Yanks Abroad Flavors of the Week: 2022-2023 Thread

2022-2023 🇫🇷 Ligue 1 xG Leaders

Folarin Balogun (18.5)
Jonathan David (18.1)
Kylian Mbappé (17.4)
Alexandre Lacazette (14.4)
Wissam Ben Yedder (13.5)
Lionel Messi (13.2)
Loïs Openda (12.5)
Habib Diallo (11.8)https://t.co/WssJJtmIBs

— ⚽ FBref ⚽ (@fbref) March 22, 2023

Balogun is notably currently underperforming his underlying numbers.

The Athletic also has a good article about his relationship with Henry

https://theathletic.com/4330990/2023/03/22/folarin-balogun-interview/?amp=1

 

Sources: PSV are interested to sign USMNT forward Ricardo Pepi from FC Augsburg this summer, as @RikElfrink first reported. Not the only club interested.

Pepi, 20, is on loan at FC Groningen, where he's excelled with 9g/3a in 1,803 Eredivisie mins. Broke thru with FC Dallas. pic.twitter.com/UckSYIwPIj

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) March 22, 2023

Earnie Stewart getting to work.

 

I would love to see Pepi stay in the Eredivisie for a few more years. And of course, with PSV, he would get to test himself in UCL.

 

Look PSV guy is pretty smart. Can we make him to work for USMNT? LOL.

 

I'd like this move. A step up in some obvious ways, but also he'd be on a team that actually generates chances. He's been scoring well considering his team right now, but I think it is probably better for his development to get more opportunities per game.

 

Yes, who is that guy that's in charge of these type of decisions? Hmmm.....

 

Pretty good article on LDLT and his move to Spain.

Luca de la Torre was struggling at @RCCelta

Then he ate some octopus, became a fan favorite and started winning games 🐙

It wasn’t the Galician seafood that did all that, but it signaled for the #USMNT CM that he’d finally found what was missing - a home https://t.co/SMxP6svO7C

— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) March 24, 2023

 

can friggin relate. Octopus when cooked well changes a man. Galician food is some of the best on this planet.

That said, maybe we gotta show Celta Vigo fans how the Detroit Red Wings do octopus and take their game up a notch.

 

Octopus is great but I have to say that learning how smart they are has made me think twice.

 

Loved Octopus. A slow cooked dish of it I had in Lima ranks up there as one of my favorite meals ever.

But I can't do it anymore. It's definitely a bit hypocritical of me -- pigs are pretty smart, too, and I ain't giving up bacon, but ... eh.

 

CCV

Alan Stubbs reckons there is one big similarity between Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk 🍀🔴 pic.twitter.com/e4s7spVHYA

— Football Scotland ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@Football_Scot) March 24, 2023

 

Hes getting better......thats for sure. Did not look out of place at all at the World Cup. Hopefully Tim Ream tells him the secret sauce.

 

Marlon Fossey going the LDLT route and posting video of himself

1639287415834550273 is not a valid tweet id

 

Pepi has only taken 43 shots… imagine him at PSV

Ricardo Pepi's Eredivisie conversion rate is 20.9%, but he's taken 43 shots according to WS. https://t.co/hWkCyn3oJH

— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) March 24, 2023

 

He's a coach's players, not a fan's player. You'd have a different view if you coached a team with/without Aaronson. You see players are individual units. I see players purely in terms of how they interact with the team.

 

Soon to be YA Miles

contract up in the winter... has had a four year contract offer on the table from atlanta but hasn't signed. can sign a pre-contract with a club abroad starting july 1

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) March 28, 2023

 

If Robinson stays healthy, then Atlanta United needs to send an enormous contract offer his way. Something that in the $2 million range as a minimum; after all, Walker Zimmerman makes $2.5 million a year. Matt Miazga makes $1.5 million.

But Miles Robinson should consider his transfer options anyway.

 

I imagine he wants consider he’s options abroad.

Pre injury he wasn’t in a rush to go abroad but that was possibly him not wanting to make a move in a World Cup year. Since coming back he definitely seems determined to do so.

The question for me is whether Atlanta would be willing to sell him this summer (for probably not very much), if they know they are losing him no matter what at the end of the year.

 

He’s more valuable than Araujo, I tell you this much.

But at what point is MLS going to take the training wheels off? Once number 30 comes into the league, and we’ve expanded as much as we need to expand (of course, we could expand more, but won’t need to after that), then, we need to think of the next step is to allow MLS teams to reach that ceiling of the big clubs around the world.

I know there are a lot of dinosaurs on here who are against it, but they’re impeding the growth of the league by doing so. And we do not need to handicap everyone so that the lowest common denominators in the league can still feel like they can win a title. They’re already not going to be relegated (which I’m okay with there being no relegation, actually), but they don’t need to be coddled either.

Simply put, Atlanta shouldn’t have to get rid of one of their DPs to offer Miles a DP contract. He should earn DP money because he’s worth it - and the Atlanta FO would be willing to pay it if they didn’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

 

Sky Germany is reporting that #Gladbach are interested in #FCCincy striker Brandon Vazquez.

Vazquez is considered a potential replacement for Marcus Thuram. The #USMNT striker is under contract until 2025 and has a current market value of €7m. pic.twitter.com/qAQ4VANWTv

— Manuel Veth (@ManuelVeth) March 28, 2023

 

The problem is less anyone on here and more the smaller market teams whose owners lack the deep pockets you need to really spend. Hence the importance of increasing tv viewership and subsequently tv money.

 

What would increase TV money and viewership would have bigger and better clubs, though.

 

That is the argument and it’s sort of a chicken and egg situation.

But the smaller market teams have to be bought in on that and so far they have been more interested in gradual change.

MLS definitely has some very wealthy owners and a lot of them are definitely interested in loosening the purse string. But there are definitely a lot of owners that don’t have that sort of capital.

The opt out in the Apple agreement could be a good motivator though. Apple will hopefully be able to use it to push the league in a positive direction faster (as they are already heading in that direction, albeit slowly).

 

USMNT right back Bryan Reynolds is now eligible for a UK work permit, I'm told.

Reynolds, 21, will leave AS Roma this summer.

A number of English clubs had been waiting to see if he'd become work permit eligible. Clubs in Belgium, Netherlands & more already hopeful to sign him. pic.twitter.com/P7AnGFpFiu

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) March 28, 2023

As a result of his cap against Grenada.

One of the downsides of not bringing any of the MLS guys is a single cap in a competitive match makes most of them eligible for a work permit (as it’s very hard to qualify solely from MLS).