Then we have had many poor RBs, it seems: Ashley Cole, Todd Dunivant, Robbie Rogers, Dan Gargan have all had entire seasons where they produced 2 or fewer assists. Even in a slump, Araujo was still an influential player for us, is my point.
I am sure that Joveljic wouldn't mind that at all. Of course, bringing in an aged free agent coming off an injury who isn't playing for his club at all this season due to that injury has all the earmarks of an AEG directed signing.
According to Fabrizio Romano, MLS is responsible for the Araujo paperwork arriving 20 seconds late. He said the clubs had agreed and signed, but MLS had to sign too and they got it in a little late. "Everything was agreed, but MLS had to approve the deal and the approval was 20 seconds after the deadline." ⏱💀@FabrizioRomano explains why Julian Araujo's dream move to Barcelona fell through. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/lT2UHdVOW2— In Soccer We Trust (@ISWTPod) February 1, 2023 Romano says that the Chelsea/PSG appeal of the late submission for the transfer of Ziyech, which FIFA already denied, is distinguishable because in that the case the clubs were late in signing the deal. Barca and Galaxy are suggesting that the clubs had done everything they could and the league was the holdup. Not sure whether FIFA would waive its bright-line rule for that distinction, since it inevitably raises the question as to whether the clubs submitted to MLS in sufficient time for the league to review it before submission. We'll see.
Well, they ain't doing so bad either my man. They are getting ready to defend their championship and they looking mighty good, or at least, a hell of a lot better than Galaxy. Our team seems to be getting ready to regain the wooden spoon title. They have the opposite problem than Galaxy, which is too much talent on the roster. A nice problem to have. But we think we can make it work and have a shot at the title this year.
I may be wrong, but Arango was LAFC's leading goal scorer with 16 goals (about 25% of their total from last year) and tied for 4th on assists. Thus far, he has not been replaced at center forward. All in all, they have lost about 32% of their scoring from last year. Now I would expect Opoku and Bouanga (the replacement for Rodriguez) to make up some of that loss, but certainly not all of it. Now if you ask me who has a better front office top down, its hands down its LAFC. But your post was don't go to the LAFC site or you would get angry. I did and just like the Galaxy, LAFC has been losing players faster than they have been replacing them with no clear replacements in sight.
Well, certainly we could both be wrong, but we do not know if Arango was asking for a significant bump in pay in order to remain relatively happy at LAFC and the club just said no. They have Bouanga and Opoku as you mentioned who look very dangerous and hungry with room to grow and are home-grown talent if I am not mistaken. And, with the monies received from the Chicho transfer they can still go look for another impact player wether that be at forward or other position. You say you don't see much but it is very clear to me, LAFC is doing it the right way. When they let go of key people they already have the people to fill the void and at a much lesser cost in home-grown talent to boot. The others let out like Latif Blessing are just players who had given their all and needed replacement looking and moving forward. Somebody is on the ball over there. When I see how they are handling themselves it just makes me sad. We used to be like that. A long, long time ago...
Ok, rather than forwards we can talk about primary “goal scoring threats.” LAFC had 5 players who produced 5+ goals last season, we had (have) 2. They had 4 players who produced 10+ g+a, we have 2. Ok, let's do a more systematic comparison. I will use a loose definition of goal scorer as someone who (a) produces 5 or more goals in a season (I guess that is a little light but I don't want to redo it; also most who met criteria were well above 5) or (b) produced 10+ G+A. Below are # of players who produced 5+ goals OR 10+ g+a last season, by club. Also conference finish as an indicator of how the team did: Club/# "scorers"/Conference finish (Conference Top 3 bolded) NYC 8 3 ATX 7 2 POR 6 8 LAFC 5 1 MTL 5 2 PHI 5 1 ATL 4 11 CIN 4 5 COL 4 10 MIN 4 6 ORL 4 7 CHI 3 12 CLB 3 8 CLT 3 9 DAL 3 3 HOU 3 13 NE 3 10 NSH 3 5 RBNY 3 4 RSL 3 7 SEA 3 11 SJ 3 14 TOR 3 13 DC 2 14 LA 2 4 MIA 2 6 SKC 2 12 VAN 2 9 We were one of five teams with only two such players. Of these five we did by far the best, coming in 4th in the conference (by a hair). A big reason was Chich was the 4th leading scorer in MLS, with 18 goals. Note that all teams in the top 3 of their conference had five or more "goal scorers" with the exception of Dallas, who did it with only three. Having Ferreirra's 24 g+a is a big reason why. They also had one of the best defenses in the league, allowing only 37 GA (versus our 51 GA). tldr vers: IOW to really be in contention for a Cup a team needs have five or more dangerous scorers or else a fantastic one and a great defense. I would be surprised if our defense will be "great" next season so we need more that Chich and Dejan to be dangerous. There is reason to believe Puig will be a third goal scorer and Efrain was just short of meeting the criterion, with 9 g+a. But again this is all counting on another outstanding, healthy season from Chich. And personally I don't feel comfortable counting on that happening.
This off-season is so bad we’re talking about the rivals in here. Please god give us a rumor. Give us a fake rumor about some aging European player leveraging a contract with his team! Give me anything about lafc talk!!
Here you go (but be careful what you wish for - it’s probably Zavaleta) 1620986013589057536 is not a valid tweet id
This is a bad joke. We’ve been sooo patient. Every season we dare to hope they will finally get it at least somewhat together. And every time we end up like a gullible Charlie Brown with our asses splayed on the ground. Wtf is wrong with this organization? Incompetence is one thing, this is worse. They clearly just don't care.
Barca seems to be clarifying a bit what happened with the Araujo snafu. "Barcelona missed out on signing Mexican right back Julian Araujo because it was 18 seconds late turning in his transfer documentation. Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany said Wednesday that a “system error” caused the club to miss the midnight deadline at the end of the transfer window Tuesday. Alemany said the club was talking to FIFA to see if the transfer could still be completed. The 21-year-old Araujo was born in the United States and would transfer from the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Alemany said the club planned to bring Araujo to be initially used at Barcelona’s “B” squad."
Hopefully these will be my last comments about LAFC. First, you are mainly right about Opoku. While Opoku wasn't a homegrown, he may as well have been as LAFC is first his senior club. Somebody did a great job scouting Opoku because his only play before LAFC was for his youth academy team in Ghana and the Ghana U-17 team. Conversely, Bouanga is not a homegrown player with "room to grow'. Bouanga is a 28 year old DP from Saint Etienne, a Ligue 1 team that got relegated and, I believe, their captain in 2021/2022. FWIW, Josh on COG was saying last winter that he was the player the Galaxy should be going after. So he was a well known commodity. Of course, our idiot front office knew Costa was available on a free and had a bigger name so nothing happened. By the time, LAFC signed him Saint Etienne had been relegated and reportedly LAFC paid Saint Etienne a transfer fee of 4.6mm Euros. As for Arango, he was a mid TAM level player. Thorrington said that they had salary and roster compliance issues but their lead managing owner had stated that he didn't see him as a DP so you could be right about Chicho's salary demands. FWIW, while they apparently got something approaching $6mm for him, some of this will go to his prior club in Columbia who reportedly has sell on rights for this transfer and a portion of anything that LAFC might get if Pachuca subsequently transfers elsewhere.
Aunque hay cierto optimismo en lograrlo, si la FIFA no diera el OK al Barça por Julián Araujo, desde su entorno esperan que se respete el contrato firmado y busquen alguna solución. El mexicano se considera jugador del Barça, aunque no pudiera jugar.Con @tjuanmarti en @relevo pic.twitter.com/12L1o0V4v4— Albert Rogé (@albert_roge) February 2, 2023 sería una de las soluciones, sí— Albert Rogé (@albert_roge) February 2, 2023 Barcelona is optimistic that FIFA will approve Julian Araujo's transfer, and even if FIFA rejects the deal, Barcelona still wants its agreement with the Galaxy to be respected. One possibility in that scenario is that Araujo could train with Barcelona but not play. I don't understand what that would mean for the Galaxy or the transfer fee, but it appears that Barcelona (as well as Araujo, who the reporter says already considers himself a Barcelona player) does not want Araujo to be stuck here if FIFA nixes the transfer.
So wait, wait, wait a minute... We might lose Araujo but he will only be able to train with the B-team, not actually play and we might now not get any money but some discounted change thrown our way? If he stays he will be so pissed he might not play well here and demand transfer anywhere else and Galaxy FO will look (or further verify to the world) the incompetent buffoons we know they are for every prospective player going forward young or old? I wanna go back to talking LAFC with Bruin.
I think it's becoming clear that players are staying away from the Galaxy in droves. We used to be a destination wedding, now we are Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
That's part of the message of this article, which might as well have been written by a BigSoccer poster https://lastwordonsports.com/soccer/2023/02/01/galaxys-off-season-instability/
And, to be clear, Carson is reportedly training with the first team right now and this isn't really a comment on his ability. After all, his dad had a long pro career and it shouldn't be surprising his son is decent too (although more like in a "aged out of the Academy and is a candidate for the MLS Next Pro team playing in a D3 league next year" sort of way). Still, the supporters groups would go ballistic.