The Official 2023/2024 Off Season Thread

Well the sooner the better Jazzy.
Gives the player familiarity with our system & Luchi can have said player getting ready during the off-season so he can hit the ground running during camp. As opposed to getting players last minute as usual and then we need to give them time to settle, learn the system etc.
As anything else in life, the more prepared you are better the results. Whoever we end up signing especially if they'll be considered for the first team it's super important to have them as early as possible so they integrate with the rest of the team asap. We need all the help we can get and players signing last minute or as the season starts is not smart move in my eyes. Summer signings already are behind coming in during the season, there's no excuse to wait last minute when we have 3 months or so in the off-season to get our new personal in.

 

Well again the most important thing is getting the right player. These are usually multi-year signings and in the grand scheme of things a month or 2 early is going to pale in comparison to actually whether or not it’s a good player. I think the Joel Qwiberg signing happened pretty early in 2018. Actually just looked it up. He was signed on this day in 2017! Thanks but no thanks.

 

Ema Boateng is worth a shot at winger... 2 g, 3a last year in a half season's minutes... he's 29 so he's gonna start losing speed which is his primary asset but he is experienced and is producing better than cowell and kikanovic.

 

The system matters a lot. Bruce had them playing a certain brand of futbol that unfortunately luchi doesn't do.
Makoun & Bou would be the players I'd like.

 

Cowell is more of a pure speed/athleticism guy than boateng at this point... if Luchi can find a use for cowell I think he can use boateng.

 

Fair enough.
But remember Cowell regressed this past season with Luchi as coach. I get it that not everything is on the coach & that at some point the players need to execute but as the season progressed Luchi couldn't figure out how to unlock any player on the left wing.

 

OK, here it is. Only surprises for me are that we exercised the option on Baldi and Richmond (really?), and that we did not exercise the option on Trauco and Nathan. Our 2 vaunted Stanford "college HG's" are one and done - Tingey and Cilley. I thought Tingey had a better chance of being a 1st team contributor (depth LB) than Richmond.

Of course, as always, "didn't exercise option" doesn't mean "gone". It can mean "we want to pay you less money". That could reasonably apply to Nathan, Trauco, and Judson. For TT, probably not because they are already paying him essentially nothing, and as Billy Preston sang "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing". Don't think it applies to Monteiro because he's at a high price as a starting point and I think they club wants to move in a different direction for his role.

https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/news-earthquakes-announce-roster-moves-ahead-of-2024-mls-season

 

Yeah, probably not. I don't seem them offering him a contract at a lower salary because presumably his salary was already very low. Going to have to retire my Å until the next one comes around :-(.

 

I am surprised at Hoppe, though I don't know what the dollars were. It's not like we have a plethora of attacking options.

 

The Quakes have historically filled roster spots with players that had less than a 1% chance of making it on the field for an MLS game. So I am happy with this announcement as it looks like a serious purge from CL. I hope its a sign of bringing in players that can fight for a starting spot and not just a warm body to meet league roster requirements.

 

3-5 years ago. Great career!

 

Good to see. I'm pleasantly surprised at the volume of changes. My only disappointment (mild) is Trauco as I liked his passing and skill on the ball, but he faded towards the end of the season and struggled with pace as a defender.

Good by to Akinola. I would be fine if we kept Hoppe, but not the end of the world if he walks.

 

Nothing that really surprises or bothers me here. Glad we’re keeping Akapo. Glad to wave bye-bye to Mensah and Monteiro. Judson was good once but not lately. I look forward to seeing their replacements. There are two open DP slots (if Fisher springs for four). It’ll be interesting to see what happens on that front.

 

Oh man..is our squad bland. Even with the dead weight somewhat gone. We need a lot of help. Here's hoping to some good signings (although I'm not counting on much)

 

I'm not sure how the math works. We declined options on 10 players, and we still have 23 on the roster? The roster limit is 30. I suppose some of those guys, like Mendoza were not on the 1st team roster.

Anyway, if it's only 7 open slots it feels almost like not enough.

 

Bouda did really well for Quakes 2 last year in limited minutes - 7 goals in 8 starts, and some of them were great goals. They generally weren't of the tap-in variety. I think they want to give him another look. Richmond is a head-scratcher. He'll be 24 next year and t's not like he's going to get any better or faster. He is what he is, and that doesn't seem quite good enough for 1st team minutes.

 

Nathan was on the season-ending injury list and Chance Cowell's homegrown contract doesn't start until 2024. Just need one more to explain.

 

Pretty sure Mendoza was never on the 1st team roster last year but he's listed as a rostered player in the article. So that would be the 3rd.

Actually, I think the same applies to Verhoeven. Still, when I count players who had their option declined or out of contract or loan expired, there are 12. So all things equal our roster should be down to 18, but it's shown as 23. We may still have one unaccounted for extra player.

- Nathan (was on season ending injury list, so shouldn't count as a roster "minus" this year).
- Chance Cowell is listed on the 1st team roster and wasn't on it last year
- Mendoza is listed on the 1st team roster and wasn't on it last year
- Verhoeven is listed on the 1st team roster and wasn't on it last year

------

Contract Options Declined (Dec. 1)

• Oskar Ågren (D)
• Cam Cilley (M)
• Judson (M)
• Jamiro Monteiro (M)
• Nathan (D)
• Tommy Thompson (M)
• Keegan Tingey (D)
• Miguel Trauco (D)

Out of Contract (Dec. 1)

• Jonathan Mensah (D)
• Jack Skahan (M)

Loan Expiration (Dec. 1)

• Ayo Akinola (F)
• Matthew Hoppe (F)

 

I'm surprised how many names on the Quakes I have rarely or never heard of.

And, I really initially liked Jeremy, but In less something incredible happens, signings-wise, I'm not sure how much I give a shit anymore.

 

I don't understand getting rid of Thompson... he's on low wages and is a reliable jack of all trades.