With maybe the exception of a few older, (as far as MLS is concerned) class veteran players, like Wondo, Bernardez and maybe even Salinas, who could change games in an instant, I’ve been advocating the youth movement for as long as I remember. Especially on the Euro boards, I’m all for the Under 25’s as opposed to the Over 32-33’s. The problem here though is there are just too many people wanting and making more out of these youth players than what they really are. Most of the time, you can tell how a player is or will be just by looking at his movements during training. Sometimes you have players improve and can even get better in time if they play with better, more experienced players. That was the case with Shea Salinas who was not that good initially but then seemed to improve the older he got. These players are a rarity though. Tommy Thompson is ok but he has never really become an elite player. I give him credit for being a 9 season perennial starter and I’m not taking anything away from him for that but he is mediocre to average player at best. As a general rule, with maybe a few exceptions, if players aren’t all that great to begin with, chances are, they won’t get better in time. We’ve had a youth academy in place since 2010 and we are now in 2023 and have only 2 players in Niko and Cade to talk about. Neither has really proven themselves yet. It remains to be seen whether they make it there but from the rumors I hear, both are on their way to Europe soon so this academy in my opinion hasn’t served its purpose and is way overrated.
Haha. Shea was always good. He just had one missed shot which stuck in your craw. But to your larger point, the Quakes have been historically bad at evaluating young talent. Letting Ike Opara, Steven Beitashour, Justin Morrow and Rafa Baca all get away from the 2012 Supporters Shield team was an unforced error, for example.
Not really though. Aside from the miss against Chicago, Shea Salinas in his first 4 years in the league were pretty bad. That is why he only played a handful of games in 2008 then went on loan to Charleston, was traded to Philadelphia on loan to Harrisburg traded to Vancouver and came back to the Quakes in 2012. I did think he got better when he came back in 2012 but the entire team was great that year. Opara was good but injury prone. He will have never become 2 time defender of the year had he stayed with the Quakes. It's sad that he has been out of the league at 30 years of age. I read he is now an assistant coach for the club's MLS Next Pro side Sporting Kansas City so that is good for him. It was John Doyle who wanted to get rid of Steven Beitashour, Justin Morrow and Rafa Baca. I'm not sure if it was their contract or what it was. I do recall Doyle saying once that the Baca experiment was over. I'm glad for Rafa that he made it in Mexico because he probably wouldn't have played as well or as long as he has had he stayed in MLS.
Shea was not traded to Philadelphia. He was left exposed in the 2010 expansion draft. (Another failure to properly evaluate youth talent.) Philadelphia then left him exposed to Vancouver in the 2011 expansion draft. While in Vancouver, he assisted on both goals for the expansion White Caps in a draw with the Quakes at Buck Shaw. Arguably the best player on the pitch. Unsurprisingly, the Quakes traded to get him back. He played more than a decade beyond the 2012 season. He was good.
Ike Opara was the Bo Jackson of MLS. A physical freak of nature who was labeled "injury prone." Except Ike had a long career. Would like to know how it would have gone with the Quakes. It was criminally inexcusable to make Ike the scapegoat for the 2012 playoff exit and let him get away. You don't jettison generational athletes.
Exposed or whatever you call it, each club still let Shea Salinas go. I also give credit to Doyle or Yallop for brining Shea back because they obviously saw some potential and he played another ten seasons in San Jose which is long time for any player.
I hope Jonathan Mensah will do well this year as the team is desperate for talent but he will be 33 midseason and that isn’t young by any means.
Mensah is a stopgap. He may not even be a starter by the end of the season. We have a couple of good young CBs.
1) The reason the Quakes were able to get him for cheap is that he’s overpaid for where he’s at in his career. So there’s a trade-off there. There’s no free lunch in MLS. 2) He’s out of contract after this season, I believe. So yeah he’s a stopgap.
Youre really offended we signed this guy arent you. Because hes not young or American? I bet he outlasts Rodrigues.
Not really. He wasn’t considered a starter and thus they exposed him. I don’t see the difference between that and a trade!l. Either way, he was gone and his clubs let him go because they didn’t think he was important enough. If they really thought he was good or important enough, they would have kept him but they didn’t do that.
Hes displaying his non-american player crap again. He never heard of or seen this guy before we traded for him. Our most experienced player who eclipses our entire team on resume alone. Jazzy will find every reason in the world now why he sucks because hes not one of his guys.
Thompson is over paid for where hes atin his career too. Youre over paid as an old guy in a young guys field as well. Also I hope it comes to light hes been in the works for awhile to get.
Because if he wasn't taken in the expansion draft he would have likely remained with the team. You think every player that is left exposed is then "let go" if they aren't selected? There are like 25-30 or so roster spots on a team.
You are reinforcing my point and was not a top 25-30 player. Salinas was not an important player a for each of his first three clubs. Especially with the Quakes in 2008-09.
he does come across as a full blown xenophobe at times. but I think he's completely full of shit and just pretends to have us on ignore. on several occasions he's responding more or less directly to one of our comments. @JazzyJ just needs to find a little courage. at the end of the day we all want the same thing, to see our small team succeed.
I don’t get your reasoning. You just posted he wasn’t a top 25-30 player so why wouldn’t any of those clubs keep him if they thought he was this great player? Because in those years, he was not a good player. if anything he will have been a second or third option had he stayed. Again I never posted he didn’t get better because he did but not from 2008-2011..
Where did I say that? You said he wasn't important because he wasn't a starter. I pointed out that teams have 25-30 roster spots, which allow them to have players that aren't your important starters.
Ok so that means by your reasoning he was not a top 25-30 player. Therefore I’m saying or rather in my opinion they exposed him because he was not an important player. I just don’t believe none of those three clubs will not have kept him initially had they thought he would turn into a good player.