The poo storm started as a result of this tweet: Joan Verdu rejects Espanyol's contract renewal in order to make move to MLS Seattle #Sounders on free transfer when contract expires in Jan— Tom Conn (@TomConnISF) July 26, 2012 Also, this is the guy that "broke" that the Sounders were interested in Verdu in the first place. Read the rest of that guy's stream starting from that tweet as well. There is a veritable crap load of very good information about the situation.
It sounds like the Sounders got screwed again thanks to bad timing. They threw a 6 million euro offer at Verdu back in June, but he declined it because he wanted to stay in Espanyol (he's from Barcelona and Espanyol is in Barcelona). Unfortunately the last and final offer he got from Espanyol was only for 3 years and he wanted 5...
6 million euro!? Is that more than the rest of the team combined? That would have to make him one of the highest paid players in MLS, I would think. Is he worth splashing that on for 5 years, when its seems like he doesn't really want to be here?
I think it is better to say that he wanted to stay at his home town team and was willing to give them a pretty good discount rather saying he didn't want to play here. The Sounders, on the other hand, were willing to overpay him to have him come to Seattle. I suspect the Sounders are trying to increase their profile in the global market by throwing a bit of cheese around. As far as where he'd stand in comparison to the rest of the team, that's a little more than twice what the rest of the team is getting according to the MLS PU's numbers and it would make him the highest paid player in MLS.
I'll say one thing he can still not come to Seattle and transfer somewhere else. European transfer window doesn't end until august 31/September 1. If he has yet to transfer by end of August there is a possibility he could end up here in Seattle during the winter transfer window.
Beckham in LA in 2007 and 2008. Henry and Marquez each make more than twice the rest of the rest of the Red Bulls...
Marquez had better be taking the team out to dinner every night. Oh, salary caps; I would much rather double everyones salaries and sign someone for $3 million a year. But Verdu would be a very exciting signing that could take the Sounders and MLS to another level, so I hope this is true.
Just in case, here is what S@H found out about Verdu when the rumors started flying back in June: http://www.sounderatheart.com/2012/7/7/3143400/scouting-report-joan-verdu
This may come as a shock, but I was wrong about the 6 million Euro salary, it was a transfer fee: #Sounders buying #Verdu in January will be less than the €6m offered last money, leaving more money available for his salary, a huge factor— Tom Conn (@TomConnISF) July 26, 2012