Jermaine Jones clearly interested in MLS, but with caveats

Jermaine Jones is interested in joining Major League Soccer. Of that, he leaves little doubt during his interview with Fox Sports. But that doesn't mean he's quite ready to sign.

Here's what he actually said: "We try to find a way I can play in MLS, but now is not my step, it's the step of MLS. They have to give me what I want. I showed them that I'm in good shape, that I can help the legaue grow. Now it's MLS's step. I will wait. I have no agent, so I'm free and we'll see if I can do something."

This seems to be pretty clearly about money. Jones probably wants somewhere upwards of $1 million. MLS likely would prefer to pay him something less than that, but would probably be willing to give him enough to make him a Designated Player.

Either way, it appears as though he'll be going through the Allocation Order. As he is wont to do, Sporting Kansas City CEO Robb Heineman suggested as much over Twitter, pointing out that his team was likely out of the running as they are sitting in the No. 17 spot. Although there are recent examples of United States national team players skipping the Allocation Order -- namely Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley -- the vast majority of them enter the league through this mechanism.

Toronto FC currently have the top Allocation spot, but don't have any open Designated Player spots. They could, however, trade the spot to someone who has room. Jones has an offseason home in Southern California and has been making media rounds while he's there, but neither the LA Galaxy nor Chivas USA currently have open DP spots.