New Zack City: Steffen at Middlesbrough (olf Manchester City)

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...istol-city-make-big-bid-crew-scs-zack-steffen

Subject of a 4 million dollar bid from Bristol City.

 

Work permit could be an issue, though he certainly has potential to be at the % of caps needed for a WP.

 

His “Rising” video made it seem like one of the reasons he left Germany in the first place was to be closer to his family

 

No he doesn't.

The US is 25th in the FIFA Rankings, so Steffen needs to have caps in 60% of our competitive matches over the past 24 months. Steffen has 0 appearances in competitive matches.

He might succeed on appeal, but he's as far away from automatically qualifying as he could be.

 

My fear is that he will end up like Juan Agudelo and spend a year and a half just trying to figure out his club situation after being denied a permit. It wouldn’t be the worst thing ever for him to go on loan somewhere in Europe like Juan did but it’s not ideal. Either way I think he’s ready for Europe because in my opinion he’s the best goalkeeper we have.

 

***Potential*** meaning he may get there at some point.

 

Ah, read it as has potential to be there now.

We don't have any competitive matches until next summer though, so we would need him to play in every Gold Cup match to get to 60% by the end of the 2019 summer transfer window.

That's assuming we stay in the top 30. If we fall from that, he can't hit the threshold until winter 2020.

 

That should happen. He’s clearly shown that he’s our best GK right now

 

Would Steffen even be interested in a move to Europe?

 

Tough spot. He's our number 1 right now, but I daresay that it's going to be hard to get into the national team in 2022 if you aren't playing in Europe. I get the feeling that he's going to have to move at some point to continue his upwards trajectory.

He can wait, though. He's only been in MLS for 2 years and can wait 1 or 2 more without any real danger of losing his spot on the roster. After 3 or 4 years back in the US, he could very well be ready for a new challenge.

Of course, the Crew might move to Austin and he'll be thousands of miles away from his family regardless, so he could move then.

 

I figured it was 1 of the positives about moving to Columbus.

 

If he wants to be #1, he'll need to be. Gonzalez will def be in Mexico or in Europe within a few years and we have already Hamid/Horvath fighting for no.1 at their clubs and Klinsmann (might only be a no.3 someday) but he's gonna be competition as well.

 

Damn. The Brits make it so damn difficult.

Didn't Andre Blake have some PL interest; but Jamaica is ranked so low that he couldn't get near a work permit.

 

I kinda wanna see him move in 1 year. Return to the Bundesliga (on the back of say 5-10 NT matches) or La Liga. We need a keeper to return there.

 

I’m not sure if he’ll be our best keeper by 2022 anyway. In general, I think it’s better for players play in Europe. Everybody is different tho, and maybe he just wouldn’t be comfortable there.

Personally, I think the only players we have who should play in England are the ones who grow up there, though. I just don't feel like it’s a good place for our players to play or develop.

 

Holy Robin Batman! Zack Steffen at Bristol City

 

A report from Bristol that doesn't do anything other than confirm that there are reports out of the US ... and the club *is* looking at a Finnish GK:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/two-goalkeeper-targets-come-light-1801528

 

It sounds like they want both.

Maenpaa is 33 and has spent the last three years as a backup for Brighton. He's only ever been a starter for five seasons -- four of those were the Dutch second division, one was the Eredivisie in a relegation season.

My take: if Steffen can't beat out this Finnish guy, he's not going to beat anyone out at any EPL or Champo club.

 

Yes, keepers are sort of different in that regard. The most important thing is steady playing time. There are enough scouts in MLS that if he performs there, a big 4 club will come pick him up (Friedel, Howard, Guzan); and he can do that too in the Championship (Hahnemann and Sommer). I don't see a big difference as long as he plays regularly. Of course, Zach will likely have some ther inputs as well: salary, family and personal concerns, etc.

 

This is not true as a blanket statement for young players any position, especially goalkeepers. The most important thing is continuing to improve and a goalkeeper can do that by just training at a higher level. I am not sure I would think much different between a move for Steffen to play at Bristol or be back up at a club like Everton. They would be very different situations and he would grow in different ways.

 

The source out of the US is the league. One could read a lot of different things into that. My take is simply that it is likely there is a least somebody interested in making an offer.

 

That is your opinion. I have heard many managers state the most important thing for goalkeepers is playing time. I have also herd our top keepers say the same thing. Take this quote from Tim Howard:

"Goalkeepers have to play as many games as they can, whether that’s in the park, with a travel team, as a guest player for another team. Play as many games as you can.

With goalkeeping, the amount of games it takes you to get to the highest level is a lot more. Why does a goalkeeper mature at age 30 when you have a striker who plays for Inter Milan at age 22? Goalkeepers need more games under their belt to be top-level than the average field player.

At a young age you’ll make a lot of mistakes – but that’s good because you learn from mistakes in a game. Mistakes in training don’t really count, because there are no consequences. It’s important for young goalkeepers to get in as many game-like situations as possible. Training is good, but games situations are more important."