2024-25 Offseason Thread

Clearly Arena didn't watch many Quakes games if we resigned Judd. A colossal waste of a roster spot. YMMV.

 

We can only buy out one contract per year? Is that right?

There were rumors late last summer that some South American team were interested in signing Gruezo after the Copa. He did play better for us for a few games. It would best if we could sell him to another club. Failing that, buying out his contract would be good. Of course, if Fisher hires a hit man I’m sure that’s a violation of MLS regs, so we could get rid of Fisher that way. I’m assuming the “hit man” rats Fisher out to the police.

My point is, if we can only buy out one contract it should be Gruezo. Pelle isn’t that expensive, so he’d be third or fourth on my list of players we need to ditch. Behind Jackson Y, who it looks like we’re ditching.

Your mileage may vary.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

It's the first worrisome move of the Arena era. I didn't see anything else to worry about in particular, and there was nothing else all that unexpected.

 

Yeah, the thing is that you can't go "clog" route if Hernán is one of your 3 mids. He's not a clogger. i don't think Skahan is appropriate for an 8 kind of role - his passing and touch aren't good enough even to be a clogger. I like Mendoza but I don't think he's ready physically yet and while he's technically very good, he does have much bite in his game. I'm actually more bullish on Rajagopal as a d-mid.

Not sure where Cruz fits. Maybe he could play left side attacker. He's fairly clean with the ball and distributes it pretty well and has a pretty good medium-long shot. He's a bit slow though for that spot. Maybe he can be a backup 10.

 

Is it shroom season in the PNW?

Gruezo is under contract (he signed a 3-year deal last year, Jan 2023) and will almost certainly be one of our starting DP’s next year. He makes close to $1.7 million, second to only Espinoza at just over $2 million, and well ahead of our other DP, Hernán, who makes about $1 million.

 

Might be right on Skahan. Mendoza is technical and good distributor but may be run over. Rajagopal is physically more imposing, but hasn't shown the insight of the game to me.

I'm not bullish on Medina. Plusses are he is tricky on the ball, good dribbler, strong mid-range shot. But as you say, he's slow, weak vision, and don't love his distribution.

 

Dude, that's a joke. I was reacting to @xbhaskarx 's comment about Gruezo and it would be cheaper to take out a hit on him than to buy out his contract. You blocking X?

I know that Gruezo is under contract through '25. But Fish could buy him out, or Bruce and CL can try trading him to some other team. The point is to get him off the books, 'cuz he sucks. I'm still hopeful that we can get rid of him. He's an albatross around our necks.

And there are mushrooms growing up here right now, but don't eat those kind any more. Just the culinary ones for me, thanks!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Rajagopal is just getting started (1 or 2 starts?), and has shown some impressive deep-lying playmaker abilities in those limited minutes besides also having more bite than Mendoza. Not sure what to do with Cruz but I think he might be better #10 depth than Skahan. I'd hate to see his career peter out after so much potential and fanfare a few years ago and he still gets good run, and plays well, with the USMNT youth teams.

You may have seen this - I've posted it once or twice. Rohan plays guys threw 3 times with line-breaking passes in the 1st 3 sequences in the clip, and then once more on a shorter pass that led to Medina's goal. That's all in his first start I believe.

 

Fish isn’t going to buy him out, he still owes him $1.7m on his current contract and he’s not going to want to spend on a TF and salary for a DP to replace him. This is Fish we’re dealing with, he’s all set on DP’s.

Trading him, maybe, but again, I don’t expect Fisher to spend on a replacement DP for
Bruce, we’ll have to make do with a few MLS journeymen and less expensive players.

 

You remain even more negative than me. I'm not expecting a lot of good decisions, but our shit DP D-mid has to go. That's the number one weakness on the team. You can't be good with a lousy, timid, fouling d-mid. You just can't. That position is a huge part of how your team stays structured on the pitch. Wimpy d-mids, especially wimpy d-mids who wander, we lead to failure and ugly soccer 100% of the time.

I'm certain that il Bruce sees this. He has to recognize that this is the biggest weakness on our team. So replacing Gruezo will be a priority for him.

Also, it's going to be hard on my liver if we don't jettison that worthless player.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

I'm going to believe it when I see it. Like I said, seems more likely to me that we roll into 2025 with the DP trio we've got.

 

I know Dallas is still negotiating with a 34 year old Illaramendi but maybe we can negotiate something with them there since he did really well with Dallas. We heard the rumors so its not impossible but man that is such a chain on our ability to get a real difference maker.

 

Most of this is just idle speculation. We have less than two weeks until the first stage of the re-entry draft on 12/13 with the second being held 12/21. I think we'll know much more about Il Bruce's intent and Fisher's backing on 12/22 than we do now.

 

Illaramendi? Omar Gonzalez? Bobby Wood? We might wind up being the oldest ever MLS team before this is all over.

 

BREAKING: The San Jose Earthquakes have acquired Mark-Anthony Kaye, Dave Romney and Ian Harkes from the New England Revolution, per sources.

Revs get around $500k GAM + int'l roster spot.

Move gives Bruce Arena three familiar faces in SJ rebuild. https://t.co/EXhBAA0aSn

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) December 2, 2024

big trade

 

And so it begins. The graying of the San Jose Earthquakes. This is what we all expected though, right? It's what I expected. Still waiting for that Jozy signing though.

 

I like Kaye and Romney, seems like a a good move, Harkes i don't know a lot about his playing style

 

Kaye gets around. I think this will be about his 7th club in the last 5 years. I always thought he was pretty good, but his most productive days were 4 or 5 years ago with LAFC.

Kind of mediocre and aging players (all around 30), but OTOH mediocre is a step up from bad, so there is that...

 

One of the best ways to evaluate a new player coming into the Quakes from another MLS team is to read the previous team's fan comments. Clue: if it's "good riddance!", it's not a good sign. If it's "aww, we're gonna miss him, thanks for all you did for the club, ....", good sign. There's not much on the NER board yet, (don't know how active their BS board is but seems not dead), but there is this:

"Although I appreciate all these player's contributions (MAK, Romney, Harkes, et al), still we need to upgrade from them, IMHO, to get the rocket fuel required for higher places. Let's just hope we succeed at it and not blow it."

It's essentially, well they weren't bad but we need to upgrade. So at this point we're reduced to trying to upgrade by signing the players that other teams are trying to upgrade from. Not great...

 

I really hope we don't end up with Omar Gonzalez

 

I'm not very familiar with the three players, but in reading their bio, I think that we just improved our depth. Assuming Romney players CD, we just found Beason replacement and possible starter how has played all of the last two seasons for NE.

 

I called it Romney