Why do you feel it is necessary to shit on people with whom you had an honest disagreement?Originally Posted by Section 223
If they were wrong,why can't you simply enjoy being right with out forcing others to acknowledge it?
Why do you feel it is necessary to shit on people with whom you had an honest disagreement?
If they were wrong,why can't you simply enjoy being right with out forcing others to acknowledge it?
We've been using chartered flights all season, as has the rest of the league.
great - then the league is finally being a big boy league
Dries Mertens is a free agent. Despite being 35 he wants a sizeable deal, apparently, which probably rules us out unless it's a Short term deal.
I know.
I know.
My Bad.
I just can't help myself...
Is this the 'other' Forbes hinting again (deductive reasoning) that a final piece will soon be added?
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/TransfersMLS/status/1551021206391898112
Singh did confirm a few months ago that we had discussions with him. I think Singh said the interest was mutual.
If we can get him on a 1.5 year deal with a club option for 2024, that might be ok?
However, Mertens is 35 and Jimenez is serviceable. Plus, we might need the DP slot to replace Osorio next year.
Lots to consider. Personally, I think waiting till the offseason to make DP decisions is a good idea.
Forbes is as unreliable as they get. But, we can dream of an Insigne -- Belotti -- Bernardeschi front three.
Until I see belotti signing with another team, I believe our monetary offer is likely tempting him. If he wants the biggest offer possible, we may very well win his signature.
As reporting on this site indicates, that is what he is looking for. Until the window closes or he signs with someone else.
I believe we are the front runners.
If you're right, our front three will be better than a lot of teams in Europe's top 5.
We could shatter MLS records.
The more I think about this, the more likely it seems.
At the very least, we may be among the considered.
Lots of current European football and social media are not understanding how Belotti is still not signed.
That there are not even credible reports of a bidding war.
The Goodson indicated he wanted LI money and we offered less.
Perhaps our less offer is still way better than all other proposals.
Perhaps we revisited our offer and up'd it as a final temptation.
Really seems odd money would be the issue in his case.
Given any salary difference between MLS and Euro leagues should be easily off set by any (no) transfer fee funds.
Maybe him and his agent are just really cool cats, sitting back, waiting to pounce at the last minute, to see who delivers the best tuna?
One less destination for Belotti, Scamacca to sign for Westham - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62264843
and I can't see Sassuolo paying him whats he wants now that they need someone with Scamacca's departure.
I think we put out our offer and it stands. Of course his agent would have used it for negotiating leverage but it clearly hasn't worked or he would have a contract already. I figure he will stall until the deadline in hopes of scoring a deal in Europe but our deadline looms.
IIUC...
That would be end of day 04AUG22?
Yet, that may not apply to transfers/transactions involving free agents?
The roster freeze date is September 2nd so we technically have until then but is there a point in signing him at that date so he can play in 4 to 5 regular season matches total?
Even if we were in playoff positions at the time I'd wait until winter as we would obviously be playing well to get to that level. At some point you have to not accept being the absolute last ditch option for certain players. That's a sign of how they view this league and for me is a red flag.
Good point. I think they should wait too and sign either Zimmerman or Long with the final DP spot. I know it’s not the most popular choice but if it’s a low enough DP deal then it could possibly be bought down as the salary cap increases or enable 3 u-22 spots(could be wrong about the u-22 spots).
Reality sucks, no European born footballer wants to play in North America MLS will always be their last choice and will only come for triple or quadruple what Europe will pay, See Insigne and Bernardeschi
Yeah, absolutely. Arguably it’s taken too long already and given the other clubs in the running we’re just a pacing horse. Let’s not repeat the Soteldo mistake again. They either see the adventure in it or they don’t.
we're probably paying 1.5 X what europe was offering insigne, newcastle made him a big offer that wasnt far off ours IIRC
Yep, we could still sign Belotti after our transfer deadline is over because he was a free agent while our transfer window was open.
There is no question Serie A is heads and tails above MLS. With that said MLSE's combined capitalization is only behind the Juve's owners and who knows how much Inter's new owners really have. MLSE has the pockets to hire the right people for life as ambassadors if they play this right and endorsements can keep coming after retirement. Winning changes everything, including recruiting players.
Said in absolute seriousness, we do have some things above money, for example love the Torino fans but like me a West Ham fan, the likelihood ever winning a tittle are very slim (i know, I know ... Leicester City). Bigger though, the only way any of these players would have any chance of playing in the club world cup is with TFC.
Meant respectfully, none of the them.. Belotti, Bernadeschi (close with Juventus) and probably even Insigne would have got there.
For the next 4 years, we need to have winning the CCL on our agenda and chase players that want to be part of this vision along with $$, if Belotti doesn't ...someone will. IMHO
EDIT - that is why i was and am still pissed at Curtis. We are stalled two years in that vision.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 07-25-2022 at 12:43 PM.
Slight correction... Capitalization (or if i’m to guess how you mean it “net worth”) not as relevant in this case.
The market cap of MLSE’s owners is significantly greater than Juve’s owners. The publicly traded value of Bell + Rogers shares is north of $100 billion. The Agnelli family is unbelievably wealthy of course but not at this level. There are maybe 10-20 individuals / families in the world with a net worth around the combined market cap of Bogers. Think Bezos, Buffet, middle eastern royal families… those sorts of names.
Now that said, Series A club’s revenues from football >>> TFC. Also the desire of an ownership group to spend can literally be anything, where as a Telco should be reasoned the Agnelli family if they wanted could spend whatever the hell they want, as they don’t have to answer to anyone really (assuming they control the majority of the club’s shares)
Last edited by ag futbol; 07-25-2022 at 01:10 PM.
That’s very fair. At a certain point if he’s not interested they should back away. The risk of a disinterested designed player is not worth it.
As we've maybe seen lately with the fiasco surrounding control of Rogers lately, Ed Rogers is basically 100% in charge of Rogers. With Ed Rogers + Tanenbaum they likely have sufficient control to dictate things at the board level. Does anyone know if Ed likes soccer enough to want MLSE to continue spending millions on TFC? Feel like you could come up with a million and one theories on how the MLSE board is working these days.
Enjoy these next 5 years.
When Tanenbaum is gone along with MLS fully streaming on Apple or American corps Boggers might well pull the plug.
With the WC coming in 2026 they would be stupid to do that but if they did, Bell would probably eat it up or else someone else big would.
I’d have a hard time believing Edward Rogers takes any interest here.
WC26 would already be priced in should choose to sell.
For the telco’s this was always about giving people a reason to stick with a cable subscription. For the league to partner with someone who eats their business model, I have a real hard time picturing them sticking around.
For some reason, the guy tried to get Masai fired & this was back before he controlled Rogers....so who knows what he is interested in
So the question is... do Bell/Rogers sell all of MLSE - the Leafs, Raptors and others or just divest MLS. I think none of the above... I think they are full on sports/media for a while (protected by CRTC and highly profitable) and MLS will always be just a rounding issue. No one wants them to be in last place coming to 2025-2026.
I can't see any of the execs divesting before world cup, where else do they get their complementary tickets for the 2026 events. Sad to say, but true.
There is still a TV package coming for ESPN & Fox for MLS so they will have the ESPN portion to televise so they will still have content at stake.
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