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Revs trade Lee Nguyen to LAFC in deadline day blockbuster

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Lee Nguyen is finally on his way out of New England in a deadline-day blockbuster that is sending him to one of the most dangerous attacking teams in Major League Soccer.

The Revolution has dealt Nguyen to Los Angeles FC in exchange for a package that could increase in value up to $950,000 in allocation money.

The Revs receive $350,000 in General Allocation Money and $350,000 in Targeted Allocation Money from LAFC. The total amount of allocation money could rise up to $950,000, and New England could receive LAFC’s natural first-round pick in the 2019 or 2020 MLS SuperDraft.

The trade was finalized just before the close of the MLS transfer/trade window, and comes shortly after LAFC announced the loss of March Urena for a month after facial surgery.

Nguyen has yet to play a minute in 2018 after demanding a trade from New England during the offseason. Nguyen initially held out of preseason training camp, but eventually returned to the team, where he was kept on the bench while the Revs enjoyed a strong start to the season.

LAFC adds Nguyen to an attack that has already established itself as one of the best in MLS. He immediately gives LAFC depth in the attacking midfield role, where Carlos Vela has played. With Vela expected to miss time while with Mexico during the World Cup, Nguyen can step in and help fill that void, and Nguyen’s presence also gives LAFC coach Bob Bradley the option to deploy Vela as a forward or winger.

Comments

  1. my two cents: wow, ne/freidel really handled this potentially explosive scenario with impressive admin chops.

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    • i mean think of how this could have blown up in their faces if after benching nguyen they had started losing games.

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  2. “The Revs receive $350,000 in General Allocation Money and $350,000 in Targeted Allocation Money from LAFC. The total amount of allocation money could rise up to $950,000, and New England could receive LAFC’s natural first-round pick in the 2019 or 2020 MLS SuperDraft.”
    This is what it sounds like when bean counters take over football.

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    • But isn’t it like that in most US pro sports? The MLS has a salary cap and byzantine player acquisition rules, along with several “pots o’ money” they use for buying players, then there are drafts,allocations and discovery’s and finally transfers and trades. While the NFL and NBA have caps too, those sports don’t depend on international players as much as others (baseball, hockey)

      The bean counters are the most important people in a club its seems.

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      • You’re probably right but if you need an accounting degree and an ouija board to follow your soccer team then your league is not a real soccer league.

      • All good points, and without that salary cap, would the league even exist? Is it a real soccer league if you have Real, Barca, Atletico and a bunch of small fish, of whom, half lose money?

        Also, I’d guess 20% of the NBA is international now. It’s the NFL that is mostly American, still. And the NFL’s salary cap rules are just as byzantine as the MLS’s. Most NFL teams have a GM, and they also have a salary cap specialist.

    • Two thoughts (1) but wasn’t this basically an auction with the deadline as the end of bidding? (and does this explain why NER was always saying odd things like nothing personal but you’re staying for now) In which case the whole aim is to bid these numbers up. (2) While I grant your point that it does have a bean counter feel, thinking like a GM, depending what LA offers me, I might prefer empty cap space plus accounting tools over a player I don’t get as excited about, or a pick that is less and less effective, as in a normal trade. Ideally you’d make this trade with window left (contrary to the auction theory), so you can immediately spend the freed space, but it does give them much to work with in the second window, and they are right side of the red line right now anyway.

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      • i agree, imperative, with your 1). surely, that must be what happened.

      • The fact that LAFC has lots of allocation money in its initial year, also played into this. I think the best example of bean counters being at the heart of a successful team is “MoneyBall” with Brad Pitt, about the Oakland “A’s” and the way the revolutionized players selection because of their cost-effectiveness when married to the statistical world that defines baseball.

        While soccer is not baseball and the tenants of the sport are not the same, especially on the statistical end, the MLS has always prioritized field positions over goalkeepers, and midfielders over defenders and forwards over everybody else. Finding (and holding) bargain players who punch above their weight, is always the goal of coaches and GM’s as such the MLS teams almost mandate money go into areas that are more cost-effective. The counter point to that is bringing in players who are prioritized in putting butts-on-seats over those who would contribute far more and far less.

    • The Dynamo once spite traded Kei Kamara for Abe Thompson plus allocation. Abe was so useless that almost any other GM tool would have been more valuable than an actual player.

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    • dear rob, not trying to sound like a smarty pants but come on, 350 + 350 = 700. is it that unreasonably hard to figure?

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