Well, fine. But I think it's kind of obvious that it's different for an Algerian MNT player who had a great game vs a Mexican MNT player that had a great game. Mexico had many choices in terms of who to put out there, and the signal of what that excellence might mean is different on a team that makes the knockout stage every time.
Plus, not having seen a lot of a player - that won’t stop me or most people here! I haven’t watched Salcedo since 2018, except in a couple of Frankfurt games I don’t remember. (In fact I got him confused at first with the Chivas defender we saw in CCL, Carlos Salcido, who I once saw play at Craven Cottage for Fulham.)
Face it, who here has really seen enough of Salcedo to have a real opinion? (There probably is somebody who has watched every Tigres game, I know..)
I certainly think that starting for Tigres and Frankfurt beats any credential in Brazil, to my main point.
Last edited by ensco; 01-16-2022 at 12:30 PM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Everyone is probably taking Sunday off. I would assume we will see an official announcement Monday or Tuesday.
Getting Salcedo is a coup, he is a proper defender just under world class category. Mavinga will greatly benefit from that calming influence.
Best off-season ever!
Wait, are we getting cash and Salcedo?
"Tigres would contribute Salcedo and a good numbers of dollars for the Toronto attacker"
https://www.am.com.mx/superdeportivo...0116-0053.html
This is from Merlo, who is probably the only reliable journalist in South America.
Relative value of the player? Salcedo has a $10M release clause but they were offering him at $3M in anticipation of losing him on a free. Soteldo is perceived as a $6-7M player in South America.
Could also be getting cash back for covering his year-two contract bonus, which he is allegedly insisting on being paid before signing with a new club.
EDIT: what noxx said.
If they sign another striker who is a good regular scorer I think we can declare this a slam dunk best off season ever. Manning seems to have answered Curtis' incompetence with a fairly striking display of competency.
I thought we would lose most of that fee because I thought there was no bid on Yefe outside of Brazil. Whoops!! That looks like a worse call by me than thinking TFC wouldn’t cough up $75M for Insigne!
I mean, Tigres! Paying up for a guy on our discard pile. We really didn’t see the best of Soteldo.
I am going out of the prediction business.
Last edited by ensco; 01-16-2022 at 05:07 PM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
I think both Salcedo and Soteldo will thrive in their new locales. Getting some extra GAM that we can use on a Robert Beric or whoever is the cherry on top.
I certainly hope we're not done making "big" moves.
So far this offseason:
Laryea (Out)
Mullins (Out)
Morrow (Out)
Soteldo (Out)
Altidore (Out)
Gonzalez (Out)
Dwyer (Out)
Zavaleta (Out)
DeLeon (Out)
Gallardo (Out)
Endoh (Out)
Insigne (In) July
O’Neill (In)
Salcedo (In)
Petrasso (Homegrown)
We need to sign 5-6 more players capable of playing important minutes, including at least 2 more forwards. On the bright side, we have lots of cap space, TAM, GAM, and maybe another DP spot to play with. But we are nowhere near finished making big moves.
Just a reminder that both Priso & Okello exist....I believe the team is counting on both of those players for huge minutes this year. I'm particular interested in what Bradley gets out of Okello.
My comments in red above. I agree we still need that top striker as mentioned. Also need another RB/LB to take Richie's minutes and a 3rd CB. Those two I'd classify more as mid-tier moves rather than big moves.
A lot of the role players (Mullins/Dwyer/Zav/DeLeon/Gallardo/Endoh) should have their minutes filled by the likes of JMR/Okello/Priso/Nelson/Shaff.
You can’t just axe 60% of the roster and expect not to be thrown into a rebuild for a year. Even if the players coming in are good, it takes a while to get everyone on the same page.
Doing what the club is trying here, addressing obvious weaknesses first, then seeing how the rest of the team does, makes sense. We have no idea how good or bad certain players on our roster are right now. Worst case scenario, we address certain things in the summer or next winter. Too much, too soon is not smart.
I expect a new target man and a right-sided fullback this window, as those are obvious must-haves. But the rest can wait.
We're losing 11 players (assuming Fraser is also gone). They played 27% of our MLS minutes. The top 4 in minutes were Richie, Soteldo, Zav and Morrow. Soteldo is replaced by Insigne. Zav replaced by O'Neil. Morrow and Richie still need to be replaced.
I don't really see why we can't expect JMR/Okello/Priso/Nelson/Shaff to absorb the minutes that Dwyer/Mullins/DeLeon/Endoh played. We still have to fill up 5-7 more roster spots, so there's work to do.
EDIT: Plus hopefully Pozuelo is playing an extra 1000 minutes this season.
we need to bring in some strikers asap.