It seems clear that "avoid MLS at all costs" is one of the key tenets here. Whether it serves client interests in the long run is less obvious.
Well..............the part of the contract they won't repeat is that there was a release clause that allowed Gomez to leave if Hackworth did. A very strange clause. There's a lot of navel gazing about why that was included. And of course Hackworth and Louisville mutually parted ways after the first game of the season (which they won). Something was going on behind the scenes there in Louisville with Hackworth. I'm not sure we know. Every indication is that USL clubs want to sign young American talent. Young American talent is cheap as hell. But I still say Gomez is a bit of an outlier in terms of the level of his talent. This is the kind of player that won't be available to the USL very often. It would be like Quinn Sullivan choosing to leave Philadelphia, not sign a contract, and then signing with Memphis instead. Its not going to happen very often at the top of the food chain. I'm more interested in these independent clubs developing their own young talent. Worth noting that Mauricio Cuevas was already playing in the USL Championship with LAGII. [Unlike Gomez, who had been playing in USL League One, the quality of which at the time was quite poor. Gomez took a nice step up in terms of his league. Would he be starting for FCD right now? I don't know. He'd be playing, but I don't know about starting. Hollingshead is pretty good.]
It’s not exactly the same situation, but Raines is a top 5 or so player in his age group that signed with an independent USL team. I think Clint is right that there won’t be many, but I think there will certainly be more, and we’ve now seen top five or so caliber players join back to back seasons. I would suspect one per season of that caliber is what we will see. If it works, it’s possible there will be more.
I personally don't have Raines, Luna, etc. in the same general talent level as Gomez. But that's just me. I think there are good prospects to be had, but not many that are at the upper echelons. And course we want USL clubs to be developing their own youngsters. [Maybe if Gomez was making this decision today he'd have stayed at FCD. He made the decision before FCD went on a selling/loaning spree to Europe. The notion that a young player has to leave an MLS club in order to move to Europe at 18-19 is outdated. Look at what FCD did for Sealy.] Anyway, whatever is going on with Cuevas...........its not good.
I edited my post to make it more clear before you responded. I agree that Raines is not the same caliber of Gomez, but who is? Pepi? That’s probably it, so there are is not a large pool nationally of players at a similar caliber. I think though that Raines is a very high caliber player for his age group. If someone has a list of 10 better 05’s, I’d like to see it. That’s a big accomplishment for an independent USL club to bring a player of that caliber in. If they can bring in one per season, they will be able to market it when those players succeed in Europe. Gomez is the first elite young player in a long time to sign pro terms at an independent lower division club (since Haji Wright with NY Cosmos in NASL). He will also likely be the best for a long time because there are not many young Americans players in any age group at any club of his caliber. As to the issue of what happens if he stays at FCD, its a pointless discussion. Circumstances would’ve needed to be different. He may have had quicker initial notoriety if he did so, but he’s signed with a very well run club in La Liga that regularly plays in European Competitions, and he’ll likely get his pick of which country he wants to play for at the World Cup. I think he’s done pretty well so far. Pepi, for all his notoriety and current NT success, doesn’t have his next club move wrapped up like Gomez does to a destination where he is likely to have success.
Now if you want to get to Europe and actually have the highest chance of sucess the best way to do now is through MLS...the only possible exception is 16 year old with passports that are Top 2 in their class.
Indeed. ...............................Cuevas is one that is a pretty damn good talent, though. Who the hell knows what the future will hold? Cuevas is one for whom the USL discussion seems moot to me. The Gomez moves occurred at 16. He was looking for a 2 year opportunity that would take him up to his 18th birthday, and he found it. Same for Raines, right? He's 16? Cuevas was 18 in February. He could have done the 'ole Weston McKennie/Nico Carrera/Johan Gomez walk away for free to Europe or Mexico or wherever. If he was going to stay domestic, there wouldn't have been much incentive to sign in the USL over the Galaxy. So something is amiss here.............
I really liked what I saw of Cuevas in limited play. But you are right, this is 100% different, because at 18, he literally has every club in the world to pitch himself to. If he's not hurt or dealing with a family emergency, there's a major mistake here. He's already lost a year of development, and it's likely to extend further, as he's out of form, has a gap in his resume and wherever he goes, he's simply less likely to walk in and be able to grab PT. It isn't necessarily Kleiban's fault, but we are seeing a pattern with questionable choices, patterns of career choices that don't seem to have a plan, etc.
Gomez wouldn't have really be competing with Hollingshead who can play either side but instead the other four young outside backs - Nelson, Che, Munjoma and Twumasi. I think he'd have gotten a lot of minutes.
Gomez playing probably means Che doesn't. So 6 of one; half dozen of the other. Its kind of irrelevant. And as we say, a different situation to Cuevas. If he wanted to move to Europe, he could move to Europe. I'm with @ussoccer97531 on this one. Something not right. We've had players take these long hiatuses in between leaving an MLS academy and starting in Europe. Taylor Booth comes to mind. I don't think its good, but Booth is a reminder that the ship can be righted. And yes, quite often kids we think are pretty good fall off the face of the planet. Then two years later we say "what ever happened to................??"
I would hope that Dallas figures out a way to play Gomez if he signs there, but we've seen them bring others along slowly, so who knows? We've also seen them throw Pepi and Che in there younger than they generally had, so I'm inclined to think that Dallas solves the issue by giving Che the loan to Bayern if they had been able to sign Gomez in order to clear a path to playing time.
At the very least, I would think. Che has gotten consistent starting minutes until recently (he's not going to be at FCD long term), and Gomez is the more polished of those two. It makes sense that they would have loaned Che out if Gomez were on the roster, which would have given a clear path to Gomez to be the starting left back this season after getting acclimated as a pro last season. In any case, seems to have worked out for Gomez. Hopefully, he does well and progresses quickly at Sociedad (and chooses the US).
1555214784555089921 is not a valid tweet id Alvarado says LA Galaxy didn't offer him a first team contract, so he had no choice but to consider other options. He says that during his season with LA Galaxy's reserve team in USL that he didn't train with the first team once. https://t.co/yInKqze1q5— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) August 5, 2022 1555398301926563842 is not a valid tweet id lol
The Kleibans acted your average BS poster early on. Talked like many in US Nat land. Almost word for word in many cases. Naive, arrogant and somewhat ignorant understanding the landscape, reality, and long term ramifications, along with the direction of the game here. Talk about screwing themselves. Sure, they can still carve out a living, but talk about missing a major opportunity due to stupidity. This is what happens.
Does anybody have a comprehensive list of who the Kleiban’s represented/represent? The ones I know are: Alex Mendez Kobe Hernandez-Foster Uly Llanez
Brian Kleiban, the coach, knew what he was doing. Whatever we think of the agency part.........................a lot of future professionals played under Brian. The downfall of Brian was and is a shame. Its OK to have dissenting voices within the coaching community. Its OK to have guys who want to challenge the system. And he was producing players. The fact that the Galaxy front office didn't sign them or provide them with first team opportunities wasn't Brian's fault. Gary Kleiban is a physics lecturer at Cal State Fullerton. It would really would be like one of us amateurs deciding that we want to be soccer agents. Then somehow managing to convince young teens and their families to put their careers in our hands. The 3four3 twitter feed still says some of the dumbest things you'll find in the soccer community. I don't know who it is that's writing that stuff. Gary? I don't know. They charge everybody else with having an "agenda," when its clear they have the most biased agenda. Like................this recent tweet. What does it even mean? Who is smearing Ernst Tanner? Whoever puts out these tweets from 3four3 seems outraged every time an employee of MLS writes a pro-MLS column or defends the league. The smearing of Ernst Tanner has now begun.Are you guys observing?Study how these things work in a monopolized system.https://t.co/m3unseF6ug— 3four3 (@3four3) July 14, 2022
Brian Kleiban acted against his employer’s best interest and in his brother’s and potentially his own financial best interest. Dude is lucky he was only fired.
I get all that. Its why he's never gotten another job after being fired by the Galaxy. But as a youth coach, he developed players everywhere he'd been. So his downfall in that regard is a shame for the community.
I think putting anything on Gary's decisions with KHF and Alvarado is too far gone from Brian's stint with LAG. He was out at LAG before those guys even agreed to deals in Europe, as far as I'm aware. For Mendez and Llanez, I think it's fair game, but at the same time, was he already on his way out when that was happening? I think it's easy to forget that some of these separations between teams and employees can take a long time to finalize for a variety of reasons. As to LA Galaxy's decision with Alvarado, I'm not suggesting the kid is lying but there's probably something missing from exactly how he told it. That may not be fair to expect him to disclose it either, so I'm not blaming him, but it didn't sound completely correct. They knew he was good. Why wouldn't they want to keep him? At the same time, I would expect LAG to extend him a courtesy offer, whether he was signing with them or not. Thats the least you can do to avoid backlash in the future. If they didn't do it, thats stupid PR on their part. Seriously negotiating a contract with a player who was not going to sign with you (if that is the case), I can understand why they wouldn't bother.
He's been working Real So Cal (LAFC affiliate) for the last year I believe in the younger age groups. I believe he was coaching the team that went to the Man City Cup final for the 2008's recently.
Not going to necessarily get into where they are right now in their careers, but the Kleibans quickly turned on Efra and Araujo when they signed with the Galaxy.
There is no reason to believe the Kleibans at this point. None. They made the decisions to say and act how they have. Their posts, which I just perused through last night are sad to hilarious. Now they are the victimized, righteous crusaders against all of the evil outside forces. Good grief. Default for I am stupid, or our initial game plan has failed miserably, or a combo of both. Also shows folks who don‘t have the courage, guys, or will to admit errors and reboot. They would be at home here.