I know we're all happy to see Cabral go, but man was he a MASSIVE bust, possibly one of the most expensive mistakes in league history when it's all said and done, and a huge stain on Greg Vanney's scouting/recruitment record. Josh from COTG went over the math but when it's all said and done (assuming we never recoup any transfer fees and ignoring the funny money GAM changing hands), Cabral will have cost the Galaxy: $6,000,000 (transfer fee paid to Valenciennes)+$1,600,000 (year 1 salary) +$1,600,000 (year 2 salary)+$800,000 (year 3 half salary) +$800,000 (year 4 half salary)+$800,000 (year 5 half salary)= $11,600,000! I'll leave it to others to compare where this falls on our all-time bust list, but given the massive leap of faith, financial investment, and ultimately paltry production, this has to top the list IMO. Don't get me wrong IDGAF about AEG's bottom line, but just imagine those funds going toward other proven MLS players or proven European talent like Joveljic (who already had a decent goal scoring record in Austria the year before he came to us). Just pisses me off how bad so many of our signings have been. I really hope Vanney looks back at this and changes his methodology on scouting and recruitment, and also vastly improves the overall talent evaluation/scouting/advanced analytics of the front office so that signings like this don't happen again, and our willingness as a club to spend money leads to real production and wins.
That 11.6m doesn’t include the cost of him hamstringing the development of the club, sucking up 3689 game minutes from promising and productive players like Dejan, Aguirre and the unknown promising & talented U22 DP we could have signed instead. He also cost us reputation and post-season opportunities. Remember we missed the playoffs in 2021 by 1 pt (or 1 goal, I don’t remember) and it is almost certain we would have made that and more up if we had a competent player using his minutes. Plus how many abysmal home games did we show our fans that year? That can’t have helped either attendance or season ticket purchases. Vanney put on blinders once he decided he had this special insight into this “diamond in the rough” despite all evidence to the contrary. Hope he learns from this. And I 1000% support the idea of us actually having and using an analytics person! At each new signing I try to bring in rudimentary historical stats and even at that simple level they’ve been fairly accurate in predicting performance with us. Surely our FO can learn from every other successful sports organization? Too much to hope for?
For sure he was a big black hole for our team, our performances and results. I'm just glad it's over, but we would be even gladder to think that something was learned from this mess, and that the FO will do better in the future. We'll see!
Two additional thoughts on Cabral: 1. I'm willing to concede that Cabral got into some good spots that some other players wouldn't have gotten to, so I don't think we can just chalk up all his misses as sure goals if someone else was there who was merely competent. I'm even willing to concede that Cabral helped on defense some, which may have saved our horrible defense last year, if not this year, from giving up maybe a few extra goal scoring opportunities that could have led to us giving up a goal or two. Nevertheless, a competent player would have surely gotten into some of those positions and scored a few of those goals, while playing a little defense, and that may have been the difference between a win and loss in enough of those games to be meaningful. 2. The situation is actually slightly worse than @ProudNatRN and @skydog suggest. According to CotG's Guesman, the rumor is that we paid Remi Cabral one of the highest salaries in USL, possibly a high MLS salary, to play for the G2s and it's not clear we're rid of him yet either. If true, that's a lot of wasted money, but worse than that it blocked real prospects from getting a chance. I suppose he could turn out to be the better Cabral and we end up promoting him, but it seems pretty far-fetched based on what I've seen of the G2s the past few years.
The only thing that could have been worse than paying 11.6 million dollars for 2 years of Kevin Cabral... is paying 14 million dollars for 5 years of Kevin Cabral.
I think Cabral was the right type of player that we needed (and still do), the scouting on him was just terrible and we made a massive bet on someone just not worth it. If we had a young DP with Cabral's qualities that was trending in the right direction and potted 15 goals in his first two seasons and had any ability at all in the final 1/3 it would be a great fit for this team. And, absent getting rid of Costa to free up a true (any age) DP slot, that is the type of player we need to find to replace Cabral. Basically a young DP winger that is dangerous and produces. The other mystery this off season is Efra and Araujo. If we sold both of them then suddenly we don't need 3 U-22 slots and we could fill our 3rd DP spot with anyone this season. There are a lot of ways to go this offseason, I wish I had any faith in the FO.
Don't know until you try him out. Looking forward to seeing what he had to offer. At a minimum they must have calculated that he had more to offer then Dunbar (who I thought had something to offer).
Yeah - maybe I'm mis-reading it - but it sure seems like they moved Dunbar to make space for Perez to start getting some minutes.
Anybody have any ideas who our new DP will be? I keep reading we are getting someone. I know I don't want an injury prone Eden Hazard or Suarez etc. Please be kind to us Santa....
Heard rumblings that Angel Di María will be leaving Juventus this winter. Haven't heard of us being linked directly to him for this transfer window, I believe we have been linked in the past (realistically or not). He'd be a GREAT fit IMO, even better if we could get rid of Costa as well and still be able to bring in a stud young DP in the mold of Pavón when he first arrived... Here's hoping!
Ronaldo hasn't signed with the Al Nassar...I would be ecstatic if the Gs somehow landed Modric or Antoine.
All I can say is if I didn’t want Ronaldo before the World Cup … after he’s going to be insufferably petulant. Please, whichever blood money oligarch is out there take him off the table.
Rumors of players coming to the Galaxy have been started with less evidence than this: Papu 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/x4JWH3Idtd— All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 (@AlbicelesteTalk) December 18, 2022 (and, no, I don't think Papu Gomez is telling everyone in the locker room after winning the World Cup that he is going to the Galaxy - he told his teammates he was going for the Beckham look after getting a new haircut).
There was a rumor this morning that the Galaxy is interested in Di Maria. I’d take him in a heart beat.
Galaxy finally announce the contract extension that Bond let slip already: #LAGalaxy announces 2-year contract extension for Jonathan Bond through end of 2024 w/club option for 2025. In November, Bond posted he had signed new contract— Damian Calhoun (@DamianCalhoun) December 19, 2022 The @LAGalaxy publicly announced GK Jonathan Bond has agreed to a 2-year contract extension through the end of the 2024 season with an option for 2025. In 2 seasons across all competitions Bond has posted 12 shutouts in 67 starts. He ranks 4th in club history in with 211 saves— Kevin Baxter 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@kbaxter11) December 19, 2022 https://www.lagalaxy.com/news/la-galaxy-sign-goalkeeper-jonathan-bond-to-contract-extension I guess "steady" is a good thing for a GK. Not spectacular, but steady is probably an improvement from Bingham and some of our other recent goalkeepers.
I guess our GK crew is staying the same this year, at least for the top two keepers. Klinsmann signed a new contract today Back for more in 2023 🧤✨The #LAGalaxy sign Jonathan Klinsmann to a new contract.📰: https://t.co/ytltq0mara pic.twitter.com/avaw0swoP8— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) December 19, 2022
I wouldn't put GK as high on our list of problems. It's not spectacular or anything but I'm ok with these two I think.
Hopefully, they saved money in the process. Klinsmann was making $200K last year, which is really high considering he didn't play a single league game last year. They exposed him in the expansion draft and didn't pick up his option, suggesting they were looking at either possible upgrades or a lower salary. There are young guys like Drake Callender (Inter Miami $130K), Roman Celentano (FCC $99K) and Thomas Hasal (Vancouver $174K) who were starting at lower salaries last year, plus guys like former Galaxy Academy player John Pulskamp who started a lot of games at Sporting KC while Tim Melia was hurt and only made $92K and Stefan Cleveland, who substituted for Stefan Frei at Seattle and only made $167K. Senior veteran backups like Brad Knighton (NE Revs $157K) and Bingham (Portland $84K) didn't make as much as Klinsmann. Even a onetime USMNT prospect (similar to Klinsmann) like Cody Cropper only made $84K as a backup at Vancouver.
We really have no interest in winning any trophies with guys like Bond and Edwards taking starting spots. Another year of mediocrity
While I would like a top 5 MLS goalie and better outside backs I don’t think either Bond or Edwards were close to being our biggest problems. Also I’m pretty sure we allowed more goals from Julian’s side of the field than from Raheem’s side. If we can just replace Cabral and Costa with good players and get Jovan going as a starter we will be much better than mediocre. Maybe not yet Cup winner caliber but top 3 in our conference quality.
Are you suggesting we bring Kirovski out of retirement? I mean, I guess it would keep him away from player acquisitions, but at 46 years-old?