http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/ne0128jmm.html The article makes no mention of how he was "acquired." Anyone else know? Or's this just a gift--yet another laughable MLS move.
Exactly. Usually MLS press releases say in the first paragraph how the player was obtained whether it be through an allocation or discovery or whatever.
Don't get me wrong, its good to see him back... but the Revs didn't have an allocation did they? Just DC and the Metros, right? Which if they didn't want him and/or have cap space - (maybe the Metros would have passed on him with Moreno and Mathis, but I can't imagine DC would pass on him, Joe Max seems like a Ray Hudson type of player) it would mean Moore normally would go into a weighted lottery - right? So how did the Revs get Joe-Max and Dallas not get Stewart? Yes - maybe Moore said he would only play for New England. I have no problem with the old team having first dibs on returning players - if thats the rule. And it is probably the best thing for the league for Joe Max to go back to the Revs - but what am I missing? How did they get him?
You're absolutely right. I'm glad to have JMM back but there is definately something shady in how the Revs ended up with him. Under the rules Gazidis laid out prior to Stewart signing with DC teams with allocations should have had first shot at him. After DCU used theirs on the Bulgarian defender (Ivanov?) this morning that would leave the Metros. If they passed on using the allocation then according to Gazidis he should have been made available to the rest of MLS in inverse order of finish. Meaning everyone but LA would have had to refuse to pick him up for the Revs to get teh chance. I just can't see that happening in a truly open series of events. Either the Revs were able to claim him as a "discovery" or someone in the back room at MLSHQ told the eight other teams to pass on JMM so NE could grab him. My guess is that's what happened. The league decided it was better to have JMM in the league at his rumored 'home team discount' and damn the rules than to pay him the league max and follow them.
First the Revs got to rape the Galaxy for Franchino when they picked up Luis Hernandez - I mean, seriously, who got the better of that deal? Then The League stocked, and I mean stocked New England with the likes of Mamadou Diallo, Carlos Llamosa and Adin 'Freebie' Brown in the Dispersal Draft. Who's to say Garber didn't cut the Mutiny and Fusion loose JUST so he could prop up the Boro Boys? I bet The League even had a hand in forcing the Metros to deal Danny Hernandez and Brian Kamler up to Foxboro last season, just in time to save the Revs. When, oh when will MLS HQ stop this blatant favoritism of New England, at the expense of everyone else? It's gotten pretty sickening.
They might have gotten an allocation 'cause of the loss of Llamosa, but I'm just throwing that out there off the top of my head.
Well, what ARE they going to say? Think about the alternate "honest" press releases: "Today MLS, America's premier soccer league, put in the fix to give New England Revs another player in order to keep the Kraft family happy so they don't pull out and make it a two person league ... OR "Today, Joe Max Moore, a USMNT veteran and EPL player, joined the New England Revs because nobody else in the league thought he was worth the money ....
As it is noted on the Revs board, we lost Rooney, Llamosa, and potentially, Serna. We believe that we've acquired an allocation as a result of losing a World Cup defender. This freed up the ability to get Moore. Prof
Yea, toss in Serna too. So: Serna + Llamosa = allocation I can see the logic. Whether it should come before anyone else who might have an allocation, and whether anyone else really wanted JMM, is anyone's guess.
You COULD be right. Who knows. That certainly is not a belief based on anything said by MLS. Wasn't "faith" once defined as "believing things that you know aren't true"?
It says this in the article... "In order for Moore to fall to the Revs, the teams holding allocations passed, meaning that the "reverse-order-of-finish" process described by MLS Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis prior to the Earnie Stewart signing was instituted. With New England holding the ninth slot, it can be inferred that the eight teams besides New England and Los Angeles passed on Moore, either because of salary budget constraints or competitive chemistry reasons within their squad."
Wouldn't you think that Barret + Cannon would warrant more of an allocation than Llamosa + Serna? The latter is a great question of: what have you done for us lately? Edit: Not to mention Graziani
Maybe I'm a little out of the loop here but I don't recall any 'favoritism' of New England blatant or otherwise. Seriously, that would be the Metros who managed to pick up Mathis. New England was able to make out as well as it did in the dispersal draft because it had a large number of picks thanks to its poor finish the previous year/ trades. As for Adin 'Freebie' Brown, my guess is that the teams who passed over him did so based on his play with Tampa the previous year and not on the less tangible potential to drastically improve. With respect to Garber's decision to cut Miami and Tampa Bay, it obviously was rooted, at least in part, in their attendance figures and not in some sort of pro-revs conspiracy. I don't think anything was forcing the Metros to trade Hernandez, Kamler, and Serna for Diallo, Chronopolus, and Andy Williams. I think most people at the time, and for the next couple months, assumed that the Metros had made off like bandits. It's only in the perspective of the playoffs that it might seem like the Revs were on the better end, and therefore must have resorted to underhanded means to achieve these ends. Also for the record, if there exists a plan on the part of MLS HQ to make the Revs become successful, it either hasn't been implemented, or it needs a lot of work. In the history of the Revs franchise, the best record posted was in 2000, when they went 13-13-6. With the exception of that season they have always held a losing record and have accumulated a goal differential of -73 (not counting this last season). Cry me a frickin river.
How convenient that eight clubs passed on JMM. What a stroke of dumb luck for the Revs. I don't have any problems with JMM returning to NE. It's the team that he should be with. But the explanation of how he got there is pure MLS. I really think that the player allocation rules in MLS work 90-95% of the time. But that other 5-10% is ugly.
MLS has changed somewhat. In the past, some other club before the Revs would have picked up JMM, a club that didn't want them, only so they could get something out of making the Revs traded for him. Example: In 00 the Fire wanted to sign Mike Sorber off waivers. He was in Fire camp and everything. Waiver draft comes and I believe NE selected Sorber, so the Fire had to make a trade.
You're out of the loop. Michael was being sarcastic, since what he said about the Revs is basically what the rest of the fans have been saying about the Metros for so long. The last two years, the Revs have had quite a few "strokes of miraculous luck." It happens. It happened with the Metros and DC, it happened with SJ, it happened with Colorado and NE, and it's happening this season with NE and Columbus (if the Hejduk thing happens the same way as the JMM thing). The league is trying to make itself profitable, and one way it does that is to try and keep some hope of not sucking in all of the markets.
This is pure speculation. If Moore wanted to go to the Revs then he could have put a stipulation in his contract saying that he would in a sense take a pay cut, thus helping the club stay under the cap, while encouraging other clubs to pass on him in order from going over. This could become the new mechanism for players coming into the league who want to play on certain teams.
Yes, but what if it becomes widely known by agents and players, and becomes the norm that the best players dictate they'll only play for a certain teams. It might then become difficult for some teams to attract top talent. (I realize this is already happening.) It seems to me that it's at least fair that the Revs should be subjected to a hit on their salary cap that is the same that other teams would have had to pay, even if JMM takes a pay cut. That would be more fair. Then next year they can resign him to whatever salary they agree, without having to compete with other teams for him.
I could easily see the league looking the other way if they could save money on a contract. However, I don't think that Moore passing down to the Revs is that amazing if nobody wanted to use an allocation on him. It would become more realistic if the league expected the team that chose him to have the cap space available. DC: Have Eskandarian, Stewart, Quaranta, just used other allocation Metros: Have Mathis, Moreno, drafted Magee, used up cap space on Pope and Moreno KC: Just picked up Wolff Chicago: No money Dallas: Have Kreis, Rhine, Johnson, Cerritos SJ: Have LD and DeRosario. They probably could have taken him, but is forward their biggest need? If it was, why dump Graziani? Columbus: Waiting patiently for Frankie Colorado: Just brought in Grimandi, have Spencer and Carrieri, probably have a lot of pricey Americans (Chung, Henderson, Pablo) Again, it's pretty obvious that Moore wanted to go to NE. But then again, which of the above teams are you confident would have picked up JMM for good money?
Yes it can be inferred - but that is not necessarily how it played out. That doesn't state that the 8 other teams passed...only that it can be inferred. I am trying not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it is hard to imagine all 8 teams passing on Joe Max. KC sure as hell could use him. SJ could use him - unless they plan on trumping Columbus for Hejduk.