Breaking news that will make most of us very happy.... https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/c...Dcm16vgu2jQJ1vaxZFXP2_xo0Kd3Nd-yFx5aT1q0FyK97
So, what… seven open roster spots now? Not that Quinton was ever likely to log many minutes for us this year, but still. Anyway, I wish him well. Always ideal when players can be shipped off to a club in the other conference.
Whelp, it looks like I (and a few others here) was pretty dead on with my assessment of Big Phil's future with the club. Apparently he impressed RSL more than he impressed us. Good move to pick up some GAM rather than letting him go for free after his contract is up. I'd bet we have a move lined up that we'll hear about in the coming days.
With Hughes on loan I think we definitely see another CB signing , again someone who can one day replace Camacho is ideal. Need someone besides Camacho who is strong on clearing the ball with their head on set pieces. We hoped Quinton would develop last year and we all saw that wasn’t going to happen.
I can't forget how Nancy raved about the guy in training camp last year. He was the one guy that he said really stood out. I guess he meant his height. Good luck to Phil. Hope he can get some PT with the Mormons.
Frankly unbelievable that the crew got anything for him. I hope he gets better and can improve in several aspects of his game.
Quinton was our first round pick in ‘22. He was decent enough in Next Pro but couldn’t make the leap to the main team. I would like to see the draft set up to stock the next pro teams while giving the main club first choice of those players. Was Quinton a disappointment? Sort of. But really he just never made the jump. It would be better for these guys development if they earn their way to the top instead of starting at the top and failing downward. I believe all MLB draftees start in the minors on day 1.
Not quite sure what you’re saying. As you noted, he started out in NP, playing for Crew 2 all of the 2022 season. So he didn’t start at the top. The days of players coming out of college and signing first team MLS contracts appears, thankfully, to be over. Anyway, for Quinton, it’s perhaps valuable to remind ourselves that he was drafted by Caleb Porter, and played Crew 2 soccer when Porter coached the first team. He was signed to a first contract shortly after Nancy was hired but, obviously, Nancy wouldn’t have known that much about him. He had his shot, but as others have noted, in our 3 CB system, he seems to be a poor match physically. I wish him luck in RSL, but he has the look of a lot of former guys who ended up finding their level in USL.
Quinton sold for GAM ($150k to $200k) to RSL. Still only 3 Senior spots open. Quinton as a Reserve guy if my guesses on roster placement are correct. I. Senior Roster (1-20). 17 (15?) of 20. Counts vs the salary budget of $5,470,000. Max salary budget charge is $683,750. Teams not required to fill spots 19 & 20. A minimum salary budget charge is imputed vs the club for unfilled spots below 18. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/2024-mls-roster-rules-and-regulations Rank, Player, Pos, Age, DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 1. Cucho Hernandez, CF, 24, 4/20/99, 5'9', 161. Colombia, DP, INT#1, $2.6 mil/$2,886,000. Thru '25. 2. Diego Rossi, WF, 25, 3/5/98, 5'7", 143, DP, GC, Uruguay, $2,625,000/$2,677,000. Thru '26, '27 O. 3. Darlington Nagbe, CM, 33, 7/19/90, 5'9", 165, USA/Liberia, DP, $???/???. Thru '25. O '26. 4. Steven Moreira, D, 29, 8/13/94, 5'10", 159, France/Cape Verde Islands, INT#2, $700k/$782,708?. Thru '25, O '26. 5. Yaw Yeboah, M, 26, 3/28/97, 5'9", Ghana, INT#3, $600k/$663,750. Th '24, O '25. 6. Aidan Morris, M, 22, 11/16/01, 5'10", 158, USA, HG/U22('24), $500k/$562,500. Thru '26. 7. Rudy Camacho, CB, 32, 3/5/91, 6'1", 174, France, INT#4, $500k/$554k. Thru '25. 8. Alexandru Matan, M, 24, 8/29/99, 5'5", 135, Romania, U22, INT#5, $450k/$483,250. Thru '24. 9. Marino Hinestroza, AM/W, 21, 7/8/02, 5'7", 132, Colombia, U22, INT#6, $???. Thru '26, O '27. 10. Christian Ramirez, F, 32, 4/4/91, 6'2", 187, USA, $400k/$445,833. Thru '24, '25 O. 11. Yevhen Cheberko, CB, 25, 1/23/98, 6'0", 166, Ukraine, INT#7, $370k//$418,250. Thru '26. 12. Malte Amundsen, WB, 25, 2/11/98, 5'10", 179, Denmark, $300k/$338,700. Thru '24, O '25. Not INT. Green Card? 13. Derrick Jones, DM/CB, HG, 26, 3/3/97, 6'4", 176, Ghana/USA, $???. Thru '25, '26 O. 14. Nicholas George Hagan Godoy, GK, 27, 8/2/96, 6'4", 176, Guatemala/USA. $???. Thru '24, O thru '26. ---------Reserve/Supplemental Eligible---- 15. Evan Bush, GK, 37, 3/6/86, 6'1", 187, USA, $88,200/$88,200. Thru '24. -------Extensions making Senior?--------- 16. Sean Zawadzki, M, 23, 4/21/00, 6'0", 160, USA, HG, $88,200/$93,200. Thru '27. 17. Mohamed Farsi, D/M, 23, 12/16/99, 5'10", Canada, INT#8, $67,360/$74,735, Thru '27, O '28. ------------------ 18. Open 19. Open 20. Open ----------------------- II. Supplemental Roster (21-30) (7 of 10) 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. A. Spots 21-24. (Supplemental). 2 of 4. All players in Slots 21-24 must make a base salary at least equal to the Senior Minimum Salary ($89,716 in 2024). These slots may be filled with: Senior Min players ($89,716) which may include: i) Gen Adidas, ii) designated Superdraft eligible players, or iii) 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 $89,716. *Please remember, the salaries are from 2023, so may appear to be under the MIN. Rank, Player, Pos, Age, DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 21. Patrick Schulte, GK, 22, 3/13/01, 6'5", 200, USA, GA, $88,200/$103,178. Thru '24 + O? 22. Will Sands, D/M, 23, 7/6/00, 5'10",150, USA, HG, $85,444/$91,694. Thru '24, O '25. 23. Open (Zawadzki) 24. Open Zawadzki signed an extension in Feb and could be a Senior roster player if it kicks in this year rather than next. That is my working assumption. --------------------- B. Slots 25-30. (Reserve). 4 of 6. Must be paid a base salary of at least the Reserve Min salary ($71,401). Must be 24 years of age or younger during the league year (by year of birth). May be filled with Reserve Min players ($71,401) 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). Rank, Player, Pos, Age,DOB, HT, WT, Nat, Desig(s), Base $$/Guar $$ 25. Jacen Russell-Rowe, CF, 21, 9/13/02, 6'0", 161, Canada, HG, $67,360/$74,749. Thru '24, O '25-'6. 26. Max Arfsten, F/W, 22, 4/19/01, 6'1", 172, USA, $67,360/$69,205. Thru '24. O '25/'26 27. Taha Habroune, M, 17, 2/5/06, 5'8", 168, USA, HG. $$???. Thru '27, O '28. 28. Open ----------- 29. Mrowka, MF, 17, 4/6/06, ??, ??, USA, HG. $$??. Thru '26. TO '27 & '28. 30. Open (Hughes loan) HG subsidy is $125,000 per year in aggregate. Plus $200k of GAM/TAM can be used to sign HGs to their 1st contract. I am assuming Farsi is now Senior. ------------- III. International Players (8 of 10) Each team gets 8, we traded with Seattle for +2. Hernandez, Moreira, Matan, Farsi, Yeboah, Cheberko, Camacho, Hinestroza. Again, the Amundsen mystery remains. 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 And we traded for +2 INT spots with Seattle. https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/c...onal-roster-slots-via-trade-with-seattle-soun ------------ IV. Green Card Holders/Counts as Domestic (3). Rossi (Green Card). JRR (International HG Rule). Hagan (USA parent/ passport). Amundsen does not count as an INT for reasons I do not understand. But he does not have a GC either as far as I know. I could be wrong about that. ------------ V. U22 Initiative Slots (3 of 3) If a team has an open DP slot, or the 3rd DP mafes under the max TAM buydown level ($1 mil over max budget charge), or is a young DP, a team has 3 U22 slots. Otherwise, they have 1. 1. Matan 2. Morris 3. Hinestroza U22 players count $200k vs the budget if the are aged 22-25. $150k is 21 or younger. U22 players must be on their initial MLS contract unless they are HGs (2nd), and must sign it before turning 22. 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). ----------------- VI. Loaned Out (1) 1. Keegan Hughes, D, 23, 7/22/00, 6'3", 190, USA, HG, $85,444/$85,444, Thr '24, O in '25/'26. ------------- Again, fill me in on my screw-ups.
Uh our draft picks all went to next pro after we evaluated them in preseason. Each player is different so …. You’re not making any sense. They get evaluated and either earn a 1st team or 2nd team (mls next pro) contract. Perhaps you didn’t know this.
Do you have any sense of whether the Crew's seemingly rather large number of open senior roster slots is typical for other teams in the league or is it kind of unusual, particularly for a side facing multiple competitions, to leave large gaps in the roster?
I’m going to guess it’s not typical but after the summer window ends I suspect we will have a typical roster. But it is a good question Bill. Doyle in the match preview mentioned our roster 1-30 not realizing we don’t have anywhere near 30 players. I personally like leaving some spots till summer if no one worthy is available. I don’t like the thin roster but Quality over quantity is a good strategy.
I’m inching closer to wasting a couple of hours of my life going through every teams’ roster to find out. Trouble is, the league’s online roster information is notoriously unreliable. Ours, for example (on both the MLS Crew roster page and the one on the team’s website) shows Giorgio DeLibera as being on the first team. Which is absolute bullshit. One can assume that mistakes like this appear commonly on other teams’ listings. Philly’s roster, for example, shows 31 players, which ain’t right. Theirs seems to include a drafted player who, presumably wasn’t ever signed. Miami’s and Montreal’s also show 31 players. NYRB and RSL have the largest number I’ve run across, at 32, and this is without Quinton appearing on the RSL list, yet. Atlanta’s lists 29 players, as does Cincinnati’s. Minnesota has 28. DC’s has 27, Houston’s 26, LA’s and LAFC’s 25, Portland’s shows 24 players. So, obviously, there are errors. But all else equal, the Crew are near the bottom end of teams in terms of roster size, broadly stated.
Good question. And I do not. I don't get down into the weeds that much on other teams' rosters. Now, I will say that, according to my guesses, we have 17 Senior roster spots filled, out of 20. But it is almost certainly 18 in practice. Why? Because I generally proceed with the assumption that teams will free up as many Senior Roster spots as possible, if given the opportunity. If there are vet min/HG types, I shift them to Supplemental if there is room. Then I could bring in more Senior guys to strengthen the squad. But MLS fines teams if they are not carrying 18 on the Senior squad, so I am sure either Sands or Schulte is on the Senior at the moment, even though Sands is Supplemental eligible (HG) and Schulte likely is (GA, though he is on an option/extension). Anywho, if the above assumption is true, then we'd have 18/20 Senior spots filled, and 5/10 Supplemental spots filled, rather than 17/20 & 6/10. In either case, I'd note that most of the open spots, and an much larger percentage of the available slots are unfilled on the Supplemental. Given that the Euro season ends in May & the Summer window seems like a better times to do big transfers, I'd assume most teams keep a spot or two open on the Senior to make it possible. Heck, the primary window is still open. Teams are filling spots as we speak (RSL, for instance). My guess would be that 1-2 Senior spots open with 1-2 yo-yo vet min types who are Supplemental eligible as well is pretty common at this point in the season. Now, finishing the year with this many openings would be more surprising. And rarer, I'm guessing. Especially for a team playing in CONCACAF with the congesrion (which is almost over). Whereas this amount of open space on the Supplemental is probably a bit more unusual. But, given that our Academy/2nd team is pretty new compared to most other teams, maybe not as much. We had that first round of Cappy's make an impact (Schulte, Farsi, Zawadzki, JRR, Sands, Quinton), but those guys were draft pucks (Schulte, Quinton), acquired in a trade (Sands), or came up in Canada (Farsi, JRR). Arfsten was a pick. Habroune & Mrowka are the only Supplementals who are Crew Academy products. Though Morris & Zawadzki on the Senior certainly are. My suspicion is that most other teams have more fruit from their Academies/2nd teams on the roster (both Senior & Supplemental). After all, they planted the seeds sooner. Our 2nd team is barely up and running. But this is only a guess. One thing in our defense is that we brought back nearly the entire top 20 from a Cup winning team, including the entire XI. With a first year coach and a roster that got made over midseason (Amundsen, Rossi, Camacho, Gressel, etc). I think leaving it mostly intact until at least summer was a pretty reasonable thing to do. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MLS Cup 20: Schulte; Moreira, Camacho, Amundsen; Farsi, Nagbe, Morris, Yeboah; Matan, Cucho, Rossi; Bush, Cheberko; Zawadzki; Arfsten, Medranda; Gressel; Molino, Ramirez, JRR. Currently healthy active 20: Schulte; Moreira, Camacho, Amundsen; Farsi, Nagbe, Morris, Yeboah; Matan, Cucho, Rossi; Bush; Cheberko; Zawadzki; Arfsten, Sands, Jones; Hinestroza; Ramirez, JRR. There are only 3 changes there. It's 85% the same. 90% really, as Medranda was only on the 20 because Sands was hurt. Gressel & Molino have been swapped for Hinestroza & Jones. Other than signing Hagen (3rd GK), Everyrhing else has been extremely marginal (Medranda, Vallecilla, Williams, Parente, Scott, J. Morris, Hughes, Quinton, Habroune, Mrowka). If you don't want to disrupt things, it is hard to bring guys in who are not gonna start. Not a good recruitment pitch. "Come sit the bench for us!" Hagen & 2 young to youngish underachievers (Jones & Hinestroza) has been it. Plus Habroune & Mrowka. We have lost some attacking depth with Gressel & Molino gone plus Matan & Ramirez hurt a lot. JRR has been spotty & Hinestroza new & young. I'd probably have brought in another vet min type or two (RWB, CB, attacker), but we definitely need 2 Senior spots open (buydown Nagbe + new DP + Matan to regular contract + new U22). But is there gonna be a big difference between Quinton/Arfsten & a vet min type (Medranda, Josh Williams)? The part that bugs me is not necessarily the open spots. I get a "roll with what we got & look at the youngsters development" approach. But it is complaining about congestion WHILE HAVING THE OPEN SPOTS that bugs me.
By the way, the penalty for not filling 18 senior roster spots isn’t much. The team salary budget is just docked the equivalent of a senior minimum salary player for that 18th spot.
In terms of existing guys making leaps, I think Yeboah & Cheberko have demonstrably leveled up. Schulte, Zawadzki, & Farsi seem roughly the same. Matan has hardly played, hard to say. Sands just returned. Arfsten has had more PT and been fine. Clutch PK. JRR has been spotty. But we are only 10 games in, with a ton of rotation. Early days yet. 3 months till the window opens.
We have 23 players on our roster if everyone is healthy. Hughes on loan would be 24. If Ramirez is still hurt we only have 22 a healthy players. Roster Depth has cost us points in MLS standings and possibly cost us in CCC standings to have the home leg 2nd. I understand why (timing of window ) but it still sucks. I’m confident Bez will make some good additions but no way with this roster can you say the rebuild/ transition is complete. We are not a complete team. Wednesday is huge but vrs Montreal we will be once again severely short handed. These reporters need to be asking Bez about Steuckers and the depth in general in light of the Quinton sale and recent results with injuries and schedule congestion.
All this talk about roster numbers. You all are missing the point. And what you’re saying doesn’t really make sense in practice. Oh you want more guys brought in? Oh wow. What a ground breaking thought that is. Now be specific. At what position does the team need to upgrade? At what position is the team lacking depth? Because if you’re paying to bring someone in, especially someone with real talent, there is going to be an expectation that they’re going to actually play. So ahead of who? Where on the field? Speak up. I can’t hear you. Yeah. Paying 3 million dollars or whatever for a talented guy sounds great and is exciting for all involved. Except for the new guy, who gets to come here and maybe possibly play if 2 guys ahead of him get hurt or need rest. This roster is freaking loaded and deep at every position with guys who can play. It is surviving multiple competitions that have murdered countless MLS teams in seasons past. I am SO sorry there’s not more college guys at roster spots 23-28 or whatever so you all can have your precious spots filled.
Will Ramirez retire at seasons end? He has a contract option for 25 but is he fit and dependable enough to keep contributing and does he even want to keep playing? is JRR the answer ? Or Do we get another target striker ? He is worth his contract which has an option in 25&26. But his level of play isn’t good enough right now. This summer IDK who is available but for the future of this club we need someone younger who can play consistently at a high level. Really miss Matan right now as well his contract status is a major concern. Would a Steuckers signing mean the end for him in Columbus ?