I think this is the way to go. There is no one in MLS that would come close to replacing Donovan and anyone even in the ball park would carry a large salary. Find a talented young player looking for a stage to prove himself on and you could get real talent at a good price, for at least a year or two.
Simply put, you can't replace Landon. Since if we use an allocation for him we lose his rights, maybe for this year we should tough this one out, and then see if he want to get a name player. It's a bullet to bite, but interesting things have happened. I heard that the league's cap was going to increase and that they were going after some key marquee names. Obviously they are out of the league's money range, but if they want to take the risk like they did with, ahem, Luis Hernandez and Lothar Mattheus, someone to at least give them a name--I'd be sure that they would be willing to come here to play and to sell the game and not to make it a vacation. It's still an astronomical chance that it will happen even with the increased cap. As for Clint, if he's willing to work hard and get the job done and not complain, then why not? I'd rather get an allocation that will be worth the while and not turn out to be a total dud AND bust. Cheers!
Nap - My concern with Mathis in particular is that even when he works hard and his attitude is good, he's a hot and cold player. He's really only one or two consistently good seasons. I wouldn't want to take the chance, especially if it meant giving up my rights to Landon. QC - Thanks! GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I agree. The Quakes should just blow off the allocation unless some incredibly good fit comes along. And I don't think Mathis would qualify as an incredibly good fit. Think about how this might play out in the worst case. Quakes use allocation to get Mathis, who quickly gets injured, and then out of shape and doesn't really contribute all year. In the meantime, LD decides Germany is just not for him, misses his girlfriend, etc. He comes back to MLS and is allocated to an MLS pet franchise, like (gasp!) LA. Man, that would suck. I could even see them holding off on taking the allocation for multiple years. Let's say LD plays in Germany for a couple of years and does well enough, but at 25 he's ready to come home, get married, start a family, etc. So he comes back (as he said he intends to) and the Quakes are waiting for him, with shiny new stadium. Man, that would rock. The best part about it would be listening to the gnashing of teeth at MLS headquarters as the Quakes repeatedly pass on their allocation and MLS is powerless to prevent the return of Donovan to the Quakes.
JazzyJ, an excellent suggestion about holding onto the Donovan allocation. We're going to clear a ton of cap space by losing Donovan, Ekelund, Corrales, and whoever else. (Agoos? Dayak? DeRo?) And the increase in roster size has got to mean a higher cap level also. Plus, I don't think that MLS is going to do any stretching to get us a good allocation. They'll be thinking "Those whiners had LD for four years and Azizi before that. They don't deserve a good allocation." If Agoos retires, we'll get an allocation for him. We won't get an allocation for Ekelund, but we might get a trade out of it, plus some cap room. We're going to have to go bargain hunting and we're going to have to do well in the draft. I think I'll see when the College Cup is on TV. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I'd like to know which, if any leagues, the EQs are actively scouting players. Or do we have no money for that?
Yeah, or they might even try to bait the Quakes into taking an allocation. ("Ahh, you lost your original Picasso piece. How about this great big, shiny new Thomas Kinkade original! He's the 'Painter of Light'! Did you know?") (Alexi, Dom, don't drink the Koolaid!) The way I see it the Quakes are still holding onto a very valuable card. Why play it if you really don't have to? MLS would probably love for the Quakes to play the card so they can eventually drop LD into LA or NY / NJ.
Here's a thought, we should start a letter writing campaign to the Quakes. We need to make the letters sound rational. We need to argue that there are only a tiny handful of players who could actually replace Landon, and MLS can't afford any of them. So it would be better to hold onto the Landon allocation for now and see who we can get through the draft, trade, and discovery channels. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I disagree. We need to get a quality player and try to win it all next year. I don't this this team should be worried about the long term, who knows if there is even a long term to worry about.
How 'bout we let them do their job? If Dom and Alexi see an opportunity to improve the team by using the allocation, they will do so. They know more about who is available and who is affordable than we do. They can't hold on to the allocation to wait for Landon to return in the sweet by and by, because they don't know if they will even have jobs at that point, or if the team will even exist.
We've been waiting for these guys for so long, I'm getting arthritis in my knees from five years of standing. And, what about Yves?
You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later. Depends on who they get. They might as well strike while the iron is hot.
Oh well in that case, I'll just start drinking lots of whiskey right now. Yes, everything you say is true. On the other hand, it might do for them to hear that at least some of their fans would be willing to wait on that allocation. We'd certainly rather see them get someone good over the next washed up has been to come along. You're right that they know better than we who is out there and who is affordable. That's their job afterall. But seriously, who could replace Landon that MLS might be able to buy? That's a really short list. Perhaps a null list. And being big boys, and fully confident of their own abilities, it's really unlikely that they'll even read anything I might have to say. On third thought, where did I put that whiskey?! GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I'm not opposed to waiting until they can find a worthwhile player. I'm opposed to the assumption that there is no worthwhile player.
i would like to see a carribbean player on the team. let say a Haitian midfielder i believe their are some very good ones in the haitian national team.
Do you really think there are any Haitian internationals who would be a fair 1-to-1 replacement for Landon????
i'm not saying that bro. all i'm saying is we can find a haitian that can help out the team, a player who will give it a hundred %.
I know that Dom and Lalas go to local college games and scout players there. And there are alternate ways of looking for players. I'm sure they get tapes from players in eastern Europe who are tired of playing for beets.
You just can't think about it that way. You have to realize that you will never get a fair 1 to 1 replacement for a player at that high a level. It's only happened once, when you guys got Donovan with the Lewis allocation. Mathis was replaced with Cornell Glenn. Tim Howard was replaced with Sergio Galvan Rey. Tab Ramos just plain wasn't replaced. Peter Nowak was replaced (in a roundabout way) with some kid named Buete. When a player leaves, is sold or retires, you aren't going to get 1 for 1 value. If you could, you would've just kept the original player to begin with. Also, there is a danger in refusing an allocation. You would be banking that Donovan would be coming back within 2 years. After that, Donovan's rights would no longer be yours anyway (see Sanneh, Tony). On top of that, if Donovan wanted to come back, regardless of the timeframe, you know he's coming back to SJ. Garber would find some way to do it. Take the allocation, do what you can with it and realize up front that whoever it is won't be as good as Donovan. If you expect him to be, you'll be disappointed with him from day 1.
Then let's make the deal and get him - trade our allocation, draft picks, cap room, etc. Whatever it takes!
This is probably kind of stupid, but I hope we get somebody exciting to watch play (and who's good, of course). Cuz with Donovan on the field, you always felt that something exciting was going to happen whenever he touched the ball. It didnt always happen, but often it did and you always had that feeling. I like that feeling.
You speak the truth. If MLS could screw the Quakes they would do so without a second thought. They way they pander to Chivas Jr. is enough to make you puke.