that would be ... interesting. zelalem, busio, and wan kuzain in the midfield. that would be a young and talented midfield trio.
Agreed, interesting, but there's the question of Gutierrez, Espinoza, Ilie, Croizet, and Rowe all clogging up their paths to minutes...
We didn't lose anyone in the European transfer window, so that's great news. Zelalem needs something to, uhm, spark joy back into his career. What might work best for him would be a season long loan with SPR. I could see him as the long term roger replacement.Though if we were going to rescue a stagnant but promising young European career, I'd prefer Green (have to get moving for the young bit to apply, though).
Ars I just don’t see paying lots of money for this guy coming from Arsenal and then playing him on the SPR squad (except a couple of games to rehab from injuries and get his fitness back). If he can stay healthy, I can see him slowly pushing Roger out of his spot ( Roger turns 33 at the end of the season). But, I agree that I would rather take a shot at a healthy Julian Green (just 23 years old), but I don’t think he is an option and would probably be more money. Heck, if SKC is shopping in Germany, they should make a play for Bobby Wood to fill the #9 hole.
I'm a Bobby Wood fan. I know most folks on here are not, but I like him and think he'd be pretty decent in MLS. That said, I am not sure he fits into a PV side. He's more of a mosey around a bit and hope defenders forget I'm on the field, try to beat the offside trap type of 9. High pressure is not his strong suit. Defense isn't really his thing. He'd be solid on a counter attacking side in MLS. Green could be a really impressive 9 in MLS. He actually looked really good, and quite predatory for Mmunch, when he on very rare occassions played. He spent half of a year as the backup to Lewandowski, but when he was on the field he was pretty good. his problem is that he doesn't at all look the part. He looks like a 7, 8, 10, but he's kind of meh in those roles. Upside, we could go out and get Green, Wood and Zelalem for a total of just a bit more than $1m in transfer fees. Downside, there's probably a reason for that.
Zelalem has way more upside than Green, plus his transfer/wages should be easier to handle as he has never locked down a club spot nor has he been capped at the senior level (nor has he scored a goal in a World Cup quarterfinal). Vermes has shown a willingness and ability to turn around careers of some truly snakebit players, like Ike and Nemeth. I think Wood could be a decent fit if he gets his head on straight. That said, for the money we'd have to spend to get him in (plus the allocation cost, I'm sure), I don't think he'd be that good of an option at all. I've said it here before, but recently I've been starting to feel like while striker is a pretty glaring place to not spend money, Vermes's system when run correctly (a la last year) does not rely very heavily on a 9 as such. Having a great one would be wonderful, of course, but putting in someone plausibly decent to just push things around for other people seems to work alright. I mean, Shelton was pretty much bad at striker, but his ability to run around and push defenders made the team better on its own. That's one of the reasons this hunt for the 9 is funny to me these days. Getting an established, impressive player typically means he won't have the fire and willingness to just be a cog and a pest.
It greatly depends on what the cost would be for him to be honest. I don't think that's a TAM level signing so it would need to be a "Brad Evans level of replacement" in the $200k range. That might not get it done, and if that's the case, pass.
A Rwandan international center back. NEWS: #SportingKC signs 22-year-old defender Abdul Rwatubyaye.#WelcomeToSporting, Abdul!📰 » https://t.co/9pvNW9UcDf pic.twitter.com/f5SEA2bCXm— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) February 5, 2019
Sounds like an interesting project for fourth-depth. MLS is a big step up for him, though, so here's to hoping he adapts really quickly.
Probably a battle between the two. I'm not terribly excited about Smith so I'm hoping this new kid can, with his much more experienced professional career, has the chops to contend more at a Barath level than a drafted-and-on-the-Rangers level.
I highly doubt he's at the Barath level just based on what "pro" experience he's had. No way is the Rwanda League as competitive as the Hungarian league ... and same can be said for Barath's national team experience. Barath's got a few starts in the UEFA Nations League. I guess he could be as good and just "hasn't been found" but I'd highly doubt it's that close.
Yeah, I wasn't hyping Barath a lot. Both are semi-proven international signings. No real way to gauge them. Hell, it's hard to gauge Fontas at this point either. All, however, are hopefully plenty better and more experienced than Smith.
Agreed. Not a huge fan of Smith, but you need cheap options to fill up the end of the roster I guess. Smith and this kid will get a lot of time at SPR I'd guess.
NYCFC pays 8 million to get Matrita, Union is signing Fabian, and we get another defender. PV must really be comfortable with Nemeth completing the attacking corps for SKC that he is going out and signing more defenders.
Highlight reels are always a bad way to judge a player, and esp for defenders and esp for CBs. But if we can take anything from this, he's calm on the ball and has a good release. https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/video/hoyas-head-coach-patrick-ewing-after-villanova-loss/vp-BBTdrfu
We've got a 32 year old and a 29 year old pretty much locked in as starting CBs. Even if they play at a best 11 level, it's smart to get younger, isn't it? Barath, Rwatubyaye and Smith would all seem to be projects of a sort. Maybe the hope is that three or four years from now, two of those will be our starters.
and it's not like most of these players were part of a team that set a team record for goals last year.
I said it elsewhere, maybe even this thread, but the success of the team this last year has me less concerned about a 9 than any time in my memory. Even with a striker who is rather useless at goal scoring or one who disappears from significant chunks of the game, the team still was constantly threatening and frequently converting. I'm not terribly worried. Wouldn't mind a big and bad striker to show up and lead the line, but I don't know that we need one. Hopefully some of the youths can really show at SPR. Maybe if Freeman puts on thirty pounds of muscle, haha. Excited to see if that kid really pans out, because the youth project is looking really strong at SKC right now.
I think these points sum up the coming year for SKC. I think Vermes has complete confidence that Nemeth is going to be an upgrade for us. We don't know what he's been looking at, but I think it is obvious he is very comfortable with Nemeth. And Nemeth doesn't need to score like Messi for our attack to work. The 80,000 Dollar Man will be there to pop in the goals (sorry, bad 70s reference).
That was the point of my post. Other teams are spending big bucks on high profile attackers. But, PV hasn’t flinched. He must have a lot of confidence in Nemeth (and supporting cast of wingers) to keep building the back line (which does need a refresh) and not spend on another attacker. Seeing the fire power building in the other clubs, he knows the performance of the back line has got to get better. Anyone who has been following this team for any length of time had to be very disappointed in last season’s up and down performance of the defense. They still have room on the roster and a few bucks to spend if that perfect #9 becomes available.
A player with lots of caps in the African Cup of Nations and in WC qualifying has to have a good skill level and a solid foundation. Your highlights certainly show that. Sounds like he's athletic, calm, and can handle speedy and/or physical forwards. Seems like a solid (and low risk) investment for a player that could battle to be the first CB off of the bench.