#NYCFC are reportedly set to launch a $6.5 million bid for 23-year-old Romanian attacker Alexandru Mitriţă.Mitriţă, playing primarily as a winger or attacking mid, has bagged a league-leading 12 goals and 4 assists in 16 games this season in the Romanian top flight. pic.twitter.com/NKrVn2ENw7— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 23, 2019
I'm told that one of the forwards Portland is pursuing is Julian Quinones of Tigres. No deal imminent but along with Ezequiel Ponce (reported by @PaulTenorio) that is who they are pursuing. Also told they are looking at one other target. #RCTID— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) January 23, 2019
Kellyn Acosta was released from@the #USMNT roster last night. I’ve also heard a significant bid for him from an English was also recently rejected— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) January 23, 2019
Hey. It's not lack of ambition that is our problem. Its we are poor and make stupid decisions. Constantly.
Houston had the lowest payroll in the league by more than $1.5 mln last year and basically ignores their academy. I don’t know how you don’t call that a lack of ambition.
There is a long rant I can go on about the Academy that is more about how stupid management is than anything but this probably isn't the place. And the spending, they argue, is different because they spent so much on transfers. I think that's BS and their whole philosophy is stupid (they demand a near instant ROI) but that's just me.
Well, they found two studs in Elis and Manotas, so they bought effectively there. However, they also stand to make an awful lot on those two when they ultimately sell them on. The money they spent on those transfers shouldn’t limit what they spend on salary. At least not to the extent that their average salary is $180K below the league average. Imagine them with two or three more TAM level players... they’d actually be damn dangerous. That franchise in general is being wasted. People can talk all they want about Chicago and NE teams stuff, but Houston is the franchise that frustrates me the most. To have that team mailing it in in a market like that, with that stardium is frustrating to say the least.
Houston does indeed spend on transfers - probably top 5 in the league (one list had them at 6 with a couple of others that were disclosed) and spent more than double the league medium. When you combine Transfers and salaries (which you should since no one considers Atlanta a mid-tier spender even though that is what they would be to people that ignore the $35 Million in transfers and only focus on the salaries) Houston is more in the middle than the bottom. Now given the difference in Dallas vs Houston in Academy production it is fair to say Houston has quite a bit of room to improve in that department.
Please... the biggest outlay by Houston was ~$2.5 mln for Elis (which they are gonna parlay into $6mln plus). These guys aren’t splashing the cash... certainly not in an era of $4 mln plus in allocation per team coming from the league. This is a cheap franchise. Precourt and Kraft catch shit, so should these guys. They would do well to sell. Houston would be better off.
I don't really track transfers so I'm just going with data I saw here from someone that did. Biggest transfer listed was for Torres which to me seemed high to me. But sure enough, did a search on Eric Torres transfer and I saw 7 Million in a lot of different results. So in terms of salary over the last 10 years of numbers from MLSPA, Houston with a big bunch of clubs that don't spend much more than the minimum. But what they spend on transfers has been more like the MLS top tier. Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming that Houston is a model franchise. But they have a plan with some level of ambition through transfer., RGV is an MLB type minor league team that has been used to bring a lot of players up. They did win something last year and at times had an attractive team to watch. So they are in the mediocre category to me - similar to the Union, RSL. Kraft is in a league of his own. Spends near the bottom salaries. Zero on transfer fees. Zip into developing some sort of player development relationship in the USL. The thing I found most annoying about him is that he had been the leader of the guys holding the league. The league has really started to grow now this his influence has started to wane. No team does less.
They have no idea what they're doing with RGV. Academy players cant/don't get PT there and they wonder why no one is excited about a 26 year old they bring up from there who has been a USL player for 4 years. The owners do need to cash out. All of them. Golden Boy has been a drag since Day 1. Brenner is undercapitalized and they have no sense to fire people who do crap jobs. And I wouldn't get too excited about any gains they could get on the Front 3. Quioto is a head case off the field. Elis and Mauro are on short contracts so if they don't sell soon they won't get much out of it. And we never move on from a player when we stand to make the most. And almost all of our signings under Jordan have been busts, but, y'know, the Blind Squirrel Theory and all. They refused to fire the team president or Academy director despite years and years of failures. The former is now heading Houston's 26 bid and the latter is the Dash head coach (God help them...).
I didn’t think Torres went for that much, so I missed that. That said, I am pretty sure that went down before AEG sold, so I still don’t give the current owners credit for it. I give both Philly and RSL more credit, frankly. RSL may not spend huge on salaries or transfer, but they aren’t bottom of the league either and they stepped up and got the Rusnak extension done. We’ll see where his salary shakes out when they are released in a couple months, but initial word was that was for $2mln plus annually. They’re total wage bill will likely be $10mlm plus with that and a few other moves they made. That will be a solid team again this year IMO. Not only that, those guys have spent and spent big on development. Their academy and training facilities are second to none and they also had the forethought to quickly establish an academy here in AZ too in order to mine this state for talent. It shows too. Just look at their roster, they’ve got as many homegrowns as anyone and they play them. Glad, Saucedo, Baird, Herrera.... that is a well run organization. Probably never going to spend like ATL, LAG, or TFC and that stadium is in the MLS 1.5 type of level, but they are a solid mid market club who oftens punches above their weight. Philly just brought in some expensive garbage and made some bad hires, but I give them credit for their academy as well. We all know the type of young talent they have. If they stop wasting money on guys like Jay Simpson they could get something going. I don’t love the stadium location, but they still draw pretty well and that fanbase is hungry. I put both of those franchises above Houston by a fair margin, especially RSL. Frankly there is no one I put below Houston under this ownership to be perfectly honest, but I also think I can stop trashing them now too... LOL.
A new player for the City Group: midfielder Juan Pablo Torres (19), announced as a big talent when he signed for Lokeren in 2017, is having a medical with New York City FC. #mcfc #nycfc via @hlnsport, @MichVergauwen. pic.twitter.com/A7yB6jBLwQ— Kristof Terreur (@kristofterreur) January 25, 2019
Vancouver Whitecaps are reportedly set to sign 28-year-old Icelandic international striker Kolbeinn Sigthórsson. Currently playing at Nantes in France, he has previously played for Galatasaray and Ajax. Below is his scoring record. #VWFC #MLS https://t.co/at0LQclbcd pic.twitter.com/52zNlynylf— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 25, 2019 Pretty good scoring record in Holland and internationally for Iceland, but hasn't played much in recent years due to near injuries. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/kolbeinn-sigthorsson/profil/spieler/52246
Another report from Turkey says that Lodeiro was "contacted" by Fenerbahçe S.K. https://t.co/21LKsllVzL— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 25, 2019 Sigh.... more Turkish/MLS rumors.
Re: most of the current ownership was around when Torres was bought for ~$7M and sold for much less. The mismanagement surrounding that saga could fill whole threads....and has. As for competition, I'm happy the Fire and Revs have the ownership they do.
Gotcha. As for the Revs, no love for them. I doubt it will ever happen, but I'd love to see Kraft sell. At this point he'd likely turn a hefty, hefty profit. I doubt it happens and until they get a stadium built and open up the coffers a bit that franchise is just going to continue being a blight on the league. I know the Krafts have thrown around some ideas on a new stadium, but it just feels like they are going through the motions to placate the league. It's sad because that market could and should be a standard bearer for this league. As for the Fire, I'll at least give them props for spending $15 mln on salaries last year. At the beginning of 2018 I thought they'd have a chance in the East, but it all fell apart. Right now they have some serious holes, especially in the back and they've still got to fill out a big part of their roster, but they have some talent. Rodriguez definitely seems to have missed on some low hanging fruit though and they've let some solid (at least depth players) walk for nothing and missed out on some good homegrown talent. That said at least they were willing to spend amongst the upper echelon of the league. I also give them credit for not running around without a jersey sponsor for a year with a big blank spot on their chests looking like a glorified rec league team in a top ten media market in the country.
I'll let a Fire fan correct me but I'm pretty sure, based on memory, that very little of that salary money came from ownership's pocket. There was a lot of chicanery used so the league and sponsors picked up most of that.
Take this with a HUGE grain of salt. Fener is in dire straits financially, doubtful that they'd pay what Seattle would want for Nico, let alone upfront and in full.....
I'm seeing a lot of chirping on twitter that Giovinco is a goner! WOOOOOWWW. So he's leaving this window?? Will Toronto replace him?? Wtf is going on in MLS?? https://t.co/22cpk6kTVg— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) January 25, 2019