Gentlemen- So far I've gotten lucky with predictions/info. Here goes- Carlos will be in a Revs kit this season.
CL Back? I would be happy to see it, now that the Colombia deal has fallen through, but the price will have to be right. Some rumors have him going to Metro or DCU. Also, wouldn't you think the Quacks would now have the dough and the need for CL?
darn, i just got done updating my roster on New England Revolution | The Revolution Continues... and i subtracted Llamosa, and now im too lazy to update it. But I'm still excited to hear that Llamosa will be back, he'll earn the cup this year. Hopefully MLS will take care of him. I'll make sure to give him an extra cheer when they annouce his name in the pregame roster callout.
YAHOOOO!! This would be great news. I hope we can do this without too much damage all the way around. What this will really mean is that we have the same starting team as last year with the addition of Nowak for our attacking midfielder and Joe Max in for Serna's roster spot, but really Mamadou's and Wolde's field spot. Not bad.
Will He Be Traded? I'm betting this saga has a few more chapters to be played out before it's settled. Strong rumors that DCU would like to add Carlos. I wonder what the Revs might be able to get in trade for Carlos from the Mutts or DCU? I see this playing out as a win-win-win for the Revs. ~If he returns to the Revs--we win ~If he is traded with free up cap and get value in return ~If he goes out of the league to another team and we get an allocation. we win. Best case is he gets a contract he's satisfied with and we have him for another dew years. George
Re: CL Back? after seeing the exodus of players out of s.j....this was the thought i had too. in fact, if you look at their roster, i believe they only have 3 true d's listed...maybe i'm wrong. however, if agoos is still around, i can't see BOTH of those guys being wanted by the same side. it seems to me, nj is the place that needs him the most and that can afford him (seeing how mlsnet only has, like, 19 guys listed on their roster right now)
OK, OK, if DC wants Carlos, here's a trade.... Carlos, Serna and Griffiths or Kamler for Reyes and whoever is their left midfielder. A person can dream can't they??
Well, clearblue's been right in the past, but I'm gonna disagree with him, here. I think Carlos may not be done in MLS, but I'd be a little surprised if he's a Rev again.
Some chatter on UssoccerUk has Llamosa going to DCU, but I can't figure how it might work - I think I could stand goussoccer's deal (!), but I don't think DCU will nibble. Their board has in the past flatly rejected any deal to acquire any defender. One reason is that they feel strongly that RH will want to play 3-5-2 and they already have Reyes-Ivanov/Nelsen-Petke. It's kind of the same problem with Metro and SJE, who have also been mentioned; I doubt they would part with anything we would want. The only deal for Llamosa that makes any sense at all to me (other than for a 2004 draft pick) would be Llamosa for Crew's Freddy Garcia. Crew desperately need an experienced central defender; Llamosa would add some much-needed class.
He has a choice of where to go, though it would be nice if the Revs just worked something out with him. Look for the team that is the most under the cap and needs a good defender and that may be where he ends up if nothing else happens away from the US by Friday.
Fortunately, the DCU board doesn't get a say in player deals. Given the latest rumors, I wouldn't be shocked if DC did make a move for Carlos. I'm sure Ray wouldn't give up too much, but we might actually be able to pry a 2nd round pick out of United, which'd be nice and not entirely unreasonable.
well LLamosa is either not goin to play for the revs or any team in the league or he'll play for the revs or the revs will make a trade for him (kinda like the McLaren situation with the Bruins).
I'm confused about DC's salary cap situation. They had to trade Pope, Moreno and R Williams to get under the cap and then they brought in Kovalenko and Stoithkov. How would they have room for Carlos?
I thought they were more interested in the allocation and draft pick than in getting under the cap. While DC probably can't do it this year, an ideal situation for Carlos could be some team signing to a Stoichkov type of deal, where he gets paid extra money that doesn't count towards the cap and he's a player-assistant coach.
Why bother for a 2nd round pick? Trade a quality defender with international experience to one of your main rivals for a pick that isn't even likely to make a roster? No thanks to that one! Nicol, as seems to be his way, stayed above the whole fray over the contract offer. I don't see any way that he wouldn't want Llamosa back. Now, if CL demands a new team, then that's a different picture. If DC is interested, how about Llamosa for Stokes as a starting point, with draft picks and salary cap swapping as balancers?
NE is not in a position of strength in any Llamosa trade. No team really needs Carlos right now, especially the ones mentioned as looking at him. DC has 5 starting caliber defenders, ALL of whom are younger than Carlos. The Metros have Pope, Jolley and a handful of young players at defense with Addo and Ziadie as insurance. Carlos would be nice, but not necessary, and the Metros have other holes to fill, like wing mids. Columbus could use him, but they will not part with a starter for a 34 year old slow defender. Look at it this way, after picking up Reis, Nowak and JMM, giving Twellman a raise and signing your draft picks, Carlos Llamosa may not even fit in your cap situation. You picked up Peter Nowak for chump change. Why? because Chicago was up against the cap. IF you trade Llamosa, it will likely be for chump change, because you all are now up against the cap, and the going price for a 34 year old player just isn't that high (see- Nowak, Balboa etc. Many players who have had a better career history that CL)
FWIW, I'm under the impression that the Revs CAN afford Carlos, but that the league just isn't willing to pay him what he's asking for. ...and I know the MetroScum are interested, but they're the ones that I don't think can afford him.
Well, given that they just unloaded the salaries of Balboa, Williams, and Paule, they should have enough cap room for Carlos if they want him. Then again, they are talking about a young Spaniard #10 named Mario (I thought it was just the Brazilians who go by one name), and he would probably eat up a lot of the newly-freed up cap room. On a somewhat related note, since we have options with discovery/foreign players, I bet we see a few local Brazilians given a trial with the Revs in the next few weeks. The beauty of it all is that we could find, say, a good left sided player, and all he has to do is be better than Winston Griffiths, and he'll likely find himself coming north. He doesn't have to be a Cate, or any other "major impact" player, just better than what we've got. And given that the CCC games have a larger roster size than our league, we could carry some extra guys for those games, without them necessarily being on the League roster. Since there are potentially 4 CCC games before we've even played our home opener, and 6 of our first 11 games, Nicol can get a good look in meaningful games before we get too far into the season. Tom
Based on FDA's reporting, we know that Llamosa doesn't want any part of New England. Suggestion: Trade the rights to Llamosa to the Crew for the rights to Brian Dunseth, who, at last check, hadn't re-signed with the league either [Dunseth would welcome a move back to Boston]. Even though they've added Frankie Hejduk, Llamosa would definitely bring a measure of sanity to that backline and would be a stabilizing influence on The Son Of Danny Bonaduce [Chad McCarty]. I'm all for this... From a related thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=31136 Llamosa says hispanics players don't get the same! "Carlos Llamosa was on Radio Unica yesterday. He's currently trying to resign with the league. Carlos stated that the league has offered him a deal that he could not refuse if he wanted to play for the league. The league offered him just under $100,000 a season. Llamosa is looking for half the salary max. MLS officials told Llamosa that if he cared to play in MLS he would have to take their offer. Carlos said the league will not negotiate, it's that or nothing. Also, Carlos stated that he feels as do other hispanic players, that the league does not give the same "respect" to hispanic players that it gives to the Anglo-American and European players." Funny - that's what the U.S. guys have been whining about.
It isn't the Revs that is strong-arming him, it's the league, so it's won't be any different in Cow-ville or anywhere else. Nicol has said that he's love to have him back, etc., and given that Llamosa's situation with Nacional didn't happen, it doesn't seem like there are a lot of options. It may be a matter of pride and face-saving for him to move on, but I hope that if he does re-sign with MLS both sides will come together and put this all behind him. As for the Latino bias thing, maybe he should have a chat with his old pal John Harkes. Or Wynalda, Balboa, or a ton of other guys who have been forced to take serioius pay cuts. Have there been Latino players who have gotten screwed? Absolutely. Have there been white/anglo/black American players who have also been screwed int he same way? Absolutely. MLS isn't biased against Latinos, they are just squeezing out the mid-level guys of all backgrounds who still can contribute a lot, but make "too much" money. The league is an equal-opportunity bastard, or shrewd businessmen, depending on how you look at it. BTW, someone else in that thread posted a different translation of what Carlos said, and I would tend to believe that version. It doesn't seem like Carlos is the type of guy to play the "race card", but not being a Spanish speaker, I can't say for sure. Tom
No, they're not strong-arming him, but they probably aren't going to bat for him either! If the Revs told MLS, make it another $10-15K and close the deal, it'd probably get done, w/o Llamosa having to use P.R. to make his case. I think what many people overlook is that Llamosa pulled a hamstring in the early spring, and played with it and reinjured it several times while doing his best to support both the USNT and the Revs. As a result, he had a subpar season and a reputation as "injury-prone". Now the Revs and the league won't go an extra yard for him! The reported translation of the Unica interview seems to differ a lot from this account on the referenced thread: "Martin Cutler BigSoccer Member I heard the Llamosa interview last night on Radio Unica and Carlos Llamosa DID NOT say what bopper78 claims he said. One of the hosts, Hamer Londoño was pressing him on the point of whether he thinks Latino players are treated differently than Anglo players and Llamosa specifically said he didn't want to say there was a bias against Latino players. What Llamosa did say was that the league has been taking a hard line on salaries with players and that while Anglo players have been effected, Latino players were disproportionately more effected and he named players like Graziani, Perez, Rodriguez and himself as examples. He also said he felt the league disrespected him in negotiations because unlike past negotiations he didn't deal with the league's highers up for contract negotiations but rather with a lower level official who, Llamosa said, gave him a take it or leave it offer which was way below what he was previously earning (50% less than last season's salary). Based on his past accomplishments and especially those of the prior season he felt this offer was an insult."