YNT-eligible MLS players: 2019/2020 Offseason thread

The best players will go to where the money is, eventually.

But MLS is nowhere near competing with top payrolls.

Moving to $30M payrolls wouldn’t do anything relative to the very top leagues, which have payrolls going over $200M in some cases.

Right now, MLS can pick off a few top team backups, like Giovinco or even someone who could start like Chica or Vela or Zlatan. Or they can take guys from the lower sides in non EPL situations in a few cases.

But right now most of the best guys are getting poached from the next level of leagues down or Argentina/Brazil/Mexico, etc.

Stealing EPL players is just to fat at the moment.

 

Yeah, I've always thought/said that the MLS owners aren't in this to become the next Eredivisie or equivalent. They're in this to become if not equal to the EPL, at least EPL-lite or the EPL of the Americas.

And I don't see any reason why they can't do it. I think it's very plausible for MLS to hit the financial level of the NHL, where the salary cap is a little over $80 million per team and the salary floor is $60-something million. That's not asking that soccer become the most popular sport in the U.S. or that MLS become the most popular league--the NHL is the 4th biggest pro sports league in the country, and it still operates at that level. If MLS can get to that level, that would probably put MLS teams on par with the mid-table EPL teams in terms of financial clout.

This might be frustrating as USMNT fans that MLS won't sell young players as quickly or often as we'd like. For example, why would Arthur Blank care about getting $3 million for Miles Robinson? We might want him to head to Europe to maximize his potential, but it might very well be worth more to Blank to keep Robinson, keep piling up trophies, and keep raising the profile of ATL. I think the top-tier young American players (the Reyna/Pulisic/Adams level) will keep ending up in Europe, but the 2nd-tier guys who might be able to make it at non-UCL teams in the big 4 leagues will increasingly stay in MLS.

 

The best players will go to where the money is, eventually.

But MLS is nowhere near competing with top payrolls.

Moving to $30M payrolls wouldn’t do anything relative to the very top leagues, which have payrolls going over $200M in some cases.

Right now, MLS can pick off a few top team backups, like Giovinco or even someone who could start like Chica or Vela or Zlatan. Or they can take guys from the lower sides in non EPL situations in a few cases.

But right now most of the best guys are getting poached from the next level of leagues down or Argentina/Brazil/Mexico, etc.

Stealing EPL players is just to fat at the moment.

 

The new MLS roster rules are out, and they encourage selling players abroad.

MLS is reducing the cut it takes on transfer fees. Shifting from 75%-25% split to 95%-5%. Teams now allowed to convert up to $1 million of a fee to GAM, up from $750k.

More: https://t.co/vzwBQt0g9N

— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) February 28, 2020

 

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And Yow isn't. Wonder if he's injured or just overtaken in the depth chart.

 

this thread topped sparks joy (right until it’s frustration)

 

Damian 'Tico' Rivera ('02) on the bench for the Revs.

 

Jonathan Lewis came on for 5+ minutes and scored the game winner, increasing his already impressive goal + assist/minute rate w/ Colorado.

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Araujo is on the bench for the Gals. Don't want to overreact too early, but it feels like a here we go again situation.

He's better than Feltscher and probably Kitchen in the middle too. I still haven't seen evidence that the Gals will fully integrate a player from their academy.

 

Philly-Dallas the only thing to look forward to today.

Definitely not my family, that’s for sure.

 

For the sake of his national team future, I'd really like to see him play centrally.

 

Tessman and Ferreira starting. Pomykal, Nelson, Reynolds, and Pepi on the bench.

Hope 2 of the 3 on the bench get off.

 

And Philly has Aaronson, Real, and McKenzie starting with Fontana on the bench. This is the young HG showcase game of the weekend.

 

lol

 

Cannon and Gonzalez also started and Pomykal and Pepi did get minutes off the bench. So six homegrowns played. Ho hum.

 

It seems that Aston Villa have signed the FC Copenhagen director to be their new sporting director. So I suspect that they believe FCK are doing it right, also in compare with the ambitions of an English PL team like Aston Villa. In this day and age, players do not stick to the same club and only a tiny few clubs are not in need of flipping players to make a profit that will make them able to grow.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/12266731/aston-villa-johan-lange-sporting-director/

So it's not about finding a financial shortcut to winning a league title, and not to settle with Silver or Bronze, but about finding enough talent and money to move up In the EPL, trying to reach a Champions League spot... only the tiny few most famous clubs in the World are able to do this without finding and flipping young talents. So the rest depend on being good at it, if they are to be a success. We also see this at tiny Brentford, that has the 6th lowest budget in the Championship, but are in the play-off's for promotion.

Unlike Aston Villa, Brentford do not even have a Youth Academy, but with their "moneyball" strategy and connection to Danish Champions FC Midtjylland, with the same owner and a shared Danish Co-Director of Football, they are finding and flipping young talent to make a profit that can slowly bring them up in the world. Obviously it's a process and progress depending on your starting point in the food-chain. So you will be flipping bigger and more expensive talent at a larger profit, as you move up in the league table.

 

Good. Now he can develop and flip Vassilev.