Atlanta United announces year-end roster moves Option exercised (6): Matthew Edwards, Jay Fortune, Jayden Hibbert, Will Reilly, Jamal Thiaré, Cayman Togashi Option declined (5): Leo Afonso, Josh Cohen, Ronald Hernández^, Brooks Lennon, Nyk Sessock Retiring (1): Brad Guzan ^ Club remains in negotiations
Surprised that they're dropping Cohen, but maybe it's to make room for a proven starter. Lennon is slightly surprising. He's been here since 2020, and has been a workhorse. Other than Giakoumakis (who couldn't stay healthy), he's never really had a target striker to work with. Brooks is a traditional winger, throwing crosses into the center of the pitch for a striker to knock home. He's been largely ineffective here in Atlanta because we haven't played that style of football. I feel like he's sort of been wasting his talents here. That being said, I just looked up the stats, and the year that Giakoumakis scored 19 goals, Lennon had 0 assists in 33 games. But my recollection is that he was playing fullback that year. Also, I hope they're getting Tata's input on who they're keeping and dropping.
Cohen didn't even get a sniff this year. Atlanta may try to bring in a starter, but with all the moves they need to make anyway and cap space at a premium, I wouldn't be surprised if Jayden's being given the starting job. Bring in a cheap veteran as backup/mentor (is Kann available?). Brooks really hasn't lived up to his salary hit in a while, and with him being relegated to the bench by the end of the season, wasn't a big surprise to see him gone. The one that stands out to me is Jamal. There had been whispers that Josef might be returning to play backup to Latte-Lath, but with Jamal staying I doubt that would happen now. Unless the plan is to trade Jamal. I can't imagine Tata would have accepted the job without assurances that he'd be consulted on roster moves, at the very least. Biggest issue is Alexi. I don't really see a position for him in Tata's scheme, so can they get rid of him?
I think it was good for both Lennon and the team that they part ways. It always seemed like Luiz Araujo would freeze him out of the offense - not passing to Lennon when he was the obvious choice to get the ball. After that I noticed Lennon's body language started being really bad on the field like throwing his arms up when he didn't get the ball. My wild guess is that he didn't enjoy playing on this team.
I think we're stuck with Miranchuk contractually. He has been a very good player with top clubs previously, so the potential is there. Whatever Deila was trying to do schematically, Miranchuk didn't really get it. But to be fair, neither did anyone else.
Garth Lagerwey won't return to Atlanta United, the club said today. Sounds like he's stepping away permanently to deal with his cancer situation, which is understandable. Atlanta now has to find a new club president, not just to lead United, but the new NWSL club also. With how poorly Atlanta has done these past few years, I'm not sure Atlanta would be considered much of a draw anymore, so we'll see who they're able to get.
The potential is certainly there. Lagerway's tenure -- and certainly he was distracted to say the least -- was not terribly good. Everything suffered: fan engagement, team performance, sponsor visibility, etc. Need a ship's captain who's willing to push the team (not just the football ops) to greatness.
Dropping in to offer that I hope everyone has enjoyed a peaceful holiday season so far on their respective home fronts, and to wish everyone a happy New Year! Will be back in again sometime in January to sum up any thoughts on off-season moves.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! A couple of what seem like minor roster moves. Not much terribly exciting going on, but that's fine. First Christmas since 2016 that I have neither given nor received a single piece of Atlanta United merch, though, which is weird.
I'll put it here instead of starting a whole thread. First preseason match is today at 1:00 against Lexington SC. It'll be streamed on the Atlanta United website.
haha...well, guess it all depends on if you consider the preseason to be part of the offseason...which I do!
I watched the game recording on YouTube. 4-0 to the good guys. It's hard to get an idea of how well we did with the difference in talent of a USL side. We looked to have more of an idea on the attack. People making runs and being rewarded for those runs. The midfield looked ok but not great to my Flintstone eyes. My impression overall impression is we looked better than our previous early preseason games. *Also, no Latte Lath.
No idea what a pre-season win over a USLC club means. Miranchuk played up top; while he did fine, I'd be surprised if that's the plan for the season. Although, it looks like the club has put all their eggs in Latte Lath actually living up to his price this season, since the club has traded Thiare to Columbus for some GAM. It opens up some cap space for the team, but it'll probably be used for the Sliliz replacement, meaning right now for striker the only backup Atlanta has is Togashi, who doesn't even cost cap space (he's on the supplemental roster). If Latte Lath doesn't improve, or god forbid gets hurt (which he did last year, so it's likely), goals are going to (again) be very hard to come by. I was under the impression that a lot of bad contracts were going to get off the books and we'd see a different squad this year, but that hasn't materialized. We got a new guy at RB, Brad won't be in goal, and that's about it. Certainly nothing to help what was a very anemic attack last year. I guess the club is backing on Tata just improving things on his own, but as much as I love Tata, I'm not sure even he can magically make these players enough to produce a good team. It's looking more and more like another long season.
I'll reserve judgement for about five games. In the meantime, I'll just be happy to have football back. And I'll get to attend games again this year, which I haven't been able to do in awhile due to Uncle Sam.
We've added young left and right back plus moving on from Slisz. I'm kind of excited that they aren't a lot of changes. If we look significantly better, I think you can pin it on the difference a good coach can make.
A. Amended the title to include "Pre-season." Because, you know, the universe needed balancing and all that. I won't be able to follow the Houston match tonight as I'm finishing up some work before a brief meet-up at a local bar. To help keep everyone on track, here's the tally of roster moves thus far: Players In M - Santiago Pita (12/10/25 - homegrown) GK - Lucas Hoyos (12/23/25 - free) D - Tomás Jacob (12/30/25 - transfer from Club Necaxa) M - Adrian Gill (1/27/26 - transfer from FC Barcelona) D - Elías Baez (2/3/26 - transfer from San Lorenzo) Players Out GK - Brad Guzan (11/18/25 - retired) F - Leo Afonso (11/18/25 - option declined) GK - Josh Cohen (11/18/25 - option declined) D - Brooks Lennon (11/18/25 - option declined) D - Nyk Sessock (11/18/25 - option declined) D - Noah Cobb (12/9/25 - trade to Colorado Rapids) F - Ashton Gordon (1/7/26 - loan to Chattanooga FC) M - Bartosz Slisz (1/8/26 - transfer to Brøndby) M - Edwin Mosquera (1/20/26 - transfer to Independiente Santa Fe) F - Jamal Thiaré (2/2/26 - trade to Columbus Crew) B. Will have the match thread up in time for week 1, which is - checks phone - a mere 2 weeks away!
New away kits have been released. Although they do give some LA Galaxy vibes, I do like them. It'll be a pickup for me.
I like the new kits. The forest kit was the only away kit I have really disliked. I was not a fan of the black home kit either. But I'm not spending $200 on a shirt. Any shirt. Unless it has Rebecca Romijn in it.
I love it. For those who don't recall/ know, the green band recalls the straps used for the medals in '96, so the badge plays perfectly as as gold medal, here. Also, I've said it before but it always makes a wonderful difference when you manipulate the color of the sponsor to blend with the shirt. So many otherwise decent jerseys around the globe and in the past have been butchered because the sponsor retained their own color-branding. I'll be getting it, obviously, but the only ones I didn't were the original away kit and the King Peach.
I'll probably pick one up in 2028 when they go on clearance, which is what I should've done with the peach. But of course in 2028 they'll have those extra stars above the crest, which will really pop.
I'm planning some work travel, so I'm finally actually looking at the calendar. We'll be in MBS as season ticket holders for 5 weekends in a row in March/April. One of those is USA-Belgium, but my wife is about to get real tired of me being gone on Saturday evenings.