The thing that reporters struggle with reporting transfer is the degree of interest. So much of it is BS. Some team sends a scout to watch one player, it makes it tough to report. If you do, people think there serious interest. The thing is bigger teams can be watching north of 100 players. It becomes very tabloid-like to use terms so say a club is "interested" in a player, that the player is "on the radar" of a club, that the club is "watching" a player. There could be a nugget of truth to it, but many American journalists come into the mix when the interest is a little more serious, or that there an offer, or that an offer is being prepared. When teams start talking numbers and aren't very far apart, it becomes legit. I've heard some names of clubs that are "watching" McGuire but aren't even close to making an offer. They're just trying to figure out where he is in their list of center forwards to maybe approach in the future.
I don't really see McGuire as a top 4 league sort of player. I think he looks more like a fit for a mid-table Championship team. Those rumors/almost-deals made more sense to me.
I think he probably moves.. but I also think if Orlando make a very decent and fair offer, he'd stay. If he can push north of $800k per year, it might be tough to say no.
BREAKING: Orlando City and forward Duncan McGuire have reached an agreement on a new, long term contract, sources say.Deal through 2027 with team option for 2028.Long saga is done and McGuire stays. pic.twitter.com/16sjNse1FX— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) August 14, 2024 It seems that Orlando made a decent and fair offer that will keep him state-side until 2027 at the earliest.
Yeah.. I heard about this in recent days. Orlando is going to pay him a ton of money. More than I thought they would. Pretty much Duncan is going to play a huge role in whether Orlando succeeds or doesn't. The club is betting big he will.
I like to cover Americans abroad but I also don't think everyone who has a little bit of success needs to leave either. It was always the path that was going to happen as MLS continued to grow and could pay decent wages, not just for marquee players, but also for players who produce. As MLS grows, the number of teams that can afford top MLS players shrinks. If you are really good in MLS and are still young, the landing spots are the top 2-3 teams in Belgium, the top 4-5 teams in the Eredivisie, the top half of the Championship, the top 4 in Portugal, the Old Firm, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, La Liga, about 4-5 Liga MX teams, and maybe a few other clubs here or there (like Salzburg). Gone are the days of Bedoya turning down an MLS deal out of college to sign for Orebro. In the end, that's healthy. What's interesting is that you have a different type of transfer emerging. Players who leave MLS because they're struggling, then move abroad because their value is low, they find level that is belwand then start to do well. Griffin Yow is doing this and will leave Westerlo. Andres Jasson is off to a nice start with Aalborg, Theo Blair (Canadian) wasn't great for Vancouver but had a big year in Scotland and is now in Ligue 1. I can't be that disappointed for McGuire. If the best offers he was getting were bottom half of the Championship, he's probably better staying in Orlando. He's only had one big year (and this one looks decent). If he can be good for three seasons, then he starts getting better offers.
That's more-or-less how I feel as well: the more extremely well-paid yanks in MLS, the better, because it starts to become a viable path to "profitability" (for lack of a better word) for young players. Every kid in an academy wants to play in a Champions League final, but more kids will probably stick it out and go pro if they can make a decent living in MLS. It's not the millions they see their idols getting, but Keaton Parks on almost a million a year at NYCFC is aspirational compared to a college scholarship work ~$200k over 4 years.
A striker that can't wrestle #9 position from Paxten would have tough time in well paying European leagues.
problem is staying in MLS is still a problem developmentally. pay a player more but that doesnt solve the issue of a cultural deficiency in MLS i.e. development once MLS starts actually taking players like Mcguire and getting him beyond the plateau he was at when entered the league....these kinds of moves will be good for short term pay and bank accounts but will still be a low cieling on long term potential. you can say MLS is growing but all of the players that stay in the league fall off a cliff in terms of level.....I wish it wasnt true ...but its just the case. For me, MLs hasnt grown until you can say thats no longer true.
You have to be careful not to turn into LigaMX and El Tri. A big reason the level of the Mexican national team is so low is because LigaMX salaries are so high and young Mexicans don't need to challenge themselves to go play in Europe to earn top tier European salaries. They are already making them in LigaMX. We don't want that same situation with the MLS and the USMNT.
IMO, while big salaries do keep Mexican players in LigaMX, it's the league rules that create the big salaries and also incentivize clubs to ask for stupid transfer fees from foreign clubs. Because you can only have 9 players "trained outside of Mexico" on your squad and must play at least 4 Mexican nationals each match, the value of talented Mexican players skyrockets, as do the salaries the clubs have to pay them to prevent them from forcing moves abroad. I think MLS is doing the smart thing: instead of restricting clubs from playing non-Americans, they incentivize clubs to develop talented young players by more-or-less offering discounted salaries for them.