re: Pretty boy Taylor T says Baby Bradley to Toronto FC

Looks like the numbers are 5 years-32 million for Bradley, along with a $10 million transfer fee paid to Roma.

Dempsey was a $9 million transfer with a 4.5 year deal for $23 million.

I was very sad to hear Dempsey came back to MLS, and I'm even ore disappointed that Bradley took the money and ran back to the MLS.

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Pretty boy Taylor T says Baby Bradley to Toronto FC
apparently he's making 800k euros at Roma and Toronto was offering like $6.5 mil

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Serie A salaries are usually published post-taxes and I imagine the $6.5 Million number is pre-taxes.

Bradley's pre-tax salary at Roma is apprx $2 million

Still a huge pay raise.

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Goal should be for America's best players to have the ability to play regularly in the world's top leagues.

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They have that ability, but they can be paid much more money if they do it here. Being a top player here on DP money is better than being a regular sub on good teams getting paid back up money compared to your peers.

If anything, the goal should be having Americans playing on the top teams of top leagues, not to simply play in the leagues. We are far, far, far away from that occurring regularly. Hell even our best outliers haven't been good enough to cement places on top teams.

We have to have the youth system in place, we have to raise the quality of our league, we have to give our young players a chance, and we have to import coaching so as to make up for our tactical deficiencies.

In truth we are a long way from getting our best players playing for the best teams in Europe. We just aren't good enough on the ball to warrant that type of investment by a top team. Our only hopes rest on American kids playing in European youth academies. Otherwise we are still at least ten years away from having the system in place in my opinion.

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There are only so many DP spots to give out though and some of them are going to over the hill Euros.

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How many players do you think we have that can actually play and succeed in a top European league?

I'd rather the DP money go to an American than a post-30 Euro.

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Not sure... But he will surely be more recognizable playing in the United States multiple times per year instead of playing in a league that isn't even on TV here in the states.

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Are you talking about Serie A?

Roma has been televised this year on BeIn exactly same amount as Real Madrid and Barcelona. Of course that wouldn't be the case if he went to a smaller club in Italy or Spain.

Another thing about Toronto's decision to sign Bradley is that Toronto actually has the largest AS Roma fan base outside of Rome (and one of the largest cumulative Serie A fan bases in general) so imagine he's better known there to fans who don't follow the USMNT than one may think.

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Goal should be for America's best players to have the ability to play regularly in the world's top leagues.

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They already do.

Did Dempsey, Bradley, Howard, Jones, Jozy not play in the world's top leagues? Did dozens before them not?

And lastly, whose goal should that be? Certainly not US Soccer's.

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That's not my point.

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We just don't have the players who can consistently play in European top leagues. We are behind on tactics and European players are ahead in terms of technique, though the gap is closing fast.

The goals of the MLS and of U.S. soccer aren't aligned as neatly as some of you guys think. The MLS wants to improve the quality of the league. The USSF wants to improve the quality of the player. If the MLS were dedicated solely to the development of the US player, then there wouldn't be the need to import players from overseas to fill roster spots. Every spot would be filled by an American. The dissonance between leagues and federations is nothing new, so the federation has to give incentives to the teams by changing our youth structure so that we can develop better players. I've long advocated adopting the French method, where they have finishing schools dotted around the country where players can come, train, play, and get hands on attention by elite coaches. After the finishing school teams are free to sign whoever they like.

This draft and NCAA nonsense is detrimental to the development of the player, as they aren't getting top level coaching at important ages. Not only that, what incentive do MLS teams have in terms of scouting if they can't just sign a player they like instead of drafting him? What the hell has the point of a draft been, other than to impose some resemblance of American sports on soccer? We have to change the structure of our youth system completely. Or else we won't ever have our top players playing consistently for top teams in top leagues, nor will the MLS become a top league.

I agree with all of that. At the end of the day, I'm a US soccer fan more than an MLS fan, I want quality domestic players more so than a quality domestic league.

It's kind of a chicken and egg argument.

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I agree with all of that. At the end of the day, I'm a US soccer fan more than an MLS fan, I want quality domestic players more so than a quality domestic league.

It's kind of a chicken and egg argument.

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You know,

if you made this post at the beginning, this thread would have been about 10 pages shorter.

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Scholarship limits make it a terrible one for developing great talent. .

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... along with a three month season and not playing under FIFA rules.