SoccerWise - MLS Edition: San Diego Expansion Draft + Facu Torres Transfer & Sounders Trade Market

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

With MLS cup put to bed its all about the silly season now! San Diego has 12 players officially on the books so what do Tom & David think so far? Then Tom serves up some tasty scoops on the future of a few big name MLS players in Facundo Torres, Jesus Ferreira & Paul Arriola. 4:00 SD Expansion Draft 20:00 SD Roster Build Update 29:05 Facundo Torres Transfer Saga 39:10 Jesus Ferreira Trade Talk 48:25 Paul Arriola Trade Potential 53:37 Interesting Free Agent Landing Spots 59:10 Potential MLS Internal Transfer Market Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody welcome back to SoccerWise David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you here for an early episode to get your weekend started right we've got a lot of big news coming up later in the day so we had had to get this one in bright and early. And Tom, I'm not going to lie. My immune system knows MLS Cup has ended and has decided cup it knew where the finish line was it knew that it needed to be great no excuses i need to be out there for my team and then now after a couple plane rides a few days a few days to decompress but actually not decompress um it gave way and that's okay i think that your immune system is a hero for getting as far as it did it um it it made it to the finish line unlike andres reyes's immune system so i at least have something on an elite 25 year old athlete who has been on the move recently and will be part of our conversation coming up we've got san diego expansion draft talk to dig into we've got multiple dps who could be on the move outside of mls and inside of mls a couple big names as well. Some trades,

a lot going on, a potential transfer market being created in the next six to 12 hours, which is really interesting as well. So my immune system shutting down, Tom, yours only growing. This is where you shine. Tommy scoops on, on Tuesday, we had you going or Monday, whatever it was, you had you going on and off the phone. How have the last three days been? Three days have been long. You joke about immune systems. I feel like by the time we get closer to Christmas, like when I get

through whatever this next week is of insane amount of news, my immune system has to give out. Everything has to give out. It's been fun. It's been a whirlwind. We're not stopping anytime soon because Free Agency opens today at 1. As you said about possibly the internal cash transfer market, that will be decided hopefully today. And that's in Brooklyn at the CEO meetings.

I'll be there. So traveling right from here. So it's a long couple days, but it's all fun. I am so upset right now because where my understanding is that the owner's meeting is, I believe I have a gift certificate to the spa there that I will never use because I no longer live in New York. And if I had known this and thought about this before 10 seconds ago,

I could have set you up for just the full treatment straight out of the owner's meeting. And all of a sudden it would have been you and some MLS owner looking over and you're getting hand massages and stuff. It would have been perfect. You know, it's a thought that counts. I appreciate it. But no, in my experience of these meetings, they leave the second it's over.

So nobody would be at the spa with me. Okay. Are you a spa person? I like a spa. I do. I do. It's not like i go super often um do you like a massage yes yes but that some people can't do it really do you no i love it i work every day i always said if i won the lotto that would be the first thing i did was like just like hire someone to be my like personal daily masse. Then all of a sudden I'm fit for fighting form at all times.

Just absolutely loose circulation is going all the times. Yeah. Think about how smart I'd be with all the blood flowing through and all of that. Did Aaron Rodgers do a thesis on this? Yeah, potentially. Let's go into his ayahuasca hole and then we can figure out how to protect the whole world but not how to throw in our own wide receivers when they're wide open in the biggest moments of a game. Not bitter. Don't really care. Not really my problem.

Let's start to dig in. Let's get into this. Let's start with the expansion draft. And obviously here on SoccerWise, we're going to start with the biggest story, which is Kalen Carr, Matt Doyle, and Andrew Weavey on stage together. It was the dream duo. I think me, you, and Anders in the group chat were the only people who cared that much. We had the best time ever watching our

crew up on stage. They crushed it, so congrats to them. I know only Weavey will listen to this on the flight back immediately. Kalen will listen in like four and a half weeks, even though it's not relevant anymore to 10 seconds of it. So hi, Kalen. And Doyle will hear about it in some Reddit page that he's on right now

talking to his people. San Diego coming into the expansion draft. They already had a number of players on their roster. They traded for Andres Reyes for almost $800,000 in allocation money from the New York Red Bulls. They also had made trades, which didn't officially go through yet, for Chris McVie and CJ Dos Santos. McVie, center back from DC United.

We talked about that before. CJ Dos Santos, the addition, goalkeeper from Inter Miami, backup goalkeeper at the time at Inter Miami, but a young goalie, one that I think a lot of people think is a starter in Major League Soccer. so they came into the expansion draft having already added those players to the staple of players that they have signed from around the world um already and then they went in and they made their first three picks and man they went straight into their bag they went jasper lawful sin off the gate having a fan stand up and say that name as the opening pick of the expansion draft is the most MLS thing that's ever occurred.

They followed it off by picking two players who played zero combined minutes in Major League Soccer this year as expansion players. They drafted Heine Bruseth, who, of course, Norwegian. So half the Right to Dream setup is there. The other half, West African college soccer players. Don't worry. Hamidi Diop also drafted on his way from Charlotte. And that was the opening of the expansion draft, Tom. And you could feel my hairs were standing up.

Like, it was electric. Dude, that's such a funny point about it. So it's a really cool moment. Before I laugh at it and just love the point about it. So it's a really cool moment. Before I laugh at it and just love it, the certainty of everything, it's a really cool moment. They gave their three picks, so they traded their other two picks.

Three picks, all the players, they're signing and keeping. They had three fans announced. That was really cool. Except the names of Jasper Loffelson, Heine Brunseth, and Hamidi Diop, they announced it, and I turned, I was like,

I didn't catch one of those. I have no idea who they just picked. I was like, did I just miss the entire players? But, yeah, that was electric. But I will say the crowd there, too. Shout out to Kalen Carr, a lot of crowd work. He appreciates the fans. He loves the fans.

That's my favorite. And we did it at our live show in Columbus. So, like, I'm throwing stones from a glass house. My favorite move is to just, you know, the easy layup. And shout out to the fans over there. How we doing, huh? Like, yeah. So that's the move.

They were veterans there. But, yeah, San Diego takes those three players, none of which project as people who eat a lot of minutes, which is what I was saying in my mock draft saying on this show about this isn't going to be a Julian Gressel, Carol Soderisky, and Lorenzo Insignia. This is going to be players like this. Now, while I'm patting myself on the back,

I will say I went 0 for 5. I literally was going to send the meme, does anyone want to see a dead body, and put your article in last night and i was like it's not necessary i don't need to be that mean i want to say i had the process right this isn't like an nfl mock draft where everybody knows who all the players like there was like a hundred players that were available i did my best guys and that's all i can give you no mel kuyper on this one which i i I respect that you at least brought it up yourself.

Yeah, your process in the article, which is what we've talked about on the show, is they're going to want to sign their own big name players, which is actually where this is interesting. Manny Brousseth is a U22 initiative signing. I like that. He was signed for $2 million. You sort of talked out,

uh, in the Mitrovich conversation. It was most likely that's an installment. So now San Diego will take over those installments and payments. So I don't, I don't know that for a fact that that's something that I should have asked last night. Um,

but, but again, so Heiner Bruce was signed by Orlando city in the summer for around a million talking to people around that club. when they were working on this deal, they were excited, very excited. Talking to people last night was like, God damn it, we were preparing him to play real minutes next year. We really, really like this player.

But they just kind of couldn't protect him. That's how it went. And a quick side note, Orlando, the last three expansion drafts that they have had to participate in, they've had a player take it on everyone. Kamal Miller, Nico Giochini and now Heine Brusev Kamal Miller has since gone on to start in the world cup got traded for a lot of money around MLS he's a good MLS player good pick Nico Giochini was very good for St. Louis and then got transferred to Como for like two million or something really good pick yeah so my assumption is Heiner Brissett is just going to be very good.

Orlando, stacking players, stacking depth. In fairness, if they just played Kamal Miller at center back, they probably wouldn't have lost him. They could have protected him and then they wouldn't have needed to. But he was a left back at the time, as we all know. This is obviously, as you said, frustrating for them because they did the leg work to bring this player in. But as

I said in your bag, to dream which owns this system in west africa and i believe one in egypt now as well and obviously is owned by an egyptian billionaire and is connected to a full-time norwegian club um or is it danish it might be danish no no they haven't oh wow i wish i had this on top of it tyler heaps said we have the connection in norway so we have the scouting on him the point being that they feel more comfortable with him i think than the average mls team would and they feel more comfortable in their setup that he's going to fit um into what they do and so that's why they went in that direction but why it's interesting is this is a club that you thought would really spend money

on you 22 players and on young players so while they've got one probably in a really simple way where they don't have to go out and negotiate a transfer fee they don't have to negotiate a contract they don't have to get the player and convince them to come to major league soccer they have filled one of those spots on that i thought would be a huge part of their roster build with someone else's player, which I think is a little surprising. I agree. And I think that like,

again, like, like you said, we talked about this with Mijanovic. I think this is a much different one because Mijanovic, again, there was probably like 6 million. There is probably 6 million left in installments on that transfer.

As far as Heine Brusev, like a million dollar fee, he's currently on 217,000 in 2024. Again, like whether that's the exact number to 25 remains to be seen. You don't need to use a U22 initiative slot on this player. You can put him on the cap if you have the allocation money. And obviously they do as an expansion club and some of the moves they've made. So unless the Tyler heaps said it last night and I missed it,

he still could be a U22 initiative player. I want to say that, but he doesn't have to be because of where his cap it is and again that fee was only a million that gets amortized pretty quickly over the life of the contract so they'll figure it out they have until roster compliance day which is the day before the regular season opens to figure that out so whatever's more advantageous at the time but I think that they will have the flexibility to buy it to do that and another wrinkle I don't know if this has changed because like these are like super sicko rules and this is classic we haven't said chuku lasano yet and i'm about to explain that a lot so the point

jasper loffelson hominy diop were both players that were supplemental roster players for their clubs my understanding because i went through we went through this with charlotte is if you select a player in expansion draft they have to be a senior roster slot except for when the season starts you can immediately reclassify them to the supplemental roster it doesn't like all that is to say that they might have kept open a few senior roster slots that they can just use to sign players in February or March or the summer. Sorry. My apartment looks out over the city and partially the airport. And there is an insane fire right now that I am watching occur.

And I don't know where it is, but it looks like the airport. And so I was processing that for a moment. Yeah, potentially. Or that might be canceling all trips that are happening over the next few hours as well might be bad for you first of all denmark fc norzland i knew that i've covered the team i've covered their youth teams i don't know why jay jerno quicker so i apologize um small j for that one but also like scandinavia it's all the same anders can tell you about it but like none of them are different there's no unique cultures to any of them as well so that was one but they did talk about their scouting and their ability to watch that player really close

yeah um the other thing is though how many diop is a generation adidas signing so that's how he got in via the draft one of the big issues when he came in was that he's an international. And that was, I think, why some people didn't think that he would be drafted as high as he was. And he was. And they talked about it. He's a versatile defender. That's the hope with him is he's quick enough to play outside. He's big enough to play in the middle.

And at some point, people think that it's gonna you know work out for him yeah he's on loan at fk kukreki in serbia which has been like the safe haven for mos players to get some minutes and particularly charlotte players charlotte sent venetius mellow over there as well and hominy diop is there i think he's made like nine appearances but that was good for him because he made three or four first team appearances in his rookie season and was pretty clearly not going to be a regular rotation guy so it was either do you play an ms next pro or do you kind of go somewhere on loan so he went somewhere on loan yeah and i i think that like tyler heaps or mikey varis i'm sorry i'm i'm a little bit foggy on

exactly all the quotes last night said that like they viewed him as a left back that's like a stay at home left back so when chuki is playing left wing they have that balance and they kind of like that fit I'd be really really shocked if they were penciling him in as a starter or even like guaranteeing that he'll play like 1400 minutes um I think that this is one of those where hey if you get good minutes from this player it's a bonus Jasper Laffleson is the kind of control veteran where like this is a dude that's just a good guy to have on a roster. He works hard as hell. He's versatile.

He's a solid player. He's a player who's proven he can play minutes at MLS. He's not quite like a 2,000, 2,500 minute kind of player, but that's not what they were looking for in the expansion draft. So I like that one. But again, Heiner Brusev, like, I think that there's a big upside there. And we'll see, again, like this isn't going to be a team that cares about youth cares about youth development if he's playing well in preseason he will get a chance to get

minutes and then some of the trades like cj dos santos what i've been hearing is that he could be their starter so again i don't know if they have plans to sign another goalie to either compete with him or maybe that's just wrong but cj dos santos is not brought in exclusively to be a backup or to add to the goalkeeper room. So I thought that was interesting when I was a couple people I was talking to. Yeah, Dos Santos, the guy I know, obviously went to Benfica at a young age. And so he's been on a lot of the like, oh, is he a national team player? All that type of conversation.

It's tough when goalkeepers are young. But everything I've heard from people that have worked with him is high expectations, the ability to play at a high level. Let me throw out one more thing with this, which is that then San Diego went on to pick two players that they traded, and this is a huge part of the expansion draft, which is all the other teams are looking at the lists and saying, who do we want and what can we do with it?

And this is what's happened. We just talked about Kamal Miller. Everyone reached out to Austin and said, we want this player and we're willing to give you this for it. And the expansion team has to decide, okay, do we want a different player on that roster? Cause you can only pick one per team. And if that's the case, then the deal is a no deal.

And how much are we willing, how much are we going to get? And the way I've seen it happen in the past is basically just like open the door and anyone who wants to offer us the most for a player from a roster we don't need a player from, we're willing to make that trade. And it seems like it's what, roughly $250,000 allocation money is what Toronto is giving up here. So they're giving up the number nine overall pick and then potentially $250,000 add-ons. And a quick side on that is Toronto

want to bring him in but they know if it doesn't work out if the like the player doesn't want to come or like they can immediately transfer him to Brazil Mexico or maybe back to China where he was on loan I found out last night when I was reporting out the trade that Tiago Andrade was on loan in China because I thought he was still in Brazil it uh it has been quiet for Tiago and George in uh in major league soccer for the last year he was a player when they won MLS cup and broke through that I thought was going to have real potential puts defenders on their heels he plays downhill he's clean on the ball he's fairly aggressive um and he can play across the front three spots probably not a natural center forward, but like can play there.

And we've seen him be effective in this league. So I thought this trade made sense. I think it's a decent trade for Toronto. Still looking for a coach in a situation where I think he's better than Cassius. And like at a minimum, you've accomplished that much. And the flexibility allows you to, for the next person who's up you know an ex-coach to say yeah i can figure out how to use that player and then a second trade with dc united for jose kijama coming from st louis now through san diego about 400 000 allocation and obviously

chris mcvee also being traded in that direction so you can put it all together if you want to as 350 for the two however you want to describe it a little bit of a surprise for people but you look at the St. Louis played you look at some of the moves DC has already made under Ali Makai and Troy Lassane of like getting some MLS pieces in there and it's not a shock to make this trade yeah i mean i guess that i was just surprised that that was the fee of the 400 000 um i just didn't know kind of what the market was i guess that means that there had been calls about this player that this is somebody that is was sought after or an intriguing player to teams or again that could also mean that maybe an offer was 300 000 to draft and select somebody else.

So this is a specific market. And again, they just took whatever the highest deal was. So that was the one that was obviously reported first. That was the one we knew of. I thought that they were going to use their other four picks. But it turns out that Toronto did get that Andrade deal, obviously over the line. And again, in general, I like, I think you have to make at least one trade because it's good to get assets.

Like going into the day, what they wanted was a handful of players and what the, and they wanted more fine, like a financial boost in terms of allocation money to expand the cap. And the draft pick that they get from Toronto, that's going to be a supplemental roster player. And again, like this is,

it's so nerdy for us to keep going back to this, but to build a roster, these are some of the things you need to fill out the group like you need to have you can't have 30 senior roster players both in terms of just roster slots and finances so that's like a little subplot to that and then again they can get allocation money down the line and they can they do have a sell-on clause with Andrade. So that one is super interesting. And so what do you make of this group where it sits right now? Because I don't think that we've done the big picture yet on this. We talked about, so Andres Reyes, it hasn't been announced yet. It's done, right?

800,000 is what I was told. And that came with a handshake. Okay, we won't draft any of your players in the Super Draft. So they have 13 players right now. I'll list them off as i pull it up that uh so you have diop laplacin heine bruce as we discussed dos santos mcvee as we discussed duron ferry i haven't heard his name out loud yet chucky lozano uh the danish duo of zivarsan yeah ingvartsson and taverskov. Jesus, I'm going to have to do better with this. Reyes, Paddy McNair. Really like that one. North Ireland

International. Center back. He can play a little D-mid. Winger Alex Tomas Angel. I believe I got all 13 there, but tell me what do you make of this team as it stands? Listen, I didn't say that we should do that. I didn't put it on the rundown. I'm stoked that you decided that you were going to read off that roster

And then out loud Say it multiple times I've never heard that name out loud That was tough There was a lot of speed bumps along that road And there were no exit ramps after I said Chucky Lozano And I was like, wow I should have just left it as what do you make of this roster

Listen, I'm stoked That this roster is comprised the way it as what do you make of this roster listen i'm stoked that this roster is comprised the way it is because then you had to do that and it was just as difficult for you as i wanted to be um i i think to me it's incomplete like that's the big thing that stands out if obviously if you were to tell me there were eight starters in there i'd be surprised so i think from a from a beginning point in major league soccer i like the center back pairing that's a huge platform to build an mls team on andres reyes has proven now at this point two different stops so he knows what it's like to move and get settled in this league he was a clear-cut starter i'm a little surprised san diego thinks so because my assumption was

san diego san diego would play fairly possession heavy and I don't know that's Reyes's best attribute but look at what Garces did for the LA Galaxy this year so if you're going to try and play compact and be able to be around the ball and play higher up the field you want a guy to go over and win so I love that obviously Chucky Lozano is supposed to be a special player in Major League Soccer and so you've got that done as well they when you look at the checklist of like how do you win in mls center back pairing having the best player on the field for a ton of games those are two huge pieces and then they have a little bit of experience in the norwegian players they've brought in and we've seen some quality of players coming from

that background to be able to slot into spots and play their roles at a high level. So I think there's a lot there. And as we've discussed, they've also left a ton of a gap open for them to spend money on those other pieces. And I think the acknowledgement of like a Chris McVie and a Jasper Loflson is that MLS experience that you need to understand the league. And so now they've started to make the steps in that. And now free agency is a huge factor for them because they've got a ton of cap space.

They've got a ton of opportunity and they can go around to the best players in this free agency pool that they want to and say, look, come be a part of something special. Come be a part of something new. You get to choose to be here instead of us trading for you and forcing you here. And free agency is set up now in a way in which there's enough pieces out there to get a couple solid spots i i agree and like just kind of looking down the list there's a couple who make sense for me again i don't know if it'll exactly play out this way but if they're looking for like the higher price for agents like jackson yule i think will fit in what they want to do i don't know um exactly the fit there because he plays d mid and one of their danish players danish

players not norwegian guys um so i just needed to get one back on um i don't know if you can play both of them together or not but that was a name that i thought was interesting um and then obviously like a veteran ms center back could could be a fit whether that's again i'd be surprised if it's somebody like tim parker just because the playing expected playing style and you do have kind of somebody who's really covering ground and like a hard man like andres reyes chris mcvee is more in that mold than like a ball playing center back so i don't know why at omsburg tanner peace and stuff like that would make sense to me i don't know if they're going to go out in free agency and look for a starter because you look at the starting caliber

players in free agency and there's not a lot of like obvious fits for this team Aaron Long was one that a lot of people deduced because he's a SoCal kid he right um again a very good center back in this league very proven experience that's usually a guy that an expansion team goes after I've reported he's staying with LAFC I was also told that um in the build-up that they weren't San Diego wasn't going to be heavily targeting him in free agency. So maybe that's an inkling into what their plans were. And again, like you said, I don't know how many starters are probably on this roster right now. Again, I think the center-back pairing, which is really, really strong. I don't think that we've talked about Patty McNair enough.

I think that's going to be an excellent player in this league. The center-forward, the defensive midfielder, obviously Chucky Lozano. That's five guaranteed. And then you talk about Dos Santos then you talk about maybe Thiago uh sorry not Andrade uh then you kind of talk about can one of the younger players like Alex Minton like Heiner Brusev maybe not day one but maybe by the middle of the season will they win a spot so I'd probably put it around five maybe maybe six at the moment again with Dos Santos and stuff so that's where they are incomplete is

the best way to put it because they have 13 players they're gonna have you know 25 in a month so i'm very very excited to see where they go i'm very excited to see where this dp is just positionally obviously very curious to see who the targets are but are they looking for eight are they looking for a winger are they looking for you know whatever right like so where do the next like significant resources get spent do they have one really big trade in them charlotte didn't charlotte tried though for a while and teams understand that expansion clubs have a lot of allocation money you get like that's what charlotte ran into they're like that is an ludicrous price for this player and i don't know if san diego are running into those same guardrails. I know that they were in talks to try to get Paul Areola. I've reported he's going to Seattle Sounders.

Paul Areola is a local kid. That didn't happen, but that was a player that they tried for. I don't know who else they're having talks for. I know that they're having talks for plenty. Yeah, remember Austin picked up Alex Ring. That was a huge trade to use allocation money on. One of the free agents that's interesting to me, based on how I think they're going to play,

and as you found out with the expansion draft, I'll 100% be wrong about this, is Ilya Sanchez. He is already in Southern California. He's a ball-playing central midfielder. We've seen his experience be big for teams. Like with LAFC, it felt like he was a huge calming presence for them and so he knows this league i think houston's an interesting one with him as well because of the way they play and how he could fit into that and i don't know that he's a lockdown

starter for them but he could play both the central midfield roles for them going forward when they need the minutes he was one of the names that popped out to me if you're going to go a little bit more veteran in that central midfield area. Jackson Yule, I think, could be interesting for the same reasons. If they do play the style we think they're going to play, he fits that. He's got the earrings. He's ready for Cali.

He loves Cali, even though he's a Minnesota guy. First time I met him, I was like, dude, you're a California guy. He's like, no, I'm actually Minnesota, but I'm living this life, and it is who I am now, which i appreciate from him and enjoy as well a lot more to get from san diego as we've said uh let me ask you this question because everyone's going to ask it the other sm in the um in the chat says tommy scoops was the reyes trade in the works before mls cup yes it was exclusively after as a result of his illness as a red bull fan who went to la and need to know

no and and that's fair to bring up too because i think that was um a deduction made by uh upset fans on social media and just kind of the nature of how he had to pull out a starting lineup right before kickoff because he was sick no this is a trade like this does not come together in 16 hours um so this was i'm sure in the works but yeah andre's right is heading to san diego yep um big change for the red bulls by the way it makes sense it was a position of depth for them which is a positive but they probably need to spread around the roster a little bit more and noah ayle as tough as those first 15 minutes were it's probably the bottom of his career in major league soccer he played 2100 minutes this year otherwise what we saw in possession from him was As tough as those first 15 minutes were, it's probably the bottom of his career in Major League Soccer.

He played 2,100 minutes this year. Otherwise, what we saw in possession from him was elite. Sean Neal has locked down the center back role, at least one of them. So they did have optionality there. And to bring in this much allocation money for a player like that and to now be able to fill his roster spot you know the red bulls and sports illustrated are putting 1.5 million dollars back on the table or 1.3 million dollars back on the table i cannot wait for the cover of that magazine uh for all of us to look at and enjoy last thing on san diego shout out to kelvin jones who was hired as an assistant coach for san diego he is someone that i have been around for a while I love talking soccer with him I love watching his teams play he was Columbus Crew Academy coach

became the academy director while doing that still coach their U19s and then over the last year coach their two team in MLS Next Pro I think he is one that I would say is a future MLS head coach if he wants to be he is one of those people that's always thinking about how the world, like how the soccer world can change. And so having him work with a club like this, expansion, right to dream, all this stuff I think is really, really cool and really exciting. So congrats to him, and I think congrats to the club because that's a really good pickup for them.

Let's start to dig into some of these big moves. Tom, let's start in Orlando, I think. Facu Torres, you decided you were going to wait till right after the show was over on Monday to shatter the world with this one. Talk us through what's going on. All right, I'll just kind of go in order. So Orlando City and Brazilian giants Palmeiras have agreed a club record transfer fee for Facundo Torres. So that means it is somewhere north of the nine and a half million they got for Daryl Dike. That deal, as I reported on Monday, was pending the agreement on personal terms. The initial intel I got was

optimism and that like something might that that was the expectation. Cruz Azul, who I had reported a week or two ago, has been very interested in this player. And when, like, with the Palmeiras news, like, they came back in hard, and they are trying hard to hijack this move. They have not submitted a bid to Orlando. So Orlando's stance is, we have a deal agreed with Palmeiras, and that's kind of that.

And we're waiting on personal terms there. I'm assuming, and this is speculation, I'm assuming if Cruzz azul match the bid for palmeiras and facundo torres says i want to go to cruz azul like what are you gonna do right like the other side of that would be torres like orlando's not pushing towards out the door they're doing this move because it makes sense for him makes sense financially and stuff but if he comes back if this falls through duncan mcguire style there'll be plenty happening but right now it's cruzul trying to hijack it.

Cruz Azul have a lot of money. Paul Maris do too. But Cruz Azul, as you saw with George Gostiakoumakis, they've looked at the league and they are pushing hard. I was speaking with Argentine insider C.L. Merlo, who has a really great handle on the game. He said that Cruz Azul are feeling pretty confident about hijacking this deal. Again, they do need to agree a deal with Orlando to even make this possible.

But Luis Muzi, Orlando City CSO, told me when they signed Facundo Torres. I did a story on it, whatever, three and a half years ago. He called it a telenovela. He's like, this had so many stops and starts. We left the table so many times, and we're so happy to get him in. It's a telenovela on the way out, too. Unfortunately, nothing can be simple. And none of this is Orlando's fault.

They accepted a deal. They did things the right way. The same thing with Duncan McGuire. And this is kind of out of their hands, and we'll see where it goes. I don't think anyone would wish another Duncan McGuire on anyone. So I think, fingers crossed, that doesn't happen. Even if he does come back, it's in somewhat more of a sane way. Like take away the flight to the club that forgot to register you.

And all of that stuff. And McDonald's in Blackburn, which sounds terrible on its own. Separate of the soccer situation and the career situation and the life situation. When you first reported it, it was a little surprising, but it made sense. You're going to recruit all the money you put out on him. You're going to make money on him. And while Facundo Torres has been throughout his career, I think the best player on Orlando City, it's been inconsistent.

And we have talked a lot about what this year was. And was it a positive? And was it a negative? Finishing fourth in the East, getting to the eastern conference finals but only scoring two open field goals on the run and losing to a seven seed at home it really is in the eye of the beholder you could decide this was a good season you could decide it was a bad if you decide it wasn't the right season where do you go from here and i think for gundo torres probably we've seen his peak in major league soccer i don't know that he is the best player on a team like i don't know if that's

the right role for him i think that his best role is to be an elite goal scoring winger on a team that has other elite players that take the pressure off him and therefore he's not the guy and i think you see that in him getting called into uruguay he's never going to be the guy on the field for the uruguayan national team but is he good enough with his pure mls performances to be a uruguayan international i don't know but he probably fits that role even better and so i think a palmeras and obviously that's a huge club huge opportunity for him like i think that's probably the right fit cruz azul the same so i think it works for all parties it sucks for orlando because i think you just don't want any chaos in this like you just you you've already let out that you've agreed the deal so now to have it just get more complicated with cruz azul coming in and potentially blow up i don't think there's any

positive in that cruz azul finished first first in League MX table this year, then lost in the playoffs once again. They are trying to make up the ground on the Tigres' Monterey's Club Americas of the world. So that is where they have decided they're going to spend all this money. And as you said on Yakumakis, MLS is a clean shopping ground for them because they see these players in League's and CONCACAF champions cup. And they have an understanding of what the players are capable of and sort of what that connection could be.

So it makes a ton of sense that they would see him be available and come in here. But I kind of feel bad for Orlando in just the way in which it's, as you said, they've done things right. Now the potential for this to go messy or get blown up is there. And that's just unfortunate for them as a club. Yeah.

And so first off, like I think I'm higher on for Gunda Torres and you are, that's fine. Just a difference of opinion. I think he's a really, really good player. I think he can be the best player. He was the best player on a trophy winning team for the open cup a couple

of years ago. I think he can be the best player on a really good MLS team. And I do think that there's more there as a young player. He's had the burden since he got to Orlando of expectation of the club record transfer fee of, Hey, you're our guy. Lead us,

lead us to trophies. Like it took him a couple of months to settle in and really start playing his best side. Like early in like 2022, it was, um, it took him a little while, which again,

isn't abnormal in any way, but by the end of that season, he was a star. And I think that he's just been that since their wingers, wingers come, attacking players. There are dips. There are peaks and valleys. So it hasn't always been every single game.

But, like, look at the second half of this year particularly. Like, he was really, really good. And that was some things started that were outside of his control, obviously. Like, the way the team was set up, that changed at midseason. And they really got the best out of Fakula Notorious again because there was a lot of change in this team. The second thing I want to say is what Orlando City have done.

Like you said, both things can be true. You can be disappointed that at home against the Red Bulls in the conference final that they didn't win that game. But this has been a successful season. This has been a really successful run. It is not easy in MLS to continue evolving and overturning these rosters on the fly and still being very good while doing it. Again, it's worth reminding, before Luis Muzi, Ricardo Moreira, and then Oscar Perea got here,

this team was a joke. They never made the playoffs. They spent money. They had Kaka. We look back at the Kaka era so much better than it was in reality. It was cool. They had a lot of cool moments. They did nothing with Kaka.

So I think that this front office, this coaching staff, deserves a lot of cool moments. They did nothing with Kaka. So I think that this, this front office, this coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for, again, getting into the playoffs first. So that was that Nani team. And then Nani leaves, Facundo Torres comes in.

And then, you know, Ershon Carr comes in, like the way that they've rebuilt this team on the fly and been really good over a couple of different eras is very, very impressive. And Facundo Torres signed for around $7.5 million for Peñarol. It was a coup just to get him initially

because everybody expected him to go to Europe or to somebody like Paul Marish a couple years ago. But Orlando convinced him to come here. And they always knew that we want to be able to move him on. That was part of the pitch to get him here. You'll play here. You'll play well. You'll develop, be a star, make good money, live happy. And then you'll go on somewhere else. And the time comes the time has come they accept an offer

and then cruises will work on trying to backdoor hijack the deal so again this can like i'm assuming at this point that this does get done because both of these clubs have so much money a lot of money and they have a lot of interest in this player so just deductive reasoning i'm assuming this will get done. But we'll see kind of how long it takes or if Cruisers will agree personal terms and try to drive down the fee with Orlando. I don't think that's going to work, but they might try. I could do a whole Fakou Torres conversation because I think he's fascinating. And I think he sits in a really interesting spot in this league.

Because when you look at his pure comp and where where he sits he is probably where he should be it is not elite on the dp conversation like i was going to throw out four players and say compare you know which ones would you take alan velasco joseph pain still um fakou torres like how would you rank them how would you interesting but pain still is making double yes fakou torres is making so that's not a fair comp and a different stage of his career like he was what he's 26 like like facu came here as like a younger player making his first big move joseph paint still has played at a different couple places i think the alan velasco is a good comp but again like these are two players i like a lot and obviously facundo torres has done much more in mls than velasco has granted he got injured but sorry go on no that's kind of the point is like for Facundo Torres I think you've gotten

all you should expect of him I just think it's hard to be a young player that a team is built around and carry them Diego Rossi never did that like he had Vela he has had Cucho like he didn't have to be that guy and most of the players that come into this league at that age the teams that are successful like they don't have to be that guy tati was in the end but in a structure that had a lot of talent and he wasn't the guy when he first got there so it'll be interesting if facundo torres leaves like what his legacy will be i think it will be most of the stuff you just said which is first playoff appearance first playoff win first trophy like that'll be all the positives and if they leave and they make money it'll be interesting how they reinvest.

They will absolutely make money. And, well, but then do they go big with this? Like, do they look for their own Kucho? Or is that outside the realm of possibility? And is it another person in the mold of Fakou, which is good talent now, but one that we think we can flip and make money off of later? And obviously, Ojeda has settled in in a way now where you have your new central piece and then you can sort of figure out the rest.

And they had three center forwards on the roster this year, so maybe they try and find a way to fit two of them into the starting lineup going forward. But huge news for this Orlando team. And I think sort of started a week in which there was moves that we didn't exactly expect. Let's talk Jesus Ferreira. This is an FC Dallas Academy player. You,

I think had mentioned a potential for a sale overseas in the last transfer window didn't happen. And now reporting that the idea that he could be moving inside of major league soccer. So I'll start off by saying the legends, Nico Barreiro, Sounder at Heart, they reported that there are advanced talks for Seattle Sounders who acquire Jesus Ferreira. The information that I have is that, yes, this is being discussed,

but it's not, like, at the final stage. This, what I will say, and getting more intel about this, Jesus Ferreira has been offered around the league. This, my assumption, it is highly likely he's played his last game for FC Dallas. He would like to go to Europe, but nothing has kind of materialized over the last couple windows. There was like an offer from Mexico, I think either a year or two ago, something like that. That kind of didn't work out. There was the Spartak Moscow deal that wasn't

able to be to happen and Las Palmas Spanish club were interested in thinking about making a move closer to deadline day last summer and they never ended up making a move so I think all parties kind of agree hey probably could use it a change of scenery whether that's a broader within MLS. And what I was told is that, and again, this comes from people around the league, so maybe Dallas can push back on this, but what I have from several people is the asking price for Jesus Ferreira was a $3 million valuation, whether that's straight up $3 million game, whether that's, you know, a $1.5 million game, a player they like, an international, whatever gets up to that value because no team has three million gam sitting around. A couple other people that I talked to said, yes, that was a valuation, but they're not going to get that.

No chance. I think they do it for like two, two and a half, something in that range. The other wrinkle is what we're going to talk about later is that there's a strong possibility that MLS Board of Governors passes an internal cash trade market. In that, you can say, hey, Dallas, here's $2.5 million cash money. Would you prefer that than allocation money? And hey, we can do this rather than trying to get up to the $2.5 million valuation. So I'm very curious to see what this means. means sorry i'm very curious to see where this goes there had been clubs that considered him i think seattle are the most likely trade in mls but that's not definitive there is still plenty of time but it is a known fact around

mls circles that dallas have been shopping him and offering him and what they kind of put as their valuation for him around MLS it's a fascinating concept because it's something we've not seen in the past a player at this age this profile moving in major league soccer and not moving overseas part of that is because with the allocation money the way it is you've often not been able to get up to a big enough number for a player like this like even when you look at like a frankie amaya we're talking levels on this bars got you uh where jesus ferrer is a world cup starter started a world cup knockout game for the u.s men's national team and is still on the you know on the south side of 25 years old, like that's kind of ridiculous,

but also you can, you felt it kind of go stale this year and go wrong. And so it's not shocking that if you can't get the move overseas, the idea of like, okay, if someone's interested, let's let him move. You'd assume there's a decent sell on that comes in that for FC Dallas. He has two years left on his deal one year one option um but I think there's an understanding that he would sign a new deal with whatever team he went to is that correct uh that's that would be discussed because you wouldn't do

the significant investment just for him to be like cool I'm gonna leave as a free agent right this is this mirrors like the NBA world um so it kind of speaks like traditional American sports fans. But, yes, as far as I understand, his camp hadn't started engaging with Seattle yet because I don't think that there was an agreement between Seattle and Dallas. Again, it's all super fluid. Things change all the time. People, sources sometimes can downplay stuff or overplay stuff. So, again, that's the best I have right now. But I just want to be cautious not to say anything definitively written in stone, because even if it is 100% up to the minute, it can change in 10 minutes.

It is the most Seattle move you could think of. The only two teams, I mean, it goes in line with signing Albert Rusnak for Seattle when they tried to win the CCL at the time, which was how do we like supercharge things that we can guarantee right now to try and be competitive? Does this beat PSG and Atletico Madrid? Is that why they're doing it? Probably not. And that's probably not the thinking, but it's just a way to get, but what if it does would be unreal. Don't even get me started with that. Jesus Ferreira drops one on Diego Simeone's head. Oh my God, I can't even. It gets them better. And it gets them better in a way in which there's probably less jeopardy in getting worse.

You bring a player in from overseas, look at Pedro de la Vega. It takes a while. Sometimes it takes a while in a way in which it hurts your locker room or just hurts your on-field product and makes you worse. The floor with Jesus Ferreira, even as bad as this year was, is probably pretty high. He's also a fairly flexible player. So as you build this whole thing out, you've got Jordan Morris who can play in two position,

Christian Roldan who can play in three, Jesus Ferreira who can play in probably three with this team, whether Rusnak comes back or not. It gives you all of that security. And if Rusnak comes back, great. Then he fits alongside him. He fits in front of him him there's a lot of different roles you can play him in and again you look at a player sort of what i mentioned with faku i think it's tough for jesus ferrer to be the best player on a team and even then they were a playoff team when he was healthy

i love him in a team where he doesn't have to be that guy all the time. I do think Seattle can build this MO and profile of like, our club's a big deal in a big city. You want something different? Come here. Come play here. And like, you don't have to go overseas because guess what? You're going to play in front of 40,000 fans fairly often here. You're going to be on international television what playing against

you know club world's cup teams and all these types of things like i think that pitch for seattle is kind of interesting i don't know if jesus ferrer is the guy to take it but i do think it's an interesting idea and one that seattle can live on because seattle isn't going to splash huge internationally like we have seen some of the other teams do i think that is a very salient point that i was going to get to but first um in in addition to all of the like the the big club stuff this team matters in this city all the family like that's all real completely true another thing that is probably more important is that unlike going to las palmas in spain you don't have to take a pay cut to come here and that's just kind of the reality

of the situation right now where it makes like it's difficult for say again a player like Jesus like you talked about that this is a unique situation his his career has been pretty trailblazing as far as MS goes he was the first homegrown to DB contract he earned the hell out of that that was awesome I love that Dallas gave him it the the drawback to that is he's on like whatever two million dollars Las Palmas are not paying two million dollars uh um one of those feeder clubs like in belgium or that like you know you a stepping stone club probably a better way to put it when you go to europe rather than going directly to you know europa league team in spain or whatever right those teams aren't paying that money because it's just the

nature of roster building over there and the reality and that i i think that he i know that he earned that deal here but that doesn't mean that he's going to get it elsewhere so that's also important too that hey your contract carries and then you know we'll sign you to a new one whatever that number is and it'll be closer to what it is here so i think that's another subplot to consider that second point seattle and spending i don't know this for a fact but this tells me but between like the the overwhelming assumption that Albert Rusnak returns and then potentially using a DP spot to trade for Jesus Ferreira,

that ownership isn't giving front office discretionary spend. I might be wrong. I hope I am. But my read on this from the outside is, okay, we're not going to get $6 million of spend to sign the center of dp forward jesus frer is a fantastic option if that's not the case so i don't know we'll see but um that that would be my fear as a sounders fan just in terms of the general level of discretionary spend yeah no it makes sense and like if you thought you could do that and obviously

there's the potential with Jesus for to transfer him out after but the players you bring into MLS normally they have even higher value to transfer out later whether it's for the same number so you break even or to make a little bit of money where the barriers that exist with Jesus for and his contract they're gonna exist like there's no way Seattle's going to negotiate him down. And so at that point, he's going to have the same issues at an even older age of saying, oh, I don't really want to go to these clubs and take a pay cut

and try and fight my way into potentially a Europa League or Champions League team. And so you're stuck there. Let's talk Paul Areola here because it's connected in the same way, but also not. This is like a bizarre to double up on this. And just for Seattle to say like, how much of Dallas can we just import into our club?

So the Seattle Sounders are nearing a deal to acquire Paul Areola from FC Dallas. These are separate conversations. This is not a package deal with Ferreira. These things like, I mean, loosely can be connected, right? Because there's two teams talking, but it's not like either both or neither. So Paul Areola is the one that is closer as far as my understanding.

What I'm told is that Dallas are going to hold a pretty decent chunk of his salary hit. I don't know the exact number on that, but that is what would make it super palatable for Seattle. Dallas are trying to reset the roster, overturn the roster. New coach Eric Quill last year didn't go to plan. Honestly, 2023 didn't totally go to plan either, even though they made the playoffs. So they're looking for a lot of change this year. Again, we're talking about Jesus Ferrer, talking about Paul Arriola.

I'm expecting somebody like Sebastian Leggett to be on the move as well. So that's kind of what the motivations are for Dallas. For Seattle, it's bringing in a high-quality MLS veteran, experienced player, somebody who I think fits really well with Morris and Roldan and Roldan and Rusnak and potentially Jesus Ferreira. So this makes sense to me. Again, you talked about the floor and ceiling stuff.

Paul Areola, I got all the time in the world for that guy. You know that that dude's on the field. He's going to make your team better. Again, at 1.7 million, probably not perfect. If you're expecting him to have 10 goals, 10 assists, probably not perfect. In this role at Seattle, I would really, really like this one. What I was told here is that San Diego pushed pretty hard yesterday to try to convince him to come to SoCal,

back home, back to the area. But what I was told, Seattle are going to be the next destination for Palladio, or at least the deal is close. And we'll see when it gets over the line what it all looks like. It is once again a Seattle move. MLS experience, MLS veteran. It makes sense in a lot of ways like everything you just mentioned position wise it's a little confusing for me and he's at his best on the right side

alex roldan is an above level starter at right back i was hoping next year right wing back if they switch the formation up which may not happen based off the moves they're making then you go to right wing Christian Roldan has played there Pedro de la Vega has played there it is not exactly specifically the biggest hole but you go into all these players and they're all flexible so the idea I think here is you just need two starting wingers and if you do go wing backs then Paul Areola is a left wingback. If not, we've seen him play inside a little bit and be okay. He is an attacking player. But otherwise, you'd put him on the left wing. You put De La Vega there.

That part's all fine in the end. Fine isn't exactly what I would be going for. But if Dallas is going to take on some of his contract, then he starts to become a player for Seattle, where he is a really good hit against the cap right if they're going to take on three four five hundred thousand of his contract he goes from 1.7 to 1.2 million something like that he's all he has one year left and then an option year if you can get a player of his pedigree i would say that's a

pretty big deal for this team and i think seattle what they are building here is like the elite weakling team in major league soccer right often we talk about the best player on the field being the reason you win and then often we talk about the team that has no weakness you bring a player like this in you add a couple pieces like jesus ferrer and him and i won't be shocked when they go into free agency and add more MLS veterans because they love them. Look at what Nathan was this year and all of that. I think for the most part, Seattle will have the best, worst player on the field in most MLS games. That gets you wins, and I think it helps you contend in international soccer because often in CONCACAF competition specifically, it's like, well, MLS teams on the DP side can compete one through five.

But League MX, six through 12, that's where they really are able to take advantage. And I think Seattle's helping that. I would add into all of this, because I'm literally wearing a GA Cup shirt, Seattle's done really good work in the academy recently. And so I'm not worried about them being the team that has to bring in u22 young dp guys because i think that portion of the roster over the next few years can be filled out of the academy and it's okay to go a little bit older with a paul areola i agree and i think we buried the lead here what i'm why i'm desperately hoping that both of these moves get done is to just see the tweets that there's going to be a team with Jesus Ferreira,

Pariola, Jordan Morris, and Christian Roldan all on the field at the same time. This was what was in the Discord. Let me pull it out here. This was the fringe national team, anger everyone, best mls 11 zach stephanie goal yedlin zimmerman long and bello in the back line acosta roldan legit and areola ferreira and jordan morris now no one doesn't play all of that george bello's probably not outside the realm of possibility if they want to that's fair we also like did try to sign him i don't know two year ago two years ago i don't even remember boom uh yeah so this could be around the corner speak speaking of aaron long he is uh staying with lafc signing a

new three-year contract so that takes one of the top free agents off the board he was going to be somebody again that i would have been looking at for again any team with defensive issues and there are a lot of teams with defensive issues in MLS that should have been targeting him, but he agrees with three-year contract to stay with LAFC. Makes sense. He's just Murillo, a free agent. It makes sense with Murillo's injury history this year and Aaron Long's health that he would be the one to stay. I hope they both stay.

Agreed. And also, whether they find more possession in the game or not, Aaron Long fits both for them, so he's an obvious guy to try and keep in the house for you. Let's talk free agency for a moment here. I put down a couple of names that interest me. I think free agency can go a million different ways. The one thing I'd say, and I forgot to mention this with Jasper Laughlson, we are now in a world with enough of a diverse styles in MLS that the right guy in the right place matters. So like, I think lawful sin will fit in San Diego better than he fit in Colorado

because he doesn't cover a ton of ground, but he likes to be on the ball. And so I think for a few of these players, there's going to be a lot of like, ha ha meme from one fan base saying you got a nothing player that ends up being a brand Bronico for a team, right? Guys that have huge factors.

Ilya Sanchez, when he went to LAFC, we had no idea that he had the capability at this point of his career to really affect a team. So for me, Jackson Ewell is one of those guys. I like what he does on the ball. He does cover a decent amount of ground. Ilya already mentioned. The big one is Jeremy Abobese. Yes.

He has the potential to be a lockdown center forward for the right team in the right setup. They have to give him the opportunities. I don't know where that is right now. I don't have a clean spot for him. And that's the part that's a little frustrating for me is normally this is a position where you're like, boom, X team has no center forward. There's not a really obvious team. Does anyone stand out to you? So for me, just kind of like the quick blink test, Charlotte. So let's say Charlotte uses their DP spot on Miguel Almarone or another DP10. And this is what we were talking about with Patrick Augermann,

that you need to bring in another forward because it'd be silly to just go in with just, this is it, and he's going to be great. And there's going to be no injuries and no dips of form so that gives both players a chance to play but it also doesn't block either of them and i like that particularly if charlotte used their dp spot on a 10 another one that comes to mind toronto like that's that's something i think is a good plug and play again you could say it for you know so many different teams yeah montreal would be in there as well if this was their version of spending, was to bring in a Jeremy Obobese at center.

But it's true, right? That would be their big move. Yeah, yeah. So those are the ones that came off the top of my head. Like, you could talk me into Real Salt Lake, and if Chicho's playing the nine-and-a-half role, again, I don't think that's a perfect fit, but I like the first two that I mentioned. But those are some that come to mind. But, again, like you said't i don't think that's a perfect fit but i got like the first two that i mentioned but but those are some that come comes to mind but again

like you said it is weird because this is a good player he won't be crazy expensive he's free as a free agent we should be saying like 12 teams but like you said there isn't so many like dude definitely hammer that one home that's definitely happening yeah yeah no i think in the past you would have started to list off a red bulls and Orlando, like all these clubs that always need a center forward and all of them, even Vancouver. They have that position filled right now in a surprising way. And so there's not as much of a market there as you'd expect. Fafa Pico is another player where I think he had a really good year with Vancouver, showing his willingness to come off the bench a little bit, what he does against the ball, like for the right club. Again, one we saw where in Austin, where was it the year before?

Dallas. In Dallas, it didn't work. It didn't make sense. I don't know. Yeah, right. They played it. Nashville plays on their heels. Dallas plays, tries to play in possession a little bit more.

Vancouver, it was more high tempo, more in your face. And it really worked out for them. Ilya, I already mentioned, I think Houston's a nice fit for him if he wants to but san diego could be an interesting one there as well um the biggest name is jack elliott yes and he is one where not a single team would shock me a good mls center back there's not a team that signed him even if a team had four of good MLS center backs, a fifth is okay. Maybe Cincinnati will go back. Yeah. No, but on a serious note, I like

Chicago for Jack Kelly. I like Austin for Favre Pico. And for Laos and I like Dallas. Those are three things that I like. Free agency doesn't open up to one, so I can't. I just like these guys. I could see all open it to one, so I can't. I just like these. I could see all of it happen. We will be back next week to start to update as

things begin and as things happen here. Let's close out on you are headed to Brooklyn. Shout out to BK. Give me a flannel. Get me out there. Cover this thing. Listen, make fun of it all you want. You know you're going to eat like a king, though, when you're there. I'm actually going gonna be wearing a flan like that you know you gotta go to

fiscati's and at least get garlic knots for me at least you gotta get knots you don't even need to get a slice if you don't want to all right fine fine diet starts january 1st new year new me i'll go get pizza exactly yeah for you guys yeah this is just you prepping the diet at this point talk us through what's going on and how this is going to work and sort of what today means otherwise so board of governors for those who don't know the owners meet you know there are the sub to the committees uh used to be called product strategy it is now called sports uh chemist i don't know paul tenorio is the um the person to talk to here he is the expert on this my i honest god so i reported out that mls is it seems very likely to pass a internal cash trade market trade was a word that i was told uh that that that was how they would like to be

calling it rather than the internal transfer market um but like when i was reporting this out i called paul me and paul don't work together anymore and i've started with i hope if this rather than the internal transfer market. But when I was reporting this out, I called Paul. Me and Paul don't work together anymore. And I've started with, I hope if this puts you in a bad position, just hang up the phone. I'm sorry. But dude, I don't trust myself

to get all the machinations right. And then Paul just goes for nine and a half minutes on every... So please read Paul's story at The Athletic. He wrote an excellent feature explaining all of this. And it's really worthwhile because these are the committees that decide the future of mls these are committees that when we're idiots like

us are talking on podcasts well how should mls capitalize on lino messi what should they do next these are the committees that have these conversations and actually you know do something about it or not do something about it so what i'm being told is that there's a lot of momentum and i got a lot of sources that said this is happening, about an internal trade market, where if you want to sign Jesus Ferreira, you can spend $3 million, real life money and not allocation money.

If you want to go trade for Evander, you can do it. You could offer Portland Simmers $15 million if you wanted to. I think, I know that this has been a long time coming. I know that there's been discussions, and I need to be cautious to say, it is expected to come to a vote. And if it comes to a vote, it will pass. But this time last year, I was told the decoupling of DPS and you 22 initiative was absolutely happening. And then all of a sudden, it got taken off the vote like last second, because they didn't

have enough momentum for it. And then they did in the summer so all that is to say i have to be boring i have to couch all this and be careful with i'm hopeful slash expecting this to happen but it is not a guarantee and i think one source that i talked to around the league described it best this makes so much sense that means it won't pass uh this is i think the question we've been getting from people so that cash does not immediately then go to a salary cap right i don't know so so that's that's the thing too like today we're gonna like hopefully it passes and we find out the details um like little things like when does it start like tomorrow the summer like um my understanding from one person was january would be when it starts.

So you could just kind of agree a trade for Jesus Frere and then have it go through in January 1st so you could do the cash money. So that's the idea. And as far as I understand, it's like signing a player from abroad where you amortize the transfer fee. Again, I don't know that for sure, but that's kind of what I was talking to for people. But again, if and hopefully when this passes passes today they will give us all the details

listen i just can't wait for the moment when every mls fan base can send the logan roy meme to each other being like congratulations on saying the biggest number you could think of you idiots and just having to be like oh you wanted Ferrer? It turns out we said a bigger number than you. It would be fascinating if it came in because I think it's the start down the road of trying to open up spending in Major League Soccer and shift away from the we never want teams to be able to compete against each other for players or for signings. And therefore, we have kind of always been stuck in this hole of discovery rights and all this stuff. As much as it's become limited, it still exists. And this is kind of a way to sort of open up the books a little bit more and be like, now you can start to fight other teams for players inside of MLS, outside of MLS.

Push those numbers up. Does Seattle offering you a big number get you a bigger number from Club Bruges or something like that? And does that start to change things as well? So it'd be really nice. It would be really cool, especially coming out of the state of the league that there would be something that actually does shift spending in MLS when it feels like felt like it wouldn't.

And something else for us to cover and talk about here on soccer wise. All right. That's all for us here. You can follow us of course, on all your socials, all your channels, all the things like that. Subscribe to our Patreon to get into our Discord to talk fringe

USMNT potential MLS teams. We did not have the NWSL show yesterday. Myself and Jordan will be back next week. Me and Tom will be back next week as well. I've got some interviews lined up for the holiday season that we will be rolling out so we can take a little bit of a break. But of course, Major League Soccer

never ends, as Tom can attest to. So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to everyone who was in the chat, live, hanging out with us. Thank you to you, Tom, for being here bright and early in the morning. Have a great trip out to New York. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon. Thank you.