Does Clark have to go through the allocation process or does Houston automatically maintain his rights?
Okay so that's why Houston maintains Clark's rights, but they don't have to pay him based on that earlier offer, right? Because it would be hard to have a less significant / successful Euro move than Clark had had.
No they don't have to honor the old offer . . . . the nature of making the offer when his contract is up "indicates" interest and allows them to maintain the rights to the player. It is a bit of an odd rule but is in place partially to limit a players ability to leave, then try to pick his destination upon return. Reports are he will be "essentially" replacing Cameron's salary budget number of around 300k (annually) so I would assume that is near what was offered in the past and less than he was making in Europe after he left. As a side note, I can list a bevvy of players with a worse move to Europe/elsewhere.
Good for Rico. He's a good defender and covers a lot of ground. Does not matter that he is not international quality. He is very good by MLS standards, and won't get pressed as much exposing his deficiencies. He could very well be the difference between defeating NYRB and not come playoff time
If a club has the financial clout to allow a player to move overseas on a free transfer, then it seems to give them an advantage since they keep the rights to the player. If a player is doing it, then the ownership could ship him off for free and when he potentially returns to MLS, BAM, new old player. Teams wouldn't obviously want to allow their better players leave for free, but deals could be made behind the scene in my opinion. We have't really seen this yet, but this Clark deal got me thinking.
Yes, definately Noonan. The Clark move to Europe was a poor one but I can think of many far worse and more significant. Add Kenny Cooper or even Josh Wolfe if your talking Bundesliga.
Kinnear understood Clark the player better then most of his other managers. Just put him in front of your back 4, ask him to move the ball quickly, and not try and do too much and you have a wonderful player. Never understood why other managers have seemed to want him to be more of a dynamic 2 way player then he is, hes always gotten in trouble when hes asked to do more offensively.
Except that most of these guys don't return. Furthermore in a league where the entire roster can be overhauled in a 4 year period, it seems like a big risk to let a guy go free if (and this is an if) you have an option to take the cash in the hopes he returns and you still NEED him 4 years later. I don't see this being any type of strategy that would ever be employed purposely.