MLS Flavors of the Week: 2022 edition

Hopefully half the established prospects & domestic stars move to greener pastures winter ahead of the WC, and we end up with a sizable new crop to follow.

I'm keeping an eye on DCU. Paredes should stay thru this season to help DC make the playoffs and have a Brenden Aaronson-esque best xi yr. He may get pushed up the field if Jacob Greene is ready and Arriola departs. In CM they have Ku-Dipietro who was great in usl, Garay wasn't much worse, and Nyeman should enjoy greater availability.

Speaking of Philly, they should be back to being one to watch from a prospect standpoint. Quinn Sullivan, Paxten Aaronson, and Jack McGlynn took the in-between steps. It's time for them to be starters, while Brandon Craig can be where they were at this past season.

Fire could be interesting. I kind of liked Gutierrez last season. But he looked like he could be a near blue-chipper w/ the u-20's. Slonina's trajectory is obviously spectacular. If he goes down, Chris Brady is still there as a GK to watch. Heard good things about Andre Reynolds the fb.

FCD has to drop off from a prospect standpoint, after probably losing Pepi, Che, & maybe Ferreira. Pomykal could be the centerpiece if he moves back inside. Still won't be the same.

 

Some players I am looking into:

Kevin Parades and Paxton Aaraonson.

 

After seeing how much braver and more dynamic Gomez seemed than those he replaced in the Bosnia match, I am looking forward to watching his growth and progress in Spain.

 

Aiden Morris---was ace in 2020 MLS Cup but then had the acl to miss 2021.
Paxton Aaronson---looked super impressive in his maiden campaign.
Jordan Morris---bouncing back from the acl.
Parades---can he stay fit? The injuries are already piling up on his small frame.
Slonina---spectacular start to his career. Can he maintain? If so he is likely gone.
Miguel Berry---competition will be fierce between him and Zardes. Maybe Porter switches to a 2-striker lineup.
FC Dallas: can they make a good acquisition?
Cade Cowell---can he put together an Alphonso Davies type season?
Tolkin---can become among the best in the league at his position
Herrera: can't believe he is still in the league
Williamson---looking to bounce back from an acl.
Amaya---the move from Cincy did not launch his career. maybe he takes a step up this year.
Dotson---needs to become the lock starter at dmid.
Cam Duke---can he earn the keys from Flat Top?
The Seattle Youth Contingent
Aaron Long---needs to bounce back quickly from that achilles

 

There's what? 26 other teams that play American players? Teams are free to construct their rosters as they see fit. This shouldn't';t be seen as an issue. Better players on teams will lead to better competition for American players. Isn't that what everyone wants?

 

Charlotte is making the mistake every team that gets a foreign GM does. It’ll likely be an issue, and they will learn.

You’ve got to have quality domestic players somewhere.

 

Yeah, they could learn.

But it seems like every foreign GM comes in and decides that the B-list players from his country/region are clearly superior to MLS players and hauls them in.

I don't know what it is they fail to appreciate. Is it just blanket arrogance? Is it the travel and weather that really wear players down? Is it the physicality of MLS is so much more than they account for? No idea.

But grabbing Matt Polster and Henry Kessler is vastly superior than paying for Facundo Quignon and Jose Martinez, even though the latter two came from Lanus and Granada. (All apologies to FC Dallas; your team is just on my mind).

 

Looks like there's some movement on the Robinson front.

1477773120538923009 is not a valid tweet id

 

Isn't $5-8m a decent price for an older CB from a good but not great league? $8m plus some incentives. Would Atlanta really turn that down with a youngster waiting in the wings?

 

He said 5-10m on the podcast, and that's information, but it's the opposite of movement, as per to the Tweet Atlanta won't sell. Going by their history, and brazen lying about "no interest", this was pretty predictable.

5+ w/ up to 10m w/ reasonable incentives is absolutely a fair price for the market at his age, position, and league. They aren't getting near 10 million in value from Atlanta, given what they're playing for, and his performances have been better for country than club. They think they're playing for Club World Cup titles, when they have enough trouble being relevant in their league right now. And they're short-sighted. Long-term this is hurting their signings, domestically, especially.

I know Bocanegra is an employee, but being a figurehead for an operation so hostile toward the NT and domestic pool, in addition to being such a liar for them, is hurting his legacy.

 

Yeah, it seems pretty clear at this point that for an expansion team (or a team rebuilding) the priority should be to grab a half dozen or so proven average to above-average MLS starters, ideally focusing on the backline, CM, and GK. If you're competent in those areas, it will keep you from being embarrassed. And then you can work on adding some attacking flair from there and taking a risk on that boom/bust South American winger or that potential diamond in the rough from the 2nd Bundesliga or wherever.

 

I mean if the reports of the offers are true and Atlanta is really dug in, the only way out is for Robinson to be a malcontent which doesn’t seem like his style. Teams also do take a harder line in public versus what they’d actually accept as a negotiating ploy. Who knows what’s going on in this case. They don’t seem to be operating similarly when it comes to Bello.

I feel like Newcastle with a loan with an option to buy would be a good fit for Robinson. They’re desperate for help on defense, but players are hesitant to sign because they’re afraid they will go down. But if Robinson went there and they stayed up, it’s not like they’d have any issues in meeting Atlanta’s asking price. And there’s always a price, even if it might be inflated.

 

They're afraid if they join & lead to Newcastle's demotion, their heads will literally roll.

 

I didn't know where to post this so this thread is the closest I can think of.

I'm not super clear on the MLS transfer rules and what can be done with the money. Some portion can be used as funny money (like, up to $1M or something, right?) but the rest is either profit or can only be put into non-player-salary things, like the academy, buildings, coaches, etc. Is this correct?

If it is correct then I have to wonder what FCD would do with the $40M they've brought in in the last 2 years. You could certainly afford to hire the best coaching staff in the world with that kind of loot, but it doesn't seem they're interested in that. What else will they use it for?

Given that I have no idea how they're going to spend this money on the club and it seems a waste (aside from what amounts to a piddly profit for Hunt) I wonder if --and this is completely based on nothing-- the league isn't about to announce a change in transfer rules (retroactively, of course) that allows FCD to utilize much more of their transfer money on player salaries. Perhaps only on homegrown salaries or something (to encourage continuation of HG development). It seems like the time is right for that, and the league has made similar retroactive adjustments in the past.

 

5-8 mil looks good coin. The podcasters stated Atlanta were short on CBs, however. Robinson might get Aaron Longed.

 

Roster Rules and Regulations | MLSsoccer.com

The relevant sections are---
Transfer of Players
Transfer and Loan Fees

 

Every time a sale occurs, the team gets somewhere between 95% and all of the money as pure cash. That's important -- the money still goes.

But there's still a salary cap. So you can't reinvest it all -- if you could, then there wouldn't be a cap.

Each time you sell a player, you can convert up to $1.05M currently -- it goes up year by year, I think -- into GAM. Think of GAM as money you can spend above the salary cap.

In addition, you can spend however much you want in DP money -- both salaries and acquisition costs.

Dallas currently has one DP, Jara, whose contract can't be in place much longer.

That $40M, generated across, what, 3-4 players, should actually give them a huge edge. The cap is like $6M -- to be able to add $4M in extra GAM most teams don't have is a BIG edge.

The rest of it, you can use for transfer fees and salaries for DPs. $40M seems like a lot, take out the GAM and apply it to salaries across multiple years, and suddenly it's actually pretty easy to spend it efficiently mostly on GAM and DPs.

 

Fantastic explanation! I didn't realize that you could use it for incoming transfer fees (to "buy down" a contract effectively, as transfer fees are combined with actual salary for cap purposes, correct? Ex: Dallas pay $3M for a transfer, and $1M/yr for 3 yr contract=$6M/3yrs=$2M/yr cap hit--so need GAM or TAM to bring it down if not utilizing a DP slot). That's really useful with the MLS salary cap. Apologies for the confusing parenthetical.

 

Parenthetical makes sense.

If the annual salary plus prorated transfer fee is over $1.6M a year, they have to be a DP, I believe, and then there is no buying down.

But the extra GAM can basically pay for a decent number of GAM level guys more than most teams. And then you can pay what you want for DPs.

Even without unloading Jara, Dallas can sign two absolute top end MLS players — like MVP caliber at least in cost — and then sign a number of Allocation level guys more than anyone else.

Get their scouting right plus their remaining homegrowns and they could turn it all around.

I expect the pocket a lot of it, though. And to be fair… the academy is not cheap.

Vancouver turned a lot of the Davies money into Cavalini, who wasn’t worth it. Gauld has been better.

 

Or you can invest it all back into your academy.
The academies are the "wild west" of MLS in which you can spend as much as you want. No limit. FCD can invest their Ricardo Pepi in a new residential academy building, hire additional youth coaches, make the academy free for even a larger group of kids, pay for trips to Mexico and Europe for tournaments (in non-COVID times). The list goes on and on.

I mean, maybe what FCD should do is invest this money from the Pepi sale into their "tier one" El Paso affilaite and surrounding areas. Ricardo is actually from San Elizario, which is RIGHT on the Rio Grande. That would be awesome.

Thru its history, FCD has rarely bought the kinds of DPs you're talking about. It hasn't been their business plan. Their star "MVP caliber" foreign players like Mauro Diaz and David Ferreira were actually just brought in on loan at first. Then they were signed to big money DP deals later.

Their highest profile DP signing was Denilson. The Brazilian World Cup winner. That was an epic disaster. If people think Franco Jara was a bad signing, it pales in comparison to Denilson. 1 goal and 0 assists. When people talk about the worst DPs in league history, they rarely mention Denilson.

 

Alternatively, Bocanegra's comments could just be posturing.

Only weeks ago Dan Hunt was still talking about how FCD didn't want to sell Ricardo Pepi. That they wanted to keep him thru the 2022 World Cup. That led to a whole lot of heated debate on this board. Obviously, they were willing to sell for the right price.

Interestingly, Robinson just signed a contract extension. However, it was short compared with Pepi's. Robinson's contract extension only takes him thru the 2023 season.

To me that just looks like a plan to sell him after the 2022 WC.

Aaron Long, by the way, had a $500k LOAN offer from West Ham with an option to buy. That deal wasn't actually very good for New York. Just my opinion.
Report: New York Red Bulls reject Aaron Long transfer bid from West Ham United | MLSSoccer.com