Look in the tread English abroad and see the players they mention there. Now Portugal seems to pull in talents. By the way, the talents jumping the channel isnot about demanding a first team spot, but overall the lack of chance to get playing time at all, which is essential for your development.
I just read a great article on Klopp and Liverpool and one of the things he wanted to change when he got there was to make Liverpool a destination club. I guess he didn’t want to go through what he had to at Dortmund forever. So teams can move up and down buts it’s not easy to move up.
Klopp just has to win the CL another two times in a rowwith the reds and it will be a destination club. Well, making it to the final a couple of times makes in a decade will at least be compelling too for players who think they're gonna be the ones to push the club first over the finish line.
He could spread titles out more than three in a row but say three in five or six years would draw players in. Add premier league titles and they could be a top five club. They are number seven or eight in revenue and gaining quickly on ManCity and PSG.
Most popular EPL teams in the US (statista.com) Share of respondents Manchester United 32% Liverpool 14% Manchester City 9% Arsenal & Chelsea 6% Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Tottenham 2%
Super fascinating, thanks. Never really thought about it, but I realize I always assumed Arsenal was right up there with ManU in popularity. It will probably be over 50% Chelsea by the end of next season.
Maybe we should compare it to the J-League; which started the same time as MLS and has the save outside UEFA restrictions.
Agree that the J-League would be a better league to compare MLS. I probably wasn't too clear but my main point wasn't as much the leagues but the metrics. For a young league (like MLS or the J-League), growth and future expectations are most important...just like if we were grading prospects. It is why looking at oversimplified stats for a U17 player are often/usually meaningless. How many kids tear up U17 level and don't go anywhere at the higher levels? A single metric like percentage playing time for players younger than x-years is too broad and doesn't give any real picture of the league. some of the things that I see as important in the stats that I mentioned were the change in "age demographics" of the players getting minutes (far more younger players are getting significant minutes), overall distribution of minutes (it is nowhere near as top heavy with a few players getting almost all the minutes), more young players getting cameos (important because several of those are likely to feature next year). To gauge improvement of MLS, I would also like to see more data on the players, including stats like years in the academy. Guys like Yedlin spent relatively little time with Seattle's academy. The amount of time spent in the academy could indicate how much credit goes to development or scouting and/or partnerships (all important). The number of questions are endless, it's just a question of determining which are most important and how to interpret them. That is the hard part.
I vaguely recall MLS fans claiming years ago that we couldnt outsource youth development to European clubs, but apparently MNUFC think they can outsource it to local clubs. Just heard that @MNUFC is gonna have a U15 and U17 team this session and that players on those teams will train part time with their youth clubs and part time with United. Fair to assume United will pay those youth clubs for doing the job that United should be doing, right?— Josh Whitcomb (@Whitcomb) July 13, 2020
How is that different than what FCD has been doing for years? Their academy players have been training with the first team on a regu;ar basis for some time now. I believe some other clubs have also done the same to a lesser extent. Is there something I'm missing or misinterpreting from the tweet?
Training with them is nice, but what really matters is making minutes in professional competitive matches.
Dallas has 12 home-grown players in their 28 man squad. Overall they've signed 26 HGPs. 4 started their last match with 3 on the bench. They also produced Weston McKennie of Schalke 04, Chris Richards of Bayern Munich, and Emerson Hyndman who was Rangers' young player of the season a couple of years ago and now starts for Atlanta. Victor Ulloa is at Inter Miami and there a few starting in Liga MX.
As I understand it, FCD uses the training to assist in that step. They integrate their youth training with the first team by training with them on the same field, having first team coaches conduct training sessions with the academy teams and having youth players train with the first team. They also have coaches at all levels work with the first team coaches and with the first team so that they are as fully integrated in their approach as they can be. As they progress, those players spend more time with the first team and or play with the USL team. FCD has had and continues to have a large number of players that get significant, meaningful minutes with the first team. this is especially true with their current coach.
Seems like a good design. This is why their academy kids pretty consistently come into the first team and are right on the pace. Just look at Tanner Tessman, who I think joined the first team one day before opening day for Dallas and proceeded to look like he'd been there for two years.
The NTSC team really helped too. Pretty much the academy teams and NTSC play the same setup so moving up and down to get minutes before you get your chance gets you ready.
MLS needs to keep changing the rules to treat the teams developing players. Allow more HG’s to be signed and able to move around more. NTSC could have half of their players FCD signed if there wasn’t a limit on signings. FCD could also loan out players to other MLS teams or overseas.
Oh...................a big challenge for FCD is keeping all of their top prospects in the fold somehow. There are limited roster spots and in particular limited "developmental roster spots" on MLS rosters, and FCD's are always full. They usually can't sign more homegrowns even if they wanted to. I think the hope was that a bunch of them would sign on intermediate USL deals (like NYRB did with Tyler Adams for example), but those are very low-dollar figure deals. Right now those deals don't appear attractive to many kids and their families. Its going to take a while to build up trust in the pathway/system with those deals. They've managed to sign some youngsters recently, though. Tanner Tessman is a good example. But they've also lost a bunch they would have liked to keep in the fold. Maybe some of those players could have been convinced to stay if FCD was able to provide them with >$100k MLS deals. Also quite simply, FCD needs to sell some of these homegrowns in order to keep the assembly line moving. Or else the whole thing gets clogged, and kids don't see a path to advancement. There have been some good changes recently. Fernando Clavijo used to say that the lack of training compensation/solidarity payments in the US was a threat to their business plan and model. With those supposedly coming on line (I don't know if they have yet)...................that will help to a degree.
I guess it depends on how it is structured. If the team has U15 and U17 teams that is different than using U15 and U17 players from an outside club. His first paragraph sounds more like the former, while his question at the end implies the latter. If like the latter, it would be more like the relationship between FCD and Bayern except that MNUFC would be taking the role of Bayern. If it is like the latter, I see it not as much a developmental system but a system designed to circumvent the developmental requirements put in place by MLS.
Where did you get the idea there were restrictions? Last season NTSC fielded 9 FC Dallas first team players and 17 FC Dallas academy players. This season Dallas has players out on loan at San Antonio, San Diego and in Chile.
FCD could do two very different things to help. First start a USL Championship team in addition to USL 1. That way the academy kids get to play for USL 1 but USL C can sign players to professional contracts and FCD could store kids waiting to go abroad for a nominal fee + a good sell on percentage. An extra ladder means more kids can sign and play at a good level for them. Second, go the RB route and buy a foreign team, preferably somewhere like Belgium or Austria that doesn't have foreign player restrictions and transfer kids to Europe within their own umbrella making money. RBL has a great setup and I can only hope someone in the US with some vision would have the money and balls to copy it. Salzburg has made them a ton of money and attracted a slew of ridiculous talent that has made that team consistent winners.
First of all, who's going to pay for this Championship team? The expansion fee alone is $10 million. Secondly, why buy a European club when they can already loan players to USL Championship and Latin American leagues?