The FC Dallas Thread

If I'm Dallas I'm dropping Reynolds from the roster and selling Pepi to Europe like they did with Richards. They don't have much talent in the 04 and 05 group but Matthew Cochoran and Kevin Kelley are the next up who are a year or two away from them probably trying to sign them.

 

I understand why you are using it, but it's unfortunate that this is the cliche that comes up here. This is not "love and war." This is the business of player development, sport, and growing the game. Clubs should be able to compete with each other while treating players fairly -- I'm not talking about going to extremes like paving the way for a current player to leave your program or rewriting contracts every season for over performers. There is a middle ground, a meritocracy where proud clubs recruit and develop players as assets while still doing what is right for them and the game. This does not mean bending over backwards to ignore business or competition, but it's too bad these territory rules create such restrictions on players that they allow clubs to see a player who they have never had any influence over as an asset that they can control. On the other side of the coin, it's too bad that there is such a real possibility for clubs that invest in a player for years to lose that player for nothing. These things need to be addressed from the top to encourage better business and competition, not love and war.

 

I agree on selling Reynolds. If they didn't have this huge midfielder injury, national call up issue I'd also move on from Cerrillo and throw all the money at Tessman.

The problem is FCD started throwing 100k at 15 year olds and now every 15 year old thinks he deserves 100k+. The vast majority of prospects around the world at even the best academies don't get that kind of money till they play 1st division games. And no youth national team call ups don't mean you deserve to get paid better than half the professional soccer players on the planet. People are acting like anywhere from 40-80k per year for a 15 or 16 year old is insulting are delusional.

Again I go back to Spurs. Japhet Tanganga was considered the 2nd best CB prospect at the club. He had multiple England youth national team appearances at several levels. He was considered a rising star at Spurs and his academy contract was 1k per week on a 3 year deal with a club option 4th year. His age for those years 18, 19, and 20. He's since made several first team appearances and played well. He's probably the reason Jan Vertonghen isn't going to be re-signed. Now that he's established himself he's going to get a new contract at a reported 15k per week.

In a fairly free market system with no cap this makes a lot of sense. In a system with a hard cap, bizarre 2nd contract rules, territories etc not every good player is going to get a big raise. FCD prioritized Pax and Ferreira. Now Cannon is underpaid. I have no idea what they offered him. Probably 200k+ or something like that and Reggie absolutely should turn that down, if they demanded more years on the deal. I understand why he would and why FCD would say that's a fair start at negotiations.

Now his agent needs to go work his ass off and get Reggie a better deal by either signing with a new team or providing an offer that forces FCD's hand. It's a business. Everyone wants to bend over backwards for the kids and I get it. I encourage every team in the US to give kids opportunities but equating 80k and all the national team opportunities to put yourself in the shop window as prison is wrong.

 

FCD just picked up Reynolds option and his salary is league minimum.

He is competing at RB with Twumasi and Munjoma to be the backup to Cannon, so that is 4 of 10 reserve spots at RB.

See who wins the back-up job and then see if you can loan out at least one of them to free up a spot.

 

that's too bad for Reynolds. Was hoping to see him get a chance to leave and go overseas. If he is shipped to a USL Championship side, that could be the beginning of the end for him.

 

He isn't good enough for overseas. At most he is a USL championship player for me. He may as hell collect the biggest check he can get.

 

Agree.

Honestly think a lot of these players are overpaid.

Who else would pay a prospect like Edwin Cerrillo 100K or a 15 year old like Reynolds 70K?

I remember seeing players like Mendez and Llanez were on 10K a year in Europe. Gooch was on 1K a week when he was playing in the EPL.

The biggest difference is that once a player is established like Cannon they don't typically just leave them on the small salary even if they are under contract. Gooch got bumped fairly quickly after the first year to ~4K I believe.

 

Curious if you’ve seen Kelley play much? I’ve seen him play a few times and from what I could tell he’s all hype. I think between the 3 games he lost the ball all but maybe three times. Didn’t seem to have any tactical awareness or the ability to beat average 05 defenders. Maybe it was a bad weekend.

 

As I can't imagine Cannon's price be below $5M signing him for anything below $1M would be a great deal compared to losing him for free.

 

Again...................folks need to tell me what transfer offers were received for Cannon in the January window.

If you don't know, then the whole discussion is moot.

The FCD general manager moved to the club from Gremio in Brazil. He previously held the same position at Santos. He knows how this dance with European transfers works. He's the guy that sold Neymar. He's not just going to give the club's best players away.

Reggie Cannon is under contract. He signed that contract. If a European club makes an offer that meets the club's evaluation, then they'll probably sell him. That doesn't appear to have happened in January. We don't know the details, but we've heard FCD offered him a contract extension with a higher salary. The parties haven't been able to come to an agreement. Isn't this very common in the sport? I don't understand what all of the debate is about.

 

People are missing the point. There is not debate.
Nobody asked for Cannon sympathy. It is a young league, there are many kinks. This is a kink, Look, there are many paths. Players should have many options. If they are trained by FCD and choose to ditch them, we should not feel sorry for them given the current system. That is ridiculous. If they play for Solar and want to play in the MLS it is crazy that FCD is their only option other than college. What if you are an up and coming Right back in the academy system right now in the DFW area and you want to play in the MLS. Look at the Right back depth currently with EM and BR also. There have got to be better ways. Somehow....there is immense sadness for FCD when a player chooses to not sign with FCD. Again, it is not a great system but it is the system. If FCD does invest in a player and then they leave and get a better deal in Europe at 18yo it is fair game. FCD will win some and lose some. FCD has won on many but cannot expect to win them all. That is the nature of the game. Nobody should feel sorry for them at all. So no tears for Cannon and no tears for FCD. So no debate about club or player exercising their rights in the current system. Perhaps the debate is more is this the system the league wants? If they do, then nobody should shed any tears if players choose options that don’t benefit FCD. FCD is protecting itself but players need to protect themselves as well.
Remember these quotes “All is fair in love and war” and “it is a business.“
I maintain the all these young players need to see themselves as a business. Do what is best for the business.

All I stated is that Cannon has a goal that is no secret. The league has few ways to deal with that goal at his age. This is a kink. There are other kinks in the MLS. This is just a fact or a statement. Not a debate, not whining. A fact. It is what it is. There are many kinks in the league. Cappis had one. It is working out for him.

The other point is that the poor media job of stating that he has turned down multiple offers over the years. Media needs to ask if it was a formal offer or just talk. If it was talk....should never be reported. If a club states they have given a player multiple offers and he has turned them down I expect the media to follow up with the player or the agent to determine the validity of the claim by the club. I realize many clubs have their media outlets but there are got to be some independent reporting and fact checking.

 

He looks ready to be playing first team games. Too bad he'd prefer to play college football instead.

1227958469464141824 is not a valid tweet id

 

Question about homegrown rights. Let’s say a player lives in galaxy territory. Moves to Orlando territory. Doesn’t play for either. Does Orlando acquire his rights as soon as the family moves? Now let’s say Seattle is interested in signing him. If the family moves there can they automatically sign him? I know you have to be in the academy a year to be signed as a homegrown. Can they sign a minor not as a homegrown? Can they sign an 18 yr old not as a homegrown? And do galaxy or Orlando maintain any sort of rights if the family has moved?

 

I'm not so sure it's all that bad to wait another year -- you become a free agent and can sign anywhere. Just look at Erik Palmer-Brown, who's probably very well-paid with City bucks.

Certainly you'd prefer to make those bucks earlier, but ultimately the people who are most hurt by MLS teams' inability to sell homegrown players are the MLS teams.*

*(it's weird that MLS teams are able to sell foreign players readily -- four this year alone -- but seems to have zippo idea how to sell domestic players. Ultimately some domestic player is going to have to pull a Fabian Castillo just to prove a point.)

 

Galaxy signed Julian Araujo as a minor not as a HGP, but he had joined their academy, but it hadn’t been close to a year when he signed with them. He is from an unaffiliated area.

You can definitely switch academies if the family moves, but one team can’t recruit out of other teams territories. At this point though nothing sketchy has happened like the family moved so the kid can sign with team, so no reason for it to become a story. Chad Letts moves from Union one year to Atlanta the next and then signed in Belgium. Most high profile I can’t think of.

 

If there are no good offers for Reggie right now and he wants to move to Europe as soon as possible I'd like a compromise of the club signing him to a big raise and extension but with a buyout figure that is part of the contract (I don't understand why there is no offers - if true - for a hard nosed, fast, physical and technical back who appears to now be a US Men's team regular). I'd like for Reggie to get his move and the club to get some money for him. I'd like a bunch of those type of contracts to be made for all the kids when they sign. Keep it transparent. Everyone knows the number needed for a move and your agent can go after it. If it doesn't happen the club doesn't get blamed. If it does the club must abide by the agreement and let them go for the contractual amount.

 

Thanks. So just to clarify. If a kid is living in Orlando territory and Seattle wants to sign him the family moves to Seattle he immediately becomes part of their territory and then can sign him to a non HG contract or wait a year and sign him to a HG?

 

On a separate note, happened to come across an American '04 named Nava who was with FCD, is now with Tijuana.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/nicolas-nava-at-tijuana.2108800/

 

I believe there were 2 or 3 2004 Dallas kids that didn’t make the U17 team this year and then went to Xolos.

 

Seems like Pomykal is just about back to training. Dealing with some other discomfort, but is almost there. On another note, not really discussed in this column, Buzz reports that Thomas Roberts has been dealing with an ankle issue much of preseason. Probably why he hasn't been as involved as we'd hoped. [Also why I'm not over-reacting to the fact that Tessman is still working with the first team in preseason. Pomykal, Servania and Acosta have been out. Roberts not at 100%. They need midfielders. John Nelson has been getting lots of reps as a #6 as well.] Also worth noting #2...…..…...all signs point to '97s Nkosi Burgess and Cal Jennings getting first team contracts. FCD thus has two open roster spots. Franco Jara takes one when he arrives. So for all intents and purposes, this is the group. A VERY young group. 13 thread eligible players by my count. I'll do a depth chart analysis as we get closer to the first match.

#FCDallas Practice Observations: February 16 – Florida-bound ahead of the new season https://t.co/jWcEAX01ZI @Crooke86 with all the goodies from #DTID training.

— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) February 17, 2020

 

I hope Pomykal is fine to play at the start of the season and doesn’t re-aggregate anything. Would be disappointing to see him hit with the injury plagues our guys in Europe seem to have.

 

We're less than two weeks from the start of season. Pomykal and Servania have basically have had no pre-season, so I don't expect them to start on Week One. I don't think either will be in the 18 quite frankly. Bryan Acosta won't be either as he recovers from appendix surgery.

Unless Pomykal makes a miraculous recovery....................I'd expect the starting midfield trio to be Ferreira, Cerrillo, and the new Brazilian #6 Santos. Roberts available off the bench.