Taylor Twellman not off to Europe

New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman will not be dashing off to Europe this transfer window as the club has turned down a $3 million offer from Preston North End. This offer was just the latest one from Preston after a $2.5m offer was rejected two-weeks ago. The transfer deal also included incentives that could have added an additional $500,000 to the fee.

This comes as no surprise as the club and the league have been sending not so masked hints that Twellman was not available. With the Revolution going through their biggest roster shift in years this off-season, giving away their all-time goal scorer is not high on their priority list, especially since they don't have another proven striker in their squad.

Twellman is probably very disappointed about this as he wanted to return to Europe, but a large part of the problem is his own. A year ago he signed a four-year contract with the Revs that saw him earn a substantial pay increase, but did not include any sort of transfer trigger or buy-out clause. Had there been such language in the contract, he probably would have earned a little less per year, but he also would likely be heading to England right now.

Concerning the failed transfer, Preston North End chairman Derek Shaw had this to say about MLS:

Unlike the situation over here, it would appear that the MLS do not want to negotiate, they just say yes or no, and I believe that the setup is that the selling club only get 40 percent*, with the balance going to the MLS. It's disappointing because the lad is very keen to join us, but it would appear that the opportunity is not going to be there for him during this transfer window, [which closes tonight].

He makes a couple good points, but again, I don't think the Revs were ever going to let Twellman go, so why spend time negotiating. The simple truth is that even though Twellman wanted to head east, his club cannot afford to lose him.

So what can Twellman do about this now? Perhaps putting in another excellent season while working hard with the younger forwards on the team is the way to go, i.e. show he still has it while training his replacement. Add that to the additional chances he will have with the national team and next year the offer might be a bit too much for the Revs to ignore.

Then again, he could play like crap and demand that he will only improve if he gets to renegotiate his contract, but nothing like that would ever happen in sports.

* I believe that under the current MLS structure, the team actually gets two-thirds of the money or 66.6%.