Still need a second striker and you know it feels like we need a few more Ghanaians. The team is looking dangerously under-ghanaian-ed. So how about Joseph Esso from Hearts of Oak? 21 center forward. Called into the national team. Asamoah Gyan would be perfect but probably costs too much.
Here is my initial, sure to be mistake ridden, first attempt at our roster tiers after the salary release a while back. MLS in Cleveland does it prettier, but I thought I would take a shot with some down time today. https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide Again, I think we have 27 of a possible 30 spots filled. One being a HG spot, one a Supplemental spot, and one a reserve spot. I believe two of the guys on the Senior Roster being able to slide down to Supllemental if needed (Abubakar, Martinez). Crognale could be nearly anywhere, I put him in HG to create the most space. We could have more openings based on how the loanee's are counted (Crognale, Opoku, Lundgaard). For certain we have 1 International spot open, so could make a move in the summer window. We do have some Garber bucks. Lastly, I'm aware that the roster regulations site slightly lower numbers for Reserve/Supplemental players than our guys have. I'm just assuming it is a mistake on their site, because otherwise our roster does not really work. 1. Senior Roster: 18-20. Counts towards salary cap. Spots 19 & 20 need not be filled, but a min salary charge is imputed for empty slots. Cap = $3,845,000. DP hit = $480,625. Young DP hit = $150,000 (20 or younger), or $200,000 (21 to 23). Salaries are 2017 numbers & do not reflect cap hits or buy downs with allocation money. If there is one figure listed, then base & guaranteed are/were the same. Player, Pos, Nat, Status, Base$/Guar$ 1. Federico Higuain, M, Argentina, DP/GC, $1.1 mil; 33 (10/25/84), 5'8"/165 2. Jonathan Mensah, D, Ghana, Int, $774,996/$868,996*; 27 (7/13/90), 6'2"/183 3. Pedro Santos, M, Portugal, DP/Int, $747,600/$794,600; 30 (4/22/88), 5'6"/139 4. Gyasi Zardes, F, USA, $630,000*; 26 (9/2/91), 6'1"/187 5. Will Trapp, M, USA, HG, $500,004; 25 (1/15/93), 5'8"/150 6. Harrison Afful, D, Ghana, GC, $288,100/$335,600; 31 (7/24/86), 5'6"/135 7. Milton Valenzuela, D, Argentina, YDP/Int, $282k/$313.3k;19 (8/13/98), 5'6"/145 8. Gaston Sauro, D, Argentina, GC, $213,750; 28 (2/23/90), 6'3"/185 9. Artur de Lima Junior, M, Brazil, Int, $210,000; 22 (3/11/96), 5'11"/154 10. Josh Williams, D, USA, $200,000; 30 (4/18/88), 6'2"/185 11. Mike Grella, M, USA, $195,300/$197,550; 31 (1/23/87), 5'11"/180 12. Mohammed Abu, M, Ghana, Int, $175,008/$181,258, 26 (11/14/91), 5'7"/150 13. Hector Jimenez, D-M, USA, $159,996; 29 (11/3/88), 5'9"/145 14. Zach Steffen, GK, USA, $145k; 23 (4/2/95), 6'3"/190 15. Ricardo Clark, M, USA, $125k; 35 (2/10/83), 5'10"/165 16. Eduardo Sosa, M, Venezuela, Int, $100k; 21 (6/20/96), 5'7"/165 17. Adam Jahn, F, USA, $97,500, 27 (1/5/91), 6'3"/201 18. Jon Kempin, GK, USA, $80,256; 25 (4/8/93), 6'1"/175 ---------- 19. Christian Martinez, M, Panama, Int, $68,915/$73,415; 21 (2/6/97), 5'7"/174 20. Lalas Abubakar, D, Ghana, Int, $68,250/$75,750; 23 (12/25/94), 6'0"/180 ---------------------- * = salary has been paid down with allocation money. Martinez, and/or Abubakar could also occupy a Supplemental Roster spot (I believe). Or Hansen could be the Senior Roster guy & Lalas/Christian the Supplemental. --------------------- II. Supplemental Roster: 21-24. Can be filled by GA players (who are all supplemental until they graduate), players making the senior min ($67.5k in 2018), homegrown players making up to $125k more than the senior min, or designated superdraft eligible players. Players here must make at least the Senior Min. 21. Edward Opoku, F, USA/Ghana, GA, $75k/$96k; 21 (8/1/96), 5'7"/140 (Loan) 22. Nico Hansen, M-F, USA, $68,250/$75,750; 23 (9/14/94), 5'10"/170 23. Logan Ketterer, GK, USA, $67,500; 24 (11/9/93), 6'3"/180 24. Open If we sign players making more than 65k, then some of the 65k guys will get moved down to Supplemental (Kempin, Martinez, Abubakar). ---------------- III. Reserve Roster: 25-28. Can be filled by: players making the reserve min salary ($54.5k in 2018), or homegrown players making up to $125k more than the reserve min. Reserve players must be 24 or younger during the league year. 25. Conor Maloney, D, USA, $55,654; 23 (5/18/95), 5'6"/145 26. Luis Argudo, M, USA, $54,500; 22 (12/13/95), 5'9"/150 27. Ben Lundgaard, GK, USA, $54,500; 22 (9/25/95), 6'5"/205 (Loan) 28. Open ---------------------------------- IV. Homegrown Rosters: 29-30. Must be filled with Homegrown Players who make up to $125k more than the reserve min & must be 24 years old or younger during the League Year. 29. Alex Crognale, D, USA, HG, $95,004; 23 (8/27/94), 6'5"/205 (Loan) 30. Open -------------------------------- https://www.mlssoccer.com/league/official-rules/mls-roster-rules-and-regulations ---------------------------------------- IV. Designated Players: 3/3. Higuain, Santos, Valenzuela (Young DP) --------------------- V. Internationals: 8/9. Mensah, Santos, Valenzuela, Artur, Abubakar, Abu, Martinez, Sosa. VI. Green Cards = 3. Higuain, Afful, Sauro. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLS_International_Roster_Slots
Piatti for Lalas Abubakar and $1.2m in TAM/GAM. Gives Montreal a young but proven CB who can start for a decade, a king's ransom of cash, opens a DP slot. Makes the Crew arguably MLS Cup favorites. Win/win.https://t.co/ODZ4Yi4n55— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) May 22, 2018 I don't know if I hate or love this idea.
Piatti for Lalas Abubakar and $1.2m in TAM/GAM. Gives Montreal a young but proven CB who can start for a decade, a king's ransom of cash, opens a DP slot. Makes the Crew arguably MLS Cup favorites. Win/win.https://t.co/ODZ4Yi4n55— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) May 22, 2018 Piatti in and Lalas out? That is a huge move. Wish I wasn't just on mobile now. EDIT: It is just a thought experiment from Doyle.
Something about great minds. EDIT: I'm pretty sure this deal isn't happening. Doyle is just tossing it out there. Also, ya know, I doubt Fratboy wants to pay Piatti's salary.
I freaked out when I read this haha. Short answer: no. Long answer: nnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Piatti is 33 and on $4.7 million a year. We'd have him for this year, maybe one more at 34? Besides the obvious fact that Precourt won't pay that money, do we really wanna break up our defense? It's actually good finally, and now we'd just say fvck it? Maybe is Piatti was 30 or 31, but not at that age.
I have no idea if we have enough GAM/TAM to send that much to Montreal and still have enough to pay down Piatti to below DP level as we're already as the max. Interesting though. Is Piatti even able to fit with Pipa on the field? I think of them as playing the same spot. Maybe Piatti is a bit more left winger? Interesting speculation. I'd prefer a Piatti for Mensah straight up kind of deal though
Piatti for Mensah and Abu I'd be all over Piatti and Pipa are different. Piatti is a sort of #10 left winger. He's right footed, so he's always looking to cut inside and create or shoot. I don't see him stay wide and send in crosses often with his left. He doesn't have much pace either. A little, but nothing amazing. In that sense, he's a bit like Meram on the winger, though with much more skill and vision. Defensively though, Piatti will contribute nothing. Whoever he'd start over on the left, Valenzuela and Artur would have to focus much more on defending that attacking, which could be a problem. Hard to say, Piatti's offensive contribution could far outweigh his zero defending. Pipa obviously plays centrally and drifts, he could feed through balls to Piatti all day long. I honestly don't see Piatti as a pure central #10 though. Maybe if he wasn't 33 he could take over for Pipa, but Piatti always drifts wide. Bit like when David Villa went to Barca. Villa likes to drift wide left from central positions, then slash back inside. Barca figured they could just put him on the wing and it would all be good, and he's wasn't nearly as effective as at his previous club Valenica, since he didn't have the space to drift wide, messed up his game. Come to think of it, same thing happened with Thierry Henry when he went to Barca from Arsenal.
Wow more TAM and GAM that we can't do anything with . . . Not like they can turn that money in to pay Tony to leave the MLS. Or can we?
Re: Doyle putting this out there even if it is only an idea. He had been floating Finlay's name in trade deals (specifically I remember him mentioning Abdul-Salaam from KC, and coincidentally, Gahanna) for a very long time before he was finally moved. So even if he is just throwing it out, it wouldn't surprise me if he also hears things. As for Doyle's deal, even though I love Lalas, IMO we are deeper at CB than any MLS club I can ever remember. Even if Lalas is better than Crognale, Williams, and Sauro, we'd still be able to account for moving him on. Meanwhile, getting a Piatti type of player is critical for our wide attacking areas. If we didn't do this deal, we still need to address the position this summer anyway, either within the league or from abroad. Ultimately though, as others have pointed out, there is just no way in hell Tony will pay Piatti's wages. He probably wouldn't pay that much even in Austin. So I can't see it.
I think that would be more interesting. Plus, Santos' wages would help pay for Piatti's than Abubakar, considering one is on $750,000 and the other is on $75,000.
Honestly, when running thorough CB's in my head thinking about Abubakar's place in the depth chart, I completely forgot about Sauro. I love the guy to death, but I just don't see him coming back long term. Williams is a nice depth guy. Crognale has potential. Mensah is ok, but not great. I think Lalas is the best we have, and is nowhere near his potential. It would have to be a hell of a deal for me to be ok with trading Lalas.
Interesting also is that according to Doyle we're an All Star level winger from being MLS Cup favorites.
He actually picked us to win MLS Cup preseason. He was the only one of the site's pundits, if you can call them that, to do it.
I mean, top goal scorer (or second?) in the league, highest chance creator in the league, best defense in the league, and USMNT #1 goalkeeper. What more do we need to add?
Completely agree with your assessments. I'm just saying we have 5 center backs counting Sauro (which, I'm with you, I don't ever see him coming all the way back), which is a little odd in this league. Some teams barely have two.
And performance for $ ratio Lalas is kind of off the charts. He and Crognale could be a CB tandem for years and not break the bank for another couple at least.
Agreed. It's nice to be able to switch to 3 at the back when needed though. Could still do that with only 4 (fit) CB's, but I just don't like the idea of trading Lalas. By far highest potential of our CB's, and I think also our current best. His positioning and decision making can be rash at times, but Mensah is the exact same. Considering Lalas is what, like 6 years younger or something and only 1 full season as a pro, speaks to his raw ability.
Yep, long term that's what I'd like to see. Lalas using his athleticism to seek and destroy, and Crognale sitting back and mopping up the rest. With those two in the back, we'd win every single cross and aerial duel by a country mile. When Steffen leaves in the next year or two (hopefully two) having two dominate CB's will be crucial.
What if, in trading Lalas within the league, we insist on getting a cut of any transfer outside MLS? I ask because I seem to remember reading that he had a trial of some sort with Sporting CP of Portugal prior to going to Dayton. With his performances and potential it wouldn't surprise me if he is already on peoples' radars in Europe as it is.
Yeah, he said that in an interview once. I think the main problem there was 1) getting a visa to play in Portugal and 2) his wanting to get an education. Ultimately, IIRC, the visa issues sort of guided Lalas to America, and I think he either finished or is finishing his Master's in Engineering at UD. As far as getting a future cut of his transfer... other than Altidore's $10 million transfer fee to Villarreal, does anyone leave MLS for more than $5 million? And of course the league gets a cut. So, if at best, Lalas leaves for $5 million, Team X would get approximately $3.3 million. If we get 10-15% of that, that would be around $330,000 - $500,000. Not chump change, but when taking into account the extra wages we'd pay for the player we'd trade for (like Piatti for example) then we end up well in the negative. And considering he's a defender, I find a fee that high being most likely unrealistic. If we trade him within the league, I want a DP or close to it in return that we would get multiple good years out of. A transfer abroad is a transfer abroad, it happens.