Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Simpson looking to rest, recover ... and make up for lost season
CHESTER » Jay Simpson hasn’t had the debut season in MLS that he would’ve wanted. That’s a truth the 28-year-old English striker doesn’t hide from, one attested by his solitary goal in four starts.
With two games left in the Philadelphia Union’s season, there might be a few silver linings to glean from a campaign that hasn’t met expectations. And perhaps the first is in the form of Simpson, in the unseasonable October heat, toiling away on mornings like Tuesday with a larger goal in mind.
“It’s frustrating. You want to be playing and you want to be in the team,” Simpson said. “You want more minutes, more opportunity to play. But it’s been a long year for me. I came from season to season, so it’s been a long year and a new league. I would’ve liked to have played more and gained more experience in the league to adjust. But I’ll be looking forward to next season.
“I’ve been trying to work hard in training, tying to work my way into the side, and it’s up to the manager who he decides to choose.”
Simpson, one of the Union’s two big offseason splashes at a salary cap hit of $465,000, has been relegated primarily to bench duty. He’s made just four starts in 21 appearances, scoring once in 471 minutes. While the return has underwhelmed, Simpson was brought over on a multi-year deal, so he’s taking a longer view on fitting into the Union puzzle.
His progress has been stunted by CJ Sapong’s success (career-high and franchise record-tying 14 goals to go with six assists) and a bruised lung incurred in the process of scoring his only goal in March against Toronto. Indeed it’s been a long slog for the former Leyton Orient man, who’s gone nonstop since late June 2016 when the O’s preseason started.
Simpson has also weathered the usual adjustments to MLS life — the physicality, the travel, the meteorological challenges — not to mention acclimating to new teammates and opponents while learning a new competitive format that drastically differs from anything Europe offers.
“I think (it’s tougher) when you play on the road and you play in different climates, like when we went to Salt Lake and it was really hard to breathe,” Simpson said. “You go to some places where it’s really hot. Obviously here it’s hot in the summer. The journeys as well; going out to the West takes a lot out of you.”
Some of the blame for Simpson’s lack of production can be laid at manager Jim Curtin and the way he’s deployed Simpson. A combined return of 15 goals from the center forward position isn’t bad, even if it’s mostly Sapong. But more than many managers in MLS, Curtin believes in consistency of team selection over squad rotation, which has reduced the chances Simpson has gotten. Then again, it hasn’t seemed to dampen Sapong’s freshness.
It’s some consolation to Simpson that Sapong has thrived, but the preference would be for an arrangement that allows both to flourish.
“When you’re scoring goals, you feel good. You always want to be out on the field,” Simpson said. “… When a striker’s scoring for the team, it’s good for the team. And if you’re not in the team, you’ve got to be patient and wait for your opportunity, and when it does come, you’ve got to do your best to try to take that opportunity.
“I think the teams that I’ve played in before, when you’ve played quite a few games like Saturday-Tuesday, sometimes there has a bit more rotation. Here, this is the way that they’ve decided to go and I’ve just got to keep my head down, keep working hard and wait to try and get myself into the team.”
When the Union signed the former Arsenal youth product out of England’s fourth tier, eyebrows were raised even before the salary was released. Simpson was optimistically cast as a latter day Bradley Wright-Phillips, the New York Red Bulls striker who underwhelmed at a big club (Manchester City) before rebounding in the lower leagues and washing up on American shores at age 28.
While the comparison isn’t perfect, with WrightPhillips arriving in the middle of the 2013 season, the numbers for their first seasons are frighteningly similar, short of the games played column:
Wright-Phillips: 7 appearances (4 starts), 1 goal, 1 assist, 12 shots (6 on target), 337 minutes.
Simpson: 21 appearances (4 starts), 1 goal, 0 assists, 12 shots (6 on target), 471 minutes.
After that rocky start, Wright-Phillips went on to tie an MLS record with 27 goals in 2014. He’s twice won MLS’ Golden Boot and has 85 goals in four seasons, one of the most prolific stretches in MLS history.
Forecasting Simpson to ascend to those heights would be excessively optimistic. But Year 1 struggles in MLS can be overcome. And with the final stretch of work this season, Simpson is positioning himself to prove that next year.
“For me personally, I’m looking forward to the break so I can have the chance to rest and recover,” he said. “It’s been a long year from me. I’ve been going from the end of June last year, so it’s been 18 months easy for me. I can put my feet up, try to get rid of some of the aches and pains and go into preseason feeling fresh, feeling ready to crack on next season.
“Obviously I’ve had a season in the league. I understand much more about the traveling, the climates, understand the teams we play against, the East and West Conference. So next year, I’m looking forward to it; trying to get myself up and running and I look forward to the challenge.”