Felipe will be missing more time... #SKC MF Felipe Gutierrez has undergone surgery. Gutierrez missed last 4 preseason games & 2 reg-season games w/ what Vermes called a "bone bruise" on his knee.Translation: "Here we go again! 😏😏😏😏 but with more faith than ever that we will rise again stronger than before!" pic.twitter.com/D4iOMGOm0V— Aly Trost Martin 🏧 (@AlyTrostMartin) June 9, 2020
too bad he didn't have the surgery back when they were first holding him out. he'd already be a third of the way through recovery.
It's possible the surgery wasn't known to be necessary at that stage in his recovery ... or there was a setback recently during individual training that caused this ... hard to make the jump to assume they just waited for the sake of waiting on this surgery. Also, if it was deemed "elective" COVID may have limited his access to this (I doubt that, but it's certainly possible).
i wasn't making that assumption. why would anyone assume they were "waiting for the sake of waiting?" that'd be moronic. i was merely commenting, with the benefit of hindsight, how unfortunate it is that he could've been putting the league shutdown to good use if we'd have known back then.
Fair enough ... so "too bad he didn't NEED the surgery earlier into the shutdown" ... when you said "have the surgery" I took took it like you thought he needed it then since there were no games between then and now. No worries though!
So this has been a truly bizarre first half of the season, from a transfer perspective. As we all know. Normally, Vermes doesn't do much in the summer window, which opens in two or three weeks I think. However, normally Vermes does do a lot of work late in the spring window, which disappeared this year. Do you think we'll see much movement in August this year? I saw Atlanta and another team were gunning for Jonathan Gonzalez. I am sure we can't quite fit him in as is, financially, but good lord he is just the kind of player we badly need right now. Just made me start wondering if we have further adjustments to make. So here comes a brutally long list of my (unasked-for) opinions on many things: Barath leaving seems a side effect of Reid coming in. No clue if I am upset or interested in that, to be honest. Busio keeps getting interest from vague Italian teams. Honestly, I'm of the opinion that if we can get seven figures for him at all, we go for it. I think he's good and would be pretty solid for us, but I also don't think his value will go up indefinitely. His youth creates almost the entirety of his value at this point, so hopefully they don't EPB his exit here. I think selling him off could really benefit the health of the team as a whole, though, considering how much allocation money we need to rise above the albatross around our neck and a few other overpaid players. I'm not really sold on our fullbacks but I'm not sure how much room we have to maneuver. Martins is definitely our best on either side, but how good Dia or Lindsey can be for us is pretty unclear right now. Zusi is not news. Especially without Gutierrez, our midfield is just a bit off. I don't see a solution for it, at least defensively. Ilie is expensive and very important for when we have the ball. I would just love a positionally-sound, athletic defensive midfielder to show up at some point. Wouldn't even have to be that athletic. But especially with the inathleticism shown by our CB corps, we are just so. soft. up. the. middle. So to cut my ramble short, do I think we will see any new players this window? Probably not, unless we transfer out a player or two. Barath leaving might have cleared us a little space, but unless that's for someone at fullback or dmid cover, I'm not sure where they'd plug. We look wonderful at all forward positions. Got no complaints there at all, especially since Shelton found his goddamn A game. It's all defense and defensive midfield I'm worried about.
Good summary and agree with your points. Isn't it weird that the roster is much stronger at the forward position than it is in the back or in the midfield? Its very bizarro world. I think many of our defensive issues are related to Illie. Sure, he's good on the ball and a great passer, but he's out of position a lot, well below average athletically and not a great tackler. He has one skill set you want in a No.6 (passing) and he's missing all of the defensive traits. IMO, playing him to take advantage of his passing ability requires playing him alongside another 6 who actually does defensive work. He's become the equivalent of Micheal Bradley on the national team (today's version, not 10 years ago). This could be accomplished with our roster by having Roger sit a little deeper, but it won't happen because that isn't how Peter plays. They look like a team that will score a ton, but they are going to concede more than a ton. Busio is getting attention from several big Italian teams. Milan, Juve, and Fiorentina are all interested. I'm OK with selling him, especially given how good Felipe 2.0 looks.
Agreed on Ilie. I think the shift from good defense to good offense makes some sense. A lot of our guys on the defensive end have been here ages and were tremendous at various points (and are still pretty good today). So the team didn't need to upgrade there and focused on the forward lines. All these bright and relatively new talents are what is working... and all the stable, long-term club guys defending for us are the ones whose dominance has faded. We're gonna have a massive overturn of players in this next offseason or two. I wonder if they could find an upgrade from Ilie within the TAM range--especially if they sell Busio. That would be such a useful trade: a promising attacking midfielder for a (hopefully) effective defensive midfielder. It's the kind of balance the team needs.
Oh, I get it. Still, isn't it weird to see our forwards shredding teams with pace and finishing? The SKC front four (including the AM) is on par with the upper echelons of MLS, including LAFC/Atlanta/Toronto/Seattle. Never thought I would say that.
regarding busio, if the scouts for those clubs were watching our last game, we won't have to worry about losing him anytime soon. he was a black hole in our midfield, unfortunately. turned the ball over continuously, got muscled out of position every time, and generally seemed out of his depth. really disappointing to see it, given that we've seen him look so much better.
Busio's all-around game looks meh. He may a black hole offensively, but he's a disaster defensively. We have to play Shelton below him when defending. I like his potential but, I'll admit, I expected the 18-year-old version to be further along. I was thinking the same thing. If I'm a Serie A team, I'm not laying 7 figures for what I've seen from his thus far.
Window opens tomorrow, sticks around for a bit over a month. I know this whole season is weird as balls, but I'm wondering if they're going to use the uncertainty of this season to sit on their hands this window (given our manager's natural proclivity towards that anyways). We have definite, definite needs on this team, and at least a tiny bit of cap space (Barath was better than the bulk of our CB corps, and I'm really struggling with the decisions that have been made at that position for the last several years). We have some youthy prospects who might pan out too. If we can get one position filled at a sub-TAM level, I am not sure what I'd ask for. Probably a right back? Bonus if he could work at left too. This team needs a lot, a lot of work done, but I'm not thinking it's gonna happen till 2021. We need a real successor to Tim, and soon. All our backups are pitiful at the moment, and Tim's getting to the point where he might start missing more games due to injuries and fatigue. Maybe not, though. Some GKs can go for many more years without slowing down at all. Fingers crossed. We need a successor for Matt who is an actual improvement at CB. I like Puncec but Smith seems like a perennial squad guy so far. Reid and Fontas are not long term solutions, if either of them is a solution in any way at all. Fullbacks are a nightmare now, giggle. We need a replacement for Ilie who will put him on the bench. And a successor to Roger, especially if we fail to improve on Ilie. But beyond that, I really like our squad. The front-most five are excellent. The back-most five are severely underwhelming. And the GK is always great until he's not available, then we are so badly screwed.
If we're looking for an immediate sub-TAM level need it's not outside back, it's someone to back up Ilie, we have pretty much nothing there with Gutierrez out for the season. Hernandez, Espinoza, etc are all minimal fill in at best there. What will probably work in Melia's favor is the fact that he just didn't put a lot of games on his legs/body until 2015 when he became our starter, which would probably extend his career a bit.
I'd like to see us consider, at least, brining back EPB. He's done well in Austria, gotten the playing experience he needed to advance. He's under contract to ManCity, who clearly do not count him in their actual plans, though in their loan army and hope to sell at a profit plans, He's something less than a hot commodity over here, but he is a very decent CB, and while he wanted to get a taste of Europe, I'm not sure by this point he wouldn't welcome a return to SKC (Austria and Netherlands success, France and England not so much). I think he's established himself as a tweener, quite good in leagues a step below the top level ( such as, say, MLS) but maybe not going to get a look from top league clubs. What this means is that by next summer, he's got a year left under contract, so he's cheap. By a Jan 2022, he's free. In january 2021, he should be cheap-ish. I sugget him because I love what Besler has been for us through the last decade, and I do think EPB can be that local kid made good going forward. I don't know that Besler is done. I'm not sure I understand why he was benched for Smith, but even in a best case scenario, Besler's starting days end soon. For EPB, a decent run in MLS would get him a better look with the nats, and considering the clubs who want him to star for them, more money. In the meantime, I do expect to see a bit of Reid. I mean, if not why on earth did we extend his loan. Also, reading that SKC have to decide whether or not to pick up the Kinda loan. Wasn't this just structured as a loan for cap reasons, and he's already picked up?
I wouldn't say no to EPB coming back. Not sure if he's the answer but he might be reasonable. I assume Kinda was originally structured as a definite buy, but who knows how the rearranging of the season and everything might have impacted something like a loan? We better keep him, though. I really like his skill set for the team.
Someone that worked for his Israeli club posted on twitter that it was just a loan to get around rules this season and he'd be staying permanently (he then deleted the tweet).
We're reportedly after Juan Sanchez Mino a LB/MF out of Argentina, but reportedly the teams are still far apart on numbers, Independiente wants $1m #SportingKansasCity sondeó a Juan Sánchez Miño. Sin embargo, negocia con #Independiente un convenio que involucre una rescisión contractual a cambio de dinero y la deuda. Están lejos en los números. CAI, sin vacilaciones, pretende 1.000.000 de dólares por ambos ítems. pic.twitter.com/IPkKZH9G8L— Manuel Rodríguez Mella (@ManuelRMella) August 24, 2020
I don't mind the look and I really don't mind improving at fullback/midfield... but a transfer fee like that for a player who will be 31 next season would be a weird bit of business for us. Not that it would be unreasonable, but for a team that loathes transfer fees, this would be an odd place to invest. If he's on a free and low-TAM at most, bring him on. I saw you'd posted and figured this was gonna be inevitable Messi rabbling.
It's a good move and there's a need there. I'm not sure it's our most pressing need, but I wouldn't be too upset to see this one go through.
Under the radar, but it sounds like we exercised our option to buy Kinda! https://www.thebluetestament.com/20...tion-on-kinda-prior-to-his-call-up-for-israel I hope so. The guy has been very fun to have on the team. I'm just here crossing fingers for a very significant signing at the 6, so we can have a midfield that includes both Kinda and Gutierrez at the same time.