A bit too pessimistic. In 2013 we were not just bad but terrible, awful and by several measures we were the worst ever in league history (but more on that in a minute).* But the very next season was one of the more ridiculous turnarounds in pro sports entertainment bidness: finishing 1st in the conference and 3rd in the overall table, qualified for ConkaLaff Champs Cup, and Hamid, Pontius and Olsen receiving league honors. So, stranger things can happen - there has already been 3 seasons of that show. *Historically Worst? by some measures, yes, but I see in Goff's article that while we own(ed?) some of the dubious distinctions - at the time the metroPukes owned more than us! So, yay? D.C. United, by the (awful) numbers - The Washington Post
Yes. If we stick with what we have to “test it out” then what is the backup plan if it doesn’t work out? Who is on the bench? If your answer is poopoodoodoo, and unfortunately for us it is, you have to get reinforcements. We don’t have the luxury or the depth to experiment.
San Jose, New England and several others recently have made massive jumps. Sometimes people treat MLS like NBA or NHL or MLB team- thinking you need to have a stable of prospects developing, use drafts over several years and do marquee value trades. You don’t have to do any of that. You can tear your roster to pieces and redo the whole thing if you want. We don’t have to wait for Hopkins Green Frog and whoever else I can’t even remember their names to work their way up and develop. We don’t technically ever have to develop a player. Just get guys that can play at a good rate and call it a day. So you’re right it could be very fast, but given the dead weight we have and refuse to get rid of, it’ll be 2-3 years.
[QUOTE="shammypants, post: 42004140, member: 231664"given the dead weight we have and refuse to get rid of, it’ll be 2-3 years.[/QUOTE] If it is 2-3 years, then we have a different problem. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/d-c-united/kader/verein/2440/saison_id/2023/plus/1 On Jan 1, ‘25, we will be on the hook for 8 players. Only two (Birnbaum & Jeahze) were big spends from the last regime. We have 15 contracts up this year. If it takes 2-3 years to turn over the roster, then it’s because we’re retaining players we shouldn’t.
We retained Pirani, Canouse, and KDP. Of those, Pirani is a bit of a gamble (but a good one imo and just 2 years) and KDP was a no-brainer. Only Canouse is questionable, but it’s a one year extension and he’s a former captain in a position of need.
At one point I think we were down to 18 players, six of which were u23s(?) Rebuilding over several windows means keeping some players for a window or two who will age out or wash out. Especially with a new coach, there's just no point in the FO trying to bring in 18 guys in the first window. A bird in the hand is one you don't have to go looking for, even if it turns out to be a dodo.
You have the entire world to get players, you can also get players above 18 years old. Frankly, there is a lot more to starting fresh than meets the eye. It’s not like we have an enjoyable playstyle or qualities that we want to protect. With regards to remaining deadweight, definitely Jeahze at his salary, Canouse can be easily replaced, Hopkins isn’t worth the gamble anymore, Birnbaum should have been gone a year or two ago, it would have been great to get some kind of value for Benteke and move on to better gameplay. We could get some actual impact players replacing them and we’d be pretty set.
Hey don't worry man, coach rooney is gonna pull it out in the end, you're gonna get one right this time
You disagree because of the lot they are ok players. It's uncomfortable getting rid of people who aren't unreliable, but that means they have value for trades. Canouse hasn't gotten us anywhere. Jeahze is off slapping women at night clubs. None of these guys will be here when we're actually good again anyway, so why screw around?
I recognize there's more than one philosophy to rebuilding. Personally, I think there were too many front office changes to then dump everyone and start over. You're not scouting players, you're scouting position fillers. That's a handful per position that you're trying to identify, verify, negotiate and get over the line. And every one you do get over the line changes the shape of all the other positions. It's a huge job. So you spread it out, make your early acquisitions where you can and reconsider everything over and over. And yeah, here comes a new coaching staff and a new philosophy. I just don't see how a new FO, or any FO can handle that many moving pieces. And I think the team (and the new coach) benefits from whatever coherence keeping 2/3rds of the players can provide. Shammy disagrees. I respect that. From my perspective, we kept the guys that we kept because opportunity cost, if that makes sense. Canouse and Birnbaum might be overvalued, but they're reliable, and the cost and likelihood of finding better value that plays at or above their level is low, so we don't waste time trying to sell them. Hopkins is cheap and I've spoken to. Jehaze we haven't seen enough of to say if he's worth his pricetag. For me, the problem players are Dajome, Garay, Sargis, maybe Zamudio. Dajome is a salary issue. He did not play well given plenty of opportunity last season. Maybe they see something I haven't seen, or more likely they can't dump him without taking a loss they won't swallow. The other three are just prospects that are aging out of that category without having demonstrated (again, to an outsider) they can play at this level. But if they're just filling slots at the end of the bench, because they're not worth replacing at this point, I'm fine with that. They're cheap. By my guestimated figuring, we have a few mill under the cap to fill. I'm OK with the FO doing that piecemeal over the next 8 months, and I'm ok with them using it on 5 slots instead of 9.
Dajome has a lot of upside as a.. checks notes.. 30 year old winger/striker with 15 goals in 100 games and 10 assists since 2020 .
If we’re not going to truly compete before 2026, they should fold the franchise. The goal for THIS SEASON should be to make the playoffs. 18 out of 29 make the damn thing.
Yea different conference but there are clearly teams with much better and perhaps slightly worse odds of making the playoffs than us.
So there’s a great example of why we couldn’t unload everyone you wanted to/we should. Who besides Kasper & Rooney would want to spend $900k on a player like that? My guess is almost the whole team was for sale, but we only got bites on Durkin and Ruan.
You're totally right. This was my list of tasks to become a better squad, I didn't think we could move Dajome or Canouse or Benteke.
LAFC unloaded most of their previous season acquisitions. They got worse at left back and still don’t have a striker. Austin is garbage. Philly will either finish top 3 in the east or bottom out.
I don’t think most on here would consider you an optimist, but you thought we could offload Pedro Santos? Put a plaid jacket and Gilligan hat on him, and he’s my grandfather. And isn’t he getting something like $600k?! I think we sold what we could sell, took gambles on Pirani and the Finn, and are going to clean house in 9 months.