Goff plays the political game more with the front office and therefore filters more what he writes than does Pablo (remember, he is Soccer Insider Protege). Remember that Goffs position with the WPsst is quite different than PM's position with the outlet formerly known as the Athletic.
I generally agree that Maurer seems to get more unfiltered info. He's also bilingual which is a huge advantage in access to both El Profe and some of the players. Goff is far more traditional in his approach.
Clearly you all missed the team's Dec. 16 statement on this. Goff: DCU says: "He's not going anywhere. No interest from us in moving him at all."
Miss, will you sleep with me for $1 million? Uh, yeah. Great. Here's $50, lets go to the motel. Absolutely not! What type of woman do you think I am? We have already determined your type, now we are just negotiating.... said every sports team/player, ever.
Goff may receive just as much information but he filters it differently. I suspect it's because DC U is an advertiser in WaPo and they would like to keep it that way. The Athletic is funded through subscriptions only. Goff never speaks ill of management in the paper.
FYI. Also, I was not aware that Tijuana (Arriola's former club, known as Xolos) would get FIFTY PERCENT of any sale revenue. Wow. Club America have now made a FOURTH offer for #DCU #USMNT winger Paul Arriola.The race for his signature is heating up w/ Charlotte & FC Dallas coming in at the 11th hour. Xolos would get 50% of any potential sale. Not sure how/if that would apply if transferred within MLS.— herculez gomez (@herculezg) January 19, 2022
From Goff. Nothing really new here for most of us. Essentially a recap of the situation. Paul Arriola could be on the move, as D.C. United weighs offers from Mexico and MLS https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/01/19/paul-arriola-dc-united-weighing-offers/
I know we are usually super late putting our team together but this year seems worse than ever. Maybe I'm wrong, but thats my impression. We've lost 8 players (is that accurate?) Signed one home grown and might sign a 19 yr old CB from Sac. Do we even have 18 players on roster? Arriola prob gone and we won't offer Najar a serious contract. Are Loudoun players filling in for preseason training? Is there a current roster/depth chart anywhere?
The official roster should be at 23. Hamid, Najar, Hines-Ike, Birnbaum, Pines, Alfaro, Odoi-Atsem, Greene, Samake, Canouse, Gressel, Nyeman, Ku-DiPietro, Yow, Paredes, Skundrich, Garay, Kamara, Arriola, Perez, Robertha, Flores, Smith. There are other players at camp as Kempin is there (expected to be the third keeper this year) along with two of the draft picks, Simonsen and Djeffal.
So Goff reporting Diego Restrepo is the new GK coach. He's 3 years older than Bill. Interesting SBI podcast interview with Chris Durkin -- nothing earth shattering, but just interesting to hear a 21 year old player's take on life in Europe and goals for further professional development.
Reports on Twitter indicate DC rejected Club America's FOURTH bid for Arriola. So if he's moving (which I doubt right now), it won't be to Mexico.
Welp BREAKING: FC Dallas and D.C. United have agreed in principle to a record-breaking $2m GAM trade for USMNT winger Paul Arriola, MLSsoccer has learned.New record for guaranteed or even potential trade in MLS. Could be more incentives too.— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 20, 2022
If he had to leave, glad it wasn't to an Eastern Conference team. I could see why he'd want to move to either San Jose, LAFC, or [spit] the gals since he's a California boy - I don't see how a move to The Burn helps/satisfies anybody.
Given what appears to be happening with Arriola and what did happen with Kellyn Acosta, my guess is that we will be looking at a possible strike during the next CBA negotiations. Both of these players wanted to go out of MLS, but the single entity structure and the existence of GAM makes that less desirable for management (Unless you are getting Pepi type offers). Think about this, Club America offers $4M for Arriola. Assume the Xolos get 50% (or at least some percentage of that). The $2M (or more) from that sale is real money that is taxable income. Now, FC Dallas offers Garberbucks (company scrip) worth $2M for Arriola. The Xolos have no claim to any of that because MLS is single entity, so Arriola hasn't be "transferred." The $2M in company scrip isn't taxable (or certainly can't be taxed as easily as real money) so a trade of Arriola for Garberbucks makes more sense for management's purposes. What the players thinks about this is irrelevant under the current CBA. I hope Paul does well and gets a chance to go overseas. This sort of BS will simply have players do a Lucho and play out their contracts and leave on a free. That does no team any good.
So we have a ton of GAM/BAM/TAM/SPAM so we can use that to buy down contracts and get some DP offsets. Let’s see what happens.
There is some conversion of transfer fees to GAM not sure how much but the rate is lower than in league funny money transfer.
Goff's updated reporting is that Arriola decided last night he no longer wanted to go to Club America, and that if he moved, it would need to be in MLS. Goff continues to report that DC won't move Arriola unless they get a direct DP level replacement lined up for him. So there's still a chance he stays here in DC.