Rumor: 2022-23 Offseason MLS Season Transfer News and Rumours

That is one of the curses of being a keeper. When a team has a really good keeper, you hold on to him for dear life. You have to have a pretty bad and long string of games with poor performances (or god forbid an injury) to be replaced for a younger "unknown".

While there have been a lot of stories of backup keepers becoming great starting keepers , it is not often the case for the majority.

 

OFFICIAL: We've acquired defender Alex Gersbach from Grenoble Foot 38.

Welcome to Colorado, @alexgersbach!

📝 » https://t.co/eLJgvL6Jms pic.twitter.com/LMpIja80Qf

— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) January 30, 2023

 

His whole MLS saga has been bizarre. LA always seemed eager to replace him, despite his production, and no one in the league seemed all that interested in taking him off their hands even though he'd be a massive upgrade for a solid 3/4 of the league.

 

Part of this twist though might be the fact that LAFC never got anything for either Cifuentes or Palacios in this window. Most people thought at least Cifu would go for decent money and Palacios was a possibility. Without them going there was probably no allocation money to give Arango a raise and there definitely wouldn't be any to add the replacements they need to make for this year. They added Aaron Long at likely a TAM salary, Stipe Biuk is a U-22 player, while Denil Maldonado and Eldin Jakupovic are probably cheap. But they still needed to replace Blessing, Tello, Mendez, and Escobar even before the Arango move. And since they have a bunch of U-22 players the only way to make Arango a DP is to keep him under the TAM salary threshold since Bouanga and Vela are both full DP's over that threshold. So, depending on what he wanted, they either couldn't keep him, needed to use a DP slot on a player they could TAM, or use allocation money they now probably don't have.

As for trading him, that gets complicated as well. The minimum trade is going to be 1.1 million in allocation money since that is what they would get from the sale to Pachuca. They'd likely want more since they are getting extra money they can spend on other things with the non-allocation money portion of that sale. From a buying club's perspective, you are looking at 1.5 million-ish in allocation money and player that hits at the salary max. Above that he is either a DP or you are spending a bunch more in allocation money. On the flip side, if you are Chicago or NYRB you can go out and get a DP from overseas and they will cost you the same cap hit but also not cost you any allocation money. In order to pull off a big allocation money trade for a player you need to have had an allocation windfall at some point like FC Dallas did before the Arriola trade. Absent of that it is hard to absorb that without ruining the rest of your roster build.

 

Sources! #VWFC are finalizing a deal for Augsburg striker Sergio Cordoba.
Kicker first to report a move to MLS and Whitecaps are the club working on the transfer.
Not done yet as some final hurdles remain but all sides are optimistic this will get done. 🇩🇪🔜🇨🇦 @Transfermarkt pic.twitter.com/TS0aO4TinR

— Manuel Veth (@ManuelVeth) February 2, 2023

 

Where in the world is Emmanuel Reynoso?

 

RSL loaned rising young HG center back Jaziel Orozco to Santos Laguna, which perplexes us.

 

🇦🇷➡️🇪🇸➡️🇺🇸 @Dumbomoving

Bienvenido a New York, @Braiancufre3 🗽 #VamosNYC

— New York City Football Club (@NYCFC) February 3, 2023

 

Sources! #Rapids96 have made an offer for Serbian goalkeeper Marko Ilić from KV Kortrijk. The initial offer is around €600,000 plus 20% add-ons.

Colorado Rapids were in advanced talks with goalkeeper Patrick Pentz, who opted to sign for Leverkusen instead. 🇧🇪🔜🇺🇸❓ pic.twitter.com/qRmMC2QYM6

— Manuel Veth (@ManuelVeth) February 4, 2023

Third European international keeper the Rapids have been linked to this window

 

Update, per sources: Talks continue to advance between LAFC & Pierre-Emerick Aubamayang. Nothing agreed yet, but getting more serious.@MatteMoretto says Chelsea would cover 100% of Auba's salary until the summer. LAFC just sent Chicho Arango to Pachuca & are looking for new ST. https://t.co/igB4x9JcBh

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) February 8, 2023

 

Either Bogert or Doyle mentioned he was described to them as "the Rimando of the J-League". That combination may just break me.

And LAFC has just tweeted out a short clip of their hat being put in a box with international shipping on it. So, either him or Timothy Tillman (Malik Tillman's brother). Would assume they wouldn't do that for Tillman though considering the rumors around Auba.

 

They put out the clip for all signings but I wonder if they would call Tillman 'Domestic Mail' or 'International Mail'

 

BREAKING: The San Jose Earthquakes have agreed a deal for defender Jonathan Mensah in a trade with the Columbus Crew, per sources.

Mensah, 32, made 159 apps with the Crew, winning 2020 MLS Cup. Mensah in last year of his contract, SJ would cover total salary. pic.twitter.com/Wv3UkMguir

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) February 10, 2023

 

It seems SJ gave up $200K of GAM for Mensah with another $300 available in incentives.

Crew fans have mixed feelings about it. We need to get younger and this frees up space for us to sign someone as a replacement. Supposedly Crew have target in mind.

 

Meanwhile. from the shores of Lake Wobegon:

"Emanuel Reynoso has been suspended without pay by Major League Soccer for failure to report to preseason training. We have no additional information beyond that at this time."

 

What's going on with Reynoso? ESPN had a piece saying he wasn't disgruntled and looking for a way out, with Heath saying he was dealing with a personal situation. Typically that means a sick relative so suspending him without pay looks harsh.

 

One possibility is legal issues stemming from an accusation a year or so ago that he pistol-whipped a boy back in Argentina

 

If he's facing charges in Argentina, then it may be an immigration hold until they are resolved.