From the latest Soccer America MLS Confidential: "Defender Wade Barrett, who has been on trial with Danish club AGF Aarhus, is returning to the U.S. with a contract offer in hand. Details of the offer were not released. Barrett, whose MLS contract has expired, left the U.S. training camp in Florida last week to train with Aarhus, a mid-level club in the Danish Superliga. Speaking of Danes, midfielder Ronnie Ekelund is still balking at taking a pay cut. He earned just under $200,000 last year and with the league trying to sign Barrett and goalie Joe Cannon to new deals as well as line up a long-term contract for Richard Mulrooney, the Quakes' cap situation is rather muddled. Mulrooney has one year left on his MLS deal and may take a shot at European options after the season ends." So will he take it? Will Ronnie take a pay cut? Will the Quakes of 2004 be like the Fire of 2003, forced to offload all of their good players as their contracts increase beyond what the cap can handle?
I don't know about the Quakes of 2004 yet, but the Quakes of 2003 are going to suck! Well, maybe not. Frank is a great coach and he'll get them believing in themselves and playing at their very best, so maybe we finish seventh or eighth. Seriously, look at who we are losing: Graz, leading scorer. Barrett, leading defender. Cannon, leading keeper. Ekelund, midfield marshall and team guru. Conrad, serviceable defender. We're going to have to rebuild team cohesion completely. And we've gutted our bench too cutting Lucci and Bower. Even if you thought both were weak players, do you really think anyone from the draft will be better?? Who's going to be in our starting lineup? Conway Waibel - Dayak - Agoos - Corrales Roner Russell - Mulrooney - Lagos Donovan - Barclay? (Alvarez? Mullan?) I need a drink. go quakes - Mark
Why would Dayak and Goose be the centerhalves? wouldn't Eddie Robinson be prett much a shoo-in at this point, or are we losing him as well? Please tell me this isn't true.
It seems we all have been getting used to the idea of "life without Wade" for a couple of weeks now. Never say "never" but it does seem pretty likely that Wade will find work overseas. Certainly, we can see how talented he is. He deserves it. Some has been written that the main reason for taking Dunivant at #1 was to cushion the blow should Wade leave. MLS, with this paltry salary cap, will become a lot like the NFL in that you can't maintain a longterm dynasty anymore. You're lucky if you can have any depth to your roster for more than a couple of years. Soon, the role players get a moment to shine and move on to start somewhere else. I believe we will see this cycle in the MLS now...a couple of years up, a couple of years down. The only way to break the cycle is to find quality players willing to take less $$ to be on a perennial winner. (Learn from Landon!!) I still believe we can be a winning side but the days at/near the top of the table may be drifting for a time.
Oh God! The world is ending! Not Richie! Please, not one more of the good guys! Quick! I need intravenous beer STAT!!
Graz, replaceable forward w/flippant attitude about being here... Barrett, leading defender Cannon, leading keeper Ekelund, aging midfielder who had a serious dropoff last season Conrad, belligerent defender Yep, the Barrett and Cannon things suck (potentially), but we'll work through anything else. Think I'll wait until May or so to declare the sky falling. If we don't replace the guys who leave with serviceable players, why would Richie want to stay? Besides, after this season, he'll have played five years here, which is a heck of a tenure. But people need a change once in a while. He's not one of the guys "from" this area, so I doubt he feels a huge affinity about living here for life.
That $200K would've paid for four Darios! Together, standing on each other's shoulders, they would have been taller than Ekelund, too!
I agree that the biggest losses would be Barrett and Cannon. It seems that Yallop likes his outside backs to get forward in the attack. Barrett did a good job of that, but I really don't see Waibel doing much more than defending. (Perhaps that's because he played mostly center back in his previous stint with the Quakes.) Then again, Conrad never was much of an offensive threat down the right side, either. Yallop made it a point to note that one of the things he likes about Dunivant is that he contributes to the offense. As for keepers, I'm not overly convinced that Cannon will catch on at Lens. The same SoccerAmerica MLS Confidential note quoted at the outset of this thread mentions that Jonny Walker, the American starting keeper at Universidad Catolica in Chile the last three years could be returning to the U.S. soon. Reportedly, he's willing to take less than the $100,000 he was making at Catolica. Could he be a replacement if we lose Cannon?
Graz, Leading scorer and most creative Fwd we've had in SJ. Never saw flippant side with anyone but Refs. That was Dallas Graz. Ekelund, Age not an issue, he'll be effective into his late thirties with his style of play. "Serious dropoff" is an exagerration. If Lagos and Russell would have done their jobs, Ekelund wouldn't have had to stretch his game. The "serious dropoff" was on the part of Russell and Lagos.
Most definitely agree. The reason the offense floundered last season was because of Lagos and Russell's lack of production.
> Together, standing on each other's shoulders, > they would have been taller than Ekelund, too! By well over 5 inches! In any case, there are plenty of decent midfielders in this league that make well less than $200,000. I would love to pick up Perez from Columbus, who seems to be on the way out at that club.
Re: Re: Wade returns to U.S. with contract offer in hand You're right! Both of you! So it's a darned good thing that Yallop signed three outside middies and said that two of the forwards he picked up can play outside middie spot too! Er, wait. I think I dreamed that, or hoped for that, or thought that Frank had to realize that we needed help at the wing spots more than with the strikers, oh ************. Maybe, maybe, Frank can convert at least one of the forwards to play a wing spot. I mean, it's not like those guys we waived, um Lucci and Bower, could play the outside middie roles right?! At best, we can hope that Lagos will be better than he was last year, but probably not as good as he was in 2001. Russell could be as good as he was in 2001, but I'm going to hold my breath about it. Pass the Prozac. go quakes - Mark
Now there's a good thought!! Oh, and for $200,000 we could only have signed two Darios. Still, you'd always have at least one healthy Dario to play your attacking midfield spot. go quakes - Mark
Hmmm.....why did he return to the US to decide if he wanted to sign? Is Wade using it to bargin with MLS? Looks a lot like leverage to me. Is he just cleaning out his apartment????
According to the reports out of Denmark, he had to bring it back to the US for his lawyer to review. I guess they don't have fax machines in Denmark yet.
one would think he might have returned to MLS to pack his bags and get his dog, Muttonchops. but look at the bright side: if you don't have to pay barrett so much, you can offer ekelund more, and he'll stay. mullan will start over barclay - he's much better IMHO. between waibel, robinson, dayak, agoos and dunivant (one hopes), that's not a bad back line (and o yea, corrales). with mulrooney and ekelund in the middle that's about as solid as it gets in MLS. hopefully lagos will return to 2001 form in 2003 (if not corrales can play left wing too) that leaves russel to raise the level of his game on the right, and mullan to step up as well. also, johnnie walker, who's been playing for chile quite successfully, may become available per some thread over at mls N&A yesterday. he would be a perfect replacement for cannon. so all is not lost yet.
Maybe they needed an original signature? No overnight express I guess. And he needs to pack his stuff too. Say goodbye to family and friends and whatnot.
This sucks, can't he even go to a decent team over there. I guess it's to try to move up through Europe, but he's going to a country w/ only 12 teams, most people her don't even like soccer and we have 10. How good can they be? Now they're 16 points off of 1st place. Couldn't he atleat go to Anderlect? I would love to see him at Kiev as I think it would make him a great player or possibly w/ one of Seria A minnows like Torino or Como, now that would help him to improve, even the Eriedivise, but Denmark???
Yeah. Also the Danish winter break doesn't end until March, so he possibly could spend some time with the national team before them. And in coming back home he can show the contract to MLS and give them one last chance to up their offer.
perhaps not so many likes football in the usa but denmark is a hell lot smaller think about that so 12 teams is enough
Re: Re: Re: Wade returns to U.S. with contract offer in hand Apparently Brian Mullan can play RM so we'll have to wait and see.
That's not my point, I'm sure they have a great league but my point is that if he is going all the way over to Europe to play why pick a team that's in a league just a small with just as little notarity as the MLS. I think that having 12 teams in a league is better for the sport. Why do you think football is going broke there? Italy has 4 leagues each w/ about 18 teams. That is like California have 70 major league baseball teams? Something is seriously out of wack when the top player there only make 3 to 5 million euro and they can't afford to pay them. They have diluted the talent pool so much they end up spending all of their money on transfer fees rather then the player himself. There is no need for that many. You can drive across most Europen countries in a day or less, so why do they need a professional team ever 12 meters? It just dosen't make sence to me. Remember I'm not talking about Denamrk persay, just about Europen soccer in general & while I'm talking about Denmark GO Jon Dahl Tomasson as he scored the game winning goal for Milan and advanced them to the Coppa Italia semi-finals.
SeamusBrewer seems to know his way around European football. ...drive across ... in less than a day??? Ohhh yeah, in Denmark if you drive for more than three hours in any direction you'll end up in Germany ,Sweden or the water.