Out of curiosity, how many USL games did you watch last year? The league has changed a lot in the last 2-3 years
If the loans only run until sometime this summer then I think it's fine. The article announcing the signing was not clear on that.
Remember Gutmam was offered and turned down a Homegrown deal. Loaning him to an MLS side given that Chicago “owns” his rights gets very, very messy. So the best option is a loan to Nashville. I’m not going to say take USL out of the equation but focus on the fact he will be managed by a MLS Cup Winner in Gary Smith. Aside from the Cup, Smith has a very respectable record in MLS. Nashville was also assembled a “FC Cincinnati-esque” USL roster that could see 5-7 players make the jump to MLS. It’s not a shit team. He will have competition. Maybe it’s not optimal he landed, temporarily in the USL, but if there’s a club to land at, it’s Nashville. As for Perez...well...I’ll save it for his thread
So what evidence do you have that USL is a good developing league? How many top players have successfully made the jump from USL to MLS in the last few years, and were more than just a journeyman? Top scorer from 2018 - Cameron Lancaster. From 2017 - Dane Kelly. 2016 - Sean Okoli. 2015 - Matt Fondy. Not exactly world beaters. I'm not saying Gutman won't develop a little bit, but you can't argue that his competition in MLS would have been much greater than in USL. And the way you get better is by playing the best, not playing against wash-outs from other leagues. Gutman got his big Euro contract, that's fine, but his development will suffer.
Aaron Long, Tyler Adams, Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, Chris Durkin, Sean Davis, Jeremy Ebobisse are the first few the come to my mind. There are a lot more
What's going on here? Club statement pic.twitter.com/3UPkkq4J9t— Nashville SC (@NashvilleSC) February 2, 2019
The Fire are mad that he's circumventing homegrown rights, I guess. What a stupid club. Edit: not really circumventing, because Nashville wouldn't own his MLS rights. This just seems like some petty bullshit on Chicago's part. Reiterating: what a stupid club. I have an old Celtic jersey laying around, maybe I should wear it the next time I trek out to their shithole stadium.
Sounds like the Fire got their panties in a wad. I had a thought the other day that what if Gutman really impressed at Nashville, they wanted him long-term and Celtic flipped/sold him to Nashville next MLS season. It could be reason the Fire, I am assume, put pressure on MLS to black the move. The HG player rules have to be fixed. If you offer HG a deal to a player, he turns it down, his rights should be forfeited. Or at the very least, if he is wanted elsewhere in MLS, someone pays compensation for those rights. You can’t hold players hostage.
Or MLS and US Soccer could get on board with solidarity payments. That way, there's a mechanism in place for one MLS team signing another's academy product. The whole system of teams owning player rights in perpetuity needs to die a fiery death.
As crazy as HG territory rights are, Nashville is currently a USL team. How can MLS block a loan to a separate league?
They can't. If Nashville wanted to accept the loan and the scorn that came from MLS as a result, they could. But MLS has a lot of leverage over Nashville; they could decide to nix the expansion draft for them, or reduce the amount of allocation money they get, or give them a ton of midweek home games in their first season, or restrict their appearances on national TV, or deny their future transfer moves. It's extremely shitty of MLS to prevent an American player from developing on loan in USL, but I understand why Nashville pulled out. They aren't absolved of blame though; they should have done this before most European transfer windows closed, so Celtic could send Gutman to the third tier of Germany or something. Now, they're left without many options. The blame here falls about 60% on Chicago, 30% on MLS, 10% on Nashville, and 0% on Celtic and Gutman.
Exactly. Nashville can’t be blamed. They wanted a player they believed could help them and used a proper mechanism accepted around the world to acquire a player. Nashville were backed into a corner. This is all on the Fire and MLS.
Have you ever heard the expression, "100 Senators look in the mirror every day and see a President?" I feel like it's applicable. "Every [independent] USL team looks in the mirror and sees an MLS franchise." I wouldn't be surprised if other USL teams won't take him. There are still open Euro windows though. Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine.
Yeah, this is one option I had been wondering about. I believe his last name is Jewish. And if that's the case then it wouldn't surprise me if any Israeli league teams have been looking into him. Perhaps @MHaifa1913 has some info.
I have to say that I am really confused by this cluster of player signings by Celtic and Rangers. You make a special appeal to the Scottish FA and say yeah, this guy will add to the league and then you loan them out to USL teams? Is something going on behind the scenes with a particular agent or agent group?
I don't think we know if they got approved work permits. It's possible they didn't, so they needed a place to park them for a year.