Herrera is gone already Now Cheba is gone Lennon makes sense beed a stud starting CB to park Camacho to the bench. Gazdag needs to be gone immediately and we can get another DP either way by putting Abou Ali on IR so we need to quit wasting time and do that. If we can’t get 2 DPs and work it out to be compliant for 27 i understand. But we need a DP this window and we can get 2 and simply cut Gazdag on exemption rule if we can’t offload him. Just need one of those DPs to be on a tam level contract in 27. We can just front load the contract perhaps ? Bez needs to put the training wheels back on Tall immediately
With Atlanta United FC, Lennon started 153 of 171 regular season matches played, recording nine goals, and owns the second-most assists in Atlanta’s history (37). In 2023, he registered career highs with four goals and 10 assists. just fine for a back up to Farsi
I'd hardly call him a journeyman. In 9 MLS seasons, he's played for exactly 2 teams, RSL and Atlanta. That makes him super loyal and super reliable in the modern game. Reading into that, you'd assume he gets along well with teammates.
Let Herrera expire Put WAA on season-ending injury list Buy out Gazdag Sell Arfsten That with today's moves gives the Crew four open roster spots, three of which can be international and two of which can be DPs . As I suspected, this is lining up to be a very active transfer window. Bez will do more in his first three months here than Issa did in two years.
Open international slots and gam/tam don’t win games. Hell they can’t even hit the through pass. We need difference makers. Brooks Lennon ain’t that. I hated the guy with Atlanta so I’m underwhelmed. He’ll have to grow on me in black and gold.
He usually nets about 7-9 g+a per year once he became a starter. Its not a needle mover, but he is a guy you need on the bench if you plan on having young guys take over at those positions.
Realize its easy for me to say but I would have preferred we just created minutes for Brown or any other youth player.
Well, if Arfsten leaves then Picard is the only other option at left back besides Brown. I guess Amundsen could play there, but I think he's better suited to CB at this point.
I will take Lennon + whatever Bez can conjure with an INT slot over Herrera. Indeed it is an Achilles tendon issue, not a full tear.
Philippines with another big win today, Cole Mrowka with a nice pass to set up goal #2 around the 3:30 mark of this video:
Lost a teammate to that--intentional kick to the back of his leg. He never played again--but did get red-carded for (understandably, IMHO) throwing a punch at the guy who did it.
Brooks Lennon update. Signed thru June '27 with options for the 27/28 and 28/29 seasons. RB/RWB. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/columbus-crew-sign-defender-brooks-lennon In terms of what we can do? One Senior Spot open atm. My dumb ass finally figured out how Hagen is indeed Supplemental. We have to be buying hin down with GAM. I guess I always thought of buting down DOs to non-DP level with TAM or using the $$ to free cap space. I never really thought of using it at the bottom of the roster before. But it does say you can buy doen to the lesser of $150k or 50% of salary. 50% of Hagen's guaranteed $$ is well below vet min. So that tracks. So, one open spot. But letting Herrera go and putting WAA on IR would free up 2 more. So 3 seems probable shortly. Ditto INT spots. 1 open now. WAA/Herrera would open 2 more. WAA to IR would open up a DP spot, for the remainder of this season anyway. If you see any more mistakes, let me know. ---------- I. Roster Links A. MLS Spring 2026 Roster Profiles https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/majo...ter-profiles-following-2026-roster-compliance B. 2026 MLS Roster Rules & Regs https://www.mlssoccer.com/about/roster-rules-and-regulations C. Fall 2025 Salary Info Will update when the Spring list comes out. https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide -------------------- II. Signed Roster A. Senior Roster (1-20). 19 of 20. Counts vs the salary budget of $6,425,000. Max salary budget charge is $803,125. Teams not required to fill spots 19 & 20. A minimum salary budget charge is imputed vs the club for unfilled spots below 18. In addition to the $6.425 mil budget, teams can spend outside this figure via GAM, TAM, DP & U22 costs outside the Salary Budget, and the Supplemental Roster costs. Rank, Player, Pos, Age, DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$, Guar $$ 1. Wessam Abou Ali, F, 27, 1/4/99, 6'1", 172, Denmark/Palestine, DP, INT#1. $2,775,000/$3,611,750. Thru '27, O '28. 2. Diego Rossi, WF, 28, 3/5/98, 5'7", 143, Uruguay, DP, GC. $2,775,000/$3,476,827. Thru '26, '27 O. 3. Daniel Gazdag, AM, 30, 3/2/96, 5'10", 168, Hungary, DP, GC. $2,049,996/ $2,647,635. Thru '27, O '28. ------------ 4. Patrick Schulte, GK, 25, 3/13/01, 6'5", 200, USA, TAM. $900k/$1,032,083. Thru '27, TO in '28. 5. André Gomes, CM, 32, 7/30/93, 6'3", 185, Portugal, INT#2, $875k/$971,944. TAM. Thru 6/27, O '27-'28. 6. Steven Moreira, D, 31 8/13/94, 5'10", 159, France/Cape Verde Islands, GC/V, TAM. $840k/$922k. Thru '26. 7. Sean Zawadzki, M, 26, 4/21/00, 6'0", 160, USA. $800k/$900,500. TAM. Thru '30. 8. Max Arfsten, F/W, 25, 4/19/01, 6'1", 172, USA. $800k/$895k. TAM. Thru '30. 9. Hugo Picard, F/M, 23, 5/09/03, 5'6",160, France, U22#1, INT#3. $685k/$781,244. $200k cap. Thru '28, CO '29. 10. Malte Amundsen, WB, 28, 2/11/98, 5'10", 179, Denmark, GC. $675k/$757,500. Thru '27. 11. Andres Herrera, FB/WB, 27, 11/03/98, 5'10", 165, Argentina, INT#4, TAM. $650/ $727,632. Loan thru summer '26. O to buy. 12. Dylan Chambost, MF, 28, 8/19/97, 5'10", 154, France, GC/V. $600k/$695,250. Thru '29. 13. Nariman Akhundzada, F, 22, 4/23/04, 6'1", 172, Azerbaijan, U22#3, INT#5, U22. $550k/$633,389. $200k cap. Thru '28/29. 14. Sekou Bangoura, CM, 24, 4/5/02, 5'8", Guinea, INT#6, TAM. $450k/$542,167. Thru '29, O '30. 15. Mohamed Farsi, D/M, 26, 12/16/99, 5'10", Algeria/Can, INT#7. $500k/$530k. Thru '27, O '28. 16. Jamal Thiare, F, 33, 3/31/93, 6'0", 154, Senegal, GC. $500k/$530k. Thru '26. 17. Rudy Camacho, CB, 35, 3/5/91, 6'1", 174, France, INT#8. $350k/$415k. Thru '26. 18. Brooks Lennon, FB/WB, 28, 9/22/97, 5'10", 157, USA. $???/$???. Thru 6/27. O in 27/28 & 28/29. 19. Amar Sejdic, CM, 28, 11/29/96, 5'10", 159, Germany/USA. $200k/$214,550. Thru '26. ---------------------- 20. Open Vet Min could be Senior or Supplemental. Bush is in that category. But Hagen makes too much. It must be a GAM buydown. B. Supplemental Roster (21-31) Does NOT count versus the salary budget of any team. All Generation Adidas players are Supplemental Players during the initial guaranteed term of their contract. 1) Spots 21-24. (Supplemental). 4 of 4. All players in Slots 21-24 must make a base salary at least equal to the Senior Minimum Salary ($113,400 in 2026). These slots may be filled with: Senior Min players ($113k) which may include: i) HGs, ii) Gen Adidas, iii) designated Superdraft eligible players, or iv) Homegrown players who may or may not earn more than Sen Min due to the HG Subsidy. Players in slots 21-24 must make at least $113,400. Rank, Player, Pos, Age, DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 21. Nicholas Hagan, GK, 29, 8/2/96, 6'4", 176, Guatemala/USA. $165k/$183,600. Thru '26, O in '27 & '28. 22. Evan Bush, GK, 40, 3/6/86, 6'1", 187, USA. $113,400. Thru '26. 23. Ceasar Ruvalcaba, D, 24, 7/13/01, 6'2", 170, USA, $113,400. Thru '26, O in '27. 24. Luke Pruter, GK, 24, 9/3/01, 6'5", 207, USA. $113,400. Thru '26, O thru '28. -------------- Hagen seems to be making too much for Supplemental. We must have bought him down with GAM. IDK this was legal to buy down to moveca guy off Senior? But you can change roster designations with TAM buydowns, and actual salary isn't impacted, so I guess it is OK. It does say you can buy down to the lesser of 50% of salary or $150k, which would get Hagen to vet min. 2) Slots 25-30. (Reserve). 6 of 6. Must be paid a base salary of at least the Reserve Min salary ($88,025). Must be 24 years of age or younger during the league year (by year of birth). May be filled with Reserve Min players ($88,025) which may include GA's earning Reserve Min, HGs, or HG's earning more than Reserve Min via the HG subsidy. Cannot be filled with Sen Min Players (unless a HG earning more via HG subsidy). HG subsidy is $125,000 per year in aggregate. Plus $200k of GAM/TAM can be used to sign HGs to their 1st contract. Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar 25. Taha Habroune, M, 20, 2/5/06, 5'8", 168, USA, HG. $140k/$152k. Thru '27, O '28. 26. Cole Mrowka, MF, 20, 4/6/06, 5'11", 165, USA, HG. $113,400/$133,408. Thru '26. TO '27 & '28. 27. Stanislav Lapkes, GK, 20, 3/3/06, 6'4", 176, Belarus/USA, HG. $95,400/$114,490. Thru '27. O '28/'29. 28. Quinton Elliot, D/M, 22, 1/03/04, 5'10", 159, USA, HG. $88,025/$92,668. Thru '26, O '27-'29. 29. Tristan Brown, M, 18, 10/17/07, 5'11", 159, USA, HG. $88,025/$92,389. Thru '28, O in '29 & '30. 30. Zach Zengue, MF, 22, 1/30/04, 5'9", 160, USA, $88,025. Thru '26, O thru '29. ----------------- C. Loan/Stash Roster: (Slot 31). 0 of 1. Slot 31 can be filled by a player 24 or younger who is on a season long loan to a lower division club in in the USA or Canada, provided his Budget Charge is </= the Sen Min Charge ($113.4k) and the MLS club does not exercise any recall options during the MLS season (save for short term call-ups). 31. Open ----------- D. Off Roster Homegrowns. No limit. (2) Must be 21 or younger during league year. Once moved to Senior/Supplemental Roster, cannot revert back to Off-Roater HG. Can only be active in MLS as short term call-ups for 6 games. Can be active for non-MLS games (USOC, CCC, LC, etc.). 1. Chase Adams, CF, 17, 4/17/08, 6'0", 160, USA, HG, $88,025/$114,303. Thru '29, O '30. 2. Owen Presthus, D, 19, 2/21/06, 5'10", 154, USA, HG, $88,025/$94,216. Thru '27, O '28. ---------------- III. International Players (8 of 9) Abou Ali, Gomes, Farsi, Camacho, Picard, Bangoura, Herrera, Akhundzada. We got a 9th from LAFC for Cheberko. New verbiage for 2024, do NOT need a Green Card. "For a player to be considered a Domestic Player in the applicable season, residency must be established, or the player has to have appeared for an immigrant visa interview by the opening of the Secondary Transfer Window." https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-...new-sporting-initiatives-ahead-of-2024-season ------------ V. Green Card Holders/Counts as Domestic (7). Rossi (Green Card), Gazdag (not an INT slot), Moreira (no longer listed), Chambost (no longer listed), Thiare (not listed as INT, presume GC), Hagan (USA parent/ passport), Amundsen (GC). Moreira started counting as domestic on the Fall 25 roster profile update, along with Chambost. ------------ VI. DP + U22 Initiative Slots (5 of 6) Team can choose 2 paths. One, 3 DPs + 3 U22s. Two, 2 DPs plus 4 U22s + $2 mil in GAM. Teams must decide by the close of the transfer window this year and start of the year going forward. DP Budget charge is $803,125. If joins in Secondary Window, then half that. Young DP: 20 & under $150k, 21-23 $200k. Young DP Secondary eillwindow = $150k. DPs = 3 of 3 1. Rossi 2. Ali 3. Gazdag U22s = 2 of 3 1. Picard 2. Akhundzada U22 must be 21 in the year he is eligible to play forst game (N/E if turns 23 that year). U22 players count vs the Budget as young DPs: $150 if 20 ir younger $200k at 22-25. Can continue to occupy the slot until the year they turn 25. Salary cannot exceed Max Budget unless it is a HG/Superdraft on 2nd contract, who can earn Max Budget +$200k. Clubs may pay acquisition costs without limit (out of pocket, no GAM/TAM). Crew choose 3+3 path for 2025, but can change midseason. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-announces-significant-roster-rule VII. Homegrown Players (7) Habroune, Brown, Mrowka, Lapkes, Adams, Presthus, Elliot. The following players all carried HG designations last year: Habroune, Brown, Mrowka, Lapkes, and Zawadzki. This year, when we signed Adams, Presthus, & Elliot, they were referred to as HGs. ------
Austin just bought out Robert Taylor (formerly of Miami). If he's healthy, he'd be a decent replacement for Max on the left. Dude runs all day.