A move away from Stoke City has been a possibility for Geoff Cameron since the team’s relegation, and it appears that move could be getting closer.
According to the Telegraph, Cameron is one of four senior players that manager Gary Rowett has ruled is free to leave the club. The report added that Cameron has drawn interest from Werder Bremen and Rayo Vallecano.
Werder Bremen, home of Josh Sargent and Aron Johannsson, is set for a DFB-Pokal match against Wormatia before opening the Bundesliga campaign on Aug. 25. Rayo Vallecano, meanwhile, starts La Liga play this Sunday.
Cameron made 21 total appearances for the club each of the past two seasons and has played a total of 186 matches since joining the club in 2012.
“Werder Bremen, Rayo Vallecano interested in Geoff Cameron” hahahahaha….why are people acting like Cameron age is a factor??? The teams above are interested in him, not the other way around. I hope he continues to “shoot for the stars” and stay far away from MLS as long as possible (so he doesn’t turn into a Bradley, Altidore or Dempsey anytime soon). 2 – 3 million is chump change in these top leagues and shouldn’t be a factor for Werder Bremen or Rayo Vallecano
he can do whatever he wants, of course. but if he chooses to come home to mls, with his euro experience, he’d be a good role model for the younger guys in any mls club, i would think.
Normally I’d say come back to MLS since he hasn’t been playing as much, but in this case I think his NT career is over — because of age and the new influx — so to me it’s take the money there versus career bookends here, and since he was on the outs domestically I am not sure what domestic reputation there is to manage.
It’s actually possible that the best money for him could be in MLS.
However, since the MLS transfer deadline has passed (I know he can still sign as a free agent), Germany seems like a likely destination. Given how many players we already have in Germany, will be easier to follow if even more join.
Re MLS money, it would depend on the timescale. I’d be curious if the windows applied to expansion Cincinnati. I also think he could make a winter move to probably several destinations. But the issue with your argument is this is a cap league and the room to pay your big deal would have to be cleared. An expansion team could do it immediately if not limited to FIFA windows. But most teams are in midseason cap situations also. Their money is spoken for. Any trades at this point to clear cap room would probably be one sided. I also don’t think teams would be that interested in paying a transfer fee for a 33 y/o. So I would instead expect anything like you suggest to be a winter move where the cap clearing process is more orderly, you can decline options, release, trade, and otherwise make moves in a less time pressed way where teams can’t take so much advantage.
This analysis mostly holds even if he’s mutually released and can move outside a window. He still under your theory has a high salary demand in a cap league where most teams have their money already spent.
I think it’s more likely he goes in Europe on loan for 6-12 months. That gets him out of Stoke like they want, and also buys time for a later MLS move.
Or he goes to a European team outright.
I think one of the problems re a MLS move is a lot of age for probably a high salary demand. Very risky. I think big spending Europe can better afford such risks. Here you would be blowing 1/3 of your DP on a player who is dropping in quality and an injury risk.
From what I could find his salary is between 2 and 2.5 million with Stoke, I don’t think he would get that anywhere given his age if he were to sign a new contract. If he were to return to MLS they could do it with TAM and not use a DP slot if he is willing to take around half of his current salary. He is in the allocation list, DC United is first in the order and does have a DP slot available. Philadelphia also has a slot available and bringing in Cameron to mentor a young backline would make sense they would need to trade up from 6th in the allocation order.
I would be very surprised if Phili would do it. They are doing just fine at CB.