Ian Bishop: "MLS is of similar standard to the English SECOND division."

Re: "Your honor, the defendant's Exhibit #23...."

Bishop may have a axe to grind right now, but remember that the converse was true when he made the first quote. When you've just joined the league, you're hardly likely to respond to a question as to its quality with something like "it's crap, probably only about English Second Divison standard". So his 'real' opinion probably lies somewhere between the two extremes...

 

As does the truth.

 

I find it easy to explain. When the Fusion was in the league, it was First-division standard, but without them, it is second division.

But, seriously, why is everyone so upset with what he says? The guy signed a contract in "good faith" (apparently) and then feels he got screwed on a "technicality of the contract" - at the same time, the MLS held his contract which technically prevented him from playing elsewhere (until they released it). Sure, he was pissed at the league. But, c'mon, who wouldn't be in those circumstances? I have yet to meet an employee who feels pissed off at his previous employer and doesn't bad mouth them (especially if, as we can imagine, he was encouraged to by the media).

Also, I don't feel that comparisons of our league with others has any merit. Our league is just a few years old, so it is encouraging that we have already gone past one English division (if Bishop is right), and two or three if everyone here is right. I don't feel the need to "promote" ourselves into a higher division. Time will do that legitimately.

On another apparent contradiction, Bishop says that the league is not very good, but that it contains players who would be EPL standard. Why is that scoffed at? It seems perfectly logical that a team can have excellent players in an otherwise average team. Likewise, the league contains some excellent players, but in all honesty most teams are not that good (from the ESPN games I see.) What is worrying, though, is that many of those excellent players are being touted for selling to other leagues. Beasley, Mathis, Donovan all rumored to be on the way out. If situations like that occur, the MLS will recover some of its losses, but will at the same time make Bishop's statements look more credible.

Lastly, those who watched Bishop's games last year, and spoke with the players and fans about him, know what impact he had on the Fusion and their success. Until Bishop came, the Fusion was b-a-d, when he came, we were great, and when he went off-the-boil, so did the Fusion. Sure, we can dislike him, because we don't like what he says, but lets not enter in revisionism while we're at it.

 

If Gazza joins MLS and plays okay, Ian Bishop will be right.

 

Take your own advice. He was a key player, but c'mon man.

 

Those are his words, which have been proven to be of dubious integrity. He also admitted in the interview that he didn't read his contract through.

Show me a contract that doesn't prevent you from playing elsewhere during the length of the contract.

 

What is wrong in suing a company that you believe didn't honor a contract? I don't know the details, so I can't comment on the specifics of what he is suing for. But, I can say that if I thought I had a contract that promised two years pay and they didn't pay the second year I would seek the advice of an attorney (as he did) and take it from there. If the attorney said, "no, you don't have a leg to stand on," then I wouldn't sue. Otherwise I would. Of course, that implies that the attorney's judment could be trusted... which is perhaps being a bit naive ;-)

 

In a way, Bishop could be right. MLS has a top layer of good players ( those who make the national team and a few others ) but other than them, the rest of MLS is quite a low standard. As a fan of a English First Division team ( Wolverhampton Wanderers; http://www.wolves.co.uk ), I'm not sure I'd want any non-nats MLS players in my team. Sure, we do have non-nats US players in this division, but they're not stand-out players.

I really hope this hasen't come across patronising, because it really wasen't meant that way. You DO have some fantastic players, but the rest are probably Div.1 reserves at best.

 

Wolf Man, I saw a pathetic Miami team run circles around the first team of Nottingham Forest a few years ago. I'm not even sure the US Mens team was the best it could have been. I think Taylor Twellman is better than most of the strikers they sent. Plus there are tons of quality central Americans in MLS right now, like Alex Pineda Chacon.

 

I guess you didn't hear Fat Tony say hecould take any of the Portugal players.

 

Except, he's not talking about your team and its opponents. He's talking about Huddersfield and Portsmouth, etc.

 

Only in midfield could you say this. However that will soon change.

 

I don't know, MLS defenders don't look too great. I stand by my original point.....given the choice, I'd take Division One players over the majority of MLS players most of the time. MLS teams don't have much depth in talent, the average MLS team probably has three or four quality players of EPL/top-end Divison one talent, and the rest, arguably, are lower end Division One/top end Division Two.

No-one is saying that the likes of Mathis or Beasley are of Div.2 quality, clearly they're much, much higher than that.

As for Nottingham Forest, they've been struggling for years, and you don't say when Miami played them. If Miami outplayed them, good for Miami. Forest were probably on pre-season training, they'd just come back after a break, chances are they weren't anywhere near 100%, unlike Miami who were probably nearing the end of their season were the fitter and sharper team.

SuperDave, whats your point? No, he's not talking about my team and it's opponents, he's talking about MLS and I'm saying that top-end Division One teams probably wouldn't consider adding the majority of MLS players to their rosters. Work it out for yourself.

 

Ted, what do you mean that you saw the Fusion run rings around Notts Forest in a friendly? I was at that game, and I don't recall it that way at all. Perhaps you were at the Fulham game and saw us compehensively thrash them, too? I recall watching both those games and thinking to myself, "man, we have a long way to go"

 

according to MLSnet Miami won 3-2 with only 10 men.

 

1. Bishop said that MLS is like the 2nd Division...Huddersfield, Portsmouth, etc.
2. You say he might be right, b/c you wouldn't want many MLSers on your (First Division) team.

Do you get it now?

 

I've never met an attorney that thought suing was a bad idea.

 

Re: Re: Ian Bishop: "MLS is of similar standard to the English SECOND division."

"Overall, maybe it's a similar standard to the English Second Division, but slower in pace."

Actually, just this week I read where Mr. Bishop is now plying his trade with conference side Leigh RMI.

Bishop signs with Leigh RMI

 

Where'd you play? I once tried out for the gigantic bastions that are Inter Cardiff.

Unfortunatley college commitments wouldn't let me continue... :-(

:L

 

That's right, Miami beat a vacationing Forrest 3-2 in a friendly... hardly merits a "run rings around" comment, does it? I saw the game and Forrest were just messing around. They run up a 2-0 lead and then, in what looked like a joke comeback, The Fusion then scored three times. It was good fun to watch for the kids, but I don't recall speaking with anyone after the game who actually thought we "really beat" Forrest.

 

Re: Re: Re: Ian Bishop: "MLS is of similar standard to the English SECOND division."

So it is now fair to say that Ian Bishops level of play is now equal to the English 5th division.

Hard to believe there is so little demand for a 37 year old. Actually, I am sure he is much chagrined over his current whereabouts. He has fallen down a few levels pretty rapidly.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Ian Bishop: "MLS is of similar standard to the English SECOND division."

On the contrary, this just goes to 'prove' that Bishop was actually being pretty generous in his comparison of MLS to the second division...

 

Ian Bishop: I am over the hill

I think it proves that he no longer had the skills to play at the level of MLS or even 3rd division english football.

If it were otherwise, he would not be where he is.

 

Wow, I think you're being too generous to MLS. I think MLS is equivalent to the 1st Division (Nationwide) except with 10 teams.

A team like DCU would be relegated to Div 2, for example.