Costa is only 31? Lots of miles on those legs. It would all depend on how motivated and how much he cared on if he'd do well here. But he's a right winger isn't he? Sure he'd be an upgrade there over Grandsir but we'd still have a black hole central midfield. This is all footage from 2021 (recent) and he does a lot of good things in the middle of the field. Maybe that's the idea. Lazy scouting again. Jovan's all "I've heard of that dude...." which is the basis for all his talent identification.
Today is Cristian Pavón's 26th birthday. 11 months ago, Pavón had surgery on both ankles. He's getting first team minutes, so it seems he's recovered nicely. CABJ no longer holds all the cards in this. Pavón wants to leave for LA, Boca knows it, and he's ready to leave on a free transfer when his contract is up with them at the end of June. They would do well to cut a deal with us and get some cash out of the deal in exchange for letting him join us now. ...and if Pavón does join this team, it will be a far cry in appearance to what it looked like before.
Gremio terminated Costa's contract so welcome to the Galaxy I guess. Not really impressed with Costa because he 100% will be a DP. His salary is 11million euros a year. Yes his contract is up in the summer, but there is no way Costa goes from making that much to accepting the TAM maximum. This is a massive risk for us. As for Pavon, I think he is still on the table even with Costa. Costa plays RM primarily but can also be used on the left. Pavon plays LM primarily but can be used basically anywhere under the striker.
I think our team will be a lot more exciting if we go through with Costa signing then if we have no signing. DPs are tough though. It's not about if Costa will improve the team its if there is someone else we could conceivably sign that would improve the team more. My suspicion is that we don't have a big pool of potential targets to draw from due to a bad FO structure. Getting Costa in preseason, ready to go from the start of the year, could be way more valuable this season than a "better" DP who is here for the final 1/3 of season. When does Chicha's contract expire? Maybe we get Pavon as a TAM player for the last 1/3 of the season (would be awesome addition) but ultmately he's going to need a DP spot going forward. Its more fun thinking of these possibilities then last week's communal bitch fest on twitter about lack of action, that's for sure.
Delgado is a done deal ✨ @MarkyDelgado is a 𝔊 ✨#LAGalaxy acquire midfielder Mark Delgado from @TorontoFC— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) January 21, 2022
ESPN story on Galaxy pursuit of Costa With ESPN colleague @guberton... #lagalaxy in pursuit of Brazil international Douglas Costa. https://t.co/H7SwRv6PjH— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) January 21, 2022
I know nothing about Costa but if the comments above are accurate (and I assume they are, given the brilliance of our posters) I’m totally underwhelmed this guy will be our big exciting new DP. Remember when our DP’s were international first team stars like Donovan, Keene, Beckham, Ibra? While our competition improves year after year our DP’s are now 2nd Division players no longer wanted by their club? F this FO.
Transfermarkt graph of Costa’s transfer value. I think I’m detecting a slight pattern, but maybe it’s just me.
My thought as well. How much does he want to be here or is he just looking for a last paycheck? The case for him is that anyone who was once that good is skilled enough to play as an attacking mid in MLS. He's probably lost a step and so can't be a winger at the top level, but we don't need him there anyway. I guess we would line up: -------------------------Chicharito-------------------- Cabral------------------------------------Pavon ---------------------------Costa------------------------ ------------Raveloson----Delgado---------------- Assuming we can bring in Pavon midseason as a TAM. Could be great, could be a disaster From a personnel standpoint, Grandsir becomes a very expensive supersub so we would need to drop him when we can. If Pavon ends up as a DP then that means whoever is the successor to Chich can't be a DP and yet that's the position where I would want to spend the most money.
If I understood the COG podcast correctly last night, Josh implied that the Galaxy have already signed Pavon to some sort of contract/agreement (no clue on how binding it is) for a year at $1.2mm. I got the impression that it was an older agreement (possibly for a third loan year that never occurred) with the possibility that the Galaxy could throw some relatively small amount to Boca to get an earlier release and still keep Pavon under the TAM limit. Again, I might not have understood this correctly and Josh could have things wrong as well.
Reading up about Douglas Costa and it's not fun (granted this is from Reddit). Legs made of glass, spit in an opponents mouth and wants to party. Is this really the guy we want as a DP? I admit to not knowing anything about him, but the reviews are horrible. Can only hope he has something to prove, but man this sounds a lot like Gio, only worse. We'll probably give him a 5 year contract....
Anyone spot a trialist or unannounced signing? 96 'Til Infinity pic.twitter.com/79wEnBjjUT— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) January 22, 2022
I have a hard time imagining that the Galaxy would gamble paying Costa DP money on a long term contract. But then again, how many times have we seen the Galaxy make stupid decisions when it comes to DPs. The only way this makes sense for me, is if the Juve loan Costa to the Galaxy for TAM level money (which would at least ease some of Juve's pain). The next best is to up the loan amount so that he would be a DP but with a contract expiration date of June 30th (like Vela). I don't know if the league will allow the Galaxy to do this as it resembles what BA attemped to with Sasha.
Dean’s point, of course, was that you could add a thug to a winning, strong locker room. We’re not there yet. yeah, the more I think about Costa, the more I feel it would have to be a deal that you could walk away from if it fails. We’ve worked loan magic before.
Don't worry. 99% of what you worry about doesn't come true, right? Please, everyone join me in a moment of catharsis.
While I agree with your view about Costa as a DP and your view of the FO, I think you are nor remembering the Galaxy's DP signings correctly. Outside of Donovan, pretty much all of the others were no longer wanted by their clubs. Keane was a big money signing by Liverpool who did not work out there. The Spurs bought him back and after the first year, loaned him out for the 2nd half first to Celtic (pretty much 2nd division compared to the EPL) and then for the 2nd half of the next season to West Ham (who were relegated). The Galaxy paid the Spurs a small fraction of what they paid to get him back from Liverpool. Beckham had lost his starting position with Real Madrid and they made it clear that they no longer wanted him. When the Galaxy came calling RM let him go on a free transfer. IIRC, RM had a change of heart after he won his position back but he already had signed his Galaxy contract. He did his best to get out of the contract until his Achilles injury in 2010. Ibra did not come to the Galaxy as a DP, he was a TAM signing. He was out of contract at MU and at age 36, they felt that it was unlikely that he would return to form coming off an ACL injury. IIRC, he agreed to the TAM signing to prove he could still compete at a high level. Completing the Galaxy's DP list, Romain was out of favor with Marsielle after repeated foot injuries in 2015 and 2016 (he only played 240 minutes in 16/17 for OM), Gerrard was washed up at Liverpool. Gio was out of favor at Villarreal FC (after only scoring 3g and 1a in 26 games) and the Red Bulls had given up on JPA. All in all, while some of the signings worked out very well for the Galaxy, it's not like the Galaxy were ever an attractive destination for players with real options.
Gerard the only outright failure DP signing in my mind. Total waste of money and lead to purposeful reconstruction of our championship midfield. Gio was ok his first year. Then a total failure with a contract we couldn’t escape. JDS was less then expected but not a flop. some of the others (JPA, Omar) were lower stakes deals of questionable value. Worst deal of all time was Skittles but not a DP
My point was that Donovan, Keane, Beckham and Ibra were on a whole different level than a player struggling to hold onto a spot on a Brazilian 2nd division team. Donovan starred in WC’s, was arguably the best player the US ever produced and also arguably the best player at Everton the few months he was there. And - major point here - we got Landon when he was still in his prime. Keane, Beckham and Ibra were superstars who had been wildly successful for the best teams in the best leagues in the world. We picked them up when they fell out of favor for various reasons with clubs like Man U, Real Madrid and Liverpool. That is a far cry from a player falling out of favor with …… Gremio???? Let me take this further. All of the 4 DP players I mentioned had incredible character traits to go along with their soccer skills. Donovan is just a great human being - no sports star is more caring and humble (and admittedly, complicated at times). I can describe Keane and Beckham together- both were players who exuded pure class, through and through. On the pitch they were competitive as hell but never dirty, off the pitch they were wonderful people with truly wonderful families. Now Ibra was a different animal. Never would he be accused of being nice - but his determination to succeed is the top .0000001% of humanity. No one has more self confidence and strength of will than Ibra. When injured and pushed aside by Man United he, very similarly to Beckham with Real Madrid, didn’t give up but instead went off and trained on his own for months and came back better than ever. tl;dr Donovan, Becks, Keane and Ibra were all top class soccer players and human beings. They were in a different planetary orbit than the potential DP’s our 2022 FO appears to be be pursuing. And I’m not happy about it, in case you were wondering.
There is the problem of international slots. If we reall Eric Lopez is next to Bond, officially he had his option declined. Drack is also here, as is Essengue (G2), between Bond and Ferkranus on the picture. I don't recognize the two black players (if they are players) between Vazquez and Sanchez and between Raveloson and Joveljic. The three Draft picks are also here.
I saw Lopez. Must have either re-signed or agreed to a G2 deal. I also spotted Drack, but didn’t see Judd, which is interesting.
I can see Lopez signing a first-team contract and being loaned for the whole year to G2, and not occupying a roster spot. We had four keepers last year. I'm also surprised about Judd. There's definitely a place for him in the first-team roster, if he feels he has no chance he could leave the club like Jorge Hernandez did.