That's mathematically impossible. They need less than $800,000 to buy him down and they've shed more than twice that in salary.
What he probably means is they don't have enough room to WARRANT doing it, as they think they can get more value out of two TAMs than another DP. If they had $3M clear, it wouldn't even be a debate in other words.
Sapong alone accounted for nearly $700,000 of what it would cost to pay down Osorio.
But from his perspective -- and I imagine Herdman's -- the six empty roster slots are a far greater priority, and any money they have is earmarked for that, so they don't have it available.
But in terms of actual payroll, they easily have the money to do that.
Their calculation might be that admitting that will create public demand for another star, when what they need is six more balanced starters, including some TAMs. So they state it as "we can't do that." But their salary list is a matter of public record; mathematically, they could do it easily.
Last edited by jloome; 11-11-2023 at 11:51 AM.
Agree with you that essentially, whatever way, there should be/is enough TFC cap space, as well as, non cap financial reprieve; particularly with Altidore off the books finally and BBradley’s mitigated severance? I think Sapong may have represented a half to less than that cap hit compensation you highlight though; IIRC, Nashville may have ate most of his salary?
The pool of players available to TFC is bigger than previously thought. Some changes have been made to the SuperDraft.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/superdraft...nted-by-adidas
Maybe so, that all could be true.
Hernandez says it’s more efficient to have several guys at 750,000 rather than a couple of them plus another DP comparable to Oso… sounds like what they would likely do with 3M clear is keep Oso as a DP. How many TAM contracts do they have, three? Johnson, Petretta, Rosted?
The tenor of most of Hernandez and Herdman’s words involved working with what they have and not yet (or possibly ever) over the off season having “a ton of flexibility”.
The actual quote from Hernandez is: “at the moment, full transparency, if we wanted to take Oso off the DP designation today, we couldn’t do it because we have a lot of guaranteed contracts on our books … there’s a world in which we believe we can move a lot of players off our books but we don’t…” and that would not lead to having “a ton of flexibility”.
I’m hoping they buy out Akinola and convince Diomande to terminate his contract and join Stabaek… that would be a good start.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-11-2023 at 11:59 PM.
My take was they wanted to keep the expectations on that third DP slot in check. It's oso or an oso level contract, not a big name
Ding ding ding
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/c...tart-a-career/
"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
Hernandez did definitely say that if there was a new DP it would be “comparable” to Oso. Not sure if it explains the “full transparency”… as of now “we can’t” take Oso off the DP designation. MLS is anything but transparent… maybe the two recently added contracts take up a lot of cap space over the full season to come, maybe contracted players are scheduled to be paid more. Could be other factors.
I’m wondering if they put some good amount of whatever they have or clear into a brilliant 6. Sounds like Herdman is going to need one and as much as I like Coello I’m not sure if he’s ready to carry that load.
Yeah that ticks every box for a DP slot for us, including price.
Long story short I may be wrong but I strongly strongly believe the days we lead the league on DP spend are firmly over, once the current DP contracts are off our books
I think we had our chance and we blew it
I hope I'm wrong though. I definitely didn't see the Italian spending coming so take it for what it's worth.
Nah, I think you're right. This all points to the board putting them on a budget because of the Italians. As long as they're making mega wages, I'd be surprised if we got another DP over the 1.6M TAM cap.
That's the lack of flexibility.
PLUS, they know they're going to have to make it work with most of the guys from this year, who are under longer contracts, as they probably have no budget leverage to buy people out, either.
So they can't really even send the message that they're going to fill those six slots, in all likelihood, with starters. They need guys who didn't perform this year to give them more next. "We're already planning to replace you" isn't really conducive to that message.
So all we get is "guys know there will be changes, but they're committed."
I think they've been budgetarily hamstrung by the board because they fucked up with the Italians.
They look like they are in a “performance improvement plan” type of budget. Things like the buyout clause not used, which clearly help the team signal to me that it’s a “your mess, you clean it up” sort of scenario.
It only makes me happy because it might actually drive us to a situation where we get the long overdue changes we need. And, the new people might actually be afforded the flexibility required because they stopped Manning and Hernandez from stop burning the furniture to heat the house.
That said, I don’t mind a “budget” 3rd DP signing. Clearly the bigger issue is how we scout and go about our business, not the amount we are spending.
I picture this working in a similar fashion to how VCs approach investments.
They aren't going to throw money at problems anymore, but if/when a model for consistent results is established, they'll throw gas on the fire. Clearly this won't happen overnight.
That would make sense. We certainly need a league best-ish wingback. The current guys won’t cut it (and Herdman talking excitedly about converting/adapting JMR to LWB says as much).
Layrea as a reliably direct option getting forward while having three centre backs behind him might help mitigate Coello’s defensive lack. Petretta can be useful too in this regard as a LCB, in his one appearance in that role under Herdman he looked useful in his forward thinking.
Coello should not have to become our new MB in that all the offence must go through him at any cost.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-12-2023 at 07:02 PM.
There are other players in the world besides former TFC and CMNT players that could be Oso level DPs that play more important positions than RB/RWB/RM. Let Vancouver over pay and just move on from our former players.
If you are desperate for some Canadians on the team, there are a couple good options in MLS for a fraction of the price of a Richie Laryea. Mo Farsi and Moise Bombito are guys who could thrive with a chance to be starting 11 players.
Farsi plays the same type of role as Richie and is starting a must win game against Atlanta tonight for Columbus over Julian Gressel.
Bombito is a guy who is struggling to find a position, but has been called into the CMNT recently. I personally believe he is a CB, but Herdman deployed him as a midfielder at the Gold Cup.
What exactly is the point of moving on from former players if they fit the bill? Richie was always very good for us, our best player, probably, over our last two seasons.
And why exactly would Bez give us Farsi and his $80,000 salary? Maybe a trade for Diomande?
Anyway, you probably don’t have to worry, it sounds like Hernandez would prefer to keep Oso as the 3rd DP.
Some people think if you like a player who is Canadian, you prefer him because he's Canadian.
Then again - some people on here do prefer Canadians.
I'm at the point where I prefer people with the skill sets or the ability to get to the skill sets. I appreciated the "radar" discussions by Hernandez & Herdman - data is always better then "feel" - JH specifically indicated that was the problem in the past.
Which is why I'm not worried about the two later season acquisitions.
But weren’t they Hernandez’ first two “evidence based” signings? Evidently, there was no managers ‘context’ for them and we knew nothing about them but the stats said they should fit. Seems to me, stats are only one part of knowing and when used in isolation can lead to as bad or worse signings than the ‘feel’ signings. Call them ‘no feel’ sighings. But too our GM is as green as they come. Intelligent person it seems going back to his playing days but precious little experience.
They are slowing but surely losing me. The details why don't matter any more.
"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
Yeah, I think they are coming from a place of limited experience and generally making it up as they go.
One of their first moves was a loan for a guy who looked good on paper but when you looked at the details, was far from it.
All this is to say I’m not buying whatever magic beans they are selling.
I basically have zero confidence in anything they do right now. An unproven GM, a president who makes choices based on personality, a complete absence of understanding of basic communications principles, two DPs who don't want to be here, and no sign they're fixing any of it.
Hate to say it but I miss the end of season/off seasons when the PR/comms teams were in overdrive up on the soapbox looking to drum up hope with louder social media and more upbeat pressers and with a beat group that could help tow it all along to somewhat keep you engaged.Never thought I’d miss the feeling of being sold hope and it being pushed in my face until now lol.
So stone cold now it’s brutal. If this organization were a person, they’d be the peer with the midlife crisis who is spiraling hard and instead of reaching out to peers & being open, communicative - lookin for some positivity or support, they elect to lock themselves up or ghost anyone who reaches out, trying to pretend it never happened - & shovel the shit under the rug and save face. But it doesn’t work that way with relationships - people to people, or organizations to people. People don’t wait around forever when they aren’t engaged with - they move on.
I’ll just say it- whether it’s manning decision trying to go into Bruce Wayne mode and hide, go dark pr and comms wise to correct the fuckups and come out a new group to pretend nothing ever happened… or if it’s the comms and pr managers who dictate the culture and policy… it’s trash tier and amateur. Maybe that’s why our social media lad left for greener pastures because the culture and department team directives were becoming absolutely shit.
maybe they have some brilliant plans and ideas, but we’d never know about it. Maybe they are happy with their solutions going forward, but the public have no idea what sort of actions and consistent updates are going on apart from a delayed overly scripted end of season call, and that omission is the most important aspect to managing stakeholders when they are paying your wages and careers lol. I’m feeling in the same boat as the folks above.
Last edited by FiveThreeTwo; 11-13-2023 at 12:51 PM.
The front office needs to hit on their #1 draft pick. There’s clearly still some talent at the top end and the league even expanded it to all college players regardless of how many years they’ve played.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/superdraft...nted-by-adidas
There's a German defender, Morris Duggan, who is a senior and has real potential, I think. He's very good on the ball and even though he's 6'4 and big, he's fast enough to have played some left back as well. He has typical Euro technique but looks a better-than-average athlete. He's also 23 and played in top regional amateur league in Germany before coming over, so he's likely a little more mature.
His teammate Matthew Bell is a prolific scorer who will probably go top five as well.
My fear is that we'll do what we normally do and take a flyer on potential, then give up on the player after a year or two.
Last edited by jloome; 11-13-2023 at 04:11 PM.