By Don Cuddy

After parting company with the New England Revolution at the end of December, midfielder Andy Dorman came off the bench in the 70th minute last Saturday to make his first appearance for his new club, St. Mirren, in the Scottish Cup.

It was a new chapter in the career of the 25 year-old midfielder but moving to Scotland had not been part of his plans.

Unable to reach agreement for a contract extension with the Revs, Dorman decided to strike out on his own and the move appears to have reaped immediate financial rewards, as he is now earning exponentially more than the $30,000 he made playing with the Revs last year.

His last appearance in the US was as a late sub for the Revs in the 2007 MLS Cup.  With his contract set to expire at the end of the year the midfielder and his agent David Ross Williamson were in negotiations with the league for some time.

“Andy’s priority was to stay in MLS with the Revs,” Williamson told Soccer365. “It was the only team he considered, even though we had interest from three other MLS clubs.

“(Andy) liked it here. He went to college in Boston and being a Liverpool fan, Steve Nicol was his idol and mentor. There was a lot of respect there. He was also the kind of kid the Revs wanted. He stayed healthy and committed and he had a good soccer brain.”

After starting nearly every game in 2006 and most of 2007, Dorman was relegated to the bench in October. The player declined to sign a contract extension in midseason, a fact that gave rise to some speculation that his omission from the All-Star lineup may have been determined by criteria unrelated to his performance.

“I thought I deserved a place and think I had the stats to back that up,” Dorman said but he would not speculate on the reason for his omission.

“That is the golden question,” Williamson said.

But if any tension resulted from the failure of the two parties to reach an agreement, there was never a question of Dorman lacking commitment.

“When I spoke to Steve in the hotel after MLS Cup he had nothing but praise for Andy,” Williamson said. “Steve said he was a true professional, came to every practice, was always ready to play and never complained. But when it came to the contract we were never really close.”

Nobody would disclose any details of the negotiations or offer any figures on what either side put on the table.

Will Kuhns, with MLS, simply said: “His contract has expired and we understand he is pursuing options overseas. We wish Andy the best of luck.”

Williamson would only say that most of the talking had been done on the phone.

“You will never get anything in writing or figures on paper from MLS,” he said. “But we never got close. Andy was willing to compromise. I told them ‘Make him work for it’ by building in some incentives but at the poker table MLS is holding the kings and the aces, and to some degree that is to their credit.

“It’s only business. From a legal point of view they are doing a wonderful job but the majority of players don’t have guaranteed contracts so college kids are now looking at going to a USL division one team where they won’t get tied to a contract. But Andy now has a contract that is worth $250,000 over eighteen months.”

Dorman, being English, had the advantage of being instantly available to any British club interested in his signature without worrying about a work permit.

The idea of a professional soccer player not having a guaranteed contract was totally alien to Andy Dorman’s father, Dennis, when I spoke with him at his home in a Welsh village.

“I can’t see how they will get English players to go over there when they are told about that,’ he said.

Mr. Dorman said that he is glad to have his son playing closer to home and the family also appreciated a call they received from Revs assistant coach Paul Mariner wishing Andy well at his new club.

When I spoke with the player in Paisley he already put MLS behind him.

“I was disappointed that I couldn’t stay in New England but that was a couple of months ago now. I just want to get on with the next phase of my career. From what I’ve seen so far there’s a good level here and with the weather I feel like I can get around the field and pressure people. The stadium is nice, the fans are right on top of you and there’s a good atmosphere.”

The Revs meanwhile have lost another midfielder and may find it difficult to replace Dorman without spending as much or more as it may have taken to retain his services, however much that may have been. We’ll never know. However as MLS continues to expand the players may become increasingly restless with the present system, that as Williamson noted, seems to leave the league holding all the cards.