Not a negotiating ploy. Although yes, I'm sure it provided leverage in contract negotiations. From everything we know, Tanner was serious about becoming a place kicker at Clemson. And from what observers have said, he's shown significant ability (albeit not in game settings). Last night the story of Tessman choosing MLS over Clemson was one of the "top headlines" on ESPN. https://www.espn.com/college-sports...-tessmann-opts-sign-fc-dallas-kicking-clemson Clemson does return starting kicker B.T. Potter, but Swinney said he was looking forward to working with Tessmann as well. "He's one of the best athletes," Swinney said in December. "He could go play D-I basketball. He could probably start at receiver at Clemson. He could probably play safety at Clemson. He's a 6-foot-2 phenom. He can fly. He's as good athlete as I've ever seen."
Maybe 2010-2011 FC Dallas FCD went on a splurge signing homegrown players about a decade ago like Chicago is now. Ruben Luna, Bryan Leyva, and all those kids. But they didn't yet have the experience of developing those young players. They had to learn some hard lessons about signing the right young players, and then trying to figure out the developmental pathway. [Oddly, the player from that early group that "made it" was the least heralded. Victor Ulloa is still playing in MLS 10 years later.] I love that Chicago is signing all these young players, cuz Chicago should be producing a lot more USMNT/USYNT talent than it has been. A fantastic start is just getting raw materials in the pipeline and figuring things out. But I think we're going to have to be patient. You just can't flip a switch. FCD is where they are today because they started taking it seriously in 2007. Its taken 13 years. We see, for instance, what happened in Atlanta. They went on a young player signing splurge early on. Andrew Carleton, Chris Goslin, Lagos Kunga, George Bello, etc. But they really didn't know what they were doing. They really didn't have any sort of clue from a developmental perspective. So that even the USYNT star of the group, Carleton, didn't have a path forward. Our ire can now be entirely focused on that massive black hole known as Houston. We've talked about it a lot, so I'm not going to rehash it. The lack of players coming out of Houston is almost inexplicable. Even if the Dynamo didn't exist, you'd expect them to develop players at the same rate as say...........El Paso. But they don't. [Chris Cappis is a recent Houston-developed player. He went up to the FC Dallas academy instead of staying in Houston.] Consider El Paso. At the most recent U17 World Cup, both the US and Mexico started forwards from El Paso. Ricardo Pepi with the US and Santiago Munoz with Mexico. They were teammates as youngsters.
Mihailovic(21), Gutjahr(22), and Mauricio Pineda(22) had been with Fire youth teams. That's actually a pretty good start on Chicago's part.
Harry Shipp...…………….. In fact, I believe Chicago is now up to their 20th homegrown signing (15 year old Allan Rodriguez yesterday). I don't know where that ranks them, but it must be up there. It just seems like until the recent regime change...……………...its been a side dish. Not the entrée. How many combined USMNT caps have Chicago Fire's 20 homegrown signings gone on to earn? Ooof, that must be a depressingly small number. We thought Harry Shipp was on the verge, but he never got over that hump. The next step, though, is becoming a club that's going to use player development as a primary means of player acquisition. A foundational piece of the business plan. That's a whole different ballgame in terms of investment at the academy level and the developmental pathway. We're starting to see that at clubs like Chicago. San Jose and Colorado seemed to kick it up a notch a few years ago. There are a group of clubs that are really trying to get started in order to catch up with NYRB, Phi, and gang. SKC and Seattle have made great strides. We talk about FCD a lot, but they didn't lead the league in homegrown minutes last season. RSL did. RSL had their developmental pathway thru Real Monarchs built before FCD had theirs built. RSL also, by the way, finished ahead of FCD in the standings. All I'm really saying is that I look at all the young kids Chicago is signing...………...and it reminds of the signing splurge at FCD from 2010 thru 2013. Most of whom are folks that only FCD diehards would recognize. The "success rate" amongst the group was very low. FCD changed their strategy after that. Then of course they changed course again after Weston McKennie turned down the largest HG contract in league history for Europe. And that course change is still ongoing...…………….
Two of the Fire's current starters are homegrowns. Aside from youth academy golden ages, it's not feasible to consistently have much more than that. Also, developing players for the first team, rather than for the national team, is the usual priority.
Eh, the current regime can't do anything about the level of development of the homegrowns in the past. If players like Pineda or Rodriguez simply aren't good enough at this point to justify PT or a contract, there's little Chicago can do to make them instantaneously better. I think the signings signal intention more than anything. It likely corresponds to investment in development going forward. Will they be effective? I don't know, but it has to be better than a regime who openly pushed for their homegrowns to go to college and actively petitioned MLS to shut down their academy. They likely will have bumps along the way, and like everyone else, if you are changing coaching quality or methodology, there's not a ton you can do with an 18 year old compared to a 13 year old. So it will take time. But it's a good sign in that it signals intent. There's not a lot of reason to do this for PR -- so few fans care about homegrown signings. The simplest and most likely interpretation is that they are viewing this as an avenue for players and revenue. I doubt Chicago ever commits as fully as RSL or Dallas to the player sourcing, though. Mansueto has mass cash and Chicago is a big market (so is Dallas, but Hunt does not have Mansueto's checkbook). It's going to be closer to NYCFC or whatever LAFC ends up like at best rather than a RSL/Dallas scenario.
Reyna, KDLF, and Efra made Goal.com's list of the 50 top teens in the world. https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/nx...erkids-in-football/1csxnxdsuupje1kjm3bu4gce8m
OK..........................as we're in pre-season for the 2020-2021 season, who are your candidates for "breakout" in Europe? I'll provide seven candidates as a start, although there are others who might be your favorites. 1) Chris Richards; Bayern Munich. 2) Richie Ledezma; PSV 3) Owen Otasowie: Wolves 4) Chris Gloster; PSV 5) Konrad de la Fuente; Barcelona 6) Nick Taitague; Schalke 7) Uly Llanez; Wolfsburg I picked players who are currently training with first teams in Europe. No reason to put a player like Alex Mendez in there at this point, as he's not in Ajax pre-season training. Who knows how the season will progress, though. Any thoughts on MLS? Brenden Aaronson has taken another step. As far as I'm concerned he broke out last season (earning USMNT callups), but was beaten out to the award by Paxton Pomykal. Maybe we can say Ayo Akinola has been a surprise breakout of this "MLS is Back" tournament.
KDLF is in Barca's game day squad for their UCL match tomorrow. We'll have to see if he makes the 18 but that would be incredible if he makes the jump to Barca's 1st team. If not I'd love to see him on loan within La Liga which IMO is the top league.
To clarify Barca has several injuries and a suspension or two if they were at full strength he would not be in the 22... But its a super situation for such a young player to find himself in.
Yup. Also true that Barca is one of the clubs that's openly discussed what a financial disaster the COVID-19 period has been for them. Its unlikely they're going to go out and buy a lot of players to add to the existing squad. De la Fuente only just turned 19. He's young enough that he's eligible for our U20 cycle (as is Uly Llanez of Wolfsburg). If in 2020/2021 he's mostly with Barca B, but gets some cameos with Barca..........................I think folks would still be ecstatic about that progress for him. What REALLY helps Konrad is that he has a Euro passport. There are restrictions to the number of non-EU players La Liga teams can have in their match day squads. A major reason its so difficult for Americans to get traction in La Liga.
I assume that 2020 is so clearly Reyna that we're simply resetting the calendar? I wouldn't have guessed this six months ago, but I think it's going to be Richards.
I have Ledezma atop my list. I critiqued him quite a bit while he was in the Eerste. But it wasn't because I didn't like his near future. Just needed an offseason to strengthen and build killer instinct in the final 3rd. He's made significant progress toward both. And PSV seems very amenable to integrate him if ready. I think Richards, Otasowie, and Llanez are similar level prospects, maybe even better, but aren't in as good of positions to get shots at a very high level. That's what it's dependent upon w/ them. Paredes, Pepi, Cowell, and Dunbar looked like teen starlets in MLS is Back. But who knows if they're back again & their opportunities are up in the air as well even though it's not the highest level. Pepi's still probably the best bet of that group because of his club & talent. Then I'd go Paredes. Looked very mature. Akinola is a little older, but looked legit, and was too good to keep him out of the lineup in the interim. I struggle there w/ the age and lack of sample. Could be a late bloomer though.
That is a good list. I think you could add McKenzie if he moves to the Europe group. The only other names I would add is Vassilev, Aston Villa. If Robinson is sold to West Ham and is starting in the EPL, is that a break out? In MLS, I wonder if Caden Clark could be starting for NYRB soon at 16. I thought Paredes was very impressive and my only hesitation would be that Olsen is a dinosaur in every way.
You would think Llanez would be the one that has the best chance but Wolfsburg hasn't given him the call when they had a chance. Besides him, my vote is with Gloster.
As far as I'm concerned, Robinson and McKenzie have both already broken out. They were just beaten to the award by others. Both have played a bunch of first team professional games and have USMNT caps. Vassilev? Sure. I think we can add him as a nominee to the list. He's also so young that he's eligible for the U20 cycle.
I'll go with Ledezma. I think he's the best combination of being an excellent talent with a favorable club situation. No doubt he'll get his shot and my money is on him taking full advantage. If we're going with an MLS breakout player, I'll go with/hope for Tanner Tessmann. I think he's a rare breed for the US in that he's a center mid that can bully opponents but also beat them with skill. We seem to have a lot of either/or in center mid. My only concern is FCD has a crowded center midfield full of good prospects so if he is able to stand out from that group, it will be a very good sign.
I'm curious as to why you think Richards is more critical than say, Chris Gloster? Center backs are the only position other than goalkeepers where it isn't abnormal for a guy to really come on in his early to mid 20's. And we do have a few guys who, if the cards line up, could still become something at center back. EPB, Miazga, CCV, Miles Robinson, Gladd, McKenzie, maybe Sands. It would not at all surprise me if two or three guys out of that group become really good players by WC 2022. Outside of A. Robinson, I don't see many more good options at LB waiting in the wings until you get down to the very young ages (like KHF young). That being said, I really like Richards and think he's the most unique talent of the bunch. However, if he got injured, I'd feel a lot better about one of the other guys stepping up at CB than I would at LB.
You’re right on about center backs. So maybe not necessarily Richards, but a center back from your list or Otasowie needs to emerge if not him. I totally agree if Gloster becomes an automatic choice at left back for us that solves a huge problem. Suddenly we have wingers.