http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1036491463292530.xml His dilemma: is it time to consider taking a shot at a possibly higher payday in one of the leagues that even the Yanks Abroad freakies can't be bothered to follow? I'll suspend total cynicism for a moment about whether he could go - after all, if there's a team that'll take Mike Duhaney, there's gotta be a couple teams that will sign up Jolley. Yet he's not in as strong a position as he thinks: he wants a shot at Petke money - but this is FC Saarbrucken sweet talking him, not Bayern Munich. As for the 12 year old car...damn, Steve, you make 60k a year right now. Have you not heard of 0% financing? Or will the satisfaction of driving the Escalade make up for the fact that you're sitting the bench at F.C. Germersheim or Go Ahead Dolphins for a couple years? The Metros dilemma: how far do we go to keep him?
Unless they raise the Salary Cap, I can't really see us offering him much more than $80-85K. Bradley knows how to pick good defensive players in the draft even with later round picks. We could offer him more if we were somehow able to trade Petke to another team for a (high) draft pick. But I don't know who would want Petke after his poor season at $120K. Also from the article: Ouch. Frankie, that had to hurt.
"I'm tired of driving a 12-year-old car," said Jolley, who drives a 1991 BMW. What a freakin cheapskate . Steve's not going anywhere. He has a new home in Weehawken and he's pretty happy here. He's just doing his job "negotiating" a better deal.
While I agree that we could probably replace him on the field...I don't think it would be in the Metros best interest to lose someone who actually LOVES being here.....the guy is an ambassador to the sport in this area and Jolley and his wife are quite involved with the local charities.... I think the Metros overpaid Petke, but if that is the benchmark for a defensemen on the Metros, they should at least try and get his salary a little more in line with Mikes.....
Honestly, at some point we have to reward the true Metros. Two of those players in my view are Petke and Jolley. They bleed for the team. There has to be a way to give him 120K, especially if we cut Addo.
Oh christ, spell it out for us then...... How about this.... Tab Gone....I'm going to guess he made about 100 or so after restructing Faria Gone....48K Diallo Gone.....276K These are givens..no speculation. 424 K of additional cap room....bump up Jolley to 90 (i'm sure that would be acceptable, particularly after a down year.) So, all that has done was eat away at 30 grand of the cap room.....
So you assume we don't need the funds to replace practically our entire midfield and another forward and another central defender. How's that? If there is something left over than I would love Jolley to have it.
I don't think taking 30 or 40 grand out of the pot to pay a one of their current players is out of the ordinary.... Plus, I haven't heard too many names getting thrown around yet...so who knows if they are going to have to league max whomever they sign... All I'm saying is...that with their history of 'picks' I would hate to see them NOT sign Jolley with the hopes of spending the money on some also ran who is never going to pan out....
Fine. All I am saying is there is alot more to be done before Jolley can get a little more money. These are the sad facts with the MLS salary cap.
I think this is exactly right. As ToddP25 points out, the Metros overpaid for Petke. They shouldn't compound the error by overpaying Jolley. There's no way Jolley should make more than $120,000, which is what he wants. According to the article, MLS is offering something slightly more than $100,000. That sounds fair to me. Personally, I would make it an incentive based contract, so we get less guys talking about winning the Cup while we miss the playoffs.
Although I agree, it is hard to have an incentive based contract for a full back. What would the incentives be based on?
Just don't make it games and minutes played for Jolley......he would clean up. Valid point though.....I can't see how an incentive contract would work for defense...other than the standard All Star Team, Best 11, individual award clauses....
I'm thinking Jolley's future with the Metros will have a lot to do with what Bob Bradley thinks he is capable of. If we play with a libero, like Chicago's 1998-2000 tactic, we'll need a really skilled guy in the middle, and two marking backs. Jolley doesn't have skills anywhere near Kubik's, and a six figure salary is too much to pay a guy who could be replaced at his position by an Andrew Lewis without anyone noticing. Defenders, at Chicago at least, came and went under Bradley. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't re-sign Jolley.
Not making public predictions of an MLS Cup? Just kidding. I realize the incentive idea is not very feasible.
That is why Balboa might be the best fight in the back anchoring a defense with Petke and Jolley as the marking backs.
Could be, but I don't have much faith that a 35 year old with a history of serious injuries who, by the start of next season, will not have played a competitive soccer game in 18 months (I'm not going to count the 8 minute fraud in Foxboro as a "competitive soccer game"), will fit the Metros needs in a very critical position in the Bradley system. In fact, I have no faith. I'm talking out my ass, and I fully expect Miguel to materialize shortly and tell us how great Marcelo is, but I'll wager he's not on the team by the start of next season. Cut his pay by 80% and send him back to Colorado. Most players on this team are nothing like who we've seen Bradley prefers from his Chicago sides. We don't have good defensive midfielders, we don't have a right-sided midfielder, and our defenders are really slow. I really wonder how much chance Petke and Jolley have of sticking around, when Bob Bradley has regularly ditched his defenders when their salaries got too high. $250k between the two marking backs does not sound like the Bradley salary range.
Let Jolley go and get Lalas from LA. He had a great year and LA will be looking to dump a defender since they signed the South Korean.
What? You think that Lalas made the same as Jolley did? I doubt that a lot. Even if Lalas did have a great year, I'd still rather give Jolley an increase in pay and keep him than bring Lalas back.
I'm not so sure an incentive based contract would be hard to come up with for a defender. How is this: 1) Bonus for playing in 90% of league games. (make this be able to take money away from suspended players) 2) Bonus for being named first team MLS. 3) Bonus for team goals against average of ______ or less. 4) Bonus if team makes MLS cup. 5) Bonus of 5k if team has the best league record, 3k for 2nd, 2k for 3rd, 1k for 4th. And don't get onto Jolley for not buying a new car. When your occupation might only pay you $500k before you retire or are replaced you have to save a lot of it. I bet his wife has a new car though 8)
As long as we're talking about Jolley's value to the team and incentive awards, keep this fact in mind: Jolley was the only Metro defender to score a goal last season. I'm not saying that makes him indispensable, but IMHO this shows that he's a more of a team player than just a position player.
Kamler had a goal against CO. The $100,000 offer from the Metro isn't bad all things considered. I can't see Jolley moving unless the offers he's got from other clubs are substantially higher and he's got an opportunity for major playing time but I've been surprised before.