Real Salt Lake has 6 players eligible for the Major League Soccer Re-Entry draft

He is at the end of his current deal, most MLS deals are multiple years with various amounts of options. I think for RSL they are simply looking at their goal of winning the Champions League in the 2012/13 cycle and qualifying for the Club World Cup, so as they put together their roster they are looking at the next 18-24 months and how they build a team that won’t just compete but can win the CCL.

I think RSL wants to keep Andy with them and I think Andy wants to stay, I think RSL is dealing with a 34 yr old player and wondering how many more years can he go? Reality is that I think Andy has been better the last two years than he has been in a long time, I thought he looked good all season long, can he keep that up for two more years? There is also going to be the question of salary, Andy made just under 100K according to the players union last year and would get a 5-12% raise under the similar terms.

I am not sure that RSL can keep both Andy at over 100K and Ned at over 100K, with the rest of our midfield all making more (Javi- $425K, Kyle $231K, Will$225K), then add in that while we aren’t paying Luis Gil’s salary ($185K) this year we probably will be next year.

I have to believe that RSL is probably asking Andy to take a bit less money feeling that his role will probably decrease over the next couple of years, but I think Andy has to be thinking that he has done everything and more than what the club has asked of him and wants a better deal. We did clear some money with the Russell trade and will clear more by not taking the option on Arturo Alvarez, but we will need to get another outside back for sure as well as possible upgrades/backups for other positions. Things like having to pay Orlando City FC to purchase Yordany Alvarez (a move I hope we make) also impact the decisions that are being made.

It is my hope that RSL find a way to keep Andy here, not only to finish his playing career but I would love to see him a part of the RSL front office one day. I think he would be a brilliant choice to lead RSL’s community outreach programs.

I think those issues are a small part, to me it seems more likely that it is about loan terms (he was on loan to get experience & draw offers) and the fact that he occupied an international slot. I think he has a ton of potential, but he has to want to play professional soccer more than anything else in life to make it happen.

I compare what we have seen from Fabi after he came back to what we saw from Nelson the last two years, one showed that it meant everything to him and one didn’t. One is going to be here next year and one isn’t.

People make choices, I hope that for Nelson the future holds whatever he wants from life, but he has to know that he has to fight for it each and every day, there are very few free rides in life.

All of our guys stay but that isn’t a reality. RSL stretched this time last year to fit everyone under the cap, it used all the allocation money they got for making the knockout rounds of Champions League to do so. This year they are paying the price for that, one thing RSL fans haven’t seen is big time turnover in our roster since 2009, we lost Yura and Robbie but the majority of the team has remained for over two years now and that is something very hard to do in MLS, with the salary cap and the new CBA rules.

This year it is going to be impossible as the team looks to build for another run at winning the Champions League, we also have to remember that we are a small market team that doesn’t have a TV deal where we get paid, but instead we have to pay to put matches on TV for the fans, we also have great owners but they don’t have the deep pockets of the Hunts, Krafts, AEG, or Red Bull so the budget it a tough thing that has to be dealt with.

I hope that a deal gets done with Andy but I don’t expect one with the other guys eligible for the re-entry process, unless they go untaken are willing to really try to work a deal with RSL to be part of the team. I think all of them would love to stay here, we have a great stadium, great fans, but the reality is that it is a business and it is their job and sometimes you change jobs in order to progress in life and your career.

it is very likely that his option year isn’t at league minimum, and if that 50K is the difference between resigning Fabi or not, which do you go with. I know it seems like this shouldn’t be a big deal but while we don’t have big name DP’s we have a lot of guys who have good salaries that eat up cap room quickly.

as the players wanting some type of free agency during the CBA talks, with the reality of MLS being a single entity there is no way a pure free agency would work, so they came up with an option that would allow both players and teams to have some better options than the old system.

MLS most often signs players to 4 yr contracts, which is really a 2 yr deal with two option years. So you get two situations, one is where a player has reached the end of their current contract and one where the team has decided for whatever reason to not renew the option. Before those players just landed in a limbo, the team would still own their rights even if they didn’t play for them, so it was very hard for them to move from team to team in MLS.

This deal allows the players to put themselves in the re-entry draft, the first one is where teams have to work within the player’s current or most recent contract to come up with a fair deal for them. This one simply allows players who might want to move on for more playing time, or to be with a different team a chance to do that without having to lose their current salary. The second draft is where teams choose players and they enter into new contract talks, so a player like Arturo Alvarez who makes over $210K a year probably won’t be taken in the first draft, but a team who thinks they can sign him for $125K might take him in the second one.

Any player on that list that isn’t taken in the drafts becomes a real free agent, meaning he can deal with any team but it will involve a new contract.

I think each of the cases of RSL players there is a back story to their contract option not being picked up, or a new contract not being done yet, but the main impact comes from the fact that the team resigned almost the entire 2009 roster and that has come at a high cost, it has given us very little room under the salary cap. So that means that as the deals of players either run out or hit options that would require large raises that hard choices have to be made. Do we let go a Jean Alexandre and use that 45K to pick up the option on Fabian Espindola?

In Andy’s case things get a bit trickier, there is no doubt in my mind that RSL wants to keep him and that he wants to stay. From there things can get a bit difficult, I see that Andy has raised his level on the pitch the last couple years and is deserving of a new contract that probably includes a raise. I can see that RSL is looking at their roster and building for their 24 month goal of winning the 2012/13 Champions League and qualifying for the Club World Cup, and that may not allow them to spend over 100K a year on the oldest (34) on a guy who may not be as impact player in 24 months. RSL is on a tighter budget than most of the team in MLS, one bad part of being in a small market and not having mega billionaires as owners.

Any league and team with a salary cap is forced at some point to make some very hard decisions, RSL avoided those the last 18 months and now they are having to deal with a number of them at once. I am holding my breath and hoping for the best.