Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a pleasant week and that you’re nearing the finish line at work.
The Caps certainly did some work this week, locking up one of the players whose contract was in question: midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, who was inked to a two-year contract extension in a key move for Vancouver.
Berhalter went from a useful depth piece in 2022 to a guy who would be a bona fide starter on a lot of MLS teams, filling in largely without issue when Andres Cubas was injured or suspended.
A quick peek at Football Reference shows Berhalter in the 80+ percentile in expected assists, passes and crosses into the penalty area and a host of defensive metrics, including tackles won, blocks and clearances. Not bad for a guy the Caps acquired for a song.
The moves comes as Glass City reports that Racing in Argentina are expected to make a move for Andres Cubas. Based on Cubas’ play since arriving in MLS, it’s easy to see why they would be interested. Given the relative spending power of most Argentine teams, however, it seems unlikely that the club would be able to come close to meeting Vancouver’s valuation.
Personally, it would take an astronomical, Saudi league level bid for me to consider moving on Cubas. Yeah, a free designated player spot would be nice but best case the team would use it on a guy whose relative value to the club is on par with Cubas. Unless the defensive midfielder wants to go to South America, I see no real reason to rock the boat. That is especially true if the league adds another DP spot, giving them two open positions to play with.
This shouldn’t be construed as a knock on Berhalter, who I genuinely think can do the job. But given the expansiveness of Cubas’ role, we’re talking about one of the best players in his position in the entire league. Berhalter has gotten better but I don’t think he is nearly on that level yet.
But we also live in a league in which the Columbus Crew received a monster bid for a seemingly untouchable player, Lucas Zelarayan, and moved him on. Astute in their replacement, they didn’t miss a beat and ultimately wound up in MLS Cup. This is a league where those types of savvy moves matter, particularly when you’re a team like the Caps with fungible resources.
So what’s your number for moving on Cubas? Sound off in the comments and enjoy the latest links from around the league.
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and lets not feel sorry for the Whitecap owners who will tell us they are loosing money
in just the last 2 expansions- st louis ($200 mill), cincinnati ($350 mill) – and an incoming san diego ($500 mill), they will receive well over $20 mill USD – add up all the new franchise fees since Vancouver paid $35 mill and its climbs to over $100 mill USD
(correct me if i am wrong, but MLS HQs keeps 50% of the new franchise fees and the remaining 50% is shared equally amongst the other MLS teams)
If they received $20 million last year that would off set their $15 million that they lost last year and the year before (it was only $12 million the year before that). Almost every soccer/football team in the world is losing money and you think the small market of Vancouver generates a profit? Do you have any evidence other the a gut feeling?
Cubas is a consummate professional, he plays with passion, he never shies away from a challenge or a tackle, and his work rate is well above average. I’m sure other Caps midfielders appreciate just how good he is and how he can single handedly break up plays and then quickly get on the ball for the counter. I consider his signing one of the best indicators that the Caps are serious about becoming an elite team.
So, unless Cubas wants to move on, only a stupid amount of money should be worth considering by Axel and only stupid money in return would soften the blow for Caps fans of losing such a high caliber and classy defending mid.
If Xherdan Shaquiri gets 8 million for whatever he does, and Toronto gives 20 million to two italian guys in order to create the most unhappy unwatchable and by far shittiest team in the mls, and meanwhile Andre Blake gets less than 1 mil to do the kind of goalkeeping he’s done for the past however many years, it gets really hard to say how much a guy should be paid or how much a team should give up for a player to allow that player to be snapped up by another team.
How much did we get to give away Crepeau? Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. And we got 18-20 million for Davies? That seemed fair.
The Whitecaps seem to be one of the most predictable teams in the MLS in terms of correlation between player salary and player productivity. Gauld is the best player on the team; he’s also the hardest working, and the best paid. And he gets 2.4 million a year.
So how about 4-5 million? 4 million firm. We pay him a million a year, and he does a really good job; dropping a million bucks on a rando to replace him would be unlikely to cut the mustard; we’d probably have to try that 2 or 3 times to have a good chance of getting a player of his caliber. That leaves 1-3 mil in “profit”, which I think is fair if we’d bother to do the hassle of the deal.
Is that about right?
as a further note, i am placing my trust- GULP- on CEO, Axel Schuster- he has been building this Club for 2024 as a major player and i do expect him to sign 4 upgrade players (goalie, CB, AMF, winger-striker)- if the Ownership group stymie his plan, well then the chips will fall on the wrong side
and there will be a lot more empty seats- upgrade and we will see crowds in the
+21 000
buying fee for Cubas – SoccerMarkt has him valued at $4.5 mill USD– i say a bid of $5-6$ mill would be enough- he has more soccer skill and wisdom on the field than berhalter… but money Talks and Walks- replacing Cubas with Berhalter is a step backward- this Team needs to move FORWARD
for me, the defining moment for 2024 will be the signing at a higher salary and another 3-4 years, or the selling of Ryan Gauld – it will also define the season ticket sales and the long-term plans for MLS in Vancouver- the result will be known by January- loosing Ryan Gauld would be CRUSHING to the Team success and to the supporters ponying up money for 2024
only in Caps World would we be even talking about this
Awesome that they got Berhalter signed but I’d be loathe to sell Cubas. Since he got here we’ve been solid defensively and he’s the key reason for that.