Maybe maybe not. With the market as crazy as it is he has a great season and that price could jump from 24 to 40. If their in a position of strength it might be worth it to them to say pay what we want or we will wait. Yes theirs risk with that too but it's not cut and dry either way.
With the purse strings opening up a little bit more and Atlanta splashing cash around don't be surprised if LAFC and NYC FC start to throw weight around this summer.
Double edged sword. I love ATL's ambition, their scouting, their going after South Americans. But Almiron and Barco as AM's suggests Carleton has zero future there.
There are a looooooooooooooooooooooot of rumors about Benny's behavior behind the scenes. Like.................fistfights with teammates at USMNT camp kind of behaviors. This is probably a good move for both teams. SKC dumped a 33 year old on a large salary. Probably dumped him a year before the inevitable decline. LAFC got themselves a nice piece to kick-start their franchise for a couple of years. As of right now LAFC doesn't look like they're going to be as good as Atlanta was last year, but they're going to be competitive. Still have a bunch of holes to fill. Don't they only have like.........................12 players on their roster?
Carelton is so far away from the national team.... He is extremely skilled yes but a combo of [physical ability and current environment is going to greatly hamper his potential growth.
That is the way I see it. Getting thrown in to MLS or senior level matches before really ready doesn't do anyone favors.
Tommy Thompson is the player for whom minutes can't come fast enough. He is 22 now and ready to start in left or central midfield for an MLS team.
Don't see it that way, at all. There's no physical ability difference between MLS and the NT. If he gets regular playing time, I fully expect him to be on the NT within a few months. The bar isn't very high, we are putting out guys like Bedoya and Arriola in the attacking mid positions. Maybe he'd have to wait a year or two on a good NT.
No, he's at the U-20 camp, and he shouldn't be called in. The NT is not a daycare for the best youngsters who are not yet regulars at the pro level. Its up to Martino (who we are told is a brilliant coach) to give him the minutes he deserves.
Bedoya plays primarily as an '8' for the Union. He has been one of the better '8's in the league. Arriola is a flanker at DCU. Carleton's situation has nothing to do with that of the aforementioned two. USNT's speed of play is higher than MLS's. Also, players tend to get isolated more at NT level, so need to be able hold their own on both sides of the ball.
Bedoya has for years played as a winger and attacking mid (his club position doesn't matter if he plays different positions for the NT), Arriola plays winger. We have a bunch of nothing outside of Pulisic in the attacking positions. He had to create just about every goal we scored during WCQ.
A year "before" the inevitable decline? It seemed to me that we all saw a pretty massive decline in 2017.
TT played every game of the season but two, and started half of those 32 games, so it's not bad at all. He played an hour in the Vancouver massacre too.
That's a topic that should have been discussed more a long time ago. One thing I noticed early about American prejudices is that they favored players who couldn't play so they'd lose their man then try to recover and the blunderer who was best at sprinting 50 yds to cover a mistake was an automatic selection. It's easy to get lost in a mind maze on that stuff. The guy who has eyes in the back of his head and is always positioned just right is ignored not only by fans but by opponents who cant see a way thru.
Good post And when our own team can't keep the ball, the relative value of runners over high IQ players increases, so you can see why they get chosen, but if they didn't get chosen, maybe we wouldn't be losing the ball all the time, etc, etc, etc
You can be a brilliant coach and not prioritize youth. It's Carleton's fault for signing with a team which at that point barely even existed. What track record of ATL was he looking at when he signed on the dotted line? Martino was highly impressive as a first year MLS coach. He coached some of the most attractive ball the league has ever seen. Carleton is a separate issue.
For all the fawning from our soccer media (who bows down to anyone with a decent resume), he lost in the first round at home to a team with a much smaller budget, his penalty selections were extremely questionable. His team had a number of muscle injuries during a stretch in the season where his team played a lot of games, and that could mostly be attributed to his lack of squad rotation.
Starting only half of those 32 games was not good for a player of his talent. I would like to see him become a more pivotal player in an MLS team.
He didn't play as an a-mid for the US. He has transitioned to an '8' with the Union and will likely continue to play there for the US. Not really, bro.