SoccerWise - Breaking New Episode w/New Coaches, Trades, Big Free Agency & Mailbag

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Oh do you want breaking news around MLS? Then you are talking Tom ball so get excited! First the guys dig into all the latest new coach hirings, trades, free agencies & more. Then they dig into a mailbag to hit all the the biggest topics you want to talk to from both the discord and the live chat.4:55 Michael Bradley Named New York Red Bull Manager9:00 Lewis Morgan Trade to San Diego & Other Red Bull Transfers18:45 Matt Wells Leaves Tottenham For Colorado Head Coaching Job24:40 Union Offloading Tai Baribo & Jakob Glesnes27:20 Galaxy Retool With Glesnes30:20 DC United Buying Baribo34:45 SKC Update36:05 IG Reporting On Henry Kessler In Dallas & Cristian Espinoza In LA38:26 Dante Sealy Traded To COL For $2mill42:18 Orlando Sign Carlos Coronel To Free Agent Deal45:10 Walker Zimmerman Signs In Toronto50:40 Inter Miami Fighting The Winners Salary Cap Monster53:40 Mailbag On Development Through College Soccer57:40 Mailbag On Early Offseason Biggest Standing's Risers1:00:14 Mailbag MLS Regular Season Lack Of Jeopardy1:02:40 Mailbag On How To Define Ambition In Modern MLS1:05:40 Mo Salah MLS Connections

What's up, everybody, welcome back to soccer wide, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you. I'm not going to lie, Tom, I feel good right now. This kind of feels like last day of school energy. It's not the last show live of the year. First of all, we're working on a couple of interviews that we're going to run during the break. We're going to talk to some MLS executives, some head coaches, just some of the interesting people around the league. And we still have a couple more live shows. But you know that energy?

Like you feel it. It just feels a little bit lighter. Everything feels a little bit like less important right now. It's always important when I get to see your smiling face on the other side of this computer. So that makes me happy. Yeah. But like, I mean, do you just feel this way because you're not crushing, you know, PowerPoint decks in meetings, Mr. CFO? Like, this is how I live.

potentially, although now I've got to cram all the meetings in for the next week before everyone disappears and goes away. It is raining in Miami. It's like 72 and raining right now, Tom. So I'd like for you to give a moment of pause for me and the suffering that I'm going through. Momentous moment. Yeah. So I appreciate you being there for me. If you missed it in Discord or on Blue Sky, we are doing a mailbag episode today. A lot of you have sent us some great stuff over the course of the year. We haven't done it as often as we'd like, so I promise, in Andrew Weeby fashion, to make it a more regular thing going forward, which is like a 30% chance that actually ends up happening. So we're going to hit all the big news to start the show, and then we're going to go into the mailbag that we have. We got some great stuff in Discord, so we're going to start there.

Anyone watching live on YouTube, feel free to throw stuff in the chat as well. If you do not subscribe via Patreon, you can do so and get you access to the Discord. I would say especially over the holidays. It's one of the best places to just hang out and talk soccer. I was, you know, I was engaging on the League MX final last night as Toluca and Tigris went into a 97 round penalty kick shootout and Toluca was able to make it back-to-back championships. People are in there talking about some of the best players playing abroad, some of the best games going on around the world.

I am very excited for Afcon, which is coming up, which we'll have some coverage of here at kickback. It starts on Sunday of this week. Oh, nice. Yeah, and Morocco is hosting. So it's going to be pretty legit. And obviously for all the World Cup teams, it's like a huge opportunity to play for real games for a last time before a World Cup. So it's going to be really, really fun to watch. And we have all that coverage for you across all our channels.

We have at Kickback right now. We started a podcast series called Kickback 26, where we're doing like 15 minutes or so about every country at the World Cup. It's one of the things I'm most excited that I've ever worked on. Like our producer, Mara, it does an incredible job. She takes voiceover. She takes interviews that we've done with players, executives, coaches, scouts, fans, journalists, and weaves the whole thing together with original music, local music, you know, broadcast calls. Like, just go listen to the France episode, Ivory Coast, Kurosau.

All of them have been really, really cool to do. And we've still got a couple more coming out. So go check those out. If you get an opportunity. And if you want to share them with someone, do it. it because of anything we've ever done, I think it's the most universal thing of if someone's a soccer fan, they're going to like it. And if they're not, I still think they're going to like it because it's about culture and history and all of the things that make us love this

sport because it's so global. And it connects so many people in so many different ways. So I would appreciate if you sent it along, go rate and review it as well, as well as our show right here. We're already getting some questions in the chat. Tom, so I think we have a big NBA cup. segment that we wanted to do now the biggest trophy of the year the biggest competition the new york nix in the NBA cup final uh is that what you wanted to do on the show get ready to learn ping pong buddy this i'm a day day one supporter of the NBA cup obviously because the nix are in the final now is the biggest thing that i can ever imagine all right we have uh we have a question in the chat about uh colorado's plans for their second round pick in the super draft which means mat duel is a

true fan either of us or of the Colorado Rapids either way i'll take either one that is the most perfect question you could possibly ask i assume there are a decent chunk of nick fans who are also new york red bulls fans so it's an interesting day for them as they get ready for that that NBA cup final i know right there for you tom i wanted to make sure we hit all the big news stories from the last show that i missed so all i got to do is go to your page on the athletic i don't have got to look at the website i don't got to go to any social media although if you want to in the patreon you get the ice cream shop in there as well and you have been working and let's start with the new york red bulls yeah we'll start there the official news that came monday morning um as i previously reported now official michael bradley is

the new york red bulls head coach this is his first first team job this is a guy who i think when he was 23 we all knew he was going to be a great coach one day son of bob bradley he's worked you know he's been around that that legendary chicago fire team that ended up having like jesse marge uh jim kirton i believe Monty Razov, Zach Thornton, John Thornton, look at that roster. CJ Brown, Chris Armas. Half of the team are either head coaches, top assistants, or sporting directors in MLS. It's just like if you were ever going to be a coach and like got to be around that. He was a teenager when he was around that locker room even before he turned pro.

So Michael Bradley is a new head coach. I'm excited for this. I understand why fans are maybe a little bit cautious at first because he's only been a head coach for six months, a little bit less than that when he took over the Red Bull's second team job. But obviously the plan was one day for him to be the head coach. And you can't hire another head coach and not him right now. Because, like, if you don't think he's ready now, are you think he's going to be ready in nine months? Who's going to take this job that's knowing that Michael's behind them?

Or if you give somebody else the job, then Michael Bradley's going to get a head coach offer somewhere else. So they had to go with Michael Bradley this winter. I think it's good. He is a former player. 2004, 2005. Metro star. I think he was 16 years old.

I don't remember. I think he came in with Ricardo Clark, actually. were in the same quote unquote draft because you know you had to do a draft in whatever 2004 mLS super draft by the way this is this is where i want to be right now pretty are to do number one pick chad marshall number two pick for columbus joseph and guenia the legend houston dynumel legend number three uh clarence goodson was in this draft clint demsey was the eighth pick we have an interview with clint emcee coming up on this show not this episode but here at sackawai steve kronin the number 10 pick ned grabavoy in this draft chris wingert i'm just

having a good time at this point um but yeah it's just dude's name and dude and this is the epitome of the list i mean i'm talking about a 10 year old super draft but you have an opportunity for i think michael has always considered himself from new jersey bob obviously considers himself from new jersey as well princeton new jersey um where he coached jesse marsh uh both of them often talk fondly of manny shell shite who's the long time seat and hall coach who helped build up the game in the region as well and i think that's where you end up with the opportunity to coach Red Bulls too. And it kind of seemed straightforward from the moment he got that job.

Yeah, he's 38 years old. He's not even the third youngest coach in MLS now with all the people who have gotten appointed. So it's not like that's the issue. Yeah, it's a good point, man. And he's got over 300 career MLS appearances. And that's on top of, that's just MLS, by the way. Yes.

That's on top of, oh, yeah, I also played for Aston Villa and Heronvine and Ais Roma and Jivo Kievo and Bruchiamanche and Gladbach and then of course 151 caps for the US main national team yeah he's he's up there he's a top five player of all time in US soccer history

you mentioned it he was a coach on the field I wouldn't think his game is purely Red Bull but that seems to go to what Julian de Guzman wants to do at the club correct and Juergen Klopp is the head of sport for Red Bull Global that's been a little bit of a shift under him as well that they want to play more soccer like they don't want to like dial up the the red bull car crash to 12 they

want to dial it back just a little bit i think sandro swore has tried this unsuccessfully over the last 12 months but julian de guzman has spoken very openly about hey like we want to use the ball we want to play football when he was speaking to me it was wingers and and number eights like all action number eight those were like two roles they use box to box players but they definitely didn't use wingers last year and that was one thing that that he noted from michael bradley's with the second team of the way that they played the youth development first and foremost at that level, but the way that they played and how he sees the game is similar to how Michael Bradley sees the game. So I'm going to expect more for the Red Bulls on the ball with Michael Bradley.

Excited to see how it goes. And it's a very, very busy offseason for this team. As I previously reported, this team's open for business. Already on last week, I reported that Peter Stroud to Minnesota, that deal is done. Carlos Cornell, month ago, out of contract, not returning. Sean Newellis, Daniel Edelman, very much on the trading block from what I'm told. Again, particularly Edelman, I'm expecting him to move on this winter. I don't know who else. It shows that they wanted to create as much space as they could. They're trading Lewis Morgan to San Diego for essentially a draft pick.

They're getting allocation money, like around 400,000 gam, this year from San Diego, and then sending a similar number back to them next year. It's pretty much just like a little gam loan to get up. And by the way, the Red Bulls are covering a non-insificant part of Lewis Morgan's contract while he's with San Diego. They're doing all of this to try to create as much spaces as they can for further moves from Michael Bradley and Julian de Guzman's first winter as head of sport.

And the one thing that all of those triggered to me is, I would say all of those players, worst attributes is line breaking and passing, and best attributes are the key Red Bull tenants that it seems like they're trying to move away. None of the players you named are bad players. The Lewis Morgan thing, I wouldn't be shocked if as a club, you're like, it's just too inconsistent.

don't want to take the risk anymore. We don't want to have anything reliant on this. It's odd to me if you're covering enough of the money that it's like, you're not really getting out of it. And if you look at his stats, every other year he plays. So last year he didn't play, I don't know why you wouldn't take the risk to just see if he plays for your team. If you're on the hook for some of it, it is a no-brainer for San Diego. Like, whatever they're paying is worth it for the potential of a Lewis Morgan, who's a double-digit goal scorer when he's healthy in major League soccer, which we could do that a little more in a little bit, but all of that says the same thing. Sean Nealist, not an elite passer. Carlos Cornell, that's not his biggest skill set.

Stroud and Edelman are more east to west than they really are clean and efficient north to south. They're north to south when it's let's go and counterpress and then win it again and try and do it again and ground coverage type stuff. And I think you could put Lewis Morgan into that a little bit as well, where he is at his best at high speed going north to south. So if they want to change this at all, this is their opportunity. I think Shupamoteng can obviously fit into it. Yes. Emil Forsburg can probably play in any system in Major League Soccer and still be super

successful. And there are some other elements there. But like, this requires a lot of rebuild. None of those players are bad players we're talking about. So they need to find the right fit quickly if they want to make it look worthwhile for them to move on from these guys. Exactly. And we've already talked about Kate Cowell that deals happening, that alone with a purchase

option from Chivas. I like that. I don't know that that necessarily fits perfectly in wanting to use the ball more, but I think that's a good MLS level player and his physicals are going to be very useful no matter what system you play. You still need pace. You still need verticality, even if you're trying to play tiki-taka, which again, they're not, but it will be a lesser version of car crash soccer. I'm waiting for this to get published on the athletic, but because we're talking about the Red Bulls right now, a new one, sources. Justin Chee is going to be a New York Red Bull. That deal is happening. And he can play right back. He can play right-sided center back in a back three if that's where they go.

But versatile options for Michael Bradley in defense. I want to go back to Lewis Morgan and focus on the San Diego side. I love this for them. Yeah. For them to be getting a discount, pretty much, again, signing him for essentially nothing, a draft pick and, you know, a gam loan essentially, but they'll get that money back. And not paying his full contract. It's a no-brainer.

And they see him as somebody who could play as a nine in their system, which is really like a nine and a half or however you might want to call it. He's not, like, going to be a back-to-go guy. He's going to be the same way that either Corey Barrett or Amal Palgrino played that role last year. So I think this is an excellent role of the dice. And even calling it a roll of dice, I think, is disrespect for Lewis Morgan. He's a very good player in MLS.

It's just the injury questions. Yeah, that's the role of the test. I would do it 10 out of 10 times if I'm saying, yeah. Yeah, 100%. If they're taking any of his contract, it's worth the risk. The role of the dice is if you're going to get the good year or not. Of course. That's the whole.

And for Red Bulls, they have been too reliant on him like the amount of times they said well we like our group with lewis morgan and schupe moteng and amel forsburg it's like that's that can't be a given but san diego comes out of winning the west and going to a western conference finals without having his attributes whatever he gives you is a bonus over that um he made three appearances at mLS last year before he played 2400 minutes 13 goals seven assists and another 500 and two assists in the playoffs the year before that he played 297 minutes and the year before that he paid 2,600. So in theory, you're getting the good Lewis Morgan year.

He's 29 years old. It's a guarantee what you get if he's on the field. He is one of the best finishers at high speed in MLS. He is an elite athlete in Major League Soccer. He was at Inter Miami and he was for the Red Bulls. And yeah, the center forward position for him makes sense with that group because they like to play into the spaces. They need someone to stretch the field so that a dryer.

can come underneath that the central midfield can operate or he goes out onto the wing but he he played as the center forward a lot with the red bulls as time went along it's a good point and it worked for him fine and he was the one stretching the field past dante van zier and the playoff run and all of that as well so it makes a ton of sense it's a great move for them justin chaise an interesting one like it's obviously a lot of potential 22 years old acquired from fc dallas to go to germany there have been hits and misses there, right? Everyone's thinking you've got Brian Reynolds, you've got Chris Richards, you've got Reggie Kennedy. It was a laundry list at the time of Dallas defenders who were going to go to Europe. And everyone thought Justin Che was the next one. I think he's more naturally

a centerback than a fullback. And I think that's part of what made it hard for him is he played most of his pro minutes at fullback. And it's not where he's at his best. But he could definitely play on the ball. Like if you want to go from Sean Nealus to Justin Chey, you are going the polar opposites. Experience would run through a wall versus inexperienced but wants to play on the ball. Yeah. And if that's the jump they want to make, then that's a pretty good example of trying to do it. I think that's a good way to as a microcosm of the stylistic kind of shift, but I would just be cautious in penciling him in as like, oh, he's the Sean Neos replacement because he played one game for Bronby. I think he's a talented kid. I think that this is, again,

this is a no risk move by the Red Bulls. I can't imagine the acquisition cost was literally anything. and I can't imagine his contract is going to be a big hit. So the same kind of question is whatever he gives you is bonus. I wouldn't be kind of talking about him and Sean Niels as a one-to-one, even if he's in a committee because, like, again, I do think Sean Nils is a good defender in this league. And Justin Chay spent most of his career playing in second divisions. Like I think he made 15-ish appearances for FC Dallas. Then he was at Byron's U-19, Hoffenheim second team, and some other loans and stuff.

and again I hope that he puts it together here but I think it'd be a little unfair to be like oh yeah that that's going to be a guy that stylistically they can build around I think he's a good guy to have on the team and maybe he becomes that he's got the talent to do so but for me we'll see we'll go to our first question from the Discord Goss

you're good with that from heel by hot quote in obligatory Red Bull question is the new front office actually more open Julian de Guzman has answered more questions so far in a month or so than the last guy in the last three years and what should be the priorities

to clear the books for the team. I think we already talked about the latter point. On the former, I like that. And Julian de Guzman was not just in his playing career, like he used to doing media and stuff like that. He was a trailblazer for Canadian soccer. So he knows his role, like in that role. It wasn't just, I need to just do it on the field.

That's first and foremost. But I think he understood during his playing days, I need to be accessible. I need to be ambassador for Canadian soccer. which is something he cares so deeply about. And it is a good point. We have heard from Julian de Guzman a whole lot more than we did Yolkin Schneider. Yolkin Schneider would, they used to try to do press conferences.

And then I remember one time they canceled it because Jaime didn't work out. And then they just put out a Q&A with like, you know, a PR person or a club media person, which is not the same as doing a press conference. So I do appreciate that from Julian de Guzman. He seems to relish or at least understand, hey, this is important that not only I do my job well, but that I'm accountable. I mean, if you are Red Bulls overall, you have to be fairly terrified of the fact that, like, over the last two years, you've gone to a final and you've not made the playoffs and the impact does not feel that different across the sports landscape of your area. So, like, that's the whole issue.

You need to be open. You need to engage fans because you need them to care. And I think if Julian de Guzman can do a little about that and make this team better, I think that's really, really big. I would also say we didn't talk about as much, but some of the signings they already have, the Noah Iola's and the Alexander Hacks of the world, your hope is if you shift your system a little, maybe they're a bit more comfortable, maybe they're better in Major League Soccer.

I don't disagree with you. I've seen enough from Alexander Hack. I don't disagree with you, but most of what I saw from him was trying to step and then defend in space. So if you play through his feet, you start to get the Bundesliga experienced defender that you were hoping to land on earlier on.

But that's for Red Bulls. Use a lot of work already. It'll be fascinating to see what else they're able to do. over the course of this season. Huge pickup there for San Diego. First question there from the Discord. Let's stick with the coaches. Tom?

Yeah, yeah. So sources told me that Colorado Rapids will hire Tottenham assistant Matt Wells when you alluded to earlier. Wellesie. That Michael Bradley isn't even one of the two youngest coaches in MLS. That's because Matt Wells,

37 years old, comes over, takes this Colorado Rapids job. The Rapids are really excited about him. What I can say is, and this still hasn't been announced, but it's happening. What I can say is the NOAA Cobb trade, Matt Wells was part of that process.

Like, they don't make decisions without speaking to the head coach, like whether it was previously under Chris Armis or whatever, or now, even before Matt Wells is officially announced because they didn't want to trigger a purchase option and just assume that the coach likes them. And then, well, the coach doesn't really want him. So what was the point here? So I think that that's important to say that he's been involved in the all-season planning.

And we're going to hear more about Colorado very soon. He was an assistant under Ange Post-A-Coglu at Tottenham. He was, I think he played in the Tottenham Academy before starting his coach career. He's mostly been at Tottenham as he's worked his way up the ranks. He was an assistant under Ange, obviously currently an assistant under Thomas Frank. Other than that, he went to Fulham, Bournemouth, and Club Bruges as an assistant under Scott Parker. So he's got a lot of experience for somebody at his age. And while this is his first head coaching role, Minnesota, Eric Ramsey, was his first coaching role.

And that worked out very well. Like, I think that this is a guy that with the experience he's has, not to be worried that this is his first job. So I'm very, very excited to see the Colorado Rapids in 26. It's what they do with players. It's a belief that they can find, whether it's underrated or talent that hasn't had the opportunity, and they can give them the platform to do it, and you're getting talent that's maybe outside the quality of what the Colorado Rapids can go get. It's literally exactly what they do with players. They go and get young players, they give them their first chance, or they give them a more central chance, and that's what they're doing here with the coach.

From what I've read about him outside of the incredible article, you wrote Tom, is that under Big Ange, he was the senior assistant, and Ange wasn't exactly hands-on. And so he was running all the training sessions. A lot of interaction with the players seems to be really highly regarded was the only assistant held over from Ange to Thomas Frank and had come back to Tottenham under Ryan Mason. So I ended up staying there under three different managers. And it seemed like the club really was committed to keeping him on. And managers seemed to really like working with him. I do have to throw this out there because I love the comments on an athletic article. I don't know for some reason I do.

And on yours, all anyone wanted to everyone to know was that he is also the grandson of Tottenham and Welsh legend Cliff Jones. Yes. And I'm fine with saying that because I wanted to read you this, which is Cliff Jones played for Wales from 1954 to 1969. Tottenham Legend. Nice. So this is his footballing family. His father's name was Ivor, I-V-O-R, his uncle's Shonai, Emlyn, and Brin all played professionally, as did his uncle Bert, and his brother, Bryn, and his cousin, Ken. First of all, what's the deal with Ken and Cliff?

It feels like everyone else is getting a crazy Welsh name, and the two of them got screwed on that one. And I just really wanted to get to read that family out, because I thought those were legendary names. They made me happy. They're spelled even better than the way they're pronounced. which was all a guess on all of that. But for Colorado, not a huge shock here, right? Like if you put in the heavyweights of, okay, here's the top people in MLS.

Colorado's not going to come out on top of that list of the one you're going to choose. So I don't know if Mark DeSantos was really high up or Marco Mitrovich or whatever it is. They're not going to win the battle of, okay, where are the number one spot to fall? So they have to be creative and go outside and try and find someone. And if they feel like they went and found the right guy who fits the style they want to play, then I think it makes a ton of sense. And it feels like they're already making very Colorado Rapids-like moves to continue to build things under him.

Yes, we'll have an update on that before the end of the show. I promise. It's not quite there yet. But we'll have some Colorado Rapids news in a little bit. Yeah, this is a team that they underwent a transformation in the summer window with Paxon, Aronson coming in for after George and Mohiovich left, which is not something that they were planning on or wanted to do at the time. But they

I think that we're going to see the best, particularly out of Paxton Aronson. Under new coach, I know that I think he'll fit well in this team under Wells. And there's a lot of good pieces in this group. One of which is Hafa Navajo, who I don't know if he's going to be here

in 26. They rejected offers in the summer and the idea was to revisit it this winter. There's a lot of Brazilian teams that like them. And they understood when they signed him. that, hey, if this goes well, like we think and hope it will, this isn't going to be a guy who's here for a decade. That's just the nature of this game of the transfer market. So it's not like that's a shock either, but I'm leaving him out because I don't know if he's going to be here.

But a team that's built around like Paxon Aronson, Zach Stephan, Cole Bassett, St. Richard Canyon, Josh Attencio, Teddy Cudu Pietro, because I'm not ready to give up on him yet either. Then you have Rob Holding, Connor Ronan, like, that's a lot of things that I like. they just need, you know, a system, a coach to kind of put it all together and getting the first whatever three or four months of Paxon Aronson in the team, now the Gossirmy hits the ground running again in 26 is the idea. Yeah, I think you could sell me on if it all works together the right way that this could be a club that could be punch above their weight again this year. I think a lot of fans would say we don't want to punch above our weight anymore, we want to contend. We have a really

good question in the mailbag about ambition in Major League Soccer and I think this team fits a lot into this conversation so we'll get to that when we get there in just a moment. Let's get to Philadelphia Tom because they are wheeling and dealing I guess as expected

it is come to be expected from the Philadelphia Union. The Philadelphia Union let's start with Tyberrabo. They are nearing a deal with D.C. United for DC-2 sign Ty Bribo and a cashver worth around $4 million. At last time I checked, it's not totally done.

I believe that's where this is going to end, but there's still nothing totally, totally there as far as I understand. But this one was definitely a long time coming. So he's been looking for a new contract and Philly haven't been looking to give it to him, but they are fair where they're like, okay, like if a fair offer comes in

and you can get a contract somewhere else, we'll move you on. They've done that with 15 other guys. So that's not a surprise for me and he was kind of falling out of the starting lineup by the end of the season. The one that was a surprise is, the LA Galaxy are closing in on a deal to sign Jacob Glessness from the Philadelphia Union.

That'll be a gam trade worth a little bit north of one million plus add-ons is what I was told. This is a former defender of the year, two-time best 11. It doesn't, like he's turned 32 in March, has not shown a sign of slowing down for the union, particularly in the system. I think this is a great get for the Galaxy, but part of the union playbook where none of us knew who McCona was and he was my vote for defender of the year. So while I don't have an obvious or current, and like Neil Pierre has a chance to get some more minutes here. Like there is, and they're signing a centerback from South America, whose name escapes me at the moment.

But while none of those players have name brands, neither did Jacob Glezzas when he arrived, neither did insert, I don't know, almost every single one of the union signings. So while it hurts to lose Glezness, if there's one team that I trust to replace a player with somebody we've never heard of and be just as good, They're also the club, they're the epitome of we never want to be left holding the bag on a player after they've stopped being good.

We'd rather give them up before and take the risk that we're a year too early. Like all of this stuff was so predictable. I mean, I think Taiberibo we've been talking about for over a year about there's no chance they were going to resign him. There was no chance they were going to give him the big contract. So he was going to have to go somewhere else. The assumption was it would be in major league soccer because it's hard to find reliable goal scoring. And it's unknown. And so, like, if you're D.C. United, you're paying because you think you know what you're going to get first, the unknown of going outside the league.

And you might end up with Luis Muriel. You might end up with Andres Dreyer. Like, you have no idea inside of that, no matter how much money you spent. Look at Latte-Loth. So that part, I think, was always coming. And Glessness, it feels like had just been a timeline. Unless you're Andre Blake, you are going to be pushed out of the Philadelphia team at some point. If you, you know, if you live long enough to become the enemy, then you become it or whatever the phrase is there.

But that's not. You know, I think you got that word for word, actually, yeah. I appreciate that. Thank you. I am shocked. It's the galaxy, though. Not because they'd bring in a veteran centerback, but because they'd go and get one from Philly.

And it might just be, Jakop Gillesis is the best centerback on the market, and we're just going to go do it. But nothing about what makes him successful in Philadelphia really translates to what the LA Galaxy are built on. And that's a little bit of a risk in my mind. Sure, but I don't think that he's like, he's got two left feet when he's trying to build it out of his essence.

Yes, he'll have to rewire his brain to like, hey, Ricky Pooch is going to come stand next to me, rolling the ball. I think he'll figure that out. So again, first and foremost, I'm concerned on the defensive end for this team because this galaxy team has struggled so much. And the Zonka move didn't work out. Maya Shita a year on. They don't want it.

Like, lessness and Amira Garsis as a centerback bearing is going to be one of the better ones in MLS if we get 2024 Garcis, which obviously eased to guarantee, but they went from this is a huge worry to, all right, like they just got an 1A anchor and Amir Garces by the playoffs in 24 in the one MLS Cup, he was like flirting with one A. He hadn't done it long enough to actually be there, but that's the kind of guy he was looking like.

So getting glasses, I think you do it and you figure it out later. I had no idea how much how they got this with allocation money because they were coming up against it last year. So well done by Will Coons in that front office to reset the books because last year, this time, as you remember, it was a catastrophe just because of the cap. They were just selling Jalen Neal for anything possible. Yeah. And so I didn't know that they were going to have the room to do this for Jacob Glessness.

And I think if there was any way for them to use whatever assets that they could find, getting a center back like Jacob Glezzis? Like this is more than I thought they would have been able to do. I love this for the galaxy. Let me just, and I didn't know, listen, systems are tough. It's hard to compare things. I didn't realize that this would be this, though. On FPRF.

Jacob Glessness is in the 20th percentile of passes attempted and the 19th percentile of past completion percentage, but 67th on progressive passes. That is Philadelphia to a core. In a comp, Miles Robinson, who you would argue is a bit of a pressing centerback in whatever, is 87th percentile in passes attempted, 72nd in completion percentage.

It's not an LA Galaxy. I agree with you. maybe it works best because he doesn't need to be there's so many possession players um although i wouldn't say garsis is that as well so there needs to be pressure on the centerback and maybe glessness is that guy um once he gets out of the system but that's where the surprise came from me not the not the resume right defensive player of the year two-time best 11 top three and defendant player of the year 31 years old like galaxy are in a win now mode he is a win now player he is a successful center back in major league soccer it is a little bit of an odd connection um on tiberibo before

we move on i don't know what dc united is so i understand here of like okay we're losing bentecke what can we get four million dollars doesn't get you very much internationally so if you believe he's going to score 12 to 16 goals next year it's worth the money and it gives you a sort of center point to build off of but outside of the philly system like what is tybrebo elite at and so what are you building off of short of we know we're going to get 25 to 30 starts out of him we know that he can finish if we put him in the right spot like that just feels even with the quote unquote known it still feels pretty unknown to me yeah so i go back and forth here in that i i would love tabribo as a max tam that's not a realistic thing like he was always

going to be a dp given this next move and he's earned it with his goals it cold roster building side. Love him as Max Tam. Don't know how much I love him as a DP. That being said, very high floor because he's proven with his underlines, with everything he's done in MLS, he's going to score goals if you give him chances. You know, he's not going to hit the highs as is like Benteca, I don't think. He's not going to be, like you're not going to get a drier season out of him. But so, so that's good in one hand. The other end is this is a move you make when you're closer. And so I'm not, I'm not criticizing them for signing a good player because they need a lot of good players. They need a lot of different things. And if you can get Ty Buriba,

that's fine right like I'm good with it this just reminds me of Hugo Kuyper signing with Chicago Fire two years ago we were all like hey like that's a lot of money but he seems like he's gonna be a good signing good goal score they don't have anybody who's creating for and I don't think Kuypers was bad in this first season

but when Greg Berlter came in this year and changed the model brought in some more creative players Zincranago all of a sudden Kipers is the same exact player he was year over year except he's just getting more chances and is better so on one hand And I have, I do understand that like what kind of what's the point?

Like you're, you're just putting lipstick on a pig kind of thing. But I'm like, I'm never going to stop teams or criticize teams for signing good players. And at some point, you're going to need this number nine. And if you really like Ty Borebo and you think that this is a long-term thing, again, he's not an old guy. I like that. But his impact on the 2026 DC United and changing their fortunes is minimal. It all depends on who else that they signed. But again, this is not a bad thing.

Yeah, I think the Kuyper's comp is a good one. means if you get anything else, he'll finish, right? If you go out and you get the right 10, you get the right wingers, you build the right system, whatever it is, he will finish his chances. We have some questions in the chat, including a lot about a tweet you literally just put out a skeet. Let's go blue sky. Everyone be on there. Before we get into that, though, I just want to shout out to Cole Manny 72, who says, who do you have winning tonight's NCAA men's soccer final? The college cup is on NC State against Washington. I am a Richie Amin fan so I'm going udub shout out huskies also as a northeastern person i always root for huskies

uh so that's the big pick tom do you want to go nc state and we'll battle on this and we'll come back next show and we'll say who's the winner and who's the loser um sure the my only connection so i believe tabramos was nc state so i'll take that craigre weibel seattle sounders uh sporting director is in then the washington hall of fame and he's at college cup like not as like the sounders sporting director as a fan for the combine he would be no more than a fan it's it's like hey like you know how the nicks put like in the playoffs charles o'clock yeah yeah well not charles o'tlin sorry yeah step on marbury but so um i think that that that's so if if you're a seattle sounders fan i'm sure you're already rooting for washington because of of the area but do you know my great greg weble's

story about uh you dub no i went to my friend's wedding on bainbridge island and i took the ferry across And when I got off, there was a giant dude in a Udub sweatshirt. And I was like, I bet Craig Weibel would love that. And I look up, and it's Craig Weibel wearing the UDub sweatshirt. And he's like, what are you doing here? And I was like, yeah, that's a good point. I don't really live around here. So, yeah, if you ever find him, I think they always draft a Udub player,

which has worked out pretty well for them. Christian Roll Dawn is pretty good at soccer. So that's kind of worked out well for them. He's not bad? I wanted to take that one out of the chat. But of course, we love all the questions. We had some SKC questions. Is sporting KC getting close to announcing who will be the new manager anytime soon

out of the candidates who is the best fit? So the only candidate I know for sure is Rafa Vicky, and I think he would be a good fit. I think he would be a good addition. I know that they have three finalists and they've been coming in and out of market. I don't know the exact timeline, but they are at the final stage. I don't know if they've exactly picked somebody or not, but if it is Vicky, I like that fit with this team.

Again, I think that he deserves another chance at MLS. And I would like to see him outside of a Chicago organization that at the time had a really bad front office leading the way. So David Lee, we've said it enough on the show. I think he's good at his job. I'm giving this team the benefit for the doubt in their head coaching search in their first signings. But it's going to take some time. There's a lot for them to build on this team. And I'm assuming that this has got to be close-ish, because we're getting what we're already less than a month away from preseason.

So I'm sure that they're close, but I do know that they're at the finalist stage. Yeah, I think. I wouldn't be worried because David Lee has been in the league is coming from inside the league and like what I think L.A.F.C. has built. The point is David Lee will set the tone and the style. And so they are doing the work they're going to be doing behind the scenes, whether they have the coach in place or not. It's not like they have to wait to make sure that it fits whatever they want. Like David Lee is going to set that from the top down. I love this, which is we've got Instagram reporting in the chat. Matt Duell says Henry Kessler posted himself at Frisco City Hall.

not joking yesterday FC Dallas signing coming up that's amazing there's been a lot of Instagram reporting I don't have seen you guys have seen the thing making if you're an L-A-FC fan

you've seen this that Christian Espinoza's neighbors for somebody's wife's neighbor to Espinoza's is stoking the fire for Espenosa and L-A-FC which I'm getting a lot of text

from our guy Travis at Happyfoot Sadfoot saying you're a hack why can't you do reporting like this by the way if this move happens and you report it and you don't credit Christian Espinoza's wife's friend's friend, then you're dead to me. So I'm looking forward to that as well. I think there's a chance you could get one of the Happy Foot Sadfoot Peace Prizes because they seem to be handing out a lot of them over the last few days. Every time I'm on Instagram, it's just Happy Foot Sad Foot Peace Prize.

They've given out like 500 of them, which I appreciate and I love. It's one of the best shows out there. Henry Kessler's from New York, went to UVA, played for New England and St. Louis. I don't see any reason he'd be in Dallas otherwise. Although apparently he was at the Cowboys game, I wouldn't be shocked if Henry Custler was friends with Brandon Aubrey because they're like the same human being. But I have no proof beyond that that they actually know each other in any single way. I said, I had Walker tabbed as a Dallas signing. Obviously, he is going to Toronto. I don't love Henry Kessler on the contract he was on for St. Louis. I would say he'd still be an upgrade right now at centerback for what Dallas started last year. And so the bar is pretty low there. And my assumption is

coming off the deal he came off of in St. Louis that you can get him on a more manageable deal right now for a team. And that's not a bad signing for that team. I agree. Andre Zanota in his one of his, I think, ed of season press conferences, I believe he like said, hey, we're not signing another center back this winter. Like, so it would be rare for. for somebody like that to go out of their way to say like something so definitive and then sign somebody. And again, maybe they signed an end of the roster guy. But I think his point was,

hey, we're not going to spend big assets on a centerback. Okay. You are tweeting a lot right now. Do you want to talk about any of it? Yes. Which one do you want to go with first? I believe there's a Dante Seeley thing. Yeah, we got to go. I teased that before. The Colorado Rapids, breaking news. The Colorado Rapids are finalizing a deal to acquire Dante Sealy

from CF Montreal in a trade worth around 2 million gam. This is a winger who had his career best season with Montreal last year. He had nine goals, three assists or something. He looked very good. He's with the Trinidad and Tobago national team now. He was a big time youth prospect for the U.S. youth national team at FC Dallas. He went to PSV's second team for two seasons, ends up coming back here, finds his footing with Montreal.

He looked really good. And now, after one year in Montreal, on the move again, Colorado Rapids, rabbits are very excited about this one it feels like a lot it feels like a lot for dante seely for unproven like yeah he had one good season that feels like a lot to give up for nine goals and two assists you could argue that the team was so bad that if he's serving to hafa navajo and playing off paxton arinson and he has vines and cannon or whoever else making runs around him that those numbers go up and now you're in a what 20 all goals comp which is worth paying for in major league soccer but doesn't it feel like they have played like they spent on teddy coup d pietro

they've spent on paxton arson it just feels like they've spent in this level a lot of times and if the idea is well we're willing to do five of them if two of them hit that's success for us then good on them but it just feels like a huge risk to take once again in the same position sure um i see it in the other way as if with montreal it's a good valuation but at some point or any of these reclamation air quote reclamation projects like again this was really well done by Montreal to identify Dante Steeley give him a chance and give him the runway in the first team he was absolutely one of the very few bright spots in a bad year

if you're a Montreal fan like are you thrilled about oh that's a whole other conversation so that I would actually argue this is probably his beak sure yeah yeah I mean I mean I don't think so because I would bet on the pedigree and the talent um and one thing the rapids are excited about is Matt wells in his system he wants inverted wingers so a left-footed player playing off the right right-footed player playing off the left well that's Dante silly and that's what he's really really good at so that type of synergy should be good again i get the get the price tag maybe it's a little bit more than you would have hoped but getting goal scoring wingers

here or abroad that's not cheap um so we'll see all Ultimately, whether it does end up being worth every penny, but this is, again, a 22-year-old who just had his best season ever, and the bet from Colorado is that wasn't the peak. That was the start of his early prime. And the bet from Montreal is, hey, we think that was the peak. For Montreal, it's a no-brainer. It's a big number for a guy you spent nothing on,

but Montreal is not in a world right now where it feels like they're attempting to put together a competitive team. Like we're having two different conversations here, which is in playing the fantasy game they're playing, did a good job in trying to win soccer games and be a better team they did not but that doesn't seem to be the focus of the team right now and like getting two million allocation for dante sealy is a crazy number is what i walk away with um but good on the colorado rapids for trying to spend and this also fits what they want to spend on like this these are the type of players they value

you don't have to use the international roster spots so you can continue to sell that or rent that out you make a little bit of money on that um potentially because of of some of the guys you've brought in the contracts there already on are not that bad. You've got a little extra space in the salary cap that you could use the lease and move and all that type of stuff. So, yeah, it doesn't overly excite me,

but I can understand it to an extent. What's the other one? I don't even know what the other one is. I'm about to get fully surprised. Are you ready? Yeah. Orlando City is finalizing a deal to sign Paraguay International Goalkeeper

Carlos Cornell. Yeah. I love this move for Orlando. I like it for Carlos Cornell as well. I'm glad that he's staying in Major League Soccer. On his day, one of the better goalkeepers in the league. He's, I think, floor is above average. And then on the right year, he can be a goalkeeper of the year finalist.

He was awesome for the Red Bulls in their run to M.S Cup. If Orlando gets that version of him more consistently, this is an A plus signing. Even if they just get the output that he was for the Red Bulls, what, the last four years as their starter, that's still really good. So I think the floor is high on this one. And moving from Pedro Gallese to Carlos Cornell. is about as seamless as you get for this team. And now they just don't have to worry about or think about goalkeeper for a long time.

Yeah, I think we said this one when he got let go. I think this was one that we like put out in the ether. It was interest. Yeah. Well, it just made sense, which is it's a veteran, MLS veteran, South American international. For him, he's trying to break back into being the starter for Paraguay. And so a move like this makes sense because it'll be slightly comfortable.

and I would argue I can't speak he's fighting through it he's fighting through it I would argue that he's a little bit better coming off his line covering space which should make life easier for Jansen and whoever his partner is which has been an issue for Orlando

for years now and Gaiese he's boomer bust which I would never want in goal like be consistent and don't make great saves fine Gaei will save a game for you and then we'll give you the five zeros that they had over the course this year and other times yeah um so i think this is a pretty massive upgrade um gaiese overall in his run in orlando was good at this point of his career and particularly

the the way the last couple months went this is a pretty significant upgrade for allando city um and gaiese was on a pretty hefty salary number so i don't even know if this is going to be much more of a spend from orlando which i think again makes it makes it this is just an a plus survey it's a really good sign um is it tam do we know what it looks i'm i'm i'm pretty safely assuming tam okay uh everyone's obsessed with your ability right now to skeet and be on the show the problem is is doing three social medias while answering questions they could just copy and pasting things from you know if anyone has a hack for for tom uh to help him out okay we had russ bucket in the discord originally who said uh oh sorry we were going to do philly union replacement but i think

we moved on from that one we did we did we did we hate on it a little bit yeah yeah let's do walker zimmerman though because we haven't talked about walker at all um we've been arguing about his value in where he'll fall uh you were the one who broke the news uh what do you what do you make of it and what is it yeah walker zimmerman finalizing a deal to sign with toronto fc i like this a lot for all parties for toronto to go from roasted and whoever the hell else that they've been playing at centerback over the last i don't know four years kevin long Again, I think that Long has been fine. Roestead was bad.

Petretta was bad, and those were two very highly paid players. To go from those guys to Walker Zimmerman on the field, first and foremost, is going to be good. This team, he fits well. I don't think that they're going to be playing the highest line in the world under Robin Frazier, and he's going to get to do what he does best in defending really, really well, particularly airily, and it will make whoever plays next to him better. And I think that that is another point of value on this signing. off the field

this is a team that has been rebuilding their culture particularly over the last 12 months after Robin Frazier took over his head coach Jason Hernandez becomes a sporting director

that the lead CSL after Bill Manning leaves and rebuilding people in the front office rebuilding people in the locker room and oh yeah finally being able to buy out in Sydney and Bernadeschi

so to go from on the field let's just say roasted to Zimmerman huge off the field Bernadeschi's vape to Zimmerman Zimmerman who is who is well respected when he was at Dallas as a young player.

He goes to LFC's expansion team is fantastic for two seasons, goes to Nashville and lays the groundwork for everything that they've done on and off the field from 2020. No, he's not peak Walker Zimmerman. But guess what? Whatever percentage of his,

when he had five years in a row, Best 11, five years, it's unheard of in this age of MLS. There's 30 teams. Just mathematically, it's really hard to do that. Five years in a row, Best 11. Just because he's not 100% that level, he's i think he's still quite a good player in this league and i like this for toronto very very much

yeah i i need to see the number on it but i agree with you my big thing with it was it it had to be a two-year deal anything longer than that i think you take the risk of you don't know where his career is going and where it ends up with you and you end up potentially holding the bag on it um last year was the least minutes he played in major league soccer since 2015 when he was still back in dallas now those some of those were you know odd circumstances the concussion all of that some of that was national team he was with the national team with the gold cup he played one time i'd be surprised if he was a part of pochitino's group but it shows how they're valued how he's valued and what people think of him but all the stuff you're saying is right which is tfc are still five steps away and walkers and

women right now makes the club better on and off the field and they need to start doing that and I think the Georgia Mahalovich trade was a part of that. And I think signing Walker Zimmerman is as well. If they think they're getting defensive player of the year type stuff, I think they're going to be pretty surprised. I also felt like at Nashville, he struggled a bit with the system in the way BJ Callahan changed it. And I think Robin Fraser wants to be a little bit more possession.

I say all that in saying, I think his partner is really, really important of like, what is the pairing you're able to create for him? But the floor has come up for this team. he's a better signing for them he makes the team better um all the things you're saying are true the debate we were having was is he a dp does he end up on a dp deal does he end up on a high tam deal and i didn't know how much um like solid ground he had to negotiate off of because i didn't know if anyone was really going to give him that deal this one makes sense i thought it would be a team closer to win now but it still makes sense for toronto yeah and and even in a bigger picture like i just

the centerback changes. But then in midfield, you have Siflantis and Georgi. Again, whether Georgie is an inverted left winger or a 10 remains to be seen based on what else they do. One, looking to use a DP spot, probably a number nine. But the idea of changing over your spine for, let's say, into DP9 to Georgie and Siflantis and now Zimmerman, that is a year-over-year goal-up. And there's no reason, like this team, as wants to be a playoff team, they have, they

did the hard part of waiting. out a lot of bad stuff to get off the books rather than digging them deeper with short-term solutions and pulling assets forward, they sat through that difficult period and they should be expecting to push for the playoffs this year. And when you have Walker Zimmerman Seppwintes, Georgian Mihailovich, that's a good starting point. Richie Lurea, obviously very good and some other good pieces here. They have much more to do. Corbino is here on a permanent deal now after the loan was made permanent. They still have more work to do, but I think this is all really good start if lazar stepanovich plays alongside walker zerman i'm fully sold that's the only way i'm fully

sold if it gets him uh on the field real quick before we get into our next discord question brandon by uh i think he reported signing with the portland timbers correct i love brandon by i love his game everything the timbers have done at fullback for the last five years like we want to be the most attacking and then they can never defend brandon by at least we'll play two ways a little bit uh i assume right now it's kind of like a like a prove it deal for him because he's struggle to get on the field and struggle to say healthy. This is a smart under the radar move for a Portland Timber Squad. Yeah, I like it too.

This is just a good MLS player. And if you're able to do it, you do the signing. So for me, pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Portland are going to be busy in the near future. So stay tuned on that. Brandon By is the first. He won't, he'll not be the last signing. Moving over to Inter Miami, we got this from RansoFest in the Discord.

Quote, how is Miami's roster position to handle the MLS Cup winning bonus that seemed to hit the galaxy pretty hard last year. It was a good question. I believe that they'll have, they need to figure out, let's say, if Bangar Kramoski's purchase options gets picked up this month, this is just pure speculation,

but the way to get gam into the team is through sales. So whether it's that, or whether it's an intra-MLS trade, that I think is going to be important, but this team had some game left over from last year. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they weren't at zero,

like the galaxy were coming into this year. they they aren't in a bad spot in terms of that every year for this team they need to regenerate the gam piles to get all of the international spots for the players that that aren't domestic that that they will have in this team but they still have a DP spot open even Rodrigo de Paul is the second behind messy they still have a deep spot open Ian Frey signed a new contract which I think is important Sergio Regulon that deal went official today and I've reported as C.L. Merlo first reported that Fekundo Mura is a free agent right back that that's signing with the team as why Gont leaves. What's going to be really difficult is keeping hold of today Allende.

Even, you know, River played her in for him as well, but he was on loan, and this was already a tan player on loan. And he's done nothing but increased his value, particularly around here, scoring more goals than anybody ever has in a single postseason. So how do you keep him without it being using a D.P. Spot? And that's going to be a difficult one for them. But I think other than that, they're pretty well set up here. Yeah, I mean, Wyingott coming off is a large portion of money. there's a couple other players that they could let go or move on. The other thing is with the bonuses you get, a Jordi Alba and Sergio Bous gets leaving means those bonuses are not going to hit next year for you

because their contracts are no longer on the books. And I don't know how many other players, because there are so many loans and redone deals, I don't know how many players have the natural here's all your add-ons if we win. And then they all hit at the same time, hence the LA Galaxy, starting to try and shed roster. it feels like this team's built a little bit different. Ian Frey did just get a new contract, so that would sort of be your version of taking care of him

and giving him the opportunity. As you said it, I sort of started to scroll of like, okay, if I'm an MLS team, where am I trying to go pick players off here where they need, you know, they need to get rid of something. They need to bring an allocation money. I'd probably look at a Tyler Hall or a David Ruiz. Those would probably be my two calls. Ruiz is a good one, yeah.

Yeah, where it's like, okay, I'll give you a little bit allocation money for you to help you now. The problem with those is those are the players who help Miami State Cap compliant because they're homegrown and they're domestics and they're on the book. So I don't know that there's a lot of wiggle room for this Miami team, but they have a lot of space to be able to redo some stuff and they seem to be on the road to doing it. All right. Steph Fry re-signed as well.

So congratulations to him, one of the best characters in Major League Soccer. Let's dig into one of our big ones from the Discord and people keep putting stuff in the chat if you want to as well. We have Zizu as God who left this first before anyone else. So we wanted to make sure that we hit this one. He says, first time, long time, salute to a WFAN, a legend. Now that we're officially in the offseason, I have a question which has been kicking around in my brain.

I've seen players on MLS rosters who are still relatively young and age that are not yet good enough to be regular for their senior team, but likely too good to get anything out of playing in Next Pro. While that gap can be solved by loaning them out to a U.S. club, many MLS clubs generally seem reluctant to do that. My question is that would MLS clubs be better off letting their teenagers go off to play a year or two in college and then sign as a homegrown rather than get caught in this cycle? Granted, the equation is different for a really talented youngsters. They have options abroad, but it seems like it would make perfect sense for an MLS club to be able to loan their players through university to gain valuable experience, especially in this NIL world. This seems like a marriage that makes sense, but I wanted to hear your collective thoughts on.

on this. So, Goss, I'm going to go quick because you know infinitely more than this than I do. But I will point out, MLS has allowed, and you clean up whatever I get wrong here, on the draft rules that you can draft them stash, essentially. You can draft a player, and then they stay in college for a few more years. So some of this, it's not exactly what the question is asking, but the spirit of that question is already existing. I think, for instance, the Colorado rapids have, I believe, two of the three highest goal scores in college soccer this year, the rapids have already drafted two of them in previous years. So that's something that's starting to happen, but, but guys, you take the foot. Well, it doesn't apply to your players,

though, is the problem. Because if you let your players become draft eligible, they go to college. Someone else can draft and stash them. You don't really have controls over that. Exactly. It's a great question. It is something that even before the loosening of NIL and all of this, I talk to Jesse Marsh said to me like back then 10 years ago when the Red Bull started to try and push players in he was like especially the way college soccer was set go live away for four months having experience become an adult like socialize and play some physical soccer twice a week for every once in a while there is a huge belief I think for some MLS clubs that college coaches maybe don't play the styles they want and don't set up the games they want and players

actually de-learn what they are set up for and how they want to be um For the most part, I agree with everything this says. And I do think we had Sasha Sorovsky and Brian Vise on this show a few months ago. And in them talking about trying to reset the college system and how it works, this was a huge part of it. Allowing players to sign homegrown deals and then go to college, I would love to see it be a bit more established loan where it's like, okay, you sign a three-year deal. And then that allows you to be in college during that deal where we're going to keep you on our books and cover whatever money you do. it is a i think critically important thing for a lot of these young players and the loan setup is tough because a team that you are loan to it's what we're seeing i'm just going to be frank

about giorina it's like as a club i have nothing bought in with you you're not going to be on my team if you do well i have no background with you thinking that i need to help develop you i have no relationship with you and so you kind of throw these kids in at the deep end and a USL championship team, their goal is to win the game on Saturday. It is not to develop this young player. If the player helps them do it, great. But that's not exactly a perfect system.

It will help players get better. But I do think that college soccer is a secret cheat code that U.S. soccer and Canadian soccer can use if they're smart about it. And that's why I love this question. And I think you've seen proof of it. Like, I think you've seen proof of the clubs who do it well are able to get players back out of college

who are really, really good, especially if they have relationships with the right clubs. you had one in here from the YouTube chat I do I do from Andrew Hilliard what club do you all think will climb the standings the most next year based on business so far I feel like cheating by saying this but it's the LA Galaxy

like even before Glessness I would have said the Galaxy and they hadn't made any moves yet but just bringing back Ricky Booch for a team that stabilized themselves like over the last couple months of the season they were good not great but they definitely weren't bad by that point of the season so I think that's an easy one And then one that actually has things to do with signings that have been made, Toronto.

Like, I just think that Toronto are going to be just a serious, at least a more serious, more adult team than just like what they've been in the past. And they're going to be competitive. And they had been at times in the last few years. But I think this will actually be like a real year for Toronto. So low-hanging fruit one for me is Dallas, because if Dallas played the way they played without Lucho the whole year, they would jump. That's my version of that one for the galaxy. The two I'll say real jumps, I will say the New England Revolution in Houston. Like, whether you think Houston's business is going to be great or not,

and we have a lot of people asking about Houston, so if you have anything you want to update there, let's do that after. But no matter what, it's more talent and they're better. Like if it's not elite DP talent and they miss on some of these signings, they're still better off than the threadbare roster that they were playing for the first four months of last season, including not really knowing who their starting keeper was, not having true starting centerbacks,

and having three attacking options, across four spots every single game, game in and game out. So in my mind, Houston's in a better spot, even if they don't nail everything. Yeah, I think that's a good chat. And so they've got Guillermo coming in, the DP Winger that I've reported. They're working on two more Tam signings at the very least. So that right there are going to be like three real additions. And what we've talked about Houston previously, the thing that hurt them the most was

Mikael leaving and not just him leaving but that deal came together yeah like days before the season started um so and he was a best 11 defense exactly right like either one would have been really difficult losing a starting center back days before the season started or losing a guy that you know dollar for dollar you're not going to be able to replace because of how great he was for how low his salary cap it was which is all the reason why like it was just an unfortunate situation you have to take that deal for the player the player wanted all of that so this year they're going to go into preseason with the guys that signed obviously last year they're going in a preseason with hopefully in their minds three key level signings at at least let's go to homer here who asks a lot of questions the one we

decided to land on was why does mLS not address the elephant in the room where the regular season does not matter for the most part i get the sentiment and you're probably generally correct but maybe this is my own coping mechanism you muted yourself in the middle of that which is a coping mechanism. The coping mechanism for how many hours that we put watching these games and talking about these games. The regular season needs to matter more, and I think it will when the calendar change,

when it goes to divisions and all that stuff, or the single table, sorry. I do think it still matters a lot because of seating, because of home field advantage in playoffs, which is something that I hope we never lose. I never want there to be a neutral venue for a final. I love that Miami got to earn hosting this game this year. I love that the Galaxy got to host the game last year.

year, that is the biggest argument for the regular season, mattering. And at the end of the year, we're always, like, early in the season, you can always make up ground, right? Like, we know this. But also, by the end of the season, the white caps in San Diego are level on points. And you think of, like, that's, that's an extra draw instead of losing over a 34-game season. So while I understand, particularly for fans, I do understand it. Like, there's not a ton of urgency if there's, if, how long it is and how many teams are in the

playoffs but the seeding is what i'm hanging my head on yeah i think that the question is valid and i don't there is no answer to it and the reality is with the attempt to create more volume the league almost devalues it even more by making it a three game playoff and adding more games and then it's like what did we play for to get to this then have to play seven more games to get to the next thing and all of that um and i think it is a huge issue and i think it's a huge question mark to have the other part that makes it hard is you have so many games that lead to what plus everything else in between leagues cup conca calf competition open cup whatever it is where it's like teams go and come and they're in and out and in and out and it feels like the games in the middle

don't have the highest level of value there's not that build up and that's fair of like the whole week for the game whole week for the game injury reports and tactical breakdowns as if it matters at a really high level and then you get into the game and it's like oh yeah we actually threw out two players that you've never heard of before because we're focused on Wednesday, but then on Wednesday we're actually focused on Saturday. I think that's a huge issue as part of this as well. So I think they're valid questions, but I don't have a good answer of how to fix it. This one from Austin Gordon, I really liked, which was, how do you define ambition in the modern MLS landscape? Does it require, quote, ambition to win trophies? Those are two different

questions that are really interesting. You feel strongly about the second half? Well, you can't, you can't back your way into a trophy. You have to be ambitious in some level. Like, I guess it depends on how you define it because I think a lot of people would look at the level of like wage spend that the union have and say maybe they're not the most ambitious team. But what they're doing at the youth development level, what they're doing with their infrastructure, that is very, very serious. And that is ambitious. And that is the model that they've chose and know that they don't go out and spend $7 million every off season to bring in a new player. But what they've done on the youth development, on the coaching, in the game model, all that stuff. I find that to be serious.

Like, they didn't, they didn't win the shield on accident or, like, just because they got lucky that eight other teams had down years or something. Like, they earned that, right? And I, I, I, it's just, again, it depends on how you define ambition. And if that is only means spending a lot of money on wages and or transfer fees. I think that's totally fair, which is a, the transfer setup, the salary cap is, or salary charge is not the only way to gauge ambition for teams. But one of the things that I am starting to come to with MLS teams is if you are pushing for a trophy, do you go for the 5% to get you over the top or do you continue business as usual? And is your business as usual, we can get a good deal for this guy.

And when we do that, we're going to try and risk again five, $2 million players first, a $7 million replacement for the $10 million player we sell. Or let's go the Montreal side, right? Dante Seeley gets sold for $2 million. they're not going to invest that $2 million in the next player who can pick up where he left off and elevate. They're going to go and try and find five more players at $200K and see if one of them can be the next Dante Sealy. So that's what I'm looking at right now with ambition, which is do you have a focus on trying to win things when you have the opportunity inside your big picture view rather than just blinders on, which is we're a selling club, this is our job. Once this happens, we move that player on, we do the whole thing again.

I would argue Philly is in that second side, and while they've been really successful, that's the frustration with the fans. They had one player to bring off the bench in 2022 MLS Cup. Now you move three years on, and it feels like they are still one of the thinnest rosters in those big moments. They are better. Milano Lasky was an improvement. They've done a little bit more, but you're still within those margins where other teams,

and maybe they are more fortunate. We'll say, all right, let's try and bring Christian Teo and Gareth Bail in because we think we need two percent more and that's the two percent we're going to get yeah i think it's a really interesting discussion and and again it really does come back to where where you define it i like i like the way that you went like hey like if you're closer you're going to do that extra five percent or whatever and maybe i'm i'm a little bit too forgiving but yeah i like that as a definition gosh uh john conerson says is there any smoke to the sala m ls rumors um i got i got i got a pick a bone with with our with you and our own podcast yeah i feel like i got aggregated

and taken out of context by my own goddamn show. I just want to put that out. The moment I said something... How are we supposed to know Mo Salo was going to blow the whole thing up right then? The moment that I said it on the show, I regretted it, but I was like, listen, like, I was talking about it

in like two years down the road of like, hey, this is interesting, right? Like, most people would say Miami or L.A. or whatever for, like, big names. Like, just so you guys know, San Diego. Like, that's a team to watch in the future. Like, a week later, after I got aggregated incorrectly

by people in Europe, which was classic, after that is when Sala throws his toys out of the toy box because he didn't start two games in a row while he was contributing nothing to Liverpool and talks about leaving and then all of a sudden I'm getting, oh my God, he's coming into San Diego? That's not even kind of what I said.

I was talking about it in the distant future. So no right now, he is not a priority, nor is it realistic, how much money he makes every week, plus now it would have to be a transfer fee. If he leaves in January, I'm assuming it's going to be Saudi. If he leaves in the summer,

I'd still assume it's going to be Saudi, but just was putting connections with San Diego ownership and Mo Sala and really bad timing for me. It sounds like once Mo Sala said something, it's like he was walking alone, which feels weird because I thought this was bigger than a club, but it feels like someone gets upset and then all of a sudden they're out on their own. McDaniel 93 and 85 people in the chat want to know when Will Fernonse will be back in L.S. slow start to time in Celtic. I would be shocked if Wilfr-Fernanche coached in Major League Soccer, let's say it's right now, 2026, before the summer of 2028. I would be shocked if he coached in Major League Soccer within the next two and a half years. So that's my answer for everyone.

And I don't know if you've watched him coached in the past, but he's pretty good at what he does, even if it doesn't work out there. We have to get out of here. So two quick ones. Jacob says, gun to your head. Do the revs make the playoffs next year? Austin chimed in and said, are the musket man holding the gun to the head?

I think they're only allowed to aim up is based off what I saw when Diego Fagunda has celebrated with them. Your answer? Gun to my head. I'm just saying no because I don't have enough playoff teams to take out, but I have not done this deep dive and this will change 15 times in my head.

I will say yes. I think there's enough talent there for that team. And let's close with Frank Dolan, one of our favorites, who says, what teams do you think of the top academy that next pro structures in the league as of today and any players transitioning to the first team to watch out for this next season.

Anything comes to mind for you? Well, I would say, you mentioned Audrey Mimetti a few weeks ago. I don't think he'll play a ton of minutes, but I do think he will play in Major League Soccer, and I do too. I have said many times he is the next Tyler Adams in that he is that high level at that age, and I wouldn't be shocked if he's on the field.

The other one who's probably a step away is Yagupovich with Philadelphia, who is the best attacking talent I've seen. I think since Giorana, Kevin Sullivan would be the other one in there as well, but I think his game's a bit more straightforward. So those are like the two super obvious ones that pop out in terms of overall Academy's teams. Does anyone pop out to you?

Philly, obviously what they do with their next pro team. The Red Bulls, I think, have gotten back to doing the Academy Next Pro to MLS, quite good. So those are the two teams that come to mind, but even just trying to scroll like. Michael Spillane in the chat says Orlando. And I do think, I think Colin Guski will be a good MLS player. I think they have found a spot where they're going to get some solid contributors. and the idea, I think, that they do have one or two potentially elite high-level talents

that could be in the group over the next two years after Alex Freeman. Yeah, and again, I'm glad you brought that up. I think that particularly over the last handful of years, they've done really well in professionalizing and improving their academy structure. They've made changes. They've emphasized it, Louise Musie and Ricardo Marrera

down through the academy director, the coaches, and all of that. And you're seeing more fruits at a labor, and that's a good one to add. And I will throw in Snyder Brunel. I think he will play some minutes this year. And I think he has the potential to be special in Major League Soccer. All right. We're going to do two more live shows. So we've got one coming up on Thursday.

And I think we've got another one coming up early next week before Christmas when Tom has to take off and be jolly and Mary and all those other things. So if you enjoyed this, if you liked being in the chat, asking us questions, you can join us once again. We'll be here on YouTube. If not, if you're listening to the podcast, thank you. Once again, rate review us. That's how people find us. and please go listen to Kickback 26 shows that we've put out there and share them around to people you think might like them. Thank you to all of you in the chat.

Thank you to you, Tom, for being here and for breaking every single story that we had to cover on this show, as well as breaking them during the show. Now you all know. If you want to know when the news is coming, tune into our show. It's the moment we go live that Tom will have everything to report. Thank you to all of you for listening. We'll talk to you again very, very soon. I'm going to be.