{"id":46276,"date":"2017-08-04T09:15:55","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T13:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=46276"},"modified":"2017-08-04T11:37:24","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T15:37:24","slug":"dealing-nguyen-wouldve-been-unwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=46276","title":{"rendered":"Dealing Nguyen Would’ve Been Unwise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

On Tuesday, it was reported the Revolution rejected a $1 million transfer for midfielder Lee Nguyen. FourFourTwo<\/em>\u2019s Paul Tenorio broke the news the attacking midfielder was being courted by Maccabi Haifa of Israel<\/a>. While it\u2019s unknown if Nguyen would have had any interest in the deal, the Revolution\u2019s decision to turn down the offer shouldn’t be surprising.<\/p>\n

It could be argued that Kelyn Rowe, fresh off an impressive Gold Cup appearance with the U.S. National Team, could shift from left back to his more natural position of attacking midfielder as a replacement for Nguyen. However, Nguyen has been a core part of the offense for the last five seasons in Foxboro and would leave massive shoes for Rowe to fill mid-season.<\/p>\n

Even more unlikely is the possibility of the Revolution bringing in a replacement for Nguyen with one week left in the transfer window. If the offer were accepted, New England would receive $666,667 in cash (after the MLS takes their one-third cut of the transfer fee) and New England could convert $650,000 into allocation money. For a comparison on what that could bring in, Minnesota traded $650,000 prior to the season for Kevin Molino and backup keeper Patrick McLain. A player of Molino\u2019s stature is certainly nothing to scoff at.<\/p>\n

However, Nguyen\u2019s talent already makes him an elite player in the MLS, as he\u2019s rated seventh in the league in player rating (according to whoscored.com), so a trade for a like-player would almost be redundant.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention Nguyen provides amazing value to the Revolution for what he\u2019s earning in compensation. Consider the top 10 performers in the league this season (per whoscored.com<\/em> player ratings): the median compensation of the only six players who are in front of Nguyen is roughly $2.15 million, more than four times Nguyen\u2019s salary. Of those top six only Maxi Urruti ($300,000) and David Accam ($821,000) are earning less than $1 million. The top 10 list is as follows:<\/p>\n

Player \u00a0 2017 Compensation<\/strong>
\nDavid Villa \u00a0– $5,610,000
\nSebastian Giovinco – $7,115,556
\nMaxi Urruti \u00a0– $300,000
\nDavid Accam – $821,000
\nRomain Alessandrini – $1,999,401
\nMiguel Almiron – $2,297,000
\nLee Nguyen – $500,000<\/em>
\nIgnacio Piatti – $450,000
\nCristian Roldan – $137,000
\nBenny Feilhaber – $600,000<\/p>\n

Nguyen doesn\u2019t represent the best bargain among the league leaders, but a player of his talent is hard to come across, and it\u2019d likely cost more than an annual salary of $500,000 to find a replacement. Not to mention, a player of that talent level may require a designated player spot, which Nguyen doesn\u2019t occupy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also fair to say the move would signal an end of the team\u2019s playoff chances, however faint they may be, as Nguyen has been the best player on the field this season. There\u2019s also the sense that it\u2019s do-or-die time for the current coaching regime, as the Revolution have not won a playoff game since their 2014 MLS Cup appearance.<\/p>\n

Those who are skeptical of the Revolution\u2019s chances in the short-term could argue the team should turn their attention away from the 2017 season, and focus on the long-term stability of the club. Why not sell high on a soon-to-be 31-year-old midfielder and gather assets that could be utilized better for next season?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown how long Nguyen\u2019s contract runs through; he was rewarded in the spring of 2016 with a new contract, replacing the one that was set to expire after the 2017 season. Assuming the Revolution extended the contract as a compromise to proving a significant raise, Nguyen will be under contract for the 2018 season and, as mentioned, is already providing the team excellent value. There\u2019s no reason to believe Nguyen can\u2019t produce next season as well.<\/p>\n

Additionally, New England don\u2019t appear to be short on allocation money, so the team should be able to upgrade weaker positions around the field without sacrificing Nguyen.<\/p>\n

The Revolution are firmly near the bottom of the league in team salary this season at approximately $5.4 million, and the figure that is measured against the salary cap does not include all of the salary of Revolution\u2019s designated players, or any of the salary of players on the supplemental or reserve roster.<\/p>\n

MLS provides $1.4 million in allocation money to teams prior to the season, and although we don\u2019t know exact numbers, the numbers imply Revolution won\u2019t spend all of that money. With some 2017 allocation money left over, the Revolution can roll over some of that money into the offseason. In fact, they\u2019ve have already shifted allocation money into next season, courtesy of a minor trade made last month with San Jose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pair that with the fact that Benjamin Angoua\u2019s $600,000 salary will be wiped off the books if his purchase option isn\u2019t exercised, the Revolution appear to already be sitting on a pile of allocation money for 2018 while having a lot of room in their 2018 budget to work with. Wiping Nguyen\u2019s salary and tacking on another $650,000 wouldn\u2019t put them in a better position, only padding onto a surplus that may not be needed.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: trading away Lee Nguyen would have no benefits short-term and would provide little value to the team in the long-term. The Revolution have been relatively quiet in the summer transfer window, short of the trade with San Jose and their signing of Claude Dielna. However, sometimes the best move is one you don\u2019t make, and turning down Maccabi Haifa\u2019s offer for Nguyen might turn out to be the best move the Revolution make this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sell Lee Nguyen? Yeah, no. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44168,"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":[891,1667,107,1666,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Nguyen-24.png?fit=600%2C416","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46276"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46312,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46276\/revisions\/46312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}