The case against the designated player
By: Robert | August 3rd, 2007(This is part one of a two part series)
With time running out on the window to sign a designated player(s) and FC Dallas embroiled in a stalled negotiation with Denílson (no, not him,) its time to look at whether signing a player of his stature is even worth the effort. I know I have previously argued against the signing of Denílson in specific, but in this two part series I want to discuss whether the signing of any designated player is a sound decision. Here in part one I present the reasons against a designated player.
MLS is better than you think
I know I’ve been saying this for awhile and it’s because it’s true; MLS, a league compromised primarily of homegrown talent, is a stronger league than most outsiders believe it to be. And while no MLS team can compete with Europe’s biggest clubs on a regular basis, they would do quite well against teams a rung or so down the competitive ladder (FC Dallas vs. Fulham anyone?) This deep talent pool means you can find American-born players able to do some of the same things a team would be going abroad to look for in a potential designated player. My biggest criticism for example, of the Hoops negotiating with Denílson has had nothing to do with his abilities, but the fact that American Arturo Alvarez has basically the same skill set at potentially one-tenth the cost.
$400,000 is a lot
While Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez and the like may scoff at that notion, claiming that’s Christmas present money for their friends and family. The $400,000 salary cap number that’s given to designated players is roughly one-fifth of an MLS team’s total cap space. Any team that wants to lift a trophy at the end of the season must get contributions from players 1 through 18 on the depth chart. You cannot run the same eleven players out onto the pitch day after day; they will wear down. But by using up almost 20% of your cap space on one player you run the risk of not having anyone you can trust in the number 16, 17 and 18 slots on the roster. For comparison’s sake think of what you could buy for $400,000: possibly two very good players at $200,000 a piece or four solid players for $100,000 to help fill-in potential holes just to name a few options.
The Juan Toja effect
If I were ranking these reasons instead of just listing them I’d argue that this should be number one. For those that don’t know, Juan Toja, a rookie to this league, could possibly finish this season MVP, once Eddie Johnson returns to his normal playing level. He was brought to this league because the decision makers on his previous teams did not see his potential or ability. The Toja finding highlights the fact that there are young, talented players out there to be had at much lower prices than any designated player. More effective scouting (more effective does not mean more expensive) can bring these players to MLS which would increase the overall level of play without harming the bottom line.
Chemistry
There are no numbers that can be used as a true reflection of team chemistry; but the fact that a designated player will be able to afford a nice house, a nice car and a vacation during the off-season, while some of his teammates will still live at home, work at Home Depot during the off-season and could feasibly be getting dropped off by mom for soccer practice could cause some jealously within the ranks. And while some of you readers may point out that there are many people who already make one, two or three hundred thousand per year in comparison to those making $12,900 and $17,700. This designated player rule creates a class system of have’s and have not’s unlike anything in American sports.
The designated player was brought into existence for a reason, but maybe the unseen negatives outweigh the foreseen positives. But regardless of how you feel about the issue this is Dallas where the FC stands for “fostering conversation.”
HOOPS PRIDE!
Category: Game Analysis
Comments
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good luck. Denilson is an ex- footballer in activity…
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Obviously adding a single million-dollar man isn’t the solution to every teams problems on the pitch, but the benefits of adding a marketable star to a team while still controlling most salaries with a cap are the best arguments in favor of adding a DP. I see the DP as a part of a transition process for the league, not a permanent reality. There’s no way the league could’ve survived a jump from single-entity, low-hard cap salary structure straight into an open market or soft cap. At the same time, there was no way, under a hard cap set so low, to bring marquee players to the league.
I totally agree with you, as anyone who watches MLS would – the quality is there. This isn’t the MLS of ‘96 playing clumsy American soccer with a few ex-stars making a farewell tour. But we had the “tree falling in a forest” problem until Becks showed up – everybody had already written off the MLS and didn’t notice when the level of play started to improve.
The DP rule turned heads and got people to tune into the MLS. Beckhampalooza is a little nauseating, but in addition to selling tickets and jerseys this year (and if he misses anymore US stops, add selling tickets next year), soccer stories like Adu to Benfica and that ManU 9-year-old are making the news here in ways that wouldn’t've happened pre-Becks – even when He’s not involved, soccer news is now relevant to the Sportscenter crowd, even the FOX News crowd.
Likewise, Blanco’s arrival is greatly impacting the Spanish-language coverage in Chicago. He probably could spread that benefit to the whole league if his arrival didn’t get swept under the rug while MLS and ESPN were preoccupied with Becks – unfortunate, but it’s a start.
I understand and agree with your points about “class” problems in the league. I couldn’t believe that bit about the Galaxy players next door in the training facility during Beckham’s introduction. And the low end salaries need to go up, or else the next few years will see MLS being very active in the international transfer market – people are seeing our talent now and taking notice, and I expect Europe will come calling before long. But right now, with only two teams earning a profit last year, any base salary increase needs to come from somewhere, and that’s what a media darling DP can bring in. You need to spend a little to make more back to improve the whole thing. All in all, I think the “foreseen positives” could actually be the solution in the long run to many of the “unseen negatives” you say it’s caused.
Also, remember that the DP is a three-year experiment, to be reassessed after 2009. Obviously changes need to be made, but I don’t think it’s a rule to abandon. If I were king for a day, I would increase it to 2 DP slots per team, plus include some sort of American exception so guys like Landon or EJ don’t keep teams from adding foreign stars (maybe 3 DP’s, 2 like right now and a Domestic Designated Player?). Also, I think in 3 years we might be able to consider a soft cap with a heavy luxury tax – say, set the cap at about $3 mil (again, hopefully base contracts will have gone up) but allow teams up to go up $4 mil if they will pay MLS the difference twofold: once to cover the extra salary, and once to split among teams playing under $3 mil.
Eagerly awaiting Part 2.
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Great post – and you nailed it with the point about the cash: $400K for one dude doesn’t make sense in a sport like soccer, which requires a solid supporting cast. I say they simply raise the team salary cap to a higher flat level and work the scouting end.
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You say that MLS is able to compete (partially) with top european leagues. But where is the proof ?
Donovan is one of the best MLS players… and he couldn’t cut it at Bayer Leverkusen, hardly one of the most demanding clubs in germay. An ageing Valderrama is in the MLS’ all-time XI… and his only achievement was to be dissapointing at Montpellier and Villadolid. Terry Cooke is a “good journeyman Championship or League One player”, and yet he’s a star in the MLS.
Hell, Angel went from 0.304 to 0.818 goals per game when he switched from EPL to MLS…
Look at the MVPs… Gomez, an ageing argentine who never got near any international games nor any european clubs, or even any sucessful south american clubs. Twellman who spent two years looking at his side (1860 Munich) play on TV because he wasn’t on the match sheet. Guevara “globe-trotter” who flopped in europe, and went to Costa Rica before the USA. Preki, who was forced to leave EPL Everton to play in League One (today Championship)…
That hardly makes it sound like the MLS is able to give teams (sevral) that would not go down in EPL.
On the other hand, there are some prospects of talent in the MLS : Beasley, who made a cool move to Holland, before seeming unconvincing with Man City, Bocanegra who has seemed a solid all-round player for Fulham, Convey, Dempsey, Friedel, Hahnemann, Howard, McBride, Adu (if he succedes in europe)…
The thing is that Fulham (since you state them as being one that Dallas could hold head to) have a deeper and richer squad than Dallas at every level. Ruiz? John and McBride. Toja? Dempsey, Davies and Diop. Gbandi? Rosenior, Bocanegra, Knight and Christanval. Even in goal the difference is vast… Hislop against Niemi, Batista and Warner is a joke. He’d be fighting for 2nd place with Batista, not 1st with Niemi.
Now, were Dallas a mid-table team and Fulham a continental competition hopeful, this gap would be understandable. But Dallas are one of the best US sides (1st and 2nd these last two seasons, as well as 3 quaterfinals and a final), and Fulham are hardly european contenders (16th and 12th with nothing better than round of 16s)…
In passing, Toja doesn’t seem like much. Although I admit I’d prefer to be proved wrong.
Something that surprises me is the regularity in mexican club wins over american clubs. In the Concacaf’s Champ cup, it seems the rule is for Mexican clubs to win, and then from time to time a surprise happens, and Costa Rican, Honduran or American clubs win. How can the MLS pretend they have a top league when they can’t even challenge remotely for supremacy on their continent? (NB: No CONCACAF club has ever beaten a UEFA club in the Continental Cup)
The DP rule is interesting if it manages to do two things : keep young talent longer and capture ageing talent earlier. If it just causes some players to be paid more, then it doesn’t do much… I don’t think it will deeply modify the way the MLS works… If Beckham is head and shoulders above his opponents, then the DP rule will just lead to each side having it’s “star” they will build the team around. If Beckham has little effect, then the DP rule will cease being used.
IMO, what the MLS needs is to change the playoff/league system. First off it’s intricately complex for no good reason (home-away round robin… and then an extra match with “conference” clubs… and an extra one if you’re in the West ????). Secondly, the playoffs mean the Open Cup is useles.. What ?? Thirdly, the draft system is interesting, but it means that the league is so unpredictible that unless you are prepared to spend hours looking at each team’s roosters, you can’t “sell” the match easily… something DPs will make possible. Instead of 11 low-profile players in each team, the DP system allows medias to associate teams with one player… much like QBs in NFL.
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Landon’s not a fair example. He’s a brilliant player who could compete in Europe if Europe wasn’t so European. He didn’t work in Germany because he hated the food and missed the beach. He wanted to be comfortable – say what you will about him, but that’s his reason. Now, just because the most talented American player is also sadly one of the least driven doesn’t mean that a not-lazy, talented American couldn’t compete in Europe.
And yeah, there’s a handful of clubs in the EPL that have a chance to win every year, and MLS obviously couldn’t keep pace with them. But the New Englands, Houstons, and FCD’s COULD survive with the mid- to low-table clubs, maybe not making UEFA but more or less surviving in the top flight. And the RSL’s and Rapids would get relegated, certainly. They should be relegated here.
Also, while everybody loves the EPL, I think it would be better to look at MLS as it could compete in a league that’s maybe a step down from the big four – our teams could do alright in Scotland or the Netherlands.And as far as always losing to Mexican clubs… I think SuperLiga speaks for itself, as MLS pretty much cleaned house in the group stage, and those weren’t the top MLS sides. The fact is, with the MLS being a summer league and pretty much the rest of the world being winter leagues, there’s not a competition out there that pits our sides against anyone else when we’re all in midseason form. CONCACAF Champions Cup is during our offseason, but its right in the middle of the Mexican Clasura. I think that’s the best thing about SuperLiga – we finally get a chance to turn the tables on Mexico and catch them out of shape. And don’t expect the MLS to become a winter league anytime soon – it has a hard enough time stealing media attention from baseball, so forget going up against football/basketball/hockey (which is still the 4th major sport in America).
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Why Landon didn’t get on is none of my business, and frankly, I don’t care. He just didn’t. (Why didn’t he go to RCD Espanyol then ? They wanted him… before he signed at Bayer.)
The point is that there is yet to be a player brought up (even only vaguely) through the MSL that has made it in europe.
That one or two MLS sides would survive in EPL is possible. After all, I wonder season in and season out how the team that ends 17th avoids the drop, because I always think that they are doomed when the season starts. But you do note that Fulham have 4 of MLS’ best players in their ranks… In MLS those “best” players are spread out over 5 or 6 clubs…
I think that MLS could compete with the likes of Scotland, Holland or Portugal in terms of leagues. But they’ve been there for a long time, in my opinion. And those three leagues have something that the MLS lacks : damn good leaders. Porto, Sporting, Rangers, Celtic, PSV and Ajax would by an extreme game for any MLS side… But then Hearts, Leiria and Heerenveen… just a “normal” MLS match. I mean, Valderrama would be in any of SPL’s sides’ best XI (save R&C). So would Preki. SPL doesn’t attract many ageing stars, nor do the portuguese Superlig or the Dutch Eredivie… MLS was boosted to a rather high level through these old stars. But since has vegetated…
I don’t think I understand about the Superliga… A competition that isn’t sponsored by FIFA, has 3 group games (I thought there were games missing on the site…), and has the advantage of mid-season form for MSL sides. And the only reason why Mexico didn’t have 2 teams in the semis is because Club America beat Moreilla… Any other result and Moreilla pipped DC United to the semis. Well, that’s the game. But if you add the teams results by league :
MLS : 5 Wins, 4 Draws, 3 Defeats
Mexico : 3 Wins, 4 Draws, 5 Defeats.
This just shows that the real “lead” the MLS has is… One win over a mexican club. With all that was said prior, I don’t think I need to rejoice…It’s a pity that the leagues in CONCACAF aren’t at the same time, because it will give an advantage to one side or the other.
But I do think that the DP will be useful for the American MLS (And Dallas will get a player who can bring more than Toja…).
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