Sweeney: Revs payroll stays the same even after summer moves

The Major League Soccer Players Union has updated the salary figures for the 2018 season and the Revolution are near the bottom of the pay scale.

Only Houston at $5,490,429.93 has a lower payroll than New England at $6,776,441.10 — a decrease of approximately $200,000 since the union released the initial figures back in May. At that time, DC United had separated the two clubs with its $6.7 million wage bill. The signing of former Manchester United and England international Wayne Rooney ahead of the Secondary Transfer Window for a $2.8 million ’18 salary moved the Black and Red up in the rankings.

Earlier this season, we reported that the Revolution were listed 21st in the league, which came about after the club transferred midfielder Lee Nguyen to Los Angeles FC on May 1. Since then, New England has made four roster moves: on Aug. 6, the Revs shed Krisztian Nemeth’s $900,000 base salary and $1,007,666.67 total compensation, transferring him to Sporting Kansas City.

In July, the Revs signed defensive midfielder Cristhian Machado to a base salary of $132,000, with total compensation of $150,512.50. On Aug. 3 — three days before the Nemeth deal — the club signed defender Michael Mancienne: the Englishman has a base salary of $1,284,768, with total compensation $1,370,268.

Gullermo Hauche, brought into the squad before the roster freeze deadline last month, has a base salary listed at $120,000, with total compensation listed at $135,000.

BSJ Analysis

In all honesty, you get what you pay for — and sometimes paying for it doesn't work out.


We can see that Nemeth and Mancienne is pretty much a straight swap, with Mancienne a touch more expensive. The other two incoming players, Hauche and Machado, attest for $285,000 or thereabouts of the wage bill; Machado has made two appearances on the pitch since arriving on July 23, Hauche three. Only Mancienne has become an every-match player, given the need in the defense.

In all — and if you include Lee Nguyen’s $500,000 salary into the outgoing bin — one can easily see that it nearly evens out:

Nguyen + Nemeth = $1,507,666.67
Mancienne + Hauche + Machado = $1,655,780.50

Start the season with X, end the season with about the same. In total, the Revolution will have to pay out an additional $148,113.83 in salary for this underperforming bunch.

There is a long-held belief among die-hard Revolution supporters (read: people who support the players, not the front office; people who follow the trends of this Original Ten club) that as long as everything stays within budget, everything is hunky dory. As you can see, no significant splashes were made by the Route 1 outfit this season, they moved two players making over $500,000, the incoming moves made only costs an additional $148K (a drop in the bucket, with most of it coming through Targeted Allocation Money, a.k.a. Garberbucks), and as expected, no playoffs for The Boys In Blue for the third straight season.

Meanwhile, DC United signed Wayne Rooney in July, surpassed the Revs in the Eastern Conference table, and surged into the playoffs. Atlanta’s payroll is $11.6 million, and is one better result than New York Red Bulls ($8 million) from winning the Supporter’s Shield.

But no panic. No panic in Foxborough. Mediocrity and three years without playoffs is accepted. It’s OK. Everything’s hunky dory, right? Budget’s been met. Oh, and there’s a $35 million training facility being built. That’s investment.

Other playoff-bound sides? New York City FC? $14.8 million. Philadelphia? $8.9 million. Sporting Kansas City? $11.5 million. Los Angeles FC? $14.1 million. FC Dallas? $9.3 million. Seattle? $11.7 million. Portland? Nearly $11 million.

On the flip side, Toronto has a $26.5 million payroll, tops in all the league, and finished below the Revs this year; they did, however, win the treble a year ago, and played continental football, and will play continental football again in 2019 — so Reds fans can’t complain. LA Galaxy, who play Houston Sunday for a spot in the playoffs, spent $17.5 million in salary this year, second-best in the league. Chicago? $15.5 million, missed out.

Being fair: Your mileage may vary.

We can see that the Revs do indeed spend some money — they’ve spent in the ballpark of $3.7 million in the defense just this season alone: Gabriel Somi, $425K; Claude Dielna, $910K; Jalil Anibaba $90K; Andrew Farrell $268K; Brandon Bye $58K; Antonio Delamea $400K, Chris Tierney $166K; Mancienne $1.3 million.

$3.7 million is more than half the total salary for 2018, just for the back line… and yet they didn’t make the playoffs for a third straight year.

(Of course, two players totaling $1.3 million haven’t been heard from since, you know, July. Not that they would have helped avert the swoon. For further examples, check our Revolution archives.)

You go back to 2017, in addition to Farrell, Dielna, Delamea, and Tierney, the Revs spent $654,333 to Ivory Coast defender Benjamin Angoua, who played 26 matches and was not retained after the season. Defender London Woodberry was cheap at $69,300. Je-Vaughn Watson, $155,666.67. Little-used Joshua Smith? $65,000.

We’d like to see the Revolution spend smarter, doing so on truly talented players who deserve to be in the same conversation with other Boston sports stars. Spend what you have to in order to get them, but make sure the players are worth it. Sorry, Somi and Dielna aren’t the same as a Zdeno Chara or a Devin McCourty. If New England could sign defenders with the same heart as Anibaba, or with the ability to read the game like Mancienne — and not switch off in critical moments — then we’d see a dramatic uptick in points. In theory, at least. The Revolution still have to finish their chances offensively, and that’s another whole argument: a mill should have brought more than one goal from Nemeth, $603K should have brought more than three goals from Juan Agudelo.

But again… that’s something we can’t control. Only the people in power can control that. And from what general manager Michael Burns told MLSSoccer.com's Sam Stejskal this week, don't expect the Revolution to spend more next season: “It’s not really an area that I’m going to speak publicly about in terms of how much we’re going to spend on a particular player or players,” Burns is quoted as saying. “The bottom line is to make our team better and so that’s how we’re viewing this offseason. We’re not going into it saying, well, we have got to spend X number of dollars on this player or that player to get there, but we will address it as each signing comes.”

Seriously, though... until certain things are rectified — namely, playing on grass so that New England can sign big name European players, and an admittance that until the club builds the mythical soccer stadium in Boston, they’re not investing deeply in the roster — things will be status quo in 2019, regardless of the roster turnover in a month’s time.