Well there is only one hole left to close for this year. We need a strong central back in case Caldwell gets injured. We have some people we could trade. Who would be the ideal candidate be from MLS. Is there anyone internationally out there available?
Agreed.Originally Posted by Richard
To make it clear my gut tells me that the staff got it right and gilberto is the real deal, but Laba also seems to be the real deal, so one I would like to keep both, and two clearly neither Gilberto or Defoe are big physical forwards, hence I would like for us to have one who can play with them.
Are you guys sure about this? Although I admittedly don't know much about the transfer rules, it would seem to me that once the transfer is signed (certainly by the end of the transfer window) Defoe would have to be a TFC player, at which point he would have to be loaned back to Spurs. Otherwise, what is the point of the window?
The North American window doesn't close until several weeks into the MLS season.
Did LA get allocation for loaning Donovan in the off season? That seems to be the precedent. Even if Jermaine Defoe hasn't played a game for us the situation is that he's under our contract and off on loan. I figure for that Tottenham will be paying his wages for two months and would that not grant us some extra allocation money?
Isn't Bradley going to be missing a huge chunk of games because of the WC? All the more reason to do everything possible to hang on l Laba.
You seen the group the US is in?! He's only there for the group stages haha
^ And isn't MLS on break for the group stage?
I hate to say it, but that may very well be true for England as well, I think if you lose 1 game in that group you are fucked. Ecuador are no slouches, and England couldn't beat Italy for the life of me!!
Can't we trade Eckersley for allocation to pay down Laba instead of trading away Dike?
who will take eckersley on the $400,000 he is set to make??
Last edited by pdubs; 01-11-2014 at 11:34 AM.
Question is: how much allocation money would be required to pay down Laba's salary to the point where he is not a DP anymore? It may be a lot of cash. If that's the case, then maybe it's better to use those funds to repair other holes in our team.
If Dike has an offer from Celtic then we have to do it. You can't hold a player back from going to Europe.
I wasn't aware of Celtic having interest in Dike other than training. My idea of a Dike transfer was that an MLS club would lure him away in exchange for allocation or another asset that could be useful to us. I'm worried about forward depth, as we only have Gilberto and Defoe, really (excluding Dike). Defoe has had hamstring problems and we need to plan ahead for that. I'm sure Bez has something planned so we could possibly keep for Laba AND Dike.
Yeah he is getting some looks from Europe. All from one goal.
Bradley will be phenomenal for us defensively, If we can find a way to Keep both Leba and Bradley as are defensive midfielders then we are one CB away from being a Defensive powerhouse in the MLS.
Lotsa folks have absolutely zero confidence in Henry.
If we find a trade for him (and we've been rumoured to be looking for one) we'll have to eat some of his salary. No way any sane team would agree to it otherwise. Still better than keeping him on the books though.
I am pretty confident in what we have in the back. I feel like we will be making a splash in the draft and it will be the final big display of the power of the new look TFC. Last year we were weak and traded down over and over and kept making glossy safe moves. Sure, it was to secure some assets the FO deemed to be most important, but it must have had an impression on other teams. Actions taken with all the teams onlooking really does have a lasting effect. I believe we will be the opposite this year and bully our way around this draft.
I think we will grab a solid defensive option in this draft.
I think we need to be concerned about central midfield. I just don't see Osorio as a good fit there because I don't want Bradley as a DM. He needs to be a legit CM able to play box to box. From here on out thats what needs to be established.
It wouldn't make sense to trade Ecks and eat a significant portion of his salary. For argument's sake, Let's assume it was 1/3 to half of his salary. Why take a cap hit of 135K - 200K to have him play elsewhere? Might as well pay down some of his salary with allocation and keep him if that is the case.
The only prudent options regarding Ecks are to loan him, trade him on the condition that the other club absorbs his entire salary/cap hit, or try to restructure his contract so that it is cap friendly.
Of course, if we can net a modest transfer fee for Dike, it might provide enough additional allocation to pay down the salaries of both Laba and Ecks, and keep both of them.
We'd be wasting allocation on a player who doesn't want to be here and who we don't want to use.
I wasn't aware that he ever stated that he didn't want to be here.
In any event, I just found this article, which suggests that there is another option...
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/expe...o-fc-1.2254349
His salary was listed at $90,000 in 2011, $390,000 in 2012 and $310,000 in 2013.
But Eckersley has one more year, worth more than $500,000 thanks to a renegotiation to lighten the cap hit this year.
Chances are the team will rid itself of that burden, using a once-a-year available buyout that does not count against the salary cap.
It's not really about just Henry.
We have 5 guys consuming 70-80% of the cap. Nobody has ever won in this league using that model, we have already seen that fail ourselves (the 2012 roster).
Although nobody has ever tried it, on the scale we are going to try it this year (except maybe the 2007 and 2008 Galaxy teams, not sure).
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Man, some of you get so caught up in this salary cap. It's like arguing about how many houses the tooth fairy is going to visit. Doesn't matter because its just a story.
MLS has budgets for its teams and these budgets flex. So much so that 17 of 19 teams would have exceeded the assigned budget last year if you used just the baseline salary number published by the player's union. A number which in and of itself may or may not be the number applied against a budget.
Folks in the history of the MLS has a team ever paid a luxury tax like the NBA? Do they total their numbers daily like the NHL? Or play a short bench because they are over a daily cap like the Calgary Flames had to do? Quick what's the penalty for exceeding the MLS "cap"? Google that one all day if you like.
The cap is a team budget with the ability to flex based on league and team priorities/negotiations.
These players will fit if TFC is willing to pay some of the freight to make them fit, IMO. Tim B is the right man to be where he is.
When all the dust settles, are you sure that is going to be the case?
Let's assume Ecks is bought out, and Laba is retained with his salary being paid down to non DP status with allocation.
Our top 4 players in Defoe, Bradley, Gilberto, and Laba would theoretically consume approximately 1.2 million dollars in cap space. The 2013 MLS salary cap was approximately 3 million dollars (plus the pertaining allocation allotted to each team), and it is projected to rise in 2014.
According to this list - http://www.wakingthered.com/2013/9/2...oll-best-value, the next highest paid player will be Rey at 180K. We know that Dero is signed at 150k, Jackson is set to earn 145K, and Morrow is set to earn 130K. The rest of our player salaries that count against the cap are all under 100K with the exception of Elmer (125K).
Therefore, our top 8 player salaries combined are projected to amount to approximately 1.8 million dollars in cap space, which will consume roughly 60% of our salary cap (not including allocation), even it the cap doesn't increase this season.
Last edited by ManUtd4ever; 01-11-2014 at 07:00 PM.
Well whoever that may be, it’s certain not the coaches. Everybody, except for Preki, who has come through here has seen enough in the kid to invest heavily in giving him playing time. Even the training stint in the offseason, Doniel Henry goes to West Ham, everybody else goes to far lesser clubs. Underscoring that, the unofficial word out of camp was that he impressed the coaching staff.
Yes I question the decisions this kid makes at times, and wonder about giving him the everyday starting job, but nobody should be mistaken in thinking TFC rates this guy as anything less than a blue-chip prospect.
If they can't trade Ecks, he will be the one buy out we are allowed per year.
But why not just buy him out? Does someone else need to be bought out instead?
Because he's asked to stay in the league and the club is trying to accommodate him with a package move where it picks up part of his salary this year (we have lots of cap room) in exchange for something back in return.
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