Hold the phone on that May start date I mentioned above. MLS just came out and said the season will start April 3rd. That's aggressive. I highly doubt any area will be allowed to have full attendance by then. I have a hard time seeing the current setup, for those that allow fans, altering much, if at all. That is a little over 2 months away, though, so maybe (hopefully) we've got to a point in vaccine distribution that is above the current goal/projections. This puts a timetable in place for MLS teams to return to play, assuming an agreement is met on the CBA. Feb 22 is the start of preseason, with this setup, and the regular season (all 34 games for each club) would end on Nov 7 with the playoffs not starting, because of the international window, until Nov 19 with MLS Cup on Dec 11. Lord help us if a northern club hosts that thing... It's also worth mentioning that both the Euro's and the Olympics will be in the thick of this schedule, affecting each club in some form. I have a hard time buying into this setup for a lot of reasons. Though, the end of the article is one of the first times I've seen the league website actually talk about the CBA negotiations. Typically that is a blind spot for the league site. If they feel comfortable enough to do that, then maybe negotiations are a lot closer than what I feel. I haven't seen anything about what the PA countered with, but I've got to imagine it isn't just a few things here and there different from what the owners put out.
Per RSL.com, Kreilach, Martinez, Morgan, Ruiz and Silva are the international players. That's 5 of the 7, plus one from LAFC. Several of those guys have been with the team long enough I'm assuming they have to be close to getting their green card. We can always sell extra ones to teams like FCC, they go for about $175k GAM.
I wouldn't trust the club website right now as it looks like it hasn't had a good, thorough updating in a month at least.
As far as players go, it's only missing Putna (don't understand). If you compare the 2020 roster at the MLS site vs the team page, you'll see the differences. The coaching and stuff is not up to date though.
In addition to the 1 Monarchs loan (probably Dewsnup as you mentioned) which grants both roster and budget relief, they could also loan a player for roster relief (may or may not come with budget relief depending on agreement). As 15 mentioned, this is more difficult during Covid, but there could be another domestic loan if RSL has plans to use the spot. GM's can get very creative and put these arrangements together when there is an opportunity to upgrade with a player. In addition, each club can also buyout a contract during the offseason to free up a spot. I think the bigger issue for RSL would be what incoming moves are they looking to make. Fairly confident they can clear a couple of spots from the supplemental roster if needed. Cap space can be a bit trickier unless you have allocation $ to spend. As others have suggested, the team is in a bit of a pickle because they need to make a big move, but that's not gonna happen until ownership is sorted out. Interestingly, even just 2-3 weeks ago Garber was actually talking about a potential return some time in March. So I was actually a bit relieved with an April start date. I wonder if a fairly congested international schedule forced this.
We can just disappear Ashtone Morgan again. Worked in 2020 anyway. We don't even need to really know where he is.
I think we went through this same exercise last year. The RSL.com site lists 5 International Players, yes, but it also lists Rusnak and Jeizon as "Designated Players". I've never found out if the site is unable to list more than one moniker. I have never seen anything state that Rusnak got a green card, or Jeizon.
if Fall can negotiate a good transfer, it's hard to see Herrera's stock getting much higher. I mean, obviously if the club became a top team in the league... but that ain't happening.
That could be, but Rusnak wasn't an international on the 2020 Roster. Morgan takes Jones' spot, and maybe we do have 7 internationals. Still doesn't change that most of them should be getting green cards soon. I know the club has said they expected more than one player to get their green card last year and didn't. I know that GM's have lots of player movement tools available to them and I'm sure we're not privy to all of them, but the best thing is to not put yourself in a position that you need to use them just to free up a roster spot. Elliot picked up multiple options this year that don't make sense. Last year he wasted 2 very valuable international slots on backups/DNPs.
IMO - international slots will not be an issue this season for RSL. This is a rare year with the full compliment of 8 thanks to the Baird trade, and there has only been 1 time in the history of this club (mostly with 7 spots or less) that I'm aware of this being a complicating factor for the club. In that particular case (circa 2010/2011), the league allowed the team to carry an "extra" intl player for a couple of months as 2 or 3 players were near greencard completion. Roster spots themselves could be a challenge, but with owner ambiguity I dont think this club has the juice to get several deals done over the next 6 months. And freeing up 1 or 2 spots is fairly easy. I agree that we'd all like to see addl near term changes coming, but I don't see that in the cards, and not due to limited roster spots. This club has so far to go to get there. Could an owner materialize in the next couple of months, and those pieces fall in place by summer window? Possibly, but I'm growing more and more skeptical that this issue is going to correct itself soon and not be an albatross around the neck of the club for at least the majority of the season. For now, I think Elliot is doing the best he can with the cards he's been dealt. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
Did Morgan play any professional soccer in 2020? Think of how out of form he could be with the amount of time he's had off...
My point with the international slots wasn't that we wouldn't have enough, it's that we have too many with the number of open roster slots. Which makes the Baird trade all the more confusing. What was the point of that international roster spot being traded to us? Why not ask for more money instead? I'm trying to see a scenario where RSL needs all 8 international slots currently allocated to them. Even if you think nobody gets a green card, you don't hit the number. What looked a good move by Fall suddenly loses a ton of value as it isn't something we'll need in 2021 and something that goes back to LAFC in 2022
That's the mystery. We heard he was on loan but he never appeared in any other game as far as anyone could tell, nor was he on any other roster. This is why I call it a disappearance rather than a loan.
If RSL needs another player to "disappear" and not play any soccer anywhere then sign me up. I could possibly be the best player that you never want to see play anywhere anytime. I also don't take up an International spot which may make this deal harder if we're trying to use up an international spot. I wouldn't even bother training. I'm quite good at that already. Really good. In fact, sign me up, "disappear" me on loan to say a League 2 team in England and I'll not play, train, or even show my face. I will go to all their games though. We have to at least make some effort to show we're serious about not playing a player we have no intention of playing. I could limp too, if that helps. I will Sid Finch the crap out of this whole situation just to help my RSL. It's the least I could do. Literally.
The setting for the Austrian team we sent Bordy and Ruiz and someone else to - that looks like a nice place to just hang out on a disappearance.
FC Pinzgau Saalfelden. I'm a fan owner and looking forward to my trip there. Andy Williams and Waibel are/have been involved. As much as I would like to see some RSL players on loan there, don't count on it until they are trying to get promoted to the 2nd division or are already playing there.
Because you collect assets anyway that you can, and this asset has value, likely in terms of allocation. So if LAFC couldn't pony up another $100K in GAM, acquire an int'l spot and then make a deal with another team who gets painted into a corner with too many int'l players and get $150K GAM. The only problem is you can't rollover GAM, and I don't see this team using much of it, beyond whatever they use for Wood's contract (my guess is $200K-ish).
you can't roll this International Slot, either. I love your optimistic idea that Fall can turn it. I hope its true
No real optimism. I'm full of doubts. But I understand the theory. Not much confidence in the ability to execute.
With player departures based on 2020 contracts we shed somewhere close to $3.5 million. Beckerman was $500k alone. Johnson was a cool $1 mil. Nedum was higher than Beckerman. I added it up earlier in this chain but I don't care to do so again. Elliott was saying we had significant assets and that we planned to match last year's budget by spending those assets. Getting Rubin couldn't have been more than a USL contract deserves. Wood is not a DP so he can't be more than $500k cap. So, by my count we have plenty to spend yet. I think loaning out or even cutting the bottom 3 players on the roster is easy enough to do as opportunities open up.
2019 Salaries of players on the senior roster that aren't on the roster for 2021: Kyle: $325k, certainly could be higher for 2020, we shed a lot of contracts in 2019 Alvin Jones*: $81k (minimum for 2020) Luke: $155k Nedum: $504k Rossi*: who knows, let's guess $300k (~half the max) Baird: people say $500k, but that's more than Sava made in 2019; I hope we're not rewarding one good season with raises to $500k from $70k. Johnson: $767k My math says that's $2.632m, but that's based on 2019 info, doubt we'll ever see the 2020 numbers from the MLS players union. However, players don't count for more than $612,500 against the budget (for 2020). You have to use GAM/TAM to bring their salary to at or below that max. For 2021, we lost Arriaga and Vasquez from the Supplemental Roster. We have added Brody, Davis, Powder, Dewsnup, and Halsey that can/will take a Supplemental spot (Halsey has to, Dewsnup is likely loaned all year and doesn't count). I'm assuming Putna and Martinez move to the senior roster and now count toward the budget, as will Morgan. That's easily $250-300k. Glad got a new contract, likely a raise, as did Pablo, but probably not ones that require the use of GAM/TAM. Kreilach got a raise to the TAM max, $1m more than the budget max. I bet Rubin is making 2-3x the senior minimum, so ~$200k. For Wood, I saw mid TAM mentioned, which is ~$1.1m. Again, anything over the max requires GAM/TAM. So, it looks like there should still be $1-1.5m in the budget for players, but that doesn't account for raises, which are often higher than the salary budget annual increase. Now, Rob Zarkos mentioned to Trey on his podcast (worth listening to) that Elliot has accrued quite a bit of GAM/TAM, so I'm sure there's even more room to add more difference makers that don't make DP money. That's why I'm frustrated that he's filled up the roster with too many low salary players when we have plenty of HGs that could play and don't count/take a valuable spot. Morgan is the only obvious cut from the (expected) senior roster. There's some questionable moves that forced some guys from the supplemental roster to the senior roster, giving the team less flexibility with the senior roster (2 spots right now).