I believe you have to give Taylor time to heal and get back on the field. He has done enough for this club that they owe him at least the off season to heal and get back on the pitch. This guy gives everything he has when he is on the field. I'd would love to see him retire a Rev.
I think it makes some sense. There must be some teams out there who have a solid lineup and could take on another player that may, or may not, contribute. Another team might think it is worth taking a gamble on adding Twellman and hoping it works out. If he doesn't work out, it may not cripple another team as much as it has us. It can be argued that we don't have enough attacking options to keep Twellman on if he isn't likely to contribute. I am of the opinion that we should keep him, but I can see the logic in not wanting to.
of course it does. every player has a value. and th evalue is different for every team. what value is TnT to a team like chicago? None. they are ripe with goal scorers. Redbull? they are the lowest scoring team in the league and have $ to spend over the cap potentially. a shot at a guy like that makes sense. OR a team like RSL who has been competitive but can find the net as much as other teams. or tfc....He could be a fit there. it all depends on what you need. is he worth almost 1/6th of our total salary dollars? when we're a team not willing to go over cap? with no other legitimate double digit goal scorers? no. if we had another guy who could hit he net 12+ times a season, I'd be more willing to give him time. $400k is a lot of $ in this league. If his doctors can assure us that he has a real chance of coming back I'd say maybe. But right now, his "goal" is to be back for next season. I'm not spending that kind of money on a maybe. he's had at least 8 concussions, the latest ended up allowing for him to see only 2 games in 14 months. it will be 18 months of essentually no play at the start of next season. your willing to pin all your hopes on that? I'm not. we have time to decide obviously, but If there is any question of him not being able to play day 1 next season, I say cut our losses and think post tnt. I'm not willing to throw away another season waiting. Another team may be more willing to take a gamble and spend the money acquiring TnT as a missing a piece to a nearly complete puzzle. Our situation is different. We have several gaps. His $ can allow us to do a lot potentially. If he gets (truly) healthy, he'll be brilliant. Based on this season I don't think we should sit around waiting cause if he's not healthy, we don't stand a chance in hell of winning anything next season. We are not going to win an mls cup with a team built around an aging reis, an injury prone rally and a striker who may never play again. sorry. we need to be thinking about the future. Rally is a bargain compared to TnT and while he's injured, it's not a career ending injury. TnT's may very well be done.
agree. I'd like to see him retire here as well. We do owe him the offseason. we do not owe him our chances of being competitive next season. there needs to be a line.
It was rkane1226. I absolutely agree that if there's any chance to have Twellman prove that he's ready we should take the opportunity (whether it's Plymouth Argyle or elsewhere). Wouldn't it be a great story if he helped Plymouth avoid relegation to the fifth level of Hell or whereever you go from the Colaship? BTW, even if he should prove that he's healthy, we need at least one more striker option (resigning Janny or another similar quality player). I don't want to go into 2010 with Twellman, Dube and a few question marks or players out of position.
great idea, but I bet he's no where near match fit. I'd be surprised if his doctors would even let him do full training right now.
You may well be right -- my thought was that it'd be a January/February kind of thing for just the couple of months (the part about leading Plymouth out of their relegation challenge was pure fantasy).
Why? If he isn't ready to train now in order to be as close to game shape as possible in January, what is going to happen in the next 2 (two!) months to change that that didn't happen in the last 14 months? I don't want him to be hurt financially and I"d love him to retire here but the REVs already gave TnT a season, it was called 2009. It is time for him to participate or move on in financial security
Maybe we should bring TnT into the offices, sit him down, and try to negotiate something with him. Tell him that its been a burden on the club to have him eating up 400k of their cap space and not play. See if he will take a hefty base salary cut like 100k, but throw in some bigger bonuses. TnT can still make money if he plays, and if not, we still have 100k of cap space back. If he is able to pull a miracle and play through out the 2010 season, then give him his raise back. Overall, I agree that TnT should be kept on board, but I would somehow love to see his paycheck get cut down a little to make up for the fact that he is now a liability. I think TnT needs to re-earn his paycheck after being out for a year and half, but I want to see him re-earn it as a Rev. RRRREV IT UP
Interesting idea I also like Rkane's idea about loaning Twellman out to Plymouth as a precondition to resigning him. Brady=Twellman? I don't buy it.
No kidding. I hope there'll be some serious evaluation of their conditioning programs as well as training and medical staff and procedures. That's pretty unrealistic, it's a catch 22. He only has trade value if he can prove that he can play; if he proves he can play, we wouldn't want to trade him. I think we have no choice but to hope that he recovers, while also looking for other quality attacking players. To me, it makes no sense to keep Heaps and let Igwe go. I already think Igwe is a better player, and he's only going to improve once he gets regular playing time. I thought he played really well when Heaps was out. With Igwe and Alston, we'd have two young, fast defenders capable of getting into the attach. OTOH, we have a 30+ player who has reached the peak of his ability - which includes booting the ball upfield to the opposition way too often. One thing to keep in mind about the players graduating out of GA - they don't necessarily have to make more - or even the same - money with their next contract. MLS negotiates players down in salary all the time. With Colaluca and Igwe, I'd say there is no question they will be offered less than their GA salaries. That's true. That last injury wasn't the first time he got hurt throwing himself into the mixer. I think massive in terms of salary probably, but not numbers. I think Castro, Badilla and Albright are likely to be cut, released or traded, and Larentowicz may or may not be re-signed, but I don't think they'll drop the young players. They've made progress and they are the stuff that makes up most MLS rosters. I think they'll mostly look to get better bang-for-the-buck from the top end slots: Castro, Badilla, Albright and maybe Jankauskus. Hmm, maybe that is massive ...
The 1st move of the offseson should be to cut Osei. That guy is a liability, why does he get a pass from everyone?
2 points: First, if your boss called you into the office and asked you to take a 50% or 75% pay cut how would you respond? Second, when he was on a much smaller salary and led the league in goals scored, did they call him in and offer him more money?
I am still on the fence with Osei. One minute he is making a good play, the next he has you saying WTF was that?
The only problem with getting rid of our better players is the Revs FO never, never, never, never, never replaces them with better players.
And yet you think some other team is, enough that they would be willing to trade for him? We are in the middle of the table, fighting with half the league for the last playoff spot. Our situation is exactly the same as most of the teams in MLS. I just don't see any other teams willing to pay $400K for a question mark, plus whatever they would have to trade for him.
yes, it's taylor twellman. the $ is the only question mark. and I do think there are 3-4 teams that would be willing to spend or trade for a shot at him. so you think he only has value here and nowhere else? there are worse gambles you can take in this league that picking up TnT. if he doesn't recover you waive him. as for us... Again.... Our entire success as an org rests on his shoulders. without him we are pretty much sunk. we have no plan B. As an owner or a manager is that how you go into next season? I sure wouldn't. Even if we do keep him, we still need a legit #2 striker. How else (keeping TnT) do you get a striker who can produce; who can be a #2- or more likely be a number #1 if TnT is injured? The draft? or do we go in with Dube and assume next year he's gonna break out? Knowing we don't spend over the cap. JL is getting a raise. How do we make it fit? How do you get a legit striker? Where else can you trade that has value? Albright only gets you $120 in salary. Castro and Badilla around the same? Igwe? other? Do we drop 2-3 guys and pick up a legit proven $200-300k striker? That I'd consider keeping TnT for a spell. I'm not going into next season like this though with no striker options. You'd be insane to try. Would you trade TnT for a guy who can hit the net 10 times a year (costing around $200k) and a 2nd or 3rd round pick? You'd have another $200k to play with. Seems like a better option to me. We're not going to agree. I'm not resting my hopes on TnT to comeback and being able to do what he's done in the past. I'm not willing to gamble away next season unless I know he 's gonna be able to play and he's gotta come into the preseason without the side effects of pain and dizziness if not. Granted, there are no guarantees even if his docs day he's ready. anything can happen, but nothing I've seen or heard other than his own comments- which I take with a grain of salt) make me think he's even close. I hope I'm wrong and he comes back and cleans up next season. Right now, I think we need to think post TnT or at least a very high calibur 2nd striker
So you think RSL would trade Robbie Findley for TNT? IMHO, I don't think they would. That would leave them right where we are now. Agreed. Actually, I agree with this. With or without Twellman, the forward position needs to be addressed this winter. We've scored 1 goal in the last 4 games. I like that they tried with Janks, but he can't stay healthy enough to be a factor. Janks and Albright's salaries would provide enough for a solid #1/1A striker. If Twellman does manage to recover, we then have 2 scoring threats and potentially a top-notch offense. If not, we have someone more reliable than Dube as the #1. Maybe Assengue is that player someday, but I don't foresee him scoring double digits in 2010. Of course, if the CBA isn't settled, this could all be moot.