Goff reports that former Rev's midfielder, Kenny Mansally, is on a one-week trial with DCU. I don't know anything about him other than I used to make fun of him because of his name.
Thanks for posting this. Huh. This is a bit unexpected. I don't really know why NE released him. Poor performance? Failure to come to terms?
Mansally never really took his game to a higher technical level. In a way he seemed more dangerous at 18 when he first came to MLS with that explosiveness. The league is stronger now than 5 years ago and people around MLS know how to play him better now so that explosiveness is not as effective without the technique to match it. I think Mansally would fit a short term need that we have on our current team ... speed up front. Currently we wouldn't have the money to sign anyone much better anyway, so at least you go with the guy that's still youngish and does have experience at the MLS level. Having said that I still think it's a long shot for him to make the team. But then again I didn't think Saragosa would stick either, so what do I know ...
Well, I think the main reason Saragosa has stuck has been lack of depth in the position. I haven't been very impressed with his play; but I keep hoping that as time goes on since his return from Brazil he's going to improve.
Saragosa's father passing has probably taken it's toll on him emotionally. And missing matches and practices for at least a month, must have effected his match fitness. I thought he did well while Kitchen was away with the U-23s. Since Kitchen is doing well now, DC can take it's time with him and bring him back up to speed.
Mansally will be useful if he can hack it in this trial. There are certainly situations where I would rather have a 23-year-old speedster to get on the end of DeRo's service for the last 15 minutes than someone like Josh Wolff.
Could this be the final phases of moving Wolff into the coaching side? Or move Wolff more into a midfield role with Bosko's future up in the air? Whatever, Olsen's rolling, let him continue on this run of player development/management.
Exactly, if Benny thinks he's worthy of a spot on the first team, there's definitely a role where he can make an impact.
United has lost 3 of 5 wingers to injury -- DeLeon, Pontius and Cruz. I'm sure they're looking at Mansally as insurance at that position. He could be used as well as a possible late-game sub up top if speed is needed, which is Wolff's role, but I don't see him replacing Wolff -- at least, not this year.
Wolff has other intangibles. He's good for the team and clearly good for Ben as a sounding board. My question is don't we have open roster spots? With Rozeboom out with ACL or whatever, don't we have at least one spot to pick up Mansally either way?
Shall we open a can of worms? You bring up Rozeboom, but his status isn't relevant. Even counting Rozeboom and Shanosky, who is out on loan, United has only 26 players. They can have up to 30, but would probably only want 28, because leaving the last 2 slots open gives them more cap money. At the very least, United has 2 more open slots. If Rozeboom and Shanosky don't get added, it's 4 slots. The real question is about cap room and the salary budget roster, where there are significant unknowns. It's possible that whomever put together the roster on DCU's site doesn't know what they're doing. Right now, they list 15 Salary Budget players. A team is supposed to have between 18 and 20, or they are penalized. Many have presumed at least one error on the site, because Kitchen is still listed as "Off Budget - GA." The team protected him in the expansion draft, meaning he was no longer GA. It also seems unlikely that DeLeon is off-budget, but not impossible. In either case, or even both, United would still be below the minimum number of Salary Budget players. According to the rules, "A minimum salary budget charge will be imputed against a team’s salary budget for each unfilled senior roster slot below 18." Goff kept reporting that DCU was telling him when they signed Neal that he was the last roster player -- seemingly that they had no more cap room. It could be something else, since teams are limited to 10 off-budget players. This is something I've just figured out in seeing that Neal is off-budget. If DeLeon is off-budget, the team has been hit with 2 $44,000 salary budget charges for unfilled roster slots. If Kitchen is also off-budget, then it's actually 3 such charges. My new theory is that United has filled all its off-budget slots, including DeLeon and Kitchen. That's what they meant when they told Goff they were done...that they couldn't sign any more players. They have filled all 10 off-budget slots. Now, I don't know about how pro-rating of the salary budget charge might work, but it seems to me that United has at least 3 open salary budget slots. The reason for this is unknown, but it might be that they are pretty much at the cap limit. They used allocation money to pay down DeRo's salary, but that could just mean they wanted to avoid the big tax for signing an 3rd DP. It doesn't mean they're at the cap limit. Still, it seems a reasonable assumption, or they would have listed one of those off-budget players on the budget, to get the league to pay the salary. Even if they are at the cap limit, the fact that they are being charged $44,000 for each unfilled slot should mean that hey could add someone to the salary budget roster at that price (or, at least, pro-rated.) So, if Mansally is ready to accept the league minimum, I think they've got a slot for him (and for 2 others). Now, this brings up questions about rumors of talks with various Honduran players. They're not likely to take the league minimum. The team could shift around some off-budget players to the budget roster to accommodate a signing that otherwise would bust the cap. It's also possible there is still some cap room, It might even be that the team has been looking to add a "Young DP" (cap charge of "$150k -- no discount for midseason signing) or a U23 DP (cap charge of $200k, but there isn't any express language about what it would be for a midseason signing). They may have been saving cap room for such a signing, perhaps waiting on a new investor to cover the balance of the salary which the team would have to pay directly. I dunno.
What we don't have is an open international roster slot to sign Mansally. If the team wants him, they will have to trade for an international roster slot, or let one of their international players go.
Maybe they just wanted a fast player in training to play for "the opposition" A lot of folks have mentioned wanting a quicker forward for the end of games, but everything I have seen says this Mansally (*giggle*) says he's a midfield/defender, maybe you're confusing him with his cousin (brother?)?
Dudar, Salihi, Boskovic, Neal, and who else? Jakovic, DeRosario, and Santos all have green cards. Not sure about Saragosa, but I would think he does after his stints at other MLS clubs.
Going off what DC United has on its own site. Srargosa is not listed as holding an international slot, but Jakovic and Santos are. DC traded away one slot to Portland for allocation and one to LA for allocation. Prior trades of slots involving da Luz and Cristman have expired.
I'm shocked that neither of those players have green cards yet. They've been in the US for at least three years, so they should be reasonably close to obtaining it. Maybe they have one on the way and that's what the hold up is regarding signing any new international players?
Mansally has never played defensively with the Revs. Nicol always said he was a left mid but never really played him there because for years they just did not have any forwards. Kenny has some pace but is not overly fast. He is not Nyassi or Alston fast. I always though he was kinda of one dimensional. he is a head down head to the flag type player but got lost after that. he is also prone to stupid fouls. He has a great work rate but never accomplished anything....except two goals against DC. he will not really beat a person off the dribble and I thought he was suspect on defense. Some think his progress was stalled by Nicol, that could be true. Personally I just think he reached is potential and is just not that good. NE has better options now and he was expendable
Whether it is a good move or not isn't relevent to me. I'm under the impression that sudden the team is considering the fact that they are in the early stages of the playoff run. Now they find themselves short of decent bodies!
Well -- Chest says Mansally has a green card, so ya'll can ignore the stuff about needing an international player slot. All they need is some cap room or an open off-budget slot. I think the cap room is taken care of, as I wrote above, because he'd probably be OK with league minimum, which is what the league is already charging DCU for the unfilled budget slots.
Another young attacking player who could play on the wings or forward or maybe another striker. I look forward to seeing what the F.O. brings in this summer. Saragosa is hit or miss type of performance every game. If Kitchen goes down, consistancy in D-mid might be a problem. This team needs to keep building and looking for quality depth, especially this one.