Podcast – week of 01/11/2010

5 Responses

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1. hoihoi8 says

   Being my first listen to the podcast and a huge MLS fan, I found it surprising that I completely disagreed with so many positions you took throughout the podcast. As a Chicago Fire fan, Gonzo is a HUUUUUGE loss. He is one of the better defenders in the league, and certainly the best on the Fire along with Conde. The Fire struggled big time without him when he was hurt last year. You said “who cares if he leaves for more money, he can be replaced”, and I think that attitude is rediculous. Why not let all the good players of MLS leave for better money, and replace them with half talented concacaf players and over the hill Europeans? BECAUSE the MLS needs to compete with foriegn leagues for fans, and if they have a garbage product on the field, people will stop watching. With foriegn soccer easier to find each on TV each year why wouldn’t a casual fan stop watching the MLS for more attractive football.

   Seing two of our best players, Gonzo and Rolfe, leaving for Cyprus and Denmark just goes to show the nonexistent desire of the MLS to retain it’s talent, let alone make it better and it’s utter greed just to pull in another $40 mil for an expansion team to dilude the talent pool even deeper. Any league who pays a chunk of its young players 11k a year as a professional athletes (that’s how much Rolfe made his first few years while scoring like mad) can not expect to draw the talent needed to keep people interested in the league. I hope the players win, mls drops the absurd playoffs, and get to playing some good soccer.

   January 12, 2010, 8:15 pm
2. admin says

   HH8,

   Thanks for listening. I personally wasn’t as impressed with Segares as you seem to be, but to each his own. My point was that MLS has shown the ability to bring in better and better players each year, and as a case in point, here are 5 guys who mattered just as much as Segares did to the Fire, and their 2009 salaries (Segares – $64k)

   1. Zach Thornton – $52k
   2. Omar Cummings – $73k
   3. Chris Pontius – $66k
   4. Robert Findley – $72k
   5. Brad Evans – $40k

   I could go on, but I am refusing to name any Columbus Crew players, as that is my home team, and I don’t want to seem biased. Again, I said they can find a handful of guys who could be what he was to that team. The stats don’t lie: guys who are at least as valuable as he was to Chicago can be found at that price. Happy hunting.

   As far as the issues with MLS, I wouldn’t say MLS has an unwillingness to retain its talent, given that they signed Donovan for $2 million a year, and have offered Stuart Holden (reportedly) around $300k to stay on this season. Chad Marshall was re-signed for $320k last season.

   I DO think they have an unwillingness to get into bidding wars for certain players, but again, why should they? MLS is not in a position to pay the same price as what the inflated European market is willing to pay. You don’t feel that Segares is replaceable at that price. MLS apparently does. You’ll have to pardon me if I lean on their expertise, since after all, it is their money.

   Again, though, thanks for listening. It’s nice to hear a dissenting voice for once.

   January 13, 2010, 1:55 am
3. hoihoi8 says

   Even though I didn’t agree on all points I still got to hear information I probably wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.

   Good to see more soccer podcasts out there.

   January 13, 2010, 3:44 pm
4. admin says

   Sorry, I reread this, and realized I came off as a cranky old radio host who gets mad anytime someone disagrees with him. I actually welcome the discussion, maybe if I ever get a phone line hooked up, we can do this on-air;)

   Again, thanks for listening.

   January 14, 2010, 3:15 am
5. A. J. Farley says

   Thanks for the podcast. I’m glad your podcast is so well done and widely available. Kartik’s has gotten downright un-listenable lately.

   January 14, 2010, 2:00 pm