Semi-Official 2017 San Jose Earthquakes Roster Thread

I'm really shocked by the salaries for the new European players. Flo is good, but on a relative scale, that's shocking - do I think he's worth double Bernardez? No way.

And Hoessen is even more painful. And Hyka - well, it makes me really sad we gave up Quintero as too expensive and paid even more for Hyka. Hyka is good, but I would have kept Quintero. Or even better, take both and retire Shea and some other MF.

 

You're not going to be able to lure the European players to come over here w/o giving them something comparable to what they can earn in Europe. The central Amercian players are generally going to be cheaper. That explains why Flo makes more than Bernardez and Hyka more than Godoy, and Dawkins way more than Bernardez and Godoy. Because Quintero is under contract with BUAP, he was going to be more expensive. I think BUAP wanted $700k, and the Quakes probably couldn't negotiate down from there sufficiently to make it work. FWIW, I think Hyka is better than Quintero and probably worth the extra salary allotment.

 

Uh no. If that was the case Quintero wouldn't be playing in Peru right now.

And I don't know why anyone is surprised by Hyka's salary, he came from Switzerland. Players from Europe tend to be more expensive.

That's why some of us have been saying for like YEARS that the Quakes need to bring in more players from Latin America...

2014:

 

Urena, Godoy, Ceren, Bernardez. 3 starters and one part time starter. We should do more, but we are not bad with Latin American and Caribbean.

In reviewing the salary list, I have trouble with the following:

• QA
• Dawkins
• Ceren.

While I like them on the team, they are not worth the value attributed to them. However, compared to prior years, I really don't have major heartburn over the salary.

 

There are always things that don't make sense, but I agree, compared to previous years, there do not seem to be that many completely out-of-line salaries. It is hard to get everything right.

 

The best players in Latin America are in South America, not Central America. We can get even more specific than that: the best Latin Americans in MLS are almost all from Argentina (guys like Piatti and Valeri) or at least played in the Argentinian league before coming to MLS (guys from other South American countries like Lodeiro and Almiron)...
And please don't include the Caribbean, how many of current top players in MLS are from there? No one here is saying "I wish we had more guys like Shaun Francis on our roster."

 

Not exactly "current", but ....Scott Sealy?

I would say Kenwynne Jones, though seems like he's having a bit of a hard time getting on the field for Atlanta.

 

Because of Josef Martinez (Venezuela), Hector VIllalba (Argentina), Miguel Almiron (Paraguay), Yamil Asad (Argentina)... well really the first two specifically.

Kevin Molino is T&T, but even he wasn't brought straight into MLS from there, he spent years in the third division USL being developed, when he got to the US he was a raw talent who was pretty much useless in terms of actual production. I'm not talking about where a player is from, but where he was developed, what league he's in when some MLS front office finds him and signs him. So even he doesn't count.

There was talk here of the Quakes trying to sign Kenwyne Jones. No reasonable person would have said "Don't sign him he's from T&T!" After all he has proven himself in the Premier League. But if you're sending your scouts on a trip to find some difference maker for your MLS team, it makes far more sense to have them head to Argentina or Brazil than to T&T.

 

You have to be selective with your scouting resources. There is a lot of competition from other leagues for players from Argentina and Brazil. I agree that we need to make more of an effort, but don't think the Quakes are below the average MLS team in scouting Latin America.

 

The top Colombian, Argentinean and Brazilian players all got to Europe first. The second best may go to Mexico and then maybe MLS. What we need is to start offering is different types of incentives and contracts that the European teams are giving or at least re-think the salary caps. I think we are starting to see some of that in MLS but I also believe there is still much work to do in terms of scouting and getting these players over here.

 

On the other hand, it would be better if we just developed American players more, or believed in them more, or something. I sort of wish we had a better limit on internationals.

Interestingly, Fredy Montero came back to MLS from China because china instituted a new team max of 3 foreigners playing on the pitch at one time. So with 5 foreigners on the roster, he would only be able to play every other game.

 

The main difference though is Bernardez is in what is his final year or years and will be 35 in 25 days. Florian is still only 28 and has a long way to go before he turns 35. Age in this or any professional sport means quite a lot.

Yes that is another alternative. I believe it was last week or the week before where the Quakes were starting 4 American born players and that was it. Not good especially when the initial point of MLS was to develop young , domestic talent and not employ an abundance of foreigners on the field at one time.

 

Exactly. It will happen over time as MLS gets more competitive, but it's going to take another decade or two.

Same with developing American players. I do think the league is going to have to keep the number of starters to a certain level. Sadly, I remember the days of NASL where you had to play only two Americans (one usually being a GK). Quakes are better with Wondo, Lima, Alashe, and Bingham, but that is still only 4 American players.

 

Why should we as fans care about the national origin of the players?

 

Add TT and Yueill, hopefully they are regular starters in a year or two, and that would probably be one of the most "American" teams in MLS.

 

I take your point, but there is clearly some correlation between national origin and playing style. I would rather have a hypothetical Argentine, Mexican, or Spanish player than a player from most European countries.

 

Hoesen is making $500k and stinks in his minor substitute appearances.

Amerikwa and Cummings are on $300k each and won't touch the field.

Dawkins is on $800k and invisible.

........ But clearly the problem is a starting fullback (who is much improved) making $120k.

 

Our - perhaps - best attacking player ever, and the one who led us to our two titles, was a Canadian.

 

Hoesen is a good player. Francis at that salary is fine. The problem is that he is your starting left back. He is OK as depth. And let's face it, a 30-year old player is not going to "much improve". I think it is that your evaluation of him has "much changed".

 

Man, I miss him! The guy was fun to watch.

 

Yes, despite the fact that Canada can't even qualify for the hex round much less the World Cup, obviously we should be looking at Canadian players, because our best attacking player in the first half of the 2000s was Canadian.

Also, we should all smoke constantly because George Burns lived to be 100.

If you look at the top 50 players in MLS *right now* (slightly more relevant than 10-15 years ago when there were no designated players or targeted allocation money, and only half the current teams existed), how many are from South America, and how many are from say Canada (one: Cyle Larin) or the Caribbean (possibly one: Kevin Molino)?

 

Assuming we sign one (or more?) foreign players in the summer as Jesse has implied, how will we clear the INT slot(s). Imperiale is my first guess, or maybe we cut our losses on Cummings. Can we buy another slot?

 

I'm pretty sure Donovan is American. Oh, you meant DeRo.