Can confirm from multiple sources that Cade has had multiple offers, but #Quakes74 are unlikely to sell unless a HUGE offer comes in for him as Luchi Gonzalez has big plans for him in his new regime. Cade Cowell always gets offers as he’s an enticing prospect. #MLS https://t.co/wHi8ruqY9T— Favian Renkel (@FavianRenkel) October 4, 2022
Of course, at some point, Cade will no longer be a prospect. You'd think that point is coming soon. I think the Quakes would be wiser to sell.
Eh, it all depends on the offer. Every player has his price. I'm sure Luchi "had plans" for all of the youngsters that FCD sold while he was the head coach there. Cade Cowell is like.............8 months younger than Ricardo Pepi. He's still only 18 (for another week anyway). Due to his physical tools, we tend to forget how young he still is. Maybe Luchi can unlock something there.
Almost 19 is pretty old for a young player. Right now Cowell's at the 22nd percentile for wingers/attacking midfielders in xG+xA. I could give the whole routine but suffice it to say he's a poor MLS player right now. That doesn't compare well with previous mega-prospects out of MLS. Davies had a 8 goals/9 assists season; Tyler Adams was one of the best 6s in the league. OK, so Cowell isn't one of the best players in MLS as a young player. Young players, generally, are bad ones. What about Pepi? Well, he'd already put up multiple league-average xG+xA seasons by Cowell's age. I can't think of the last MLS player to have a significant career domestically or abroad -- that is, becoming a good USMNT player, fetching a significant transfer fee, becoming an elite MLS player, something of that sort -- who wasn't at least league-average by Cowell's age. The case for Cowell is pretty exclusively "he has absurd physical tools and a great work ethic." Which is nice, but he's done very little to translate that into actual production. (To be fair, I'm inclined to blame that on the Quakes rather than Cowell.) At any rate, this case becomes significantly less compelling when you compare him to literally any other MLS prospect of substance in recent years.
Shrug. I get all that @no exit I wasn't talking about international future or elite European club soccer kind of future. I don't necessarily see that. But can Luchi unlock something in Cade Cowell to develop him into a really solid MLS contributor? Sure, why not? How many players younger than Cade Cowell have had more G+As across all competitions than him this season? He's been 18 this whole season. On transfermarkt he just dropped out of the 25 youngest players to see minutes in the league this year (after a couple of recent debuts). Let's use Brandon Vasquez as an example of a player that was kinda ho-hum in the league for a number of years as a youngster, and then just exploded this year as a 23 year old. He's 5 years older than Cowell when he's finally putting it together. So we'll see. I get all your points.
OK, but I think that's basically in agreement with my points Cowell is not yet a solid MLS player; he might (or might not) develop into one. How many actually solid MLS players get transfer offers from Ligue 1 and La Liga sides? Vanishingly few. Sell Cowell and collect the winnings.
It all depends on the price being offered........................ But if I was a coach with an interest in developing young players, like Luchi Gonzalez.......................I'd want to work with a player like Cade Cowell. I'd see potential to be unlocked. Will it happen? Who knows? There's a reason that Ligue 1 and La Liga sides are interested in the player. They see those same raw tools.
Not the worst idea in the world especially because Cade seems more skilled in making the assist than the goal and he has the speed and physicality to be a wing-back. It's sad because a lot of forwards in this league that has so much more game IQ would kill for one of Cade's athletic traits.
Right now Cowell's worth a lot based on having potential. A few years from now, his value is going to be based on what he's done. You sell him if you think you can't develop him. You keep him if you think you can. If you want to look at this in hypotheticals. You can get 8 million now, 25 million two years from now if you can develop him, and 2 million if you can't two years from now. Are you betting on Cowell or not? I would lean against it and take the 8 million now, but I don't think the path to Cowell being worth 25 million two years from now is impossible to unlock.
I think we should sell him on a good deal for both sides and then attach a nice release clause in case he gets anywhere near that ceiling. I am not sure if we are the ones to bring him there so we should sell him to a club that can.
Cowell is another Brian Reynolds, an athletic freak that needs good coaching to learn play the game. Reynolds seems to be in a good place now, and that the kind of a team Cowell should go as well. I have a suspicion that if he goes to Spain he will end up playing on some crap Segunda B team.
But Cowell really needs to go to a club that wants him and wants to develop him. Reynolds is on his second loan. This one is working well, but how much longer can he stay at Westerlo? It's a problem, because the clubs that some of these players need to go to first are the ones that can't afford them. Groningen couldn't afford Pepi from FCD, BCFC couldn't afford Trusty from Colorado, Westerlo couldn't afford Reynolds from FCD. Not with Trusty, but with the other two it took a near disastrous first step that they were lucky to fix. I still think most MLS teams are a good starting points for young American players. But we're in a tricky period. The league has improved to the point where most non-Big 5 European teams can't afford TOP American MLS players. But it's still tough for Americans coming out of MLS teams to play for top teams in Big 5 leagues. Some leagues only have a few teams that can afford good American players. Other leagues (like Norway, Denmark, and Sweden) used to have teams which would look to buy American players but are really now only looking for players who aren't good enough for MLS or who are free agents (there are a few exceptions but this is true for the most part). Guys like Davies, Aaronson, Harrison, Adams, McKenzie, Buchanan, Turner, etc - they were all dominant Best XI type players when they were sold. These players typically do well. Cowell falls into the another level where it is hit or miss. Joe Scally moved early and it worked out. Then you have guys who just wanted to make a move for the sake of making a move and it has been a disaster (Bello, Che, Bassett). Busio is really on the fence and could go either way. Same with Tessmann and Sands.
I don't think Cowell is another Reynolds at all. Reynolds was a high-quality FB, albeit only for a half-season, and flashed good crossing and combining skills. Cowell has basically never been good at an MLS level.
I meant Belgium/Dutch league, not Roma. As I don't believe he is anywhere close to $8M, probably something around $3M, so that's possible.
His high quality streak was what? 10 to 12 games? He had no clue how defend and just learning now. Was purchased onpotential. Roma fans were shocked when they realised what they got. Still might become what was hoped for in a couple years.
Frame this and put it in a museum. It’s a huge issue and I don’t know the solution. I almost think it might be better if the players stayed in MLS an extra few years like Mihailovic or Ferreira and left in their early/mid 20’s as opposed to 20 or younger. At the same time, to this point interest in young Americans is less the older they get. It seems like 19/20 is right around the peak of interest. If a few like Mihailovic and Ferreira can successfully move on in their early/mid 20’s, it’s possible teams may start moving that focus from 19/20 year old Americans to 22-25 year old Americans.
But that's not necessary the case with SJ players. I'd like to see both Cowell and Tsakiris to get out ASAP. It might be to a good MLS team, like it happened to Michailovic, who wasted plenty of time in Chicago, but get out from SJ.
You bring up another part of what makes it difficult. The lack of free movement in MLS for players of this age hurts the development of many of them.
Worth mentioning that youngish American players like Ferreira can now be paid a helluva lot of money, which is quite different than the past. [I won't be surprised if FCD does the same with Pomykal.] I think that trend may continue. In the past only a precious few did. So over time there's going to be less financial incentive for the 22-25 year olds you're talking about to move to a non-top 5 league. Over time that trend is going to continue and continue for more and more players. American players used to go from MLS to Scandinavia. They don't anymore because there really is no incentive to from a quality of play or financial point of view. As far as the SJ kids and Cowell goes....................it all depends on the types of clubs making offers. And the money being offered, of course. We've heard about Stade de Reims, but was their offer good enough for San Jose to bite? We don't know. That's a mid-to-bottom Ligue 1 club. We've talked on these boards about Cade Cowell ad naseum. There have been folks questioning his ceiling forever. But I mean....................he's younger than Jack McGlynn and Paxten Aaronson. He's younger than Diego Luna. He's younger than Brian Gutierrez. He's younger than Daniel Edelman. He's younger than Caden Clark. He's younger than Alvarado. He's younger than Jalen Neal. He's younger than Mauricio Cuevas. He's younger than Jonathan Gomez. He's younger than Danny Leyva. I can go on and on. Heck, he's younger than Tyler Wolff. He's younger than these guys AND has played 90 games for San Jose across all competitions. When we talk about these other young players we talk about how they're developing and learning as they're breaking thru. Some don't say the same about Cade Cowell. Some don't give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he'll develop. Maybe he won't. I don't know.
It's irrelevant. He's peaked physically 2 years ago if not 3, nobody expects him to grow taller, stronger or faster. Aaronson at that time was a little kid on a chubby side, Mc Glynn has grown 3-4 inchess in the last year and still learning to deal with that new body, Gutierez will get stronger. All three know how to play soccer, Cowell needs to learn.
Niko Tsakiris (17) vs Seattle Sounders pic.twitter.com/0po8u1HAFc— Jack Stephen 🇺🇸🇮🇳 (@USMNTZ) October 9, 2022 Cade Cowell what a hit! 🔥(via @MLS) pic.twitter.com/qpcGAFhiJ7— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) October 9, 2022
Cowell is 18 and has 12 goals and 9 assists for San Jose across all competitions. That's both more goals and more assists than Jesus Ferreira had before the age of 19. Just as a point of comparison. I don't know why there's so much skepticism about this particular player. Does he have things he needs to learn? Of course.
It's one of the most bizarre things I've seen on this site. The same people bashing/questioning Cowell are the same ones who were pumping Carleton and giving him every excuse in the book. Makes zero sense. Cade is a force, and the U20's missed him a ton in the recent Mexico game. He brings things to the table that others can't even dream about, and if I were starting a team I would want him on it. Sometimes I think Carleton and Clark were/are paying some of these guys to pump them on sites like this...only thing I can come up with that makes sense.