By: Jim O’Leary (Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on The Philly Soccer Page).
David Accam is off to a tepid start with the Philadelphia Union.
That’s not fair. Tepid implies a certain degree of warmth.
Accam has been cold. Very cold. Zero touches in the box cold. No goals, no assists cold. And while he isn’t technically a Designated Player, the fact that the Union paid down his salary with TAM to fit him under the salary cap does make it reasonable to expect DP-level performance from him. They are after all paying him $820,000 dollars in one way or another.
The Union’s DP loanee Borek Dockal has also failed to impress. One goal and one assist is better, but still not good. Dockal is reported to be receiving more than $750,000 from the Union.
These are players who the Union have surrendered a significant amount of resources for, and they’re simply not delivering at the level the team needs.
Across the board, the Union are failing to meet many expectations, but this specific expectation, that the high-paid players will deliver, is especially problematic. We’ve seen this problem before.
Jay Simpson signed from the English third division, prompting comparisons to New York Red Bull’s Bradley Wright-Phillips. While BWP has become a standout player for the league, Jay Simpson has failed to impress. Granted, he hasn’t been given tremendous opportunity to succeed, as his play style in no way matches the game played by the Union. In fact, it almost seems like the Union is a bad signing for Simpson more than Simpson was a bad signing for the Union. But either way, he’s paid over $500,000 a year to contribute next to nothing.
It’s not Maurice Edu’s fault. The much-touted USMNT player, coming off a successful career in Europe, looked to be a great addition to the Union in 2014. And for the first two years he was a tremendous asset to the team, stepping up to the challenge of playing out of position and doing a spectacular job of it. But then the injuries happened, leading to him not making a single appearance for the Union (and just six for Bethlehem Steel FC) in 2016 and 2017. The Union paid him over $818,000 in 2017.
Most people liked Fernando Aristeguieta, and the Venezuelan seemed to like Philadelphia too. But a habit of getting injured, paired with an honestly enjoyable smash mouth style of soccer, meant he never actually scored in a game the Union won. He collected a Young DP salary of $350,000 for his services, before returning to Nantes when the Union declined their option to sign the loanee permanently.
Raïs M’Bolhi has become something of a bogeyman for a certain segment of Union fans. Signed after a standout performance at “a little tournament in Brazil,” the Algerian keeper supplanted both Zac MacMath and Andre Blake to become the Union’s number one keeper. Despite what seemed to be a positive first impression of the city, M’Bolhi quickly fell out of love with Philadelphia and very quickly found his way out of the starting spot. Transfermarkt.com estimated he was worth almost $600,000 at the time.
Those are just the big names. There’s also guys like Anderson, Charlie Davies, and Kleberson. The Union have a track record of spending resources (be it trades, draft picks, MLS funny money, or actual cash) on players that never actually prove themselves to be worth it.
This isn’t the act of a “cheap” team. “Cheap” is Montreal spending $1.5 million dollars less than the Union last yearand still finishing just three points behind them. In fact, the Union spent more than half of the teams that finished above them in the Eastern conference.
So the problem isn’t, and never has been, that the Union are “cheap.” They spend money. Not like Toronto or Atlanta spend money, but enough that we can’t point to finances as being the reason why this team continually fails to be competitive in MLS play.
If anything, the problem is how they spend that money.
Using Jay Simpson as an example, he simply has no business playing on this team. When news of his acquisition surfaced, conversations with Leyton Orient fans always featured a common refrain: “If he gets service, he scores a lot of goals.” But the Union’s style has never been one for service. Successful Union strikers Sebastien Le Toux, Conor Casey, and C.J. Sapong all have one thing in common: They put a lot of work into getting their goals. They all did it different ways, but their success was not reliant on service. With this information readily apparent to people who only view the game recreationally, the Union signed Jay Simpson anyway.
If we keep blaming this team’s unimpressive performance on being cheap, we’re missing the real problem. The front office, reliably, fails to be smart about how it spends what resources it does have. Some day they’re going to sell a Homegrown Player and make a tidy profit. But there’s no reason to believe the proceeds of that sale will make one lick of difference in improving the team’s fortunes.
So please, don’t call the Union cheap. Not only does that fail to accurately describe the problem, but it also keeps pressure off the people who made, and continue to make, these mistakes. It’s a problem that extends beyond the purview of head coach Jim Curtin, and likely even reaches past sporting director Earnie Stewart. This is a systemic problem of the entire organization. It predates both Curtin and Stewart’s tenure, and if nothing is done to address it, this problem will persist long after they are gone.
Note: All salary numbers via the MLS Players Association unless otherwise noted.
Philadelphia Union
