The other question, even if you expected swaps (reasonable considering their roster), is whether you thought the moves would be done to bring in more talent or just unload players they don't want.
Do you think the straight ups, so far, have upgraded any positions? Apart from the outside the league move (singular, correct?), it seems like treading water?
I'm sad to see Jones go, but if you tell me that Miller is now starting in his spot, I'm for the move. As for Kessler, I don't think he has been the same since returning from the injury. I wish them both well in their new homes. This brings me to the make-believe money that changes hands. It has got to stop. The league is almost 30 years old. These clubs need to stand on their own without all these restrictions. If you want to put in a salary cap, I'm fine with that. But otherwise, the clubs need to learn how to develop players and be allowed to build teams that can compete with other leagues for talent. I wasted 4 hours of my life the last 2 days watching the men and women in the Olympics. It was not impressive. I think the women's game set the sport back 10 years. It reminded me of when the goalie could pick the ball up when a teammate passed to them. Roll the ball to the defender, kick it back to the goalie, pick it up, and repeat. The US Soccer desperately wants to have the MLS develop the players for their programs. It is not going to happen as long as MLS is a single entity with no incentive for individual teams to go beyond the basics.
I see it as you're re-deploying assets without weakening the team that much, if at all. Miller has to play. So one of Jones or Bye loses minutes, which they wouldn't have liked. Sands is the cover in case Miller doesn't work out or gets hurt. Lima backing up Bye isn't the worst thing in the world. With Kessler there are too many CB's who can only defend. Kessler was probably the best of the bunch but Romney doesn't exactly suck. And they brought in a starter to replace Kessler who'll either be off the books next year or back at a lower number. Next up they have to address DM and they have the flexibility to do it. So far so good as far as I'm concerned. But I think we need to withhold judgement till we see what other moves are coming.
I think I’d sum that up as they are lowering their salary commitment and getting some longer term contracts out of the way. If the argument is that this positions them for the NEXT window then that’s fine. So, maybe this is good in setup for some future team. But I don’t think they’ve really improved THIS team. It is a step down from Jones and maybe close to a simple substitution of like for like in Kessler. It doesn’t address glaring needs in midfield and forward. It is a big bet on Miller who is pretty young. Miller seemed to be playing because they didn’t like ANY OTHER options after Jones and Jones was (supposedly) hurt. So, I think we still have a pretty weak set of central defenders even for MLS. That weak set of defenders sits behind a very questionable midfield. We currently have about 1/2 of a serviceable forward until Vrioni gets healthy. Since even a healthy Gil couldn’t really make Porter’s “system” hum and since we haven’t really addressed the biggest weaknesses, it just seams like they are throwing in the towel on this season. Since, historically, we’ve watched this ownership repeat that methodology for 4, 5 even 6 years in a row, it doesn’t make me feel optimistic.
You can't compare the eras. The past few years, they've been willing to shell out for the 3 DPs. That's a completely different issue than when they had one DP and it was a no-name buy. The Revs are no longer the bottom of the league in spending and haven't been for a few years. How they spend it, you can question, but they are spending.
I think making the playoffs this season is still in play, though if I had to bet on it, I'd say no. I think it's safe to say there's going to be a weeding out of the chronically injured /not good enough/not wanted corps this off season. I also am not sure we've seen what Porter Ball will actually look like. After all, Borrerro, Carles, Chancalay and Vrioni played approximatey 90 seconds together this season. Porter said 3 to 4 moves were in the works. They've made 3 - I'm wondering whether we'll see more changes during the current window?
There better be more moves coming. If they plan to finish the season with Vrioni and a one-legged Bobby Wood as their only strikers, then they are planning to win the Wooden Spoon. I can see it now, the teams leading scorer for the rest of the season will be Tim Parker...
Jones made no sense for the olympic roster. LB was one of the deeper positions in the U23 pool. Considering the holes elsewhere (specifically CB but also Striker) wasting an overage spot on Jones would have been dumb
The big picture stuff on this is: + 1.2m GAM (expires summer 2026) + 1.1m cap space in 2024 (Sands makes less than Jones and Houston is paying half of Parkers contract) + 2 senior roster spots for 2025 ( Sands is supplemental. Both Sands and Parker are non guaranteed for 2025) X% sell on if Jones finally gets sold abroad (I saw it reported but haven't seen the number). Even if this team got worse in the short term, it isn't by enough to complain considering all the added roster resources these deals freed up. I still think Onalfo should have been able to get more for Jones, but on balance this corrects some bad GMing Onalfo did last winter.
A little bit of insight on the Kessler trade (from the STL side anyway). St Louis City Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel stated on @kmoxnews that trading Tim Parker for Henry Kessler was because the sides [Parker & STL] could not come to agreement on a new contract."With six months left on the contract, we simply could not find an agreement on the…— Caleb Pongratz (@CalebPongratz10) August 5, 2024
so they move a LB and CB out and bring in a LB and CB in along with a wing. Pretty clear these moves were for next year. If they move Vrioni and cannot/do not want to sign Parker along with the savings from Jones and the GAM, they go into the off season with a few million to spend on a new DP forward and other needs. Honestly after last seasons fiasco the Revs F'd up this season by waiting until Dec to hire a coach. They could have locked him up early and just let the interim coach finish out the season. That would have given him two months more to possibly make some changes for this season. It also appears Bruce made some questionable dealings locking up players to long term contracts reducing future flexibility in bringing in players. perhaps opening day 2025 TIFO display should says "Wait Til' Next Year" and just get it over with
He also said at one point (maybe in the same interview) that the Jones and Kessler trades were not part of the 3 to 4 moves he had previously said they were hoping to make this window. But he also said they could fall through, in which case they'd have to address them over the winter.
With the exception of Tommy Macnamara all of the long term contracts people are complaining about were given out by Onalfo.
This could be one of those moves: According to Tom Bogart, New England Revolution finalizing deal to sign Nigeria international midfielder Alhassan Yusuf from Royal Antwerp. Yusuf, 24, has 7 caps with Nigeria and made 116 apps for Antwerp. Fee is reportedly "north of $2 million." That's all well and good, but we need a striker.
I am very excited for this move, if Porter is smart about it. We needed a CDM, and if Yusuf can stay healthy I am confident he is that guy. The tricky bit for Porter will be how he fits Yusuf into the 11. What he should do is pair him with Harkes or Buck. My fear is that he sticks with his Talisman and we go back to a 0 ball progression midfield with Polster
I expect to see Jones play quite well with Columbus, but I don't think it was going to happen here. He'll be with a new coach (best in MLS IMO) and surrounded by better players who are comfortable in their system. And, he'll be energized by the fresh start. OTOH, I don't think it's a gamble - other than likely hearing 'why can't we ..." from fans down the road. It happens, but you can't let that stop you from making moves to better the club. No. Miller is playing because he finally got healthy. He had a string of unfortunate injuries starting late in training camp that really derailed him. This kid has been ID'ed as the Revs' next big thing for awhile now. If Jones wasn't moved and was fit, he'd be playing RB or LW, or Miller would be playing LB or LW - but they'd both find a way into the lineup. We do have a pile of LWs, though, but keeping them fit is the problem. Once you have Borrero and Chanacalay back, not to mention Ema, Buck and Nacho and the new Argentine kid - there aren't enough wing positions for all the top-end-of-the-roster players. This move helps a bit - since it would have been tough to get Miller or Jones time at LW. The next big thing coming down the line is Olger Escobar - already capped for Guatemala's NT. I think it's much more important than "all well and good". We have a starting striker who has shown he can score goals when he gets reasonable service. Yes, we need more depth there, for sure. But, dmid is a big problem, because our current options there suck at transitioning to the attack. Polster will always be a play-it-back-first player, because he doesn't have the confidence to be a transition passer. Kaye just doesn't have an acceptable completion rate - and Harkes isn't really a dmid, though he does have the attacking mindset. A real talented, 2-way dmid can make a huge difference on this team - it's a huge deficit that we've been living with so long we often don't even see it.