at the MLS Cup. They had to know it was a short window with Rooney, even before his wife got sick of not being a real housewife of Potomac.
My general sense is that if someone offers you a reasonable transfer figure for a player, you take it. Why? If you don't, the player likely will be pissed off and depending on contract length, he will walk on a free -- like Acosta eventually did. Also, reasonable money is money, that coveted player could blow out a knee in practice next week. I'm old as ********. I grew up when there still was reserve clause in baseball and football free agency didn't really exist. Now, there is no such thing as a dynasty based on the same cast of characters, especially for middling leagues like MLS. The secret is intelligent roster churn and selling players for a reasonable price when someone comes calling and then taking that money and reinvesting it wisely in both player development and acquisition. It's hard to do, but if you want to succeed long term in this league, you better do it or find an owner who shits out gold ingots.
Miggy had just gone for 10M, so there was some justification to asking for a higher price tag. But the problem was the finders fee and the MLS cut would have brought DCs actual profit down to under 4M, which was a pittance, considering we still had Rooney and no idea Lucho would crash like he did. It would have been neigh impossible to replace him with someone of the same quality he had just shown for a transfer fee anywhere near that. That's the rub, really. Last year was going to be our chance at silverware, and we would have been fools to give that up for a few million dollars.
So I think they had to have some idea that he was going to be a head case about the transfer falling through. He'd been posting on social media signs that he was unhappy with the pace or salary levels of his contract negotiation all spring long. His maturity had been questioned as recently as the red he picked up in the last game at RFK. There were signs. They also had to have a reasonable idea that Lucho's agent wasn't a stabilizing force. There was zero chance we'd find a replacement. They flew to Paris the day before the transfer window closed. Even the most optimistic of numbers that were being thrown around would have left us with not a ton of money after kicking up a cut to MLS, paying the middle man, and possibly his agent also getting a cut of a fee. We'd have ended up with a lot less than we spent on Flores. Welcome to the world of big time soccer transfers. It's not like the other American sports where you can't really tamper with a player under contract on another team. While I am sure there are convenient meetings at night clubs and golf courses, tapping up happens all over Europe and prolly South America too. The agents are shady as ********. Scott Boras and Drew Rosenhaus are wimpy alter boys by comparison to the European agents and fixers like the one we ran into on this deal. I've rooted for West Ham for going on 30 years, you haven't seen shit. Even if you're a fan of Juventus, Real, Barca, ManU, Chelsea, whomever you don't know how it works unless you've followed a team that routinely gets snaked by "bigger" clubs on deals with agents steering guys to/from a team. Or see how easily a guy can be unsettled with a wholly unsubstantiated tie to a big money deal or a big time team. All in the name of a fee, agents will convince a guy that a team where he'd clearly be a bench warmer is getting rid of the starter and they'll pay him whatever, and boom, his head is turned. Everyone wins in the short term except the original club that has to sell at a cut rate with little chance of a quality replacement being found for the money they had to settle on In the mid-term, dude ends up riding the bench into oblivion the next 2 years because the starter was never going anywhere. The whole cycle ends up with the smaller club guy leaving the pine at PSG, Man City or Bayern and going to play in China, Russia or the middle east on a decent money deal with no chance at real glory because they went stale on the 2nd team.
But, you have to keep in mind that Acosta has about an 8th grade education tops and, on top of that, he wasn’t the most mature or worldly kid. His head was turned and, unfortunately, he began pouting.
I agree that Asad had a good game, but you need to remember who they are playing and that he has played poorly all year as has virtually the whole team. Both points of view one for the game and one for the season have a measure of credibility. Still is it necessary to attack folks personally simply because they disagree? In the end, we are all United fans. I have posted on Big Soccer since 1998 and prior to that on the old LISTSERV (if anyone remembers that) and the most disturbing trend is how people treat each other online. For many people, personal attacks only serve to disengage what should be a fun interaction.
Wow. The team has gone down so far that of that starting 11 I can't see anyone starting for another team in MLS. Also, the only 2 people I would keep for 2021 would be Pines and Gressel from that group (and maybe Mora who has been somewhat steady if uninspired)
Since Ashton moved Asad inside, he seems a different player. Now, is that a function of him finally finding some match fitness after his hiatus with Velez last year, or a further indictment of Olsen's coaching and tactics, or maybe he's better suited in MLS 2020 to playing the "8" rather than outside. I don't know and we'll see if he continues to replicate his performance. I also agree that we should be civil towards each other (most of the time).