2019 MLS Re-Entry Draft Stage 2 update: pic.twitter.com/2fz0sLifZy— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) December 3, 2019 Just as an aside, when the official twitter accounts of clubs are regularly posting stuff like this about declining to participate in official league talent acquisition mechanisms set forth in the CBA, maybe it is time for a change. I mean, I laughed, but doesn’t exactly lend credibility to the process.
No, it means that a particular club's FO is incompetent for not participating in the process that 24 other clubs also didn't participate in according to said particular club's social media followers.
🚨🚨21-year-old Argentine int’l Exequiel Palacios was set to move to Bayer Leverkusen for $18 million, however...Reports from Argentina in the last few hours indicate that Inter Miami have submitted a *formal* offer that is greater than or equal to the offer from the Germans. pic.twitter.com/kcyqNcXeRq— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) December 4, 2019 Obviously would be a huge move and could also be part of bringing in Marcelo Gallardo as coach.
Hadn't Palacios already declined to come to MLS just a few weeks ago? Yes, it definitely be a huge get for the league if it comes true.
“Despite having several good offers from other teams in LIGAMX Lucas will go to play @MLS to the Vancouver team. He received an irresistible offer and leaves Mexican football”Cavallini to the Whitecaps confirmed!#CANMNT #VWFC https://t.co/xwi5maTyGN— 𝕲𝖑𝖆𝖘𝖘𝕮𝖎𝖙𝖞 (@GlassCityFC) December 7, 2019
The @LAGalaxy is expected to announce Monday it has signed free-agent midfielder Sacha Kljestan. The Huntington Beach native has played for 3 @MLS teams, most recently with Orlando City— Kevin Baxter 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@kbaxter11) December 7, 2019
Inter Miami working to sign their last 2 DP’s:• 25-year-old Colombian international striker Roger Martinez, currently with Club America.- 23-year-old Argentine attacker Sebastián Drussi, who moved to Zenit from River Plate in 2017 for $17 million. https://t.co/6sV6A7Z85g— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) December 9, 2019
RSL signing Alvin Jones may be an uninspiring addition, but he has two claims to fame: he's Joevin's brother, and he scored this goal:
Reported here 2 weeks ago and now official: French center back @BrillantFred13 has re-signed with D.C. United. Two-year contract.With @BillHamid28 deal also done, attention turns to whether #DCU will pay $2m+ transfer fee to retain @LuquiiRodriguez #mls— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) December 10, 2019
Hearing that the Lucas Cavallini-to-Vancouver transfer is close to getting done. Multiple sources tell me the fee will likely end up at at least $5 million. https://t.co/rYSdVBjkmC— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) December 11, 2019
If this and the Roger Martinez moves come off it is going to start to become difficult to ignore the number of successful, prime age attackers moving from Liga MX to MLS.
According to @RodriVazquez95, LAFC have purchased 20-year-old Uruguayan u23 international Francisco Ginella for $2.5 million for 75% of his rights.Ginella is a central midfielder for Montevideo Wanderers in Uruguay. pic.twitter.com/IwXFtEawFb— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) December 15, 2019 Standout @ the U20 World Cup, currently training with the U23s. Could be another exciting young piece for LAFC.
Breaking: The New England Revolution are close to signing 23-year-old Polish striker Adam Buska as their third designated player, according to multiple sources. No specific transfer fee, but I'm told it's between what the club paid for Gil and Bou. https://t.co/tUk3rpoKWF— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) December 16, 2019
According to @Pellomaldonado, the sale of Lucas Zelarayán to Columbus is complete. The current record fee paid by Columbus is $2.2m. This will likely quadruple that figure. Yet another MLS club stepping into the new era of MLS. #Crew96 pic.twitter.com/0SyFwiEAQZ— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) December 18, 2019
Should be interesting to see how the Union's strategy of team building works over the next two years. The common refrain is that "the Union is cheap" but they are trying to spend money on developing players instead of buying them. "We spend by far the most in the league on our academy, USL [and] supplemental roster strategy. We view that as an investment. It’s a sizable one. It’s in the last three years somewhere upward of $20 million. That’s an enormous investment that the players coming through the system will have to justify, and we believe will justify that." (Sugarman quote from here). If they instead chose to scale back on the developmental side they could make bigger moves like we see from a few teams. And I know someone is going to say "they should spend money on both" but that isn't the way to sustainable growth. So we get to see over the next year or two if they can build a competitive team around Aaronson, McKenzie, Turner, Real, and de Vreis. Whether that is through those players actually playing or being sold for enough to allow reinvestment in the roster is a whole other question.
I think Aaronson will be sold for a good amount if keeps on improving. They can easily make the money back just on him.
First, I am really looking forward to seeing how how some of the young academy products on teams like Philly, Dallas, RSL, SKC, etc play. There is some exciting talent that I’m really hoping we’ll see blossom. There are quite a few players, especially on that 22 under 22 list that could be in line for a fairly big transfer. When it comes to the Union, I really like their young talent. Really enjoyed watching Aaronson especially and I’m glad that the Union seem willing to give these kids a big role. However, I do wonder how big of a gap there really is between what the Union are spending and what others are now spending. I know the Union were early adopters for a lot of this stuff, but other teams are now pretty aggressively following suit. So I suspect that gap in spending is closing or, in at least some cases, has closed on a year to year basis. I’m all for seeing teams like Philly, NYRB, and Dallas invest in their academies, USL teams and homegrowns. However, I think it is going to become increasingly difficult to be in the bottom third of league spenders and remain successful while teams like Atlanta, LAFC, Seattle, LAG, etc devote roughly the same resources to youth develop while spending 50 to 100% more on their first teams and many multiples more on transfer fees.
With their recent acquisitions it'll be interesting to see just how much playing time Busio and Salloi will get this season for SKC.... The hiring of Ernst Tanner has really helped the Union take the foundation that Stewart put in place and build upon it. It'll be interesting to see how many more kids make the leap in the next few years. I find it quite hysterical how a lot of the MLS scouts say that Arronson has a very high ceiling, while all of the Big Soccer USMNT only dweebs completely dismiss him and gush over Pomykal. I have a feeling that de Vries will be the next Union kid to come seemingly out of nowhere and break through to be a first team contributor. Keep an eye on U2 in USL this season for how Selmir Miscic is doing. Probably within the next 18 months (just turned 16 recently) he'll be signed to a home grown deal.
Couldn’t agree more on Arronson. I like Pomykal too, but wouldn’t shock me at all if Arronson ends up the better of the too. He’s strong on the ball, has a great engine, he’s quick enough to separate and he moves with and without the ball really well in space. Has that little magic to play with angles and then aggressively find space. The catch phrase these days seems to be to “breaking lines”. We haven’t produced all that many central mids who can do that. I think this kid might just be one of them. Thanks for the heads up on Miscic. I’ll keep an eye out.
Breaking: Source has confirmed to me that the Colorado Rapids have signed Danish Midfielder Younes Namli from FC Krasnodar of Russia. The Dane will be their new DP 10. #Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/5bNgk5RAdr— MLS Moves (@MLSMoves) December 20, 2019 This matches what I’m hearing as well