Now, I know we shouldn't get too caught up in player's salaries, BUT (and Nigel has a big but, as we saw when a flabby and unfit looking Reo-Coker turned up for preseason training) it's almost impossible not to in a salary cap league when your second most expensive player on the roster isn't even in the gameday 18 the majority of the weeks. You can't have nearly half a million dollars sitting in the stands most games.
I wrote in October last year that Reo-Coker should only be kept around this season on the right deal, saying:
"He was the only midfielder to really come away from this season with any credit but isn't worth too much more of a payrise above his guaranteed $237,362 and certainly not DP money. Will he want to stay for that amount of money when he could definitely get more back in the UK? Can the right deal be done? How much harmony or disharmony does he actually bring to the dressing room? If the answer to all of these questions is positive, then glad to have him around for 2014. If not, happy to see him go and sad at the same time."
Hindsight is always a wonderful thing of course, but as soon as we found out what his salary was going to be this year we said it was the wrong deal and he shouldn't have been brought back for this season. I think with losing Camilo, the managerial turmoil and other offseason shenanigans, the Caps dropped the ball and panicked a bit on this one and now we're left to try and find a way out of the Nigel shaped mess we are left with.
Even with Kenny Miller leaving and Jay DeMerit retiring, there appears to simply be no mathematical formula possible to give the Whitecaps enough cap space to bring in any decent player until Reo-Coker's salary is punted to pastures new.
There's been comments circulating around Twitter that the Caps are actively shopping Reo-Coker around and trying to secure a swap deal with another MLS side.
But is there a club out there that has the right striker for Vancouver's needs, has a need in their squad for a player like NRC, whatever exactly he actually is as a player, and a club that wants to take on that whopping salary?
Not a lot of them instantly spring to mind.
Is there any team on Planet Earth that would want an out-of-form midfielder, who is perhaps living on past glories and on a hefty salary, at their club? In an ordinary world, probably not. But football is a funny game Saint.
One deal that had entered my mind was trying to get Saer Sene from New England Revolution but that was soon killed off when they traded him to New York at the start of the week.
The Caps were said to be interested in Sene but weren't offering what the Revs were looking for. But do the Red Bulls actually need Sene or could we even see them tempted to move him themselves for Reo-Coker? That was my initial thought/hope but now that the days have past, that's not looking likely. New York has always seemed like the best fit for NRC with his wife and new born baby living there.
Another possible player thrown out in the twittersphere was Sporting KC's Claudio Bieler. Now I liked what I saw of the Kansas City striker last year on the whole, but his work ethic and attitude can be questioned and doesn't seem to fit in with the bunch of happy campers Carl Robinson has put together. Also, at 5'9" he doesn't fit the mould of what we need in a big targetman, and all that's without looking at the fact that he's only made three starts for the reigning MLS Cup holders this season. He does only bring home $225,000 this season though and KC's midfield could do with a Reo-Coker type figure in it however, from what we saw on Sunday.
There was also the rumoured transfer of Reo-Coker to Leeds United that raised our hopes when the Sun newspaper first reported it, but seems to have been more of that rags nonsense.
So where does that leave us? what happens tomorrow?
Maybe it could all have gone so different if Nigel had turned up for preseason in better shape. It all seemed to go downhill from January and his surging box to box runs from last year already feel like careless memories.
His form at the start of this season was poor and then he lost his place in the starting eleven following the notorious bike rack incident. If he had just shown a better reflex to save himself from falling down, then maybe, just maybe, he would have refound that 2013 form and been an instrumental player for the side this season alongside Matias Laba.
It wouldn't have solved our goalscoring problem of course, as he can't seem to finish a toffee, but that would have had to be addressed in a different way.
He's had chances to get back into the team and simply hasn't taken them. Those two penalties he gave away a few weeks back will certainly live long in everyone's memories.
Reo-Coker has been frustrating. There's been times at training where he's looked hungry, like a wolf, but then as soon as he takes to the pitch there's been a lot of huff but very little puff.
As nice as it is to be paid nearly half a million for basically turning up to training a few hours a week, I'm pretty sure Reo-Coker wants to get his career back on track and back to playing regular, first team football. It's hard to see that future in MLS but stranger things have happened. Daigo Kobayashi getting a second shot at it for one. I still think NRC's future will lie in the English Championship.
The situation needs to come to an end sharpish though to free up some space and cash. Despite what may be said publically, there's no doubt that Carl Robinson would love to see this matter come to an end and is trying to get some deals done with a view to a kill of the whole issue.
Can it be done in time to make an impact for the remainder of this year or will the Caps have to wait to move him in the offseason? They'll certainly be leaving him unprotected for the expansion draft if he's still around, but I can't see him being taken.
Please, please tell me now that a deal can be done long before that though? Cross your fingers and save a prayer, because offloading Nigel Reo-Coker could be the key difference between the Whitecaps having a good season and a great one.