Shea may stay, but Caps clear way
Club makes move to facilitate big signing, but don’t get too excited
You get what you pay for.
And that’s been the biggest gripe from Vancouver Whitecaps fans, who have watched their team keep the purse strings tighter than Scrooge, avoiding big-name — and big-ticket — players, opting instead to build a cohesive unit on a budget.
Don’t expect that philosophy to change in 2018. Carl Robinson and Co. won’t be opening up the wallet to make a splash in the transfer window, which officially opened Wednesday and doesn’t close until May 1.
“We’re always looking at trying to try and bring players in to strengthen the group, whether they’re DPs (Designated Players), or TAM (Targeted Allocation Money) or cap players. That’s an ongoing process,” Robinson said on TSN 1040 while in Hawaii for the team’s pre-season exhibition schedule.
“We have a really, really good squad. Competitive squad. I want to add maybe one or two more possibly, and there might be one or two going out. But I want to evaluate the squad a little bit more before I do that.”
There have been plenty of additions — and subtractions — to the roster, all of which have been reported and analyzed at length. Mexican international Efrain Juarez, airborne striker Kei Kamara and Canadian defender and Premier League refugee Doneil Henry have been lauded as key additions to a team that made the conference semifinals last season.
Gone are fan favourites Christian Bolanos, Jordan Harvey and David Ousted, deemed expendable by being too old or too expensive.
And the loss of those popular players was particularly stinging to the fan base because of one the Whitecaps kept : Brek Shea.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound forward/winger was the third-highest paid player on the roster last year, behind Fredy Montero and Matias Laba, both of whom have moved on from the club. He scored five goals — two of which, it should be noted, were game-winners — and had two assists in the regular season, and two assists in the post-season.
That seems a low return for the money, especially for a Designated Player, and looking around the league at teams like the L.A. Galaxy, who have three DPs and are looking to add Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the mix, it’s understandable why there is some dissent among the Southsiders’ fan base.
Two things were revealed, however, in Robinson’s interview Tuesday. One, Shea was injured for much of last year. And two, he won’t be a DP this season.
By shuffling allocated money around, they clear up a DP spot and clear the runways to spend more on a new signing — possibly French winger Yohan Mollo or even long shot Jordan Mutch, who has played the last four seasons with Crystal Palace.
“Brek was unfortunate last year. He scored five goals and got a number of assists and some key goals, game-winning goals in certain away games, but he was injured,” said Robinson.
He was injured in a Champions League game in March, 2017.
“There’s numerous ways to skin a cat … and how you want to use your money, where you want to use your money and why you want to use your money. We just have to look at the best, most efficient use of the money we have available.”
The silly season may have begun, but don’t expect the Whitecaps to be big spenders.