Okay, watching his highlights. this is a striker. He scores with his left, right, head. Supremo on PKs, brilliant in open field but also a really sharp poacher. Scored in 9 of the 18 games in which he was in the Chivas squad this apertura. He bangs the occassional one in, but more than that his aim is as perfect as we've seen in a long time. He doesn't just put his shots on goal, but just about on posts, There isa reason he'd be our most expensive ever striker, he'd be our best ever. With the space MLS attackers can find in the box, jeebus, he'd best his LigaMX pace, and that would put him at 20-24 for the season. Crap, I am going to be heartbroken, aren't I?
I mean ... I don't want SKC to stop and if they get Pulido they'd likely just bring in depth at MF ... but ... I wanna see this. Gerso Pulido Russell Busio Guti Ilie MartinBeslerPuncecLindsey Melia Barath, Zusi, Espinoza, Salloi, Hurtado, Shelton, Sanchez on the bench. Smith, Kuzain, Hernandez, Duke, Freeman, Dick all at SKC2 keeping fit. Maybe 2 more depth pieces in the midfield and backline.
Wow, big statement by ownership. We've been lacking a real goal scorer and Pulido checks all the boxes. Maybe missing the playoffs was a blessing because the offseason has been excellent so far.
He wasn’t streaky in this LigaMX season though, was he? 18 games played and scored in 9 of those for a 12 goals total. That’s pretty consistent
Note sure what to make of this out of Argentina. Whether it's a late rumor from before we signed Puncec, whether another defender is on their way out (along with Fontas), or whether PV is actually really looking at a formation change and we might see a 3 man back line.... I lean towards the first. Sporting Kansas City de la MLS presentó una oferta por el actual capitán de @Velez , Lautaro Giannetti. El defensor tiene contrato con el club hasta junio del 2022. pic.twitter.com/MGXXakhYeK— Agustin Sileo (@AgustinSileo) December 11, 2019
On the off chance that this is a real pursuit, I offer a totally worthless (so typical) highlight package for a CB
We've addressed two liines and keeper depth, all great and needed moves. So, about the mids, should we be considering Guzman? Given our history with free agents, the answer is probably no or hell no, but assuming he can still walk and even play (not our experience in the FA market) he's not a horrible fit. His Audi numbers resemble Roger (in 2019), etc.
Everyone is assuming Gianetti is an old stirring that isn't actually on target now. However, what if we assume SKC is looking to get him? The quote with the Shelton signing is that we are expecting signings at all three lines--we all assumed that the back line signings would be fullback depth, but what if he meant more? The first of those three was our biggest spend ever (somewhere between 6-9 million, still hazy). So if we are going to sign Gianetti, that would mean a few things, right? They without a doubt are finding a way to offload Fontas They are probably happy with our first team fullbacks and just need to backfill some MLS-level depth at LB or both This guy should be a TAM signing to land Puncec would be playing this year's Barath role--reasonably experienced and talented European CB (though Puncec doesn't have senior-level international play in his resume or future)--who is signed to play depth in MLS, which is nuts Smith is an SKC2 guy until such time as there are no more hamstrings in Sporting-land With a TAM-level signing in midfield, we might be seeing a very serious team here. As long as we fill out depth at fullback, dmid, and winger, this team is pretty reasonably solid. That all said, I'm not the most upset at, on paper, a CB corps of Besler, Barath, Puncec, and Smith. It's not ideal, but if signing a costlier guy like Gianetti means we have to cut costs in the midfield, I'd rather see the funds go to the latter. But if we can do it all... Sorry, long post entirely based on speculation.
Is it possible we're looking to fill out our midfield depth with Busio and, well, last year I would have said Kuzain but someone already on the roster? We know that Felipe G's career, for the most part, was as an 8, and that remains where he is most comfortable. I believe Roger has at least some competitive games left in him and I think we could expect at least a dozen starts are left in his legs. If that's the case, wouldn't that work out well to push FG into his role, Busio into FG's role, and rely on the TAM signing to be the beast of a 6 we seem to be needing. I admit, I still don't understand what happened with Ilie. That would leave our starting Mids as Roger/Busio, Felipe G, TAM/GAMThankyoumaam, with Ilie available to spot start?
Only if we're excited about mediocrity, in my opinion. Look, Busio has promise! But even still, he is a lesser player than the three starting midfielders right now, and he was a lesser player than Feilhaber last year. He needs an avenue to minutes, yes, but until he can outperform a starting XI guy, there's no reason to hand him that opportunity. First depth, maybe sure? Ilie struggles against athletic players, especially when they pressure him in possession. It's kind of an easy solve to shut down our midfield. I still would rather us start replacing Roger than replacing Ilie though.
Apparently we had a $2m bid for Giannetti rejected, and his release clause is $6m Sporting Kansas City 🇺🇸 envió una oferta formal de U$S 2M por Lautaro Giannetti. #Velez la rechazó por insuficiente y no pretende desprenderse del jugador. La cláusula de rescisión del defensor central asciende a U$S 6M. pic.twitter.com/G1JXstL1CM— Adriano Savalli (@AdrianoSavalli) December 11, 2019
That sounds dead in the water then, if those numbers are accurate. I don't think we can pay $6MM for a player and not tip him into DP range. Shame, he looked fancy.
I thought, technically, anything over $1.5m was DP territory, so a $2m offer already puts him in that category? Or can you prorate the transfer fee over the life of a contract (though that would mean a salary of less than $1m to keep a four year deal under $1.5m.
The latter. Transfer fees get prorated over the course of their contract. So for $2MM and a four year contract, you can pay them $600M and never break that threshold. But $6MM over four years is $1.5MM a year on its own, so unless he earns no money at all here, he'd be a DP for that price. It's a bullshit, deprecated system that transfer fees factor into wage valuations. The players' union will happily keep it in place for the CBA negotiations, so the league is going to have to loosen the restrictions all on its own. I'd think they would, since it's all owner money and no league funds at all. I can't really figure why it still works that way anyways.
Beyond that, given that SKC annual revenue is, per Forbes, around $35m, I kind of doubt we have another $6m to spend on transfer fees. We would, though, if the price on Busio increases to what we want. Could this end up being, essentially, a trade? Soneone in Italy nabs him for the price we end up spending on Gianetti (we're never going to pay $6m, but they can't actually want that much, but Busio isn't going to bring $10m at this point). Of course, this is only unless that math already applies to Pulido (all hail Pulido, bringer of life and joy). Just a thought, last year at this time, we could have sold Salloi for $6-8m, which would have seemed tragic.
You're conflating different kinds of money. Transfer fee money for a DP like Pulido comes out of the owners' pockets. The problem with buying this guy from Velez has little to do with how much money the owners have and more with internal blocks the MLS has on paying big transfer fees. No matter how much Busio goes for, that won't impact the maximum charge a player can make (or make + be transferred for) and still fall below the DP threshold.
I was assuming that if we got, say $10m for Busio, that would cover the owners transfer fee expenses? Does it not?
Expenses, sure. But that isn't necessarily the same thing as the cap hit. The difference being between whether or not our owners can afford a move vs. whether or not the move is allowed within the MLS roster structure.
The moneys we get for selling (transfer out) vs what we spend to buy (transfer in) are two completely, non-related items as far as MLS roster rules, cap hit, DP and etc. are concerned. And it is even worse than that. If we sell a player on a transfer out, some % goes directly to MLS "national HQ" (I believe at one time it was anywhere from 33% to 66%, depends on Homegrown status and a bunch of other black box factors. EDIT IncaRoads points out we keep 100% of fees on HG sales. YAY!), and only the remainder goes to the "owner/operator". Plus we also lose all rights to that player if they ever want to transfer back in (the team highest on allocation order would then get first crack, unless some other team had that player on their MLS-internally published secret 10 player "Discovery" list for that team) *** So if we sold Busio or Salloi for $6M, MLS could get $2M to $4M of it, and SKC owners would get the difference. And that cash is independent of whatever we pay for transfers in, which 100% comes out of the SKC owners pocket (e.g. all $9.5M for Pulido). Unless you are league favorite like Seattle - who of course got a big amount of MLS general money to help pay for Dempsey's transfer fee because it was "for the good of the league"..... I guarantee you they won't mention that Climp Dempsey transfer fee subsidy in their "Seattle is the #1 team of the decade" article from their propaganda arm, MLSSoccer.com. MLS rules creation is basically "if we want it to happen for our big market teams, we'll make up an excuse to rationalize it as "good for the league" afterwards". Examples: Beckham, David. DP slot #2. DP slot #3. GAM/TAM to avoid DP slot #4 while letting LA have essentially 4 DPs. Dempsey, Clint - transfer fee into MLS with league subsidy. NYFC and "SSS" exception Yankee Stadium. Jermaine Jones post World Cup transfer - New England or Chicago? Note I'm not arguing some of these weren't good for the league, but they were extra super special good for LA Galaxy, LA Galaxy, LA Galaxy, LA Galaxy, and to a lesser extent Seattle Sounders and NYCFC.