I know some of you guys don’t think highly of this Twitter account and I respect that, but I wanted to document this. Good news for MLS homegrowns: Not saying Andrew Carleton will be at the level of Alphonso Davies or Tyler Adams (and he just might be) but he already has FC Porto and Juventus on his tail checking out his game tape. Porto have been tracking him since early 2017.— MLS Transfers (@MLSTransfers) July 21, 2018
I do make a point of mentioning that every time I see one of these tweets, but thank you for posting regardless.
The stuff he says just smells of BS. Those are extremely random teams, just the same ones that wanted EPB. If he goes anywhere, it'll be northern Europe, and I'm betting the Netherlands.
A couple of reasons, all of which are purely opinions, but I feel pretty strongly about them having watched Carleton for so long now. First off, Carleton comes across as a guy that needs friends and/or family to be happy. I don't think he would do well if he went to Portugal or Italy because of just how alone he would be. Our players tend to do better in northern Europe from that standpoint. Germany has been hard for some, but there's a ton of kids his age over there now. Along with that, from what I can tell, the Netherlands has been pretty good for most. On top of that, the type of player he is is extremely particular. His main attributes are how good he is on the ball, the balls he plays, and the space he finds. He's top class at those things, but he doesn't have many other things to offer. I think it's obvious that the more technical and less physical a league is, the better Carleton would do. England would be awful. Spain, France, and Italy would be alright, but again, I think the culture and isolation would be an issue. The Bundesliga might be a good fit, but I tend to think that it's rare for a player to go from an MLS first team to that high of a level, especially when you're a player of Carleton's ilk. If he then had to go down to the 2. Bundesliga, I then worry he's in another league that's too physical and not technical enough. Hence, the Netherlands. I think they'd be a little worse for Carleton to be comfortable at than Germany and especially the US, but definitely the best place for his play style to develop and get playing time. There's always playing time to go around for a diminutive attacking mid there, everyone speaks English, and all the good stuff. I'd love for him to go to pretty much any team in their top flight. However, I've always maintained that Atlanta is the perfect place for him right now *if* he plays. He loves it there, the players around him are good enough to complement him, and the team is good enough to play a possession style. I think MLS has a lot to offer him right now, but again, that's only if he plays. Otherwise, the peace of mind he gets from being around friends and family all the time can't compensate enough for the lack of development he'll get on the pitch.
I didn’t think he played as well Saturday as he’s capable of, but he looks like he has improved a bit. He is much more active on both sides of the ball. He’s covering more ground than he used to. He gave the ball away too much and didn’t seem comfortable with the pace of the game or how much better the defenders were at this level, but those are things he can improve upon with a little more experience. The only league I’d say he wouldn’t be a good fit in is the Premier league. I’d think he’d be just fine anywhere else based on his playing ability. I’m not sure about his mentality and how that would translate, but I don’t think we can ever really know that before hand.
He is currently in a great situation for his development. He trains and occasionally plays with some outstanding attacking players for one of the most respected managers in this hemisphere, plus he gets to play some additional games that matter for ATL2. And because he’s in MLS he’s also getting to play in more youth national team games than a comparable youth player in Europe. What more could we want for him at this point?
I don’t want to be an ass or argue about this for the 200th time this month (with about the 200th different person) so I’ll just say that I vehemently disagree with just about every word of this post.
Not European but this is interesting. Apparently AC went on trial when he was 13 or 14 with Tigres UANL (team name is incorrect in the linked article). Also was on trial with Man City, but "[W]hen I was at Man City, I made some sort of connection with an agent. I didn’t have a European passport,” he said. “There was no MLS team here at the time, so we were looking for other professional options, and Mexico was one of them, so we kind of got that lined up.” https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/07/30/mls-homegrown-teams-andrew-carleton-once-went-trial-tigres
Apparently Andrew's agent is shopping him to European teams. This was posted by one of the American owners of Danish second-tier team Helsingor, who made a point to show the agent's letter that attempts to distance Andrew from Trump's insurrection. I'm assuming his tweet means Helsingor passed. 1360237332998234115 is not a valid tweet id
To be somewhat fair to Carleton, do we know if he actually went to DC and didn't just tweet about it? Either way, with his career already circling the drain, expressing support for an insurrection might have killed it off completely. He won't be worth the hassle for anyone in the US or Western Europe to take a chance on him. He might need to try Russia, Hungary, Turkey, etc.
I think he said he was going, but if he was among those who stormed the capitol, we'd know with how much of it was filmed. However, yea, he was already a risk competitively and socially. Now he's tanked his value even further. Makes Adu look like the consummate pro. Gardner's club was my prior suggestion for him, ironically. That bridge is burnt. I thought of random Eastern Europe too. In position to gamble & wouldn't care about his views.
The only thing we know is he posted an instagram story at like 4 AM that morning of him driving on the freeway to DC?
Nice touch in the document noting his lack of an EU passport twice and explaining away disciplinary issues as something "that all youth players have encountered in their careers". Seems like a real, professional effort on the part of his agent, AKA Uncle Bill.
It really is a terrible effort by the agent. Almost seems like a breach of fiduciary responsibility. Like, why bring the Trump stuff up at all? As much as I hate Trump, there are millions of non-violent Trump supporters. (Why, I don't know.) Why tarnish the kid by brining that up?
Most of this, I’m sure is Carleton’s fault but I’m also sure Atlanta United (my club, by the way) is one of the worst possible clubs for academy prospects. Honestly, if I had a kid who was good enough, I would forego Atlanta, and try to sign either with FC Dallas, closer to home - Nashville or Charlotte, or abroad.
Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD. ”new beginnings in 🇨🇷 pic.twitter.com/CFfh6DzdC1— Andrew Carleton (@andrewcarleton7) September 12, 2021 Signs with a Costa Rican 1st division team