2024-25 Offseason Thread

I call it a mistake.

 

One positive about these NER acquisitions is that both Kaye and Harkes seems to have more bite than our CM's from last year - Yueill and Gruezo. A team like ours has to win the ball in the midfield from which to launch counters. We're never gonna be a build slowly from the back and score kind of team. We don't have than kinds of skill.

 

Hopefully these are just early moves and we'll get some younger players in too.

One thing we've been doing the last several years is signing home growns and guys from The Town, but most of them are not ready for prime time. So it makes our roster look younger than it really is. I'm glad to see Richmond, TT, and some of the younger guys going away. I think that's a good sign.

We need some veterans with a winning attitude, and winning experience. I hope, and expect, that these three guys will be decent on the pitch and good in the locker room. We need a full-on culture transplant.

And I'm still hoping that we jettison Gruezo. If we play Kaye in place of Gruezo, and don't trade Gruezo, his trade value will plummet, like a flying sheep.

We still need new strikers. At least one to replace Jebo, so we'd better sign two, in case the first one sucks. Also, if we play a two forward setup, we'll want four, rather than three. And I still think that Judd sucks.

I wish that I knew more of what il Bruce is thinking. There are many more moves on the way, I'm sure of it.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Just saw that, assuming we inherit these guys' contracts, both Kaye and Romney are at around $750k. Not great. We actually have to buy those contracts down so that they are not DP's. :facepalm

 

That depends on what the new DP limit is, and whether or not we can jettison Gruezo. So it might not be that bad, or, you might be right, in which case it will suck monkey butt. Unless we have ‘Uuge amounts of Garberbucks (I don’t think we do) then we could be screwed by these moves.

I’m already thinking about whiskey!

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Those $750k contracts are easy but-downs with GAM. One time we didn’t do it though was with Gray Goose, who was, laughingly, a $750k or so DP for us in 2022. It would pretty pathetic if we jettisoned Gruezo and then used our 3rd DP slot on David Romney.

 

I was suggesting that $750K might not be a DP salary in '25.

Of course, it might be too, maybe even very likely will be. But we'll see.

Go Quakesfans.

 

We needed to move some deadwood and we did. These moves are only the first in a big salvo. I'm betting we acquire five more new players during the off-season because we just dumped quite a few albatrosses.

 

In 2024 the maximum budget charge was $683,750 and these figures are total compensation package. I think you're right that these will be at or so close to within the 2025 maximum that these will be effectively within a normal roster spot, albeit two maxed spots.

 

It was going to be a minor buy down anyway. But still, not great if you are having to buy down guys who are borderline starters

 

I just had a bad thought. Bruce said he was looking to bring in “3-5” new players. So technically he could done!

But I hope it ends up being more like 8 all told, including the supplemental slots, etc. And we’d better sign a forward.

 

It's going to be a pretty low bar for Bruce to improve over the 2024 season, so I'm sure there will be some celebrating that we weren't as bad at the end of next year. If we improved our results by over 40% in 2024, we would have still been in the cellar.

So maybe we get 30 points next year, and stay in the cellar, with these new changes. It's all very sad.

 

Still early but I haven't seen any indication, based on comments Bruce has made, that we're going to make any "big signings" - like players who would really significantly move the needle for us. I'm thinking maybe one "bigger" free agent signing? A forward hopefully.

My only hope is - Bruce is no dummy and knows the league as well as anyone. He's not going to be satisfied with another wooden spoon. He must believe that he can work with his roster to get signifcantly better results. Not like a top 5 team but a team that competes for the playoffs. Or "competes for 10th place"? If he has a multi-year plan, not sure how well that works when you're relying on 30+ year old veterans.

 

Want me to see if Dayak is willing to commute?

 

It's good to have romney ready to go as a starting caliber CB instead of having to rely on munie/beason with how injury prone bruno wilson is.

Kaye could take Gruezo's starting job.

Yueill to Harkes might be a slight downgrade or a wash.

 

Yes, thanks what I was trying to get at. Even if $750k is a DP salary, it will be easy to buy those guys down. And are we sure that we’re on the hook for their salaries of last year? We snagged them off waivers, right? So doesn’t that mean that we can sign them for less? Or am I smoking dope?

I could look some of this up, but I’m not interested enough and the dust hasn’t settled yet.

Go Quakesfans!!
F#$& Fisher!!

 

I would be surprised (and disappointed) if all three start. Harkes appears to be a depth player, along with Kaye (depth player = spot starter and sub minutes). Only one that I could see to be a potential start is Romney with the challenges that we had in central defense.

 

Everyone said Mullan, Ching and Waibel would be ass, once upon a time. Lets start the season first

Because id take these 3 over the lot of trash we had last year.

Bruce doesnt like jobbers, he likes guys who fit a role and a system and Romney > Beason

 

True but OTOH, Mullan and Ching were 25 when they came to the Quakes and just starting to develop into their careers. Ching had 1 MLS start and Mullan 19. Kind of like with Wondo, those teams didn't know what they had. These were super low $ signings - just taking a flyer on young players. Kaye, Harkes, and Romney are all extremely well-known quanitities at this point, and their salaries are ratcheted up pretty high ($750k in the case of Kaye and Romney), and at 30+ there should be no illusion that they will get better.

 

I'm trying to guard against optimism. Every year in preseason, I think that we're making appropriate moves. And every year, save a couple, we've been shit.

We need 8 to 10 new guys, I'm counting subs too. And we need some guys who will move the needle. I'm expecting another shit season.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Those 3 will be just fine. Even as subs
It gets people like Thompson off this team.

 

There's only one solution. Five hour tailgate!

 

With good beer and whiskey!