Yeah, could be.Originally Posted by Gogon
Yeah, could be.
We have a lot of contracts ending this season. Will be interesting to see who stays. My guesses.
Staying:
Sean Johnson? - I feel he likes stability. Depends how the team does this season though.
Kevin Long - hopefully he stays, he's been great.
Shane O'Neil?
Mabika?
JMR
Kobe Franklin
Coello
Servania
Peruzza
Kerr
Going:
Akinola
Kosi Thompson
Prince Owusu?
Last edited by SenorDingDong; 04-09-2024 at 08:14 AM.
I really like Owusu's work rate. He does a lot of things that fit our system very well. Unfortunately one of those things doesn't appear to be scoring. But I would be inclined to keep him around for games we're defending a lead or if we're playing more of a counter attack game plan with a high block. I still feel like he could break out, but that looks less likely every game we see him. The guy is a beast. The priority should be to move Akinola, who hasn't shown to do anything well for a few years now, and bring in a clinical striker. Keep Owusu.
I feel for Owusu, his attitude and work rate is there. He does a lot right but just can't catch a break. Similar to Jimenez.
I like the work rate, but the quality is not there, it's just not. He's not an MLS level striker. We get the ball into the final third into good positions quite well and quite often, but we've nowhere to go with them from there, because the movement and speed of thought just aren't there from our strikers - from any of them.
It's true. They're hoping one of them will "break out" but none of these guys are young players. The reason I'm somewhat in favour of giving Mailula a game or two up top is simply that he's the only one of them who hasn't really had a chance to show.
The others are too static. Whoever is teaching them the position is doing a shit job of it, frankly.
They don't try to push central defenders apart, they don't instintively go to the posts, they don't even usually try to run off the blind back shoulder. It looks almost like they're simply told "these three are the most dangerous areas in the box, get open near them." That and "run to the back post," albeit the latter seems to have been with the instruction, "and always be a step behind the play."
Owusu has no sense of where to be in the box. In buildup and pressing he's excellent. But most of the time, with no one even trying to find him, he's just clogging up space. Kerr, at least, sometimes finds a dangerous position. But there's nowhere near enough consistency and understanding to make him a threat whenever he gets the ball, which is what we need. He looks like what he is, a converted winger.
There are affordable strikers out there who are just merciless goal scorers. That's what we need.
I agree. I look at the good ones or even the “average” ones in this league. They all might go through a drought here and there but they also have streaks where they snap up half chances and fill up the net.
I saw a clip lately of Haaland playing tiki-taka in Man City practice. Looked awful, couldn’t come close to keeping up. But nobody cares cause you put him in front of the net and he’s an absolute beast.
Whixh is why it pisses me off to no end that we gave up on JRR because supposedly our scouts said “all he does is score”. It’s the most valuable single skill in the entire sport, you dumbasses. If that’s all you can do and you do it really well, it’s still more than enough.
Kerr showed real promise as a winger. Our left wings should be Insigne, Shaffelburg, Kerr.
Yeah, pretty much this. With JMR able to play off both feet, if we signed a good number 9 and had Shaff still, we would be covered two deep with actual competitive guys who can score, without the actual weight of producing all our goals on their backs.
Gah. I keep telling myself this is the last season we'll have to put up with the paucity of offensive talent but that's not making it easier.
Don’t let #fireManning see this then
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Nah he's not Canadian, a washed up USMNT prospect, Italian (Or another country with a large community here), a former player or someone who would provide fan service in some way shape or form. Manning wouldn't sign him in his prime, never mind now. He's probably never heard of him.
I sometimes wonder about the idea that signing a DP number 9 and we immediately become a MLS Cup contender. Obviously we would be better, but I think we lack a creative playmaker that can provide the type of service a number 9 needs.
The 10 is a dying breed in a lot of the world, but is still alive and well in MLS. Guys like Acosta, Almada, Gauld and Mukhtar make teams cook. Hell, look at how much money Poz made Ayo in two months.
If the CBA changes proposed are implemented (see other thread) who do you buy out? Akinola is the obvious candidate by some distance.
Something should probably be done with Rosted too.
I’ve come around on Petretta. I think he’ll probably not live up to that pay packet but he could be a useful player for the team long run and be worth a lower number when he renews.
Ayo and Mailula are very prime candidates for a buyout. Ayo maybe less so because his contract expires at the end of the year. If TFC buys out Mailula and let's Ayo's contract expire, that opens up all 3 u-22 spots and leaves a full DP spot for Hernandez to work with in the offseason.
Hernandez should be one of the outs too. Signing a U22 with a transfer fee and then even talking about using a buyout on him less than a year later + the Owusu signing when we had no real manager or identity is definitely grounds to look for someone better for such an important position. Maybe he should get the analytics department to take a boo at his performance level over these months and see.
it wont happen...but i would buyout the italians.but i would do prince and rosted or raoul and try to get a loan for ayo the rest of the season and then move on from him
I would only buyout Akinola and try to fill his spot in the summer with a better striker. Mailula can probably be loaned.
We still need to field a team.
Yeah, I’m not terribly impressed either or sympathetic to giving someone with no prior experience in the big seat an opportunity to get his training wheels.
Didn't we already have a buyout and just chose not to use it? If so, that aspect won't matter much. I continue to suspect we're on a tight financial leash, but really hope I'm wrong.
Getting extra GAM + with 2 DPs (Assuming we can buy down Oso? Maybe we can't?) we have the door open to get 4 U22s and another $2m in a GAM on top, in theory, should be huge for us. It's a pity we're probably going to spend the GAM convincing Seba and Dero to come out of retirement and couldn't scout an U22 prospect if our life depended on it since that's actually hard (Plus, again, are we willing to pay for it?). But if we somehow made competent signings, we definitely stand to benefit significantly from this - more than most.
It's a nice step in general. I still think this, right now, is the moment for the league to throw caution to the wind so I hope there's more to come but this should help improve the standard of the league.
Yea I hope they do more this off season. Raise the CAP a lot. Allow teams to actually invest and have depth, especially if they want teams competing in all these competitions.
Even with the changes above, I think you could in theory reach a place where every player in the starting XI is making 1 million a year at least.
We just used it on Diomande. But we waived him first to see if someone would pick up his deal.
We're on a very tight financial leash. They have no budget money to spend, and no cap room. We basically have to sign someone one a free AND probably trade someone else for donuts to have enough cap room for the signing.
They're looking at striker options but we may have to wait until the next full window, is my impression. At that point, an extra $2M in effective cap space and two U22 DPs could allow us to make significant changes... but we'll have to use the second buyout option to do it, because we have too many players under contract as it is.
In other words, even with this mechanism, they're going to have trouble. We literally may have to delist cap-hit players from the roster and have them sit, not playing at either level.
They're not going to buy out Mailula, he's on too low money to be worth it. More likely if he doesn't show anything by then, they'll try to loan him back to SA.
Last edited by jloome; 04-10-2024 at 09:26 AM.
It's an easy choice then. Insigne. He frees the most cap space available, a roster spot, and it's not exactly like he's led us to the promised land anyway.
But it won't happen because of cost.
I expect no buyout of anyone.
Nah, they're not touching him. Too political, trying to explain $30M flushed.
Also, I was wrong: we only get $1M extra because it's half-season change and we already have two DPs.
To me, it has to be Bernardeschi. He has six goals in six years from open play (all with us, he hadn't scored from open play fro Juve since 2018) in fifty games for us. He has more from the penalty spot (7) in year one than he's had in every game since.
He also doesn't provide assists.
He's a very talented guy but he was not raised up as a winger to provide service; he was primarily a goalscorer when he went from Fiorentina to Juve and had never refound that touch (or played in the positions where he was successful, on the left and as second striker. Mental.)
With his full $681,000 cap hit and another $1M in GAM, and a dp spot we can sign a 20-goal scorer and a 10-goal backup. End of debate.
Service is a lot easier to provide than goal scoring.
But I fear they won't do that, either, as that'll cost about $15M. Fede's on a deal until the end of 2026.
Instead, to appease the board and protect jobs, we'll get a lone TAM striker who may or may not be what we need.
Last edited by jloome; 04-10-2024 at 09:41 AM.
Based on recent events, any u-22's will come from Sheffield United.
My impression is they're looking hard. They've got lists on lists of scouting reports and names.
^ Let’s be honest, the new guy just got in his seat and TFC management are probably just bracing to see if they’ll be part of the go-forward plans or quickly disposed of.
I doubt they come forward to the board with any bold moves until they get a sense of this.
the days of the 6mil to 15mil a yr dp at tfc are over regardless of the new guy
Good. There are as many failures at $10M as $3M and frankly we don't deserve any high priced DPs anymore.
Mind you, I'd have assumed he'd have been killed a long time ago for gross incompetence, but I have to assume the second Manning says "Remember that $100m+ I told you to spend on turning us into a great team with sold out stadiums, only for us to turn into the worst team in MLS? I'm gonna need you to spend 10s of millions more just to get rid of one of them" he's gone. Any semblance of pretending there's a plan would go out the window at that stage. Not only would we never spend the money, but out of self preservation, I cannot imagine Manning ever suggesting buying out the Italians - even for a man as seemingly, inexplicably invincible as he is. I think that's a non starter.
We thought that before the Italians too, don’t forget. I’m not clear on what the budget for this team is but the fact they aren’t using the WC to majorly re-do the stadium feels like a bit of a tell.
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