See here's where I feel like we do things from fear instead of rationality (the pretense around here being that I am proposing flat earth clearouts or something). If Alvarez is a pretty sure thing enough where he gets done this early, why do I need a $200k security blanket for his backup, who is 30+, coming off a knee injury, and looked meh to finish the season? Alvarez is 22. You don't need more than a cheap journeyman or college pick to back that up. Delagarza had to be optioned to return. And now you have, on the one hand, like you're headed, an expensive broken older player who wasn't that great, to back up an expensive kid. Why. And I don't think delaGarza rehabbed to retire. And I also think with a young family he probably didn't bet on leaving. And so you have optioned your way into a sentimental mire when you had the replacement lined up and could have walked away from the expensive boondoggle. This basically underlines how the older players on this team are basically an overreactive security blanket. Like some people on here, they freak out about a full overhaul. And then you find people who probably can play who are kids and it's like why oh why did I attach myself to that old fart? I could understand we get to February or March and feel like we are missing something. But this is us painting ourself in a corner and then will delaGarza retire or accept a trade to bail us out. Or someone take Lundkvist off our hands. We also did this at keeper with Willis. Well, rationally speaking. Sentimentally, I think these dolts probably rate Willis highest and will look to move at least one of Seitz or Deric, and laughably, probably Deric.
Even if you want DeLaGarza gone (and I'm in this boat), I think it would have been dumb to just decline the option. He has trade value that makes it worthwhile to hold onto him. Ditto Ceren.
Jesus ********ing christ... I feel like I am stuck in a dream loop sequence every off season transfer window with all the damn Hondurans
Say what you will about Boniek’s utility as a player going forward but he’s been a good ambassador for the Dynamo in Honduras. They really need to have a plan to retain him with the team after his playing career because the Olimpia pipeline is a more lucrative source of signings than anything else we have. Also seems like one of the few vets that’s still on good terms with the team.
They’ve a moderate fuss about pursuing a midfielder playing in Europe, so we need to make a trade for an international spot. I’m already resigned to us signing journeymen CBs again. I think we take a defender off the expansion draft (Campbell probably if he’s available). I think it’s dumb, but Jordan will probably work to bring back Leonardo and/or Machado. Kind of worried that they overpay for someone stupid in the CM role, e.g. Marco Fabian.
According to our resident expert, he should be dumped to the side like the over paid, useless player he is. There is no future with Boniek, according to said expert.
Oh wow how exciting another Honduran international. Glad we've cornered that market. That will surely lead to championships. Cheap A$$ Dynamo.
Sorry, doesn't follow. (1) Lopez and Garrido left in 2015 and (2) Escalante in 2016 before we got Elis and Quioto. We have enough Hondurans where any one Honduran isn't necessary to be the magnet for the next bunch. Y "fue recomendado por La Panterita," not your ambassador. If you're going to sell the soccer equivalent of chain migration at least have the right "parent." We missed the playoffs and he's 34. People diss Martinez, well, he was less productive than him. I didn't say the sky would fall but that's effing old and I'll let you justify to folks limiting turnover when we're 17th in a single table. Bunch of fraidy cats scared of change at the same time you're touting this newcomer. You're confused. It's very very odd to me that with a team as bad as we had anyone is resisting thoroughgoing change. I get you love the guy but that era is done. Get over it and move forward. As with Elis, you will find new players to like. But 2012 is not coming back. You can keep him until 40 and that won't change.
Has anyone seen this Alvarez guy play defense? I've seen the highlight vids and it's interesting but it's mostly offense. So, in light of Lundkvist, can he mark?
You think having a guy with 100 plus caps for the Honduran national team and who goes down and trains with Olimpia in the offseason might’ve factored into landing Elis and Quioto in the first place? You’re being willfully dense.
No, you're mixing and matching arguments, which is willfully manipulative. We signed Alvarez because of Elis' recommendation. Clear as day in the Spanish in that article. Anyone who reads the thread knows that was what we were talking about. Now you're trying to conflate that with signing the other Hondurans two years ago. Boniek may have helped with that, but this is apples and oranges. That's winter 2016 before the 2017 season. We're discussing retaining him for 2019. Momma didn't raise no fool. I mean, you knew which one we were talking about, and then you make a bait and switch and call me dense even though I was talking about something else. And my more punchy point, since the implication is he should be retained in significant part as ambassador, even at potentially counterproductive performance and injury risk to the team, as well as continuity for a team that just missed the playoffs, is...................if Elis can help us net the next one then we don't have to keep Boniek around as the ambassador, past his sell by date. With the dear old USA ambassador is a job constantly cycling and being refilled. This is a variation on the "leadership" argument used to justify keeping Ching til he was 90. If you want an ambassador who doesn't cost a roster spot kick him upstairs to coaching or the FO. This is the sort of "leadership by player slot" mentality of US MNT right now where Bradley can't just come in to talk to the current pool, offer advice and leadership, he has to be literally called in and burn a slot. It's, bluntly, greedy. Ching did the same thing to us and it's why the last 2 title games were unsuccessful. We bought into "leadership" and "clutch" and then when in the playoffs he did squat and we'd get eliminated for lack of offense. So, yeah, thanks for the leadership. He then got ha kicked upstairs to a team job. If we want Hondurans to stay and be magnets it doesn't have to be at team expense. Just like for Ching to be orange in some capacity he didn't have to be a player until he was a jillion years old. Plus I pointed out that 3 Hondurans left the team right before another 2 came in. I buy community might help. I think it's a bill of goods community has to be certain players, as long as they like the ones we have. The Dynamo need a MF upgrade, where the good teams would expose us badly. And then Alvarez last year underlined what we also need is a M/F supersub off the bench. If he is neither of those but instead "leadership" or the "ambassador" he is in the way of progress.
I mean, apply the lesson you just saw with the defenders last season. Couple years ago I said this whole Machado/ Leonardo/etc. thing would have a very short shelf life. Debatable whether it ever worked but last season, year 2, it went off a cliff. Meanwhile AJ missed 90% of the season knee knacked (and was rewarded with an option). So the defense killed the season and by the end of the year we're starting Wenger Garcia Fuenmayor Beasley. Like that whole veteran flurry just 2 years ago never happened. Or maybe apply the Alvarez lesson, where the team was hamstrung by having an aged supersub who had literally one assist all year. Boniek is older than the backs were, is older than Arturo is. Boniek has actually been one of my favorite players for years. Just like I have a Ching shirt hanging up, and yet say what I do about how that ended. To me it's sentimental nostalgia to hang on too long. If this team is going to compete it's going to be having a midfield that can compete with Portland or the like.
You set-up this chain migration comparison, pull in every Honduran out here, then dust Quioto and Elis under the rug. If you want to use your chain migration, we have Boniek bringing in Elis bringing in Alvarez. I don't think Ching is a fair approximation because it's not like Ching is or could funnel in the best and brightest Hawaiian talent into the system like Boniek can and has done with Olimpia. I don't think you keep him on forever and I'm fine with moving on from him, but he has an intangible that none of the other "old farts" on the team do. He's also is going to hopefully be active in some way here in Houston two-three years down the line once both Elis and Quioto are gone. I don't understand why you'd want to throw that in the trash. You lose the resource and you run the risk of pissing off the other Hondurans and then having someone deeply tied into a feeder club badmouthing you.
If Boniek stays with the team, it has to be at a lower cost contract wise. He doesn't have the legs nor the ability to garner a large contract. Just a fact. I would love him to stay as a sub under that pretense because he provides calm, experience in the midfield in the final minutes of games. Plus every so often he can provide a spark when we need to push for a goal.
https://www.houstondynamo.com/post/...-impact?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social First of Jordan's signature journeyman defender moves. Lester Gretsch throwing some cold water on the idea that Alvarez was signed as well. Said it before, but I'm thinking we end up with another year of journeyman backline.
Montreal is still going to eat a portion of his 2019 salary, which uh great. They want him out badly enough that they’ll pay us to take him.
I don't get what we're doing. If he's a RB (primary position I understand) that's 3 of them and the first 2 are already overkill and more expensive (Alvarez and AJ), and he ain't cheap. If he's a LB I want someone a lot better than this who can maybe send Lundkvist back to the bench where he needs to be. If the idea is swiss army back that can go inside also, fine, but his CV reads like an Anibaba type sub and we need starting level CBs. I don't remember him in particular so most of this is more beefing that I don't see what the GM is trying to accomplish here. Who knows, maybe it will make more sense later on. Maybe someone unexpected goes left and we sign some real CBs and this is just a utility back who doesn't cost too much. If the idea was sign Alvarez to play right then bringing back AJ was dumb. That's a ton of money backed up by not cheap. I'm still stuck there. And then this guy primarily is a RB.
Re Ching, my point is for years as his performance fell off his repeated re-signing was justified as leadership. Series of one year deals. In 2009 we have a great defense that allows 29 goals all season, but in the playoffs he manages one goal, in OT, that is our only goal all playoffs, we score no playoff goals in regulation, and LAG beats us in a semi where we hold them 0-0 in regulation but lose 2-0 in OT. He then plays 5 MORE YEARS. In his last 2 years we lose 2 MLS finals, and his last year he scores no goals at all. I do not think you realize how self defeatingly this team will go to the well over and over for the same name brands like a reflex, ride that horse til it falls over and costs us our next chance at success. I am convinced if he's not brought back over and over and over maybe we sign someone else younger and more productive and maybe we have that much better a chance at MLS. But instead I get to watch our whole season ride on Calen Carr's knee blowing up, because Ching ain't doing squat. So I hear echoes of that in you have to carry Boniek at 34, despite fading performance, on a team that needs midfield help, for esoteric reasons. I think you end up undercutting the very enterprise you're creating, because when we need a sub or spot starter, maybe he's 35 or 36 and falling apart but that's what you have left to play with. I hope your heart is warmed by the show because in practice it's a performance and injury risk. I already thought by 2017 he looked shot. My point about losing 3 Hondurans (Lopez, Garrido, and Escalante) the 2 years before we signed Elis and Quioto is that I don't think they get that worked up if there is some turnover. There are still plenty of marquee Hondurans around, including the one Alvarez said recommended him. It's not like we shipped them all out and said oh but Kevin still come here. His connection is still here. Your attempt to juggle the chain argument is cute EXCEPT what you're really saying is if it's A's buddy that introduces us to B who introduces us to C, I can't throw A out of the party without risking C. The logic doesn't follow. I still have B and C at the party and B was who introduced me to C. I have everyone I need to keep him eager. Are you telling me I have to keep A at the party for years if it chain progresses to Z? No. Like I said, we've run a few Hondurans in and out of town and there wasn't a riot of the rest. I mean, it would be reasonable to argue I should respect that A in a way led to C and onward. But that's not really what I am disputing. I acknowledged that with my comparison. What I am disputing is does that really mean Boniek gets like college tenure on the roster while it has any Hondurans? I am dusting no one under the rug. I said Elis was who got him in town. That was openly in there. Elis is under contract. At least short term, that's covered. If the idea is you hope Elis stays in town for Boniek, dude, how long are you planning on keeping Boniek? That doesn't work anyway. Elis and Quioto have made their European hints. Given that, you get down to it, you can't assume the whole chain will last long, and you really instead need to be selling the idea that a few key ones can be convinced to remain foundational and stay. I also think you need to consider that one factor in "keeping the band together" might be team success. As I was hinting with Ching, if the "leadership" piece actually blocks a new player out, and doesn't produce much, you are actually hurting, not helping, your championship chances. It reminds me of the people who wanted Bagwell back, shoulder and all, for the first world series run. So people got their heartwarming show of Bagwell in the world series, and we got swept and had to wait another decade. I don't think a team can literally win championships carrying players for sentimental reasons, particularly on our budget. And ironically I think this team needs to be playing well to stand a chance of keeping any of these guys around long. If we keep Boniek to impress the others but with Boniek we struggle then they leave, well, your play for their sympathy actually drove them out. So I think our best chance was promote him upstairs -- they don't lose him -- but then ruthlessly put together the best possible team that gives them something to weigh against being just another player on some roster in Europe.
To be clear, the Dynamo have not signed Alvarez and in recent days they have poured water on those rumors via their favorite media folks.
This is becoming a league where teams can give up 60-70 goals easy and we do not have a defensive shape. It would be bad to, if we don't sign Alvarez, not have serious players in. You better then be signing two 10s because we'd have to score 4 goals a night to win. AJ + Lundkvist wide sounds like a disaster waiting to happen even if you signed a decent CB or 2.
Jordan is really good at scouting Honduras and Montreal. And by really good I mean taking the easy route. The added playoff spot helps make it easier to sneak into the playoffs and claim that the season was successful. This is a team content on getting the last playoff spot and not trying to win the Cup.