Araujo has to play with the ball by himself in LA while FIFA, Barca, MLS, and the Galaxy sort things out Julian Araujo is training on his own currently#LAGalaxy @TheStrikerNews pic.twitter.com/dUxcoUlJvy— Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) February 2, 2023
Updates on Julian Araujo’s transfer to FC Barcelona - Next 24 hours will give us FIFA Verdict per Vanney- Araujo training on his own- LA have begun talks with potential replacements Full details live on @TheStrikerNews #LAGalaxy https://t.co/Et4fKHNR4C— Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) February 2, 2023
Damn, does this mean I’m going to have to start learning the names of my local (if 3 hrs drive is local) Charlotte team?
From a FIFA spokesperson: "FIFA can confirm that the transfer of the player Julian Araujo from LA Galaxy to FC Barcelona was not completed in line with the applicable regulations." Just soul-crushing for Araujo. #lagalaxy— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) February 3, 2023 Not sure next steps, but it could be they sign a pre-contract for the summer window, which I think we can still do for outbound players. In reality, this would be better for the Galaxy (except for the loss of some compensation associated with the next few months) since we would have him while we still have a few months of the transfer window to find a replacement and he would be motivated to play well knowing that Barca is watching. Worst outcome is Barca looks elsewhere altogether, Araujo loses his chance with them, stews about it, and loses his chance to go elsewhere too while we have a player who has lost focus and is being paid pretty high wages.
Soooo.... just for clarity's sake here. Are they just officially confirming somebody screwed up which is what it seems like, or, are they responding to the request to allow the transfer to go through given the 18 second gap? Are we still waiting for FIFA to decide if the deal is truly f-up?
If this was MLS' fault and not LA Galaxy's fault, then I feel like MLS owes the Galaxy some compensation. Their ineptitude causes us to have a disgruntled player on our team that will probably have a hard time getting over this.
I mean, it's a good point you make. I'll take the lifting of the summer transfer ban so we may look into placing Araujo with Barca or another team. It's only fair. I'll go in so far as to propose Klein get a full year ban to compensate on the punishment. Throw in Kirovski. Whatever gets it done.
FIFA was just ruling on an appeal filed by Barca (and presumably MLS/Galaxy). They basically just said late is late.
As I said before on this thread, the fault lies originally with Barca, which came and presented this deal very late in the window (once the Bellerin deal was done), low-balled the Galaxy, and then took too long to get to the still cheap deal that they eventually agreed to. To the extent that MLS took too long to approve (and I don't have any evidence of that), it's basically something the parties knew would be an extra layer of time and they probably pushed the negotiations too far in getting them the documents.
As long as that is the case. What if, pure speculation, it was a total F up from the MLS office. Like their power went out or the key person was stuck on the toilet or something? Seems like that would be MLS harming the Galaxy out of their own incompetence. Kind of a flaw in the MLS system where the fault can end up on a third party in what should be a two party deal.
If it really is the fault of MLS' process, and it's more than a single person or a single incident, then this would happen routinely, owners would be irate, and they would fix it because MLS is just a single entity with the team owners serving as the governing body. I just think this is a situation where if you negotiate up to the last minute (or last hour or whatever), you're playing with fire.
I doubt that we will ever find out the truth of whether MLS screwed up or not, but in either case, I think Benny Dargle is right that Barca (who admitedly has financial difficulties) tried to take advantage of the Galaxy's desire to please Julian with low ball offers tied to a loan that were very bad for the Galaxy. IMO, no transfer is better that a bad transfer, as I think Julian would want to show that he is a worthwhile, up and coming player and not a "salvage of disgrunted player" going into the next transfer window. FWIW, I think a summer transfer for Julian is also bad (because of the Klein sanctions), as the Galaxy are hurting for GAM and TAM funds now and getting them when the Galaxy can't use them does them no good. At this point, the Galaxy need to do something about their lack of a young DP. Araujo, Alvarez and Joveljic are TAM players without the U22 Initiative rule. That's over $800k in cap and GAM/TAM funds that they would need to account for if they sign a regular DP. With the sanctions, I don't know if they have the funding to fully stock their roster if this happens.
If we keep the third DP slot open, Araujo, Alvarez and Jovelic's salaries remain at the $200K budget charge (instead of their actual $600K+ levels). They also remain there if we sign a young DP. It's only if we sign a regular DP as the third DP that we have problems. So, right now we are still OK even if we don't get a Young DP or if we get rid of Costa and sign a full DP replacement for him. https://www.mlssoccer.com/about/roster-rules-and-regulations
Sounds like Barca and the Galaxy are working on something like Option #1 from my prior tweet 🚨 Julian Araujo 🇲🇽According to @samuelmarsden, the Julian Araujo transfer saga is far from over. Despite the transfer being blocked by FIFA, both parties are still actively seeking alternatives to remain together. It could mean a guaranteed transfer in the summer. ☀️ pic.twitter.com/omZAqfM5Jc— Javier Perez (@offjavi) February 3, 2023 The lesser version of that would be Araujo just training with Barca until the summer window opens up, but I can't imagine that would be great for him. Still, I suppose it would be no worse for us than if the sale had gone through, other than a slightly reduced summer fee. On the other hand, the "guaranteed" language in the tweet above might be in reference to the rumor that the change from a loan + buy option to a permanent deal still gave Barca an out that may have made it closer to the loan + option deal before. If that's the case, then a guaranteed deal, even for a smaller amount, could be better than the prior deal.
I agree with this, but I should have stated my working assumptions: That the Galaxy are down 2 wing players from last year (not to mention Costa's shortcomings) and need to get at least 1 quality replacement and preferably 2. That quality wings are probably not available on free transfers. Players available on on free transfers seem to be most likely to be either older players (who have lost pace e.g. Costa) or younger players whose clubs no longer view them as have any real growth potential (e.g. Grandsir when the Galaxy got him on a free from Monaco). The only exception being clubs who are facing a money crunch and need to unload salary. It is my understanding that any signing except for a young DP or U22 player includes a prorated portion of the transfer fee. Therefore, I don't know that they will be able to sign 1 much less 2 such players with their remaining Cap/GAM and TAM funds. Consequently, I thing that its likely that to address this need, the Galaxy will need to sign a young DP.
Yes, transfer fees are prorated over the life of the contract for purposes of salary cap. So anything much more than a million dollars in the transfer fee means the player has to take up a DP slot, since TAM singings are limited to 1.5million per year (unless you cheat like Chris Klein).
Totally fair point that in the context of our current roster, we need a lot of assets and not signing a Young DP or just replacing Costa still leaves us short a lot of assets. Only possible counterpoint to the transfer fee issue is that the market is a bit different right now because most leagues are closed to inbound transfers. That means if a team really thinks they will get a fat transfer fee, they are going to hang onto them until the summer window opens so they can drive up the bidding. Also, no one is selling a player now unless they already have a replacement on the roster, in which case the player is either a kind of a high price surplus asset or a young player who needs playing time. So, my assumption is that we're more likely to get free or low fee transfers (to get the wages off their budget) or loan players this time of year. We haven't done a lot of signings during this interim Euro transfer window period, but most have not involved transfer fees or very low fees: For example, we got Grandsir on a free transfer in March 2021, we got Raveloson on a free transfer in May 2021, we got Coulibaly in late April 2021 for a $91K fee, we got Favio Alvarez in May 2019 on a free loan, and we got Mika Vayrnen in March 2015 on a free transfer. I think we also got Lletget on a free transfer in May 2015, but I'm not positive (might have just been training compensation since he was a U21 player with West Ham) Cabral was the only exception with his $5.4m transfer fee. (ouch)
Apparently the big signing they were talking about for today is the announcement that we are signing Julian Araujo to a 6-month loan.
Look, I understand that he has aspirations of international success and is doubtlessly disappointed. But, to say this sucks for him as if he is a victim is just way over the top. Consider that if he played better early in the season, as Skydog pointed out, or didn't cost the Galaxy at least 2 games with bad defensive play then maybe Barca would have made an acceptable offer earlier and he would be in Spain today. Meanwhile he has to survive on the paltry $678k that he receives from the Galaxy. Life sucks. Somehow, I think you would also blame the Galaxy FO if they didn't bring in an MLS All-Star to replace him.
It does suck for him. I don't think anything you said takes away from the fact that he was literally packing his bags to go sign with one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world and then it failed by 18 seconds.
I understand this and his being disappointed but from what is public knowledge he isn't a victim. The Galaxy FO had an obligation to get the best compensation that they could for Julian. If they didn't and just let him go everyone would be complaining about how they let him go without enough compensation to bring on a roughly comparable replacement.
11 minutes + of vanney talk. Seems confident we will be adding players over next few weeks. not sure what injury is being referred to at the very end here.
So i If you believe Vanney, negotiations for Araujo didn't get serious until last weekend and the screwup was on the part of Barcelona (or their computer systems) and not the Galaxy or the MLS League office. FWIW, Kevin Baxter in today's Times referencing a Spanish website, Revelo, said that Barcelona was only going to pay the Galaxy $2.16mm for 50% of Julian rights with the same amount to come later at a date that was not disclosed. IMO, this really wasn't a great deal for the Galaxy given their financial crush (due to Klein). The fact that they accepted it, kind of demonstrates that they really weren't trying to stand in Julian's way of achieving his dream. If you doubt this look at TransferMarkt on the availability of replacement right backs and the approximately $6.5mm value they put on Julian.
So I’m away for a week, I come to see what’s happening, absolutely no player signings, and a complete screw-up on Julian Araujo. I can hardly imagine being in his shoes right now! You got into Harvard but your parents Activities Fee check bounced and they sent you home. The Navy is sending you and your family to Hawaii, but they change the orders to the Arctic at the last minute. I feel for him.