Weren’t we promised an MLS Cup in 2026? What miracle is going to turn this sow’s ear to a silk purse by February 2026? IIRC, our only ‘worst to first’ season (2021) featured: a new GM, a new coach, a whole slew of new players. I hope Leitch is busy working on his CV…
The problem with the Quakes is that we only look for heavily discounted players, which to me is not the same as “under-valued”. I think we only look for players who are more like distressed properties, unhappy or unwanted wherever they are. So we get them at a low price and they have few other options. But they aren’t really under-valued, because that would imply they had value in the first place. We are only getting rejects. And then to come to SJ where the rents and real estate are close to the highest in the country, the practice facilities and locker room are high school quality, the stadium is about 1/3 full, the coach spends half the practice lecturing, and the analytics guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. And the fans on BigSoccer are depressed. Who would want to come to play for the Quakes?
The point is that we need to find undervalued players. Not that we find them all that often, but that's what we need to do to compete. I would argue that Espinoza was undervalued when we got him, and probably still is. Some people are down on him but I think Rodrigues, a $650 player, is a bit undervalued, etc. From the olden days, Baca was way undervalued, Wondo, etc....
That won't be the case if they're really paying $7 million for Hernan Lopez Munoz... we will find out soon enough. Christian Espinoza was struggling after a move to Villareal, when the Quakes acquired him on loan, and then bought him after he played well here. More moves like that would be nice... Rodrigues was the same, and now they're trying it again with Bieganski.
Those are good points — so maybe Leitch’s hit rate on finding worthwhile under-valued players is about 1 every other year? While his miss rate is i dunno 7-10 per year?
Luchi should 100% be fired yesterday. If Shawlee decides Leitch should also be fired, here's a GM option: Sources: Columbus Crew assistant GM Corey Wray on his way out. Club to part ways. A very surprising decision.Wray well-respected in MLS. Initially part of group that led Toronto FC to 2017 treble.Joined Columbus and part of two MLS Cups. Led successful second team in CLB too. pic.twitter.com/wGiOWnT4ej— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 7, 2024
A video that should be mentioned in this thread.... https://www.mlssoccer.com/video/san...kes-what-now-after-luchi-gonzalez-s-dismissal It's not either/or, it's all bad decisions by the front office. Hiring Luchi Gonzalez who was already a failure with a talented young FC Dallas team. Not making signings early enough this offseason, not making enough good signings. Not signing Luna and Barajas to homegrown deals, two local kids who are playing for first place RSL instead of for the Quakes. Not signing good goalkeepers, the Quakes goalkeepers have combined to give up 15 more goals than expected this season. Of course it goes even beyond the front office, to president Shawlee and beyond to Fisher. They could have hired Will Kuntz from LAFC instead of Leitch. But they went with Leitch either because he's already in the organization (to put it diplomatically, not a good reason when it's the worst organization across all major sports leagues in North America), or because he was the cheaper option, or the less ambitious option. Kuntz went to LA Galaxy and turned around a dysfunctional organization, something Leitch clearly has failed to do here. LA is tied for the most points in the west and the Quakes are historically bad. Oh and the two teams play each other this weekend.
It's the lowest hanging fruit in the world to pile on the Quakes right now. But I wouldn't say this is great analysis. Twellman is still prattling on about how the Quakes should have dragged Carlos Vela out of his swimming pool and signed him. Is he aware that we had one DP slot available this year? Yes, it took too long to get Hernán but that's a multiple season play for a fairly young player entering his prime, whereas Vela might have been just a 1 or 2 year thing at most, and by the 2nd year it's a lot harder to drag him out of the pool and he's 36yo. Twellman didn't ding the Quakes for hiring Luchi, they dinged the Quakes for not "getting the players to fit his system"? Well what is his system and what kinds of players does it require? That would be actual meaningful analysis. As for the "what about Diego Luna" thing, yeah, but is it really the case that the Quakes "chose Cade Cowell over Diego Luna", like you can only do one or the other? Does anyone know the reasons that Luna left the academy? I mean for real, not just guessing. As for Kuntz, maybe he'd be good as Quakes GM or maybe not. It's a lot easier to be MLS GM when you can spend $20M in transfer fees like it's water, you've got an additional $5M or so to spend on salary (relative to the Quakes), and you've got Riqui Puig in midfield handed to you to build around. The only reason the Quakes got Hernán is that they transferred Cade Cowell for $4M, a move that you argued in another thread was a good bit of business for the Quakes. As for Leitch, I don't think the only reason they chose him is because "he was already in the organization" or "cheap". He has had success in multiple roles with the club, including building out the academy and as interim coach. After some bad external hires (e.g. Jesse, Almeyda, Stahre, the Fabulous Mr. Fox, etc.) they may have figured that "a bird in hand...".
And Matt Doyle is not exactly always spot on either when it comes to analyzing the Quakes. In preseason he suggested we make Cruz Medina our CAM. Oh that would fix our problems! He’s not even a productive CAM in MLS Next/Pro yet, with 0g, 0a in 9 starts.
MLS bro culture in full force. MLS lifers protecting their own and not calling like it is. Luchi was not a good coach. PERIOD. PERIOD. PERIOD. Yeah Rotten Fish is the worst owner in the league but let's stop entirely blaming the players and the owner when its the coach that organizes the team and manages the games. Give me a break with the gas lighting.
Philly, Red Bull, DC United and Chicago may have something to say about it, however Chicago spends more then almost everyone and still are ass.
We had a goalie from our academy too... drake callendar. Also, why not give Emi a shot at this point? Cant be worse. Doyle mentioned barajas is having the best season by a 17 year old in MLS ever by the numbers... wow, didn't realize we messed up that bad and that RSL was top of the table.
1) Barajas is 18. 2) I don’t know what numbers Doyle is talking about - Barajas has 2 assists and 0 goals. xA? Progressive passes? I think he said “playmaking numbers”. 3) Cade Cowell had 5g, 5a when he was 17 with the Quakes in 2021.
BREAKING: Chivas is finalizing a deal to sign Mexican youth int'l winger Fidel Barajas (18) from Real Salt Lake, per sources.Deal north of $4m, a new club-record for RSL. RSL keeping sell-on % too.w/ @jeffrueterhttps://t.co/ua3x0wYvhm— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 29, 2024
There's no "lol" to be had here. I was simply asking what numbers Doyle was looking at when he said "historically great playmaking numbers for a teenager". xA? Progressive passes? It must be something. I don't deny that it exists. Tell us what it is if you think you know. Because it's not assists and goals when Cade had a lot more when he was 1 year younger than Barajas. Again, this is not that hard.
Breaking news; left back / wingback for one of the best teams in MLS doesn't have as many goals and assists as winger / forward for one of the worst team in MLS who have nothing to lose and can start an inconsistent young player
Once again, I'm asking what are the "playmaking numbers" that Doyle is talking about that are historically great for a teenager in MLS. xA? Progressive passes? He must be looking at something. What is it? It's a simple question.
Do you think I'm Matt Doyle? If you have a question for Matt Doyle you are more likely to get an answer from Matt Doyle than from any of the billions of humans who are NOT Matt Doyle. That applies to anyone. You keep doing this. You did it just yesterday HERE. In the former case (Doyle), he is on Twitter, you can ask him there. In the latter case, the person is literally on BigSoccer and you can reply directly to him or message him on the website. But in any case I am not Western Union.
You don't have to be "Matt Doyle". But if you're convinced that Barajas is a great young player, maybe you have some sense of what he does well, and the you could, I don't know, be resourceful and back that up by looking at fbref?
He knows the stats quite well, but he never actually watches in depth all the other teams, he relies only on the numbers he reads. Don't let him trigger you my dear friend.