I love it by itself. The problem is that all the games this season will feature those stripes. They should have limited it to home or road only, so the games would have at least a smidgen of contrast. They're going to get around to that eventually. A GK kit, maybe? That would be cool... "The Gilded Guuuuuz will stymie youuuuuur efffffortsssssss..." I'd be cool with Bianchi Celeste on the road someday... Campagnolo as a shirt sponsor... one can dream... [/QUOTE]
Okay, we don't have THAT kind of extra money, but let's get some guys who are better than the league.
Do we have enough space to upgrade over Remedi? In my opinion, he’s probably our biggest liability right now.
We should. And we had enough money (and now even more with the new CBA) to have kept Gressel. But I think Gressel might have wanted too much that the FO wasn't willing to pay. I wonder what the FO is going to do with all that cap space available and where it will upgrade. And I think Larentowicz is our biggest liability, not Remedi, because of his age. Just hope someone from the academy steps up to the plate to take over Larentowicz spot. We really need more domestic talent in the team....but that's just me.
Let’s see if any of the young South Americans are coming, now they have all this money hopefully they use it wisely. I still think we need a replacement for Nagbe and versatile defender that can play on the left preferably left footed.
The upgrade or the liability? I'm thinking we're not going to do a lot more this year. We're a selling club at the end of the day, so our results matter less than our ability to help other teams get results. I hope to be proven wrong... it would be so nice if someone else in MLS took on the role of punching bag /developer for a while.
The whole MLS is a selling league, but in order to have something to sell in the future you have to buy young preferably U-20 if not U-23 that have represented their Country at the youth level. Case in point what we did with Barco bought him at the U-20 level and he represented Argentina at the youth level. When we sell him we should have a nice profit. So far this offseason we have not bought anything of value, anything that can be sold to double our initial investment. What the hell if our FO doing with all of the players that we have sold??? They are selling our starters and purchasing bench caliber players???
I’m afraid that our team is not looking to spend this year... resting on the hope that this team is good enough to get into the playoffs and also believing that’ll do enough to shut us up. I hope the FO hasn’t lost its ambition to be the best club that it can be. That will be quite a letdown for a club that could be the flagship of North America.
Not sure about that. I don't recall Seattle selling anything of value, and they were successful this year. I don't recall LAG selling anyone, unless you count Zlatan. What did they get for him? Then you want to let him go now (or in the summer) before he becomes a cog Sevilla or whoever can't rehab. And that may end any shot at another league title. Remains to be seen. No, we haven't. I said in another thread in this forum before you got here that this is the year for Barco to show the old Barco or his value may drop. I also said that if there were issues with players not showing the skills we bought them to showcase, the wallet may tighten. We don't know yet, and we won't until we either get some more starting talent or we don't. They're making money.
Jez guys, not every signing is a DP to buy, develop, and then sell (we only get three DPs btw). I like our core DPs and our signings seem quicker, faster, and/or younger than the journeymen players they are replacing. As for the fan favorites, Meza is a equal to LGP, Rossetto looks to be a nice, young, and veristile signing, and the FO is not done Relax everyone and lets watch a few matches before we hit the panic button.
If we keep reaching conference finals and losing or reach the final and lose, the FB-type fans will be complacent. MLS fanbases don't have the bit of clout that most clubs' fans have, because the institution isn't as all-encompassing culturally like it is in most of the rest of the world. I don't know anymore that we can really rise above the rest of this league the way other big teams do in other leagues. MLS is still actively trying not to allow anyone to become truly great (salary cap). We were born into a dog league. I don't question the FO's ambition, but I think it's going to be maybe more difficult than the FO thought it would be to keep the fleas off our skin.
I wish instead of a salary cap; which makes sense in other American professional sports but not necessarily in the global sport of soccer. And also made sense at the start of the league, or still on life support. But now, at 30 teams, and more knocking on the door, what’s the point? It seems like the league can stand on its own now. That said, why not just mandate something more radical that 50% of the roster must be HGP or something of the sort... to push teams to grow their own players? I’d like to see that path made for clubs to be able to become super clubs.
IMO, they want to stifle greatness at the top because there is no pro/rel, so deadbeat owners can just stand pat and watch the fans dwindle. Between that and having five or six teams not being able to fill 80% of a 20K stadium (2019 wiki), I think they're still very concerned about a team or two folding. With pro/rel, if you're cheap, you will be deservedly relegated and someone with ambition will replace you. That's how it should work, but we ain't getting pro/rel. We can't become a super club growing domestic talent. MLS would still be hotly contested, but we could write off the next ten or fifteen CCLs and any hope of seeing attractive football if that were to be implemented. Some teams have to grow their own players, some can afford to buy better players than the average. That's the nature of the game Without MLS' meddling to suit their parity lust, we're firmly in the second category. There's no way on Earth any MLS academy is going to develop anything like the lineup we had in 2018. We had that lineup and the success that came with it because we have an owner who cares and a FO that was willing to go out and get talent from real footballing cultures instead of waiting for the culture to mature enough to make a HG-heavy club both successful and attractive. I love what the combo of concern and money has done for Man City and Chelsea. In every league, there are teams who have access to more of both than most of the rest of the league. I just don't think we as a nation are ready to equip thirty clubs with talent worth watching.
Bello hurt again at the beginning of the season. This now means he's dealt with injuries the three seasons he's been with the first team. I know he's still young, but how long until you have to ask if his body just isn't up to professional sport?
Bello sustained a head injury, which isn't the same as your body breaking down due to the stress of the game. Looked like he might have taken a blow while trying to win the header and then slammed his head to the turf when he hit the ground. A very scary scene, but I am glad he has been released from the hospital and it looks like it is 'just' a concussion rather than some sort of spinal injury. I am not down playing the seriousness of a concussion, I had a few in my playing days, but he should be back in a couple of weeks. On a positive note, he looked pretty good until that point, granted it was with the second team playing against Birmingham's B-team.
A couple of other notes: Matheus Rossetto looked very good in the second half connecting on passes with second team players he just met and has never played with. He has silky smooth ball skills and his able to work his way out trouble, seems like he has the ball on a string tied to his boot at times. Apparently he also has a cannon of a shot. Beautiful foot work on the goal. I am really looking to see more of him. Based on Conti's play-by-play call his name is pronounced 'Hossetto', I better learn to pronounce it correctly as I think we are going to be singing his praises this season. For those worried about the academy prospects, Tyler Wolff impressed me. He looks so much like his dad, if he develops into half the player his future is bright. George Campbell shows promise, looking forward to following his progress. If was fun to see Anderson Asiedu again.
Rumors out there stating United are in on Manuel Castro. https://www.transfermarkt.us/manuel-castro/profil/spieler/335984 A Uruguayan playing in Argentina, 24 year old right sider. Midfield/winger type. Stories claiming it would be a 6 month free loan with an option to extend, or purchase, at a cost. https://infocielo.com/deportes/nota/92421/manu_castro_afuera_del_banco_y_con_las_valijas_listas/ Some other interesting stories mention that FdB was looking to bring in Urby Emanuelson from FC Utrect but didnt get it done. The interesting thing about this cat is that he's a vet on his way down. 33 year old that made his may across multiple European leagues https://www.transfermarkt.us/urby-emanuelson/profil/spieler/20586 *edited to add Castro article
Urby Emanuelson is a product of the Ajax academy and played for de Boer on Ajax's first team, so Frank will know him well. He played left back, left midfield, and left wing. His contract expires this summer, so it is possible we could sign him during the summer transfer window if we still need help on the left.