A New Central Midfielder for the Portland Timbers?
By: Bob Kellett | June 20th, 2008
Say hello to our new central midfielder (maybe):
Mark Briggs, who joined with the Riddle-coached Outrage on May 22, is the first to move directly from Kalamazoo’s upstart PDL club to the professional ranks.
He’s set to fly out to Portland, Ore., this Sunday, where, as long as both sides fancy each other, he’ll begin play with the Timbers in United Soccer League First Division (USL-1), the league just below Major League Soccer.
“You never want to lose a player of his quality,” Riddle said of Briggs, a 26-year-old Englishman who played for West Bromwich Albion in the Premiership from 2001-03 and most recently for TNS Llansantffraid in Wales. “But at the same time, I brought him over here telling him I’d do everything I could to get him moved up to a higher level. It’s happened and great.”
And
“Fortunately for Briggsy, Portland needed a central midfielder, they needed someone with experience. He’s certainly been doing a great job for us. … and their coach (Gavin Wilkinson), being a great friend of mine, was happy to take my word on that.”
In addition to playing briefly for Kalamazoo where he scored three goals and dished out two assists in eight games, Briggs:
In two seasons with English side West Bromwich Albion he made eight first-team appearances for the Premiership side before signing with Danish Superliga side Herfolge Bodlklub. In Boldklub, Briggs scored 12 times in 55 games over a two season period before he returned to the UK to have stints with Notts County, and most recently, Shrewsbury Town.
Update: Damn this guy has gotten around
Jan 04: signed a 2½ year contract with Herfolge in the Danish 1st division after a successful trial in January 03 .However he left the club by mutual consent at the end of the year because he wasn’t getting anywhere near the first team. (Stian Boe). May 04: signed for Tipton Town in Feb 04. After three games for Tipton, he had a trial with Partick Thistle and then two months with Notts County before released again in May 04 (Football Transfers) Aug 04: Signed to AFC Telford. Nov 04: Moved to Shrewsbury Town. Jan 05: Now Northwich. May 05: After 4 games for Vics, he moved to Redditch in late Feb 05. In April 05 he had a trial with Walsall., then in May 05, he was released by Redditch. June05: trial for TNS.
Could this mean the beginning of the end for Andrew Gregor or are we looking at a holding midfielder that will make us forget Tom Poltl/Neil Dombrowski/Shaun Higgins? Is there an injury at play here? Both Gregor and Higgins have been limping. Stay tuned for the coach’s spin about bringing in a 26-year-old who has played for seemingly every lower division club in Europe…
Category: Timbers Team News
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Comments
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Saw this article in my inbox this morning, and thought for a second that it was some kind of prank or an old archived story or something.
Where did this come from? Do we know anything about Briggs? When will he start playing for us? Where did he play during the interim between West Brom(!) and the Outrage?
I know you’ll have all the answers, Bob. Such as the answer to my next question: when is the BJ re-loan happening?
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Read the post again and you’ll see he has had trials and brief stints all over lower division football in the UK and Europe. Looks like a guy who has enough talent to warrant a look but not enough talent to stick anywhere. He’s flying in here Sunday according to the article. I guess Gavin read my midfielders report card and decided he needed some help in the middle. Who knows if Briggs will be any good.
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Kalamazoo’s paper of record reports Briggs says he’d make $4,000-$10,000 per month as a Timber.
Isn’t that kinda like me saying, “I don’t know how many beers I had, honey. Four, maybe 10.”
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I have a hard time believing those salary numbers. Even $4,000/month would make him the highest paid Timber on a per month basis. Didn’t we learn once that Brown is making a yearly salary of about $35,000? Suzuki is perhaps the only guy making more. I’d imagine most of the players are making $1,500-$2,000/month. Are they really going to blow that structure out of the water for a guy they’ve only heard of from word of month playing in PDL for Kalama-who?
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Remember that contracts in the USL are for six months, so $4,000 a month (assuming a full season) is only $24,000 for the year.
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That’s still kind of high for a guy was getting paid nothing in PDL. That would be more than Burse will make from FCD and double what Bolkan/Adzemian are making as LA development players. My guess is that the local paper got the numbers wrong.
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Please. What’s the paper/agent/source gonna say? “He’s going to Portland for car fare, a box of Pop-Tarts and a warm cot”…? Of course media reports of money are exaggerated. Besides, until Gavin see him, dude’s essentially vaporware. So, yeah, we’re paying him (cue Dr. Evil voice) ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!
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barely a Baggie
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