I agree. And maybe people like myself do come off as ungrateful sometimes. I do blame MLS and their incredibly contrived salary cap rules for a lot of this. I wouldn't care if TFC extended Michael for 3 years and 3 million per if we could just go out and sign a guy like Rodrigo Nestor to play with and phase MB out over that time. Unfortunately, we gotta sit here and count imaginary money and special roster spots instead of just being able to go out and spend money like we know our ownership will.
It would be much easier if the rules were simplified and contract terms released through the media at time of trade. MLS can’t seem to grapple with the idea the business of sports is a major selling feature for people.
I see no reason why the setup can’t be: softcap + luxury tax up to a hard cap amount. With DP’s still having a reduced charge. That’s it. No allocation orders, fake dollars, or other nonsense.
I think there's parts of his game that're still excellent, and others that are really poor. I don't think overall it's at all realistic to say he's having an excellent season by the standards of a top TAM central mid fielder. Either way, continued blind loyalty to players with no exit strategy is exactly what has this season being a write off. I'm not saying get rid of him, but having no transition plan has been a consitent failing of management since we won the cup. I worry Bradley is still who our mid field is built around next year, no other cup contending team would chose that
Last edited by Oldtimer; 08-04-2022 at 12:27 PM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
The Nottingham fans would probably know more. That's just the first thing I saw on google. 947k pounds seems high for him, but England does have a ton of money for football, so makes some sense. If that's the true salary, the our offer was basically meaningless and maybe that's why TFC offered it. I thought 925kUS was high for him, but it TFC knew his NF was even higher, makes sense to make it knowing he had zero reason to accept it
All of that unnecessary structure helps sell the contrivance that the league is still genuinely single-entity.
That and all those mechanisms keep the bottom and middle of the salary grid suppressed.
If they’re only allowed to pay four or five players an internationally competitive wage, they have to pay everyone else less by default. If they allow teams to better balance their salaries across the roster, the baseline average goes up far more quickly over time.
apparently TFC have an option to buy on Laryea.
this just keeps getting better and better
Sell for 1 and buy back for 500k? Hope?
With Shaff gone now, Laryea even gets his jersey number back haha
That was my thought too. Baring his agent being brutally unsophisticated, it makes sense he went to the championship because it was a better payday than something else on the continent. Otherwise, it would appear to me to be a bad fit form the outset.
English manager for yo-yo prem club sticks close to home and shelves foreign player from “non-footballing” country without giving him a fair shake. Headline that shocks nobody.
Players just cant seem to learn, unless you are a cant miss prospect avoid England like the plague.
He should have went to any of Belgium, Portugal, Turkey or Netherlands.
I'm not going to complain that he is back, but if I was him I would be extremely disappointed.
So where is our Cap guru when we need them... lets say $1MM salary and $500k in GAM. What do we have left, can we pick up a veteran mid-fielder to get us through this run. Use JMR, Thompson and Nelson know as late game subs?
The option to buy thing could be very good, or again a complete waste of resources depending on the price. Can't see it being any higher than 1.5 million though. Which again should be absolutely nothing to MLSE, but we gotta make sure Dan Hunt is happy.
plenty of "can't miss prospects" have had good careers in England. Ex Canadian international Scott Arfield a prime example. A decent, hard working player at best, with nearly 100 PL appearences. It's selecting the right club. The fit with Forest never seemed the right fit for him. You can see why he wants out on loan, needs to be playing with world cup looming. A good performance at the world cup could open doors to one of the countries you list or even another english team in championship.I'd imagine he and his agent will be a lot more careful on selecting his next permanent move after this loan spell. At his age his next move is his last big pay day.
So...are we still the worst thing in Canadian soccer?
There's still money around depending on how much we have to move for this allocation order spot. We had a decent amount of space in mid July and we picked up a chunk from then until now also everything is pro-rated based on us having a little over 1/3 of the season left. All the cap worries will be a 2023 issue.
England is a real mixed bag, and lots of luck involved in it. The spectrum of management ranges from world class, elite, best on the planet to absolute chancers who have no track record of success whatsoever but keep getting jobs, and that hugely swings your chances. Some of the lowest quality will pick players for reasons nothing to do with quality, but perception on things like wanting 'good, hard working English lads' and ignore everyone else. Tevez and Mashcerano struggled to get a game for relegation bound West Ham and seasons later were elite players in the world in their position, as an example. Layera may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe just couldn't cut it, I'd believe either
Loan with option to buy seems ideal, though, and I'll give FO credit for that. The risk factor here isn't ability, but what kind of person is coming back. Is he hungry and wanting to prove doubters wrong and cement a world cup ticket, or jaded and defeated after losing out on his likely only shot on Europe? We'll need to assess that to figure out if he's worth a buy, and this gives us the option to see him up close. There's very little downside here
This isn't true.
His contract ended in 2019. He was listed on the 2019 Free Agent list as Out of Contract by MLS, and TFC said the same thing in their year-end roster decisions press release.
I think where you're getting the $5M number is that his 2019 salary was $6.5M & his new deal paid him $1.5M. So yes, he took a $5M pay cut but he didn't tear up any contract.
IMO, $1.5M was fair value for Bradley at the time given his age, but that's a separate discussion.
So, selling Richie was an awful move for both club and player. MLS has to get this allocation list out of the league. If good players want to come back to the league, stop making it so prohibitive for that to happen.