I Dislike Your Favorite Team

It certainly looks like Kansas City striker Eddie Johnson, a young (and still pretty raw by international standards) striker is now headed for to the English Premiership League, to play for American player's home away from home, Fulham. Fulham is in some dire straits, as they are attempting to fight off relegation down to English First (Championship) Division. Another striker in the MLS, Taylor Twellman, despite his New England Revolution team being offered $2.5 million dollars for his services, is stuck here in the US.

I've read a couple of different takes on why this is. SoccerAmerica writer Ridge Mahoney is somewhat sympathetic to Twellman, Bernado Fallas of the Houston Chronicle is more so. I find that my particularly brand of disinterested lack of sympathy perspective wholly lacking from what I've read so far, and I'd like to offer it.

[Quick primer for American Sports Fans: The Tranfer Soccer, unlike football or baseball, offers windows (called transfer windows) that allow teams to directly offer cash to a club that has a player under contract. Let's take Vikings running back Chester Taylor. He had a good year last year, clearly becoming the 2nd banana this year. Let's say that for a two week period in December, other teams could offer money directly to the Vikings for the right to sign Taylor. He would then have to agree as well, and could probably even renegotiate his contract right then and there. Essentially, imagine if the Cash mentioned in a trade were allowed to be $10 million, and the player always had a No-Trade clause[End Primer: The Tranfer]

So, many American players, Eddie Johnson included, have put into their contracts a "trigger"--in which the transfer fee HAS to be accepted by the club--at that point, the transfer becomes the choice of the player. Fulham apparently hit that trigger price (right around $3.5 million) with Kansas City (Eddie's soon to be old team) and have now got the right to negotiate directly with Johnson. So he's off to England. If they offer him a contract he hates, he could always say "fuck it" and come back to his old club here in the MLS.

Taylor Twellman, whose NE Revolution was also offered a lot of money (over $2 million) for the right to talk to him have denied the club that was interested in him. The English club apparently told Twellman that they were going to triple his own salary as well. Twellman is unhappy about this turn of events. He wants to go to England.

Both SoccerAmerica and the Houston Chronicle point to this as a sure sign of MLS' short-sighted tight-fistedness. SoccerAmerica (rightly) questions if Twellman's agent failed to negotiate for a "trigger". SoccerAmerica is too kind to ask, but I am--If there is a "trigger", how in God's name is it for more than $2 million dollars? For Taylor Twellman? What?

Look, Taylor Twellman is talented on the MLS level. But he is approaching 28 years old, and never got a real sniff on a US National Team that was absolutely starving, dying for talent on the frontline. That's telling. He's practically a household name in New England soccer houses. Getting $2 million bucks for him, in a market where the dollar has gone to shit internationally, just to watch him flounder for a year in the English Championship (that's Triple AAA for you baseball people) and then come home isn't a sign that New England or the MLS are tight-fisted. They are going to be perfectly willing to send their young talent abroad--even if they aren't totally perfectly willing. Twellman isn't that young, and isn't that talented.

It wasn't Manchester United that came knocking for Twellman. It wasn't even Fulham or Watford. It was Preston North End. This is a team that last tasted anything like success in 1964. They haven't played in the top division since 1961, and they are in danger of dropping into the 3rd Division. It would be like if the NBA Development league tried to poach a 28 year old from the Italian Basketball League. Might that player be excited, hearing "NBA", just as Twellman is excited to hear "England"? But that team might look around and say, "Really? This guy is our star, and he's not going to get better or more famous by playing in some league no one but locals and fanatics watch."

So only Fallas' first three words keep this paragraph from being total shit: In Twellman's eyes, this was his chance at fulfilling nearly every soccer player's dream to play abroad and a shot at redemption after a failed stint in Germany years ago. More importantly, it would get him a step closer to the English Premier League. The clock is ticking. Weeks removed from turning 28, Twellman is already old by European import standards.

The clock stopped ticking three years ago. A step closer to the Premier League? Please--he'd need a time machine and some success at the US National Team Level to pull that off. If the New England Revolution accepted that deal, Taylor Twellman's chances of playing in the English Premier League would have still been only slighter better than mine (I can't help noticing how both articles quickly glossed over that whole "failed stint in Germany".)

The MLS and the Revolution are doing the right thing here--right now, Americans are considered a bargain in England. Hell, SoccerAmerica quoted Timmy Howard saying it: "I've said if before: America is the new Africa," said Everton keeper Tim Howard last year after leaving Manchester United. "It's one of the few places left where you can still get a bargain." That's a good reputation to have. Selling Taylor Twellman for over $2 million would have dimished that view, would have hurt young players like Eddie Johnson (23, big, fast, with an expected learning curve), and would have sent a pretty highly valued commodity in the MLS into the dump that is England's 2nd or 3rd Division.

I don't think the Revolution or MLS owes anyone an apology, especially Taylor Twellman. It sounds like if anyone owes Twellman an apology, it is his agent. Or, as SoccerAmerica put it, maybe Taylor should complain to himself:

No doubt the departure of Johnson angers Twellman anew. But if no team has matched his buy-out figure, he just has to sit tight and reiterate his desire to leave. And if no such clause exists, he really only has himself to blame.