{"id":39239,"date":"2015-10-31T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39239"},"modified":"2015-10-31T07:25:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T11:25:32","slug":"jones-seeks-deal-through-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39239","title":{"rendered":"Jones Seeks Deal Through ’18"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 For Revolution midfielder Jermaine Jones, the focus on the the immediate future is clear: fly back to Los Angeles and see his family. The bigger picture? Well, that\u2019s a bit more complicated.<\/p>\n

Jones, whose 18-month, $4.7 million deal expires at the end of the year, has said on a number of occasions that he’d welcome the opportunity to play for the Revolution beyond 2015. But at the end of the day, the ultimate decision isn’t his alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my family have talked (about it),\u201d Jones said during Friday’s final media access. \u201cWe want to have a long-term deal, so we said that we can have to the World Cup (in 2018). My plan is to say, after the World Cup, maybe it\u2019s done. But we don\u2019t want to go a year, one-and-a-half years while we have kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jones, family is everything. During his time with the Revolution, he\u2019d routinely take the first flight out of Boston to LA on Sunday morning just to spend a day or two with his wife and five children before flying back to Boston in time for Tuesday\u2019s training.<\/p>\n

But the physical toll of taking regular cross-country flights is obviously a concern from the team’s perspective. Jones will turn 34 next month, and is coming off an injury-marred season in which he failed to record an assist or goal. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he made it clear that, at this stage of his career, he\u2019d enjoy the opportunity to have his family close by wherever he decides to play next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a long time away from my family,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI would try to take them with me, and have a longer deal, so my kids can come and go to school in that area I\u2019d play.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that appears to work in the Revolution\u2019s favor is the fact that Jones and his family, which came to visit him during the summer, enjoyed their time together in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like it\u2019s home here,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice place, I like the team, and I like the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jones cautioned that doesn\u2019t necessarily seal the deal on a new contract, especially with the number of years he\u2019s seeking likely being a sticking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn soccer and sports, we don\u2019t always stay where we like the people, so I don\u2019t know,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI have some offers not only from MLS, but Brazil and Europe, too. So, we will go into that with the family and then decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

One teammate who\u2019s particularly hopeful that Jones will be back in 2016 is Revolution striker Charlie Davies, who formed a close friendship with the club captain.<\/p>\n

When asked about what it would be like if Jones went elsewhere, Davies cut straight to the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be devastating,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve gotten extremely close during his time, and it\u2019ll definitely be a big hole to fill. Hopefully, we won\u2019t have to worry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies said that he isn\u2019t sure whether Jones will be back or not next year, noting that the situation is out of his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where it\u2019s up the management here,\u201d Davies said, \u201cand if they want go in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Jones said he isn\u2019t bothered by the fact that negotiations are coming down to the wire. He also mentioned that money isn\u2019t the biggest issue, but rather, the right deal for him and his family, something the Revolution front office will have to mull now that the offseason is here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe club also has to sit down and see what the plan is for the next season, but not only with me, they have a couple other guys, too, and that they have to decide some stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

For the time being, Jones is set to fly to Los Angeles on Saturday. In addition to catching up with his family, he\u2019ll start training with a few LA Galaxy players at the StubHub Center in order to stay fit ahead of the U.S.\u2019s World Cup Qualifiers in November.<\/p>\n

Beyond that? Well, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, they will come up with an offer,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd I will either agree, or I won\u2019t agree. You will see me back, or you won\u2019t see me back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jermaine Jones said he wants to sign long-term deal that will take him through the next World Cup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39241,"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":[891,1315,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Jones1.png?fit=600%2C419&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39239"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39246,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39239\/revisions\/39246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}