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Praise Buddha for Tivo!
The lack of respect MLS gets is appalling sometimes.
Do you seriously think the MLS is on par with the Championship?
Adebayor probably to Spurs too.
I think many people who actually watch MLS(watching is key here as too many people think MLS looks like it did 5-10 years ago) would tell you that at most it is slightly less than the Championship or on par. And if you went to Big Soccer and made the claim that the Championship was SIGNIFICANTLY better than MLS, you would likely be laughed off the planet.
Wow. They trying to corner the market on underachieving 7ft'ers?
it is like the greatest day ever!Congrats.I just got FSC HD.
Might have to blacklist tasker and sleep in. Really enjoy the games more live, though.
So according to you players get 10 times more money over there, yet the leagues are pretty close? How does that work exactly? I know Blackburn is currently in the EPL, not Championship, but the point stands unless Championship player salaries are on par with MLS ones.
Salaries are driven by the TV contracts that England has, not the quality of an average English pro. MLS does not have those sized TV contracts and as such its total revenue is less and it pays its players less.Look at how many players in MLS go over to England and do pretty well. And many of the players were good MLS players, but by no means the top of the MLS food chain. I don't even think John made the all star team this year.
Thanks. Pretty pumped. I'll admit I went from ecstatic to mad I don't have GOL TV HD pretty quick thoughit is like the greatest day ever!Congrats.I just got FSC HD.
My games watched per week has at least doubled now if my dvr can handle it.
I totally get how that part works. What I don't get is how players would take so much less money to play in MLS. If they were good enough, they switch in a heartbeat. That tells me those leagues have to have significantly better players. With the exceptions of the MLS DPs.
I think I got Gol HD shortly after I got FSC in HD so keep your fingers crossed.Thanks. Pretty pumped. I'll admit I went from ecstatic to mad I don't have GOL TV HD pretty quick thoughit is like the greatest day ever!Congrats.I just got FSC HD.
Adebayor has some skills but you never know if he's going to show up. That's the M.O. of Spurs forwards so he'll fit right in. If you did some genetic engineering with Crouch and Defoe, the result wouldn't be that much different than Adebayor.If City pays a portion of his salary, it's not a terrible pickup. Harry can rotate them all and stick with whoever gets the hot hand.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I have seen too many MLS players go to England and do well and they were not the top of the MLS food chain. Look at John himself, Blackburn is willing to give him a huge raise and in reality he is just a good center back who I think did not even make the all star team this year.MLS has a ton of good young players who do not get much money coming out of college on the rookie salaries. It is just how it is. Dempsey was barely making $80k when he left. Edu was the same. Holden was just starting to hold down a full time starting position the year he left.
The talent of the starting XI may be close, but the experience is not. That is what he said was significantly better and it is where the MLS is clearly deficient. The Championship has a longer season that is synced up to Europe and features much deeper squads and training. They get the opportunity to compete in the FA Cup and to enter the EPL. The atmosphere and pay are much better as well.
no one. The depth of knowledge on that site is incredible though if you can dig through all the other stuff.All of this stuff is subjective because the two leagues will never play a meaningful game. I know I have been given a walloping for suggesting MLS is slightly below the Championship and they had a ton of good points.Who died and made Big Soccer the authority?
Is the Championship atmosphere really that much better? The attendance average between the two leagues is identical and with the inclusion of the pacific nw teams and Phili, the atmosphere of MLS games has increased dramatically over the past couple of years.5-10 years ago I think it was fair to say the second level of English soccer was significantly better than the top level in the US. I just think the gap has closed quite a bit the last few years.The point you make about depth is 100% accurate. Even though they were meaningless exhibitions this summer, it was interesting to see almost every game was relatively even for the first half and then when the teams used a lot of subs in the second half, the MLS teams got destroyed.However, I am not ready to admit that squad depth always leads to being a better player. As many know I am a HUGE proponent of young players actually playing. I think we have all seen US players go overseas only to pull splinters out of their ### and hope to get a reserve side game in. I don't think that is always the best solution either. Granted the money trumps everything (see the poster child in Jovan Kirovski for how to flush a playing career away while still making a ton of money).
Soccer teams are more than just the sum of their salaries.
There has been a lot of serious talk about capping salaries at the Championship level. Wages are already capped as a percentage of turnover for Leagues 1 and 2. From a Dec 2010 article, aggregate salaries of Championship players are about four times the figure for League 1. Implementing the UEFA guidelines will be a challenge. Relegated teams from the Premiership already have problems stepping down due to the huge reduction in revenue. There's also the occasional team (this year Leicester) who overspends in attempt to reach the top flight.
What is the average salary of the League 1 player? MLS, as many know, is a league of haves and have nots for the players wages. The top ten % of MLS players earn a decent salary. But if you are a young player with out any pedigree you are going to be making almost nothing(see John. Salary != quality in MLS). It is a balance the league needs to figure out as they plan the next phase of their growth.Also MLS players get a stigma in that many people feel their cap number is identical to their salary(since the cap number is the one most often quoted). For roughly 40-50% of the players I think, their cap number is less (sometimes much less), than their salary. John is not one of those players though. MLS I think more than doubles League 1 attendance as you mentioned (7500 vs 17k).
The figure I saw had average League 1 salaries in the £65K range. Championship salaries were around £250K. As in MLS, we're not talking about a normal distribution. Some of the top players from the recently relegated teams are making a lot more and 19 year olds are making less.Similar argument rage in Europe about how the lower divisions in England, Spain, Germany compare with the top flight in smaller countries. Based on what I've seen from the early round Euro League games, I think a MLS team could probably hang, although the Euro minnows are shown in an unfavorable light because they're up against much stronger competition in UEFA games.
loved all your points. I want to focus on these two1) I am very much interested in atmosphere going all the way back to the very early days of MLS even before any players were signed. What specific things do you find as artificial coming out of the Pacific NW? Not having been to experience it live I can only speak to watching on TV, but it looks dripping in real emotion to me. And unlike most MLS stadiums where there are pockets of loud fans but most of the stadium thinks they are at a baseball game, almost the entire stadium in Seattle and Portland look to be into the games with real intensity and emotion.2) The MLS youth academies are really starting to roll. Even Klinsmann, who wants to change a lot of things, simply wants to see them expand. One item no often noted about the academies is that not only are the best US players starting to breed from them, MLS some how has also grabbed a nice amount of talent from Mexico including a couple of players on the U17 WC champions.
thanks for the info.
As a Spurs fan I would be happy with this signing. I would be happier with others (Hulk), but Adebayor would be a definite improvement.
These are all valid points you make and I think they do have that desire and want. I don't know of a single young MLS player who wouldn't want to (outside of Landon when he was young I guess but he was already making a ton of money here) play in the EPL but the work permit issue is a pretty big blocking item that needs to be understood and recognized.John is one of the lucky ones who was able to secure a work permit with out the need for significant national team minutes. Because of the work permits clauses about national team duty and the limited amount of national team spots, some promising young players will never get the chance.Another item that MLS needs to take risks on is identifying young talent earlier. A lot of people don't know this but Rossi was under the MetroBulls umbrella. I remember hearing Harkes (who was working for Red Bull at the time) saying that they just started to realize what they had but by the time they tried to secure his future, his dad was ten steps ahead of them, moving out of the country.
I thought John was eligible for a Greek passport which would make the work permit requirement moot
Some guys might not want to live in Salt Lake City or Houston
Exactly. That is why I said he was one of the lucky ones. I worded the sentence poorly.
I don't think we can speak for everyone, because there is always the case of someone like Landon, but for the most part players will follow the money, especially when it is such a large difference. With the limited lengths of their careers, they almost have to.Even if the MLS min salary was in the 150 range, you would still be seeing players jump at the chance to move if available to them.Some guys might not want to live in Salt Lake City or Houston
Money aside, I think it's good to have ambitious players who are eager to prove themselves at the highest possible level. The downside is that the game has a tendency to spit people out. There's very little margin for error or safety net for those who fail. My son topped out skills-wise so we never had to deal with a decision like this, but it's a tough call for a teenager and his family. It's much less so for a veteran professional like John.I don't think we can speak for everyone, because there is always the case of someone like Landon, but for the most part players will follow the money, especially when it is such a large difference. With the limited lengths of their careers, they almost have to.Even if the MLS min salary was in the 150 range, you would still be seeing players jump at the chance to move if available to them.Some guys might not want to live in Salt Lake City or Houston
Yeah very true. In fact I bet it is very safe to say that far more fail at chasing the dream than making it.Sometimes it does produce a pretty cool story like DeMerits who was cast off by the Fire in one of their development teams and then he moved to England and started at the 7th tier and worked his way slowly up all the way to the EPLMoney aside, I think it's good to have ambitious players who are eager to prove themselves at the highest possible level. The downside is that the game has a tendency to spit people out. There's very little margin for error or safety net for those who fail. My son topped out skills-wise so we never had to deal with a decision like this, but it's a tough call for a teenager and his family. It's much less so for a veteran professional like John.I don't think we can speak for everyone, because there is always the case of someone like Landon, but for the most part players will follow the money, especially when it is such a large difference. With the limited lengths of their careers, they almost have to.Even if the MLS min salary was in the 150 range, you would still be seeing players jump at the chance to move if available to them.Some guys might not want to live in Salt Lake City or Houston
I think Demerit played a few games at English Level 9 before moving up. This was the same level where AFC Wimbledon started off when they were still employing cellphone hackersYeah very true. In fact I bet it is very safe to say that far more fail at chasing the dream than making it.Sometimes it does produce a pretty cool story like DeMerits who was cast off by the Fire in one of their development teams he moved to England and started at the 7th tier and worked his way slowly up all the way to the EPLMoney aside, I think it's good to have ambitious players who are eager to prove themselves at the highest possible level. The downside is that the game has a tendency to spit people out. There's very little margin for error or safety net for those who fail. My son topped out skills-wise so we never had to deal with a decision like this, but it's a tough call for a teenager and his family. It's much less so for a veteran professional like John.I don't think we can speak for everyone, because there is always the case of someone like Landon, but for the most part players will follow the money, especially when it is such a large difference. With the limited lengths of their careers, they almost have to.Even if the MLS min salary was in the 150 range, you would still be seeing players jump at the chance to move if available to them.Some guys might not want to live in Salt Lake City or Houston
I gotta remember to check this post every weekend.
Check your H2H team lineup too
Demerit was the first player signed by Vancouver last year.
