The club coefficient is either the team's performance over 5 years of UEFA competition OR 20 % of the national association's coefficient, whichever is higher. The SPL ranking is almost entirely from Rangers and Celtic - and a look at the SPL table over the past 10 seasons will tell you also that the gulf between the top 2 and the rest is ... significant.
Yeah. Plus taxes are higher across the pond. So it is really for the experience of playing abroad. From a career management point of view, it might also be easier to catch the eye of bigger clubs once a player is in Europe.
Three years ago I likely would have agreed with you on the last point. Now? I don't think he'll get any more eyes on him than he's had in MLS. Of course, I'm sure scouts respect Celtic and Rangers, so if he has great games against those then perhaps that would count more than any given performance he could give in MLS.
I like guys with a scoring touch even if theyve hit their 30s not starting an argument or being snide, legitimately curious, whats the number youd neet to see Ramierez put up in order to think hes fairly earned another look? 20? 25?
If a player scored 150 goals in any league in the world in one season, every big club on the planet would be fighting to sign the guy. I'm not a Ramirez fan, but this is not a legitimate response. I know you don't like the guy but give a reasonable answer.
Reasonable answer would be worse. No matter how many goals 30 years old career sub MLS level player scores he should never be considered.
A scoring touch? He struggled to score goals on a consistent basis in MLS. He was called into the Nats, and didn't show much of anything. There are too many young players that are more talented that deserve to be called in ahead of Ramirez.
Certainly possible. Our forward depth isn't so deep that we can exclude anybody. However, we see with the example of Haji Wright that it doesn't necessarily get you a callup. We have domestic camps with the MLS guys and then you have to be in the top 3 or 4 #9s to get a call to the Euro-based friendlies. At the moment both Sargent and Hoppe are playing in the 2nd Bundesliga. The Swiss League is actually not that good of a league. VERY top heavy...........like Austria and Scotland. Scotland is actually ranked as a significantly better league than the Swiss League. So why would Pefok get a callup and not a player performing well in Scotland? Only if the coach tests them side-by-side and prefers the skill set of Pefok. My point is that we shouldn't exclude anybody if they're playing well. Our pool doesn't allow it. We're calling up Gioacchini from one of the worst teams in the French 2nd division, and people say we shouldn't call a forward up from the SPL?
Your points are well-made about the iffy quality of our striker pool/depth. I think you're jumping the gun a bit here, though. I think there's one guy that really dislikes Christian Ramirez, who has yet to play a game in Scotland. His goal-scoring record over the last 4 years in MLS isn't exactly stellar (14 in 55 games, per wikipedia). It's not bad, but not good either. I'll wait for him to start scoring regularly before bringing his name up again.
For league play, Ramirez has 35 goals and 10 assists in 71 games worth of minutes. That's rather good. He is an off forward, with good technique on the shot, but also with limited positional flexibility, limited work-rate, and average athletic ability.
I'm not discussing transfer value or fees, but salary. Scotland is not a great league, but its proximity to England probably puts competitive pressure for higher salaries. We don't know what OC offered and we don't know what he is paid at Hibs. It could be Mueller doesn't like the way he has been treated and feels he is better off doing a Hamid and playing anywhere for a bit then coming back as a free agent (allocated player probably). I think his USMNT status was close to non-entity anyway, moving to Hibs won't help that.
UEFA Coefficient is based on how a league's teams do in European competition. So, almost all of Holland's index is driven by Ajax and PSV, Germany by Bayern and Dortmund, Spain by Barcelona, RM, and Athletico. But the more teams going deep in the competitions ads more points. Coefficient doesn't measure anything about a league outside the top teams and we know in these leagues the quality can diverge quickly. This is why comparing leagues to MLS is such folly as MLS's forced parity makes it impossible really.
Again, is that net? Salaries in the US are reported as gross (before taxes) and in Europe as net (after taxes). $350K net would be close to $500K gross in Florida. Mueller has been repeatedly benched even when playing well, has been playing well for a low salary with no offer of renegotiation. Now that he can leave, OC offered him something. It might have been a bit more than $500K; but he might not want to play there after being treated so poorly. Options are limited for him. He can't go to Holland as he would be an overage non-EU player and have to make like $600K net, or something like that. Spain is a no-go, no Italian team would use a non-EU slot, England is no-go on a work permit. I don't know how these things work in France. So, it was kind of Scandinavia, Scotland, or Belgium if no Bundesliga team was interested. It is entirely possible Hibs would pay more than lower table Belgium sides. You wonder if he could have gotten into Brondby or Molde; but they probably pay less than Hibs. I think he plays a couple years then comes back to Atlanta or somewhere on a Hyndman type contract or Brek Shea contract and ends up doing better over 5 years than taking what OC offered.
I agree with this; all the games are available. Mueller is just following in the path of Ramirez, Harkes (Ian), Kitchen, and others that have wanted to change MLS clubs, but can't, and will go to Scotland for awhile then come back maybe.
Outside of the Old Firm (who have wage bills similar to higher end English Championship clubs), Scottish Premiership wages are comparable to what you'd find in League One or League Two, with average salaries that range from ~$195,000 to as low as ~$75,000. As was already explained to you, wage numbers you see from the UK are pretax.
Christian Ramirez is also already the wrong side of 30. This wouldn't be a case of 25 year old Rubio Rubin popping back onto our radars after a solid run in MLS play. Our forward pool isn't so good that we should arrogantly shut out anybody. If Ramirez is legitimately having a good season, then I think he should get called in for a look. [If, if, if, if, if..........................he's having a good season.] I think the same about Haji Wright, Emmanuel Sabbi or any of these guys. As of right now the only forward we've got in a "top 5 league" is Weah. [Perhaps people count de la Fuente.] Maybe Hoppe, Sargent, Dike, Pefok, or somebody will move to join him. My point is that all of this argument about UEFA coefficients and league quality are kind of irrelevant with our forwards. ALL of our forwards but Weah are playing in one of the 2nd tier leagues. So we evaluate them as such, and if Ramirez stands out................then he should be called in. And YES, I think Haji Wright should have been called up this year for a look.
Mueller is an outstanding player, so has little to do with Harkes, Ramirez, and others. If Mueller excels in the SPL he'll likely have an easier chance of moving up. Orlando don't seem a 'selling club'. If he doesn't do well enough to move up then he can always come back for MLS money.
Yup. Its worth pointing out that Hibs and Aberdeen were the best teams in Scotland last season outside of the Old Firm. They're both in Europe. Pefok made a name for himself on these boards by playing well in European competition. That really piqued our interest. Maybe Mueller or Ramirez will be the same in the future. Do players from Hibs move to bigger clubs? You're damn right they do. McGinn of Aston Villa is a recent one.
Our forward pool isn’t good, and Ramirez is a decent scorer. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do much else, which is why he’s never been able to lock down a starring role in MLS. It wasn’t just one coach, it’s been 4 now, including Bob and Tab. So you give up a decent amount of other things to get the sort of medium level of scoring he has. Given the amount we all of our strikers, i don’t expect to see him barring an explosion. Put another way, his MLS goalscoring is Zardes-level, but he doesn’t press like Zardes or help in the build-up like Sargent or have the size to play target man like Dike.
League play is already starting! Genk(McKenzie), Salzburg(Aaronson), and Schalke(Sargent) are in action today.