Well, this should be familiar to all of us: A source tells me #FCCincy midfielder Luciano Acosta has received offers from abroad, and he's been pondering his future while late reporting to preseason. #AllForCincy https://t.co/A69rUfu7ei— Laurel Pfahler (@LaurelPfahler) January 11, 2023
Spot on. I know I told some friends who are FCC STMs and I am pretty sure I've said it here, that he would eventually leave them and probably on poor terms as he did with us. I hope they can make it a clean break, but I am sure they weren't considering bringing in a 10 this window, so they're prolly a little flat on the recruitment front.
Stejskal and Tenorio report Martinez to Miami. Atlanta buys out his contract at half price and Miami signs him on a deal worth the other half. Avoids a DP designation.
Ah, MLS. I don't know if Martinez will ever be the same as he was pre knee injury, but he and Leo Campana could make quite the strike partnership.
Sort of their take as well. The two big questions are his knee and how he is in the locker room, especially if he's not the "guy" getting significant minutes.
So I am curious how they get out of their contractual obligations as they relate to the league. I realize he agreed to take half the money left on his deal to be a free agent, but it seems to me that money or the DP status associated with his contract should still be counted at full value vs the cap & cap related mechanisms like DP status, TAM or whatever. If you cut a guy in the NFL you're still stuck as it relates to the cap for all the money paid up until the point you cut the player which is prorated love the life of the deal. NFL contracts aren't guaranteed, MLS contracts are almost 100% guaranteed. While not an issue in this case, you've got transfer fees also prorated across the life of the contract, although DP deals are different in how they relate to the cap. To be able to just get rid of one for a bunch of money seems to circumvent the salary cap style restrictions of a DP slot. That's a very premium thing in the economy of MLS. You can't seel or trade one like you might other assets like GAM, TAM, and international spots. I hope he does well and lights shit up, just not against us. I didn't care for him when he first came into the league. He came off in a very Diego Costa kind of way, but has shown himself to be good guy in the league. He's only had the one dust up for calling out teammates and the team for lack of effort, which I kinda get as a guy who works hard and wants to win.
The Chicago Fire, an organization as inept as ours has even figured out how to make the system work for them. A $16-20M profit in a very short timeframe. One will not be able to emulate any time soon. I would add that this is the *ideal* for what MLS envisioned with the U-22 spots.Chicago Fire buy a player for around $2 million. Sell him for $18-22 million after one year in MLS. If they can do this consistently in addition to homegrowns, it's the dream for the league.— Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) January 16, 2023
Sure, they hit on Duran, but they whiffed *badly* on Jairo Torres, and the team is not very good. Also, it's not just as simple as getting lucky with a player and then selling him for a profit. It's *replacing* players that you sell, too. Just look at the Revs, who dropped 31 points last year as they started selling players and only really successfully replacing their goalkeeper. Or even DC, when they sold Paredes (and "sold" Arriola), had no real replacements lined up, and suffered for it. Making a profit is good and all, and it's admirable that it worked out for the Fire. But are they a better club for it?
Look I get it, I think Carlos Bocanegra was optimistic at 1/3 international DP signings hitting and it got to even longer odds for younger players but, you've got to be in the game to have a chance of winning. We're not in the game. We're still running the back office like it's 2017. If this season pans out as well as Rooney hopes, in the playoffs and maybe we win a game. Where does that leave us in 2024 or 25? No room to add a DP unless we sell Taxi and 1-2 ys older. I am not sure there is a young player on this roster who has the potential to turn around and be Kevin Paredes in a year or two. We sure won't be an attractive destination with Wayne managing elsewhere and the same owners & FO. Its a game of look at all the flashy shit we're doing right now to distract from the fact that they've displayed little sense of a long term plan. Other than Paredes, I think most here think they squandered Neyman and maybe Yow's talent & value. Benteke was a 100% panic buy when the intended deal fell through or we wouldn't have sold one of the best crossers in the league. Even w/o Benteke on the horizon that deal didn't make a ton of sense. Sebi was talking about this on his & Herc's latest podcast, you hit on the same thing, and we were all howling about this last season, which is that you can sell players for a profit, but without players to replace their roles and much of their quality or you're not better for it, especially if you don't plow the money right back into the team. Taxi & Benteke were a little more than the $7M we got for Paredes in fees and Benteke came late and had less impact in 9 games than Paredes had in any 9 games he played for us in 2021. Benteke is carrying a big number for 2023. What's you're expectation for him to not be a bust? 10 goals? 15? And there's all the GAM we got for Arriola. I've never been a fan of trading quality for quantity which is the best you can say we got with the resources from those deals.
FC Charlotte player Anton Walkes died this morning as a result of a boating accident down in Miami. We are deeply saddened to share that Anton Walkes has tragically passed away this morning.May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/8oUcHvWW6g— Charlotte FC (@CharlotteFC) January 19, 2023
Former DCU player Moses Nyeman started RSL's first preseason game today, as a non-roster invitee to camp.
IIRC, the Guardian listed Nyeman as one of the top 100 prospects in the world a few years back. Never was a consistent starter for DCU, now apparently cut loose by a second division Belgian club and on trial in MLS. Sad, but a good demonstration of how most "prospects" don't reach the heights initially set for them by others.
Salt Lake co-owner has an ownership share in the Belgian club so it is possible he hasn't been formally cut loose but is trialing to see where he can be of most use. Not a sign he's doing much there, though, to your point. Ownership situation mentioned in this story when he transferred. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/dc-united-transfer-midfielder-moses-nyeman-to-belgium-s-sk-beveren
All good. He definitely has some skill, but he seems mighty small to be playing d-mid full time. But at least he's plenty young and hopefully he can figure things out somewhere.
My sense as well. ABMOD was very small as well, but his moniker indicates how tough (vicious) he was in the middle of the pitch. Nyeman always struck me as relying more on technique, which is always good, but he was too small and could get bodied out of the way too easily. Nyeman was here during the tenures of Olsen, Losada and Rooney and none of them really rated him.
I did not see an alumni thread for Julian so I am just dropping this here. It’s been a long journey to #USMNT camp for @JulianGressel 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/eXKZl8kegW— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 22, 2023
So Apple dropped the list of another 31 announcers. The key outrage, ********ing Shep Messing is a "studio analyst". Not only will we have the "D" list announcing team for DCU games, but that douche will be offering "analysis."
Well, maybe when we are not one of the d teams in the league we will rate better announcers. You know, like twellman......
The ultimate other team 🤝// #PRO is pleased to announce that they have appointed Mark Geiger as their new General Manager, effective immediately >> https://t.co/hrzUuLjz2u. pic.twitter.com/PYwEgU3VsY— PRO (@PROreferees) February 3, 2023 Getting Geigered goes national.
Other than Ted Unkel, could they have done much worse? And yet there are people out there standing up for this guy in the face of criticism. Apple signing him ruined the one good thing remaining in this deal.
Messing is absolute garbage on a personal and professional level. Unfortunately, he's not even the worst signing in this announcement. Apple also hired Ross Smith, the guy with the incomplete, vaguely-British accent who cheers on Portland from the press box. He's only useful insofar as he tests my reflexes as I lunge for the mute button. I hate to say it but you know who else is terrible? Lloyd Sam. It seems like his understanding of the game doesn't extend too far past "what helps my team is good, everything else is bad."