All I’m saying is that the clubs will always have that pride and zeal when a new signing is made. They’re always going to think that it’s the next revolution in our game. More often than not… it’s not. I think we, as fans, expect that. Sometimes it’s more surprising than others.

I think what’s happening, though, is that clubs are still trying to grasp the concept of what a DP means and how it should work. It’s easy to sign a guy like Beckham or Henry or Kaka, etc and it work out perfectly. It’s quite another to sign someone like Mista, Salihi, or Boyd and expect the same. One flaw I see with the DP rules is that it creates a gray area for certain players (like the latter of which I mentioned) whom are slightly older and aren’t world-wide celebrities (like Beckham). Where do they fit? They’re too old for the Young DP Rule, and to make their salary tempting enough to bring them in, clubs tend to feel like they need to pay them at DP levels, which a lot of times they’re not worth.

My opinion is that non-Young DP contracts should only be handed to guys with world acclaim (ie, Beckham, Lampard, etc) who would fit any system virtually and have the appeal to elevate the brand. Outside of those players, DPs haven’t really proven to work out well unless it’s a perfect fit in the system (Koevermans comes to mind), but this is creating more uncertainty via a mechanism instituted by the league.

What’s the fix? I’m not sure, but maybe expanding the DP rules a bit to have an “intermediary” DP might work. It’d lower the salary requirement for DP status (say $275K?), but you’d only have two per team. I’ve seen smarter ideas than this along the same lines and they’d probably work better, but it’s an idea that might make someone like Salihi not be such a big bust like he was. No one wants to lose cash on a deal, especially as much as DC lost. Filling that grayish void with an intermediary category might convince more mid-level DP-type players to come to the league.

6 goals in 22 games sounds godawful for a DP striker, but it’s important to note how many minutes he played (only 945 according to the MLS site). Even without considering that a large chunk of his minutes were the last 10 of any given game strictly to kill it off, an average of 157.5 minutes/goal with no PKs is fine.

It’s almost exactly the same as Robbie Keane (157.4 minutes/goal, with a PK included), is roughly similar to Alvaro Saborio (140.6 minutes/goal, with 3 PKs included), and far better than Fredy Montero (198.2 minutes/goal) or Sherjill McDonald (258.3 minutes/goal).

This certainly isn’t the be-all end-all metric of a good MLS striker, but some context deeper than 6 goals in 22 games shows he wasn’t so bad. He didn’t fit in Olsen’s system and they were disappointed in his practice performance–still a mistake of a signing, but perhaps not so catastrophic as it seems at first glance!

The real contention should be with the insertion of mechanisms that create more uncertainty with player selection and acquisition. We know them when we see them. There is enough uncertainty about how a player will fit into a designated system. I don’t think anyone will disagree that the best player acquisitions occur when both parties are aware of the situation as much as is possible.