Speaking of old timey RSL players, inaugural season player Cameron Knowles (four games at CB) is rumored to be the new Minnesota United manager.
You have to go to Portugal with assistant coaches, right? We depart tomorrow. Or, perhaps, the rumor linking Aston Villa to Gozo pans out?
https://www.rsl.com/news/trio-of-rsl-academy-homegrowns-join-real-salt-lake-roster-for-2026-campaign Youth movement continues.
My brother has a friend that works at RSLFO who just told him the Rwan Cruz is out. I’m not seeing anything on the internets yet.
Botafogo acerta o empréstimo do atacante Rwan Cruz ao Ludogorets. pic.twitter.com/opT24rvWQs— Palco do Esporte (@PalcoDoEsporte) January 10, 2026
I am surprised Rwan lasted this long, but figure that his physical and fitness check-ins last weekend weren't up to standards and coming on the heels of what many see as the worst playoff performance from a DP ever, that's more than enough to move him back.
Thats hilarious. But every post about RSL has some plug for a star playing against RSL. Oh yeah... did anyone hear that Lionel Messi is coming to Utah!?!?!
So the club waited months to do this? Why? If you had doubts and/or had a way to term the loan early, why not do it in November or December? The narrative is now being built - like with Manoel - that the club had counted on Cruz but then he didn’t [insert reason] so he’s not part of the team. Which limits the ability to build, preseason training, get into the mental gymnastics of Pablo… this club continues to find ways to disappoint
And yet... our only DP worse than Diogo was cut without waiting multiple years and before the season started so... I wont be complaining about Yawn Cruz.
The curious thing to me on this is we don’t have much to say he was bad. I’m not going to defend the guy like he deserved a massive contract or that the club should have even bought him yet, but he wasn’t bad last year. He had a bad playoff game. Yeah. So did caliskan who I’m pretty sure just helped pushed Ojeda out of the club. It’s weird If the club did this to then bring in another DP early in preseason, yeah, I’m not gonna be mad. But the chances of that are low to non existent
Thus article is reporting interest in Gozo from Aton Villa, but lacks any details about the inquiry. I don't know the reliability or the source. https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2026/01/09/aston-villa-make-enquiry-for-zavier-gozo/
I don't know if it's on Cruz, but the club made a significant departure from it's tactics/formation, brought in 3 forwards during the window and then basically didn't play Cruz and went back to the only formation they played for most of the past two seasons. I'm glad they could get out of that DP deal, but they have one more to go. They should look at a loan for a DP like Lozano where they don't have to pay the whole salary or something and/or only for the season. I've been on board for waiting until the summer to see what happens with your best players and go from there. It may kind of suck from a standings perspective, but hopefully they'll find some kids that can play and then know what pieces they need.
I would do Lozano in lieu of Yawn Cruz all day. Also, he didnt score a single goal. He even missed a PK in a pivotal moment that would have likely gotten us in to the playoffs with 2 more points. He missed shots by 30+ yards regularly. He flashed with some great skill check moments but he was not a difference maker. And definitely not a highest played player on the team difference maker. Move on. Add him to the Kenny Deuchars of the world and give me more Gozos and Saborios.
Cool Now justify keeping Diogo. If this club can find a way to terminate an 18 month loan in less than 6 then it can buy its way out of a largely wasteful DP in Diogo this will be the narrative of the club and I’m simply not going to be pacified by it (for whatever that matters…) poor rsl had a DP not work out and it completely ruined the 26 preseason (sarcasm). This is self made and hard to understand why it’s the priority right now. Cruz was not the problem. Of the six players in a specialized contract - DP or u22 - he’s probably 4th or 5th worst to the clubs situation. Depends on your opinion of Palacio
So camp formally started today, first pre-season match is in 10 days. Here's the depth chart (I used transfermarkt for most of these positions): GK: Cabral, Stajduhar and Kerkvliet RB: Yedlin and Gio Villa LB: Katranis, Rivera (Luis) CB: Glad, Junqua, Quinton, Henry DM/CM: Ruiz, Eneli, Caliskan, Dillon, Moisa AM/LW: Luna, Anderson, Riquelme, Goncalves, Cowell RW: Gozo, Marczuk, Wolff, Rocio, Hezarkhani, Marquez CF: Olatunji, Barea, Piol, Zambrano This team is very imbalanced right now. No outside back depth and the CB depth is very questionable. Will a RW be moved to RB? There are too many players at RW. Which of these guys won't even be on the supplemental roster? I think a few guys just need to be gone period (Piol and Goncalves). I count about 14 guys that should/have to be on the senior roster, RSL has money in the budget and roster spots. I think the DM/CM depth is what the goal should be for the rest of the roster.
I am not justifying crap. Equally frustrated here. But if you find a way to drop one of these maybe you can find a way to drop the other.
Does RSL have a say in the Cruz situation? I legitimately don't know. All I could find is the loan was supposed to be for a year with an option for another 6 months and an anytime during the loan purchase option.
Is Katranis still with the team? Did nothing happen after he made the social media posts indicating he was leaving?
Well, I haven’t seen any specifics about the Rwan case… Loans usually have a clause where the lending team can call back the loaned player. I have rarely heard of any arrangement where the team that signed the loan to get the player can just cancel the loan. Most commonly, the player can get sub-loaned out to another team.