http://blogs.suntimes.com/fire/2012/07/fire_signs_sherjill_macdonald.html 15 goals in 82 matches in Belgium gets you a DP designation ? This guy is an affront to the entire concept. Why is Chicago going backwards as a franchise? Their games are barely watchable as is. Blanco- now THAT was a DP.
He may or may not be good, but who said a DP has to be a way of allowing you to watch famous stars on the cheap? If he helps them win, that's also a good decision.
I think the point was that for a forward, those aren't great stats. I've never seen him nor heard of him so perhaps he gets a lot of assists, holds the ball up well, or adds a lot in some other ways, but the stats are not impressive. At least he's younger than many other DPs. Hopefully he'll be good for the league, but not so good that they pass DC United in the standings.
The DP rule came about for the benefit of LA and New York, it was never intended to be used by any of the other teams.
I don't know any details of this deal but this might be one of those temporary DP situations because of a transfer fee and not because of salary, similar to Milton Cariglio.
Almost certainly true. When he was signed in early July, we heard that there was a transfer fee. He was definitely under contract with Beerschot.
Hey, that strike rate is roughly equivalent to other legendary DPs like Miles Joseph and Darren Sawatzky. If things go well in Chicago, he could retire with a rate in the Dario Brose range.
And apparently the sent him out on loan to Defensor Sporting in Uruguay. So you are down to one DP again.
the DP term is cited a bit more than it needs to be. if the team thinks he's worth $400k+ in salary/transfee fee amortization, that's their prerogative. and, yes, they have to use a tag to be able to do that. the problem is that the club/league/fans/media tend to treat the DP tag as code for big-name/money signing" (announcers are really bad with this...you can count on "the designated player" in place of his name as a way to refer to someone like Hamdi Salihi at least 3-4 times per game). that'd be okay if it was an informative term, but it really isn't given salary and payroll complexities. De Rosario makes more than DC's current and their former DP. there is this weird increase in expectations when a player has that DP status, though,
That's because the team thinks he's worth the $400k+ in salary/transfer fee. They're implicitly making a statement of expectation by valuing the player more, so fans follow their lead.
I think it gets outsized when we throw the DP tag on though. Benny Feilhaber is making DP money and doesn't seem to get the same attention (from my own observations).
That's because he plays for New England. Nothing they do gets attention. For example, Lee Nguyen is possibly the bargain of the season, but no one talks about it.
I'm still wondering when Grazzini is going to return from Argentina where he went for "personal/family reasons" 2 or 3 weeks ago, a after a contract disupte was dragged out quite publicly for about a month. What's up with that? That guy made the Fire go. Without him they can't string together any passes.
Yes, I feel bad for small markets like Chicago. The league should restrain those megalopolises like Portland that can spend a million and a half on a DP. How could a wide spot in the road like Chicago possibly compete?
Don't tell that to Frankie Klopas, because he seems to think that Rolfe or Alex could replace him. So far we have scored a grand total of 2 goals since Grazzini left (5 games), one of them was a free kick goal (How's your plan going Frankie). Personal reasons my ass, he left because the FIRE jerked him around about his contract. Now they are shopping him around in Argentina for free, great not only do you lose your best attacking player, now you are going to get NOTHING for him.
i think the real issue here is that teams have to use the DP rule to sign players who make under $1M a year (transfer fee included for cap purposes). if MLS wasn't so cheap and didn't spend less than 25% of revenue on salaries (total salary for all teams with DPs and off budget included is only $90M) they would have a much higher cap per team (say $5M) so that teams could actually sign a number of $250K-$750K guys to normal non-DP status and leave the DP status for $1M+ guys. Cap = $5M (for 20 "Senior" roster spots) Max Non-DP Cap "Salary" = $750K 3 DPs per team allowed @ cap hit of $750K each ($250K under 24) Cap compliance would be simplified to an "at any given time" scenario where as long as the 20 guys you have on your active senior roster and their yearly cap numbers would be compliant you are compliant. And teams can cut/buy out any players at any time and remove them from their roster/cap. it would be funded by the same 30% of ticket revenue contribution gets you 2.5M of the cap and any amount over that 2.5M cap you spend you must contribute the balance.
Jesus, the Fire are run terribly. I guess they fit in with the other teams in town, so that's something. Their games are painful to watch...