He's 32 in December. I'm not sure if he's the type of player to hold up into their 30s, please tell me as I don't know much about him. Again, what kind of say does Blitzer have at Crystal Palace? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_F.C.#Ownership This says Blitzer may only have an 18% share. Is that enough to dictate that a player should go to another team that he is the majority owner of? Apparently another individual, John Textor, owns 40%. I want the umbrella to benefit RSL, but I don't expect those teams to not do what is best for them. Is Benteke the best use of a DP spot? I mean, I think I would prefer RSL use those spots to not using them, but there is an opportunity cost to signing him.
They are good examples of why I purposely stated “most” in my earlier post. There will be “name” players who will consider RSL because no one else is interested due to injuries, age, etc..
I think it is reasonable to expect a Benteke to sign with a team in any market in MLS. He or a player like him isn't in the upper echelon of players who can be that demanding. And there are only so many plum spots, which can go to better, or younger, or higher profile players than a Benteke. If the money is right (and I don't mean overpaying), then this stature player should be attractable to RSL.
Doyle seems to think we didn’t get done what was needed, but also didn’t do terribly. Ultimately, we haven’t signed a DP. We need some DPs.
Players sign in terrible cities all over the world. Good players. Salt Lake City isn't a terrible city; ergo, we can sign them here.
Players do that, yes. We just signed a couple of them. The Europe based high profile players that our fanbase wants to see signed aren’t coming here….unless our ownership is willing to wayyy overpay. As far as I know the only true player who fits this profile that we have come close to signing was the great Portuguese striker Figo. RSL backed out at the last minute because Uncle Dave felt Figo was more interested in touring the USA than scoring a lot of goals.
I'm willing to see how Benteke performs this season before getting upset that he was signed by another team in MLS. I'm surprised at how Musovski was considered a decent target within the league during this window. Don't know much about him, but Doyle lamented that other teams with need up front didn't manage to sign him.
I will reserve judgement on the window only because it's going to be weeks before we can really see what Elliot was able to get for RSL. If I were to grade on immediate impact it's definitely an F. None of these guys move the needle much but a year from now it could be that all 3 are having a positive impact but that's next season. This season I wonder if these guys will be in form long enough to make any kind of impact on the playoff hunt. If they don't and RSL continues their inevitable slide down and out of the playoffs the FO might need to bring in 6 or 8 portable AC units cause it's gonna get hot up in here. Amirite?
The Bleeding Claret & Cobalt podcast that dropped yesterday is a doozy. The rational (being kind) or excuses (what they are) given for the signings RSL made and didn't make are... laughable. There are moments where Trey and Ryan move goalposts in mid sentence to make everything ok with this team. The harking back to the WCF last year just can't be used anymore. That was 2021. We're about 2/3s through 2022. The trend of the team is bad. I just don't get how they can continue to find these "silver linings" like they do
Yep. I laughed out loud when Ryan said “The job of this show is to find the silver lining”. I also noted they prepped us to understand there won’t be an immediate impact from the new signings. Moose is at least 3 weeks away from being ready. There is Visa time with the others. They also spent s lot of time pointing out the historical “big” MLS signings that didn’t have a big impact.
Sounds like what we predicted earlier this year. Signings late in the window, take time to acclimate/arrive, don't have much of a chance to contribute. Happens every time. Then they'll have a few good games next year, they get a new contract and then up on loan when they suddenly don't fit the team any more. I really want these guys to work and hopefully in a year they're all better than we ever expected, but right now, it's real hard to think that this club is very ambitious. Trey is an employee, there's no way he can be impartial on his podcast. He'll always see things through Claret and Cobalt glasses. It's his job to put a positive spin on everything and focus the fans on the good stuff.
The only silver lining I can even think of, is that it hopefully lights a fire under some of the players who could possibly lose their spot in the next weeks. Probably won't happen, but it's the only good thing I could see coming from this.
I've seen some comments on Twitter and elsewhere online after this LAFC match about how it takes time to fix a bad team. I'd like to point out Cincy. They were pretty much historically bad for 3? seasons. Look what they've done in 2 transfer windows and where they were at. RSL had less they needed to fix, didn't need to bring in a new FO and are doing rather well with their new coach (believe they preferred Pablo). Someone(s) is holding this team back. Lots of people to point at, only guesses as to the main source. It should not be as hard as RSL is making it out to be.
under previous ownership, totally agree. This is the first season under this group. Smith showed that with the Jazz, just making the playoffs isn't going to cut it. They're blowing that team up and looking to change. 76ers under Blitzer - same thing. I'm very hopeful that we're going to see similar "blow it up" situations here at RSL if this trend of play/performance continues. If Pablo and Elliott are really on one year contracts they are not setting themselves up well for extension.
I've gotten my hopes up a lot this year only to have them dashed. I don't know if I want to get my hopes up about Fall and Pablo.
I'm still going to be patient with this team. Getting Sava, Luna, and Julio, this season are pretty good gets unless you compare them to a roster like LAFC. lol. But it would be nice if you could figure out how to get some impactful minutes out of a couple of them. I am also getting worried that my expectations and predictions for RSL being right at the playoff line might have been a tad optimistic. If they keep this run of form going they are going to be lucky to reach 40 points which wouldn't be close to the playoffs. This last transfer window wasn't great and I wonder if Elliott and Pablo will even be around by the time Bryan, Braian, and Moose, even make a game day roster. Either Fall's hands were tied and he was only given cheetos and bad of peanuts to work with or he was just not able to get a deal done with an actual game changing player. I don't know which one is worse? I could see Elliott going before Pablo because people are still probably going to give him some slack for overachieving early. 15 is right that other teams have to do so little to mark our best player or two out of a match and the rest of the team just isn't up to the task of scoring. It is interesting that the RSL drop in form kind of corresponds with Bobby Wood being out but that might be reading a bit too much into what kind of impact he actually had on the team. It's always more enjoyable when a season goes the other way. Where you start slow and build as you go along and have a nice run going into the playoffs. That doesn't seem to be the case this season. It's the opposite which is much more frustrating. But still I think patience is warranted. If RSL looks like this a year from now after the offseason and 2 more transfer windows then yea, time to be more than pissed.
@rslfanboy mentioned the pregame mixer in honor of Julie Harper, and here's a really fun remembrance from Brian Shaw - Jules was a Jewel Sidenote: if you're a fan of any number of Utah sports and not subscribed to his newsletter, then you're missing out. I only care about the soccer stories and an occasional college football column, but there's plenty more besides.
To these points, I wonder if there is actually more to Bobby being out. Pablo kind of dodged the question, but he was asked about Cordova being a #9. He responded with he's basically more of a run at the defender type player. We don't have another hold up forward (until Musovski is healthy), so if Pablo isn't going to really change his approach, this is what we get. Definitely frustrating to see the results not there and not much of an attempt to change it up. Luna starting in SEA isn't likely, so I'm already not expecting much from Sunday night's game.
Back when I had social media I was friends with Julie. She was a blast. This really makes me sad. Thanks for passing along, Ish.
Who's the DA equivalent that can come in and explain the path forward to ownership? And Garth isn't coming back.