Former Duke University standout Mike Grella finished off his first professional pre-season in style, scoring one of two Leeds goals in Leeds' United's 2-1 victory in pre-season friendly action against newly-promoted EPL side Burnley on Saturday.
Grella saw playing time late in the season for Leeds last spring, and is looking like a good bet for even more playing time for the once-mighty Whites. Grella joines Leeds last winter after passing up an offer to sign with MLS.
Canadian defender David Edgar provided Burnley's goal.
Here are some other stories to get you through the day:
Bent's six-figure Twitter fine
Just when you thought Brian Ching's $500 for his Twitter complaints was bad, now comes word that Tottenham has fined Darren Bent two weeks wages, worth about £120 ,000 ($200,000) for critical and profane comments regarding Tottenham's handling of Bent's transfer.
Yes, that's right, $200,000.
Okay, so the fine is a bit meaningless considering Bent is about to be sold to Sunderland, but the figure is still a stiff one that should make EPL players think twice before firing off an angry Tweet.
Set Pieces
Julio Cruz is headed to Lazio.
Pavel Pogrebnyak is off to Stuttgart.
Ricardo Oliveira is headed to Al Jazira.
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What do you think of Grella scoring vs. Burnley today? Think 200K was a bit of an overboard fine, or was Tottenham justified? Disappointed that an MLS team couldn't lure Oliveira to the United States, or have you accepted that MLS just won't go after players like him?
Share your thoughts below.
We are talking about a college kid here. If he is not a GA, a MLS veteran, on loan from some other team or a DP you make garbage money. In League one the money is better across the board. Is all i am saying. Mike Grella has one more thing going for him EU passport. So again do not be naive and say the money is not why they go over. Like I said before promotion raises and transfer income are not part MLS so all those things equal to money. If you do not take that into account you are not very informed.
You really shouldn’t crap on a League One team with this much history. This is a club with great fan support that manages to fill up its large 40,000 seat stadium nearly every game. In 2001, this club even made the Champions League semifinal in 2001 before it fell apart financially.
And even then, Leeds has just missed out on promotion each of the last two years.
If he’s getting playing time now, who knows where he may be in two or three years.
Now that he’s over there, he’ll probably develop more quickly. If he plays really well, clubs over there will have an eye on him for a cheap transfer to a better club. And he most certainly won’t have to deal with the MLS handling the puppet strings for an “appropriate” transfer fee.
$200,000 for a Twitter update! I thought that was a typo. To put that in perspective, Bent was fined 200 times what Beckham was fined for luring a fan out of the stands. Amazing.
From what I’ve heard from Leeds fans, Grella is developing well. They really like him and already have songs for him.
The 3-400 a week players are ones on developmental contracts. The youngsters making 13K a year.
League One salaries aren’t bad, most can make at least 100K a year. The same goes for our guys in Scandinavia.
brett, I respectfully disagree. What do you think League One places a premium on? Tricks and flicks? Backheels? Nutmegs? We ain’t talking about La Liga! Let’s call a spade a spade. Strength, pace and effort are just as important to success in League One as they are in MLS. And I’m not trying to argue which league is “better”.
There’s a reason why the Premiership teams pluck the 15, 16 and 17 year olds fro League One sides as opposed to the guys who are in their prime as players. It’s because there is still hope for the younger ones!
And as far as the argument on compensation goes, I can’t speak to what the average League One player brings home per week. But Barry U, if you think the average MLS player brings home between $300 and $400 per week, you need to brush up on some math.
Kevin, I can only deal with reported income. If they are receiving cash over and above what is reported as income, only the local version of the IRS, the team and the player would know.
Barry, the AVERAGE in MLS is higher than you say it is. In fact it is 2300 dollars (based on last season prior to the raising of the low end of the scale). Average MLS players make decent money on average, it is the developmental players that don’t make decent money.
The average in the SPL is lower, according to the BBC.
T, not sure what you’re looking for as far as a response, but I prefer ching, altidore and davies all ahead of cooper. though I think cooper has every chance of getting to SA as a 4th or 5th option up top.
I’m not hating on Grella, necessarily. He’s still relatively young (though not by world football standards), and I hope he does well in his first full season in Europe. I just think way too many people overreact way too much when an american striker scores a goal in a league they’re familiar with.
We should be happy that he’s apparently doing well, but please, let’s stop with the commentary/assumptions about what Mike Grella has in his game that MLS players do not. Unless there are Leeds season ticket holders who attend training everyday, I don’t think anyone (including you, Jason) has seen Mike Grella enough to make an educated assessment of how is technique stacks up against guys playing in MLS.
The money is important with guys choosing Europe over MLS. Average pay of $2400 a week is not bad. Compared to $300 to $400 in MLS. Then factor in the exposure they get just being in Europe. Add in the possible raise for promotion and cashing in on being sold it is much more lucrative than MLS. So saying money is not important is naive.
“I didn’t know League One was such a technically-proficient competition!”
It’s not so much a matter of League One being that good, but more a matter of MLS being that poor. MLS is a very tactically bland league save for a few coaches/teams. It’s a league that places a premium on measurable abilities like pace, height, and strength over technical development. Compared to MLS, League One is downright beautiful.
Dave Clark –
I don’t know how it works for european soccer, but with Basketball, most contracts cover taxes as well…
League 1 vs MLS? Prolly the best 1 or 2 players on each MLS team are Championship to Low level EPL possibles. Exceptions are Goldenballs, LD, Sharlie Joseph since I think they can play for sure in the top flight leagues. That says to me that League 1 is as good a league as MLS. Maybe a little better becuase of the promotion and relegation set up and the money is pretty good. Money is very important and it helps with player development and player recruitment.
Grella is getting great training and good games. Guys he plays against have been given some very good training in England and other soccer countries. Look at two americans Z Whitbread (moving up to championship) and J Johnson both came from EPL teams and are now in league one. So I think it is a win/win for him and maybe USMNT one day.
Grella almost certainly isn’t making more money than he would have in MLS. Unless you think League One players average higher salaries than SPL players (recently was revealed that SPL averages about 1200 pounds per week ~105k US$).
Plus he’s in the UK so he’s at a higher tax rate and a higher cost of living.
Most Americans aren’t going to Europe for the money, because most aren’t taking more home. They should only go for the competition.
Looks like Grella made a good move. If he continues playing, and scoring, for Leeds, he’ll be moving up in the England club ranks with, or without, his teammates. If he scores 10-15 goals this season, he’s going up to the Championship next season.
Enjoy your vacation Ives! We’ll survive
Jig, how bout this.
Cooper>ching
Grella is probably technically better than half the people in MLS.
College soccer does nothing for a players development.
“probably technically better”–Jason
Why? Because he played college soccer in the US? Because he slums it for 15 minutes every once in while against Huddersfield? I didn’t know League One was such a technically-proficient competition! Shoot, let’s him capped! Marcello Lippi is banging down his door!
The ignorance at times on this site is nauseating.
apparently st.etienne in ligue 1 want altidore on loan
Agreed Carol. Jason’s comment is eurosnobbery at its best.
Paul, I tend to agree, but it really depends on the wording of his contract. If most people very publicly criticized their employer, they’d lose their job. I’m sure Bent would love to have Tottenham terminate his contract. But if he agreed to terms that permitted a fine this high for saying something negative about the club, I doubt he has a leg to stand on.
Grella’s goal http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa1ajl_burnley-v-leeds-united-12-1809-frie_sport
Thats just a stupid comment by jason.
Why does everyone compare the English divisions to MLS? The kid has a passport, if he wanted to play in MLS he would. Leeds is a great team. They’ve had some hard times but are doing well. Grella was fantastic against Newcastle according to Leeds fans and now scored against Burnley. Not to mention he’s making a nice salary, more than he’d make in MLS.
Bent’s fine is theft. I’m waiting for a footballer to challenge these kinds of confiscations in court. I doubt they would hold up under legal challenge. Bent’s comments were very mild and must fall under freedom of speech laws.
jason, how do you figure?
Grella is probably technically better than half the people in MLS.
woo hoo Grella scores and might get some minutes off the bench for a worse than MLS england third division team