Seems Pumas is looking to sign Chicho & Martial (ex Man U). The article goes on to mention that the player is in negotiation but that it'll most likely be impossible because the MLS transfer window is closed. Obviously we wouldn't be able to replace him. Maybe come January he'll be gone? One season and done? Or maybe Chicho is looking for a raise by using Pumas? 1965959438256558434 is not a valid tweet id
Chicho is signed thru 2026 with an option in 2027. Josef will be in an option year next year. I guess we’ll keep both? They’ve both been pretty good though not great. Chicho is our highest paid player. Espinoza also is in an option year next year which I’m sure we’ll pick up.
Yeah, that's the concern. We opened up a DP slot when we loaned out Hernán (allegedly). Will we fill it next year? If we transferred Chicho would we reinvest that money in the team? Fish has got one foot out the door. It's not a given at this point that he'd spend the money.
I like Chicho, but he looked so much better at LAFC. We just don’t have the right supporting cast to take advantage of his skills. And I would love to say bye-bye to Josef.
Well but chicho’s performance declined when he went to RSL. I don’t think it’s age, it’s supporting cast etc
I've read comments from some posters about moving on or not rating chicho or martinez much. I mean they both have 12g/2a each. Those are great numbers for journey men. Martinez just scored this past window with Venezuela in a WC qualifier. He's still relevant with his NT. Have we forgotten that we are the Quakes and we'll never get a first class forward, at least not during the fisher era. So some of you rather move on from these guys and bring in who exactly? Offense hasn't been our problem. Sure they've missed some sitters but it happens.... to every forward, literally. At times I'm not to sure our fans truly understand who we are/been as a franchise. The time we tried bringing someone different to play maybe a more attractive way, because after all fútbol is entertainment, he got shipped out. I'm more than happy we've got a couple of guys up front who for the most part know what to do to put the ball into the back of the net. It's probably the two best moves Bruce has done. I can only imagine what the season would look like if we had judd & bouda as our forwards only.
I don't think the idea is to ship out Chicho and Josef and then play Judd and Bouda instead. It's ship out Chicho and/or Josef and replace them with (ideally) younger players of similar caliber. Chico is a DP, with the highest salary on the Quakes at ~$2.2M. Josef is a TAM player but at about the TAM player max, at around $1.5M. They are both north of 30 and not getting any quicker. Given those choices, keep or try to replace with similar / younger, I'm more or less on the fence about it. They've been pretty good. Not great, not bad, but pretty good. Can we do better, or as well, and with someone with more upside vs. on the downslope of their careers? Maybe. I would be fine also with giving both another year.
?? Chicho had a good year in RSL last year on the whole. 19g, 12a. He was an MVP candidate during the 1st half of the season. After the incident(s) that got him suspended, he wasn't the same player for some reason. I think that might have been more of a head thing - things just weren't right. Maybe he tried too hard to make up for his absence, maybe he resented the club, I don't know. This year, I see him a lot of times carrying the ball thru midfield trying to shake the defender and he just can't quite do it. Maybe earlier in his career he could get a little bit of separation. And then he hasn't been as sharp around the goal as he has been in the past. That could be just that his reactions are just a hair slower than they used to be. One thing for sure, at this point in this career he won't be getting any faster or quicker. Or less injury prone for that matter unless he really puts the effort into it. I'll add that he seems to be reasonably happy in SJ and that's a good thing. We don't want to keep a player who doesn't want to be here.
It's just that we don't have a good track record of good signings. Pretty much outside of Espi & wondo (who we didn't have to spend in signing) we've been a revolving door of mediocre players. Also if you look at the money being spent on a "younger" forward nowadays in MLS is an avg. of well over $10M. No way in hell are we spending that kind of money. I believe for our model of running the franchise we're actually good up front. At least one or two more seasons. We are not getting a good payout for anyone over 30 coming from a horrible team. It just won't happen. So we get rid of one or both for $3-$4M each with any luck and then what? I have absolutely no faith in our FO. I wouldn't be to quick in moving on from those two within the next two seasons unless they seem to take a nosedive in scoring, which they've showed they can still score in double digits.
Yeah, there's a case to be made for - if it ain't broke don't fix it, at least for another year. I'll just add that Bruce is making the call on players now, not Leitch, so it's possible we make better choices. He made some good intl attacker signings while at New England.
And you know who could have fixed the issue of chicho not being able to quite beat opponents from midfield? That someone who got shipped out. All Bruce had to do was keep chicho & Martinez up front with Hernán in the hole right underneath. Bruce would have to had beat it into Hernán that he was to not drop any further than a certain point and that's it. Instead we have chicho dropping so far down at times that he takes himself out of the play. Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole isn't the best move.
Yeah, I sure would have liked to have seen Hernán underneath Chicho and Josef for longer than 2 games. :-(
100%. We should keep both and look at adding compliments. However, if we do focus on defense, it may impact our drive/desire to press forward. I love that Munie is comfortable moving forward with the ball, but when you lose it like against LAFC, we pay too often. Rodrigues has been the post child of runs from defense and losing the ball or taking too long to make a discussion. As long as we aren't breaking the bank, let's keep them for another year.
OK, like "Chicho, you're a really good forward." Or "Josef, you're a great finisher!" That oughta do it.
Evaluate 1x = OK Evaluate 3x = uh really? Evaluate 10x = enuf already Evaluate to the 10th power = ay yai yai
Every result, every loss, puts the decisions made during the season in a different light, and in sharper relief. That's why we continue to analyze. That's what fandom is all about.
Right? If we can't beat dead horses, what else is there to talk about? Many / most people here believed, at the time that it happened, that dumping Hernán was the right thing to do, especially with the expectation that we'd replace him in some manner this season. I was never convinced. So *now* how do people feel, now that our season is quickly flaming out? Do we still look back at that as a good move? I had reservations from the beginning and said that if we fail to make the playoffs I think it’s fair to reevaluate that decision. There are some folks on reddit who are adamant that he is a terrible player and that he made us worse, and that it was always the right thing to do, even w/o replacement. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Or, not allowed to ask the question?