The Charlotte Eagles play Colorado tonight in an exhibition in Charlotte and the Charlotte Observer wrote an interesting article with comments from Pablo. Unfortunately, there is no link to the article on the internet but here are the quotes from the article titled "Mastroeni says MLS is good training ground". "with the success of the national team, mls will continue to breed quality players (for the USMNT?)if they get them abroad" "when you keep them here , you tend to suffocate the younger talent" "the next LD and the next DMB , they might be a guy on the bench who's 18 years old. If Landon would go abroad, it may give him a chance to play" "you (MLS) have to start releasing players" "of course, the american public wants to see the young players but you never know how much talent is here because you (MLS) keep suffocating the talent" "everybody's goal is to go play in Europe. This country you have to fight for a 30 minute spot on tv, but there, that's what they live for. To live for that environment day in and day out would be just phenomenal" "It's great to promote these players, and they've done a good job of it (MLS) but it's best for the country and best for the individual player for them to go abroad" The article states that when his two year contract is up, he's going to Europe. Any thoughts? Randy
Link: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/other_sports/3768554.htm FYI--Mastro signed the two year deal April 4, 2001. So he's signed through 2003.
Stunned we haven't seen teams come in for Pablo. He can't earn much, he cna't have too higha transfer value, (surely less than $15 m, maybe half that) and he showed int he cup he can play at a very high level. He seems the perfect target for this summer of no love.
I don't see Pablo going for 15 mill or half that, not with the current transfer market. I would like to see more players abraod, but only if they are playing or have a reasonable chance at it.
Pablo is the man! He is a guy I think deserves more attention from Europe, a rock in the defensive midfield. He made us all forget about Armas.
Some lucky team in Europe will get him on a free and probably only have to pay him like $600-700K with WC experience. He might be in for an EU passport also if his ancestors immigrated to Argentina recent enough.
if mls is only trying to keep players here, than they should be... it's called inbreeding and a horrible idea
how is this? where are his parents/grandparents/ancestors originally from? I hope Pablo gets to do what makes him happy. It was great watching him at the World Cup ... would've liked to see him on the field a bit more, but we made the quarters so who's complaining?
Pablo was born in Argentina, with Italian ancestry. He should be able to get an EU passport through his grandparents.
if mls builds a rep for not working with the players, the players will not sign long term contracts, do everything to get to europe instead of playing in mls
Yes, that would be too bad, but on the other hand, MLS can't settle for low-ball offers when Europe comes calling, either. The figures being kicked around in this thread so far are in the mid 6-figure range, which seem a little low for a central midfielder/defender coming off a moderately successful WC campaign. It doesn't surprise me that MLS would like to see more coming in for a player of Pablo's quality. Unfortunately, the timing is poor for MLS. Europe's transfer market is going through a dry period (or maybe financial reality has set in). Even the biggest clubs are being careful bargain hunters right now. MLS must steer a middle course between letting players go for next-to-nothing and holding on too long and getting absolutely nothing.
Not 1 transfer fee!!! Not a one. The US play in the 2002 WC was way beyond expectations and there is not one transfer fee received by MLS. This is very dissappointing. Sure, you could say that Sanneh, Reyna, JOB, LD, Stewart, Heydude and Freidel were already playing abroad, but we still have Mastro, Mathis, Wolff, DMB, Pope and McBride playing in MLS. It's hard to fathom that not one semi-respectable offer has come in for any of these 6 players. I'm sure that there could be reasons that fans are not privy to that cloud the picture, but again I say, NOT ONE TRANSFER FEE! It boggles the mind.
When you consider that Rivaldo was allowed to walk away on a free transfer with a year remaining on his contract, maybe it is not so hard to understand?
The entire story behind Rivaldo's release isn't out. yet. Keep in mind he and Van Gaal despise each other, with Van Gaal being a moron and wanting him to play wide left in his first stint at Barca. He's a lousy coach(how in the hell can you not qualify the Dutch with talent like that. You could take 10 BS posters randomly and at least 6 would be able to qualify them) and Rivaldo wasn't going to go through all that again. Rivaldo on a free is an abberration, but the market is very repressed right now, especially today with the Nationwide LEague losing their ITV Digital case. But, with Van Gaal back at Barca, I wonder if he'd consider JOB "Dutch enough" to play for him. Especially since he'll probably be pushing Cocu up to left mid and Overmarrs wide left up top, he'll be needing a left back. As for the topic of this thread, maybe a EPL team will come in for Pablo, but don't look for the more likely option of a 1st Div. club coming in for him now that theyre not getting half their TV contract money. My guess is Pablo's going to be yet again another guy that leaves for Europe on a free.
schmuckatelli speaks truth. I do read some frustration in Mastro's quotes though, and that will another element in the whole tug of war between buying and selling. Most players are going to want to go abroad if they can, but MLS may have to adjust their valuations given the current market in Europe. There's really no reason for them to move anybody while the current season here is going on though. The Euro season will still be in an early stage and clubs there will be more aware of where they are weak,especially those who don't start well and have to begin thinking about how to avoid relegation.
Can't believe I'm reading so many fans being this critical of MLS. MLS is still young and still reaching for its' targets adn goals... one of which being the establishment of a fan base and local stars. It is shrewd but in many ways, if you really think about another perspective and take all things into consideration including the international market right now, they don't have much of a choice right now. The players want to go, that's fine. Most likely MLS would listen to offers rather contently if the league wasn't relying so much on a select group of players + the offers were more than reasonalbe in their eyes to cover the costs of losing those stars adn developing new ones and the league. Ah, tough is the life of an American football league.
First, I meant to add a decimel in an earlier post. 1.5 m is about the max on his transfer value right now, I'd think. Second, MLS hasn't turned down reasonable offers yet. Thye haven't gotten but one that I know of, and Ajax backed out on that one after making the offer. I think the league has to work with it's atrs if they want to leave. Every league on earth does this. But they don't have to give people away. If the tansfer market is dead, might as well let them play here and make the league that much better.
I don't blame MLS at all for not wanting to release these players. They finally have some known names they can market. They didn't have that before the world cup. If they just lose all the world cup players to Europe, it totally makes them look like a minor league. In terms of public relations, that would be a disaster. Americans only respect the best this country has to offer, not the second best. I don't blame the players for wanting to play in Europe, but I can see where MLS is coming from. Also, before all these players just run off to Europe they should consider what that did for Hejduk and Lewis.