Unfortunately, I think most of SKCIIs best prospects moved on. Mushagalusa, Bunbury, Harris, etc. The cupboard is bare. The college draft has reached a point of being almost irrelevant. The first 5 to 10 players have a chance. Beyond that, its USL roster filler. This is why I get so upset seeing Academy players with SKCII contracts selecting college soccer over SKCII. In effect, it signals the end of their pro ambitions and a guaranteed zero ROI for SKC. Three more seasons of the goalless wonder playing as a "forward" (I don't care if it is center or wing) seems like a move in the wrong direction. LAFC bring on Bale to win games. SKC bring on Shelton to not. Not to mention the probability of yet another season of seeing the back line anchored (yes, pun intended) by the slowest man in MLS. The goalless wonder and slowest man in MLS...FFS Peter what are you doing?
Yep, I mean this is the SKCII roster as of now: Goalkeepers (1): Ethan Bandre Defenders (4): Aljaz Dzankic, Coby Jones, Mikey Lenis, Jahon Rad Forwards (2): Bakary Bagayoko, Josh Coan 3 HGPs listed as defenders 2 of them outside backs (Jones, Lenis). The 3, Rad was a defensive midfielder until this season. Dzankic is coming off an ACL tear. Of the other 3, all are 24 Bandre and Bagayoko both in their first pro experience. Coan at least came in with pro experience, but none of those 7 are close to ready, (I'll give Jones and Lenis time) or probably will ever be ready, to make the jump.
Buzz, have you noticed any legs to rumors that rosters will be expanded going forward due to the new competition in the summer and everything? I'd be surprised if it happened without a CBA negotiation, but it might also explain why unimpressive but cheap depth is being retained. Fontas is hardly my first choice, but major backline overhaul, to my experience watching this sport, basically never works out. It needs to be more incremental. And maybe with a real defensive midfielder this year, he won't be exposed 1v1 nearly so much?
Wow, so far the decisions to address defensive issues have been underwhelming. I really don't think the club is worse off if they don't sign Fontas. Could it really be worse if he doesn't return? I like both Voloder and Ford, but SKC must have their eye on a couple more experienced CBs to sign ( I hope).
Maybe Peter is thinking about moving Shelton to center back. Balls have a way of not going in the net when he is nearby so perhaps it could work.
Shaving Isi's contract off and whittling down Fontas's gives the team a good amount of space here, I think. If Fontas is brought back within a reasonable salary, then we really only need a 2/3 CB to challenge Ford/Fontas for the start. I'm not really sure what they should do about Voloder though, as he's going to be rabbling for minutes. A healthy Ndenbe and more time for Pierre to bake and I think the flanks look much better heading into 2023 at least!
Given the season he just had, I am curious to see the MLSPA number on his new deal. In 22, he was at $350,000. If ottering three years brought that down to under $250,000, which i think is very possible, he's good value. He can't light up MLS, but that salary number is not expected to. That said, it is what Agada is on, so ...
Given Fontas issues, I wouldn't think his testing of the market brought him much joy. If he's under the max number, and I would think he's probably have been offered around $450,000 given the contracts we were passing out last year, that's decent value. I wouldn't be surprised if they made the same offer to Fontas and Isi, in a kind of first one to say yes gets it. Isi probably see's more money being out there and would not mind taking the chance. Fontas knows he's at the end, and this is as good as it is going to get. He's still slow, but at least now he isn't slow and really overpaid. I wonder what number they used to bring Melia back? Looking at his new level and MLS keepers overall, I'd think $250,000?
Rereading this thread, it looks like Pulido has quietly disappeared. I enjoyed watching him on those few times when he was healthy. What happened?
Do you mean in regards to the waivers and options announced today? Or just in terms of people generally just talking about him?
shelton getting that new deal might be the dumbest thing i've ever heard of. that alone should be grounds for the termination of vermes as manager. shelton was an active negative for this team for much of the first half of the season, and basically his entire time here. he doesn't just not add anything to the team, he actively makes us worse. and vermes gave him an extension? i'm sorry. that's beyond the pale. and i'm not being hyperbolic here and just being over the top. i'm 100% serious. if you honestly think that shelton is an mls-quality player after what we all saw last season, then your judgement is so bad that you do not deserve to manage the team. period.
Keeping Shelton around for another 3 years is disappointing. I'm a little wary of Zusi's negotiation. Feels eerily similar to Besler. Would really, really, really like to see more of our tenured players finish their careers out with the team. As hard as I've been on Fontas in the past, he's been much better as of late and if they can agree on a considerably smaller number, that's fine.
Difference between the 2 is that in the release with the decision on Besler the club didn't say they were negotiating with him like they did with Zusi. https://www.sportingkc.com/news/sporting-kc-announces-roster-moves-ahead-2021-mls-season
Giving him a 3 year contract increases the possibility that he will score one more goal as an SKC player. The big difference is position. Outside back is maybe the most athletically demanding position. Besides the No.6, CB is the least. The decline of outside backs as they age is steep. I like Zusi, but he should only be signed if his contract reflects that he is our third or fourth outside back. . Same as Zusi. He is NOT an MLS starter. If he is signed as the fourth CB, fine. Anything else, no way. SKC have already dumped a ton of money into this guy. Time to move on.
Yeah, I'm aware of the mechanical differences, but it's still mid-November. If Zusi wants to play and SKC doesn't want to give him what he wants, it could quickly turn into a Besler situation on about the same timeline.
Can't disagree with anything there. This feels like a warped version of a sunk cost fallacy. The amount we've spent on him in the past shouldn't have much, if anything, to do with whether or not he's worth keeping on for $X in the future.
The Fontas move is Peter's single worst personnel decision over the decade plus he has been in charge of SKC. A center back with a guaranteed compensation package of over $1M in MLS should be an MLS All Star caliber defender. Instead, we got a guy that played a total of 18 games in his first three years with the club, and has not impressed in his last two when he was able to play injury free. Add to that, he's why Opara left. Considering how much has been invested into this player, I cannot divorce my opinion of his value to the club based on his lack luster past. Let me ask you a question, what are willing to keep him on the roster for? He's making $1.1 M now. That is half of what Walker Zimmerman made and comparable to what Aaron Long made. Those are national team CBs. Do we keep Fontas for $500K? That's Kai Wagner territory. That's one of the best LBs in MLS. How about $100K? Mamadou Fall makes that. Hes one of the best young defenders in league. So, is he coming back for 1/2 his salary? I'd take someone at the Wagner level. Is he coming back a 1/10 of his salary? I'd take a young CB like Fall. There are sooooooo many ways to spend money better in MLS than to retain Fontas in any capacity.
I do think that Zusi's value is much lower now than it was last year, when it was lower than the year before, etc back to the 23-31 peak years, when it was growing. I really do like Zusi, I was not a fan of him up top, but as a RB i thought he was exceptional (defensive issues, but massive in our buildup). But SKC is a business, and only a business, when it comes to who to retain and at what price. Zusi is not at 36 worth $450,000. He's closer to worth half of that. I'm not sure I'd re-sign for that if I were him. I'd like to have him as a break-glass in case of emergency squad member for 2023, but regardless of what we do now, I can't imagine his value being more than MLS minimum in 2024. If the sticking point is length of contract, I'm siding with SKC saying one year and no more.
To be fair on the Opara point, he left after a fantastic season with us, but also with a history of serious injury that made many on here question if he could be counted on. He was fantastic in his first season with Minnesota, then quite tragically, he was done. No matter what we'd done regarding Opara, we'd have long since moved on from him. We found a fix for Fontas ankle issues, no such fixes exist for RBI issues. I think Opara was smart enough to get out before it became a lifelong debilitating issue, but it really appears he was on the edge. Fontas, in the past two years, has played full time as a starter. That is something Ike could not have offered us. He has played at league elite level as a passer. He just sucks at the defending at a run element of the game.
Fontas is definitely hard to justify, looking at his time here as a whole. I do think he's been better than serviceable in the last two years, but with that price tag he ********ing well better be. I don't mind retaining him, but at a random offer I'd like to see his wages halved going into any new contract. Continuity is pretty important and I'm not excited to do another full defensive rebuild. I know you recognize this, but Vermes is Captain Struggle-Bus when it comes to signing foreign CBs. Collin is the only real success story, with a few others doing okay briefly. But with an expansion team in the mix and just the general glut of clubs, I'm not sure we can get a good CB (or pair of CBs) from other MLS sides. Couple that with the fact that we play a high line, demand significant passing range from our CBs, and tend to be a sieve up the middle... that's a lot of speed, intelligence, and technical ability asked for. Meaning, a high goddamn price at best. I dunno. I'd love to improve over Fontas. I'm just... I'm just not optimistic this club can. Side note, everybody would take Fall if they had the opportunity. Especially at that price point.
I have hopes that Voloder can be our Fall. Higher price tag version but I’d be fine with a higher price if he came good. If Voloder and Ford are right now the presumed starters I’d think it’s a back line with solid upside, great potential. That said Long or Callens would be interesting additions