It's a far more reliable formula for Bayern to buy Lewandowski's replacement once Lewandowski is done and to purchase an already established player. If Pepi does really go for closer to $20M (I'm skeptical that is an initial cash outlay rather than an upside kind of number), I just don't see why Bayern would really do that. They'll just poach someone coming off a free with a massive salary. If they do purchase him, they must love him. Because buying players this young and unproven really hasn't been their style.
Lots of discussion on the youth boards about this. The Kleibans are of Argentine extraction and were simply looking for something else in terms of attacking central midfielders. Think Alex Mendez, who's a similar age. I think Alex is 6 months older. More technical, creative midfielders. Anyway, this kind of things happen. Talent evaluation of 14/15 year olds isn't an exact science. Barca AZ saw him as a forward and developed him there. As we'll recall, FCD rejected Chris Richards when he first trialed with them.
We can easily say that Scally is worthy of a callup based on PERFORMANCE. Particularly as Cannon, Reynolds, Moore, and Araujo are question marks for a variety of reasons. And of course Vines' injury on the left. I wouldn't start him in any of these games yet. But as a versatile bench option? Sure. What exactly is the harm???????? If he doesn't play, that's fine. Just introduce him to the program. We're not talking about some guy on a bad team in Turkey here. He's excelling at Gladbach.
I'm not going to ding Kleiban for cutting Hoppe unless we hear the reason and it's ridiculous. Which is possible, but there's a whole lot of extrapolation going on here in regards to that. Players develop at different rates and if you can predict at 100%, you ain't working for the Galaxy, I will tell you that. The Kleibans became USMNT celebrities because they are loud and vocal and criticize USSF and MLS. It's a simple formula. There's a huge portion of the fanbase who will rally around anyone who is simply critical. You don't have to be right, you don't have to have an argument, you just have to say other people are idiots, and if those other people are the Fed, you have a bunch of people calling you a genius. There's no doubt at this point that the Galaxy players from this era did ... okay? You can argue they've far underperformed Southern Cal and it is undebatable that they've been wildly outperformed by Dallas, Philly, RSL/Barca Casa Grande, NYCFC and perhaps a few other academies. (And that's counting Araujo ... who isn't quite a "Kleiban" kid). This most recent era of Galaxy players has done more than the prior hypefest crew, though, and there are some good players in the group. I don't think they are anything special except recruiting and self-promotion.
I mean it might be the case that he is needed. He may be our second best right back and second best option at left back. I'm not saying that he is but its possible with Cannon and Reynolds not playing at all, Araujo yet to commit, Moore still not getting a ton of playing time, Bello not looking great in the last qualifier, and Yedlin games with his club but really not looking that great. But we won't know unless we bring him in to get a look. But also if he's going to have a role to play in future windows we need to start getting him some experience/reps with group now. I think the only reason you wouldn't bring him in is if the club is super adamant that they don't think its a good idea. I know we can call him up anyways but still want to at least take into account where the club is.
How much of that on Che was that FC Dallas had injury/depth issues and wanted to keep Che around for the rest of the season because they needed him to play games? I do think if Bayern wants Pepi they'll get him, it's just a question of what sort of role they see for him and how much they value him at current. I do think it's better for Pepi to go to a club where he's going to see consistent playing time vs. Bayern where he's going to be stuck behind Lewandowski.
And of course, Bayern can go get Haaland or whomever amongst the world's elite. A lot of the Che issue was that Bayern's reserve team had just been relegated to the 4th division. So if Che was going to play with FCD's first team that was deemed better for his development than Bayern II. I also think FCD made it clear they weren't going to give Bayern a huge discount like they did on Richards. So that led to more wrangling and haggling. As you say, injuries to Nelson, Munjoma, and Twumasi made fullback a big problem position for them. So there was playing time for Che at fullback. Of course, he may be a CB long term.
Italy's oldest club latest Serie A side to gain U.S. investment (espn.com) we gonna take over this whole Serie A party
It looks like the other guys are a step behind. Vermes giving him all those minutes seems to have prepared him well. Bayern loves FB/CBs They have Hernandez, Pavard and Sule and just lost Alaba.
It's an investment management company, so it's probably a money-making scheme rather than a labor of love. They're a top Italian team that's finished in the top ten once in the last decade.
de la Torre has been on an opta tear across the past 4 matches since Heracles's switch to 4231 totals 30/40 ground duels 11/11 dribbles 4/6 long balls 12 tackles 9 key passes Sofascore 7.3(2nd) 7.2(1st) 7.5(2nd) 7.4(2nd)
Rumors are initial $13-15m, rising to say $25m. More than Davies but not $20m+ up front. If they end up paying that then he's worth the price and they'll be very happy to have made the purchase.
Does anyone know what governing body sets the Serie A squad registration rules? Changing the non-EU requirements would be some low-hanging fruit for improving Serie A teams relative to the rest of Europe. I'm wondering if such a thing would be possible with enough foreign ownership.
Teams miss evaluate all the time. That said FCD had Byran Reynolds, USYNT striker and said, yeah he's not good enough and switched him to RB. For 3 years he was invisible there, but then the lightbulb went on and he was fantastic. He'll be even better 3 years from now. So Kleiban missing on Hoppe isn't a damning indictment but another bullet point showing why Kleiban is still an unemployed ex-youth soccer coach.
I thought it was because Kleiban's teams were dominant while playing an attractive style that isn't really seen in US youth soccer. There were at least a handful of kids on that team that were pretty much better than anything that academy had pit out before. It seems like you and most MLS fans on here can't separate characteristics of people. The Kleiban's are villains who haven't contributed anything positive. It is a good thing we Klinsmann for you guys to polish that skill of hating everything about a person or group. Even if if you hate Gary, his tune on social media, and gasp the idea that an adult would do something that he thought was in a kids best interest but not what you wanted, Brian still did a very good job with that group of kids.
He is unemployed because our system is ********ed and there is no place for anybody that doesn't toe the line.
Its weird to me how Brian Kleiban became such a celebrity youth coach. On the youth forums we're literally talking about what an underachieving disaster he was at the Galaxy academy. Somehow he's a kind of martyr on the USMNT forum. People do know that on our most recent USMNT roster (the WCQing roster against Honduras) there were exactly zero Galaxy homegrown players. This from what should be the best youth soccer market in the country. In fact, only three players from the state of California were on that roster. [Those were the punching bags Jackson Yueill, Christian Roldan, and Sebastian Lletget.] Those of us who've been around a while remember when USMNT rosters were absolutely dominated by players from California. A lot of that has to do with the inability of the Galaxy to develop a whole generation of their youth talent. And that was Brian Kleiban. They recruited Julian Araujo from Barca Arizona. And they steered their one kid that made it, Efrain Alvarez, to Mexico. In fact there's been chatter for a long time about how the Kleibans steered their kids to Mexico. So what is the reason Brian Kleiban is talked about on the USMNT forums? Do people even know the names of the top youth coaches in Philly, SKC, NYRB, Dallas, Barca AZ, etc.? No. Without looking at their website, what are the names of their academy coaches that developed Ricardo Pepi. Anybody know? What the Kleibans do is talk a good game. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.................which others quietly do the good work.
Yes, which is why you should stop comparing MLS to Europe. He went Louisville because no other team in MLS could sign him. Now you seem happy that that option won't be available for the next kid. We know that Anshutz is the last charitable guy in MLS. You do realize that young MLS players being sold to European clubs is a pretty new thing, right? How many players had FCD sold to Europe by early 2019 when Gomez signed with Louisville? I am sure he had dreamt of going to Europe for a while before that. It would be surprising that 13+ yo Gomez saw CP thriving at Dortmund and closer to home see Mckennie excelling at Schalke. How long have a few MLS teams been playing youth players and selling them? A couple of years? The track record is short enough to understand someone not trusting it. The league has 20+ years of having no clue what to do with kids and blocking/delaying multiple moves abroad. How you guys don't see this and seem surprised everybody hasn't bought into it is really weird.
I mean I think that MLS should do away with Homegrown territories but I don't think the issue with Gomez was that he preferred to sign with another MLS team instead of Dallas. I think he just always wanted to go to Europe as opposed to signing with any MLS team. His issue is moreso because he doesn't have a European passport he couldn't sign with any European team until he was 18. Chris Richards went on loan to Bayern in May of 2018 and was sold in January 2019. Alphonso Davies and Tyler Adams were also both sold to European clubs in January 2019. It's true that it wasn't happening to the extent it is now, but it had definitely started by then. And I don't think moves being blocked/delayed abroad was an issue for younger players. Its always been more an issue for players like Aaron Long who are in the middle of their career and so European clubs understandably don't want to shell out alot of money for them (and the prices being offered don't make it worth it for the MLS club either). It was in 2018 when Garber said that MLS needed to become a selling league so the change in mindset was definitely in the works. If someone like Gomez had wanted he could have signed a contract with FC Dallas with a reasonable release clause. But he just really wanted Europe I think, which is entirely his prerogative.
I mean it actually has nothing to do with that and more to do with him steering players away from the LA Galaxy academy to Europe via his brother. What MLS team would want to hire someone who would do something like that? MLS teams invest in academies to develop players for the club, not so they can leave and go to Europe.
He left the Galaxy (after Efrain Alvarez took his place) in 2015 and didn't join Barca Residency until 2017.
Someone brought up the question of why would he go to a lower level club. The answer is that was the only option. Gomez had already left FCD by the beginning of 2019. I cant understand why Gomez didn't see loans and an athletic freak going to Bayern being enough to beg FCD for another offer. Who were the 18 yo that MLS sold prior to late 2018? It was December of 2018 when Garber made that claim. So pretty much the same timeline. I really can't believe that didn't change Gomez's mind. Garber also said MLS would be a top league by 2022. I have been told by MLS fans to ignore what that douche says.
It has everything to do with that. MLS controls the system and only wants people who buy into whatever it is at the time they are doing. Didn't Garber publicly demand that USMNT coach support what they were doing? There is no clear pyramid and the drop off from MLS is big. MLS doesn't want to cooperate with anyone else and is pulling out of USL. MLS does little to nothing to support USL. If we had a cohesive system, there would be plenty of opportunities for Kleiban. The way it is now, the lower levels don't want him or have nothing attractive to offer. Yes, the league is a monopolistic business run by billionaires who don't give a damn about anything but their money. Of course, they don't understand the game and have taken misstep after misstep. It is truly amazing to me the zelousness of its naive fan base.
I think he could have signed for another MLS team but they would have had to give Dallas some Garberbucks. And it's not 2022 yet. I fully expect Mbappe and Neymar to sign for FC Cincinnati over the winter