I don't think people are making realistic DP suggestions. They are not going to spend the money that the names being suggested require.
1) If we go down the historical MLS DP path, I look at DP success around the league (defined as value for money).... most/all of us had never heard of most of the guys where the real value was, eg Valeri, Piatti... so we shouldn't expect that Manning will present someone we have heard of either.
2) If we really want to become a big team, like Atlanta, we should try the "Josef Martinez" model. The scouting and other infrastructure required to be a selling team and pull off an "Almiron" is vast, and I guarantee we don't have it and would have trouble acquiring it. Plus it's super risky, Barco may already be a bust. The market to go after is for Argentines or other South Americans (but probably not Brazilians, they earn a premium in Asia) that are in their mid twenties but have not found a place in the big euro leagues. They already have dealt with the "culture shock" of leaving, and may not be in a rush to go home, once they have left.
This is an example of the type of guy I am talking about. Luis Alario. A big time striker at River Plate. Out of favour at Leverkusen right now... supposedly Leverkusen want 15 million euros for him, but he didn't move at the deadline.... Leverkusen are mid table, the classic selling position, who knows if that report is accurate, could you get him for $5-7M? a guy like this would probably be an absolute superstar in MLS.
https://www.tuttomercatoweb.com/euro...rkusen-1207203