Our new centerback is a Beckham-rule player

Discussion in 'Atlanta United FC' started by SabreKhan, Apr 9, 2021.

  1. SabreKhan

    SabreKhan Member+

    Jun 25, 2007
    United States
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Alan Franco has officially signed, so now we are officially at Power Level 9000 at center back. Even if we have to use Walkes for international/injury backup duty, we're still in a pretty good place.

    We spent Designated Player money on a center back (and we'll be buying down Moreno to pay for it), and Robinson is a DP-level player who's still making rookie money. Essentially two all-stars at center back, with Guzan/Kann/Novo in the nets. If we have a defensive issue this year, it will come from the wings.

    We are also now fully stocked up with dudes named Franco.
     
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  2. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Not to mention we fired a Franciscus last season and loaned out another Franco just a few weeks ago!
     
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  3. GunnerJacket

    GunnerJacket Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 18, 2003
    Gainesville, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    For the most part I agree and am grateful for the depth in a year with so many international events. But let's see how he shakes out, first. Barco and Pity were supposed to all-stars, as well.

    D*** MLS cap rules and constraints! :p
     
  4. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I still wish MLS would reward clubs better with looser restrictions on the salary cap.

    +All HGP are forever cap exempt. (Other teams can purchase a percent of the HGP rights from 0-100%)
    +DPs are cap exempt players.
    +Loyalty rule: Each player can receive a 5% for each year with the team.
    +All domestics under the age of 30 are a percent cap exempt if they play a certain amount of minutes a year.

    If teams can build a super-club, let them.
     
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  5. SabreKhan

    SabreKhan Member+

    Jun 25, 2007
    United States
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I like the cap because it keeps us from being a four-team league. Or we could be Spain or Italy and be a two-team league. I do think the cap should be raised significantly to allow us to buy players on par with European leagues without them being labeled as DPs. The NFL has a salary cap, too, and nobody's complaining about how much they're getting paid in that league.
     
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  6. GunnerJacket

    GunnerJacket Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 18, 2003
    Gainesville, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I'm a cap guy, as well. I don't mind some flexibility but I don't want to see difference in roster values between the first and last teams on something like a 10:1 ratio, a la many European leagues. MLS' appeal is due in large part to the fact so many teams can compete, and I personally want to keep it that way. If a team can reach super-club status via smart investment and player development, rather than simply via buying power, then more power to them.
     
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  7. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    We could be something other than a four-team league (who are the four- us, LAG, and who else? I'm not sure Seattle wants to invest in a roster the way real clubs do. I don't know the finances of any other clubs) without a cap if the owners of those other clubs step up. If they don't, they deserve to win less. That's how the game goes.

    Forced parity isn't parity. It's nothing more than the result of limiting teams with ambition so that immature American fans who can't handle never winning anything will stay fans and spend money. Chelsea sold shirts and filled Stamford Bridge before they became a relevant club in the Prem. So did Man City. Spurs do it now. Leicester City coming out of nowhere and staying good has to count for something.

    What would REALLY be great is if every owner wanted to make his club as successful as it could be, and was willing to invest in the roster to see that happen. Maybe trouble comes when football is the owner's main business and they have to turn a profit. I see football as something a proper owner would enjoy being super competitive in without damage to their assets, because they're already rich enough to lose money to win trophies.

    A championship isn't something to be passed around like a canteen of water in the desert- it's something to be earned thru either knock out scouting and developing or thru investment in already proven talent, or a combo of both.

    That cartel is earning $$ for the owners, so they can pay the talent and still turn a profit. Besides, pointyball is an American sport, where caps are SOP. I pray FIFA doesn't allow MLS to influence and Americanize the global game.
     
  8. SabreKhan

    SabreKhan Member+

    Jun 25, 2007
    United States
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The English league still has a huge gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots." Not a single Burnley fan has any hope of ever celebrating a major trophy in their lifetime, or even realistically of watching their team in a Champions' League game. And that gap only widened with the advent of the Premier League and the Champions' League. The BPL and the Bundesliga probably have the best competition among the major European leagues, but if you're totally dependent upon the whims of some Middle Eastern oil billionaire to determine whether your team is competitive, that's just not nearly as fun.
     
  9. Mabee

    Mabee Member

    Liverpool FC
    United States
    Jul 26, 2017
    but isn’t that what everyone said about Leicester City? I think you just need management who are willing to try as opposed to being content with just being there. It helps to have renegade oil money but it doesn’t require it, you just have way less margin for error.
     
  10. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I just want the league to figure out a way that the teams with the best academies can decimate other teams. I’ve got no problem with Atlanta losing 15-0 to FC Dallas if Atlanta wants to neglect youth development and FC Dallas wants to master it. However, if Atlanta masters youth development, I don’t want to have to sell all our best players because of a couple dingleberry clubs don’t want to do their part and build their club from the youth up.
     
  11. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    It's "not nearly as fun" because you didn't grow up following the club near your house. Neither did I. We both grew up in a sports culture where you follow a team that may be hundreds of miles from you, and the rules were set up so nobody would have to spend 30, 40 years winning nothing. The best American counterpart I can give to soccer isn't American pro sports or even college sports- it's high school sports. You care because it's your town, or your part of a big city. I think that's how your Burnleys can still fill Turf Moor and the like. It's who they are, where they're from. It's bigger than just the results on the pitch. I hope it's that way for United fans when we don't play as well as we did the first three seasons.

    If there were no "haves" to hate on, or to aspire to be, that's when I think the game would suffer. Money's running the game now, and that's not going to stop anytime soon. We can run with it, or it can run away from us.

    When we announced in 2014, I expected a slightly more popular Silverbacks, playing somewhere like DMS, but without that safety-threatening piece of concrete at the damn 50-yard line. I was elated to know I'd have a Silverbacks I could see when I couldn't get to Atlanta, and I would have been just as happy with that as I am with the so much more that we have now.

    I don't care where the money comes from, oil or not, Middle Eastern or not, as long as the money is legally earned. As it stands now, I think most of the MLS owners are shorting the league by saving money.

    This, all day. Those "Haves" and "Have nots" change a bit over the years.

    As long as we have a dingleberry cap, teams will be selling their best young players regardless. We'd have gotten an offer we couldn't refuse for Josef after 2018 if he hadn't made it clear that this is where he wants to stay. If Dallas isn't a contender despite having the best academy in MLS, they're doing something wrong.

    It's pro sports.

    What do you consider youth? U-23? We do that. Bello is 19, Miles is now 24. We had Carleton and gave him as much time as we could. We have fourteen players at or under the age of 23 on our first team roster, and only one field player over 29 (Lisandro Lopez), who's probably here to play a year and then join the staff. We are young as hell. Do you want them to be Americans only? I ask because that won't help the NT, IMO. What helps the NT is for its players who are here to be competing against the best players MLS clubs can get. It's exactly the same principle as wanting them to go to Europe. Exactly. It doesn't matter if that's not the reason clubs go get foreign talent. It still helps.

    There is a way for the league to figure out how to make the academies matter more. That's to restrict the first team rosters to only those players who've come thru an MLS academy. But would you pay pro sports money for that product? Would you want to see that team go to the CCL and get beat like women used to beat wet laundry on a sun-heated boulder? I'm down with it if you can make the rest of the planet follow the same guidelines. But you can't. And we can't play in a bubble, much as I think the bigwigs at MLS would like us to. We have to step outside MLS if we're as successful in MLS as we'd like to be.
     
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