The worst signing of the MLS season (that you probably never heard of)

With the 2008 MLS season at its midway point it is a good time to consider the signings MLS teams made last pre-season and how they have done so far. Before we get to that this weekend, I wanted to point to one signing that may be the bust of the year, but a bust you haven't heard much about.

His name is Rafael Gomes and few people outside of Colorado know who he is because he didn't exactly make an impressing during his time with the Rapids. The Brazilian midfielder, and one-time Brazilian Under-20 player, played in seven matches, and a grand total of 282 minutes, before being waived last week. Aside from looking like the lost Wayan brother (or a Soul-Glo model), Gomes was a pretty bad player.

So what makes him the worst signing of the current season?

Along with his $120,000 salary, Gomes also cost the Rapids a good-sized transfer fee. Sources put the fee at a low six figures, with one source stating Gomes cost Colorado $250,000. That's a pretty steep price for 288 minutes of action and one assist.

That transfer fee might not seem like much, but for a franchise notorious for being cheap, it was one of the Rapids biggest moves in recent years. Even with that, Gomes' signing received little coverage and his departure on waivers last week barely registered a blip in the media.

I will do a breakdown of the league's off-season signings for the weekend, but for now I want to hear from you on who you think have been the worst signings of the past MLS pre-season so far. Franco Niell? Jose Carvallo? Gonzalo Peralta? Oscar Echeverry? Alviro Pires? Peguero Jean-Philippe?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[EdTheRed]

Gonzalo MARTINEZ? What-what-whaaaaaat?!

PLEASE tell me you've got your Gonzalos confused! Martinez has been excellent. Peralta has been a bit shaky, but I wouldn't call him a "bust". Niell, on the other hand...

[Dancy]

I also hope you meant Gonzalo Peralta, not Gonzalo Martinez. Martinez has knocked Marc Burch out of a starting spot and looked great going forward. Peralta on the other hand has been a little shaky and at fault for a few soft goals.

[Ives]

I meant Peralta Ed, I always mix those two up.

[Christopher]

Celestine Babayaro by the LA Galaxy. What the heck was that all about?

[Dominghosa]

Oh to be young, Brazilian with two working legs.....

[John]

I think we should still go back to last year and say Xavier. He has been so bad that he should be part of the list this year since he's still in the league. How bad must Greg Vanney be to be on the bench.

[EdTheRed]

*whew*

[MetroFlip73]

Oscar Echeverry

And dating back from last yr, Claudio Reyna.

[Tim Crawford]

I think Pires has looked good at times . . . maybe Rafael Wicky? Frankowski? Niell's gotta be the winner though do to plenty of playing time with minimal results.

[SCNewJersey]

Claudio Reyna.. oh wait, that was last year? Has he played for us yet?

[guillemo]

A six figure transfer fee?

No wonder people in Colorado want to strangle Clavijo.

[Ives]

Keep it to this year folks. If we include last year that's a whole other conversation.

[MZ]

Franco Niell is the big time winner
I love DC and i thought we would be unstoppable with Niell Moreno and Emilio but Niell was god awful
Were still gonna win the championship but it was the worst of the year. We payed him 120,000 dollars, what a waste

[Sandro]

Celestine Babayaro has got to be the worst signing this year.

[FatimaTheGreat]

And the winner is.........FRANEK FRANKOWSKI!
This joker is pulling down over $200k and is absolutely worthless. Anyone who is "Polish" attracts big interests from the Fire Faithfull. Just go on their discussion board and throw out the name, Det. Stan 'Wojo' Wojciehowicz as a possible new Fire signing and watch Section 8 get their panties wet ("he's got size and is a team player")

[TFC]

Laurent Robert, while playing regularly, has been pretty much useless. Sure he's got class and a killer left foot, but god forbid he actually win a ball. He doesn't run and he doesn't seem to care.

[Chase]

I didn't think that the Galaxy ever signed Babayaro?? I thought it was just some rumor that surfaced in the English press that never actually happened...

That said, outside of this guy on the Rapids, I'd say Niell was the worst off-season move by an MLS team.

Ives, you going to do a topic for the best signing?

[frank from sf]

ives, you gotta be kidding w/ g. peralta, sure he hasn't been lights out but defenitley better than anything rbny has in the back. are you slamming dc , 'cause of the rivalry between your club and dc? neill i give you that much, although i believe fatima is the winner!!

[m]

Fatimathesomethingorother--

What are you basing your vote on Franek on? Polish doesn't need to be in quotes, BTW. And why waste your time talking about the fans? This discussion is about the players.

[nickmustgo]

Juan Carlos Osorio by far.

[Ives]

Frank, the Red Bulls are not my club so give it up already with that.

I was asking the question. If the answer is no then it's no. Peralta was terrible the first two months of the season. Just because there's a big love-fest now that D.C. is winning doesn't suddenly erase that fact.

No, he wouldn't win a worst-signing contest now but don't act like he wasn't a candidate as recently as a month ago.

[UVAUnited]

#1 bust Denilson

[UVAUnited]

#1 bust Denilson

[TK]

Laurent Robert, while playing regularly, has been pretty much useless. Sure he's got class and a killer left foot, but god forbid he actually win a ball. He doesn't run and he doesn't seem to care.

End Quote

You realize that every team he has ever played on has said this about him. Right?
Still was an upgrade for you guys overall.

I forgot about Babayaro. Eek. Gomes. Eek. Xavier looks cool and is giving Franklin lots of practice.

Hmm, so Claudio gets a pass because last year he was merely a completely average MLS player overall for 1.6 mill, and this year he is non existent at 1.6 mill? You will do anything to protect him...won't you Ives. He clearly blows anyone out of the water this year for money/cap space spent. I ain't ignoring that. Nor should anyone else. At least Dallas was able to waive freaking Denilson. We are stuck with little things.

[TK]

Laurent Robert, while playing regularly, has been pretty much useless. Sure he's got class and a killer left foot, but god forbid he actually win a ball. He doesn't run and he doesn't seem to care.

End Quote

You realize that every team he has ever played on has said this about him. Right?
Still was an upgrade for you guys overall.

I forgot about Babayaro. Eek. Gomes. Eek. Xavier looks cool and is giving Franklin lots of practice.

Hmm, so Claudio gets a pass because last year he was merely a completely average MLS player overall for 1.6 mill, and this year he is non existent at 1.6 mill? You will do anything to protect him...won't you Ives. He clearly blows anyone out of the water this year for money/cap space spent. I ain't ignoring that. Nor should anyone else. At least Dallas was able to waive freaking Denilson. We are stuck with little things.

[Al17]

Please don't lump all Fire fans with Section 8. It's offensive to many of us that support the club but not blindly.

Rolls eyes

[Ives]

TK, the question was what was the worst signing of THIS season. What part of that is hard to understand?

[Tony in Quakeland]

when you consider that Peguero Jean Philippe cost us an allocation that turned out to be rights to Brian McBride...well, it's hard to beat that on any one's Crap List...

[Ives]

Guys, Babayaro never got to the season and was let go before making any money as far as I can tell so I'm not sure he can count since he didn't cost LA anything.

[RK]

You named 3 DCU players? How dare you! ;)

Niell by far was the worst signing for DCU.

[dabull]

FRANKOWSKI

It says something if you're getting paid $200k and you can't beat out Chad Barrett . . .

[Ossington Mental Youth]

Uh, id say that Robert has been doing fine, considering hes got 3 assists and 1 goal in 13 games which differs very little from the 20 year old wingers on chicago, columbus and new england. Hes looked listless because hes had to try and feed balls to Cunny who has been quite useless this season. Robert has never been a defending player as a result his lack of running back shouldnt be a surprise to anyone. Hes part of a great midfield and a billion times better then anyone we had last year on the wings. Everyone will be back on his jock once he finds form again (its possible for players to lose it you know?!) adn starts getting assists and shots on net.

[Ives]

Good one Tony

[RK]

This list, ordered by years of MLS experience, may help:

http://web.mlsnet.com/players/roster.jsp?club=mls&sort=exp&order=asc

[Kevin]

I second that one Tony in Quakeland.

[RK]

Raphael Wicky had played a whopping 5 games.

[TK]

He is signed for this season and his contract is guaranteed. Thus, he counts for this season.

I know it's splitting hairs but it's impossible to leave him off IMO. It has been that bad of a signing. If he was a foreigner he would be mocked and ridiculed to death.

One of the worst signings in league history can not be ignored, even over split hairs.

[Landis]

While not the worst, I'd consider Gino Padula from the Crew in the top 10. He looked good in his 246 minutes (3 starts), but there has been one injury after another since. His salary is $120K/$145K.

[Landis]

I'd have to mention Ivan Trujillo and Franco Caraccio. These guys were supposed to come in and be 10+ scorers and have 1 & 2, respectively, and now are lucky to be subbed into the game.

[smorebs]

Ives,

Whats up with the "spam blocker" it wouldn't let me post.

[Joe]

Frankowski is a pretty bad signing. He is making way too much money and he doesnt draw any of the polish fans to Fire games. Sure he was a big hit when they played Wisla but none of those fans came back the next week. Hes slow has no touch anymore and a terrible shot. Hes just like Chad Barrett. I hope TFC wants Barrett in the deal for McBride

[Babywho?]

Babyaro did however go to Hawaii with the Galaxy for the Pan Pac Championship

[Dave]

Niell wasn't a "true" signing, since we had him on loan and sent him back before he collected all of his 150K salary. What puzzles me more is why the DCU Braintrust thought he'd be any good in the first place. He is smaller than Freddy Adu was at 14, gets muscled off any ball that comes near him, and for a "striker," had a very unimpressive record in Argentina (I forget the details, but recall discussing his record with friends at the time).

[EInar]

it has to be Niell not Padula cuz he is injured not peguero cuz he is injured and frankowski was scoring before getting injured. Trujillo is scoring a lot of goals in the US Open Cup by the way. Babayaro would of been way better than the other players people r mentioning here.

[Tim Crawford]

Yeah, I still like the way Caraccio looks . . . I think he'll figure things out eventually. If we're gonna attack him, we've gotta attack my Revs signing Argenis Fernandez, giving him one appearance, and now sending him out on loan. However, I'm not really disappointed since he's young and there just isn't room right now (and it's a good club to go on loan to).

[Haig]

"'cause of the rivalry between your club and dc?"

Some of you are dumb as a box of rocks. Ives may have been on the RBNY beat while reporting for the Herald News, but there wasn't a reporter out there who was harder on the team's play and management than he was. And if I recall correctly, a couple players and even some folks in the front office were not cordial or even professional in their dealings with Ives because he was unsparing in his criticism. I haven't agreed with his analysis some of the time, but to accuse him of favoring a team-- particularly Metro/RBNY-- is demented.

[socceraddict]

Niell was horrible this season for being such a high paid reserve. His size was a definite disadvantage and did not make it up with tenacity or passion.
Caraccio never seemed to gel with his team and his touched failed him on several occasions. Houston's brass wishes that they could have gone back in time and kept either Jacqua or Ngwenya.

Considering the Wizards paid DP money to Claudia Lopez, CL has underperformed and at the beginning of the season looked like an upgrade over Eddie Johnson. On goals and contract alone, EJ has outperformed CL in a Wizards uniform. Now, Wolff is entering the team to attempt to better the Wizards' lack of offensive capabilities.

What seems interesting to me is that most of the MLS teams follow trends. For example, the South American trend to aquire players who have the creative flair generating more offensive potency started with the additions of Toja, Angel, Blanco, Schellotto, and Emilio, . On the whole, the second year of the strategy has not worked very well. Maybe MLS teams should take a page out of the New England Patriots......oops I mean Revolution... and work towards player development and scouting. THe Revs have 3 solid players from Africa, and their young talent has plugged in well during an injury plagued season and offseason departures. The Revs are in 1st place with a make-shift team of unknown commodities, savy veterans, and young American players. Steve Nichol is a great coach and developer of his player pool. By the way, I am not a Revs supporter, but I admire their efficient organization.

It would nice to see more parity in the salary between the DP's and players. The scouting and development should search in other regions such as Africa, Asia(would be dificult to compete economically/contractually), and less heralded South American countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru.

[My name is Bill W.]

Ives

Before the "jump" you promised an analysis of this year's pre-season signings after the "jump". I'm assuming the "jump" is the like I click to continue reading the post. No analysis followed. What's the "jump"?

Blogging under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances can get your blogging liscence revoked. Sober up before you get a reputation.

[John]

If someone is playing, they're at least contributing. So that takes the onus of CL, Robert and guys like that.

I think Babayero was the worst signing because he didn't even make the regular season. If the criteria is: at least made the team and then did squat, I'd go with Ives' original suggestion of Gomes. He costs a transfer fee and then on a team that could use more skill and offensive ability he contributes zilch. Frankowski would be a close second: that team is screaming out for a finisher, they paid him good money and they get nothing.

Niell underwhelmed but he was on loan and it's not like DC United is hurting for goals or offensive talent--he was always seen as a third forward to sub for Moreno. Claudio Lopez--he hasn't been Angel (but then, this year even Angel hasn't been Angel) but he's still a good player. Maybe not worth DP money but his lack of goals is more a function of the team he's on than a KC offensive machine creating great chances that Lopez fails on. Wicky would be a candidate for a list of 10 worst signings, especially given that he came to what should have been a good team and instead they've struggled.

[HomeyBoehme]

I agree with Tony in Quakeland:

"when you consider that Peguero Jean Philippe cost us an allocation that turned out to be rights to Brian McBride...well, it's hard to beat that on any one's Crap List..."

How in the world they allowed that guy to "pass" a physical is beyond me.

[Joel Sanderson]

I can't imagine all these people defending Peralta. DC has the second worst defense in the MLS. Somebody back there must be making mistakes. Did anyone watch Buddle's goal last week? I'm not saying he isn't salvagable, but he hasn't been good and is definitely overpaid. Luckily DC has Niell to take all the hate, since, well, he is way worse and not salvagable.

[Al17]

"...I'd consider Gino Padula from the Crew in the top 10..."

I don't feel sorry for Crew fans one bit on this one. Blame your coaching staff for this blunder. You were warned and hell any fool could have done basic search on the web to see that this guy was horrible.

[Aljarov]

I think any of the guys cut...Cordoba, Niell, Gomes have to be contenders.

I watched Gomes a fwe times, and must admit, I thought he looked okay. I don't think he's a bad player...I think this is just another case of proving how bad a manager Clavijho is. Colorado were deep at DM with Mastroeni, La Brocca and DiRaimondo (all on last year's squad). Kimura can play there too. They should never have signed him in the first place.

My guess is they thought Mastroeni was on his way out, as he was being shopped, and after he didn't leave it left them a glut of expensive Defensive mids...not ideal. Still, h showed some versatility playing DC for a game.

There's definitely been worse guys in MLS this year.

I think Frankowski's salary, or Tony Caig's performances actually warrant worse signing of the season.

SACK CLAVIJHO - now, for the love of God. (and I'm not even a Rapids fan...he's just a stain on this league and is as inept as they come).

[Steven]

John Doyle.

[Einar]

u guys should really look at stats before injury and I change my mind about frankowski he is terrible. Claudio Lopez is doing fine as a DP he is just a CAM right now and just needs to put the ball to somebody who can fnish and he can finish himself.

[Ives]

My mistake Bill W, I mean Tom the D.C. fan. A simple "Hey, where's the analysis" would have sufficed. I meant to write that analysis was coming this weekend, not after the jump.

Nice to have you back after two months off. Guess all those big D.C. wins woke you back up. What's that song? "Post when you're winning! You only post when you're winning!"

[joey]

The Rapids pull off the season's worst signing/transfer? What a shocker. First they give away their DP allocation, now the Gomes debacle. And you could also mention what they're paying Jovan Kirovski and Nico Colaluca to do nothing. I'd say the fans and the stadium and the players deserve better than what the Rapids organization and office are providing them.

[Chop]

In regards to the mix up between Peralta and Martinez, they are brothers after all! (that's a shot at that moron Caligiuri who actually said with all seriousness during the CONCACAF Cup matches about the two Gonzalo's - "they're not related")

For me it's a tie between Gomes and Niell. Niell was brought on to be a third striker that could spell Emilio and Moreno and he simply couldn't cut it. United played a different style than what he was used to in Argentina and it just didn't mesh. Lotta blame should go to the United front office for not seeing that from the beginning.

As for Gomes in Colorado.. Well, the fact that Clavijo is still gainfully employed should tell you all you need to know about that signing. Seriously, has anyone ever stolen more checks than Clavijo?

As for Peralta, he certainly took a lot of time to adjust to the style of play in MLS (not unexpected). Perhaps too much time, but he is playing much better and is gaining more and more comfortable as the days go by. He'll end up being a pretty decent defender in this league. For as many poor games he has had during the season, he has had just as many impressive games too. He played pretty damn well against Pachuca in both of those games and started off the MLS season with a few good games before tailing off a bit.

[arena futbol]

Assessing a "bust" must require a look at value, i.e., some form of comparison of performance to expectation, no? So, not just "he sucks," but "he sucks and we thought he was going to be good" or, easier to measure, "he sucks and we paid him as if he was good."

So, with that in mind, here are the salaries of the players mentioned in this thread as possible busts from this year's new signings (note: * = waived):

C. Lopez, KC: 820,000
L. Robert, TOR: 337,300
T. Frankowski, CHI: 214,250
R. Wicky, CHV: 210,00
G. Peralta, DC: 199,000
*F. Niell, DCU: 152,500
G. Padula, CLM: 145,000
F. Caraccio, HOU: 130,500
*R. Gomes, COL: 120,000
P. Jean-Philippe, SJ: 119,125
A. Pires, LAG: 110,775
*M. Cordoba, RSL: 100,000
O. Etcheverry, NYRB: 80,000
*E. Colombano KC: 70,750
*I. Trujillo, KC: 70,000
*A. Fernandez, NE: 52,000
J. Carvallo, DC: 49,250
C. Babayaro, LAG: ????

One thing that jumps out is that while a player like Claudio Lopez has not been as useless as a Rafael Gomes, his decent play also cost an extra $700,000 on top of the cost of Gomes.

Of course, these figures are only the guaranteed salary number from MLS union, not taking into account factors such as transfer fees or use of allocations which should also be considered, as pointed out in some of the above posts.

Just for comparison's sake, here are some salaries for a handful of players signed this year who have been decent to good -- not busts by any stretch -- but still might not represent a lot of value:

M. Gallardo, DC: 1,874,006
D. Davino, DAL: 400,000
R. Ricketts, TOR: 212,504
R. Corrales, SJ: 202,500
O. Tebily, TOR: 156,960
K. Duechar, RSL: 145,000
P. Nyarko, CHI: 135,000
E. Ekpo, CLM: 123,750
I. Joy, RSL: 120,000
L. Marmol, CHI: 109,750

[Nordy]

How can you hate the guy who gave us 1/3 of Gomez-to-Gomez-to-Gomes?

[Matt M]

Wow, tough one.

Last year was the year of the foreign signing - Fred, Emilio, Scheletto, Angel all were impact players. Even Beckham made a financial impact.

I think everyone got the impression that every new foreign signing was going to have the same impact. Remember when DC and KC were going to rule the league at the start of the season?

Everyone assumed that Lopez and Trujillo would score 40 goals between them. And everyone was coming in their pants at the thought of the 5, count them, 5 signings DC made. None of those seven players have made an impact.

Plenty of disappointments - Lopez, Trujillo, Gomes, Peralta, the Gonzolo brothers, Niell, Guerremo So, Franko, Carracio.

I have to say that Pequerro was the dumnest. Why on earth would you use an allocation on a guy that has been out for two years with an injury? And, while he was a good MLS player, he was hardly dominant to begin with.

Might be easier to ask who has succeeded in this year's foriegn singing crop -

Davino? He's been ok if not dominant. I still don't hear any stories about the 5000 additional Mexican fans that would swamp the stadium every time he sets foot ont he field.

Ricketts / Laurent in Toronto? Again, good (well fine at least) but not dominant.

Alvaro? Mediocre, not bad.

Castro? Looks good but little production.

Who the bleep has made an impact this year from the new foreign signings?

By all means, tell me.

[Matt M]

I think next year MLS teams will be more conservative in their signings. They obviously need to take greater care in selecting players. The salary cap can get mighting tight if you have a couple of foreign dregs on your roster.

On a similar subject, I have to think the players union will soon eliminate this "waiver" period of whatever you call it when teams can cut their dregs. If a team makes a dumb mistake, they should pay for it. Giving them an easy out leads to shoddy and lazy signing practices.

[Thom]

What has L.A. got out of the money tied up in Ruiz?

Are we doing this by money wasted or just lack of talent/contribution?

[Thom]

A. Pires, LAG: 110,775

When I watch him play it gives the false sense that if I just stuck it out a little longer I could of fooled someone to pay me too.

[Miguel]

So... What club is "your club" Ives?

[Metro-211-7]

I don't think Rafael Gomes is MUCH of a bust! Sorry, Ives!

If I am getting the righ individual, this Rafael Gomes played in 2006/07 for a team from the Portuguese 2nd Division (2.ª Divisão de Honra). The team is C.D. Santa Clara, from the Portuguese islands of Azores.

What can we expect from a 2nd division player, performance-wise, in MLS? Maybe they payed a lot for him but I don't know that!

Link: http://www.zerozero.eu/uk/jogador.php?edicao_id=0&epoca_id=136&id=28843
.

[Ives]

Metro, what a club pays for a player directly relates to his bust rating.

And Miguel, I don't have a "club". I'm a journalist and cover every team in MLS. I cover the Red Bulls more because I covered them for a decade on a newspaper beat, but I was never a fan and am not a fan.

[RapidsMan]

Gomes was only a bust, because our superior coach did not like that he did not speak english.

While he was in he controlled the defense and did it well.

However, from inside sources, he was pulled from the line up because Clavijo assumed since he did not speak english he could nt communicate well with the other players.

So, Clavijo being far superior in very aspect of life decided it was time to cut his losses.

Thanks Coach!

RapidsMan

[Liverpool_SC]

Oscar Etcheverry has been pretty terrible.

Franco Niell has been bad, but ultimately didn't cost DC much except time and <$100k, since it was a loan deal.

The Castro guy for the Revs looks good at times, but has had very little impact on the statsheet.

Kip Wells (although traded for) has been pretty miserable for DC. I think he has been (ultimately) worse than Peralta. Peralta has his moments, but the entire defense has really started shaping up for DC.