SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Miggy Returns To ATL! Palace Intrigue At Inter Miami and Hassani Dotson Trade Destinations

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Soccerwise rolls on with the Tom breaking big news from all angles. First David & Tom celebrate the return of one of best in MLS history as ATL tries to turn things around with Miguel Almiron. Then they delve into the musical chairs at the top of Inter Miami (should Gass just take over?) And finally Minnesota United enter the offseason silly season with a few potential center mid moves. And of course the "Ice Cream Shop" is open with scoops galore from FCC's new defensive additions to SKC taking over the Greek market.6:20 ATL Re-sign Miggy But Standstill on Latte Lathe17:50 Inter Miami Changing CSO Once Again26:30 Minnesota CM Signing & Roster Status32:00 SW Dotson Trade Destinations38:30 RSL Chicho Replacement Update (from Superchat)41:50 Ice Cream Shop42:20 FCC Sign Two Defenders50:00 SKC On Verge Of Aris Attacking Takeover55:20 Whitecaps Sign Jayden Nelson Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody and welcome back to SoccerWise, the only place for all of your North American soccer conversation on the men's and women's side from top to bottom. We've got it all, David Goss and tommy scoops with you for another big episode it's been a big week for soccer wise tom's been breaking news about soccer wise for the first time maybe ever uh as we have moved up some charts and in different places we don't really know what any of it means all we know is we appreciate everyone's support we're having a great time doing the show and of course we we're going to continue doing it as well. Huge news.

Jordan Angeli is back in this hemisphere on this side of the planet. So we're going to have some more live NWSL shows coming up as well. Had a really great show last week with Taylor Vincent talking Naomi Gurma breaking news and all the other things. And of course, of course, we have oodles of MLS breaking news stories for us to dig into as well. But first, to start the show, if you are watching on YouTube, you will see the underline. If you're listening to the podcast, it says SoccerWise Basement Diaries begin. Tommy Scoops is in a new location. We've got the wood paneling behind him. We've got the old soccer pictures. We've got the delayed internet, Tom. It's a new era of soccer wise and we are stoked.

We are stoked. That is, you can hear it from my voice. I'm stoked. I love moving 10 times in 10 years. I love resetting everything up. I love figuring out new routines and having to think really critically about basic things or things that should be basic. It's a lot of fun. I have a lot of free time during the day to do these kinds of things. Yeah. Do you have any moving tips now that you're an expert? Just try to not think about it. That's honestly part of what i like i knew that even with we finally hired movers we could finally move it up in the world um the other nine times i moved because i

was started that as a broke college kid through um whatever the last time was i moved before this last weekend um and i would be doing it all myself parents and friends uh this time we hired movers and still i walked 10 miles on the day just mostly up and down stairs and everything too. So even with movers, I knew it was going to suck but I was like, the less I think about it it contains itself just to those 10 hours of things that stink. And then you tell yourself, oh, when that's

done, it's done. Whereas it'll still be another week of setting things up and figuring things out. So just the less you think about it, the more it hurts you. I like that you found a way to get the like, I moved both ways upstairs in the snow back in my day. Like I'm a true grinder at its core. I actually thought you were going to open up by just saying don't move, which is a piece of advice. I like to propose moves a lot. I'm like, well, if we live here in a year, what if we lived here and everyone else in my life is like, why would you move if you don't

have to? And I'm like, because you got to keep like, you know, I'm like a shark. If I stand still, I'm going to die. Like you got to keep moving. And it is not true at all. So we are going to enjoy Tom in his basement for as long as we have him. He's already angry looking at the chat

right now about his Wi-Fi and Ethernet and all those other things. Did they say it's bad it is not the best it's ever been but we'll work on it don't why would it work it's okay why would anything work it is okay but to everyone in the chat um and to anyone listening to the podcast right now or watching this later uh we have turned on some new functions on our youtube page so you can now add Super Chats to our show or stickers or thanks in which you pay and you push your comments up and we will answer any comment that we get via Super Chat.

And I'm working on some graphics and stuff to add to that. And we have, they told me to set a goal. So I set a goal of 30 Super Chats of $2 or more each chat. If we reach that, Tom will give us an analysis breakdown of his first career college soccer goal. And going forward, we'll create new things that we will do if we're able to accomplish our goals. So if you want to support us, if you want to get your comment in, if you want to ask

us questions and you want them 100% to be answered, you can go there and we're going to start talking about doing some other live stuff and some other interactive stuff, maybe via YouTube, to take advantage of that. We appreciate everyone's support on Patreon. If you haven't already, the depth charts, we are working on the next iteration of them. Me and Tom got the sneak preview this weekend.

They are going to be incredible. It is going to be something that MLS fans have never had before in a way to be able to break down going to be something that MLS fans have never had before in a way to be able to break down your team's rosters, to understand what they look like, what's available, to understand who's really spending money and who's not, which is going to be a little nerve wracking, I think, for some of the ownership groups and front offices across the league. It is going to be really cool, but the ones we have right now are fantastic as well. And we continue to update the depth charts as players come in.

So if you want to do that, you can jump in there. And we have our Discord, of course, where we are answering questions. We're talking to people. I've had some really cool convos this weekend about USL and NWSL in there. Tom's been going back and forth in the MLS chat. We got some live look-ins from the Independent Supporters Coalition meeting that was up in Minnesota that I know was partially hosted at Blackheart, which is one of the best sports bars in all of America, if not the world. Shout out to Wes Burdine, great friend of the

show. I was sad we couldn't be there. Maybe next year. Maybe that's something for us to shoot for, to maybe be a part of that as we go along. So it's a lot of fun in there. So make sure you jump in when you get the opportunity and just a chance to talk soccer with people that you like. Shout out to Bubbles TF, who was our first, I believe, Super Chat, which the question is LatteLoftNews, please. We will get to it. I promise you. We're going to talk Atlanta United. That is one of our big topics for this show.

But because, Tom, we got the question, I think we should start with Atlanta United, which we weren't originally going to do. We're going to move them up because we got the super chat in those comments. So, Tom, let's start with the positive. Then we can go to the other side of things. Let's start with the fact that Miguel Almiron is on his way home. The anointed child of Atlanta United won MLS Cup, went, set the transfer record, and now is finally officially on his way back. Yeah, that deal is being finalized.

Miguel Almiron will be conducting a medical, I believe in England, before he travels to the United States to sign for Atlanta United. It is an extremely exciting time. I didn't think that this was where Miguel Almarone was going to end up. It seemed like Charlotte or back to South America or somewhere else in Europe. Atlanta United had their interest, right, obviously internally deciding through their targets. I had heard of several other targets, and they kind of kept coming back to Miguel Almarone, and they end up getting that deal done. This is, I believe it's up front around 10 million plus some add-ons. I believe it's 10 plus 2,

but hopefully I'll get the final exact details when this deal goes official and gets done. But Miguel Almarone coming back to Atlanta United, I think it's an awesome story for the narrative, which is less important than I think that he's going to be incredible once again for Atlanta United. I know he's at the different point of his career. He's on the way down rather than on the way up, but nobody worries about his fitness. Nobody worries about his athleticism, the things that really slow players down as they get into their 30s. Again, he's still in his prime, and I want to say that. I think he's going to be an awesome fit for this team. The pairing with him and Alexey Maranchuk is a good one because Miguel Maron excels at what Alexey Maranchuk is not great at.

Maranchuk is not a super physical player. He doesn't have a ton of pace. What he does do is play brilliant through balls. What he does do is find spaces that are left behind by players like Miguel Maron who never stop running. Players like Miguel Maron who make defensive lines drop. Alexey Maranchuk is going to have a lot more space underneath the forward line, and I think that it's going to work for everybody. And just to put a bow in this, Miguel Marone is an awesome player. He's going to come back to MLS, and I'm expecting him to be one of the best 10 players in the league.

I think that's a fair expectation, and what a jump for Atlanta United to now have one of those players in their team for a team we already liked we already liked the offseason we liked the way last year finished the expectation was that guys like Grigerson would take a jump in year two and get comfortable that the midfield would solidify they got a DP in Matty Click who you could say wasn't a dp level for dc united that doesn't matter they've got another one on the roster that doesn't hit that spot for them to now go and get your greatest ever player a player who's still in his prime a player who understands the challenges of the league to like re-energize the fan base it's the perfect as you said storyline for chris henderson to come into this group for

ronnie dyla to come in this group and say that we want this to return to the Atlanta United of the beginning and then to have the face of that do it and still be capable of playing at a high level is massive I just think you take the idea of like they were probably going to go out and get me Miguel Elmiroan level player why not get the one that everyone's already in love with why Why not get the one who's already connected? You talked about the way he'll fit with Moron Chuck. I love all of that. And I love the pressure he can take off. He is not a true 10, but they played in setups where he was the creative force. And so if Moron Chuck is struggling and he doesn't get starts or gets hurt or whatever happens, El Miron can step in and be a player who can at least continue, keep you towards the top of the stand

and continue to get results, all that stuff. In the way MLS works, you need all of the DPs to hit for you to be able to get to the heights you want to get to. But Al Miron can carry large stretches of the season or the game for you to make life easier.

We don't know 100% how they'll be set up. I have a couple thoughts on that yeah but sabah i think now fits in really cleanly as well as like elmiron light he does a lot of similar things but he's not as effective of a player he's not as dominant we now get into the part we talked about all last year of like if you only need sabah 30 of the time he's fantastic in his role he just couldn't do it 90 of the time and carry the team in his role. He just couldn't do it 90% of the time and carry the team. Now he's going to be a threat that you have to account for in a year last year where they beat Miami and he was the only threat really that was being accounted for. So now his life gets

easier. It's a huge move. It's going to be special. I think that first game like at the bends, you know, it's going to be a huge crowd. You're going to have Almiro announced in the lineup. You're going to have him flying up and down that field at a speed. We barely ever seen a major league soccer. It's going to be pretty cool. Yeah. I can't wait because I, the crowd, I know they're going to come through and have just about the loudest that that place has been outside of winning trophies.

And I'm super excited for it. One thing that I would split hairs on, I'd still say Joseph Martinez is their greatest player ever. Nothing that we need to argue about like Sports Talk Radio, but I would put him slightly ahead. You got your Miguel Elmiroans. You got your Josephs Martinez's. You know, you got them. And then in terms of the way the team was set up,

I like flexibility. I like having principles that you do no matter what, but that they come across different tactical setups. So I still think that they would be 4-2-3-1, and then Miguel Almarone would play off the right with Maranchuk in centrally, but I'm sure that they will swap all of the time. The other thought is 3-4-1-2, where Maranchuk is playing underneath Almarone,

that's kind of playing as a forward, with hopefully the DP9 that comes next to him. And then that kind of squeezes out Sabalob Janice, but that also provides you more cover for Pedro Amador. Either one of them can play left-wing back. And it unlocks Brooks Lennon to do the thing that he's the best at in terms of getting forward and adding to the attack with an extra central defender behind

them. Matias, go ahead. No, no. Do we think Brooks Lennon's going to be healthy to start the year? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. But you're just saying in general over the course of the year? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good thing to kind of bring up. And I think that they could add another wingback, particularly somebody who does some stuff like him. And we'll see where that goes. First and foremost, they wanted to get the Almiron deal done, and they're still working on Latsay-Loth. And before going to Latsay-Loth, just to say, like, Matthias Glick, just an awesome addition.

He's going to, like, I don't think that he was quite DP level, but, like, he was still really, really good. And, like, that's splitting hairs, because I think he could be a DP on the right team. It's just DC United, it wasn't, like, again, he was always available. He was always good set piece delivery all that stuff is really great they're they're getting them for like 300 000 on the cap like this is if he was max tam i'd be like great signing they're getting him for 300 000 this is a

master class that's really really well done so latte love nothing new i'm sorry to say that i don't have an update i'm as frustrated as you guys are about this. Let me tell you that. And the people I talk to probably are sick of hearing from me. But the latest that I have is what Middlesbrough's view is. We've agreed to terms that like our side is done. That is not how the other two sides of this deal see it. They think that all three parties still need to come together to figure out the final details of this. And the bet is Middlesbrough, a $22 million US deal, new league record potential transfer. This is, I don't know, off the top of my head, Middlesbrough's record sales, but this would be a ton of money for them

to bring in. The idea is don't explode this deal because of haggling over some payments or haggling over final details, because that's where it is my understanding is the player wants to come my understanding is the player has tentatively agreed on personal terms or at least in principle and same thing with the club to club being agreed in principle why this is so nuanced and difficult is that those numbers change if they can't find an agreement on the final details. In so far as, like, if Atlanta is assuming Burrow is going to pick up a payment on something small, well, then Burrow's like, well, that's not the fee we agreed to because we weren't factoring in X amount of dollars.

And same thing with the player side. And same thing with Atlanta side being like, well, we're giving you $22 million. Figure it out from there. So that's still where it is. There hasn't been an update that he got injured. He came off. I don't believe that this is a long-term injury. Please don't quote me on that though. I haven't heard anything to suggest that that would kill the move. So it's just a staring contest. It's these all three parties saying, we all think that you're going to break first. And it would be a real shame if nobody broke and this deal goes away.

Because Atlanta United, this is longer than they wanted this to drag on. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, whenever it was that I reported Latsailov and Odoard were their two top targets that they were pursuing. And they were already making offers for. They wanted this deal done by now for whoever it was going to be. So that is a frustration. It is dragging on very, very slowly. Middlesbrough, from what I'd heard, were okay with the delays because the longer they wait, they already have the offer in hand.

Maybe West Ham or Ipswich Town or Southampton or insert a Premier League team that gets closer to deadline day, you get more desperate. Maybe another offer comes in. But this isn't a situation where the player is holding out for another offer. The player is ready to go. Everything's good. It's just that they're haggling over these final details. And it's been like this for a week, maybe more, honestly.

Reminder that Atlanta did have a backup that they were talking about in this whole conversation that if they have to, they could shift to. We still don't know if that'll be necessary. It's a groin injury with latte. Loth Michael Carrick's latest statement was that they don't know how severe it is. So that's something to watch out for. Middlesbrough Middleborough's biggest transfers ever. Adama Traore for 20 million euros and Ben Gibson for 16.9.

So either this is the trend will be the record. I don't know. Conversion rates at different times. If not, it will be right up there alongside it. I just want everyone to know that one of the greatest strikers of all time. Yakubu is still top five for this club. Shout out to Yakubu.

The yak eats whatever he wants. And I love that. And so it's something, it's something for this Atlanta shout out to yakubu the yak eats whatever he wants and i love that um and so it's something it's something for this atlanta team to monitor now one of the huge parts about this miguel almeron signing is he is expected to be in preseason so like again for this club they will have most of the pieces in place through preseason and while they want the move done because they want to hit the ground running because they want to contend potentially for supporters. Like we're talking Ronnie Dyla championship winning manager. We're talking about Garth Agra and Chris Henderson championship credit pedigree.

We're talking about Miguel Almiron championship player. Like that's what you're expecting. And so if you want all of that to happen, you want to be, have your team set as soon as possible. If you don't, there's still enough in this attack, now with Almiron in the door, that you probably can remain competitive, right? They had Chier be the starter last year.

They've done well to bring loans in last minute to fill spots like a Daniel Rios and different things like that. I think with the Almiron signing done, it takes off, if I'm signing done, it takes off. If I'm a fan, it takes off the nerves of like what's going to happen because it's not all on Loft's shoulders and he'll have the chance to settle in whenever he does show up. And if they do have to pivot and it's someone who's maybe not ready at the start of the

year, or maybe it's someone who ends up coming in the summer, this team's good enough to remain competitive through, I think, large stretches of the year without that DP number nine locked in because they'll have all these other pieces in place as they start things. You ready to go into the Game of Thrones of Major League Soccer? Yes, I am ready. So officially breaking news here on SoccerWise. I got the pink shirt on to say that I am now the captain of Inter Miami. This is my club.

I had this set up. I was going to do it as the first segment, and then someone sent us a super chat and paid to talk about Latte Lats, so we did. So I had to wear this sweatshirt even longer, and now I'm hot, and now I'm dying. I have officially become the new chief sporting officer of Inter Miami. Congratulations to me. And any questions can be sent my way. Tom, why don't you explain to us

what's actually happening right now? So there's been another shakeup atop the sporting structure of Inter-Miami. Raul Sinelli, who came in as director of football less than a year ago, is now not director of football. He is not having any impact on the final say of Sporting Matters. What he is, he has been moved to another role where it's a lot of kind of, I don't even know

what he's doing. It was just one of those, you know, he's going to focus on strategic partnerships with the World Cup and Club World Cup and everything else. So all of that is to say, Guillermo Hoyos is now the decision maker for Inter-Miami. He is the one that is leading this front office, is leading the first team decision making process. Guillermo Hoyos was Lionel Messi's former academy coach at Barcelona. Messi has called him my footballing godfather. They have stayed very close this entire time. And he came to Miami as an academy director of methodology when Messi came and that was

obviously driven by so this is Messi's guy that is now in charge so into Miami say that the moves were pre-planned don't totally buy that but fair enough that's what that's what they said I was told when the team was in Las Vegas Raul Sinelli got on a bus that was designated for only players and coaches and sources told me that there was an exchanging of words between Lino Messi and Raul Sinelli because he was not supposed to be on that bus. And not long after that, he has been reassigned. He is not working out of the first team facilities. He's working out of a different office.

And this just shows kind of the culture of what has been going on at Inter Miami. Because last summer, Raul Sinelli took over, he said all the right things. I'm here to work with everybody. I love Chris Henderson, all this. Well, while he was giving that interview to myself and when I was at the Athletic, I was in Paul Tenorio. While he was doing that, I think he was doing that from Chris Henderson's office because he immediately said, Chris Henderson, get the hell out.

This is my office. And had already told Marc Prezant, director of scouting, you're gone. See you later. Mark Prezant is now assistant GM at San Diego. Chris Henderson, as we just talked about at Atlanta United. And there was other staff that were there that have been moved on or moved out of the office. It is a constant culture of change in this front office. And it's been really unstable. And now Messi's guy's in charge. Some would argue, we have gotten it in our comments across all of our platforms, that there is not change, that the chief soccer officer is Lionel Messi.

And that part remains. And their musical chairs maybe are below that. He is obviously the greatest player in the history of the game. He's definitely the greatest player in the history of the game he's definitely the greatest player in the history of major league soccer he's definitely the face heartbeat center of inter miami um and so he is calling a lot of the shots maybe not all of them but it seems pretty heavily geared towards what he likes and who is he has relationships with and who works with him and i think it's's unfortunate for Inter-Miami in that they are clearly capable of great things.

They set the points record last year. Some people think that this chaos causes greatness because it keeps people on their toes, forces people to, you know, always be watching. And we have heard from millions of coaches and sporting people that that's how they like their teams to act. Others like for people to be in a comfort zone and people to feel relaxed and for there to feel like a safe space. And clearly that's not the method that Into Miami is going with. And it worked for them last year for the most part. We'll see if it works again for them this year. I think

it's very telling to come out of. Atlanta has signed Miguel El Miro and Atlanta has made this great move for click against the books that no one else was really out there making, that they're making these smart moves, that they have confidence in the next move they're making. They're ready to set transfer records. And you have someone there in Chris Henderson that you thought could set some really good things up at inter Miami. And I think they did. I think when you look at Phil Neville's last year and you look at a lot of the pieces that are in this team a drake calendar being a traded for draft pick that ends up being a goalkeeper of the year to go out and get some of these pieces to sign the noah allens as homegrowns like there's a lot of back end stuff on this intermiami roster that allows them to

remain competitive with all the injuries and internationals all of that that i think two of the people you just talked about were big parts of putting together they're no longer with the club and now you continue the churn and like we're on a timeline not only the club world cup this year and trying to do things messy is not going to play forever like you are on timelines with all of this and it feels like when you change things like this you reset timelines you have to start working again from the beginning and that's not what you want with this club. But your number one goal as a club top to bottom is to keep Messi happy, keep him engaged and make him want to be a part of this project.

And that is why I've been hired as the new chief soccer officer at Inter Miami. And I'm really proud of the role. I'm really excited. You know, every player is the same. I don't know the difference between them. And I'm just here to do the job, you know, one day at a time. Just grind an ear to the grindstone, one foot in front of the other, back to the training ground. No, so, yeah, like, this is not a new thing.

Like, the scrambling, the scattering that is going on at Inter-Miami, right? Like, Tata Martino, like, left for personal reasons. I reported that him and Jordi Alba had a big dust-up the day before their elimination in the playoffs against Atlanta United, and that things had kind of soured before that. Look, man, it's a lot of connecting the dots, and I'm trying to be careful of how I frame this

and trying not to take too many leaps, but you can just look at the set of facts that I'm laying out and telling you that is absolutely all true. Again, there has been a change in the front office now just like that they're like they said you know oh you know we want to work with Chris Anderson you know they're going to be great and guess what Chris Anderson and it was like oh you know he's not definitely going to leave and and guess what had happened right like so I think that you can just look at all that and use some deductive reasoning at putting these dots together Javier Mascherano's head coach

do you think that uh Messi, Bruce Getz, andba had, and Suarez had a good say in that? I would venture a guess to say yes, right? Guillermo Hoyos. I would venture a guess to say Messi is happy that this, that this guy is now sporting director, right? Like, again, I'm trying to not editorialize too much because that, that's where you can get in trouble here, but from factually, factual reporting is that there's been a change in the front office. There was an exchanging of words between Messi and Rossinelli a few days before this happened. And now he works in a different office. So I think you can connect the dots here.

There is a MoTeC near that office, though. So it's not a bad setup. You're still getting, you're still Israeli food adjacent. You can get good falafel and salads and stuff. So just throwing it out there for everyone in case you were worried uh quick shout out to nathan hale who gave us a super chat just saying test i don't know why i appreciate the support uh and huge shout out to john pash who said just um dropping here to support the great content we appreciate you

as i said we've turned super chats on in our um youtube so if you are listening to the podcast and you want to ever go watch us live you can get your chats in there and then we will answer them like we did with atayloth and if you're in here now or you're watching in the future uh if you come in live you can uh support us and be a part of that there uh as well which i really appreciate we do have a question from space kid who said any transfer news rumors or guesses on gideon zalalem no zero idea why this is coming up when we're talking about it? You haven't been in my mentions, guys. I've gotten this question from this person 8,000 times.

So, once again, I don't have enough tips. They paid $2 for it this time. Yeah, so money well spent. Sorry that – I wish I had more, but I don't, unfortunately. I thought – like I will say, I thought that he was going to be awesome at NYCFC and SKC. Yeah, me too. So, maybe there's still hope, but as of right now, I don't unfortunately i thought like i will say i thought that he was going to be awesome at nycfc and skc me too so maybe maybe there's still hope but as of right now i don't have anything nycfc have done that to me a couple times of like the ritual it doesn't move like oh yeah this is the i think juan pablo torres as well like good young player this is this is the spot for it to hit it worked with keaton parks though so credit to them they've been able to get their ones to

work um all right so that's Atlanta that's Miami those are two of the big stories but one of the ones we want to dig on in on was Minnesota United uh they were able to make a signing since the last show they signed Hoyeon Jung a 24 year old South Korean midfielder to add to their center midfield? I'm reporting that. I don't believe it's been announced yet, just to be careful. But it's happening. So it goes from I'm the rumor guy to now you've got to correct me when I take your report.

I don't want people to get confused. I don't want people to get confused that something's been announced. I've said it's not happening. If you watched our show from Friday and you saw our interview with two pro referees, Joe Dickerson and Philip Duutch, in the spirit of Philip Deutch, however, Hassani Dotson has asked for a trade to leave the central midfield for Minnesota United. So the potential is one in, one out. Tom, what do you make of sort of all of this altogether?

Yeah, these two moves were coincidentally, they've been working on signing Jung for a while, obviously. These things don't come up together that quickly. They knew that they were in contract talks with Hassani Dotson and that they weren't imminent towards a deal being reached, but they thought those talks were going to still go on. Hassani Dotson and his representation officially requested a trade from Minnesota United. And so there goes the contract talk. So the timing is very good that they get Ho-Yun Jung over the line here as Asani Dotson is looking like he's going to depart the club. So we'll see how that manifests itself. But they have Ho-Yung Jung in, Owen Jean as well

was something else I reported. and I would expect them to add another center back. So this roster looks really good right now is kind of my overall point. Yeah, I think let's start with Minnesota, then we'll talk about Hassani Dotson, who is now going into, as you said, his final year of his contract. They picked up his option on $550,000 for a guy who's been a pretty high performer, but came out of the super draft. So had to sort of make, has to get those next contracts to be able to get the raise. I was messaging with, shout out to Legend West,

about Kelvin Yeboah golden boot race. I like a lot of this team. I still need to see another center back signing to believe in this group. But the way Eric Ramsey shifted the formation last year to set themselves up with Carlos Harvey as that right center back that became a right back at times that made underlapping runs. Like it all fit together in a way in which I think there was an acknowledgement of how to coach to your team while sticking to your principles. And so I think you should be really excited if you're a Minnesota fan of like there's a clear vision, but there's also that level of flexibility necessary in a salary cap league.

That's a long season with odd weather in Minnesota of like you have to be able to move some pieces around. But to strengthen this group behind an attacking front three of Yeboah, Pereira, and Ludd with Tani Oluwashi off the bench, Sang Bin in that, Bongi a part of that, whether it's from wingback or as part of that attack, bongi a part of that whether it's from wingback or as part of that attack like that is a ton of depth and robin ludd is ready i think to have another huge year where it's like he's settled he knows his coach now like he has the ability to be a 10 and 10 guy in major league soccer at a minimum and i think kelvin yaboa will be one of the 10 or 15 best

players in this league and will be the centerpiece of an attack. Yeah, I'm all in. I told you this during the playoffs last year. I'm not coming off. I'm not going to let you spin me. And you know how much I love Joseph Rosales. Jefferson Diaz was a huge add last year. Dane St. Clair is a match winner and goal as well. It is central midfield and a center back in which I worry about this team. Central midfield, it's the ground coverage.

Can you protect those front three that we talked about? And can you protect Will Trapp a little bit as well? Good passer of the ball, reads the game well, is not the most athletic piece in central midfield. That's where it's frustrating, I think, because you could talk about Hassani Dotson being a pairing in midfield with this new signing or with another piece. You are now probably not taking the step forward they're capable of

if you're losing Dotson in this offseason, or you have to go back out and make another addition in that position. So I think for Minnesota fans, I said it to you last week, I think we were talking about standings and where you had teams. I had them in my conversation for Top of the West to start the year with the stability they have coming back, with the talent, out the, you know, hitting it out the park on Goss theorem stuff of bringing pieces in mid season last year that got to settle on their team and all of that. Hassani Dotson, if he does move, the assumption would be the next team is saying, we're going to

give you a new contract. It's what we just saw with Mark Delgado. Delgado left the LA Galaxy, was traded to LAFC, signed a new contract with LAFC to be able to stay with them, and probably got the raise that he was looking for. So in the Dotson conversation, when you're talking about what you have to give up, you have to remember that whatever team trades for him, it's probably not trading exactly for what you think Hassani Dotson's worth on the market,

because the acknowledgement that they also have to pay the contract has to come with it. I think we talked about it before the show. Mark Delgado is probably a decent comp. It was 400, 500,000 allocation money, plus that new contract. I think Hassani Dotson is worth more right now. I think he can give you more minutes in an MLS season. But Mark Delgado has one thing, which Sonny Dotson has not. So if we're setting the market at that four or five, 600,000 allocation money, maybe in their national roster spot goes the other way, something like that. Do you have teams or spots that you would expect to see him pop up? I think he'd be perfect for the San Jose Earthquakes. I don't know what their

allocation money situation is like at the moment because they did give $1.4 million for Chicharango, whatever the figure was to acquire 17 players from New England Revolution. So I don't know if they have room. If they do, God, this would be everything that they need because the attack is great. What they need is somebody who can cover ground, win duels, and connect with the attack. I think that Hassani Dotson would be awesome in a Bruce Arena system with this kind of front four ahead of him. And that's somebody that could help Mark Anthony Kaye as well because then he can cover more ground for Kaye and Kaye can do more stuff on the ball or have less kind of responsibility defensively in just terms of sheer blades of grass that he has to cover.

So I think that not only would that be a really good fit for Dotson, but the knock-on effect to the other players in this team would be very strong. I think that's a really interesting one. I like that move. Also, it goes to Bruce likes his MLS players, likes to bring in players who have experience. We have one in the chat from Michael Spillane who says, what about Orlando? I think over the last week, Wilder Cartagena, the news has come out.

He ruptured his Achilles. That is normally at least a year long injury. So he will miss the season most likely for this team. Their strength was Cartagena and Araujo as two center mids. Do you think they have enough flexibility to go after dotson and uh let me add into this and i put it in the chat um or in the discord cartagena was only on about 400 000 i believe so if they put him on the season ending injury list they don't get a ton of salary cap relief because he was on a great deal but they have a lot of space hope yeah so i think they'd be able to fit it it's just if again whoever

acquires asani dotson knows what the salary expectations are and so if you rate the player towards that level and have the salary space to make it happen uh those are two ifs again both of us are big fans of asani dotson's game so we assume that both of those would be true but obviously every sporting director every front office is going to be a little bit different in how exactly they value some of these players. So if they have the room, and they believe that he is worth whatever the figures that he's looking for, then that would be an awesome spot because of like you said, with Cartagena going down, I don't believe anything's been announced there. You can correct me if I'm wrong. But assuming that that is indeed what happened.

One, it makes the Cesar Araujo resigning, keeping him rather than selling him for, you know, 500,000 or whatever the number would end up being and just understanding, hey, we're probably going to lose him for free. And if we were just running this like a financial institution, we would take the money because that's better than getting nothing.

What they're prioritizing is 2025. We think it's much more valuable to have him in this team, try to convince him to resign, understanding that maybe that's unlikely and we're going to be okay if he leaves for free. The other part of this is there's rumors that Nico Ladero could go back to South America. If that happens, then you have the money right there between him and a Cartagena season and the injured list to sign a Sonny Dotson. So then it comes down to you believe that this player is worth the contract the long-term contract he's asking for and if that's a yes this would be another perfect fit uh Michael Splane said what I found as well which is no official report on Cartagena it's just reports out of Peru I believe where the game

uh was occurring is friendly against Atletico oh no he's, he's Peruvian. I think the game's in Florida. Atletico Mineiro, the Brazilian clubs are all here. Here being Florida, shout out. Here's an obvious one. Hassani Dotson's a Seattle native. Every Sounders fan got in our mentions the moment you reported this about, is it possible they have traded a decent amount inside the league?

I don't even know if it's a position of need for them. Right now, Joe Paulo is a backup. Yeah. In this scenario, it would be like, I mean, obviously depth and cover. And like, if you don't believe, I can't even say if you don't believe in Pedro de la Vega this year, you play Roldan on the wing because you have Paul Areola.

You don't even need to have Roldan be a winger in this depth chart. It seems pretty impossible for this move to happen. If you think with 100% certainty, an offer that's too good to refuse for Obed Vargas is coming in the summer, then you sign Dodson now. Again, I don't even think that they have the room because I believe Jeremiah O'Shawn and Soundred Hart had reported that they funded the Jesus Ferreira game just by trading international spots this year. Which makes me assume that they were like, let's figure out how we can make this happen and we'll do whatever we can. So I'm assuming that they stretched to their last dollar. Again, I don't know this as a fact fact i want to be careful to say that but i'm assuming they stretched to their last dollar

to get jesus ferrara paul ariola and kim kihi uh two other clubs i'd bring up nashville they've changed faces in central midfield not a ton of mls experience in there and i think he would add an element to them if brugman's healthy this year great that's kind of been one of the problems for the la galaxy one would be houston he is not a like for like fit for coco or achiache or any of the other players they're trying to fill but we've seen how flexible dotson is because he's a gamer and like he has elite athleticism he has great feel for the game we've seen him play at fullback on the wing. We've seen him play as a more advanced central midfielder.

We've seen him play deeper. So that's just one where maybe an MLS move is a little cheaper for them. And they're able to just get talent in the door and fill in that spot. I have said SKC every time a central midfielder becomes available so far this season. So that's one as well. I think he's one of those players on the right contract that you're like most teams in MLS should have. Most teams in MLS would want.

We got a question about Montreal. They've obviously signed two players from outside the league today. One Canadian, one Ukrainian youth international that both sort of play in that area as well. This just doesn't feel like a Montreal move because there's not really a flip move with him. Like he's not going anywhere after this.

And so he's kind of more of a win now player. And I'm not sure that they're set up for that. And San Diego, they seem pretty settled at that position. Again, he's a good MLS player with good experience who I think you're better off if you have him on your team than if you don't. And so you could see him brought in there. Before we get into the ice cream shop, let's start with this. Chase Garduno, who first asked if we'd be taking off clothes, which I have.

I took my sweatshirt off to expose my Inter-Miami pink shirt for my new job. So you're welcome there. Asks with his super chat, will RSL bring a new striker now or in the summer they're trying now they haven't ruled out that it might take till the summer um this is a good case study in how aggressive will they be and particularly if it's a player coming from abroad how hard are they going to push ownership like hey even if we sign somebody who's ready to debut 90 minutes fit the day the window opens we've played 24 games this season and they'll at most have 10 regular season games in the playoffs more likely is it takes a little while either in terms of visa or in terms of

getting up to speed where you're starting a handful of games and look like i don't know if i think rsl are going to be solid um if they're good enough to say we'll do an lafc dip they signed daddy buonga late in a transfer window um in the year that they won mls cup buonga scored once and that was the goal that clinched the sport shield but i think he started like a handful of games and then he was good in the playoffs they win mls cup and then bang he's the danny bwanga that we all know right now so i'm i know that they're they're gonna try now but there is a scenario in which hey if it doesn't happen we'll do it in the summer and that's the best case scenario the worst case scenario is um like this isn't billy sharp is probably not the right you

know player to name here but like he came in to the galaxy pretty much the first day that they were able to sign anybody after their transfer ban and it didn't impact it like he was good but the season was already too far gone you look at st louis last year that's a better example i was going to find one and we did st louis last year marcel uh marcel hardell and cedric toychard were awesome didn't mean a thing because they were already too far gone i don't think real salt lake is going to be anywhere near where Salt Lake was last year when they got those players. But that's the fear.

And if I'm Kurt Schmidt in that front office, I'm playing up that fear. If I have somebody I want to sign right now, I'm going to ownership and being like, look at St. Louis. We don't want that to happen to us. This is why I still think it's unfortunate that they did not win or get involved as much in the Jeremy Abobese sweepstakes. They obviously traded for Elias Manuel, who is more of a starting center forward than what they had last year. Anderson Julio just doesn't play the position for a full 75, 80 minutes. And so the question is like last year, they struggled to score goals the second

half of the year after they lost Andres Gomez and Chicho Arango got suspended and then struggled in his own right they're a better team right now on the field stepping on the field day one than they were as that team with Manuel with Marchuk now settled in with Luna with what we saw from the national team taking another step with Gonsalves being being there, being comfortable, I would stress less as an RSL fan. If you end up in a spot where it is a summer move, I think they are a better team than they were when they closed the year without having Chicho Arango be effective. They are not a top four contender in the West, though, as that group. So that's the question you have to ask. And then, like you said with St. Louis, how far behind are they when they get that player? And how long does it take that player

to settle in? And that's, I think, a lot of the question marks for this team as they go forward. All right. Let's dig into the mailbag or let's dig into the ice cream shop here. We do have mailbag stuff that we'll go over over the next few weeks as well. And if you are a Patreon subscriber, you can get into the Discord and that is where you put all your mailbag questions for me to answer on whatever shows we have or maybe mailbag full episodes. And as I have said already, like Chase just did,

you can add a super chat to our YouTube stream here and we will answer any questions or thank you or comment on what you say. Let's start the ice cream shop here, Tom, in Cincinnati, where it feels like finally there's some input instead of just outgoing players for this club. Yeah. And on recent shows, I think I was saying that the club were very close to signing a left wing back and a U22 center back. And then I think the next day was when Cincinnati finalizing deals to sign left wing back Danish player, Lucas Engel from Middlesbrough and U22 initiative center back Gilberto Flores.

So these are the two biggest non-Lucho Costa needs that they needed to figure out. And I understand why fans have been worried or starting to get impatient or whatever. But like, I just think that this front office has hit on so many signings and the coaching staff has improved so many players, or at least, you know, there have been few misses. You know, Bupenzo was one, Nico Jokini, I don't hang the Jokini one on them because it was either that or nothing. So what I would say is I like these two moves. I had full confidence that this was going to happen long before the season opened. Yes, of course, the preference would have been that they were in preseason day one, but a guy like Lucas Angle in his prime and anybody who's played these wingback roles

for Cincinnati under Pat Noonan have been really good from, you know, Barial went from this was a bad U22 initiative signing to, oh my God, this is one of the best wingbacks in the league. Luca Oriano started there and then before he got moved further up the field. Yamil Asad, who seemingly his MLS career was left for dead before he came to Cincinnati and was awesome as a wingback. So I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to this Luka's angle signing. And then Gilberto Flores is the depth.

They will not rely on him to be playing 2,500 minutes. If he gives you stuff right now, it's great. It's a play on a talented kid and for a future but the starting trio in central defense is teenage adabe matt miazga miles robinson that is one of the strongest groups in the league nick haglin now flores and powell as kind of the backups this roster looks really good and i have full confidence that a dp10 is going to come um if slash when luke jokosta leaves. What's interesting about this Engel signing and all of his numbers say that he's an aggressive fullback.

He plays high up the field. He creates chances. He loves to like his starting positions are really high. Is he is a natural fullback. And for the most part, those left wing backs have all been converted wingers. And so I think it's a really smart move for Cincinnati to take a player of that profile and say, can we get a little more stable defensively while still getting a lot of the offensive production?

What I would like to see is then take a flyer on attacking player that you think you can convert into that spot as a change of pace player and sort of say, like, we have Engel, he's our starter, he's here. But I'll give an example. I don't know what's going to happen because there's been weird messages online all week ryan riposo coming in as maybe the backup or another piece at that position someone who is more of a converting winger that has been there in the past where it's like but if this player gets in the game and hits either we have the ability to do both or that player can win that spot for us in the end either way this is a huge move for them this was like the big hole yeah outside of

what's happening at the number 10 we have you Yakubo questions anything on Lucho Acosta before we move on nothing new um I'll just reiterate that him showing up for preseason I don't think as a harbinger that suggests he's staying I think think it's just, I don't want to get fined anymore. I don't have any update. I'm still expecting him to leave the club this winter. Not exciting news, I will say, with left wing back in place, with center back, sorry, with center back depth in place, with Denke in place, again, I have said over the last few weeks, I think Cincinnati can remain competitive. You talk about like bringing you 22 center back in. This is the club that went and got Gerson Mosquera and we're able to fill in with one of the best center backs in the league

and then replace him with Miles Robinson and then still fill in for Matt Miasga after a season ending injury with a museum like they have done as well as anyone in major league soccer to fill holes when they've had to. Yeah. I have a bit of a rant in me here about like, do Cincinnati fans remember what the first three years of their existence was in MLS? Like,

I don't understand all of the consternation. They should be. Thank you, Pat Noonan. Thank you, Albright. Thank you, McCarthy,

everybody else in the front office, Hunter Freeman everybody, right? I feel like if any team is going to get extended the benefit of the doubt let's say they missed on Bupenza yeah, they missed that one they didn't get a deal done at the end of the transfer window for

Josh Sargent, Weston McKinney, or Herman Bertrami Bertrami was they had a flight booked. They had time blocked off for him to do his introductory, like, promotional photos and stuff at the stadium. And then his wife said no. I don't know what more they could have done there. And then, yes, Joe Keeney didn't work out.

And, like, I'd rather that than have them have signed somebody on a four-year contract that they immediately needed to get rid of. You look kind of up and down this roster. Again, we talk about what they did to rejuvenate Barrio and rejuvenate Brenner because some of the arguments is, well, they inherited a lot of Jordan Eicham's team. Well, Jordan Eicham's team sucked. They were literally the worst in MLS history. Or maybe not literally, but figuratively.

Something around there. So I just don't understand. I feel like I've been replying to some Cincy fans on Twitter and stuff of like, what do you reasonably expect? They just set a new league record transfer in Kevin Denke. They are very active in if Lucho Costa leaves, they're going to sign a DP10. Obi Nobodo was one of the best defensive midfielders in the league um like you said you're some mascara i've already kind of forgotten about that that was an

awesome signing miles rams and matt miazga bunch of really good signings luke oriano awesome barrio awesome right like if you don't extend benefit of the doubt to this group there nobody in mls gets it um so i think that's just kind of where I'm a bit confused. And look, you have every right to be critical or have your feelings and stuff, right? I'm not trying to be the holier than thou. Everything they do is perfect and whatever, right? It's just, I think that that got a little bit out of whack in terms of what has actually happened with this group. And again, maybe it was just me having more inside information of like they're gonna sign a wing back and a center back in a couple days that's gonna be fine so maybe i'm projecting

that as well but like i just think that this team is very clearly pre-season in tears in that top three in the east i think it's still them columbus and miami and like i i'm they're gonna be in a consideration for me for shield like i think that they're one of the best teams in the league. Adrian Gandhi says exactly. Tom roots, van flat says, unfortunately, our idiots are the loudest on social media. We all know the Cincy front office is amazing.

That's not going to quell Tom's anger. He is going to tell himself that when he's about to respond to someone in the mentions and he's going to do it anyway. And Seth Rantzoff says, since any fans always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Trust me, people have been asking me about Aaron Glenn. And I've been like, well, it's the Jets, so it'll blow up in three years. But I'm super excited.

I get the feeling. I get the emotion. I'm not going to change you from that. I appreciate it. I think for Cincinnati fans, though, it's a good day. They filled in their two big holes that were left outside of what happens with this number 10 convo. And they set the

transfer record for an attacking player to bring in and orjana was going to be a part of this like there's a lot going well as you said they are set up today no matter what happens with lucho as one of the contenders for the supporter shield as the season begins let's talk about a club we haven't talked about a ton because they've been pretty quiet post the alan palito sale that's sporting kansas city who are now threatening to become the aris thessaloniki of the midwest when you think of thessaloniki and you think of the identity and the dna of that city on the edge of the adriatic with its history and its monuments and its weather and its, you think of Kansas City and now Kansas City is ready to complete the sister city connection. I've never been to Thessaloniki. I've only been to Kansas City and I can tell you it's as beautiful as they come here in the United States. They are

on the verge of signing two players from this club, Tom, to make it happen. Yes. So this started with their pursuit of attacking midfielder Manu Garcia. He was with Manchester City, City Football Group, and now he's found a home at Arras and he's been really, really good. That, I don't know a thousand percent sure, but I feel very confident that's the DP10, like that he would be a designated player. That signing looks very exciting. I like the underlying numbers. I like the box score stuff. And I think this is a fit that makes sense. The only thing that I was surprised about is that this was a Spanish player that didn't come through the Barcelona Academy and wasn't Barcelona B because that they have had a lot of success. How can you

trust it? Yeah. Right. But Manchester City, that's close. Like Pep to Manchester City. So I'm counting that. Count it. The other player that they're assigned, trying to sign or close to signing from Aris is a Russian winger named Shapi Suleimanov. He had been at Krasnodar in Russia for a while. He's a Russian youth international. I was thinking that they might go with a DP winger in addition to a DP10. And again, maybe this is him. I don't know that for sure.

My assumption is no. But this is what this team has to do of having a lot of these guys in the max TAM-ish range. And again, I don't know exactly what that'll be, but like their DP situation has been a revolving door. Every new roster update, it's like Johnny Russell's DP. Wait, no, now it's Daniel Showery. Now it's Nemanja Mardoya. So that kind of fits in that where we'd rather have eight max TAM players than three DPs

and one or two max TAM, whatever it is, right? Like, so I think that's interesting. I don't know a single thing about this player, so I'm not going to pretend that I do, but a sporting Kansas city are working. My only other thing, and I don't want to distract from you giving your thoughts on these two players. I don't think that there's going to be a way around these rules, but it did get me thinking, what if, what if you go to a team and you sign two players from that team and you tell them, let's say instead of $5 million and $5 million,

we're going to give you $10 million for one and you give the other as a free transfer. Is there a way to make that a non-DP signing? I doubt that the legal office would ever sign off on this. It is too obvious to try to get through and be like, oh, Manu Garcia was $10 million and then Shopee Sulemanov was a free transfer. They just didn't want him. They threw him in um I don't think that you can do that but that is that is a fun thing that we can talk about in the discord you would assume it'd be the agent

of the player who's getting none to be like I want my percentage but give me your Venmo bro my my favorite transfer in history was that James Rodriguez and Jaumutinho got sold from Porto to Monaco together. Jaumutinho was like a $4 million sale and James Rodriguez was like a $65 million sale because Sporting Lisbon had the sell-on fee from Jaumutinho and Porto didn't want to give them the money. So they did exactly what you said, which is one of the players got overvalued. The other one got undervalued. And then they turned to Lisbon and said, congratulations on your 12% or 4% of the Jaumutinho sale. We just made 70 million euros. So it's out there in the world.

I don't know how the MLS, you'd assume MLS being the way they're structured in a single entity probably could stop that a little bit more but I love the thought I also like the idea of RS Thessaloniki being like oh you guys got money can I interest you in anything else in our shop why don't you come in we'll make some tea sit down put your feet up let's have a conversation I'd love to learn about your family and now all of a sudden Sport in Kansas city is just making signings. But as you said, this is in line with the Eric Tommy's of the world.

This is in line with the Radoge's of the world of like, can you try and push that? Now they hear two issues. One. So I think the comp for some of this is Seattle and Casey at their best was doing what Seattle is doing. Seattle now has gotten talent out of their Academy that changes the level they can play at. Obed Vargas,

guys like that. That's something that Casey has not matched. And then the other is there hasn't been the sales. So if you want to max everyone out and go, we're going to go big allocation. We're not going to go DPS to get extra allocation in the door would be huge. And Casey has not really hit it out of the park with either in league trades or sales that they can convert down to gam.

They have the Caden Piers, obviously Eric Palmer Brown, a thousand years ago, all that type of stuff. If you want Buccio, yes. If you want to be that team, you have to, you have to hit on something else. It can't just be, we're going to sign six or seven max stand players and that's enough for us to be a competitor at the top of the West. You'll be a playoff team when players are healthy. And I think the big part of this for fans is these guys are younger. And so your hope is you're not dealing with the same injury concerns, but you just, you need to add something else to what you do to be able to be competitive. Let's talk about a few other teams in here. The first one, official news, Jaden Nelson has signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps. I like this move. I'm obviously a Jaden Nelson fan. Everyone knows that. I really like him as

like a quick touch, move the ball number eight, more so than a winger, I think. I know he played out back on the wing for a ton when he went to Scandinavia. Either way, Vancouver playing against the cap, not having a ton of options. This is a good piece. If he's flexible, he's got experience. He's still only 22. They got him on a deal through 2028, I believe. So if he overperforms that contract, you've got a really great asset on your hands. Either way, I like this move for this team. I think

Vancouver has made the half moves over the course of this year to try and get the roster a little bit more while still acknowledging that their ceiling is Stuart Armstrong hitting as well as he can and like every piece being healthy. Yeah, I would agree with that. And the versatility for Jaden Nelson, I think is very good. I don't know if they're going to be a back four or three at the back team because I could see him in a wingback role if it is three at the back or as you say if it is a four three three he could play as as kind of a free eight Ali Ahmed is is a good comp for him like these are like these are two extremely good extremely useful players in the team to have and I think that he's a good bet to eat up minutes wherever you need it and all MLS teams in

a salary cap league need some players like this. So I like that. I do think that Vancouver are absolutely still in the market to fill the U22 initiative slot. I am firmly expecting that to be on an attacker. They do have Matthew Hoppe on trial. That is not who would be targeted with the U22 initiative slot as far as my understanding is, but maybe something changes. I don't know who you'd be bidding against, I will say, if that was the case. But my point is, there are more moves to come for Vancouver. I didn't know how they were going to fit Jaden Nelson, and they're going to possibly bring in a U22 initiative player and possibly Matthew Hoppe.

I thought it was just going to be one of those three, not all three. So that would be really, really well done by the front office if they're able to get that done. They have the ability when we've seen them at their best in a transition team. I think Jay Nelson can eat in that setup and like, you know, he's comfortable in transition and at high speed games. I do think he's a little cleaner in tight spaces than some of the players they've had. And so the next step for them of being like, can you break down low blocks at home? Can you be able to be a little bit more dangerous in possession for larger stretches? I think you can help with a bunch of that as well.

What do you want to do next? Let's talk Christian Ramirez. One of our favorites, friend of the show, first ever live guest. So Christian Ramirez, America De Cali in Columbia, pushed really hard to sign Christian Ramirez from the Columbus crew. His contract expires at the end of the season.

So initially, America De Cali, we're thinking maybe we could get him for free or something close to free. That wasn't going to happen. Columbus crew don't want to lose him. They've said he's not for sale. That's not going to happen. Christian Ramirez could sign a pre-contract

with a pre-contract agreement with America to Cali or any other club abroad on July 1st, I believe, because he'll have six months or less remaining on his current deal. So there's still something to be figured out here for Columbus in the future. But right now, Christian Ramirez will be staying with the Columbus crew. In terms of a long-term contract, I haven't heard anything there. I don't think that there's any serious talks. He wants to stay at the club or would want to commit his future but um there's just not been really anything there so i'm very curious to see how that plays out it kind of like mirrors a little bit with cucho hernandez as i've reported that he wants to stay at the club but would be expecting

a new contract which i think is entirely fair but my opinion doesn't matter here on this um so we'll see that they have a couple other things that they need to kind of figure out over the next year. Patrick Schulte is his contracts out at the end of the season. AZ Jackson is as well. I've reported that there's interest from a European club and AZ Jackson wants that move. And I believe Jason Russell Rowe is out of contract at the end of year as well. So there's going to be a couple moving parts of Columbus. They could still add another designated player. I'm very curious to see what the next month is going to be for them, because I think we'll learn more, or even the next five days.

Actually, I don't know when the Brazilian transfer window closes, but over the next five days, if Couture Hernandez is indeed still here on February 3rd or 4th, whatever date it is that the window closed, that answers one thing at least. But if not, if something is moving then i'm certain that they would be in the market for two dps right at dp9 maybe dp10 whatever so that's a lot of speculation that's a lot of ifs go back to the basics here christian ramirez america to cali wanted him but that move is not possible for right now

jason russell rowe our depth charts have him that he's got an option year again in 2026. Oh, does he? That's his last year. That's what we have listed. Good job, Tom. Stupid. Just below 100K, but also probably someone that if you're going to keep around, you want to secure to a longer-term deal, and if not, they might be gone. Mo Farsey would also be entering his last year at that point on this team. Yes? Sorry, Steven Marrera, keep an eye on him.

I know that they've re-signed him after they won MLS Cup. He's on the last guaranteed year of his contract, reigning MLS Defender of the Year. So just keep an eye there. Columbus' offseason has been more about how the hell do we keep everybody here and keep everybody happy rather than let's go bring in more players because I still believe very firmly this is a phenomenal roster. If they don't make a singular signing but they keep everybody they're still one of the best teams

in the league it would be unfortunate if Christian Ramirez wasn't on Columbus just because we've seen him be great in places and then we've seen him be in the wrong spot and it just not work for him like he's a unique soccer player with his size his his skill, the way he reads the game. And so I just wouldn't want him to, you know, we had all those years where he moved around trying to find the right spot. It wasn't LAFC. It wasn't Houston. He's been so fun to watch with Columbus that if it's not there, you'd hope it's somewhere else where he can fit in well and sort of play a similar role. And we talked with him when we were in Columbus.

He's got eyes on coaching. He likes the way he sees the game. He likes to teach. So whatever club is next, you'd hope has a good setup that he could go into. And that's a huge part for a lot of these players as they near the end of their careers of trying to find that next role and be at a club that will maybe give them the opportunity off the field or help develop them as they finish out their careers. That could be something that could affect where he ends up. That's Columbus. We've got a couple other ones here before we get out of here.

Let's go to Chicago. We've talked about them a ton in this offseason, and now it feels like one of the moves we expected and sort of alluded to as we talked about them as a team is on the verge of occurring as Federico Navarro is going to be leaving the club to go back to South America yeah that that's official that that's done that moves happen I was really excited to see if there was anything there of him playing under Greg Berhalter in a better system maybe with better players around him and maybe that's just me

refusing to take an L on a player who in his first you know uh 10 appearances I was like this guy's really good good signing and then I've just refused to change my mind. So, he's gone. Mate, for me, it's not a pen. It's just, it's not a pen for me. Roman Ige Kwame, new central midfielder, and I'm expecting him to be the starter, next to Keanu Costa. They obviously brought in Jonathan Bamba, who's going to be not just a starter, but an absolutely key player, if not the key player for the team. Philip Zinkernagel could be a new starter. Jack Elliott obviously is. The U-22 right back Barroso is.

And maybe Sam Rogers if he wins that spot next to Jack Elliott. So there is comfortably five new starters in this team, maybe six. And they could still add another DP. But where I'm at right now with this team i don't i would probably do a dp10 but i wouldn't want to block brian gutierrez either so yeah as weird as this is to say and i was writing this this morning for giving me sport all 30 teams transfer needs i was like am i gonna say the scoggle fire have no needs right now the team that has made the playoffs twice or once and you know a dozen years i was like i think i am like i don't see an obvious need i mean i

they can obviously get better if they brought in a d-10 and it hit, they would be better, or another winger if you want to kind of preserve Brian Gutierrez through the center. But between Zinkranago and Haile Selassie, I think that's really strong too. So Chicago Fire, I had a really good spot right now. What do you think? I agree with you. If you have Tehran, because we've talked about Sam Rogers, I still think Tehran's the starter for this team, but I do think he's one that Chicago has shown if the offers are there, they will sell,

and they will give him the opportunity. I think if you have that level of depth at center back, I feel pretty good about where they stand, and I think Gutierrez's future isn't very long in Chicago. And so you're going to get a better deal in the offseason, or in the summer, sorry, window. You're going to see where the team looks like under Greg and give him an opportunity to be like, what is the exact profile that I want to fit into this group? You're going to get Gutierrez minutes, which I think is huge. And I've talked about it over and over. I still think Mauricio Pineda is this jack of all trades

that is going to be awesome under Greg because he's clean in possession he's confident passing under pressure that can be center mid that can be center back and on top of Sam Rogers and so there is not a clear upgrade if you think Zinker Nagel is a starter and I don't know that you'd spend that money on depth so you're not really going to go out and sign a DP winger and therefore 10 is the only position and I'm fine with this team sitting where they sit now and saying like let's see how the season goes let's see what we want to do in this position and yeah I'd agree with you I think this feels like a really good group for Chicago it feels settled it feels like there's enough depth because you know injuries are going to happen in an MLS regular season you also know Neymar is not coming in by the way we

we loved our Neymar chat. It was one of the – I look back on it fondly. I've played Green Day a couple times and thought about it. Since it happened, he is now headed to Santos, and he will not become a major league soccer. Six-month contract. So you're telling me there's a chance? I'm just telling you it's a six-month contract

with the option to extend for a year. And even at the end, that's the World Cup summer? Yeah. I'm just telling you it's a six-month contract with the option to extend for a year. And even at the end, that's the World Cup summer? Yeah. I'm just saying. Oh, baby. The rush of excitement. I'm not necessarily saying for Chicago either because then I think that would open it up for other clubs. You know, we'll see.

It could be a dream. We all had a dream one day, and it was Neymar to the Chicago Fire. It did not happen, but it can be once again, as the great Maximus once said in the heart of the Coliseum, let's hit a couple more of these before we get out of here. NYCFC have sold Christian McFarland to their sister club or parent club in Manchester city. Yeah,

I guess not. If it owns you, then it's not in Manchester city, obviously all part of the CFG family. I've seen some reaction to this, which I understand online, which guess not. If it owns you, then it's not. In Manchester City, obviously all part of the CFG family. I've seen some reaction to this, which I understand online, which is frustration of like, this is a great young player and they would have liked to have seen him on the field for NYCFC. And is it really fair with CFG? All of that? I will say he's got an English passport. He is an elite talent. I think this is a player who would have made a move like this, whether the two clubs were associated or not.

I understand the frustration. I think there are other examples to take with that. I don't know that Christian McFarlane's that guy. Yeah, I will say that Manchester City, we're not the only team trying to sign him. It was teams like Southampton or Brighton or I think Tottenham. Again, with the English passport, English youth international, there's going to be a lot of teams that would love to roll the dice.

It was Manchester City that won out. He, you know, they had the head start because of the connection, the city football group, because Christian McFarlane went over for a training stint. I was told in reporting this out back in the spring that like, it wasn't just that Christian McFarlane left a big impression when he went to go train last year with Manchester City on City. It was Manchester City left a big impression on Christian McFarlane. And it seemed pretty clear if they want this player, if they were going to make an offer, they were going to be the team that got him. Despite again, like there is merit to say, hey, would it be better for you to go to Southampton or Brighton or insert air quote,

lower, lower level team just outside of you know the top six in England and then you'll have better chance of playing and then guess what if you're awesome for Southampton City's gonna buy anyway so that but like that that's an argument but it was very clear that the fit was perfect between this player in this club of he impressed them and they impressed him and everybody else was second choice yeah he's one of those players I remember the first time I watched him, you're like, oh, this is special. And he's always played up ages, and he's always been a game changer in those matches. I'm excited to see him. Would love to see him play for the U.S. Men's National Team one day.

We'll see where that falls and what happens with him. Let's talk LAFC for a moment before we get out of here. They've had two big moves, one in, one out. Tom, you've been reporting on this for a while, but Mateusz Boguszko is official. And I think it's even more than we said, right? The final is $10 million. I don't know the exact number. I was told it's a new club record.

And the previous club record was Diego Rossi to Fenerbahce for $10 million loan fee plus the permanent purchase option. So it's at least north of 10 million and then they have signed um a highly rated ukrainian youth international left back um via the u22 initiative the player is named artem smolyakov so they obviously sold compost in the off season they also agree yeah also to cruises all they needed to fill in that position. The Bogus deal, we have said it, even not knowing that exact number was a no-brainer

just because of the increase from a million dollars coming into whatever you were selling him for. And like we've talked about, Liga MX doesn't really spend in line with the international transfer window, like international transfer norms. The players they believe in, they bring in. in obviously any player associated to the league is huge lafc or one of those clubs or it's like they trust that what they see there will translate to league mx it is a huge number it's going to be brutal because he's going to put up goals against mls teams i can guarantee that

whether it's you know league's cup or conca calf competition or whatever else like this is a guy who's going to make teams pay but he's talented he's he's a great player and lafc have planned for this slightly right they've got young pieces we talked about david martinez being a huge option we don't know what's going to happen with olivera he's obviously there as well and if not they've left open a dp spot for you can choose a name that you'd like to add in there that could eventually come to this team. And now they fill in that left back, which really, again, opens up Ryan Hollingshead to potentially even be that winger sometimes, by the way. If they end up in a 4-2-3-1, and they have games where they're starting Giroud and

Buanga, and they don't like what they're getting from a young Davi and Martino, so they want to give him a break, Ryan Hollingshead is still good enough to help you win games in MLS, playing at that winger position, and he is a match winner at the fullback position, and he can play both sides. So a big move for them to close out on. The Rebs have officially signed a U22 initiative player and Israeli defender in Eli Feingold to come in.

So another big move for them. This is like the 37th of the offseason for the New England Revolution. They have completely revamped their center back position. They brought in two starters and now they bring in a young piece to what it was one of the oldest position pools in Major League Soccer over the last two years at that spot and one that they've really struggled with. And so the hope is that this all leads to the upgrade. Just want to shout out Burlington, Vermont here. We are obviously huge Vermont Green fans. And UVM got their parade this weekend in New England.

And it looked like a legendary thing. I don't know that other college soccer programs that have won national titles get parades in their city. And so this was really cool to watch. And from afar, I was super jealous. And I went to an Open Cup game in Vermont last year, and it was a blast. We might have to get soccer-wise to Burlington at some point soon. Ahmed, my good friend of mine got engaged in Burlington.

What was the solar eclipse? Yeah. I drove up to Burlington for that, to be there for their after party. So I love Burlington too. Shout out to Ryan Russillo, the Ringers.ers the ringers Ryan Russillo went to UVM I listened to that podcast so I all the references talking about the the places he goes I'm there kind of with my friends so all that to say is green uh Vermont first and foremost of course for the soccer but then there's some ancillary stuff there that I'm a fan of shout out to all of our fans in the YouTube chat who were our first

five ever super chat, um, donators or whatever it was contributors. We got to all the questions that you put in there. Anyone else who wants to be a part of that? We're going to continue doing that more going forward. I'm going to have an update from NWSL media day coming up tomorrow on the show. We will be back here on Thursday, myself and Tom, to talk about all things MLS. Preseason is getting underway, so teams are starting to get back together. So we're going to start pulling some interviews in

with players and coaches and front offices and all of that now that everyone's starting to look forward towards the season. So we've got a lot of fun stuff coming up here at SACRWISE. If you haven't listened yet, we had Joe Dickerson and Philip Duitch, I mentioned, two pro referees on the show last week on our Friday episode. It's up on YouTube as well as in the podcast.

You can go listen to that one. It was a really fun chat sort of about what drives them, why they do it, what it's like being a referee. And we're going to try and continue to do shows like that. So if you subscribe to the Patreon and you're in the Discord, feel free to hit me with whatever you want to hear about or whatever interests you.

The chat's already been really fun today. It's been fun since we started it. I'm really proud of what we're doing there, the community we're helping be a part of, because we love this thing, and we love what's going on. We love the Vermont Green. Nick Murray's been in the chat talking. Richmond Kickers, new logo coming out tomorrow.

Tyler Adams just announced as a part owner of a new club in westchester we need the long island rough riders in the pro ranks it is the only situation that's acceptable so i need big money to come in and then have me be the 0.000 owner like i am with minnesota aurora and oakland as well we love the soccer scene here in north amer. So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to all of you for watching us live. Thank you, of course, to you,

Tom, for everything you do for being calm, composed and cool throughout the show and throughout the pre-meeting and throughout the setup. And once again, we'll be back soon, but until then, we'll talk to you again very,

very soon. But until then, we'll talk to you again very, very soon.