Dallas would have no issues in signing Carleton; this was the fanbase that boo'd Reggie Cannon. Portland's owner would sign him, but their fanbase would reject him wholesale. Hell, even Atlanta's fanbase is struggling with Almada's past at some level, and that's Atlanta. There's a bunch of teams where it wouldn't be worth the squeeze PR-wise, but I think mostly there's just not a lot of reason to take the risk. It's not a coordinated effort so much as the same basic logic.
You are describing what amounts to blackballing and then saying it’s not blackballing. You can say you agree with it, but it seems futile that you are saying blackballing is not actually blackballing.
You are putting together a straw man. I didn’t say all of domestic soccer has come together to organize against hiring him. Blackballing doesn’t need to be organized either. It can simply be an understanding that a player is not going to be part of their league. You say he has off field issues, as if there aren’t many players in MLS with some version of that, but if he was able to move up to MLS, why didn’t he for the 2021 season? This is the same situation as the beginning of 2020. Many said if he had a good 2020 season and stayed out of off the field trouble, he’d be given a chance to move up. He had a good season on the field, widely praised, and then the next season he’s not playing in MLS (or a similar/better league). No behavior problems, unless you consider his political viewpoints that, but you also said you believe this isn’t about his political views.
I don't see how that statement by the Loyal does anything but hurt Carlton going forward with the team. It's like they want him to wear a Scarlett A or do a quick pre-game apology before each game to beg repentance for his past mistakes. Seems demeaning at best. And I have no idea what his mistakes were other than I heard he partied before a finals game in Atlanta that he was probably not going to play in anyway. I personally don't rate him much on the highest level but have not seen him play since Atlanta United days as a bit part sub. Having said that, it should be all about performance. If he can produce, play him. If not, see ya later. He get's no extra chances, no long leash bc he USED to be on the USYNT or any other reason. You produce quickly or you move on.
I am not sure most people have any idea what his political beliefs are or what you mentioned about Jan 6. I follow MLS pretty close and had never heard those things about him. He just isnt on the radar of most fans. I have a feeling most MLS fans have never heard of him. The U17 WC does not make you a household name.
Carleton was one of the most talented players on that particular U17 squad that included the likes of Sargent and Weah. He was nominated as US soccer's "Young Male Player of the Year." He wasn't an also-ran. He was a legitimate prospect. But as we know, not all prospects "make it" for one reason or another. His wikipedia page has a longer section on his "discipline issues and distractions" than his actual professional accomplishments. People on these boards are acting like WE'RE making that up. Its real. US soccer is a small community all things considered. Reputations get out and are hard to shake. The politcal angle is whole other ball of wax. 1360237332998234115 is not a valid tweet id
I'm totally on board with 2nd chances. I'm 100% rooting for Andrew Carleton. Players have turned their careers and lives around. Santino Quaranta..............
Definitely not an also ran but U17 Youth World Cup is the most important thing you mentioned there. He had a lot of POTENTIAL to be a good pro. Hasn't turned out that way yet, but hope he can turn it around. Just don't like the messaging from the Loyal that seems to tag him as a problem before they even get started. I don't see the need to mention his past or have a PR campaign about him. Just put him on the field and see if he can produce. If he does, fans will like him.
That's bullshit. We live in 2022 now, 2020 is well past. We all have our lists of what treason looks like.
Not a bad level to start at for the U17 WC keeper. Entirely possible he could develop into an MLS starter eventually and USMNT pool option. Not once, but twice 💥@garcesjustin1 coming up BIG 🧤 pic.twitter.com/n2nFMTbT9B— ATL UTD 2 (@atlutd2) March 17, 2022
I'd like to point out that Ebobisse, Vazquez, Ferreira, and Djordje (before he got injured) are all having great offensive seasons. This is something we haven't seen much of before - guys who have been in MLS for a long time now becoming high level contributors. I'm not sure exactly what to take from it, but it should be noted.
I really don’t know, but I’ll take a stab at a guess. Of that group, I would say Ferreira and Mihailovic were probably the two that most would say had the highest upside but for the most part, I don’t think most would put them in our top group of prospects. They are pretty much that group of borderline talent. Good enough to be in the conversation for usmnt. Good enough to carve out a very good career in Europe, but probably not good enough for the top teams in Europe. What has happened with all of them is that they have matured. A few years in mls have been good for them. The current crop of young players (u21) has some top level prospects, but it is the growing 2nd level pool of prospects that will be key in mls. The top level prospects will, for the most part, go to Europe. The 2nd level prospects will stay in mls and continue to change the American stereotypical role in mls. Just a few years ago we were talking about the lack of creative youth, then it was strikers. The old standard for the second tier talent (good enough to be a pool, or even starting USMNT player but not good enough to be the star) was a guy like Brian Ching, Herculez Gomez, Ricardo Clark, Edson Buddle or Gregg Berhalter, now it is guys like Ebobisse and Vazquez that fit into that niche. Will Ebobisse and Vazquez have better careers than Ching and Gomez? that remains to be seen but it is possible.
I think it's worth mentioning that Justin Garces ('00) is statistically the best player in USL and from the eye test it looks like that also. Evaluating GK's before pro soccer is very tough. You get some right and gets others wrong. I thought Kevin Silva ('98) was going to be better than he's been so far. I thought Damian Las ('02) was going to be better than he's been so far, although he's two years younger than Garces, so I'm certainly not writing him off. However, it's looking more and more like Garces was one of the best players from that '00 U-17 cycle. I don't want to toot my horn too much because I get plenty of things wrong, but I took some heat from a bunch of posters here for saying at the time that Garces was one of the top few prospects on that team. I'm not suggesting it couldn't have easily turned out being a bad prediction, but looking back this was a situation where the GK prospect with less conventual hype than the field players was equal to the field players with more conventual hype.
To me Garces looked like an unfinished product whose future was kind of unpredictable. I was skeptical about Las and liked Odunze. Skeptical about both now. Highly probable that the best keepers of those age groups are still somewhere in colleges.
I'm of the opinion that all four of these players have always been pretty good. They're also all still fairly young. So they've been developing and developing. Now opportunity has met improved players.
Ironically, Rios Novo is statistically horrible. He's allowing 1.5 goals for every 1 xG. I never understood what they saw in him to push him to the first team at every possible moment.
I don't know if that post really said all that much, but I'm happy not to correct anyone who thinks it did!
I don't know how many more levels Wilson Harris has in him but it seems like USL-C needn't be the limit. Just a goal-scorin' dude, who scores goals.