What is your point? Most posters would know that it wasn't just Wenger. In fact German YNT coaches, USMNT managers, other EPL managers all said that Zelalem was a very high ceiling prospect especially after his debut and performance as a 16yo in the FA Cup match. It is simply revisionism to suggest that he was not.
80s? What are you talking about? In the last decade or so Holden, Gatt, Gyau, Zelalem, Boyd, and others have all had their careers curtailed or diminished by leg injuries. God forbid but Jedi might be in that same situation.
Jedi may have had his career diminished because the coach who complained about the US playing Chris Richards ran him ragged and forced him to move his surgery back into USMNT time. It’s the same crap that happens all the time with Pulisic, Adams, etc. The US players are becoming spineless yes men to domineering club coaches. They no longer maintain their fitness for the USMNT because they are no longer committed to the USMNT.
better they be spineless yes men to gun-for-hire intl managers, cause fealty to that manager is the highest priority for usmnt players now. ability, experience, level all be damned.
The clubs pay the salaries of the players. That's their livelihood.............not the USMNT. Antonee Robinson gets paid 60k pounds PER WEEK by Fulham. And people are saying Fulham was being greedy for playing Antonee Robinson? They pay him to play. That's who he's supposed to be playing for. People think Antonee Robinson should have said "I know you're paying me 60k pounds this week, but I'm not going to play. I need to make sure I'm healthy for the USMNT." That's not how this works. That's not how this ever has worked. If he thinks he has a problem, then he goes to the Fulham medical staff. If he's cleared to play by the medical staff, then he plays. They're paying his salary. Same for Weah, Johnny, Adams, Pulisic, Richards, and all these guys. Antonee isn't playing more games at Fulham than Clint Dempsey played while at Fulham. He played 36 games in the Premier League and 2 in the FA Cup last year. That's it. The number of games being played has really only sky-rocketed for the elite players in the Champions League, Club World Cup, etc. Pulisic played 51 games last year for Milan. 20% more games than Antonee. [Then he had the audacity to ask for a summer break.] There have been some recent studies on what's going on. Yes there are a lot of games. Its the intensity of the games that has changed as well. Is soccer's injury, burnout crisis caused by national teams? - ESPN Edu Alvarez, a physio who worked at Manchester City and Real Sociedad: "It's not so much that the difference in the number of games is so significant for most players. If you take the GPS figures from 20 years ago, the total distance is similar. Where does it change? In the intensity. We have never run 36 km/h before. Never done so many high intensity repetitions. The duels are not what they were. Football is more physical now. There are many factors, but one of them is that we haven't adapted the calendar, the rest and games to the intensity demanded by modern football."
These players are literal employees of their clubs. Club coaches are literally their bosses. Club soccer is their job. The national team is an occasional extracurricular activity. None of this is unusual or indicative of a failing on anyone's part. Nobody should have trouble understanding any of this.
Its a really strange one to me. Antonee's surgery was listed as a "Minor knee surgery to address knee tendinopathy and scrape out a calcification in his tendon." This wasn't supposed to be some big production. From what I gather, he had is an injury sometimes referred to as "jumper's knee." This is a common injury for soccer players caused by repetitive jumping on hard surfaces. You know..............playing soccer. It is deeply confusing as to why he's still out. He was supposed to be ready to go for training camp. Some posters act like the Fulham staff and medical team were having him run around on a torn Achilles last year. He had tendinopathy in his knee for Heaven's sake. It should be a concern for us that he hasn't played a USMNT game in a calendar year now. He hasn't been a part of this group. There are newer players brought on board over the last year that he probably has never even met, much less played with.
It's possible that the injury was serious more serious than expected, or the operation could have aggravated it. It seems like Fulham are being ultra-cautious and resting him rather than giving him a pain killing injection and making him play through it, NFL style.
Yes, I'm aware he got hurt. I'm also aware that USLC is not a taxing level on physical tools and there's plenty of guys a step slow who can influence the game there. My point is that he was never that great of a prospect and Wenger's comments were mostly PR fluff or poor projection. Even without an injury, he was too small and unathletic to defend in the rear of a midfield and like several of our players, he lacks the vision and ability to create danger offensively. He was, at best, Yunus Musah without the size and athleticism. He had smoothness on the ball and decent short passing. There's no there there without significant improvement. I'm also aware that your commentary is completely biased and unreliable on basically anything German, which, I have to give to you, is one of the most bizarre torches to carry. Did the German thing come from the Jurgen obsession or is it the other way around?
He doesn't even need to have missed it. In fact, he didn't. He was almost certainly appeasing an audience who threw him a question. The quote HHF is hanging his hat on was at a press conference for the 2016 MLS All Star Game. "Hi, Arsene. American here writing to a lot of Americans. Is Zelalem going to be a star? Why hasn't he played for Arsenal?" Read the Article: So someone basically asked why Zelalem didn't play for Arsenal and Wenger, at a press conference for the MLS All Star Game (in which, I assume, Arsenal was the opponent), he basically said, he's not physically mature yet, but I'm sure he will be great! Zelalem was NINETEEN and a HALF at this point. Yes, some people do grow past that, and they do get stronger ... ... But Wenger was blowing smoke if you can read ANY nuance at all.
Hah Gloster is another guy I was once irrationally bullish on Seemed to be on the cusp of breaking thru into the first team at PSV then out of nowhere transferred to MLS and immediately got sent to the reserves
“The World Cup is an extracurricular activity” is certainly a take. That’s why you’re here…to discuss the extracurricular activities of European soccer players. Kinda strange.
I sometimes forget that you showed up at the beginning of Berhalter's tenure to "explain" to us what a tactical genius Greggg is. Your posts on why Trapp is a better DM than Adams is high comedy. It is clear you know little about US Soccer in general or specifically who Zelalem was. Here is a good retrospective from Goal.com. “Gedion is simply the most technical player I’ve ever had on the youth national team,” ex-U.S. U20 head coach Tab Ramos said. “Really easy on the ball, can get out of trouble. I saw someone for, at that time, he was really special and different than anyone we ever had.” https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/gedion-zelalem-usmnt-germany-arsenal-fabregas/blte4d4b46beff08b43
Yes, I clearly showed up as a paid shill for Berhalter. One of the many batshit theories you have because you are basically here because you can't get Klinsmann's dick out of your mouth. Read that assessment by Ramos again. Yes, he is easy on the ball. Yep, he can get out of trouble. Yep, he was different ... ... None of that scores goals. None of that defends. Zelalem was overrated from the start, and it wasn't all that hard to see. Most got blinded by "Arsenal" and most got blinded by his smooth touch. Weirdly, you got blinded by the fact that he's ... German? It's so odd. Are you German even? Related to Klinsmann? I'm really curious where this obsession came from. It wasn't even just Germans for you -- literally anyone who touches Germany -- like Bobby Wood -- becomes your weird obsession. I never once said Trapp is a better DM than Adams. Your continual and intentional mis-statement of things like these is why no one on this board with an IQ over 70 can take you seriously. In fact, if we actually went back, it wasn't Adams you were stumping for! Mostly because he was hurt. It was Alfredo Morales and Julian Green! Because .. again ... Germany. Weird.
Random thought but is Zelalem actually cap tied to the US? He never played for the senior team. He's still only 28 and I would think playing in the USLC (or the Dutch 2nd division the last few years) is a high enough level to get him a look for Ethiopia, although then again he didn't play for them in WCQ ahead of a WC in the US so I assume he's either cap tied or not interested.
Will Trapp, by the way..............one of the best of the generation between Bradley and Adams. He played, along with somebody like Jackson Yueill, in that interim period. Adams was often injured, of course. Trapp will pass 400 MLS appearances next season. With retirements (Nagbe, etc.) he'll be one of the active players with the most appearances. Other listed midfielders on the 2015 U23 Olympic qualifying team: Luis Gil, Emerson Hyndman, Fatai Alashe, Marc Pelosi, Matt Polster, Gedion Zelalem, and Gboly Ariyibi. People whine about Wil Trapp, and don't realize he's the one that's made it. Luis Gil, who was supposed to be the star of that crew, was last seen with the Spokane Velocity of USL League One. [Along with fellow USYNTer and NYRB homegrown Collin Fernandez.] Emerson Hyndman played for Memphis in the USL in 2024, and didn't play in 2025. But let's all gang up on Wil Trapp.
Sorry I don't know the Ethiopian team. I assume he is youth cap tied, he played in the 2017 U20 WC so maybe he still has a one time switch? The Goal.com article I linked clearly laid out his timeline and he is not the same player after that 2017 ACL injury and subsequent surgeries. Zelalem was never a very good athlete and the modern game is not kind to players who are not top class athletes see Jack McGlynn, Chris Durkin, even Gio Reyna. He was not a #6 or a #10. As a #8 in today's game you better be able to run 12K+ with 65+ intensive runs and 20+ sprints. That is not Zelalem. Whatever tight space agility that Wegner talked about in 2014 was certainly gone after he destroyed his knee. Here are highlights of him at NYCFC a few years ago you can see a lot of the passing and field management skills are still there but it is walking around ball. The game is not played at that pace anymore.
It's not a take. It's the literal truth. USSF doesn't field its own professional team anymore. It fields a team comprised of players who are employed by clubs, most of them elite or near elite clubs in Europe. The clubs are going to use their employees as they see fit. Players who have a problem with that are bound to find themselves falling out of favor with their employer. Nobody in charge at any non-MLS club gives a shit about the USMNT, nor should they. All of this is axiomatic.
Yes, this is the view of guys who typically aren’t included in the national team. The national team would obviously have no interest in fielding a player with this mercenary mentality.
Club is the day to day priority, no doubt. But you don’t pay a guy six million a year to organize a mere side activity.
Yeah they played him in the Sands/Parks double pivot role but Sands and Parks will break your legs if they need to, whereas Zelalem looks like he'd break apart if you went near him.
The World Cup is the biggest professional stage these guys will ever have. The Prem, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, the Champions League…all pale in comparison. The national team is the access to that stage. The club cuck mentality that we see here from many is a new development from wannabe Europeans.