Dilly Duka, Void

This illustration is sort of what happens when you try and take on a post about the Columbus Crew's Dilly Duka. Nothing to latch on to with this guy.

One thing to comment on is his contract. It's a little wonky. Let me 'splain.

I had the pleasure of meeting David Burgin (of Global Football Today) recently and he raised some interesting questions about the difference between Duka's Base Salary and his Guaranteed. Same thing as with Tony Tchani's contract.

Why the large discrepancy betwixt "base" and "guaranteed" with these two? Is it performance related? Or is it, as Burgin thinks, tied to playing time. If so, are we seeing a couple players getting more starting minutes solely based on contract stipulations and/or requirements?

How about we look at these two Crew players in relationship to the rest of the league. Below are are the Major League Soccer Players that stand to double (2x) their listed base salary* in guaranteed monies. In other words, these are the contracts with the biggest difference between base and guaranteed in the league!

Team : Name
POR : Darlington Nagbe (2.5x)
CLB : Dilly Duka (2.2x)
NER : Kelyn Rowe (2.1x)
MTL : Andrew Wenger (2.0x)
DCU : Perry Kitchen (2.0x)
CLB : Tony Tchani (2.0x)
SKC : Teal Bunbury (1.9x)
CHV : Laurent Courtois (1.9x)

Wow, talented players there. It's predictable that MLS has tagged these players as "hot" and have negotiated contracts as such. I would much rather a broader market determine the worth of these players and not single entity like corporation. It is what it is though.

Interesting that Columbus has two players in the top 8 here. I personally think that the Crew org. went after Generation Adidas players in order to navigate waters below the cap as long as they could. Both Duka and Tchani declared their graduation last year though and thus have thrust their base salaries on the 2012 cap.

Overall the Crew is 13th in league Base Salary. 12th in Guaranteed. They are as about as average as you get when looking at this salary stuff. Remember all that mess about being the lowest paid team in major league whatevers? Yeah, the Crew are fine now. A lot of that had to do with timing and << shocker >> bad data.

Chicago, New Englend, Kansas City, Houston, Chivas and Montreal all have lower base salaries than the Crew right now.

Stepping back now, in early June, Columbus is just in the middle in everything. Regardless of whether Dilly Duka and Tony Tchani do well... it looks like it'll be just fine for the club, in relationship to the rest of the league. Just a matter how how much Mark McCullers, Brian Bliss, Lapper, Iribarren, and Warzycha think these guys matter. Contract or not.

Questions will linger about whether or not Duka and Tchani are playing based on current form and playing level, though. You can be the judge. Tchani or Duka making a mysterious start out of nowhere is more than likely contract related.

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*I'm only using what MLS Player's Union has publically provided in terms of contract data. I consider it reliable (at this time).