Rumours that Toronto FC is close to signing former AC Milan stand-out Alessandro Nesta have heated up a healthy debate about the value of bringing in big name designated players in Major League Soccer.
It’s a debate that has been had in Toronto and elsewhere throughout the rule’s five-and-a-half year history, and one that won’t likely disappear anytime soon. There are still some in the league that claim that the DP rule is for fools and that the most successful teams in a salary cap league are those that spread the $2.81 million cap equally across the 24-player roster.
Certainly the success of Real Salt Lake and, to a lesser extent, the Columbus Crew has lent some credence to that argument. However, one must also admit that the fall of the New England Revolution from perennial contenders to also-rans corresponds with the start of the DP era.
At this point the debate has shifted slightly with most in the league accepting that there is some value to having the option of using a DP slot. Even Salt lake and New England have used the rule, albeit in a modest way.
All three Canadian teams have embraced the rule with six of the nine possible slots used. Toronto employs Julian de Guzman, Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans, with Vancouver adding Eric Hassli and Barry Robson. Montreal added its first DP this week when Marco Di Vaio made his debut.
The Canadian list is a good microcosm of the way the DP debate has evolved in MLS in recent years. Rather than whether it’s a good idea to have a DP at all, the conversation now centres on what type of DP is most effective and whether having the maximum of three is a good idea.
The latter point is what’s driving much of the debate in Toronto. From the beginning TFC has been accused of being a club that’s more about the sizzle than the steak and that having three DPs speaks to that. When criticized for a lack of success, management can point to the expenditure its put out on the three big names and suggest that it is doing all that it can.
However, when you consider that TFC has never had a proper centre-back and has always struggled with a lack of depth, you can question whether spending more than one-third of the salary budget on three players is a good idea.
This is especially the case in Canada where it is more difficult to convince solid, middle-of-the-road American players to uproot their families for a great Canadian adventure at $85,000 a year (with mom unable to work) . Although those type of players rarely find their names on the backs of fan’s replica jerseys, they are vital to the success of any MLS team.
The LA Galaxy may have had David Beckham, Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan but they also had Mike Magee. Toronto has always struggled to attract the Mike Magees. The sample is smaller with Vancouver and Montreal, but there likely is a good reason that Bob Lenarduzzi is collecting international slots like some people go after Panini stickers.
The reluctance of some American players to come north is an often unspoken disadvantage the three Canadian teams face, and it’s what forces their hand into the DP pile more quickly than they might otherwise want: it’s an area they can compete with American teams on an equal footing.
So, there is little point debating the need to carry DPs in Canada.
It’s necessary. However, you can debate what kind of DP you should be carrying.
And this is where Toronto differs from Vancouver (it’s likely not fair to identify a Montreal strategy just a half season in). Whereas the Whitecaps seems to be using the DP slot to fill needs and bring in specific types of players that fill them, Toronto is starting to use the rule in the way that it originally was used league-wide: to go after names.
Although Nesta is expected to not come in as a DP immediately (Toronto must wait until de Guzman is off the books to add another), he’s the latest example of that thinking. You don’t have to be a cynic to draw the lines between the horns honking on College Street following Italy’s win in the European Championship yesterday and a struggling MLS teams desire to sell season tickets.
I have to disagree. How long have TFC needed a quality CB? And now that they’re going for one you think it’s just for ticket sales and popularity? Nesta clearly showed he can still play. His performances against Barcelona especially were fantastic.
I’m beginning to think that the whole DP label is as much a hindrance as it is a help (click on my name for my take on how it could affect Barry Robson at the Whitecaps) but any MLS club that is still bringing in a DP solely for ticket sales is guilty of horrendously short term thinking.
The only way to improve attendance for the long haul is to put a winning team on the field.
Toronto FC was supposed to be building towards the future. With Nesta its so called ‘spine’ of out players (and all DPs) will average 34-35 years. Great! It is not impossible for players to play later into their 30s, but most do that seriously for clubs that they have a particular attachment to beyond the money. North American soccer had this experience before and quickly became a retirement league that was top heavy with fat. TFC already suffers that problem and will trade a younger and more mobile de Guzman (not a decreasingly slower and out of position Frings) to make space for Nesta – which is actually good for de Guzman, so he can go back to a team more serious about the football. Nesta was a great player in his time but do not expect him to be the wise-sage lynch pin that Giggs or Scholes have been at United. The attitude of everyone – player, fans, management – involved is completely different.
And for the 1-2 million you can find a skilled and much younger defender; just you wont have heard of him nor seen him play vs. Messi in some Champions league game. Of course that would be the job of scouts and who needs scouts when we have old Champions league games on replay, the Guardian telling us which old guy is out of contract in Europe, and FIFA 2011 video game player stats to check them out.
“TFC already suffers that problem and will trade a younger and more mobile de Guzman (not a decreasingly slower and out of position Frings) to make space for Nesta – which is actually good for de Guzman, so he can go back to a team more serious about the football.”
De Guzman was a strong supporting cast role player as a starting holding mid at club level in Spain (and please don’t cite for me the one off club MVP thing as evidence that he was anything more than that) but not suitable as a DP for this club. As much as I am not a DeRo fan he did a lot more DP worthy stuff here in 2010 (the Preki Era … or as some would say, Err) than de Guzman, who merely got cloaked with excuses from his supporters: he wasn’t being used right, he had no talent around him, he was never healthy (and if he was that injured, why the fvck was he not rested but cleared to play for the NT against Peru in September when the team still had an albeit very slim hope of the playoffs under Dasovic? And why risk further long term injury in a meaningless international friendly to a player who is on a big guaranteed money investment for the next two years?).
Like the other role players on this team, he benefitted from the arrival of Frings and the leadership he provided as well as the goal poaching of Koevermans. When the German went done and the Dutchman was out of form, apart from an inspired effort against Santos Laguna he and the rest of the supporting cast generally floundered resulting in Winter losing his job.
Frings has a limited shelf life, agreed. And though I think de Guzman has had a good run of form recently unless he agrees to a very significant pay cut determined by his relative market value, then he will be playing elsewhere which is too bad because he’s rediscovered his true niche as a very good supporting cast player.
I think I agree that having a DP has some merrit. But three? I question whether that’s the best way to build the roster.
Also agree with the other poster who thinks using the sport for ‘marketing’ is a muggs game.
And a good example of your excessive pessimism… :) said it before, will say it again, a player that is a LITTLE better is a LOT more money, Nesta can be a serious asset to TFC
TFC have tried just about everything else to get a solid leader for the back line. I know, a lot of people think they should just go get an young, experienced, world-class defender from South America but I’m afraid that doesn’t exist. Bringing in an experienced, world class defender at the end of his career to groom our young players could well be a step to building towards the future.
But if you look around the league, other teams have found South Americans who earn non-DP money who can play on the backline and solidify the defense.
Bringing in Nesta is an expensive and temporary (at best) solution.
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I don’t see why the MLS doesn’t just eliminate the salary cap hit of DP’s altogether.
Three players isn’t going to create a huge imbalance and at the same time teams with DP’s will still be able to be well balanced if there is no hit.
I do not understand the logic of forcing teams to choose between having DP’s and being well balanced.