In Steve Goff's last post on his blog soccer insider, he indicates that a European team made an offer for Taylor Twellman but NE (ala Shalrie Joseph) declined the transfer offer. No indication what the team was and if they'll come back again with a higher offer. I got the impression from Goff that it wasn't a case of the offer wasn't high enough but rather since he's under contract, NE doesn't have to sell and therefore won't.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/ Well, it shouldn't be a surprise given how well Twellman has played consistently and the numbers he puts up. But without anything more substantial in terms of names or $, this could have been an over-30 European pub team that inquired about his services.
I'd take an offer for Twellman assuming it was a hefty price tag ($6-$7m?) and knowing that we'd replace him (Fowler?) but let's not fool ourselves....
Twellman seems like the type that now that he's getting paid decently, he's happy to stay here(in the US) for the rest of his career. I dont think he enjoyed playing in Europe at all, he's kind of got a Donovan vibe to him in that way, whatever though, makes the Revs better.
This wouldn't be worth mentioning if it was a pub team with a ridiculous offer (say...$150k to purchase him). The combination of reading into what Goff posted and prior Rev mgmt actions, my interpretation is that NE really isn't interested in selling players (look at Shalrie Joseph). Dempsey is one of the few examples of a player who left while under contract (and he seemed to really force that decision). The Revs mgmt doesn't seem eager to invest in overseas talent or spend allocation money and that works only to the extent that the team doesn't have to replace much departing talent.
Like it or not, he's right. If Dempsey, a younger and arguably more talented player, is only worth $4m why would you think Twellman would get more. The offer last year was only around $1m IIRC. I'd guess at best, this offer was around the same range.
We can find a "replacement" for Dempsey. Dorman, Thompson and Ralston slotted in and did a decent job. When Twellman was gone, Cristman scored maybe three goals? As I said, if we can find a replacement, someone we can rely on to score goals (Emilio-esque) I'd be fine with the offer, but I know we won't, so it's not really worth discussing is it?
Since Dempsey was signed and has proven himself, the value of MLS players has to have gone up. I guarantee that there are people who Clint has beaten out for playing time who pulled a 2-3 million pound transfer fee in the past. If Fulham goes down, they could probably sell him for twice what they paid for him. I'm not saying that there are people breaking the door down to lay 3 million pounds on Twellman, but there are players in the prem he is better than who were sold for more.
Maybe we'll learn the club tomorrow: it is Tuesday, which means we should expect something from FDA in the Boston Globe.
Apparently it was Preston North End...no details about how much was offered though. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/01/working_in_a_combine.html
On one hand, TT would be fine in the CCC; it's his kind of game, and I think he might excel. He has never (ever) had the chance to play second forward to a true center forward (say behind Kevin Phillips at WBA), and I would love to see him have the chance to do real poaching. On the other hand, PNE are bottom dwellers, because their forwards are awful. They're going to get relegated, and there's no need for TT to go down with that ship. As Nathan said, regardless of what we were paid for Twellman, the likelihood that he would be replaced by someone of equal stature is doubtful. If I (we) had reason to have that kind of confidence in management, it would be a better world.
I think what he meant it would take that size of an offer to make it worth it to the Revs. As someone once said your worth what ever someone is willing to pay for you. And it's not just a matter of a player of equal skill but finding someone that can fit into their system and be the focal point of the attack would be very difficult for any teams front off to pull off. The most likely event would be the revs would need to enter a short team rebuilding mode witch is why they can justify a large transfer fee for TT.
Twellman scored every goal in the playoffs and without him we would have never made it that far. I don't think you can justify trading away a player who not only contends for league MVP every year, but one who means so much to the squad.
I just hope they get this all sorted out before the draft. It's our only chance to add players to the roster this year.
Since MLS owns Taylors contract and not the Revs do they have the power to sell Taylor if they get an offer that they think makes good business sense even if the Revs say no?
That's interesting. The league policy used to be based on a threshold. If the bid was over, say, 5 mil, then it would be automatically accepted. I know that player control has been devolving to the teams though.