They haven't wasted 2 years in Bradenton. I'm sure that closing that shit hole is the best thing that ever happened to youth system.
They were there for 6 months, not two years. Enough to make a team out of a bunch of talented kids, not enough to ruin them.
I'll redirect you here: http://www.foxsports.com/south/stor...rleton-on-road-to-professional-stardom-080317 He says in there that, "My thing was I wanted to be able to show that you can develop a world class player here in the United States." He definitely has had/has offers, but that's just not what he wants at this point.
OK. This is just a dumb thing that kid of his age should never think or speak about. I hope that's not truth.
I think the kid has the right to think about whether he wants to continue his life either in the US or Europe. That's kind of a ridiculous thing to say.
Sargent has the best shot to be a national team player from this group. I really hope he's working on his German. Carleton is going to have a dubious run in MLS, I think. Young americans with no previous experieince don't get to play his position in MLS and I fear he won't get that extra half a step he will need at the next level as he gets older.
And why exactly? We have 17 years old super talented kid who accomplished nothing and he talks about new innovative ways to become world class player instead of thinking how to supplant Jacob Peterson from the bench and getting 10 mins of playing time once in a while? That's a great example of American arrogance. I'm starting to understand while Martino isn't playing him.
Weird, that quote is not actually in the article. It is a bullet point added. If you want to be thought of as World Class then you have to play for a Top 10 club. Hard to read that article where he wants to be the best, has played against the best competition available since a young age, and conclude he wouldn't want to be playing for Champions League titles. Hopefully, he can move soon after turning 18. If Atlanta are playing him, then a year of 2000 minutes in MLS is ok. But I think this kid has a soccer IQ that is better than 80% of MLS now and it is not going to be challenged in that league. Seems like everyone around him has thought he was destined for greatness. Have to hope they had good representation and didn't sign a 5 year deal or anything dumb. We will see. If MLS sells Adams; there is hope.
Appreciate the insightful info. Glad you're able to contradict yourself in only 4 sentences, whereas some other people have to use a whole paragraph.
There were people in US Soccer, including on this board, who thought this class was going to compete for the title. My response was directed at them. I do think there is a weird resistance to comparing talent from the US with the world, until the senior team. And I think that is unhealthy. For example, one of the most followed rankers of youth talent in the US will rate a kid as a 5 star talent, when on the world stage that same kid would at best be a 2-3 star talent. You see that same pattern all over the place, in many different ways. It leads to irrational expectations for the kids, and non-critical evaluation of the people developing them. The main difference is coaching: the USSF should invest in one thing above all else - developing coaches. Not via clinics. Not via certifications. But real, hands-on coaching that gives coaches regular feedback on how to improve. I wrote this in another thread: "Just finished watching the US play England (spoiler alert), and the path of the coaches of those teams made me laugh. Steven Cooper is the England U17 coach. A former professional in Wales, he was always more cerebral than athletic. After playing, he got his license and started working for his former team Wrexham, until ultimately he was their academy manager. Then Liverpool sees him and invites them to join their staff - as their U12 manager. He started coaching at Liverpool with 10 and 11 year olds. He worked his way up the ladder, and ultimately was named their head of Academy. I do not know Cooper, but I know a lot of the people who brought him to Liverpool. He was developed as a coach in a tough environment. He was under the microscope and his training sessions, how he identified and developed players, and his game preparation were all regularly monitored and evaluated. That he became head of academy and ultimately named to coach English youth teams means he came through with flying colors. Hackworth? He is a former college player and college coach. He happened to be close to Bradenton coaching the South Florida Bulls when then U17 manager John Ellinger invited him into the US Soccer Coaches Club. Hackworth has been a card carrying member ever since. Guess which coach was better this morning? Guess which culture develops better coaches? Better players?" When the US U17 coach has been through the same rigorous development process as England's U17 coach went through at Liverpool, I am convinced the US will be an emerging soccer power. Coaches will be better able to identify player strengths. How to develop them. How to push those players. How to practice. How to prepare for games. How to make in-game adjustments. And how to follow up and continue the teaching loop. As for the 1999 class, that team had some real spikes in talent. Donovan was a fearless attacker. Beasley was a speed demon. Kyle Beckerman was actually a pretty influential attacking midfielder at that level. The crazy part is I do not think Tim Howard was even the starting goalkeeper. I do not know or remember what was different about how that 1999 class was assembled, but whoever did it either caught lightning in a bottle, or was pretty good at identifying talent spikes and assembling a team around it. For the next 10 years, we watched succeeding classes of US teams almost become milquetoast in talent. A bunch of kids who were not terrible at anything, but not great at anything either. Entire teams of this class's Ferri.
I don't think saying MLS won't sell players is fair. 1) Dallas sold Zendejas to Chivas last year for $750,000. 2) Porto had a $2 Million option to buy EOB from SKC in their loan contract. 3) Who has else has been quality enough to sell and brought a legitimate enough offer to sell between Miazga and now that were turned down? I think MLS has been unwilling to sell players in general for low ball numbers. The fact that the summer transfer window lines up with the middle of the MLS season doesn't help here. If teams like Carelton enough when he turns 18 and come with a legit offer that is fair compensates to Atlanta and Carelton wants to move I think MLS will accept it. I think Carelton's deal was 3 years with 2 club options and goes until age 21. Durkin's contract is not as long and expires when he is still 19, so if DC wants to sell him and make money they need to do it after next season when he is still 18. It is frustrating that MLS contracts are not public.
Yes far better to let them walk for free instead. If teams won't pony up millions on unproven young players, add a sell on fee. It's simple. A young player gets a chance to move on to a club that can afford them and obviously wants them. The MLS gets a modest fee upfront, and then if all goes well and the player is sold again, the MLS makes more money. Smaller foreign clubs aren't excluded from the buying process and our youngest talents get the chance to go abroad and prove themselves on bigger stages.
If they pony up millions they sell. Palmer Brown's sell in fee was $2 million. That's not a lot by global standards and for a league (emphasis on league since they own the players) that pulls in $500 odd million a year in revenue that's not that much. I mean our super star USA players are getting like $4 million Yedlin, and $5 million Miazga. So my assumption is offers for guys on MLS benches aren't going to be great. Sure they'll offload players they don't want like Zendjas for $750k or just let a guy like Gil walk because that kinda of money is chump change. We all in this forum would like to see MLS become a prime development league spewing out $20 million dollar transfers but for now the economics just aren't realistic to expect them to let young players go for such small fees.
Zendejas is not American. It's not economics, it is arbitrary rules that don't let MLS teams get any reward for selling players. Other leagues have to deal with the team and the league to boot. It is all so complicated, obviously no one wants to deal with it. Last window like 20 Americans transferred to MLS, none were sold. One was loaned. There is no economics where the 14th best league in the world should have only transfers in. There is more going on. If Carleton has 5 years, he can move at 22. Sure he will be just as developed. Or maybe Atlanta will tell him he had to sign again or they won't play him, like Hamid. Or maybe they but him a puppy...
I meant it in the sense he obviously wants to play for Mexico. They also sold him for $500K. That is probably the market for a homegrown MLS player internationally. Not the 2-5 million that MLS is usually asking for knowing nobody will pay it. Either way, that is 1, one, player in an entire year. Makes no sense economically.
I agree that the league needs to sell more players in general. I think they sell more players moving forward as well as the league skews younger. They also don't have near as many inbound transfer fees as other leagues. As for thread eligible players, I just don't think there are many candidates who are going to command any fee at this point. Look at Brooks Lennon. A pretty decent prospect with as season in MLS under his belt. RSL expects to either get him on a free when his contract expires next summer or pay a paltry sum to Liverpool for him to get him back at the start of next season. MLS is really the only league where Lennon is worth anything too at this point. The opportunities to sell are really not there for American Youth at this point. It seems if MLS gets a decent offer to sell a player that they will move them especially if the offer is in the winter window. MLS is not big on selling mid-season and that is an issue. I am sure FCD wishes they sold anybody with an offer mid-season now, but hindsight is 20/20. Blowing up your team mid-season especially a good team at the time is foreign to American sports fans. DC knew they were risking losing Bill Hamid by not selling him. Chances are high though that whatever a Danish Club would offer for Hamid is less than it was worth for DC to keep him and try to resign him.
I just find it hard to agree with this. You are contrasting MLS with a top Prem club. The World market is much larger than England, has, in many cases far fewer headaches than the WP issue and many who appreciate the value US youth present. BL and 2 BL are figuring out a way to make it work. Portugal is (reportedly) seeking partnerships with MLS clubs. For the moment, the fly in the ointment continues to be MLS. Just my two cents.
People here make too big of a deal over youth results. Player development is way more important. We lost at the 2015 U-20 WC to the winners, we lost at the 2017 U-20 WC to the runners up. We crashed out in the group stage at the 2015 U-17 WC, but we did lose to the winners on the way. We either lost to the winners or runners up at the 2017 U-17 WC. Three of those four defeats were in the knock out round. Why is it such a failure that another youth team is better than us? We couldn't even make the 2018 WC at the senior level, yet somehow we are supposed to always win at the youth level? I think we should be trying to win tournaments and we shouldn't be doing much worse than round of 16, but the difference between advancing an extra round or two is negligible in youth tournaments. What matters most is the talent you are producing. And also, the stats show that us and England are the only two countries to advance to the Round of 8 at the U-17 WC and U-20 WC this past year. If thats not a good stat, I don't know what is.
My takeaway is that we are doing much better than two cycles ago. Cause to celebrate. If I go deeper I would say that the soccer culture has matured and the organizational structures are better than ever. Coaching in general across all levels is poor.