Fuck our La Liga scouts. Fontas has been an epic disaster. I don’t give a shit how well he defended Messi. If he never came here, Ike would still be here. We wouldn’t be below the line if Ike was here all year. Fontas made $2 million fro us and is getting cut. What a fucking fail.
We pretty much made every wrong personnel choice in the offseason. Can't wait to see what they do this time. So glad we got rid of Ike & Rubio.
Will be a very interesting off season. Will they add more Gutierrez/Russel style players or continue to roll with the old (Besler/Zusi/Seth) guard.
Would be nice if it was Cliff giving those quotes instead of Mike because it’s always easy saying you’ll spend daddy’s money. 2 quotes that stuck out: “we had a record setting 9 transfer signed in 18 and Illig nixed the deal saying we were in 1st and on pace for a record number of goals”. 2nd “we went to bed in the summer of 19 knowing we just signed a premier league striker and woke up to see he signed elsewhere.” I don’t know much about cerner but it always seemed NP was more of the hard ass than Illig. Vermes has always said the owners have never turned down a transfer he’s presented due to money (100% false due to Mike Illig’s quote). Illig’s stepped down from cerner so maybe Sporting will be his new “thing” and putting a fraction of those billions toward the squad will be his new thing. I doubt it, but Sam just made me hopeful.
They finally landed JFR. Done talking to those scrubs like Holden and Vela. Biggest slip up, they were talking about the current roster and Benny said “there’s already been a handful of people let go but they haven’t announced them yet”.
Hmmm “As we transition into the next decade, Sporting has an exciting opportunity to begin a new jersey sponsorship with another esteemed partner. With the tremendous growth of Major League Soccer comes even greater excitement for what lies ahead, and we believe this new partnership will be one of the best and most unique in professional sports.”
Expansion draft time. Every other expansion draft it’s been “fuck, who are we losing” this year it’s “fuck, I don’t think any of these guys will get taken.” Homegrowns are protected: Busio, Salloi, Duke, Freeman, Hernandez, Lindsey, Kuzain Then we must protect 3 internationals plus 9 players of our choice (My rankings in order): Felipe, Johnny, Roger, Jimmy, Melia, Martins, Gerso, Besler, Barath, Ilie, Hurtado, Zelalem The don’t protect and please god take them rankings: Fontas, Nemeth, Zusi, Sinovic Then the scraps that will probably retire/who cares: Benny, Wallace, Hasler, Smith, the backup GKs To the list of “keeps” to be competitive for trophies we’d need to add a DP striker and attacking mid ( John and Pipé are DPs but John can get bought down), a TAM level CB, RB, and Winger, and another replacement level CB.
I just don’t get not protecting Barath Jimmy or Zelalem. Only thing I can think is that Vermes has worked out a deal with Mike Jacobs for the player they want to select.
So Jimmy was drafted. They also acquired Zendejas at the same time and traded 175K Garber Bucks and an international spot. 100% Vermes and Jacobs worked out the deal ahead of time for the both of them at that price.
As we know Jimmy and Zendajas gone. We cut Seth, Benny, and Zelalem. And let Nemeth, Wallace, and Hasler walk. Resigned Salloi, Dick, Smith, Gerso, Hurtado.
Thoughts? #4 is tough for me. 1,2,3 of Preki-Vermes-Besler are no brainers. Conrad, Zusi, Melia, Nielsen, Wolff, Zavagnan, Roger, it’s hard to distinguish 1 over the others.
MLS has added now 4 MX’s scoring champs. Quintero up in Minn. Ruidiaz with Seattle. Fernandez with Portland. And now us with Pulido.
What to expect? Alan isn’t an insane #9. He will finish every cross and every 1v1 with a keeper. He’s unmarked at the 18? That’s a goal. where he excels? The dude is an energizer battery commercial. Legit will go 100% for the ball 24/7. Not surprised Vermes values him vs Cavalinni.
Guessing this was a plan C after Pulido and then Cavallini. Also sounds like we wouldn’t go north of $2 million for that CB 2 posts up and the talks stopped.