SoccerWise - Matt Doyle On MLS Transfer Window Recap, Grades, Cashfers & All The Latest Moves

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Tommy Scoops is grooving his way to vacation after crushing the close of the MLS primary transfer window. So Matt Doyle steps in alongside David Gass to give instant reaction on all the late moves at the close of the window. Then they talk big picture about the window from the addition of Cashfer trades to top grades and favorite moves. 6:00 Instant Reaction To End Of Window Moves6:15 Willy Agada Trade, RSL vs Boavista & SKC Center Forward Depth Chart17:30 Frankie Amaya Loan To LAFC22:30 Robert Taylor Trade To Austin25:15 STL Bring In Xande Silva & Signing Simon Becher28:40 JMR Loan To CTL & Olger Escobar To MTL30:10 NYCFC Adding Australian International Aiden O’Neill33:10 Is Minnesota The Right Fit For Julian Gressel37:15 Ibrahim Aliyu Cashfer To CLB39:50 Thomas Mueller’s Fit In MLS43:00 Cashfers Changing MLS Transfer Market53:00 Doyle’s Transfer Grades1:05:15 Soccerwise’s Favorite Moves So Far Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What is up everybody? Welcome back to soccer wise. I am David Goss. If you are watching, I'm the one on the right or the left, whichever side you're on, because the big bro is in the house. Matt Doyle with us to fill in for Tommy scoops. What is going to be a massive episode for us as we are going to dig into All things transfer window everything Tommy has scooped Doyle I in the rundown was gonna write like a bunch of Grateful Dead jokes because he's headed to Grateful Dead shows in Vegas

Except I don't really know Well, they're no longer the Grateful Dead. They haven't been for 30 years. It's dead in company. And you think he would have specified? I do. If I had said that. I absolutely think as a true fan, he would have been like, RIP. Look, we spend a lot of time bagging on Tom because he just is the type of person who deserves it. But the work he did owning this entire transfer window, I am just endlessly impressed by this kid and the work he's put in. The funny thing about it is the job he does to break all of these stories, it's a job of constant communication with people in every walk of life in professional soccer.

And to do that, like you need to have a good personality. You need to be someone who people wanna talk to. And that's the thing that blows my mind about it because Tom is just a terrible person to talk to. He's just absolutely miserable. Like who would ever choose to take time out of their busy life to talk to this guy if you weren't getting paid for it? Here's the thing though, he always makes you feel better about yourself.

That's true. That's true. Yeah, no, that's a really good point. It's a very good point. I did an appearance, I think it was on an FC Dallas podcast earlier this week shout out to Ryan for having me on and Stephen Garrett for welcoming me and They asked some question of like how's it going? Whatever and it's like well in the great words of I called Tom pretty much every day and at some point you ask a generic Question, how's it going? What's up? And it's always are any of us good anything fine? And you're like well, at least that's not my mindset right now So I've got that going for me at a minimum and we love Tom for the second week in a row.

He's not here on a Thursday show when we like to rip on him. So he gets ripped on at the start of the show to his credit though. He will listen. I would not listen. No, if it was me, that was a way. So we will get a text probably within the next 24 hours, depending on how dead and co goes in which he will respond or we will never hear from him again. It is one of the two options.

There is no in between and I feel comfortable knowing that that's the reality no matter what. But as you said, Tommy scoops moving into a new house painting in between coats of paint, just ripping news as he goes along. I think he sent a picture of the folding chair in an empty room that the computer was propped up on that he was breaking news from and writing articles from. He crushed it in between men's league games to close out Wednesday night, which was the close of the MLS primary transfer window. We have talked about the schedule flip a lot.

It has not happened, but in all of that we have mentioned over and over again that you get two transfer windows. They have different time frames in them Normally your secondary window is four weeks long and the primary windows your big longer window when most teams make their moves Major league soccer of course being broken theirs is in this time of year So it has officially closed yesterday, which means could no longer register players coming in from other teams or from other leagues You can no longer register players coming in from other teams or from other leagues until the summer transfer window opens, which will be on July 24th,

which is the day after the MLS All-Star game. We are working on some fun stuff around All-Star. So I saw that and realized we got to find an ice cream sponsor because Austin Texas in July with Tommy scoops about to hit his main prime season has to have a sponsor behind it. So someone if you're out there and you work with any sort of ice cream company, preferably one that's dairy free for me but not for anyone else, we would love to talk to you here at Soccer Wise. So hit me up if you get the chance. We're gonna break down and react to all the moves that happened over the last 48 hours since our last show.

And then we wanted to talk a little bit big picture cash first coming into play cash trade transfers literally just transfers inside of MLS was one of the big storylines that's happened over this transfer windows. We're going to talk about its effect that we've seen so far, how it's functioned, how it's operated. And then we're going to talk through some of the big moves and some of the big moments in this transfer. You have an article, I believe, coming out grading everyone's transfer window.

Yeah, it's been in the editing process now. It'll be two separate articles, one for the Western Conference, one for the Eastern Conference, handing out grades and picking a best move for each team. And as you said, like this covers the entire primary transfer window, which officially opened the end of January. But we know that teams were making moves as early as like November 1st for this transfer window. So we're talking about like a six month time span of actually building rosters that I'm stupid enough to try to put a letter grade to. So, you know, I understand the assignment.

When I opened up today to be like, I just want to remind myself you start scrolling back and you're like, Oh man, this is forever worth of names. And there are moves that Tom has broken that have not gone official official yet in terms of being reported. So there are still even more moves outside of all of that that you have to try and figure out. But I'm out on Long Island where I grew up and I feel very much the nostalgia as I drive by high schools of like this is what I grew up in. And you talking about grades today did send that shiver down my spine of like did I fake it enough this semester

to be able to get a grade that I can convince my parents is an acceptable number without putting in any effort. And so when you brought up grades, it brought me back exactly to where I was. Let's dig in to our instant reactions to start to all of the moves that happened in Doyle. We of course are gonna start with the Lord and Savior. Will you got it? He is free. He is free and let us celebrate. Yeah, I'm so happy that this got done because I didn't I didn't think that Sporting Kansas City were

going to be willing to trade him and it was a trade. It was for GAM. I didn't think they were going to be willing to trade him within MLS. That's all the that's all the stuff that I had heard from from people around the league, but it's also more importantly stuff that I think Tom had heard as well. When you get Tom's sources telling you that, you can be pretty certain that it's true. But obviously, something flipped and I think they did right by the player because Agada wanted to stay in MLS.

For RSL, it's just a perfect fit Because we saw over the past couple of years, anytime this guy was playing and didn't have a broken leg because remember, he played through a broken leg in the 2023 season. He was awesome at finding chances, but also at creating space underneath in the way that like Jordan Morris does for the Sounders when he plays as a center forward. And that's the type of space that Diego Luna and Diego González like that is the type of space that they need to actually level up and become a team that's consistently dangerous.

So just like one check box after another. Most importantly though, it's like Diego Luna, Willi Agada, Emeka Anele, all on the same team. I'm in heaven. Like this is, these are three of my freaking favorite players in MLS altogether. And they're all going to get their shot because there's no other options around them. And that's sort of the opportunity I think Willi Agada needed was we have seen him create chances. We've seen him getting good spots. The finishing has come and gone more recently, but now he knows he's going to be the starter, which hasn't really felt that way at KC ever.

Even, yeah, even when he's been on heaters and has never felt that way. Part of that was like, if Alan Pulido is healthy, you had to play him. And now you come into this year and you get day on your village. I think my surprise was for KC, I would have thought if they were going to make this move, they would have done it earlier to then be able to reuse the what they've recouped to go out and get deeper. But they probably got a bigger number at the

end and they brought in Santi Munoz on loan as well. So they also a little bit of a little bit of turmoil in that sporting Kansas City front office in terms of who's making the decisions. So the process hasn't been straightforward. Yeah. So I mean, just the fact that they got it done and they got that allocation cash that they can put towards probably fixing the defense a little bit more in the summer window,

like they're not going to make the playoffs this year. But they do have the chance to create sort of proof of concept with guys like Jovalich and Garcia and the Russian winger whose name I'm blanking on right now. Shippe. Just go with that. Yeah, Shippe. But also like Jacob Bartlett is he's starting number six.

You know, Jake Davis, I think the world of him, he is the Roger Espinosa air. Like they have, I think some answers from within that they're trying to make long-term answers. And this helps in that regard. To bring it back though, as you said, with Agata, the finishing has come and gone. It feels like that he has 24 goals in six assists in 4100 minutes across all competitions, which is about a goal every 150 minutes or so. If you do that, if you play 2500 minutes and you do that, you're talking like 17 goals.

Like this is a guy who I don't think he's ever gonna be in the running for the golden boot really. But this is a consistent 15 goal score if he stays healthy and if they play him through the inevitable slumps, which Peter Vermeese was never really willing to do. Did you draft him this year? I didn't. You didn't stay locked in? I don't think I did.

I might have. I haven't checked. I just assume I'm running away with the title again for like the third or fourth straight year Yeah, for sure. We did a little update on it earlier Everyone is tight in the same vicinity except for Morgan shout out to Morgan who got the worst opportunity because we all drafted everyone in already Would you say RSL are a top four contender in the West with Willie Agada in the team?

I would not. Healthy? I would not. I would not. They've just looked so ragged through midfield and the defense has been not as good as you would hope given that Glad and Vera I think are both two pretty good players and have a lot of reps together, but it just hasn't really worked for

them this year. That could end up being very wrong. The Sounders last year before Jordan Morris became the center forward were dog shit. And then he kind of changed everything. And getting a center forward who creates not just goals in danger, but space can have a sort of positive Cascading effect on the way the rest of the team plays. I don't think it'll happen to that degree But like it can and we saw it as recently as last year with another team in the West Yeah, I also wonder the effect of like

Confidence you'll score goals means you don't have to commit as many numbers Less players feel like they have to get in the attack. So now your rest defense looks a little bit better Maybe there's more balance between when the two fullbacks attack and when they don't I mean Katronus has to be stoked like yeah serving balls into a true center forward Who's always there and always an option and then everyone else can just be you know, a secondary piece off of that So it's obviously a great move for rsl. This all came in light of tom's like hourly updates about broke boys boavista Trying to get themselves out of the deal. I would like you to know that I had to google how to put the Not the dollar euro and european english pound icons in on a mac computer so i did the extra work for the

rundown there because one of the debates was whether it was two million dollars or euros and therefore in the conversion rate how much money was actually going the other issue was we don't even know if boavista owns the rights to bosnia right and whether or not they could even sell him at this all him from fire north, right? Yeah Yeah, Tom reporting that Dennis the closer who former MLS executive who runs fine or saying where's our money? Well, Dallas yells where's our money? Yeah, and I think Reggie can't interspersely yell and where's my money as well? I like it allows that taken as a whole it like I was skeptical of I Was skeptical of I

Was skeptical of that reported Move for the Boa Vista striker being a real thing I always kind of in the back of my and will never be able to prove this because nobody involved with it would ever admit It but in the back of my mind, I was always like that's leverage They're using that as leverage to get somebody in MLS whether it's Orlando City or Sporting KC or maybe somebody else that I'm not thinking of to actually sell or trade Willi Agada or Duncan McGuire I that like that's

Because like if you look at that guy's the Boba Vista guy if you look at his track record It's not the track record of a DP. Yeah. The number they're saying is $2 million. So it was not a blow it out the water designated player, crazy signing. Like it was a, you get what you pay for. I, I wonder though in terms of leverage who looked like they had more leverage 24 hours ago while RSL was like, we think we're going to sign him, but we can't get them to pick up the phone. No one knows what the contract was agreed in. I don't know that RSL came out looking strong position and I think with Bosnick being in the house

Apparently he took the medical and a tour I don't think he flies from Portugal to Utah for all of that like I think in an ideal world They would have just done both Yeah If if he is what you're talking about right which is 25 doesn't have a great goal-scoring track record Okay in leagues that have sometimes translated, but not always at that number, I think you just pick up Willie Agada

and Bozeman can say like, we're a better team than we were. And now we have some depth and some positional flexibility to maybe go to up top and change things around or whatever. Would have been my guess. But my thing is just if you're doing business with Boavista at this point, it's like kind of on you. Yeah. So I understand trying to get a deal and we'll talk about standard liaising a little bit because it sounds like NYCFC is gonna sign their captain.

And it's like you are looking at distressed asset clubs and seeing what can we pick off them. Great. But if that's the business you're in then the other side of that business is sometimes the bumper falls off when you pull out of the parking lot. That's what you're looking for. And that's the conversation There's a cyber truck parked right across the street for me right now talking about bumpers falling off I think if it goes up about five degrees or down five degrees, it'll just melt Yeah, just make sure to stay far enough away. I can hit up some of my Neighbors in Miami and ask them what they've noticed on the RSL side of things before we move on, Diego Luna's red card has been rescinded. So justice for screaming at people and trying to rip your leg away and using it

as an excuse to get to hit someone. I don't think Diego Luna should have gotten a red card but everything he did in reaction to it is what I would do. So justice for people who function that way on a soccer field and we get to see Diego Luna play which will be even cooler. I mentioned Santi Munoz coming to Sporting Kansas City to close out the window. He is a 22 year old US born Mexican youth international. He played on Ricardo Pepe's youth team in El Paso. Ricardo Pepe mentioned that to us in an interview and the two of them then went on to play in

like the 17 World Cups and everything So some kids were getting smoked in El Paso about 10 years ago By this group and anyone who obviously knows gold the dream begins one of the greatest movies of all time and goal to the dream Lives on not as good a movie and then goal three We don't acknowledge of course the star character was Santi Munoz at Newcastle So then Newcastle brought him on loan for 18 months and didn't play him It was like one of the weirdest stories with Santi Munoz at Newcastle. So then Newcastle brought him on loan for 18 months and didn't play him. It was like one of the weirdest stories.

He has not been a full-time starter, but he has started in League MX. He goes in as depth. It feels right now like Jovalic is pretty, once he's become the starter, he's been pretty consistent. And so I think for SKC, you were just looking at a cheap backup option without having needing a passport.

It just makes sense as a move for them while they try and figure themselves out. The plan here is to have Munoz and Mason Toy as your backup options at the number nine. That allows you to sell a gada for GAM. Jovovich, hopefully stay healthy and keep playing the way he has been because he's been awesome the past three weeks. And then you work Munoz in to a certain degree, you execute the purchase option, he scores four goals next year, and then you can sell to Chivas for four and a half million dollars because Chivas remains the dumbest team on the continent. This is all really well done.

One of the smartest clubs in MLS continuing to function at a high level. You did mention defensive reinforcements. I just want to say Yansen Miller is in the team. So we just want to be careful when we show disrespect to the great Yansen Miller and what he's done so far. We're going to give some quick reactions on some other moves. Let's start with Frankie Amaya, who now is coming back to Major League Soccer on loan to LAFC from Toluca

Of course originally got drafted as a generation Adidas Draft pick by FC Cincinnati when they were in the doldrums of being the bad FC Cincinnati Got traded to New York Red Bulls where he thought it would be a jumping off point for national team and then a European career It was pretty good in New York for him not elite. And he ended up getting a $4 million move to Toluca, which was probably a move that you just couldn't turn down correct for New York Red Bulls has not been a full time starter since he got to Toluca and LAFC brings him back on loan for the rest of the year. Everything about his profile fits the reimagination of LAFC, which is we don't really want the ball that much. He is cleaner in possession than most of the other players

they've brought in inside of that. But he has a good background in playing high pressing systems and he covers a ton of ground. So I really like the pickup for LAFC. I think there's like a 10 percent ceiling on this than what some of the other pieces in the midfield are, including, you know, Timothy Tillman, Mark Delgado. And what am I can do on the ball and the way he can connect.

And then your hope is he plays well, not too well, and then you're able to make the signing full time. And he's still only 24 years old. I had to check that twice when I saw that. And so I think it's a decent move for LAFC, especially this late in the window. I think he's a good progressive passer. I've always liked him as a potential number six,

like a guy who could play is like a real back point, but he's never gotten the chance to do that. It's always been kind of a box to box thing with the Red Bulls. And then Toluca spent like $30 million last year in the summer when they brought in two guys over him. So he never got a chance with them. I think he'll be good for LAFC. There are other teams that I think could have used him more, but long term, if they can hang on to him, this makes a lot of sense for them because I don't think there's another move in his future.

I think he's an MLS guy for a long you know another 10 years now and that's the type of guys you need guys like that to win consistently in MLS although I would have said the same thing about Kellen Acosta when he got to LAFC and started playing LAFC are a churn team not in a negative way like LAFC like to know it's a negative it's a negative at this point like I don't know if it is because it keeps cash fluid for them to be able to make moves in moments like this where it's like everyone else has all their DP spots filled everyone else has all their money allocated yeah but the reason they have to make a move like this is because they didn't keep Edward at two ester or Jose Cifuentes like they they just like they have there's been so much churn that they have to scramble on the last day of the primary transfer window because they're like, oh shit, we can't complete a progressive pass.

So it's like, I understand what you're saying and like John Thornton, I think, is a really good general manager, but it feels like a lot of these moves are trying to give Steve Turandolo not just tools he needs, but tools he's willing to work with. And that's where like it's, it's not six, one half dozen or the other. It's like a real kind of

like emergency defense type of game state for I just use like six different six different metaphors. I feel like I'm Andrew Weebie right now. This is if you want to you could subscribe to Matt Oil's sub stack in which he gets to write whatever he wants and use as many metaphors as he needs to. The whole thing is a metaphor, right? Isn't it called tactics for his own? It is. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah, there you go. And it's your opportunity to play free for the final 15 minutes of the game when you're chasing goal. I would say if I'm LAFC, I'd rather have Amaya than Atuesta

in that group, the way it's set up right now and the way they've played. No chance. I'd probably rather have Sifuente. No chance. If you didn't have Delgado and Tilghman already, then okay, you can make the argument for Amaya. But they don't complete meaningful passes out of midfield this year. And Amaya could help with that maybe. We know for a fact Atuesta helps with that. We've seen it over the course of his career, including this year with Orlando City.

I think he's among the league leaders in assists, and he's also, in terms of progressive passes per 90, I think only Biscuits is ahead of him, and maybe Kubas in Vancouver. That's a tough thing to replace, and they haven't done a good job replacing it. Yeah, but he wasn't going to play because he doesn't do the other things that they want him to do. So if Amaya does 35% of what he does, but he gets on the field, I think it

makes you a better team for LAFC overall. Let's go to our next move here. Robert Taylor heading to Austin for 750,000 allocation money, potentially overall. So it's 450 this year, uh, headed to inter Miami, 250 next year with a potential 50 add on. He's 30 years old at this point. He still has a year left after this on his deal with an option year at $325,000 for a guy who scored a ton of goals last year. I was shocked to see this happen late in the window. What did you make of this? I mean, he's a good player. He's at his best when he's running on

to through balls. We saw that instant connection that he had with Messi two years ago. Austin doesn't have anybody who could hit a through ball. I think they're like dead last in the league or among the bottom five in terms of total through balls. So it's a weird fit on top of what's already a weirdly fitting front line, because Izuni and Vasquez, I think, are both really good players. But it's not a three if you're playing those two guys together.

It's more of a two, like, okay, but the 4-4-2, they've had zero pitch control. It's not a roster that makes sense together, even though I think there's always a logic to, can we collect as many good players as possible? Okay, let's do that. And it's like, Taylor's not just a good player. He's a good player on a great contract. So it doesn't appreciably change what I think about Austin FC as a whole Yeah, it creates depth as you said in positions that you already have but for an imperfect team That's looking to fill holes, which he doesn't also

I would say if this deals out there and open I would have thought someone else would have made it because Austin doesn't desperately need him. But the reason I also was surprised by this was on his contract, I thought Inter Miami would just keep the same, but that's a lot of game. Like they ended up getting a lot of game and they must be, you know, between Messi and Tadio Allende and um, to Alaska, Segovia, Fafa Pico and Ben Hakimovski They obviously think that they have enough guys who can play on the wing where the game Makes more of a difference to them than you know, the fifth guy on the depth chart Yeah, it is like we're right up against the number two

You know if he costs six hundred and sixty thousand over the next two years they got 750 like but you still have to replace the player But it makes sense with the moves. They've been able to make basically now It feels like any young player who doesn't know where they're gonna go You just say do you want to come play with Massey on loan? Yeah for the year and you can get them for an affordable deal and they could probably give you a decent chunk of what they've Done so it's been a pretty good I think window overall for Miami. And this continues that the next move is John Day Silva heading to St. Louis for roughly

250,000 allocation money split over the two years. He's in the final year of his deal, a slightly just on the edge of being a Tam deal with an option for next year had not been playing a ton in Atlanta. This is an underwhelming move for St. Louis where at this point back against the wall they haven't scored in five games like they had to do something and I don't think he's a bad pickup. I think on his contract he's probably going to play close to that level for this group. He's a little more aggressive in possession

although he's mainly a back post finisher as that winger player And so they still need creativity But I guess it's just another option to throw in the box and they don't really have players who are super Well, I wouldn't say comfortable but want to be in that wide channel and come inside most players in this group want to be in The top, you know in zone 14 and connecting on the. And so it gives them a little bit of a different option. Overall, I think for St. Louis, you probably felt over the last two weeks that they started to panic and say,

we just have to do something before this window closes. Yeah, I think that's about right. I'd be surprised if John De Silva moved the needle for this team in any meaningful way. We're gonna have more to say about that later on in the show just about St. Louis' struggles, I think, are less about the players they acquired and more about the fit with the new coach. That said, with all of it, I feel like Atlanta this decade has had a habit of making players look worse than they actually are.

So there's a decent chance, like there's at least some chance that John De Silva is actually a very good player and we'll start proving that on a weekly basis with his new team. Because Atlanta is a mess for no reason that I can really put my finger on and be 100% confident like this is why. But like that team's a fucking mess every time you watch them play now. And it's everything from like sloppy first touches to disastrous rest defense, lack of attacking chemistry, midfielders who don't fit together. It's like one check box after another of like, what is wrong with this team? All of it, all of it is wrong with this team. And maybe, you know, I don't know, moving Shonda Silva, probably not going to fix it.

No, not at all. But when he first got there, first three months, he was awesome for them. So maybe the St. Louis gets those first three months and it was worth it for them. Just like they did with Marcel Hartl and Cedric toy shirt last year those first three men Simon Becher who they have officially made a full-time signing a smart move to Secure him local guys been really good for them guy. You're a big batch guy. I am a huge Billiken Okay, I did a show with the I can't remember the name of the show But with two St. Louis hosts who were fantastic. They were both SLU graduates and I kept talking about the Billikins.

Obviously as a huge Larry Hughes fan, like diehard Larry Hughes fan, I'm a huge Billikins fan and at some point one of them was like, did I miss something? Did you go to St. Louis? And I was like, no, no, no, not at all. Not even in the slightest. I'm just, I was a huge MVC guy arch madness all of it And obviously Larry Hughes is a legend So anyone who comes from slew the Patrick Schulte Simon Becher picture tear literal tears

In my eyes watching that last two here of the official and then we'll go Tommy official after this first one for you Kill Marshall ready sent on loan from Montreal to Charlotte FC for 100,000 allocation money. No option to buy. So this is just for the close of this season. Yeah, I have no idea. I don't know where he would ever get playing time for the Charlotte team. I, it's a confusing one. It's confusing, but it also is just an indictment right now on Gekil Marshall Ruddy's career

path. Yeah. He was given the chance in Montreal and he could not take advantage and maybe his agent pushed and I think for Charlotte, it's free depth. A hundred thousand. Clearly you have that money. It's free depth for a young piece and if he ends up being a spark and he wants to stay, maybe you can negotiate things, but it is a weird move.

The other one Montreal made was Olga Escobar coming over from the New England Revolution. Guatemala U 20 captain has come through the revs ranks as they've improved their academy is a good creative attacking player. I don't know that he has elite athleticism to play in MLS consistently. I mean neither do I think I still agree and I was going to say though, but if he can find enough support around him in those two spots underneath, maybe he can link them connect because Caden Clark does and Caden Clark also can't find productivity in those two positions. So it clearly

doesn't matter maybe where you are in that scale. Maybe it's a bit more of an issue in Montreal in general. But these are the types of moves they're going to keep making, which is like just how many shots can we get? How many, you know, lotto tickets can we buy to see what hits and what doesn't? Let's go Tommy official here. Let's start with NYCFC. It sounds like they're on the verge of signing or have signed 26 year old Australian international and captain for standard liege Aidan O'Neill, defensive midfielder.

Standard liege has gone broke because all European soccer teams are broke mainly because of American investment firms which is sick. So like that's all fun. And NYCFC went shopping for this one and found it looks like in your prime starter to bring in late in the window. I think the number is rumored around $3 million. But obviously it hasn't gone official.

So we don't know except Tommy saying it. So we trust it. And it feels like a pretty good ad for NYCFC. It does. I can't say that I've seen like, like I've probably watched him with Australia maybe once or twice and you've probably seen highlights of a game of his with but like, I don't know anything about this player other than if you're good enough to start at D-Mid for a good Belgian team, you're almost certainly good enough to start at D-Mid in MLS and NYCFC need that. They loaned James Sands out, he got hurt. It seems clear that even if he's healthy by this summer, he's not going to be in New York for much longer. So they need someone to play that role because as good as Jonathan Shore has been this year,

I don't think he's actually a six. I think he's more of an eight. And like it was a gaping wound on this NYCFC team. So I think that'll help their structure. And hopefully out of that will finally come some progress with Julian Fernandez and Agustin Ojeda who they spent so much money on two years ago and now it's under two different coaches. I might owe Nick Cushing an apology because Pascal Janssen has not had any better luck

making these guys not suck and NYCFC need them to not suck and nycfc need them to not suck nick cushioning on a paid vacation right now live streaming this show i expect to see sorry nick in a couple moments this is a position of obvious need in that also you've you free up justin hack to play center back again if he needs to where he was good last year you probably make keaton parks a better player because he has to do a little bit less work and now Can be more dangerous going forward like this is a cascade position I think for nycfc where when they've been good at this spot They've been great as a team and when they've been bad you've seen a lot of things crater I still think they need to fix the number 10 and all of that

But there's a lot going on with this group. It seems like a smart move for a team And remember with this team like they sold s they sold Santi Rodriguez for 17 million dollars this offseason. So they have, and we know it's CFG so you always have money, but they have proof of concept in terms of we can develop and sell if you get us the right players. Maybe that's what this is about ultimately with this move. Let's talk a couple MLS moves that have gone down. It sounds like Julian Gressel is headed to Minnesota. We have been talking about Julian Gressel trade for like nine and well actually for

five years because he's gotten traded many times. It's ridiculous. Especially not playing in Inter Miami. We don't know the details yet. A huge sticking point around all of this was Julian Gressel has one more year left on a roughly $1.1 million a year contract that Inter Miami doesn't want to carry and no one else wants to fully take on. So we don't know the details yet of how much Miami is holding and how much Minnesota is going to pick up.

As a player though, acquisition, what do you think of this deal for Minnesota? I think it's great. I think he's probably going to end up in the starting 11 for them at, at right wing back because they need, um, they need his creativity from that spot. And that's nothing against Bongi Longguana who's been fantastic about Bongi's a forward, right? He's a forward who's playing as a attacking wing back out of necessity and when he's out there they tilt so far to the left that it actually becomes predictable because the whole game

model is to build on the left side and then create penetration that allows Bungie to attack the back post for you know a low pull back across the six and I love it you can't do it a thousand times a game like eventually it gets sniffed out. So I think this gives them a little bit more balance, but it also gives them depth and flexibility in Central midfield like Gress is not going to go out there and be Diego Chara and they really do still need a Diego Chara type, but he can play you're you're ready to do

the job. You are the Macalela he can play. You're ready to do the job. You are the Maca-lele of the podcast base. No, I'm not ready to do the job. I don't know that I've seen a team sign the same profile of non-ability player like this where it's like, can someone cover ground? It's like, we've got a Will Trapp in the back if you need one. It's like, no, that isn't... Well, do you want Julian Gressel? No, that's not what I'm talking about. This is the easier thing to find. The Debbie Floreses of the world are easier to find than the Robin Ludd's and Julian Gressel's of the world.

I don't know if I agree with that because I think it can't just be Debbie Flores because if it is, you end up like Toronto, you know, at the very bottom of the standings. Like you need a guy who could do the diego You need a guy who can play diego chara like well Is mls legend because of his superhuman range and stamina But also that guy can freaking play right and they don't really have that dressel doesn't address that but he he also gives them the ability to rotate Robin Ludd and Joaquin Pereira it also like it makes it a lot easier to go to from because they play like a

3412 now they could make it a lot easier to do a 3421 And in like just change the shape a little bit and maybe become a team that could have more than 35 fucking percent possession every now and again that's the interesting part is obviously Gressel's game is the thing they don't do and They are really good at the thing they do enough that I think they can contend for MLS Cup this year but this starts to build plan B and I don't know that Gressel does it by himself, but it takes you on the road of

like, if you start to get them in the team, you build some games where you do look good in possession. Does that give you a clear idea as well what you want to do in the summer, and how you want to add to this group. So it makes a lot of sense for them. I think I'll be interested to see how much money they're carrying like going into next year. Like if Gressel is not a full time starter, you paying him $1.1 million to be on your team and maybe it's just for one year.

So it's fine because you've hit so many of these other deals. But that's the part I think that will stand out and be interesting for this group. But if you take a 35% possession team, you put Julian Gressel in it, it's going to shift and it's going to change. He also does have some experience though playing against the ball. And I think again him serving crosses in to their to their size to their center forwards or then coming inside and being an option to play off of can be really interesting. One of the other big moves that just gone down I believe finally official is Ibrahim Ali you 22 initiative player on Houston being I think it's a cash for to the Columbus crew

That's what we're getting in the chat right now. So I'm gonna check while I bring this up So are you leaving Houston permanently to go to Columbus? What's your reaction to this one? I Don't think it'll move the needle for either team if it does it's because Wilford Nazi is is just that good at If it does it's because Wilford Nancy is just that good at player development Ali you he looks tools II, but he never looked like an effective soccer player Can I give you the deets on this which is 450,000 guaranteed with? 750,000 conditional

That is a map that shows you what Ibrahim Ali you is which is he could be yeah That is a map that shows you what Ibrahim Ali you is which is he could be Yeah special the odds are he won't so we're gonna build all of it in to pure Whatever he actually does is what we'll pay for yeah I'm good with this for both teams because with Lawrence and Ali who's awesome with him coming back and can yonez coming back and Ali you not really able to play as a number nine at least not for Houston and Not factoring into that depth chart behind Ponce.

There's no place for this guy. Take your loss and sell him on for whatever you can get. It's smart to sell him to a club that has a really good recent history of developing toolsy players and to contributors and then you put all the incentives into that. I think this is... Look, everybody's going gonna miss on signings from time to time and Houston missed on Ali but they're doing what they can to move past it, collect a little something on the backside of it and get better players into the 11. So this makes sense for both teams.

And acknowledgement from Columbus of like, this is the group. Like the summer transfer window opens for the last eight games of the season. This is the group. Could you get a little bit deeper with a bit of a known quantity? You don't have to deal with visas and getting them in the country and all of that. He's filling a U 22 spot. So the salary is not there. So you put, you maybe end up spending a little more in allocation, which if he hits on these you're fine with, because if he hits on these, AKA he scores goals this year,

you're contending for trophies and it was all worth it and if not then it was 450k which is a reasonable move to make and then you try and figure it out from there. Taiyosi Olusanya went official for Houston so he will also fill in that center forward backup role for them and we obviously saw Andres score the goal this weekend coming off the bench. The last one here Ryan Raposo signing as a free agent for LAFC. Raposo hive right here. So I'm excited to see him back on the field.

I wonder what he's been doing for the last few months, but we can figure it out. Last thing to throw at you before we get into the big picture convo's Thomas Mueller. Tom reported this off the back. I believe Laurel Fahler in Cincinnati mentioned this and then it was Reported out of Germany as well that FC Cincinnati approached him with a contract offer or wanted to start conversations and he Turned it down. I assume it would be a DP deal. They have the opening You are I believe a big Thomas Mueller fan, right? Yeah, you have been stoked? I mean, I think he's a brilliant player. I don't really see how he would have fit for Cincinnati,

either in terms of how they play or in terms of their cap situation. Because even with the open DPs, they have that DP slot open because they needed every single penny of gam that they could get. So they had to go the two four two model. So I don't, I'm sure there were talks. I just don't see how it would have worked financially

unless they, you know, had, okay, if, if Thomas Mueller signs, then we're going to buy out Sergio Santos or something like that. Right. So like, it would have been great to see. I like the upgrade from Sergio Santos or something like that. Right. So, like, it would have been great to see him. Listen, I like the upgrade from Sergio Santos. It's a fair point. It might have been the end for Cory Baird.

Sorry, Cory. Yeah. But, like, it would be great to see him in MLS. I actually do hope that he signs an 18-month contract with somebody because, like, you could see him playing in the Champions League and in the Bundesliga he's still got it you know he's not gonna run quite as fast or as hard or you know or as far as he did three years ago but he's still a high-level contributor and just a chance creation genius like he is the second best chance creator of the past 20 years behind

only the other guy who's an MLS. Yeah, he also I think Cincinnati would have been cool because there's a lot of other chance creation and he finds openings and yeah, you know, he's a finisher and like watching him float off of Evander and Denke and find the game because you assume coming over after a full year basically what we saw from his route of like physically you're probably not at your not at your peak so how can you sort of manage yourself and that's one that fits i also i like this off the back of i did the interview with chris albright last week down at ga cup and was like cincinnati you guys spend like is this who you are and he acknowledged like this is a window we see a window we're taking advantage of the window We are not saying the windows permanently open. We are not saying like this is where we sit

I like that you're hearing things even like this of like the acknowledgement of they're in first place They've got a chance to win trophies. They've got a chance to win MLS Cup every single moment What can we do to try and continue to keep that window open and push things even harder? And this is the type of move of like yeah We will buy someone out and we will make a late-minute You know last-minute DP ad because we think it's there and you'd assume that stays open going into the summer Austin Adams says thoughts on John Day Silva to st. Louis. We've already done that So anyone who's watching live you can go back and listen to the show as it comes out as a podcast now

We're gonna dig into some of the other topics, the bigger topics coming out of this transfer window. And the big story was the addition of cash first in MLS. That is the name we've landed on here at soccer wise. Do you all, you're okay with that cash first? Yeah, I'm good with that. Good. We could do a weebie thing and do about 47 minutes on it, but we will move on from there.

And as Tom has said very often, it's simple. It's just transfers. It's just MLS acting like normal soccer teams. For the first time, the details that we ended up getting were that you can use two incoming and outgoing per season. And any designation that the player has on their current roster follows them. So you can buy a DP or a U22 or a homegrown. They then

carry over to that. You cannot buy a DP and then buy them down as they move over. They have to at least finish the year on that set of contracts. And what we have seen so far since it came in is two main types. You've had DPs and homegrowns and kind of nothing in between unless Aliou ends up being that. And that's really been where it's fallen on the DP side We've had a Vander Lucho and day on Yovlitch on the homegrown side We got no buck this week Jack McGlynn and Teddy Cudi Pietro were the big ones. What have you heard so far? What have you made so far about the way this has affected the league? It's universally way this has affected the league. It's universally like 100% approval rating from people around the league, especially

the people running the teams because it takes away a lot of the guesswork of player evaluation because you're mostly getting guys who have shown some level of competence in MLS before. And that's a good way to keep your floor high if you're a certain type of team. And the Rapids are a great example of that. I think they went out and they bought Atencio and Cude Pietro. And those are two really good players. Like we've seen it repeatedly over the past couple of years from those guys. So it's universal approval rating. The wrinkle that's thrown into it is NYCFC sold Santi Rodriguez for $17 million to Botafogo. They brought him in on I think like three and a half.

They did not get any gam out of that because Santi was a full DP. He could not be bought down and he was not a young DP and when you sell a DP a full DP Overseas you do not get gamed no matter how much of a profit you make Portland sold Evander for 12 million dollars, which I think was four million dollars more than they paid for him Something like that. Yeah, they got somewhere between four and two and a half, whatever they ended up actually paying, they got gam for that, because you do take gam from DP sales within the league. So you're actually incentivized to keep DPS in MLS, you're incentivized to keep

the best players in the league in MLS. And I think in that regard, just looking at what happened with Lucho and Evander in particular, it's a massive success because those are the types of players that we tune in for. And then with the home-growns, it's like, Jack McGlynn was never going to develop into the player he needs to be in Philadelphia in that game model.

But they weren't going to be able to find the right home for him at the right number overseas. If they were able to find that, they would have done it already. But guess where he's a perfect fit? The Houston Dynamo. And the Dynamo never would have had the gam to offer a trade for Jack McGlynn, but they can buy him for $2 million gam to offer a trade for Jack McGlynn, but they can buy him for $2 million and have a 25% sell on so that they do develop him into a $10 million player. The union can say, look, we were smart about everything we did with how we treated this guy's career arc and you in our academy, you can be the next Jack McGlynn, you can be the next Quinn Sullivan, you can be the next Brendan Aarons. You could be the next Quinn Sullivan You could be the next Brendan Aronson all those paths are open to you. So it's just

It is the best I honestly think it is the best rule Adjustment that MLS has made since adding the designated player 15 years ago 18 years ago whenever it was Yeah, it it it is a move that has now come in that's created more flexibility than what the u22 initiative Which added the ability to add players but in a confined way Yeah Was set by the rule and teams are struggling to make it useful to them where this is I take the quote Charlie Boehm wrote a great piece about this at MLS soccer comm that I pulled some quotes out of but

Pat onsets quote about Jack McClain was like, with the new rule, without this rule it doesn't happen. And their ability to add a domestic player U22 initiative, which greatly reduces their contract situation and their salary cap situation, makes it even more valuable for them to make this move. Because now they can still spend on the cap in other ways or they could still go out and spend DP money. This is money that's off the books that they can bring in and now he hits the cap at whatever

it is, $225,000. They don't have to go out and get an international roster spot. All of that, I think, infuses more cash into the soccer side of things across the league because allocation money that comes in to other teams is going to get traded to the Montreals of the world and the Chicago's of the world in Colorado's for those players. Where what we saw with Georgie Mihailovic going to Montreal is like very rare that you'd have enough allocation money to make it worth it for a team to let you take that player on. And so we're going to see more moves across the

board. We're going to see known quantity moves, as you said, which are gonna hit the ground running even better. I love the homegrown setup of like, this player can play but not for us. But that's not us acknowledging they can't play. It's just- And that's one for like, if you care about US national team and Canadian national team stuff,

like this is just such a home run of a rule change because it creates a clear path for guys like Jack McGlynn and Noel Buck. And hopefully over the next couple of years, maybe even Jacque Marshall Ruddy, stuff like that. Guys finding the right spot for them to develop and ultimately raise the level of not just the league, but the national teams as well.

Yeah, and it's fun for us. We like watching these players be good at soccer and watching them on the field. I think everyone's excited to watch Noel Buck play for San Jose. We haven't seen him play really in two years and so to get guys like that on the field or to get a Jack McGlynn in the right system where you're like the best left foot in the league now gets to play in a high possession system where he gets a ton of touches and he's just serving balls over the top. That's going to be really fun to watch and so a lot of this works. It also creates more opportunity for MLS teams in that Portland was not up against the wall with Evander they had options They could force teams externally to bid against teams internally and that's been MLS as whole like bugaboo is we don't want to have

Competition between our teams because we don't want to raise prices on ourselves. It's why the discovery list even exists so that Thomas Mueller is not sitting at a table saying, oh, really? Cincinnati because Dallas offered me this. They've tried to avoid that with everything. But now you have this flip side situation, which is these teams are not stuck. These teams are not stuck. Vandor said he wanted to leave. Portland was not being held, you know, for ransom and having a French team come in and say, OK, well then we're going to go low bid. They had more options at the table and they his value to Cincinnati was maybe even higher than it was overseas. And so they were able to get the right deal. And Albright said in that same interview, we get more information on players like what you see on the field, but also behind the scenes. He said we're getting more data on a player that's inside the league because the way we

track players in this league is better than what we are able to do overseas. And contact points, people that have played with them, people that know him, people that know other teammates that have played with him rather than doing like 18 phone tags to figure out who happened to play in Norjul in that year. Five years ago, who has a friend who has a cousin. Like you can go to all of these pieces that you have connected to these teams. So it makes a ton of sense. It's been fairly successful so far. Mike Burns said Jovalich wouldn't be in MLS if it wasn't for that.

You talked about how well he's played, how funny is to watch. Like the league is better and Tigress is a little bit worse, which could come back to help MLS in the concapt champions cup final Vamos cruz azul No No, they're gonna get screwed out of that one at the end of the game as we expect Um, so those are the big ones that have happened. Uh ted kuti piatro another one as well In looking at the numbers with him

Like he got sold for a little bit more than what I just looked at Moses Neiman and Griffin. Yeah, I went for but like he goes to a place where he will play and can be a difference. It's gonna be a starter. Yeah. And DC gets more cash that they can infuse directly into the team day one, then it would have been obviously they chose not to and just trade for host he can money and that's it but they could have if they wanted to then what they get for a Moses Neiman or Griffin Yeah

We're kind of sending out into a bit of an unknown and less stable situation and with all of this You retain a sell-on fee and for MLS teams They have to figure out how to help players in their first step or two Get into stable situations. So the sell-on fees grow. Like the John Durans of the world, that's how you're going to start breaking in through huge numbers. It is not going to be that Caleb Wiley's of the,

Dominic Chonkwi is not going to become a $39 million fullback. Right. That's not gonna happen tomorrow. But if he goes to the right move and then you get two or three sell-ons out of that, that's how you're able to generate a decent chunk of money And so for MLS seems to have that and put players in the right place to play and show themselves is really really big

as well You put together your grades I did for all of the teams that we are looking at so I think you have a couple across the board from a all The way to what's the worst grade you gave? Well, you know, I work for the league website, so nobody got an F. There are a couple of Ds. There are a couple of Ds. I think both New York teams got a D, though that might actually not be true because of

the Australian D-Mid coming in. But like, those were pretty unimpressive like those were pretty unimpressive. DC was pretty unimpressive though. You know, if you actually line up a front three of Christian Benteke with Christian Fletcher on one side and Fidel Barajas on the other, I would watch that team for at least a couple of weeks. The only A plus I gave Vancouver Whitecaps, not for transfer move or trade,

but for hiring Jesper Sorensen. If you get a coach who makes every player on the roster 15 to 50% better, you're going to look like a transfer genius. Both Club World Cup teams got an A. I think Miami did really well. Part of that is Javier Mascherano has shown no fear in continuing to develop young players like Ben Hachromosky and Noah Allen, obviously, Yannick Bright as well, which is a carryover from what Tata Martino did last year. And you cannot be a sustainably great team in this league if you're not going to develop players. The fact that they're doing this now for the second straight year under a different manager

gives me confidence for the post-Chris Henderson era that I didn't previously have. So I think with the work they did in selling Diego Gomez for frankly twice what he was worth in my opinion and then replacing him with Talaska Segovia, getting guys like Alan Abando in On Loan, which is the Messi effect, right? You're gonna be, you're gonna have access to a different tier of player who are willing to play at a lower salary, frankly, because they get to play with Lionel Messi, or at least train with him. It's all really, it's done really well.

The one thing I can knock them for is like, I still don't think they have a best 11 caliber center back. Like Maxie Falcone, if he's that guy, has not shown it yet. And that's the worry with this team going into you know the heart of the season and Club World Cup and Leagues Cup after that and then into the playoffs and they want to and obviously CONCACAF Champions Cup tonight like they want to win all of that and I don't see them right now being

good enough defensively to do that. I gave the Sounders an A as well, and I know that that'll be controversial because his is Ferrera had a tough first couple of months, but this team is deep and talented and flexible, and I think they figured out some stuff on how to use Ferrera over the past couple of weeks, and they still have multiple U22 slots open that they could

add another young true number nine behind Misovsky and Morris, go out and get an elite young central midfielder or move Obed Vargas into a U22 slot. I know he says he wants to go to Europe and I take him at his word, but maybe he can be talked out of that for another couple of years. So they gave themselves depth and talent and flexibility. It's just really well done from both those teams. There's a reason why they're two of the best teams in the league. Yeah. And they've both, and I think this was the fear of Post-Cris Anderson, they've both used assets well to generate more space. The Robert Taylor trade, right?

The Seattle's ability to find domestic pieces so they can trade international roster spots to generate gam to go and get a Paul Arreola and a Jesus Ferreira. Whatever ends up happening on the results with those two, obviously Arreola tearing the Achilles or ACL, whatever it is, can't play. But like the process was right there.

Like those were borderline national teams. Those were good MLS players. Jesus Ferreira is a borderline DP in MLS. To add those under non-those mechanisms, that's the best Seattle ended up being able to do with what their ownership chose to spend right now, which I think is a frustration for some Seattle fans. I think it could be a frustration

going into Club World Cup of, did we put ourselves in the best position? And I think is a frustration for some Seattle fans. I think it could be a frustration going into club world cup of like, did we put ourselves in the best position? And I think for Miami as well, having the Yannick brights of the world that you've trusted enough to fill those roster spots and not have to go and spend 1.1 million on a D mid or 750,000 on a D mid has opened up the flexibility to then make some of these other moves. No Allen as well, Fafa Pico, even if he wanted to come home, whatever it was, like those are good pickups that they've made around the margins to put themselves in a good spot. So I think they both deserve to be in that. I would add on Vancouver, by the way, Jaden Nelson, it's like 300,000.

Yeah, he was like, he, he had never shown anywhere that he was this kind of player. And suddenly now he's not just a pressing winger. He's actually seeing passes that I don't think he saw before. And credit to the kid, development is first and foremost is gonna be an internal thing, but credit to the coach for putting him in a position where he could do that. The flip side is, I teased it at the close to the top of the show, St. Louis have kind of done

the opposite because I thought they had an A-plus summer window last year, but then they kind of undid that good work by hiring a coach in O.F. Melberg who does not seem to fit the personnel. And it made everything that, I don't want to say everything, but it made a lot of the stuff that was good for them down the stretch last year mostly revolving around Hartle and in Teuture it's no longer centered in terms of like Maslow's hierarchy of St. Louis City FC needs like like having good creative players is just not a thing that that rates for them at all and look like we're more than a quarter over the way

through the year, and I still don't know exactly how they want to attack. And so that's how, I don't wanna say call them a bad coach, but the wrong coaching hire can make previously excellent signings look worse. And it's almost the polar opposite of what happened with Vancouver. Another thing I wanna bring up, and I wanna put this to you, things look worse and it's like almost the polar opposite of what happened with Vancouver.

Another thing I want to bring up and I want to put this to you. I didn't like LAFC's transfer window in a vacuum for the at two Wester reasons, lack of creativity, anywhere reasons that I previously mentioned. If however, they finally break this fixation on Antoine Griezmann, because he's just not that into them, he's not going to come until summer of 2026, and they should not wait that long. If they break this fixation, if they part ways with Under, the Turkish DP winger who has not looked as good as David Martinez. Give David Martinez that starting job or him and or does some combination of the two and then use that subsequent open DP slot on an attacking midfielder.

When you have Igor Jesus and you have Mark Delgado and you have Timothy Tillman and you have Frankie Amaya who can handle the six and eight work and you get an actual 10 in there or at least like a free eight, an attacking number eight, then this becomes an A plus transfer window for LAFC. Because I do think if they get that high level creative player in there, they become the Western Conference favorites

or at least co-favorites along with the Vancouver and Seattle. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. I would disagree that I liked LAFC's window more than you because I think at some point you just acknowledge the reality of like this is who you are and this is how you're gonna play. I think the roster has come more in line with what Steve Truong-Lowe wants to play and wants to build. How is that a good thing? Rosser has come more in line with what Steve Toronto low wants to play and was that a good thing? Because that's because what's the point in the resources from like 2.2 points per game team to a 1.4 points per game team. But what's the wall I would I would say so far it's like you've played in concave champions cup. I don't know. So have Vancouver and Miami. Vancouver is the greatest team of all time. Do not compare them to Lino Messi with that.

And the Vancouver Whitecaps But everyone else has struggled I mean even Cincinnati has struggled out the gate even though they've been able to find their feet again and push themselves back up the Top of the Eastern Conference. It's taken a little while. You know what? I'm not sure Vancouver or Cincinnati have found results because they have an attacking midfielder like Evander who can just brute force a win with it. Where would LAFC be? They also have a Vander. They also maybe have the best back line in Major League Soccer and one of the best goalkeepers. So that's where Cincinnati's

floor sits. And then yes, they're able to get over the top with what a Vander can do. LAFC don't have that same setup. I don't disagree with you. If you bring a tendon, it's a very clear place to drop them. I don't know if they will or they won't. I don't mind their window though, besides that, except free and cozy to Farai and get him out of there. Amen. But like that's once they don't ever a Husky, they don't want to play.

I don't know that he wants to, but maybe they don't want to play that soccer. And so those, some of those moves are weird. LAFC though are arguably the deepest team in MLS when it comes to like MLS players that you don't mind being on the field Like even as you add Ryan Raposo They are how deep on guys we were like that player is not gonna lose you a game And if the Western Conference is bad as it looks that's top four at a minimum with the ceiling being David Martinez Explodes and blows up or I don't know Olivia's your route at some point looks like what he did this weekend Which is like a real soccer player and then you are still a top four team in the West and if you add to that

In the summer then you have the potential to be the best team in the West clearly going into the playoffs But two years ago what they were four seed a five seed and they made it to MLS Cup final Mm-hmm playing that way. So there's a roadmap there, but they were like they were like a fifty five point five seed like it was a It was a different kind of Western conference. Yeah. Yeah. The Western conference this year is is not not great. Great. Let me pull two things from Discord that will be very happy with you. One was Maya and Zeal, a Caps fan who said when I asked who the top transfer windows were said Sorenson to the C of the clear winner Even if we're only talking about players and then nick ag in the chat who has a red bull Emoji says I need Doyle's worst window moves

I always love hearing him gently rip things apart with the calmness and chaos and the tone Not only did you do that, but you did that to red bulls which for a red bull fan You have to think is like near borderline nirvana fan you have to think is like near borderline Nirvana. As I went through the window and to talk to look at you know what are my favorite moves I tried to find remind myself of the moves that were not the huge money moves and I was like okay let me go look at some teams that I remember coming into the window being like they do if they make one or two smart moves here or there I like what they've done and you go and look at the Red Bulls and it is just nothing Yeah apps for a team that went to MLS cup and we're like, oh, it's actually set up pretty well Let's infuse talent in this they brought in hack who I

Hope for Gauss theorem, but he is too slow to step and he is too nervous now So he is playing on his heels and hence you get peg lo heading a ball to himself past a former Bundesliga center back and getting on the end of it on the other side of him in scoring which has been tough. Shupu Moting is giving you probably what you expected like not from the profile but from us if we had done this show four months ago and I asked you what you're going to get from him This would probably be in line with it, right? It's in line with what I expected. Tom sold me a Billy Goods. Tom sold me a Billy Goods. All my Red Bull sources are telling me that he's awesome in preseason training. He's like

Forsberg level and I bought it. I drafted this scrub. Okay. Well, oh, did you draft him? I didn't even realize that. No, and like to be fair, he's bearing his penalties. So like, he's not a complete disaster, but he hasn't been good. So yeah, so some of these teams have been underwhelming. Let's get into our specific favorite moves, not windows overall. I will allow you to go first as my guest.

Chicago's window was an A for me. Jonathan Bomba, he hasn't found his goal scoring boots yet, but everything about him, this guy is electric. And they only paid three and a half million dollars for him. He's, what, 27, 28 years old? So he's in his prime. He plays a premium position. If you have a great winger in this league, you are well on your way to having a highly functional attack. And we're seeing that with the way Hugo Kipers has thrived.

And Kipers is fine, right? Like he's probably never gonna fully justify what they paid for him. But if you put him in a Greg Burr halter system with a winger like Jonathan Bomba, it's going to look really good. It mostly has for the fire who looked like a playoff team for the first time since I was just a little boy.

And then the other part of that is Jack Elliott has been just about as advertised on that back line. And I have a brand, so I have to name the MLS free agent as well as the the big DP Uh, I didn't write mine in the rundown. I see now, but I was Probably gonna put zincernagel down as well. Yep, 800 000 tam winger He comes inside and finishes. I think he could probably carry some more minutes at the 10 if they need to um, i've liked his ad to this group and I think it's Helped cover some of the fact that Bamba's not finishing

but making Bamba continue to look effective because he's a demon down the left side and draws all the attention and then Zinkernagel is like everything he does is additive like everything he does is about creating more time and space for the team and Like he doesn't need to be he's not high usage at all Sometimes he barely touches the ball Yeah but you never forget he's out there because of the way he's moving and what that opens up for Gutierrez and Bamba and Kipers just like a really shrewd pick up there and we did the Kevin De Bruyne a combo last week with Paul Tenorio

You should go back and listen to that episode because Paul was serving throughout the episode about everything. Um, obviously Kevin De Bruyne is a home run hit, but I just think all of these ads, all of these signings for Chicago have put them in a really clean place of, they could fit with a lot of different tents. Like Bomba, he can be on the end of things. He can come inside. He can link up with a player at Zinconago, as you said, similar, K and so I think it does if it's not the Brayna at least give Chicago the flexibility to have different options and Not get pigeonholed being like we need this exact player

Who's high usage right this way in these spots of the field and that's a really good spot to be in early in this bill Like it's still only it's one month intohalter. It's one window, yeah. Yeah. So it's a pretty good spot for them to be in. I'm going to go full nerd directly immediately. And I'm going Nashville. 400,000 combined for Eddie Taxeth, a free, and Andy Nahar, who's been a huge plus for them. Nahar is never healthy, and that's the question mark. But he has been so far. He has given them more than Shaq more for about $2 million less. They were able to then trade Shaq more and get some allocation money inside the league. And then tax F has helped turn this possession,

turn them into a higher possession team. He's a manimal on the field everywhere, connecting, closing down the game, helping them counter press higher. He's a huge piece of that central midfield, but to get him on a free is like a no brainer. Also a young player, could he stick around for a couple of years? That would be pretty special.

So overall, I think those two moves, if you combine them or put them separate, have been pretty big home runs. I agree with that. I also liked the Qasem move. He brings some flair on the ball and some creativity. I wish he brought a little more goal scoring because Nashville, they're playing really beautiful soccer

but Sam Surridge is not it. And Hani has lost his goal scoring touch to a big degree as well. And like it's Alex Mweal on one side and it's Kasem on the other. So like they're missing the big thing. So that's tough for them. But I agree with you on Nahar and Tagseth.

I just wish, I wish Andy Nahar was 10 years younger, man, because when he's healthy and he's flying, he's so much fun to watch. I'm gonna do the nerd thing as well. We already mentioned Josh Atenzio and Ted Cudi Pietro, lot of credit to that Colorado front office for being first movers on the cash first system. They saw where the value was, like they're not going to go out and outbid a team for

in a Vander, but they saw where the value was in terms of home-growns who have proven MLS skills and you know fit in the league. So the good job to them on that, but also they got in Shinozio Waziam and Ian Murphy to you know good to very good MLS caliber centerbacks for I think about 700,000 of GAM. And one thing that we should all have learned over the years is like you can never have as many, you can never have too many MLS proven centerbacks. So I think they just had a really strong

floor-raising type of offseason. And when you're a 50-point team, that's kind of what you need to do. And then the next step now is to hope that that Cudi Pietro, now that he's healthy, can get out there and help juice that attack a little bit and create some chemistry with Navarro and Georgie and whoever the fourth attacker is going to be because that's still kind of up in the air. It feels like they're five or 10% away from being really, really dangerous.

Kevin Cabral is a black hole. I've talked about it a bunch on this show. Kimani Stewart-Baines is ripping it up at Next Pro. Let's see him get a run. Honestly, it's time. Calvin Harris has played well in MLS off the bench for this team. I complained about Omer Fernandez, who I also thought had played well. Cudi Pietro is a clear difference maker and I think then a wu's eums

possession becomes can it raise the ceiling even higher because he's so clean in those possession moments one of the ones I wanted to throw in here is getting pep be out on a non DP contract yeah he is not a designated player in MLS but he's out playing his contract now for this team he's one of the best chance creators and the way he plays being central to everything makes life easier for Zaha to come into the team. It makes life easier for a Bata. There's still steps to go for the Charlotte team to be elite,

but to get this player in the door for non DP deal is pretty impressive. My understanding is it's a loan on a non DP number through summer, but then if they want to Trigger a purchase option. I think he'll become a DP when the secondary window opens in July Which if he keeps playing like this, it's a no-brainer. Yeah And it's why like some of these other moves we've talked about where it's like, oh loans here and there It's like see if you like this player if it's worth it before you take that risk early. And that's kind of what Charlotte got last year, even though it wasn't what they were going for. Any more to finish up on? I mean, credit to Portland for understanding the value of selling Evander within the league to get that gam. And then,

you know, David DeCosta, I don't think he's going to be an MVP caliber player, but he looks good. And I, I like that. I love what Bruce is doing. Yeah, everybody's laughing about the fact that he's trying to rebuild the 2023 revs. The 2023 revs were on a 65 point pace before he set a point record two years before that. Yeah. So it's like, I kind of trust the guy getting 600,000. He's also American. So you trust him even more. I hate that quote from him. But like he's looking for

the next job just in case. Noel Buck for 600,000. Like that's incredible work. And my hope is that this finally becomes the quakes sort of leaning into player development whether it's guys like Noel Buck that they purchase or guys that they get through the Superdraft or please guys who come from their academy. That's a plea on behalf of Kaelan Carr. Nice. Although they loaned Oscar Verhoeven out in the same window. That's fine, right?

Like if you do the assessment and you're like this player is not gonna fit We're not gonna cut him We're gonna find a place where he can maybe play and San Diego are really aggressive about going out and finding guys like that they got a kid from Philadelphia the Anis AID. Thank you the center forward so like I'm like that is part of having a Successful Academy is having the ability to say this guy doesn't fit our

game model, but he fits elsewhere. And we could loan him or sell him. It puts him in a better spot. And it is more it gets us more cash or allocation cash. And it gives us another pathway to sell to our kids who are coming through and They're sitting on what 75 million for boulderoo at some point exactly They just have to manage that and make sure that they don't blow that up I want to throw in a couple more one is I do think both of the rev center backs have hit Yep info Fonda and Sabios. I think they've done done a good job I talking about the loans and seeing how players fit. I like ganago. I like him more centrally

So I like what's happened over the last few weeks, but I could see a lot better a lot better in the 352 Yeah, he does not want to get he wants space to go 1v1 but not super isolated out wide like he then needs to connect and link off other players Um, so I I've liked those moves I think I think Gilbert Flores is a stud on a u22 for Cincinnati and they continue to generate Centerbacks, which is super impressive and then Philly Yovan Lukic. I think is awesome I think all the other moves have hit the Gluvanovich injury is unfortunate But like clearly the process was right there that he looked like he was going to be a successful piece to the team. Um, so I liked what they've done as well.

And I would throw in Dallas at the end, the last three moves they made in the window were Ruro Gide, who looks like a true starting center back in MLS, which they haven't had since what? Matt Hedges on this team. And Kofi and Kofi Tafari. Obviously, but they put him in the, they drowned him in the deep end and then asked him why he couldn't perform at a higher level. Kaiike I think is awesome. And then obviously Lucho makes sense and was a good move for them and was a move that wouldn't be possible without the cashfers. And while it's been disconnected at times, which I think is going to be hard for them to figure out,'s good He stole them points like they're already more sick there

They're already a better team than we thought they'd be when they sold Alan Velasco Whatever five months ago going into the season. So I think they've done a pretty good job as well. All right That's our show for the day We obviously are not talking conquer calf champions cup semifinal because that game is coming up later tonight I'm gonna try and put something together to have a little bit reaction for you tomorrow depending on how interesting the game is but I think it's gonna be pretty fun and pretty exciting. Me and Doyle are gonna get together to watch this at 4 a.m. Eastern Time when this game kicks off. It is going to be the

perfect capper to the weekend and get us ready for the or sorry sorry, the week and get us ready for the weekend that comes. I will have your review show coming out of course on Monday. We've got some more interviews lined up for next week and continuing to cover all of this. So thank you to Doyle for joining us. Pleasure to be here as always. And thank you to all of you for listening. And we all of course, hope for the best for Tom Bogert. If you hear him on the show next Tuesday, you'll know it went well. If not, you know, he went the way he would have liked.