Feel weird saying this, but I think our needs this summer window are entirely on the forward line. Shelton complicates this. Vermes seeing him as quality depth at all three forward positions (both paying and playing him accordingly) is a headache for me as a transfer window dreamer. Tzionis had a heck of a game yesterday. I find myself with a lot more confidence in our future with him. Right wing is happy wing. Left wing is too thin. Salloi is a tank but he can't play all game every game. This is where we need a signing. Staying in the league for this seems smart, or dipping into our youth? But someone needs to be deputizing there on a more regular basis. I'm really hopeful on Agada returning from injury with a blast of enthusiasm. And as raw as he may be, I'm actually pretty excited about Afrifa. The only huge question here is what we do if Pulido leaves before the season ends. I highly doubt we sign a DP replacement during the season, so we would need Agada to step back up or to sign a modest foreign guy (I think we'd pay out the nose for an MLS trade at striker, where every team is thin). That my Memorial Day ramble. Eyes on Pulido over the next month or two.
The transfermarkt page on Tzone is interesting. He is a left wing, or central wing, and only now is a right wing. I think our needs are more across the board depth. While our first 11 is quite strong, and we have a bit of depth, we are losing because of the dead weight in our core group. We really cannot expect and do not want full 90 performances from Roger, Zusi, Shelton. As of now, Zusi has made the gameday roster 14 times, and played 14 times, averaging 66 minutes an outing. Roger has made the squad 16 times, played 13 and averaged 54 minutes per outing. Shelton's numbers, 13 times in squad, 11 apps, averaging 43 minutes per outing. If we finish the season with similar sorts of numbers, we're going to be in a similar sort of table position. that said, those probably have to be off season solutions. All three have to be dropped and replaced with young, hungry types. Given that 2023 is a lost season for us, though, I would really like to see if anyone on our roster can outplay those three. I want to see Afrifa, Ozzie, Flores, suck up some minutes, and I am hopeful that our RB situation is soon Davis or Pierre. However, as for our biggest need: For right now, we are playing with 3 meh keepers. I have no idea why we made Melia one of the leagues 6 highest paid keepers this offseason (he is only trailing Burki, Gallese, Blake, Frei and Johnson. he was worth a top 3 contract until a couple years back), but this is a serious issue for us. we need a starting keeper. Again, probably an offseason problem, but the stupidiest solution we can have is working Melia back into the rotation when he returns from injury in, what, late September?
Pulido talk continues: 🔴 El Guadalajara negocia el regreso de Alan Pulido. Retomaron contacto con el jugador y el club hace poco.🔙 La situación es compleja. @Chivas quiere YA libre al jugador, que termina contrato en 6 meses y no renovará. El @SportingKC quiere negociar.@FOXSportsMX pic.twitter.com/eXJjbizpQL— Rodrigo Camacho (@rodrigocamacho_) May 31, 2023
I'm ready to write him off as a $9M bust. Highly skilled player, but its hard to come back from knee injury. Plus he doesn't play like a true CF, too much "false 9" in his game. Not a great hold up player, doesn't have the speed to get in behind. That doesn't leave much for a CF to do besides "fox in the box". See ya later.
Bust because of injury. there have been a few moments of brilliance since he arrived, but the problem was the injury, and if he's not re-signing, what's the point? Vermes likes the false 9, and i'd suspect that if given the chance, he'd replace Pulido with someone with the same game. Hey, there's a guy with PSG and a former Barca false 9 who seems open to MLS! That said, is this real? Pulido does not look like the guy who awed at least me before the injury. He's a half step slower, not as decisive, and he's reaching the upper age-range for a productive striker. Chivas are kind of known as a club that doesn't screw up so often with player recruitment, but he does not look like a player right now who can return and challenge for a golden boot in LigaMX, which was him when he left. Returning to top form at 32 isn't a given. Is it possible this is his agent trying to get a better offer from SKC? That said, at $2m a season, he's better value than Shelton at $625k.
Honestly if he goes this summer, I wouldn't be surprised if it were with a mutual contract termination. I mean, unless Chivas walked in willing to pay, but that would surprise me. Vermes may fight to keep him because he doesn't have the time, resources, or track record to secure a decent replacement. Major pressure on Agada at minimum! I guess he's a bust, but only due to his unexpected injury issues. Such a shame for him and for us.
If it happens, I wouldn’t be too sad to see him go. Of course the down side is SKC has no real threat to play his position. Shelton, no explanation needed… Afrifa is too green..Agada is out. SKC knew that this could be a possibility, so they should be searching for possible replacements just in case he goes. Nothing like adding more confusion to an already bad season.
Yes, 100%. He is clearly a highly skilled player with a good level of athleticism. And, as many have pointed out, he seems to play CF like PV wants CFs to play. Dropping back and playing like a No.10 as much as a No.9. If not for injuries, I think he would have made a big impact. Unfortunately, he's going to go down as that really expensive CF only led the team in scoring once in his four years.
And just to add, I'm not sure there's an actual way back for him, to his pre-injury game. He just seems to have lost some spark, and coming back from so, so long off at his age, in a player who has to know his best years are behind him, and that he's done just about everything he could have hoped to do in his career, seems unlikely. If we can get a million off our payroll by releasing him to Chivas, that's probably a win.
SKC have reportedly set a $2m asking price on Pulido 🚨Chivas🚨Alan Pulido… #SportingKC quiere 2M de dólares por él, solo tiene 6 meses más de contrato, lo que podría favorecer en la negociación donde podría entrar algún jugador para sacarlo ahora en verano… Pulido quiere volver y Chivas necesita un “9” de garantías @FOXSportsMX— Fernando Cevallos (@FerCevallosF) June 1, 2023
That would be a tidy piece of business if they were able to get 2 million and save half a year's salary IMO. With the saved salary and putting Ford on the season ending injury list perhaps they have enough to find some kind of replacement sooner rather than later. 2 mil seems like a steep price for 6 months though...not sure why Chivas would do that.
I think (if the price is actually true) it's KC setting the price high knowing that selling Pulido puts them in a horrible position for the CF position. If Chivas want to pay it, let them, but it's also KC saying they don't really want to b/c they don't trust a CF rotation of Afrifa/Shelton to be competitive.
Or it could be SKC setting the price while expecting a counter. It could be SKC setting the price at or a bit above what they'd expect to lose in playoff revenue if he left? that is actually a very solid reason to hold out. If SKC with Pulido looks likely to be seeded higher, and advance a round further, it's a breakeven to sell somewhere around $2m, isn't it? The problem with this is that once he doesn't sell, and doesn't re-sign, he signs a pre-contract with Chivas on July 1, and maybe he's the classy pro I like to think he is, and he gives maximum effort until the end of the playoffs, but maybe, in his mind, he's a Chivas player and he coasts for SKC?
Haha, damn, I forgot about that. No, I was more doing a clever reference to the trade we just made of international slots for GAM from Nashville.
GAM is going to be a huge pickup for us. The stats are a bit misleading but just you all wait. Side note: reading the article reminded me that Shelton makes nearly the league maximum sans buy down and it made me angry all over again.
Also, help me out here. How are we selling Int slots? According to our official roster, right now we have Afrifa, Agada, Leibold, Ndenbe, Radoja, Thommy, Tzone and Voloder. According to MLS rules, we get 8 int slots. Also, according to our previous announcements, we traded away a slot to Columbus in January for $190,000, to LAFC in February, and now to Nashville for $270,000, but with something else thrown in. In any case, that's three Int slots traded away. Now, MLS allows 8 per team, though tradeable. SKC has, uhm, 8 so while I would never claim math is my strong point, 8-8 and then minus another 3 would seem to be a problem. I got it when we traded away the previous 2, because 5 folks had just been green carded. So did SKC put a really good immigration attorney on staff last year? It isn't a bad idea. Also, do Canadians still count as ints? Our roster says yes, but that seems messed up. Do we assume Logan, Tzone and Voloder have gotten green cards but won't be announced until roster day 2024?
Ndenbe, Thommy, and Tzionis all got green cards before the season. https://www.sportingkc.com/news/sporting-kc-announces-roster-composition-ahead-of-2023-mls-season
Now that we picked up that 270k GAM and Pulido and other contracts expiring this off season we should be able to lock in the transfer for CR7.
So now apparently Pulido has agreed to a deal with Chivas and Chivas has sent an offer to KC. If KC doesn't accept it, Pulido will sign a precontract with Chivas when he can and join in January. https://www.clarosports.com/futbol/...-rebano-esta-muy-cerca-de-fichar-al-mexicano/