{"id":34424,"date":"2015-05-05T13:43:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T17:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34424"},"modified":"2015-05-05T20:07:17","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T00:07:17","slug":"source-nguyen-extremely-unhappy-w-contract-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34424","title":{"rendered":"Source: Nguyen “Extremely Unhappy” w\/ Contract Situation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Lee Nguyen sat out training earlier last week to\u00a0express his displeasure over the organization’s\u00a0refusal to renegotiate his contract, a source\u00a0told\u00a0New England Soccer Today<\/em> on Monday.<\/p>\n

According to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Nguyen is “extremely unhappy” with\u00a0the club’s\u00a0unwillingness\u00a0to rework his contract, which is scheduled to pay him a base salary of $175,000 in 2015.\u00a0The Revolution midfielder\u00a0is\u00a0coming off a 2014 campaign in which he scored a career-high 18 goals, added five assists, and was shortlisted for MVP consideration.<\/p>\n

Prior to his breakout season, the Revolution midfielder signed a two-year deal worth $175,000 annually with options for a third- and fourth-year, as well as a $40,000 signing bonus in Jan. 2014. The contract\u00a0was offered to Nguyen with years remaining on his previous deal, which had paid him a\u00a0base salary of\u00a0$73,600 in 2013.<\/p>\n

The attacking midfielder approached the organization about a new deal during the winter, but the club wasn’t ready to rework a deal that was signed only a year before. Nguyen\u00a0contemplated sitting out training\u00a0at an earlier point in the season,\u00a0but decided\u00a0against it\u00a0because of the potential negative impact it would have on his status with the U.S. Men’s National Team.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Nguyen\u00a0delayed his\u00a0protest until last week.<\/p>\n

After sitting out the earlier part of last week’s training, Nguyen returned to the team because “he didn’t want to disappoint his teammates and fans,” the source said.<\/p>\n

But Nguyen wasn’t handed back his spot in the XI upon his return. On Saturday,\u00a0he was benched in favor of Kelyn Rowe, who went 56 minutes before\u00a0Nguyen came on and, not long after, assisted on Teal Bunbury’s game-winning goal.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Red Bulls marked the first time since the 2012 season opener that a healthy Nguyen did not start for the Revolution.<\/p>\n

Following the match, Heaps told the media that Nguyen was not included in the XI after missing training\u00a0due a “private matter.”<\/p>\n

In eight games, Nguyen has struggled to find the form that made him an integral piece of the Revolution’s first run to the MLS Cup final in seven years. To date, he’s only scored one goal –\u00a0a penalty kick effort\u00a0at Colorado\u00a0– and collected two assists.<\/p>\n

During the Revolution’s nationally-televised away match at Philadelphia, ESPN broadcaster Taylor Twellman suggested that Nguyen’s disappointing play\u00a0might be due to the midfielder’s unhappiness with his contract.<\/p>\n

Last week, teammate Charlie Davies offered an alternative explanation to Nguyen’s scoring woes.<\/p>\n

“I think he\u2019s had a tough start to the season because he came in a little bit injured,” Davies said. “At this point, it\u2019s just his rhythm, it\u2019s getting into a rhythm, and getting sharp. He\u2019s one of those players that you don\u2019t have to worry about his confidence. He\u2019s very confident player, so I think in time, he\u2019ll start to get sharp and find his rhythm.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Nguyen is frustrated by the club’s unwillingness to renegotiate his contract. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1093,107,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Lee-12.png?fit=598%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34424"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34424"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34479,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34424\/revisions\/34479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}