This was in a NY Post article on the sale of Tim Ream: I think this would be a great idea. I hope they act on it ASAP.
Especially with all the great talent in the area it would be a great idea and expand the range of kids we can bring in
Would be a great use of the money...definitely a long-term project, but one that could pay dividends down the road.
Amazing idea! Great to see our club taking the right steps towards the strongest academy possible, these are the kind of things that will help produce national team talent
I approve. With the salary cap in MLS this is a tremendous way to get an advantage over other team's in the league.
I agree. This is a huge investment and the largest of any club in MLS. I believe also the Red Bulls are one of the few that allow these academy players to participate for no cost. The returns on this investment takes some time. Agudelo was just the first of what will be many more in the future. We have 5 players from our academy who have joined the U-17 program at Bradenton. For those who are interested 1/3 of the players (100 out of 300) who have participated in the program have turned professional. Having 5 players is by far the most of any academy team from MLS.
Our academy is already one of the better ones in the country and Red Bull MUST stay on top of this. Because each team has the same amount of money to use on salary you need to get creative in how you improve the squad without buying players. Investments in youth development pay big dividends by either signing extremely talented home grown players to off-salary deals and/or selling off your products for allocation money. A steady flow of allocation money would obviously be a HUGE advantage for the franchise.