So how about that rumor of a $2 million bid from Glasgow Celtic for Shalrie Joseph that was supposedly turned down by MLS?

It's news to his agent, Ron Waxman, who also refuted rumors that another stumbling block was a contract laden with incentives and a rather low-ball base salary.

"Celtic twice offered $1 million for Shalrie, once in the summer and then again in the January window," says Waxman. "Those are the only offers I know about. And we can't discuss the specifics of a contract until the league agrees on a transfer fee, which never happened, so as for what kind of contract they might have offered Shalrie I have no idea. We never got to that point."

During the SuperDraft, rumors circulated that regardless of what Celtic or any other team might offer for Joseph, the likely answer was, "No," unless somehow a team valued him in the same manner as Fulham did Clint Dempsey (about $4 million).

One source said the bidding for Taylor Twellman never got higher than $1 million from Norwegian club Odd Grenland, and that too was turned down. Which it should have been, considering that Danish club Broendby paid $700,000 last summer for Haitian striker Jean-Phillipe Peguero, who scored 20 goals in 2 ½ MLS seasons.

Twellman scored 75 goals in his five MLS seasons and has been rewarded with a new contract that pays him $375,000 per year, more than double his previous base salary of $175,000. The Revs are using allocation money to 'buy down" a portion of his contract, since the maximum salary this season is $325,000. League rules permit teams to use allocation money to re-sign players.

Also getting a hefty increase is Pat Noonan, whose figures of $78,717 (base) and $89,342 (guaranteed) are being supplanted by deal worth approximately $200,000, according to a source.

Are the Revs headed for cap trouble? The club has gained about $225,000 against the cap with the departures of Dempsey ($75,863 base) and Jose Cancela ($150,000), but the increases for Twellman and Noonan have already wiped that out. Still, the cap itself has gone up about $200,000 (from $1.91 million to just under $2.1 million), so there's still some wiggle room - and allocation money -- left.