Dave Romney welcomes being traded to Nashville by Galaxy: I ‘felt undervalued’
The Galaxy erased a little bit more of their history Tuesday when they traded versatile defender Dave Romney to Nashville in exchange for $225,000 in general allocation money.
The deal could be worth $50,000 more to the Galaxy if Romney meets certain performance-based metrics.
Romney and midfielder Sebastian Lletget were the only players to have appeared in at least one game for the Galaxy over each of the last five seasons. But with the team going through five coaches in those five seasons, Romney found it increasingly difficult to get consistent playing time. As a result, he welcomed the trade.
“I feel extremely valued, some[thing] I almost never really felt at Galaxy,” he said. “I kind of just felt undervalued the whole time.”
Romney, 26, is entering the second year of a two-year deal that will guarantee him $118,950 in 2020. He signed his first pro contract with the Galaxy’s USL affiliate in 2015, then months later became the first Galaxy II player to graduate to MLS. Over the next four seasons he excelled at all four spots along the back line, playing in 79 regular-season games and starting 67. Over that time the Galaxy had a better points-per-game average with Romney on the field than they did with him on the bench.
“I felt like I could have been a starter every single year. But every single year they’d bring someone in over me and pay them exponentially more,” said Romney, whose blue-collar work ethic made him a fan favorite. “I kind of kept getting pushed to the bench.”
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Romney said he never considered asking to leave until several teams starting asking about him last summer. Now he’s excited that Nashville, an expansion team that will enter MLS this winter, was the one Galaxy general manager Dennis te Kloese decided to do business with.
“It’s a city that a lot of guys are interested in going to,” he said. “You hear nothing but great things about it. It’s a place that guys actually want to go to.”
Earlier Tuesday, Nashville acquired midfielder Dax McCarty from Chicago for $100,000 in allocation money and a second-round pick in the 2021 SuperDraft. With the trade for Romney the team has nine players on its first-team roster but Romney is the only defender.
“Dave’s combination of athleticism and decision-making on both sides of the ball, coupled with being naturally left-sided, made him someone that we appreciated very early on in this process,” general manager Mike Jacobs said. “We believe that he is someone that could really flourish in our system with both a consistent role and a regular run of games.”
