Philadelphia and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Trade
You have got to be f—ing kidding me. That was my reaction when I found out the Philadelphia Union traded away Josue Martinez and some allocation money to bring back Sebastien Le Toux. Yes – the sloppy seconds we could never put out of our hearts, the 6′ speedster with bad ballhandling and crossing skills – is coming back. Because apparently we don’t already have enough of 6′ speedsters with bad ballhandling and crossing skills, the Union went out and got another one – one that we already had and traded away. We have done absolutely nothing to address our real needs – mainly the need of a tall power forward with a nose for the goal or depth at center- and left-back. Instead, this was a move by a Front Office that has been cowed by a fan base that because many of them have been watching since 2010 believe they are tactical experts on par with Rinus Michels, Fabio Capello, and Pep Guardiola. This was a move to bring back soccer moms who at the beginning of last year had to sit down their children and with tears in their eyes break the news that our dear player had been traded away no matter how much we loved him and wanted him back. But unlike the dead hamster buried in the back yard last summer, sometimes wishes do come true. Dust off those #9 jerseys and fill the minivans, Main Line soccer mommies – Le Toux is coming back to Chester!
Am I angry? You bet. Giving up Josue Martinez might not seem like a lot, but remember we paid a significant sum to bring him here. He had a decent 2012 – his first year of a grueling MLS schedule – and looked poised to be a good addition to the Union team in 2012. Why give all of this up for a player we don’t need and who doesn’t address our needs? We have Hoppenot and McInerney and Hoffman and Cruz – guys who rely on speed and speed alone to create plays. Did we really need an older, more expensive version – especially at the expense of giving our most hated rivals a promising forward to go with Kenny Cooper and Thierry Henry? Even if one or both of them leave – why would you do that? This was not the move that a Front Office with a vision of what their team should look like makes – this is a move that tries to placate a fan base that is largely ignorant to what it takes to create a winning soccer team. This is what happens when the inmates run the asylum. This is what happens when a club cares more about its public relations image and good feelings than defining a strategy and putting a winning product on the field.
So yeah, I’m angry. I’m angry the men who make the decisions at the club care more about being liked than doing what they said they would in the beginning – ” play an attractive, attacking type of soccer ” – because if they really wanted to play an attractive, attacking type of soccer they’d have gone out and done their homework. They’d have identified their weaknesses (actually, that can be found on any number of Union and non-Union blogs because they are that glaring – mainly a tall power forward to compliment our speed on the wings and at the other striker position) and they would have worked to bring in someone who met that need, not only made it that much more obvious that we’re going to try to run as fast as we can past an opposing team. Because you see the problem with that attack plan is that all the other team has to do is play their defense a little deeper and be a bit more physical (which is not a problem in MLS with most center-backs being tall, physical brutes) because you can’t score if you can’t see the goal or are lying on your ass after being planted by guys like Omar Gonzalez or Danny Califf. Whoops. Sorry guys, I just gave every other MLS team the keys to beating us next year.
What is the formation we are going to trot out that features Le Toux? The 4-5-1 that didn’t work last year when you had nothing but speed up front? A 4-3-3 that looked better on paper than in practice? A 4-4-2 with two speed strikers up top? Because that did so well when we used McInerney and Hoppenot last year, right? So all of you Football Manager geniuses out there, what’s your formation? What role do you give Le Toux that you couldn’t give to McInerney? And who sits? Jack McInerney? He just earned a starting role after languishing on the bench. You’re going to send him back there? Danny Cruz? You traded to get him, not to sit him. Mike Farfan? Our only offensive All-Star player ever (something Le Toux didn’t do during the Gilded Age). Freddy Adu? Let’s all face reality – at his salary that ain’t happening. So who sits, Armchair Hackworths?
Here are some rather uncomfortable facts that everyone seems to have forgotten. In our Golden Season of 2011, Le Toux didn’t score during the run of play until September 3 at Real Salt Lake. The same people who are in the throes of orgasm that he’s returning are largely the same people who were calling for him to sit when he couldn’t score at a Vegas brothel with an American Express Black Card. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s also bounced between 3 different teams in a single calendar year. This screams problem. This screams “I won’t do what my coach tells me”. And no, I haven’t forgotten that he’s the all-time leading scorer in Philadelphia. Have you forgotten that he played here as the featured striker for 2 of the 3 years we’ve played and still only amassed 25 goals? To put this in perspective, Chris Wondolowski scored 27 goals in the 2012 season alone. Assists? Le Toux had 20 over the two years he was here. In 2012, Graham Zusi led the league with 15.
So all that be damned, Le Toux is back and there’s nothing we can do about it. I hope I am proven wrong and that this heralds the return of the Golden Age, except instead of sputtering into the playoffs and getting demolished by Houston we go all the way. But I have a feeling I’m going to have the last laugh when Le Toux is lost in the shuffle and all we have are the false hopes and faded good feelings of today and we’re nowhere closer to being where we want to be.
Give it an hour or two til we hear what we gave up to Seattle. Maybe we gave up one of the pieces of the log game at M/F. I can’t imagine Seattle taking Adu, but Hoppenot, Cruz (probably not Hack loves him) or Lahoud maybe could be gone?
Nope. We just gave up our old friend Allocation Money.
4-3-1-2 actually suits the team fine if 1 of two things happens. Either:
1. Freddy Adu stops being Freddy Adu and decides to actually show up to all of the games ready to play and actually gives all of himself when he does. He’s shown he’s capable of being a world-class player, he just doesn’t do it often enough. If he does, having Seba and Jack up top with Hoppenot ready to come off the bench is fine, because an on form Adu can hand them balls to sink in the net.
2. The team signs a CAM who can provide for the forwards as I described above.
Agreed, but let’s face facts – Adu isn’t going anywhere. No one will take him for his salary. We’re stuck with him through the end of the season. So we’ll have three guys who are max 6′ up front who rely on speed alone which (as I stated in my article) is easily countered by dropping physical center backs further back.
You got your wrong on all over this article.
Stats don’t lie. His 0.32 G/90mins was 9th in MLS in 2011. Behind such slouches as Henry, Wondo, Donovan and Freddie Montero. After that season, we fleeced(yes, fleeced) VAN and received what was rumored to be $1M in allocation money (which Nick defined as “cash” today). And VAN got what? A few goals. They dealt him for Dane Richards and RBNY got fleeced. They resigned him (cost certainty, probably less than what SLT was angling for in January) and shipped him to us for No Way Josue and what must have been a much smaller amount. So even if we bought Martinez for $300k (from the proceeds of the Ruiz sale), we’re still ahead on cash. Cash that we had used to complete the Roger Torres transfer.
Did you get this worked up about Martinez’s 18 appearances with only one goal? Let’s assume that he improves. We all like to think the young players “can only get better”, forgetting all the young players who wash out. What’s that worth then this year? 3 goals? 5? What’s the likelihood that Martinez will outscore LeToux? 10 to 1? 20 to 1? Maybe 2 or 3 seasons from now. Maybe. We had Martinez last year and he struggled to crack a shitty lineup of the 16th best team (or 3rd worst). We had LeToux and for a large part of 2011 led the Eastern Conference. I’ll take the second option thanks.
He WAS our 6th best scorer… more than marfan in less games
I’m curious where you got your numbers Scotty, since MLS doesn’t release allocation figures. Even if we somehow “fleeced” these teams, we still have a player that we have younger, cheaper versions of that doesn’t fit into our system.
And yes I was disappointed at Martinez’ first season. I thought he should have played more and been given a chance to further acclimate to MLS. And of course I’d have like to have seen more output from him, but I still thought he did well enough to be given a shot here in 2013. If we were only using him as trade bait, surely we could have gotten more on our return than Le Toux.
This tells me we are not even close to done w/our moves. I see Le Toux working well up top with McInerney “if” there is a target man playing in between them. Run 3 MF’s out there in a triangle and allow our outside backs to run the flanks. If either is caught foward we have more then enough cover in behind. I agree that if we play a 4-4-2 with Jack & Le Toux we will have problems but I dont see that as the final solution. When Hack took over we ran out a 4-3-3 the first 2 matches and he realized we didnt have the personel to make it work. I say let the man do his work and we will see what the roster looks like on opening day.
I sincerely hope you’re right and that we’re not done making moves. I love picking up Jeff Parke and shoring up our defensive line. Even if Soumare isn’t healthy we now have 2 able centerbacks with Amobi being used as cover. I think Amobi moves up to CDM and Carroll moves to more of a bench and mentoring role. I love Brian Carroll but I think he’s starting to show is age and a bench role will serve him – and us – best in 2013.
The thing with Le Toux though is that he doesn’t do well on the wing – it’s pretty well known he hates it out wide. It’s why he didn’t fit in either Vancouver or New York. He’ll almost have to play as a striker – but this leaves us susceptible to being bullied by the tall, strong, physical centerbacks in MLS. In a 4-3-3, who do we have at striker and at mid? I’ve tried and I can’t seem to make the pieces fit without someone being left behind.
You got this very very wrong. Le Toux is one of the hardest working players in all of MLS plus one of the top finishers. Granted he is not Kaka, Lampard, or Henry put the Union were at their best with him on the field. The club had a solid foundation to go off of after their second year but they traded all these guys away and brought in some players from latin america that just couldn’t adjust and they were terrible the whole season. I could see the union playing a 4-3-1-2 with your regular back four with mike farfan, brian carrol, and danny cruz being the true midfielders and roger torres being the attacking mid, then you start le toux and jack up top. If they were to play this they’d have to play fluent, flowing, short passing football to break teams down and then use all that speed to draw fouls and get someone into the box to finish. Plus why would he like it with the red bulls? He was the number 3 striker behind Kenny Cooper and Henry and a guy like him would start on almost any mls team. Overall its a good trade they get a familiar face back in the club and get fans excited again. Now if only they could dump Freddy Adu somewhere…
I’m sorry, but calling Le Toux a top finisher is absolutely ridiculous. Chris Wondolowski is a top finisher. Thierry Henry and Kenny Cooper are top finishers. Le Toux is not on their level.
Just because someone works hard and runs all the time doesn’t mean he’s a good player. You still need skill on the ball, which Le Toux doesn’t. His first touch is awful – and that’s pretty important if you’re going to be a speed striker whose sole skill is getting behind slower defensemen. If you can’t control a ball to you, you can’t shoot with any regularity or accuracy.
And I strongly reject the notion that the reason we were bad was because of Latin American players. Sure, Porfirio Lopez was awful, but let’s look at some of our other Latin American acquisitions – Carlos Valdes. Faryd Mondragon. Gabriel Gomez. Josue Martinez. All good, solid players. Please go back and read my post about racism before making further comments blaming our downturn on Latin American players.
To your point about the 4-3-1-2 with the lineup you suggested – it still sits Amobi and Adu. Can we keep both of these guys off of the field? I think Okugo has won the right to start, and I think Adu will play because of his salary.
And Ed is right. Le Toux is not a top finisher. He’s ok, but not in the top.
Let’s just say for a minute that what you rambled on about is true. You cache this with “We have Hoppenot and McInerney and Hoffman and Cruz” but at which point during their tenure here did they get the job done? NEVER!
Let’s go on for another minute that your opinion just-might-be-true. The fact of the matter is season ticket holders aren’t renewing because there isn’t anybody on the current roster to draw. No people in the stands=no gate revenue=more losses for the Union.
Just maybe this was a move to sell tickets, to draw fans, to put something out there that might be worth watching. I’ll give you that, however LeToux isn’t a stiff that you make him out to be. The guy got shafted by the Front Office…why he would want to come back here is beyond me, but good for him.
The fact is that LeToux has produced for the Union, which is more than I can say for Adu, Cruz, Martinez, Hoppenot, McInerney and Hoffman. Heck Seba has probably produced more than all those players combined.
Stats don’t lie.
2011 year Seba only had .32 goals per 90 mins…
2010 year seba had .5 goals per 90 mins… That was his best year.
This year? Hopp and Mac had .44 goals per 90 mins each.
Mac had .77 in 2010 per 90 taking that year (and why we overestimate him)
Who had the best per 90 minute goal rate in 2011?
Carlos ruiz with .47
So…. well.. stats don’t lie right?
So McInerney’s
I think the fact that they had him calling season ticket holders today and sent out an email to former season ticket holders trumpeting his return validates my claim that this is (at least in part) about good PR.
Let’s try that again shall we?
So McInerney’s 8 goals in 25 appearances wasn’t getting the job done? Hoppenot’s 4 goals in 25 appearances (most of which were off of the bench) wasn’t getting the job done? Chandler Hoffman had no goals in 7 appearances – out of which he played for 204 minutes, Could he really have done better with what little time he had? Cruz had a goal and an assist in the 12 games he played in. Not great, but again I offer that’s basically what Le Toux did in 2011 before he broke his scoring drought in September. Dan’s stats are correct – we did well without Le Toux. Obviously not well enough, but look at our overall team in 2011. A rookie (for all intents and purposes) goalkeeper in MacMath. A revolving door at left back. A center back in Amobi who took time to adjust to his role. A jumble of midfielders who could never do what good midfields do – become greater than the sum of their parts. And a compete clusterf–k up top with Mwanga and Pajoy and Jack Mac and Hopp and Hoffman. By the end of the year, MacMath had gained experience that will serve him and us well going forward. We found that Lopez was NOT the answer at LB, and used Garfan to fill in (which he did a serviceable job at). Amobi learned how to play CB and gelled very well with the back line. Our midfield got sorted out to a decent lineup of Carroll at CDM, Lahoud as a true mid, Cruz and Marfan on the wings, and Adu at CAM with Torres and Gomez being serviceable subs. And up front we had McInerney alone with Hopp being our super sub. It wasn’t great, but to me at least it served as a platform on which to improve next year. I thought we could get another CB (which we did) to move Amobi to CDM and let Carroll play a bench role. Cruz and Marfan on the wings, Adu at CAM, and Mac paired up top with a strong power forward we could acquire. Instead, we’re back at square one, where we have to retool our entire philosophy around Le Toux, and with the personnel we have now I don’t think that’s possible. We still need a strong, physical presence up front. We still are going to have to sit someone or trade someone – and it’s not going to be Adu, it’ll be Cruz or Torres or Jack Mac and then no one will be happy.
And yeah, the way he left in the beginning of the year was shitty. There’s no two ways about it. Both he and the FO acted in ways I thought were irresponsible and childish, and I’m glad he could patch things up with the FO. But sports is a business, and bringing back a player because it’s a feel-good story is bad business. Aside from heart and hustle (which most of our other forwards have plenty of) he really doesn’t offer anything. It’s a bad piece of business bringing him back.
I think the fact that they had him calling season ticket holders today and sent out an email to former season ticket holders trumpeting his return validates my claim that this is (at least in part) about good PR.
To add to matters, we have Seba back at 200k this year instead of his desired 400k. Compared to the end of the season when every player barring Jack and Sheanon had checked out, it will be nice to have someone on the team who cares more about the club and fans than collecting his paycheck. However, I agree that Seba isn’t the instant fix that will make us a playoff team, but he is a great role player to have. Considering we fulfilled one of your needs through Parke and a target man is likely in Armani, I think we should wait until more signings are made before judging this move.
Also, you really exaggerate on this team’s speed. Jack is slow but good at finding space. Hopp can only run fast and draw fouls. Cruz can run fast, try hard, and trip over the ball. We haven’t seen enough to judge Hoff, but he doesn’t strike me as a speedy guy. I think we need more speed, as we don’t have a fast and skillful winger. Unless Marfan and Cruz are practicing their Fusion Dance, we lack a true wide threat.
I believe Hack said he is looking more at a 4-1-3-2, which would provide spots for Jack, Seba, Cruz, Adu, and Marfan.
Where did you get your numbers? MLS numbers haven’t come out for 2013 yet I don’t think. If they have and we got him for $200K or more per year I think we overpaid.
About him caring about the club and fans – I’m 35, out of shape, have awful first touch, bad shot placement, bad decision making, but I love the hell out of the Union and am (or at least before all of this was haha) friends with a lot of the fans. Should the Union sign me up? By your logic, yes. But even I’d get pissed at the club if they signed me haha.
I think the Parke move was a good one and hope Armani is as good as touted. But we don’t have him now, and if we bring him in, who sits? Will you be willing to relegate Jack Mac back to the bench?
And in your 4-1-3-2, you’re sitting Amobi, Roger, Mike Lahoud… See what I’m getting at? The more we add, the more of a mess it becomes. And we haven’t even touched on the limit of players a team can have. We currently have 24 – max roster is 28. We can only add 4 more before we have to start getting rid of people. Who goes? Promising young guys like Greg Jordan and Jimmy McLaughlin? Serviceable guys like Mike Lahoud and Keon Daniel? Really good players like Roger Torres and Ray Gaddis?
Jack – Seba
Garfan – Adu – Marfan
Okugo
Ray – Bakary – Carlos – Sheanon
So you are saying a lineup like this wouldn’t be able to score goals? Jack is a CF in spite of his size. He occupies center backs, holds up play and finishes in the air. Seba would be running off Jack from the right all day. With Jack no longer being on an island up top he can now press farther up the pitch occupying both center backs and leaving ample space for Le Toux to run/exploit. That is before you even get to the flying Farfans now running at an over matched defense or the width provided by Ray and Sheanon bombing down the flanks. And what of Okugo’s ability to deliver fine balls over the top? With a lineup like this the Union can maximize their talent. Not to mention both Seba and Jack are both pretty adept at laying the ball off to runners in space. To consider the acquisition of Seba in terms of last season’s failed personnel groupings is folly, our strategy will be different next term.
For the money, for the love and for the sake of The Union Seba is our man. Ad Finem Fidelis.
Is Eugene Lupinski Peter Nowak’s pen name??? My goodness Eugene, you’ve got so much wrong in this post. First, to call Josue Martinez’s 2012 season OK is quite the embellishment. Much like the other 2012 Latin American imports, this guy was a bust. He was out-scored and out-played by a supplemental draft pick from Princeton. The Pink Cows don’t play their young players. Martinez will see fewer minutes in 2013 than he did in 2012.
I’m not sure what kind of grudge you have against Sebastien Le Toux, but when over you can bring a player in the makes you not only a better team, but also lifts the fanbase from it’s post 2012 malaise, I say the Union made out quite well in this deal.
I am not sure if thats his pen name or not but Eugene RUPINSKI never said anything bad about Seba. He questioned the reacquisition of a player we may not need to replace a player who by all accounts has the same attributes. Agreed he did not get much chance to show them off this season and its anyone guess if he can actually perform to an adequate level in this environment. But it seems like they spent cash for a like for like replacement.
No question Sebe means alot to this fanbase, and happy players perform at a higher level, so lets hope this holds true this time as well.
Questioning whether this was a PR or sporting move is a valid question. Also leaving Cooper with NY as opposed to forcing a scenario where you both get what you want AND leave the other team weaker is something this FO has not been very good at either preventing or bringing about.
We have and will always wish both Seba and the team the greatest success, but that does not preclude having opinions or feelings contrary to the deal.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Thank you for your response. As I sit here and read Eugene’s dribble and apparent complete lack of knowledge, I could only wonder the same thing…is this Nowak? Who else could possibly rationalize this garbage?
Eugene if you where just trying to piss people off or invoke response well you’ve succeeded, if you had any other intentions, you failed miserably.
Please feel free to share with us where he has shown a “lack of knowledge”, I am intrigued. Perhaps you could fill in the gaps for us here?
Dan, I think it’s unfair to reference the change in Le Toux’s goal production from 2010 to 2011 without also referencing the fact that he played mid for half of 2011. Of course his goal production dropped. If you want to compare Le Toux and JMac, we should only look at the games where they are playing striker, don’t you think?
Also, where is it written that we “need” a tall target forward? I respectfully assert that you make an error assuming Le Toux will be unsuccessful because he doesn’t fit the mold of what you think will need. What really we NEED are goals. Period. If a striker delivers those, does his height, weight, or hair color really matter?
you state that Le Toux was never an All Star but he was in 2010.