He’s young, he works hard, and is raw. He was a fan favorite at St Louis. They are upset he’s gone. He seems to be a type of player that fits a team wants DC to be vs what we are now. So this seems part of a plan.
How do you give up 400k for a player drafted 17th with one goal on the season? Seems like a garbage move, hope I’m wrong, probably not.
It isn't real money and I believe his designation has a greatly reduced cap hit. So we are getting rid of monopoly money to actually clear cap space. The guy seems perfect for a high-press.
Feeling better and better about. dropping my tix. $400k for a rookie with 1 goal making the league minimum. What happened, did MLS decided that we did too well on the deal with St Louis last year that they decided to make it up to them? I am sure he hustles and is a hard working guy, but this guy should have been had for a dollar and some envelopes. What were mid round draft pics, pre draft, going for last year? $50k? $100K?
Their fans are upset. That means he did something right. Considering half of you guys loathe the guys we have on the field maybe he may give you someone to cheer for.
I don't think it's as big of a risk as people think. 400k is virtually nothing in modern day MLS funny $$$. It would have been a much bigger risk in the past. Plus we should have a ton of that assuming Akimboni to Bournemouth is done. Worst case scenario he's a reserve with some potential upside. Rodriguez and Canouse are both gone. Klich is probably gone. We have Enow and Hopkins(and possibly Peltola)as the only remaining options. We're going to need more bodies in that area of the pitch.
400k is 7% of our base GAM allocation. Here are some players making $300-400k who jumped off of the MLS salary list at me as players whose names you write in pen on the team sheet every game know what you're going to get. Malte Amundsen(CLB), Sean Zawadzki (CLB), Hugo Lloris (LAF), Derrick Williams (ATL), Kerwin Vargas (CLT), Keegan Rosenberry (COL), Diego Luna (RSL), Fabian Herbers (CHI), Jonathan Lewis (COL). As opposed to a kid who @United1 noted, St Louis was ready to let walk for $50k. And its not like he was lighting it up in his MLS Next games either. Other than some obscene salaries of under performers, there are never very many names on the expansion draft lists who aren't reclamation projects.
GAM and salary are two different things. As @morrissey noted, GAM is funny money that has no currency outside of MLS. Mackay gave up fake money to get what he believes is a serviceable player on a salary that provides serious cap flexibility. The transfer fee for Akinmboni, in contrast, is real money that can be spent anywhere. Of that list you provided, Herbers and Lewis have been cut loose, Williams was here in '23 and was good for a gaffe every other game and he took a big pay cut to sign in Atlanta, Lloris is past his sell date. The only "value" there is Luna and he will soon be gone from RSL to bigger and better things.
That's what they're paying for with Kijima. That and the fact that he's on a bargain basement salary and is only 22.
All I am saying is that there are other ways to have spent $400k beyond acquiring a low salary depth player whose skills might have been acquired for free or less on the free agent market.
You aren't going to get anything from the free agent market that can compare to a young player with an upside. Usually when the previous team's fans like a player and are upset when they are traded it should give us hope. Unfortunately, I think short of signing Erling Haaland there are some people that will never have optimism of any signing. Hell, if we signed Cucho some of you would be slagging it off (probably still).
Another mistake on my end. The Akimboni money isn’t technically funny money so it can’t be used like GAM. Also stage 1 of the reentry draft is complete. We didn’t take anyone. Not surprising
The team can turn Akimboni's transfer fee into GAM if they wanted. In 2024 a team could turn up to $3M in transfer fees into GAM to be used in current or future seasons.
So.a $400k coin toss. Are we even going to have our MLS Next team going next year for him to get minutes? This club's history is littered with young players with potential who go no where and do nothing, so forgive my skepticism when we trade $400k for a guy whose prior team, whose fans loved him, was willing to let him go for $50k.
The salary cap implications make the move more palatable, but I’m not excited about the actual player. Not to say he won’t turn out great, he may, but nothing points to that happening. Some fans upset he’s gone don’t sway me. I mean, we already had Chris Durkin, realized he isn’t it, then he goes to St. Louis and plays a ton on another non playoff team but this guy is spare parts on that very team? Just like I always end up saying this time of year, the trade is fine but without actual impact players arriving with him it’s deck chairs, to me anyway.