Goodbye Psycho: Rajko Lekic Has Signed In Denmark
by Steve Stoehr on Jan 30, 2012 3:55 PM EST
in Revolution Transfer News
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As the New England Revolution's search for quality and stability at striker continues, a significant horse in this offseason's race has bowed out of the running. Reports in Denmark have surfaced and indicate that Rajko Lekic has agreed to terms with relegation-threatened Superliga side Lyngby BK. Apparently he's being hailed as a "savior" and saddled with the expectation of bringing the club out of the basement.
Errant comments from Revs camp have been floating around for months concerning Rajko's contract status. Early in the offseason, Lekic himself told Danish website mja.dk that he wanted to stay in Boston and expected to take a pay cut. Then, however, he was apparently offered an unsatisfactory deal and began looking elsewhere for employment. The striker cited the lack of guarantees in the contract as a sticking point for him (reported by L.E. Eisenmenger in the Examiner), and at that moment I don't think anyone shared any optimism that Rajko would be returning to Foxboro this season.
The knee-jerk reaction here is to be angry. However, upon further analysis, this move makes sense for all parties. Lekic's production last season was worth nowhere near the $275,000 his yearly salary would have paid him. He did mention that he'd take a pay cut, but realistically, how big of a cut would have been acceptable? $200,000 for a proven ten-goal scorer might be acceptable, but gambling that much on a guy who put away only six last season (and killed dozens of attacks by literally living in an offside position) would be objectionable at best. Anything lower than that and Lekic would presumably have balked at the total.
Rajko's major issue, though, was with the fact that his contract would only be semi-guaranteed. This means that the Revs would have been free to cut him any time between January 1st and July 1st. The Dane contended that with a family that he had relocated to America hanging in the balance, he couldn't gamble on the possibility that the club could leave him in a lurch come spring time. Frankly, this is a good move on his part. Semi-guaranteed contracts have been a normal practice in MLS since its inception, but nowadays it seems almost disrespectful to sign a guy with Lekic's pedigree to that kind of deal.
Again, the Revs probably made the best move they could in this situation, given all of the facts. Still, it leaves the team with even fewer prospects and options at striker. Jay Heaps recently alluded to the fact that he is in talks with two forwards, but is anyone optimistic about what that will bring? Not to be a dark cloud, here, but the season is just two months away. Preseason is already in full swing, and the Revs are still cruising at 70% - 75% roster capacity, and only three of those guys are forwards in any sense.
Other teams seem to be able to just get these things done. It would be nice if, for a change, we could see the Revs actually getting it done, too.
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This one hurts. The Caraglio one was bad, but Rajko seemed to want to play with the team. I try to stay positive about things that I may not have full access too (ie contract negotiations), but this one stinks. We now have only 2 players who were listed solely as FWs from last year’s roster remaining with the club (Guy and Schilawski) and while Guy may turn into something, Lekic was looking to be legit.
Good luck to Rajko in Denmark. Still really wish he was suiting up for the Revs.
by Abram Chamberlain on Jan 30, 2012 4:07 PM EST reply actions
And Guy isn't actually a forward
He’s a winger, in the traditional sense. Schilawski is the only true striker under contract.
Founder and Editor of The Bent Musket on SBNation.
Twitter: @Stoehrst or @TheBentMusket
by Steve Stoehr on Jan 30, 2012 4:24 PM EST up reply actions
This Hurts ......
I had hopes they would find a way. Give him a guaranteed contract with a lower base but with high incentives or something. Just bring him back.
I thought Lekic wanted to stay but he has to think about his family. He does not have many years left to earn athlete money.
This bums me a great deal.
Here we are in camp with the season starting on March 10th or 40 days from now and we have no bona fide MLS strikers on the roster. The only forward is Schilawski and he is not MLS level. He is college level but cannot not score at the MLS level. That does not make him a bad person. That just mean that he should not be on the roster.
I wonder how can we have any expectations other than bottom of the league with no MLS level striker? How we honestly believe we can compete when we have no natural striker? Will we put someone out of position (as when Nicol put Shalrie in front) and lose the skills that player has at the position? This is sad news.
I also want to caution against saying that Lekic was not worth his money. As we have seen even with successful DP, for the majority, it takes 3 to 6 months with the team to get their strides if they are going to work out. I felt that in September/October, when he came back from injury, he started to play really well.
So if the season would start tomorrow, we would be striker less. Wonderful!
The Revs should rename themselves “The Greatest MLS Swindle” (with all excuse to Malcolm McLaren)
If they start the season with the current roster (and please let’s NOT do that), they would be a laughing joke!
Good luck getting buzz or getting media time or getting into the NE sport scene psyche with a Superbowl and having the Bs and the Cs getting ready for the playoffs.
Please, someone prove me wrong …….
They’re not trying to get media time. They’re not trying to be part of the conversation. They get their bare-bones operating budget at the beginning of the year and orders not to spend a farthing more, which is why advertising is always piecemeal and scattershot and their insane hard line attitude when it comes to player contracts. They define penny-wise and pound-foolish. The entire operation is a minor league sideshow, something to bring the kids to and have a beer. It’s not run like something on the level of the other Boston teams.
The worst part
There’s no incentive for them NOT to spend the money on salaries. Owners don’t make back the money they don’t spend on their salary caps – it’s all league money. So doing stuff like hoarding allocation money or signing only cut-price salaries benefits nobody.
I don’t think that was the impetus here, but it’s still disappointing to see these things happen.
Founder and Editor of The Bent Musket on SBNation.
Twitter: @Stoehrst or @TheBentMusket
by Steve Stoehr on Jan 31, 2012 8:49 AM EST up reply actions
Then why?
If they do not benefit from staying under the cap, why are they so tough on contract negociation? If they cannot keep the money they don’t spend, why do they? Do the league (Which is the one saving the money) pay a dividend at the end of the season?
I believe there must be a logic why they are doing this. I just do not see it.
I have
No idea.
Founder and Editor of The Bent Musket on SBNation.
Twitter: @Stoehrst or @TheBentMusket
by Steve Stoehr on Jan 31, 2012 12:24 PM EST up reply actions
Considering
I have no idea what “allocation money” exactly is, I believe “hoarding it” may be a sign the Revs will be paying a transfer fee(s) for some striker(s) or trading it or something. However, they should’ve paid the Caraglio fee with some of this money and didn’t so yeah, I’m confused as well. I also think the salary cap needs changing, but that’s a different debate!
Allocation money
Is general funds that can be used to buy down cap hits (be it salary or fees), trade for players and picks, or basically do anything else except pay a DP salary that is over the $335k limit (you can buy down the $335 cap hit, though). It’s the league’s way of making sure that big-market rich-owner teams don’t have more money to play with than the small-market poor-owner teams.
Founder and Editor of The Bent Musket on SBNation.
Twitter: @Stoehrst or @TheBentMusket
by Steve Stoehr on Jan 31, 2012 4:09 PM EST up reply actions
Face facts
The Krafts and the Revs management do not care about the fans or putting a quality product on the field. The care about keeping expenses low.
What doesn't make sense
Is that signing Rajko doesn’t increase expenses. Like, at all. It’s all league money they get to play with, and if anything, they’re penalized for not using it.
Founder and Editor of The Bent Musket on SBNation.
Twitter: @Stoehrst or @TheBentMusket
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