Landon Donovan Warns Vancouver Whitecaps About Sebastian Berhalter- 'What Are You Doing?'

Tim Howard agreed, noting that the MLS often fails to protect its domestic players in the same way that elite European leagues do. 

He used the Premier League’s example to reward and retain homegrown stars making it a blueprint for success that American clubs should follow.

“Yeah, the bizarre thing is this. You and I think the same way. We talk about development in our country and all these things, right? But we're our own worst enemy because the powers that be, the people that sign the checks don't even value their own.

The Premier League is the highest paying league in the world, right? It makes it quote-unquote easier. You bring a kid through an academy, he lights it up, scores 10 goals in the Premier League. Now Chelsea want him because he's at, call it, Man Utd.

Man Utd go, well no, you're not even getting close. He was on 10, 12, 20 grand a week. Here's 60 grand a week.”

Howard also believes that MLS teams often get distracted by expensive new signings from other countries. 

He argued that clubs don't value the local talent they already have. Instead of keeping their own players, they spend millions on international transfers who might not even fit in the team.

“My point to you is, and you've seen this, with someone like Sebastian Berhalter, because he's sort of one of your own, but you brought him in, he's young. The powers that be that write the checks get fixated on that number.

Well, he's only worth that. No, he's actually not only worth that. He's probably worth triple that.

And by the way, the way we've seen recruiting in MLS, and this is a big, big, big problem I have with MLS. They'll go, Sebastian Berhalter, we'll let you go, because guess what? We'll go in the second division of Spain, or we'll go down to Colombia, we'll spend 10 million on a guy who doesn't want to be here, who's a bust.”