Considering he turned down a HG MLS deal with the Union already, this isn't surprising. It does give us an asset we can trade within MLS or use if he ever wants to come back to MLS.
Right. I think Soccernomics was just saying that GMs greatly overpay for players who exceed their usual output at the WC. I don’t remember it saying anything about the prices of the other WC players. Maybe the opposite is true for players who are a bit off their usual form - maybe they are bargains!
Holy sh!t, this dude is still in his 20s?! He's aging like a bottle of Two Buck Chuck... Wow. At any rate going with a "proven" commodity like Klauss who despite his injury layoff was a major part of the STL team that won the Western Conference regular season in 2023. They don't play at all like we do so that may contribute to his inconsistency, but I'm optimistic that in our system, and given a relatively healthy season he will put up solid numbers with us. Plus the fact that he's Brazilian and we have two attacking players and assistant coach who are Brazilian will surely allow him to integrate quickly. Pretty shrewd move IMO, given the circumstances and what we don't know about foreign player availability and fees.
Because of Pec & Paintsil, Klauss becomes very important for the Galaxy. He does a lot of the in between well and won’t need to score 10+ goals for them to be successful. He will get his wingers chances and those 2 can score for fun. Now he can’t be a DP when Puig is healthy or…— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) January 22, 2026
Last year when we signed Zanka, we knew we were screwed pretty quick based on the reaction of the fans of the club he was leaving. So, what are St.Louis fans saying? Here is a sample from reddit and twitter: -This saddens me -I think people are really in for a surprise what a Klauss with service can do, there’s a reason another team was willing to make him a DP. It’s not rare for struggling teams to put a lot of the blame at a strikers feet, even a team that couldnt hold onto the ball or defend at all. But he always played hard, tracked back, and was proud to wear the patch. More than anything just sad as him, Lowen, and Burki really felt like the heart of this team and he deserved better than the way he was treated by this fanbase. Will forever be a fan of his. -He got way more heat than he deserved on the untalented 2024 team and then under Olof's horrible scheme... But at his best he struggles with movement a bit, and doesn't look like an ideal fit moving forward... On the other hand, no one seems to have cared more about success and the fans here than him. He always gives 100/100 -We were a monumentally better team when he was on the field. That doesn’t mean we weren’t bad or flawed, but I can say I never saw him take plays off. He fought every minute he was out there even if it was just trying to get back to defend when the rest of the team wouldn’t or couldn’t. It’s a shame that we didn’t get as much time of Edu and Klauss together as we should have. It seemed like one or both of them was out frequently. I hope enjoys LA, I’m sure that’s a more fun city to live and play in than STL. I just hope when he looks back on his career he feels we loved him more than they did. He got a lot of heat from the fanbase, even at times from me. I’m going to be very sad to see him go. His goals always brought me more joy than when anyone else scored. -What are the Galaxy doing? I can't stop thinking of Jansen Miller (#SportingKC) telling Klauss he's the worst DP in MLS. -Starting to love Corey Wray and what’s he’s doing to shape the roster. Upgrading at striker would be massive for the club. If he’s able to pull off moving Klauss and allowing the club to get a true difference maker DP up top, it would be a roster building masterclass.
Fits his stats. Sounds like a hard-working, likable but non-agile forward. I’ve heard a couple of comments about the “service” he provides but a guy with only 7 assists in three seasons isn’t creating many goals for goal his teammates. To be honest he sounds like Nasci II. The best thing we can do for our offense given our likely personnel (until this summer at least) is to get Cuevas involved in creating goals. After Reus, he created the most goals per minute of anyone on the team. We also need to get Pec going again. He’s too talented to have another season like last year. Bottom line - we won’t be a truly good team until we find better talent at forward and AM. But hopefully we can stay close to playoff eligible until reinforcements arrive.
Interesting tidbit from Bogert about scuttled loan of Ramirez last season, which would be possible this year with two just announced rule changes to allow unlimited cash transfers and remove age restrictions on player loans. I wouldn't be shocked if the Galaxy and Minnesota re-open talks about a loan of Ramirez if the Klauss move gets over the line. That would open up more space for an AM signing and relieve the congestion at striker (where Paintsil, Reus as a false 9, and probably Ramos Jr can back up Klauss and Nascimento). Both changes are no brainers. On the elimination of age limits on intra-league loans… that would have been useful last year.In the summer, Minnesota discussed possible loan deal to sign Christian Ramirez from LA Galaxy, per sources. But was impossible due to prior rule. https://t.co/qhbt2DEnVr pic.twitter.com/CnNQyjDxW3— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 22, 2026
Summer roster window extended for 2026, with winter window shortened MLS announced official transfer window dates for 2026 with some big, positive changes:⚪️ Summer window open until September 2⚪️ Winter window shorter to allow for longer summer window⚪️ Canadian MLS clubs are to follow US Soccer windowshttps://t.co/GZwExs7fGg— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) January 22, 2026
MLS announced some significant changes to league transfer rules. A few notable ones:• Secondary Transfer Window: Monday, July 13 to Wednesday, September 2. For the first time in a long while, the window extends into September, better aligning with European leagues and giving… pic.twitter.com/NjBZutk6Q2— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) January 22, 2026 Another summary of the new changes. have to click on it to see all the bullet points but rather than sending you to the cess pool which is X, here you go: MLS announced some significant changes to league transfer rules. A few notable ones: • Secondary Transfer Window: Monday, July 13 to Wednesday, September 2. For the first time in a long while, the window extends into September, better aligning with European leagues and giving teams the opportunity to add European talent ahead of the playoffs, especially with a calendar switch expected in the coming years. • Canadian clubs: All three Canadian MLS clubs will now adhere to the same registration periods as the rest of MLS. • Cash-for-player trades: There are no longer limits on the number of cash-for-player trades a club can make each season. • International roster slots: Clubs may agree that an international roster slot traded within or prior to the Primary Transfer Window will return to the original club on a specific date within the Secondary Transfer Window. • Designated Players: Designated Players acquired via cash-for-player trades in the Secondary Transfer Window may be added at the midseason Designated Player salary budget charge. I guess the league is not having any remorse about the cash transfer rule as they're making it easier to do.
Does he? To me, Nasci is a pretty mobile forward profile. He's also young and there is reason to believe he might do better in year 2 than in year 1. Klauss seems like a superior Ramirez to me. I'm an eternal optimist so this is rosy glasses but I think a starting line up of : ---------------------Klaus------------------ Paintsil--------------------------------Pec -------------------Reus----------------------- ---------------Cerillo--Haak-------------- Nelson---Garces--Glasnes----Yamane -------------------Mitrovich--------------- With Nasci, Wynder, Sanabria, Miller, Cuevas, Yoshida, Aude, Lepley, Ramirez available off bench is a reasonably deep team. I think with two defensive midfielders, we might even see more Aude, Miller, Cuevas at full back to bomb forward with more abandon. If we add a starter capable 10, I like our chances to be a comfortable play off team come summer.
With the potential addition of Klaus, that’s probably our roster to start the season. As even if we find a midfielder somewhere, they probably won’t be in and ready for the start of the season. Which means, in my opinion, the first half of our MLS season and our CCC success really rests on the health of Reus. He’s the only midfielder we have with creative vision who can use passes from the middle of the field to unlock defenses. If we can get a reliable 65-70 min a game from him, we have pieces around him and the depth to maybe win a good number of games. If he can’t play we have a big hole in the middle of the field.
It's been nice to see Reus appears to be a 100% full participant in practice based on all videos/photos released by the club. Fingers and toes crossed.
Sorry I'm posting a bit much today. Here is the interview yesterday with Kuntz. Touches on all our discussion points here and very much worth watching. As an aside, a somewhat more professional production from the team in this media availability. No more shower curtain backdrop. The very beginning hints at a full staff for PR in the FO and I take all this to mean the club is making more of an effort to engage PR wise which is smart and needed.
I looked up his salary last year and it was $1.4m (guaranteed). A very-low-end DP or high-end TAM salary. I think it's a smart move for St. Louis. They fell apart in 24 and 25 and need to rebuild. If they're patient, they should be able to pick up other players like him on a free so getting $2m makes a difference in their budget. We, on the other hand, can't be patient so we end up paying $3.4m for a $1.4m player. I'm always optimistic at the start of the season, so I'm going to believe that he can do well enough for us to keep him as a permanent TAM forward and we keep the killer P's for next year. Since Kuntz is talking about getting another attacking player, we must have some money to spend, which is good news.
We spent $3.4 mil on a forward who didn’t even produce a 1/2 goal+assist per game over the last two seasons? My lord. Isn’t that close to what a young, entering prime Dejan went for? This has Vanney’s fingerprints all over it. I’m disappointed in Kuntz and the new analytics guy.
To be fair, you can't really compare dollars. You have to compare roster status and length of contract. Klauss' DP contract expires after this season and my guess is that is the reason they are willing to pay $2m for it. They don't want to be forced to sell or buyout a DP to accommodate Puig, whose contract runs through 2027, when he is no longer on a season-ending injured list. Jovelic has a four year deal, so it would last two more seasons. In retrospect, if they had placed Puig on the season-ending injury list last season, we could have accommodated Dejan for two seasons, but then we would have been forced to get rid of a DP. I don't know if Klauss is the right guy, but the fact that they were willing to pay $2m for him indicates AEG wasn't just pocketing the cash we received for Dejan or Perez. That's basically where the cash came from.
Yeah, my take is on this is that after watching the video and knowing what we know now, I think the "conversation" was decided in a particular way. We want to be as good as possible at the start of the season (i.e. not wait until the summer window) and we didn't want to go into 2027 with four DPs. Given that, Klauss is probably the right solution, even if he is expensive. The extra we pay is the cost of being in the situation we are in right now along with the option to keep him as a TAM forward in the future. Kind of yes and no. I believe we could have taken the cash for Dejan and turned it into GAM and then used our own money to buy Klauss. I think this new money-for-player transfer is going to have a significant effect on MLS.
Yeah I think the special circumstances we had — a DP already in MLS who we can sign to start the season so we can win now, who has his contract expiring this season, and who plays in a position of need — and the need, as SkyDog pointed out, were the two positions hardest to find available — made this a unique challenge. If Klaus is poor, he’s gone after the season, if he’s good, then we can sign him on a TAM deal to play with our 3 DPs next season. And he’s clearly better than our other two forwards currently. He’s not a sexy signing for sure, and has the potential to blow up in our face, but he threads the very tight criteria needle we have.
[ Thanks for posting. Kuntz is a very likable fellow and being fluent in Spanish is a big plus in US soccer. (Two years of Duolingo hasn’t gotten me there yet, unfortunately.) His bottom line is thiat we are viewing this as a patch year to get us to 2027 and hopefully a healthy Riqui. Frustrating. I was impressed about what he said about Glesnes coming into camp very fit and all business. I liked his terse answer to what motivated him to focus on degederders; “Goals allowed.”. My refrain for years now. I didn’t get the impression that we will get an AM, but not sure about that. He kept mentioning we have two targets for offense. Does that mean another forward besides Klaaus, or Klaaus & an AM? Maybe you guys understood that bettter than I.
I mean gotta be Klaus and an AM - he talked about Nascimento but wouldn't discuss any names when he talked about these 2 offensive players - I think the only question is - are they both coming before the season starts (which seems unlikely with pre-season already under way and less than a month now before our first CCC game) or is there a target for the summer transfer window....