I don't think so. I think he wanted a higher salary than we were offering, which isn't impacted by the change.
And beyond the money, positionally he doesn't make a lot of sense for us. If they think Davis, Etienne and Basuljevic can play as #10's I why would we pay a 5th string CAM $80k. And then combine that with the supposed desire to move to the empty bucket formation and we have no where for him to play. With his production college I can see why he wouldn't want that.
Personally I think its better for the youth academy and their reputation to let go of guys we can't give a fair shot too. Because when kids are deciding between us, NYCFC, PDA, etc. we can tell them that if it doesn't work out we will let you go to another team. And if we get the premier talent in this region we will be fine. Najem may end up being a star but I don't see that happening with our team factoring our needs and his age.