SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Trade SZN Galaxy, Montreal & Revs + USMNT Roster

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Did Tom & David just take over the CF Montreal front office? The Canadian side are making all the sweet sweet MLS moves you can! So Soccerwise digs into the Jalen Neal trade, the Vrioni deal, NYCFC's new manager & of course the final sale on Brandon Vasquez back to MLS. Plus who are we most excited about on the USMNT January camp roster & who are the biggest snubs.4:00 USMNT January Roster 20:20 Why The LA Galaxy Trade Jalen Neal 29:04 Montreal Making Moves 39:00 Where The Revs Now Stand 46:40 Austin Seal Vasquez As Record Signing 55:20 NYCFC Hire New Manager 58:00 Ice Cream Shop & MLS TransfersSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise david goss and tommy scoops with you here for a big show the mls trade uh machine is working on high tommy scoop scooping all of it for you. And we've got a lot to discuss here on this show today. Tom, last time we were together, we were preparing for what was an NBA Finals preview with the New York Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. And thankfully, the Knicks know you save all your shots for a real game. You don't waste shots in practice. So both of us are doing

fantastic here on this tuesday morning exactly i thought that that was a good one we'll see you in the finals kind of thing that the thunder very good i don't think that guy named wiggins whose first name i don't even know and i'm not even going to learn it because he's not going to matter when we play the thunder in the finals that's all i know okay i'm fine with that i wouldn't make you do anything you don't want to do you uh for anyone listening to the podcast we have already got the first comment shout out to morgan in the chat you are sporting a man bun right now new year new you what uh what's the inspiration behind this tommy topknot here um just the inspiration of my hair has gotten longer and now i can put it in a little bun um it was um approved maybe pushed would be the right

word by my wife so that that would probably be the best answer if in your top knot man bun thought process do you think you're more like albanian international are you more like hockey player like how do you see yourself hockey player because like when i'm playing soccer just like a hockey player wouldn't play hockey it's not it's not a top knot it's headband and flow so that's it's definitely more hockey than albanian international you just got a ned stark reference in the chat which is a tight way to begin a show so respect for that clearly the people like it if you are not watching us you are listening you can go watch the show on youtube we do it live very often uh a little less consistent here in the off season uh and i'm going to be

adding some interviews to the show as well just you i thought this was a team game oh me you're saying you're gonna add the interview you just said i'm gonna add the interviews i thought that we win as a team we lose as a team what's happening oh interesting okay are you gonna edit them no no but we win as a team and we lose but we win as a team and we lose as a team i'll take it i love the team mentality i'm here for it uh i'm ready to roll that way new year new us as we like to continue saying we'll probably be saying that for the next six months every time we do something six days until i revert back to my normal to our to our old ways man it is an uphill battle in my household of like we my wife goes we should eat healthier i'm like agreed let me cook this and

she's like right but also i'd love a bowl of pasta and you're like oh yeah here's the butter here's here's everything else and i'm like you think i don't you don't think i want this you don't think that makes me happy we will continue as i said I said, to add to the YouTube page. You can go to there, subscribe to get that content. And of course, continue to subscribe if you are watching on YouTube. You can subscribe to our podcast to get it anywhere you get your podcast. We have our Patreon as well, which gives you access to our depth charts, as well as our Discord chat, which has been on fire today because because I think there's a 1.5% chance that our Discord channel on the MLS side

is currently in charge of CF Montreal. Everything Montreal is doing is the most MLS nerdy thing you could possibly do. So the Discord's been on fire chatting about all of that this week as well. And we're going to dig into those moves and all of that news here on the show. To start, though, we're going to talk a little U.S. men's national team. As we've got the January camp coming up right now here in Miami, Florida, baby, the temperature is going to drop. It's going to be perfect for soccer weather.

Low of 50, high of 70, just playing the game the way it's meant to be played. I might jump into a session i'm not even gonna lie if pochettino needs someone to keep the ball moving and only play off their right foot i could be that player for them in a quick little possession drill if they need it the roster came out two days ago i believe at this point it is a lot of the names you would expect all uh mls players except one who doesn't play for any team. We'll get to that. We will get to that.

Save the pose in the chamber for that. I want it. We'll get to that in just a moment. Jake Callender, Matt Freese, Patrick Schulte, Zach Steffen in goal. Most of the defenders you'd expect, Tim Rehm, Miles Robinson, Walker Zimmerman, the big names. Then you've got the younger players, the Max Arfsten of the world, John Tolkien, George Campbell. In midfield, Benha Kramaschke, Emeka Eneli, Diego Luna, and Jack McGlynn. Matt Doyle, thank you for your service. Our sword is yours now for

all future battles. Up top, you've got some names you'd expect of Brian White, Jesus Ferreira, and then two huge names i'll start with the first one the first one is the legend the god patrick ajagod himself finally getting the recognition he deserves he probably won't get any playing time because that's the battle that's the fight that he always has to go through but us the aji gang his supporters feel so special today knowing that he's getting the recognition he deserves he is a future star for the u.s men's national team and that journey begins today it was a big day for the family i'm so happy specifically for you this is a big day for you i can't believe that we got here we joked about it on the show like i think i was like come on man like just just don't get your hopes up don't don't get disappointed i care about you

and here it is it's here how's it feel it feels great it feels like the day that i waited for i will say watch them first and mls next pro so i'm not i'm not a uri guy i don't go back that far but i'm as close as you can get and knew this was one, this was one to know, uh, genuinely I'm not messing around. Right. We know that. Like, I think he is so good.

I love his name. I love him as a personality. So there's a little extra there, but like not saying for a guy, his size with his feet, his finishing ability to be on that field. He's not going to look out of place and the things he can do at the high level,

his ceiling, I think is as high as anyone in this group and in this conversation. And so he's one of the ones that I am obviously most excited about. Brian Gutierrez goes on this list as well. He's kind of, I won't use the word snubbed, but he's been ignored for a couple camps, especially the U23 stuff. Yeah, I didn't get that. That was a little surprising with him. And so it's good to see him get the recognition and your hope is

he gets that recognition here now he goes into a year with hopefully a competent club team around him and he's able to sort of use this to springboard and jack mcglynn's one of my favorite soccer players to watch in the world i could be his right foot he could just be the left foot and we would be that that perfect combination he sure is your right foot is better than his the red no he does not at all he does not need anything from me that is 100 guaranteed um so yeah on a serious note on Anjumang like taking a player with such a high physical upside and so much I guess untapped or potentially untapped potential I really like that kind of role. I don't like Indy Vasilev being listed as a forward.

I don't really get it. I guess you have to fill the roster, right? But I'm more excited for Iowa. But there's only four midfielders. That's also a little odd to me, unless that there's... I mean, maybe Vasilev is going to play in the midfield. But usually U.S. soccer gives you hints based on where they list players because they would go back and forth with Gio Reyna forward midfielder. Same thing with Brendan Aronson.

And usually that was very intentional. So I assume that these decisions are intentional to list Indy Veselov as a forward because as a forward, I don't see it for the national team. Maybe in this camp as kind of a pit bull in the midfield as a box-to-box guy. I think that can make sense. But again, who knows? It's a January camp. It's a camp for experimentation, all of that.

I'm going to stick with the positive before I just absolutely unload. But I'm really, really happy Matt Freese is on this team. I think he's, it was an absolute joke that he wasn't a finalist or goalkeeper of the year. I had him as my second choice. I did vote Christian Kalina, who won the award, and then Matt Freese.

I think he's excellent. I'm really happy that he's getting this opportunity. I'm curious to see what it shakes out in defense, like George Campbell and Jalen Neal. I'm excited to see what they're going to look like. Jesus Ferreira, he hasn't been with the team for a bit. This will be his first look under Richo Pochettino. He's going to Seattle soon. He's still listed as FC Dallas because nothing has been official there yet, but that'll, that'll happen soon.

What I don't understand, why is Matko Miljevic on this team? Why? I don't understand. I, like, there is no world in which this makes any sense to me. And I preface this with, look, it's a January camp.

I'm the person who usually says dude whatever it's the last spot on the roster for like even more so for this but that's all well and good when it's a fourth goalkeeper that's all well and good if it's Indy Vasilev if it's insert any of the other players on this team who don't come with the baggage that Michael Miljovic does first of all and that you know it's this is the way the world works we have to talk about him as a soccer player first even so even if he's an a-hole if he was a really good player he'd be on the team right it's just what it is he did nothing for cf montreal who in case you guys forgot aren't exactly the standard bearers in major league soccer he did nothing the reason

why he's not at cf montreal anymore is because he signed up for an amateur soccer league in quebec under a fake name and he got found out because he got in a fight because he signed up for an amateur soccer league in Quebec. Under a fake name. And he got found out because he got in a fight. Because he beat the shit out of somebody. During an amateur game. In which he was playing under a fake name. For God knows why. Spin it forward.

Call it love of the game. Whatever. If one thing happened. As insane as that is. Maybe it's one transgression. This is a pattern for this player. He went to Argentina. He's currently without a club. Because once again he got his contract terminated because and and this was reading through Argentine

reporting and I'm sorry I don't remember off the top of my head who had this what outlet but he was subbed off in a game went nuclear screaming at the coach trying to leave somebody calling him down he's staying on the bench whatever it was he apologized to the team after the game i'm sorry that was out of line right okay cool the next game he got subbed off again and went even crazier and the team was like we're terminating your contract you're out of your mind what good does this do there is no untapped upside with this player there isn't why is he on this roster is it a favor? I don't understand. I love it, Tom. I had to fix our levels before we started this episode because I knew this was coming and I had to make sure everyone could handle it at a decent experience.

It was my first thought as well when I looked at the roster. And I've said this a couple of times. The national team, there are podcasts out there there's a zillion of them which is like you should never give away a cap you should never give away a call up whatever the national team has sat in a place where it's helped restart players careers in the past like it's helped players that are either out at their team and just need some minutes and need an opportunity to show coaches. It's helped players who are unsigned get themselves signed. But you don't owe that to anyone.

And this player has not proven they're a national team player at any point. So if you had said to me, let's just take a weird example. Alex Zendaya was out of contract with Club America. I don't know. We're going to talk about him later. So that name came up. Like, he doesn't know what he's doing. Great.

National team can be a good spot where he trains for a month plays one or two friendlies shows himself and puts himself in the best light to then help the national team this is a player who has not proven they are in the national team conversation at all and most of the reasons they have are not with a roster right now is because of off-field issues that you don't even want to introduce into your team so i completely agree with you i don't understand it um i don't know what the what the idea was besides the fact that it's a free player and so you don't have to talk to a team about bringing this player in and you don't have to deal with any of that but it seems like the

mls teams that isn't really an issue at all although Jackson Reagan not called into this group we already have a comment here from Henry Elliott in the chat Tom was this a player that you were surprised by so yes and then I did some asking around and he wasn't released by the Seattle Seattle are going to Spain pretty early in preseason so I don't know if they straight up said no or if they said hey he can't come and again i'm sure the same thing is with uh jordan morris and it's not the same for jesus frow because he's not he's not a seattle player yes but i do know that reagan would have been on this roster if not for that quinn sullivan was another player that has been reported that the philadelphia union nathan harriel um is another that i believe was also asked for and philly

only jack mcglynn was allowed so maybe that means like I haven't heard anything about a move but I don't know maybe maybe they're trying to kind of split it in half with you know okay yeah Jack has has spent more time in the first team with the union he's you know exactly what you're getting with him so even if he doesn't tread like I think he'll be fine no matter what but again I'd probably say the same about Harry and Quinn Sullivan but again tweets their own but those are some a player who wasn't called into the team which i asked because i was like hey what's going on here why like why did you guys say no was cole bassett he wasn't called um interesting i'm surprised by that especially because there's four midfielders on this group and again maybe my whole

list my whole list of players that i think i left out or i'm curious about are all central midfielders as well and cole bassett would be at the top of that list um he ended the year injured so there's that but if the rapids say he's fine to go you'd assume they would want him in this group they the u.s soccer didn't ask and like the rapids wouldn't have turned it down that that's oh and georgie mahajovich um i believe it was this Oh, and Georgie Mihailovic. I believe it was a small... Georgie was another player who would have been in this group, but I think it was a small injury.

Something to that effect. Don't totally quote me on this, but he wasn't in the camp of Cole Bassett where he wasn't called. He was somewhere in the Reagan-Quinselvin region. The three names that popped out to me, if we're talking central midfield, Keaton Parks is just never going to get a look with the national team. I think that's the thing.

It's ridiculous. I think it's over. But, like, that shouldn't be the case with anyone. If they're good enough, they're good enough. If they can play a role, they can play a role. So that one frustrates me. The other two that popped in my head were both players that played in MLS Cup, which doesn't mean they're at the top of this list.

But Edwin Cerino and Daniel Edelman started MLS Cup at a position that's clearly thin in this group thin in the national team pool and while I don't think either of them is national team ready right now it's a January camp like what else are you doing so to get those young players a chance to play in a high level situation and see who they are and see what they're like seems like a weird miss to me um overall when the way this roster turned out you actually had a hole there that you could have used so those are the names that popped out for me um have we i guess we haven't really talked about diego luna that's a like huge name because we've all been waiting for him and it feels like this is a huge opportunity to get him some minutes to get him locked in and to be a part of this i'm happy because that was another guy i was weird i was like did they just not rate him just at all um so again this is a no-brainer for me for you i believe that you feel the same about diego luna so

i was happy to see that one more name julian Gressel. I guess that that could fall in the category of, like, Keaton Parks or whatever. But I do think that he has a special skill. And looping this back around, and I've probably talked too much already about the January camp. I mean, like, the bottom of the January camp. How far away is that from the top of the U.S. Rocks? But just to bring it all the way back around is, like,

Patrick Ajumang I'm most excited for because I think that he has a couple of potential elite skills. His is physicality that you can't teach and you can't replicate. Julian Gressel has a special skill of his delivery, his ability, and probably more at a central midfield if it's a 4-3-3 at the national team level than playing right back. I think that it's more useful to have players like that in these camps because rather than say just a guy who who can do something similar to say the the guys on the a team if you call it but just a couple notches below like i'd rather have kind of some

more variation but yeah finding a specialist to be able to add to the whole group although it's not like the kit it's not like the national team pool is so deep right now that there's no space for people to get into conversations it's also a time of flux under a new manager i think that in the end is probably the most exciting part about all of this which is just another chance for mariso pochettino to work with a group i will be interested to see how different the the lineups, the formations look like they, we haven't seen him coach a lot of games. So how does he treat this thing,

which is very American because of the way things are set up. And obviously Mexico does one in some of the Scandinavian countries do as well, but it's not super common around the world. Like how does he treat this month? How does he treat this camp? It became, I think a big thing for Greg Berhalter because it was just something to

work on and something to work around and like something for him to sort of tweak his ideas and all that stuff um but how pochettino uses it will be different from how bruce arena used it and all of that so um it'll be fun to watch a lot to watch out for we'll continue talking about it the games are actually here in miami i got tickets to go see them play against i believe venezuela although if i'm being honest i i'm really not sure who they're playing although it's gonna be a party if it's u.s venezuela yeah that's fun in fort lauderdale that's kind of a vibe so uh yeah i'm i'm beyond excited look at about big time look at david goss man of the people buying his own. He could have used his big time connections to get in it. He could have used his I'm a big J journalist, get me a press pass.

No, he said, I want to support our country. I want to support our national team. Here's my hard earned money. I'll pay for it, Ticket, because I'm a man of the people. I love that, Goss. Yeah, I don't know how to get out of this one, but I didn't pay for it. My wife got it for free at work. And I don't think she wants me to say that. And you just put me in a corner that I couldn't get out of. No, no didn't pay for it my wife got it for free at work and i don't think she

wants me to say that and you just put me in a corner that i couldn't get out no no no no no i didn't know what else to do you could have just awkwardly laughed and spun backwards or read a comment in the chat making fun of my hair somebody uh let me find it will says tom out here looking like the main guy from mulan uh which is very funny and i just got a text from somebody saying hey tom first time long time Just wanted to let you know, you could have warned us that you're going to start doing the whole samurai top knot thing. I'm not saying it's bad or good. I just think it needed a warning.

Let's get down to business to defeat the Huns. Great song, great movie. Tom, I think you look great. I have no complaints about it at all. We do have questions about Toronto FC if you want to answer them in the chat. We got a long... We got a lot of questions about Toronto FC. Last show, Tom, Toronto wants you to be...

I cultivated a single source, apparently. That is something that I did during that show. Really quickly, because I'm going to take a couple of these questions in the chat that I can answer very quickly. One from Thomas. Did we touch on the Mysterious Japan tweet from Atlanta already? we have not i

can answer quickly it is not kyogo from celtic that has been rumored that was what a lot of fans were assuming it is it is not that i can say that with certainty uh dutch international calvin stangs who failed the transfer to charlotte in the summer may be coming to mls this winter this is from mick tank tanke he uh why would another team sign him if like maybe teams have different doctors that feel differently maybe the surgery fix a lot of things but if you fail in medical that's usually kind of a really bad sign for within the league so those i would be unlikely but you never say never wow so you found a couple softballs for you to knock out of the park real quick.

I appreciate that. Yeah, or I would have been talking for way too long, and we wouldn't have all the things we're getting to. Nice. Again, if you are listening via podcast, you can join us live on YouTube. Let's dig into our first big topic of the day, because a lot of these questions are about either the LA Galaxy, CF Montreal, or the New England Revolution. And there's a lot to talk about with all of those of the Montreal choosing to be the center of all of this. So this week got

started with Jalen Neal, LA Galaxy Academy player and homegrown center back being traded to Montreal. He was traded in return for 650,000 in allocation money and international roster spot, which if you're doing the accounting here has been going for roughly 175 K so far this off season in the last few years, but that depends on situation and basically how in trouble a team is and a sell on percentage of any future sale of Jalen Neal. Neal then proceeded to sign a new contract or a contract extension, which turns him into a U22 initiative player.

So more money for him, but a different mechanism to cover the roster spot for Montreal at the end of that trade. We will talk about Montreal more in a moment. Let's start, though, with the LA Galaxy. This is all in lieu, we believe, of the LA Galaxy signing another experienced center back in Matthias Jorgensen, who goes by Zanka, currently at Anderlecht, has played in England for a long time, on the other side of 30, then a Jalen Neal. And of course, Maya Yoshida is still a free agent. Tom, this was a big trade in major league soccer uh what were your first few reactions

as you sort of heard this one going down so i'll start with in reporting this out um some things to consider one the la galaxy they're running up against cap constraints it's just the nature of the business it's the nature of the business for a team that has a lot of very good players a lot of expensive players and the allocation money is going to be very useful why they they really like Jalen Neal but Amir Garces was starting and the team went to another level when Amir Garces was starting again that is no slander towards Jalen Neal it just creates a okay if we can get 650,000 plus an asset in the international slot that's worth another 200,000 we have to think about this on the other side this too, he was entering the last year of his contract. So if they were going to move him,

it had to be this year. His camp wanted a U22 initiative deal or something in that line. And the Galaxy weren't getting close in talks with Jalen Neal. And so this kind of made sense for everybody. I know that we're focusing on the Galaxy right now, but on Neal's perspective,

he's going to have a lot more minutes or a lot more guaranteed minutes. I should probably say in Montreal that he would have in 2025 with the galaxy. And sometimes players can use a change of scenery. This will be an easy one because it's Montreal, but Georgia Mihailovich, man, he hit, he was, I thought he was very good for Chicago fire when he was breaking through. He hit another level when he went to Montreal. And sometimes you just need to change the scenery

because the players at the Galaxy, the staff at the Galaxy, he's always this really talented young kid that came through the Academy. You're always kind of looking at him as the Academy kid, the kid who's just like, kid, kid, kid. Montreal, he goes there. Now he's a man.

Now he's, all right, we spent a good amount of assets on you. Plus we gave you a big new contract. You have the responsibility. It's no longer, oh, it's great if you play a thousand minutes. It's like, no, no, no. You need to be really big new contract. You have the responsibility. It's no longer, oh, it's great if you play a thousand minutes. It's like, no, no, no. You need to be really good for us. You're going to be very important for us. So sometimes that can help change with career too.

So those are kind of the first thoughts on my end. But again, the overarching point of the Galaxy need allocation money. They still are going to need more from my own accounting and my own just kind of talking and asking around to people. And then Zonka my own just kind of talking and asking around people. And then Zonka, I've reported that deal is being finalized.

34-year-old Anderlecht. I figured when I was hearing about this that so he moved to Anderlecht this summer. I was like, oh, is he just not playing at all? He started like all of the games. They're playing in all of the games. So I was kind of surprised that he's moving on from Anderlecht so quickly already. And they're very hopeful to get Maya Yoshida back. They're still in talks, but nothing's agreed.

And again, they're going to have cap constraints. This won't be easy. So I'm very curious to see where the center back shuffle leads. But right now we know that they have Amira Garces and they're about to have Zanka. They hope to have Yoshida and they hope to add another. It is, it's unfortunate because it is, as you said, it's all about the rules and the mechanisms.

This is not exactly the LA Galaxy's perception of Jalen Neal as a player. Correct. He is their only asset. So unless they want to trade away a piece that they really, really want, like one of the stars of their team, they are up against it and they need to find ways to generate allocation money to be able to fit more players under their roster, as well as picking up an international roster spot. And Jalen Neal was going to be the most attractive one. So you could shop other pieces if you want. Teams are going to come back and say, well, no, if you're offering us something because you need what we have, then we want the best asset. And so I think the galaxy were in that

bind they knew they had to make a move like this and jalen neal started his last game five games before the playoffs and then did not start again so five regular season games to close the year and then the entire playoff run didn't start a single game and it was garces's play and i think it was partially jalen neal's as well I think one of the big things that showed is I think he struggled with physical moments I think he struggled in a lot of 50-50 battles in which he had to win physical battles and as a center back it's tough you're 20 years old you're 21 years old like it's hard to be ready for those you can kind of only get that from developing physically as well as developing in the minutes and as you

talked about now he's going to go to a place where he's going to get those opportunities and get those minutes, and he might do it in maybe a more comfortable setup. If Montreal plays like they did last year, they'll have three center backs. You'll be exposed in different areas of the field. You'll have support in different ways. The Galaxy probably weren't going to shift to anything like that. And so he wasn't a starter on the team, and yet he's one of the biggest assets because he's already been in a national team kit

without being a full-time starter in Major League Soccer. Six caps. Yeah, which is ridiculous for other reasons, but it shows you how people perceive him as a talent and as a skill. And so for the Galaxy, unfortunately for them, they had to sell on the potential and not sell on the full package of having been able to use him at a senior level. But they are now in a win now mode.

And so if they're able to gain more assets and then bring in a veteran, that's probably an OK move for them where they live in 2025. And I do want to echo what you said this doesn't have a reflection that the galaxy disliked this player or don't think he's going to reach his potential or don't think he would be useful in 2025 I'm glad you said that and again I want that to be a big takeaway as well that it's just kind of the nature of the salary cap and the nature of Montreal we're going to give him the contract extension and then Montreal guess what you have a pathway to Bologna you have a pathway as well to Europe again not that he couldn't have been sold by the Galaxy, but these are all things that it makes sense for both parties.

And Jalen Neal is leaving this club happily. He's going out the front door. Both sides are happy with each other. And that this wasn't a situation where they're like, oh, this guy stinks. We need to get rid of him while we can. No, it was just a confluence of other factors. The move for Zanka, the only thing from what I've watched,

and if I from being honest i haven't watched him play a million times he feels very much like a yoshida replacement in not that yoshida's not coming back but in he fits the similar profile of like a little bit more physical you probably don't feel as comfortable with him covering ground in space 1v1 but maybe organizing a little more i think neil fits more of the profile of Garces in saying that they probably need some a fourth center back. If that's one of the things they end up pursuing, who can fit into that role if Garces ends up being out, which is a player who can cover more ground and feels more comfortable in those defensive areas. And again, this might sound

hypocritical because the Galaxy could have given him a U22 initiative contract. They still have a U22 initiative slot open. They could add another center back via that method. I'm expecting them to use those U22 slots because they're very valuable on the cap. $150,000 or $200,000, depending on the player's age, compared to a senior roster or whatever. Because Dejan Jovalic, I believe, ages out of the U22 initiative this year. So that's another complicating factor because then he hits the cap at a higher number, plus you're going to need allocation money to buy him down.

So there's going to be more moves for the LA Galaxy, but they needed the allocation money. We have someone in the chat lobbing scorchers who says, LA Galaxy buying John Bell. I'm starting the rumor now. You know lobbing scorchers. Those are our guys already already know the best well i'm just saying you can start that rumor because no one else was gonna start that rumor no one's out here starting john bell rumors so i'm here for you they are being the

proponent of that and except for john bell and his family maybe as well no one else is gonna do that so that's a really good role to take up let's talk Montreal now for Montreal they get Jalen Neal this as we said 21 year old with six caps center back one of the biggest defensive prospects in the U.S. soccer pool they bring him into their team in a week in which they've also signed Fabian Herbers. You have reported that they may be on the verge of selling Mahalo Opoku overseas. They've loaned out Matias Kokoro. And then they've continued this week by trading for a designated player in Giacomo Veroni from the New England Revolution.

The details coming out right now. But it sounds like, sorry, what was the number you said you got traded for 50 000 i'm sorry can you just can you say that again 50 000 allocation money giacomo veroni was signed for four million dollars by new york revolution giacomo veroni traded for less than the draft pick to draft max murray of the university of vermont that nycfc traded for a few weeks ago. That is mind-blowing. So basically, Montreal got a free designated player because the Revs wanted to get him off their books. And for Montreal, they'll get him at a cheaper number.

He will still be a DP for that team. And they've got him under contract for two years now. So even if he doesn't play or play well, they could probably still flip him for something in the summer or in the offseason and still make money and basically have given nothing up i would push back heavily on even if he doesn't play well do you don't think that the revolution have been trying to sell him abroad this whole time if you're willing to take almost nothing i think you could probably get out of that deal but i could be wrong like that this

this was the getting out of that deal this was the movie who does montreal send him to if it doesn't work out right like so yeah um well they don't have to send him anywhere that's the thing it's a low risk play by montreal and i like that but i just like this i was thinking buyout for this player so the fact that they were able to move and depending on how much money they're holding they might still need to use their buyout on him what the end of the day is for the revs is they are going to keep it a deep have a dp spot open which isn't always the case on a move like this look at matthias click going to atlanta united they're not dc aren't able to open a dp spot because they already used their buyout and he's not um and they're accounting for most of his salary so on the

montreal front love the j1 neel addition I think that's you know you look at all the things that they've done with this team you're going with Georgia Mihailovic Alistair Johnson and then last year with Shaquille Marshall Ruddy Caden Clark this is what this team does and they're very good at it so I think that that's a very good fit for J. Waneel I think that he's a very good fit in that back line George Campbell is another great example of this he came from Atlanta it was a similar thing where Atlanta liked him, but Montreal offered a good number, and Atlanta weren't sure if he was going to be ready

to play a ton of minutes immediately, and it just made sense kind of for everybody for that move, and now J. Wayne Neal is doing the same thing. So they have J. Wayne Neal, Joel Waterman, George Campbell. It's probably their starting trio in defense. Fernando Alvarez is going to play a lot of minutes, I believe, as well. Really like Shaquille Marshall, right?

He really liked Caden Clark. Giacomo Veroni and Vilsant, like, we'll see who ends up starting. I'd assume, obviously, that Veroni is going to get the first crack, given that he's going to be holding a DP tag, but this is going to be very interesting with this team. This is a team that needs to have depth. They like to have interchangeable pieces, and they like to have a roster that can handle a lot of changes like Laurent Couture showed last year I mean I don't have a stat but I feel pretty confident that they didn't use the same starting 11 the most starting lineups yeah like and that's what they want they want to bring in a lot of talented players they want to

bring in young players and the thing with young players is they can be inconsistent and go up and down so you need to have a lot of options so this is at least an identity for cf montreal and cory ray their their new director of soccer whatever the title was that they gave them after they talked about joey saputo's kids for 19 paragraphs in the press release before getting to cory ray cory ray is very well respected around major league soccer i was talking we were talking about this like k the king clogged kiel marciarotti i was like yeah i mean yeah like kind of what i'm saying with jacqueline veroni and so maybe i'm gonna be wrong on this because i was saying this about kate and clark like yeah no risk roll the dice i like that i just don't think it's gonna pan out well guess what it panned out very well now kate and

clark is back on the national team but the january campaign is really really good for them down the stretch i think jakeel macharadi will be too so they have a track record where you you kind of you should trust that these are generally going to work out. Or at the very least, they're going to play a lot of minutes because they're not spending a ton on transfer fees. Not only do they have a track record for that, I think they now have an MO. My guess would be if you're the LA Galaxy, like you probably started saying like, oh, Jalen Neal's available, as much allocation as we can get. And you probably ended up, everyone in the camp, between Jalen Neal, his representation in the Galaxy, saying Montreal's probably the best move because, one,

they will play him and sell him. So the sell-on value has now increased for the LA Galaxy, as well as you can sort of count on it occurring, where with some other teams, if Neal went there and he played well, they might try and keep him. And they might try and keep him for as long as possible, maybe he leaves on a free maybe he stays forever like whatever that is you may not get right that sell-on fee and for montreal you're in a space now where people know who you are and they can choose to come to you you have to think if you're trying to dump a dp or you are trying to get the best value for a young asset

who's not a starter on your team or not a difference maker on your team like you're trying to dump a DP or you are trying to get the best value for a young asset who's not a starter on your team or not a difference maker on your team like you're going to start your phone calls by calling Montreal and saying what can what are you willing to give up for him yeah and Montreal that's a good place to be the Rapids have been in a similar place as well because you get first option with a lot of this and like you have this style and I think for player agents and players they know that they're going to get a chance to play and that's the right place for them to be and then they know and we talk about this all the time on this show other players watch what happens for players situations and we always say do right by the player because it'll end up doing right by

your club later montreal have now proven to some extent not with everything they do but to some extent especially with the way they've moved players overseas or to other leagues to other clubs that they will do what's best for the player and they will help them get to the next step i agree um so you talked about the colorado rabbits too i the like reporting out the j-1 neil trade i got attached to the yo i think j-1 neil's on the move and i was like colorado it has to be this sounds like a colorado rabbit trade then it was like no he's good he's traded to the eastern conference and i was like uh montreal like as you say like this this is what these teams do and these two teams have done it very well so i think that was a salient point uh as well and and there was a comment in the chat here from

vincent talking about the fans in montreal are awesome i that it's that's absolutely right like this team has been has had its struggles over the years they had had that one really, really great Wilford-Nance year. And then guess what? He got ran out of town. And then you think about all the different ways that things haven't gone perfect for this club, but the fans are there every single week making noise. Absolutely.

Like, I love that. And again, they deserve a very good team and a fun team. And I hope that they get it. Also, I think it wasn't Bryce Duke. It was someone before him him i don't know why bryce duke popping ahead one player like in this scenario said you know for me going to quote like a foreign country where people speak a different language was a life experience for me that got me ready for the next jump right moving to montreal is not moving to europe but it is still a life

experience for a lot of these young players to then learn what it means to move borders and learn how to pay taxes and have your family come visit you. And like all these types of things, there is a little bit of a jump there for some of these people besides the fact that it's one of the great cities in the world. And I would live in Montreal if I could. So see if Montreal is looking for again, right footed only max 90 seconds possession player does zero running. I'm still available and i'm willing to take all for a patient your your professional content um services i could do that as well but only in english not in french so i can't really help you all that much veroni as we said it's a flyer for them they don't use their dp spots so they kind of can lease them out in a way like

this and whatever they get is whatever they get. It sounds like Joseph Martinez will not be returning to the team. Tom says 100%. I said that in November. I believe C.L. Merlo put out this week that he's in negotiations with Rossing down in Argentina. Either way, that spot is done. And so there is space there for Veroni to come in

and you are in a spot because you didn't spend the money on him yourself to say, well, if Vilsan's playing well or we want to push minutes on him, we can do that because we don't owe Veroni anything. You know, we're fine. But if Veroni plays well and the team's being successful and he's building his transfer value and the team's playing well with him, then they can put him in the team as well. So you're in a pretty good spot. Fabian Herbers, he was the starting 10 on our MLS underrated best 11. It's the most MLS soccer-wise move you could make to sign Fabian Herbers, acquire Jalen Neal, and then acquire DP for $50,000 allocation money.

And boom, Montreal has done all of them at one time. So it seems like the offseason you'd expect, they're being active, which is probably really good. There wasn't a lot to sit on. And my guess would be from a team on field perspective, right now I think they look better than they did when they walked off the field at the end of last season. They definitely are way ahead of where they were 12 months ago

going into Quartas first year. And so I think there's a lot of promise for this Montreal team to still have their MO still have this identity we'll push for a playoff spot I will see kind of the finished product and same thing with the rest of the Eastern Conference kind of before I'm ready to make any proclamations like that but like again this is going to be a competitive team if all goes well like you hope to have again if Caden Clark does over 34 games what he did over eight or whatever it was at the end of last year then they have somebody who can carry the attack I think Bryce Duke fits really well with him there's a lot to like here but I we do need to catch ourselves and

like we're kind of glossing over that yeah they lease out their DP spots well other teams in this conference have Cucho Hernandez or Lino Messi oh we're using those spots for talent and players so look you can be successful this way, but I just don't want to do the thing where we're just saying a bunch of nice things about Montreal, and then before we know it, you know, we both have 13 playoff teams in this conference when only nine, only air quote nine can make it. So I'm just trying to keep myself honest here.

What about, you want to move on to the refs? What do you think about all this? I was about to say, do you got a playoff team in New England that you want to talk about? Dude, I'm worried about, say is you got a playoff team in new england that you want to talk about dude i'm worried about i'm worried it's probably the wrong word if the coaching staff like let me restart they got out of so many players 18 players have departed the club since last season ended for all the time that we hear sporting directors say, we need four windows, we need three, we know whatever, right? Like, we're going to talk about Austin later.

They've slowly retooled their team. New England has gotten rid of 18 and now have brought in 11. And I know that they have more coming. This roster, there's some unknowns, of course. The center back pairing of Mamadou Fofana and Brian Chabios, we don't know exactly if they're gonna hit we when when they sign i like their profiles but again you never totally know there's a lot of ifs there's a lot of extending the optimistic view this looks like a really good roster because yusuf i thought he was excellent after they signed him in the

summer carlos hill remains one of the best attackers in the league. Leo Campana, I think, is super high floor. He fits this team really well. I think he's going to score a lot of goals. And guess what? If he doesn't, they have Ignacio Escanago coming in from FC Nantes, who is on loan. I don't know if he's going to take up a DP spot right away,

but I think he would have to if they pick up his purchase option. I think it's like $3.5 million, something to that effect. But that's two legitimate starting caliber players in terms of the pro like we know campana is and then if you're spending those kind of assets on ganago and what he's a cameroon international all this that looks really good chancaline langoni on the wings and then again if this uh defensive unit is better if these two center back signings are as good as maybe they look like they're gonna be this could be a really good team next year it is um on paper very interesting we did get a lot of questions in the chat about the revs dp spot opening up because veroni was one of those dps uh do you feel like it is leave it open in case ganago is good and it's not a use now move

i think so um i don't know this for certain so i want to be careful that this isn't information i'm getting from the team but i i would assume that that's what it's going to be because again we'll get the final details on on ganago's deal but i think it's six month loan with an option to extend the loan before you do the purchase option and that's important because they could do two dps for you 22 initiative and then get more gam and then because once you pick it at the beginning of the season you can't change it mid-season so if you can push the purchase option to the winter and it does work out and then you need the dp spot then you could

use it or if not now you just have a bunch more allocation money and they already had a lot of allocation money because the esmer barak taravich sale and they already had a decent amount just enjoy i know they spent a lot of it on leo campana but that would be another way that you can keep this thing moving forward and no buck is coming back from the loan with southampton if like that really helps the midfield depth and the midfield rotation and then there's a world in which you just sell him next winter and then you get more allocation money right like so the health of this roster this squad is really strong particularly compared to where they were on decision day where things look pretty bleak you didn't know if the coach was getting fired and again this could still blow up again to be careful to not just be overly positive optimistic

in the offseason like maybe caleb porter is a bad fit maybe this doesn't turn around but like i really like a lot of players on this roster, and, like, they have a lot of talent and a lot of known talent, even with some variables. Yeah, I think what you talked about with the 2-4-2 setup and, like, leaving yourself flexibility makes a lot of sense for this team because of the prospects that come through, right? There's a real possibility you have Noel Buck to sell next year.

There's a chance you have Peyton Miller to sell next year if he plays the way you think he could play. Sorry to cut in. He is going to be like Caleb Wiley money. And he's 16, I think. Or did he just turn 17? So they'll have him for a year. He's turned 17.

Yeah. They'll have him for a year no matter what. I'm telling you, all of the big clubs in Europe, all of the big clubs in Europe have him on. This isn't a Southampton. This isn't even like, again even like again southampton psv those are really good clubs to go to this is like a manchester city and teams like that like that is the caliber of prospect this player is and i i get i hope that that's being conveyed well but sorry to cut you off no so i think that leads a space where the revs can take some risk here in setting themselves in the 2-4-2 setup, which means two DPs, four U-22s, and two million in allocation

that they can use to strengthen the roster in the middle. And then they can figure it out next year, where some other teams can't do that because you don't know what next year looks like. And if you lock yourself in to a U-22 contract and you can't get out of it, then you end up losing a player know, a player for no value. And then you have to find a way to get a third DP in if you want to.

I think this is a Revs team that can move a lot of that money around really quickly. I worry, obviously, as the Goss Initiative. Goss Initiative? Man, I don't even know myself. Goss Theorem guy. I worry about having two center backs as a pairing that have never played in this league before and i worry doing it behind a midfield i like yusuf as well and so he got some burn in

this league has a little experience but it's a team that has normally been easy to play through in central midfield that's like the number one worry i don't have huge worries about campagna of like he'll score the goals he should score he might score way more than that and you might be excellent in the attack but no matter what you're going to be good you're going to be dangerous Langone showed enough that he's a real threat on the wing Shankai we know can be a good player and Carlos Heal's the best so I think a lot of it works it will fall to those center backs and what they can do for this team but I don't think they need to do a ton more as a group. Like, I think this is a really solid group for this rev steam and they should contend for a playoff spot.

And this now is Caleb Porter's team. Like those, all those moves lead to the fact of like, this is what you wanted. You got it. Now you got to put it together. If they don't make the playoffs, it's a failure.

If they don't make the playoffs, there should be a coaching change. If they look like they're not going to make the playoffs, there should be a coaching change. This Ross. So, so we talked about a lot of the pieces we liked on Montreal and we're talking the difference here is you have Carlos Hill high end talent Luca Langone yeah he's a U22 initiative he was as old as you could buy him at seven million dollars that's essentially a DP man Thomas Jonkelai he's proved he's very good in this league

that's another DP there is too much top end talent to go with the middle of the roster here that if they don't make the playoffs it is a very big disappointment shout out to andy deo so making the goss initiative a new another new mls rule you have to sign an mls player from college or mls next pro a hundred percent if you don't sign if you don't have two former usl championship players slash and now i got balloons going too on my thing that's how excited we are about the goss initiative here's the thing the goss initiative it's a rocket ship and it's taking off and we're going to be using ai to make it as streamlined as possible and we're going to change the world and we're going to change the world one computer at a time let's

move on here let's talk a little austin FC. We did a lot of this last show. So if you want more of this, we talked about this as you broke the news that Brandon Vasquez would be coming back. But now we've got a number. Brandon Vasquez went to Monterey for $7.5 million from FC Cincinnati. We didn't know what the number would be for him to return. Some people started talking about some crazy numbers that they thought could happen. Maybe numbers that were non-existent. In the end, it ended up being a record signing for Austin FC.

Tom, you reported $10 million for Brandon Vasquez. Yep, this is, again, a new club record. They broke their club record in the summer with Usman Bukhari at $7 million. And now Brandon Vasquez comes in for $10 million. And again, behind the scenes of reporting this out, I was like, you know, maybe, whatever it was, and hey, a report in Mexico said $5 million.

It's more than that. I had been like, $6 million? More than that. Okay. How much? Whatever, right? And then I kind of couched him. I was like, north of $6 million? I was like, alright, that feels fair. And then it was north of $6 million. I was technically correct, but it was a lot more than $6 million. So $10 million. I think that that shows ambition for Austin FC, right?

Like, Goss, I'll leave it to you to give your analysis on, you know, overpay or not, whatever, right? I'm going to kind of go past that on a macro view of this time last year. Did you see them spending $17 million in transfer fees over two windows? And more to come, by the way? No. One of the things when Austinin came into the league they came in the stadium was fun the market was fun it was exciting they brought trucey in early which was a great signing but then the reality that hit over the first two three years is like and the pre-court's kind of cheap this is not a huge this is not going to be one of the huge spending teams in Major League Soccer.

So I did not think they would be in conversations like this. Now, using that money on Brandon Vasquez is interesting. Because Brandon Vasquez feels like a player where you kind of know the ceiling. It's a high ceiling. It's a good player in Major League Soccer. But when we're talking about $10 million, we're talking about Evander. Like, that's the first name that comes to mind when I hear that number in major league soccer.

And so maybe one of the positives for Brandon Vasquez is that he's not going to try and force his way out of his team and not show up and all those other things. But like, you should be talking about a player that's in at least the backend of an MVP conversation. And if you decided that Brandon Vasquez is the centerpiece that can be consistent while other players come in and out and piece it all together.

And, you know, you need someone to be the face of the team for the next four or five years and, you know, borderline national team, all of that. I think a lot of that's great. And like, I'm stoked. Brandon Vasquez is getting his money and I'm stoked. He's going to be back in major league soccer but that would be your concern all of those concerns are better than the team just not spending money exactly and and that's where i come back to right

like so yeah maybe this would have felt better at seven and a half million than 10 it doesn't change the salary cap all it changes is how much the club is spending so I'm choosing to look at this is a sign of ambition from Boston FC, that they're spending this money here, they're spending the money on Bucari. And again, like, I just come down to, like, if there are chances, if the rest of the team holds up the end of their bargain, Brandon Vasquez, 15 to 20 goals. I think you could write that in pen. And maybe that's me being too high on Brandon Vasquez,

but again, I understand that it's not three to five million. You know, taking Vasquez, he was never coming for that number, right? Just insert any random player that you could sign as a DB center forward. Sure. Maybe you'd like to have spent a little bit less. But if I just think that he has such a high floor. And as you said, the high ceiling too, that he's going to score goals. And I think that you have a really good idea of what your return on investment

is going to be here because, look, look at some other – like, again, you can cherry-pick the best examples of the Cucho or the Bawanga, right, like we do sometimes. We can also cherry-pick the bad examples. There are players that come from – like Luis Muriel, right? Like you could go on down the list. Let's talk Pupenza for a second and ask Cincinnati. Dude, like, again, like would Cincinnati have –

like what would Cincinnati have been last year if they paid Brandon Vasquez a DB contract? And, again, that's unfair. Like, that wasn't a shot at Cincy either. Like, I get these things have to happen. But, like. But literally just replace on their roster Vasquez with Bupenza. They are a supporter shield contending team, which is a good way to spend money. And just one more on this because, again, I don't mean to get boggled down on this.

You know, people might say it's an overpay, but my people not like, you know, who cares at the end of the day, but like, let's say that this was Brandon Vasquez coming from the Colombian league and he was killing the Colombian league kind of the way he did in MLS his last few years. Then he went to Monterey, still scores 14 goals. He wasn't, it wasn't starting all the time. It didn't go perfectly there. If that random Colombian fringe international came from monterey

i don't think that we'd be saying oh that's an overpay i think we'd be saying wow that's exciting but we know brandon vasquez he was in the expansion draft right like so i think that that's going to still color where we're at in looking at this fee yeah i think that colors though partially in the knowing him is great in the known of the floor is high but i think it also is in there is a limit to the ceiling probably sure we're a player like you're talking about the potential for it to go terrible is there but the potential for them to also be the next evander or the next lucho acosta is there as well and i think that's a player that's a little bit higher. Now, I will throw this in there. I believe you are reporting that Sebastian Druisi

wants to go back to River Plate. Close to a deal. I'm assuming this is going to end up getting done. There's been reports in South America that are saying this as well. There was reports in South America that are saying River Plate will be paying $9 million. I don't know if that's true.

I don't know if that's not true. If that is true, drive him to the airport yourself drive them to south america yourself if there's no flights right like that would be an awesome deal for awesome but um i can say that that is very real and they will be planning to add a third dp if slash when trucey does leave so if that's somewhat real and that I think should color the way we see this, I then can accept the fact that Austin said, oh, San Jose's talking to them. Other MLS teams are talking to him. We're about to get a huge deal for Drew Usy. Let's seal this now.

Let's lock Brandon Vasquez in. Let's say we go one or two million over what we thought we were going to pay to get the deal done today so that he's in the camp, that he's coming to preseason deal done today so that he's in the camp that he's coming to preseason that we have that done and known to then add the third dp i can understand there where in which this one move doesn't occur in a vacuum occurs as part of a full off season that occurs as a part of a full window in a year and all of that and that i can accept in which if they bring in a new dp who is a true number 10 or fits cleanly around

Vasquez and they say well combined we spent 16 million on these two players and that's what we planned on spending in the offseason with Drusy going out that's fine and like what do I care again as you started with it's not our money we don't care and it doesn't matter it should be exciting for Austin FC fans the Drusy experience has come to its end there it just doesn't matter. It should be exciting for Austin FC fans. The Druzey experience has come to its end. It just doesn't seem like it'll be a positive for him to come back and be a part of this. He doesn't want to come back. They've got a new coach.

You finally have flipped a good chunk of this roster. He had his obviously peak moments, but he clearly is not a part of this project anymore. And I think Austinc is definitely ready uh to move on from there tom are you ready to dig into like 87 000 other things before we get out of here let's do it we have this we have more questions in the chat too so we got uh we have we have a hundred questions in the chat basically i like that for people it's like they want something to happen so it's they yell at tom and they're like, Tom, tell me a thing, even if it doesn't exist.

I appreciate all this. I'm going to make a joke, but just on the front end, this is, I'm very humbled by all of this and I appreciate it. This is a very funny question from SteelersFreak108. Great username. Who will be the next former Dallas or Houston player that Austin signs? That is extremely, like, do you have a, SteelersFreak, comment back. Do you have a player in mind

that you want to ask directly about? Because the Yara Mendy rumors weren't true from what I've heard. So if that's who you're asking about, no.

If you have somebody else in mind, let me know. Keep going. I think it's who are Nico Estevez's pet players from when he was there. Yara Mendy would have been

my best guess. That's why I was going to say there are not a lot high on that list because he played everyone out of position by the end and things didn't really go well. So I'm not sure that there's a lot of pieces a la Bruce Arena and the 87 players he's brought in that you can guarantee are his guys.

Let's start with official news and then we'll get into some of the reports that are going on around different things. Shout out to Sheezy on twitch who says extra value brandon vasquez being domestic by the way from a roster perspective monterey understood that for sure that saves you 175 000 allocation money not four million international roster spot but it is not a massive amount of money like that um but it's a great point to bring up and add in as well let's start start with NYCFC. We mentioned this on the last show. Pascal Jansen at the time was rumored to be the next head coach of the team.

He has been made official by the club. 51-year-old, originally born in England but Dutch-raised. Didn't play at a super high level. Worked in the PSV system for five years from 2013 to 18, mainly at the academy level then as a first-team assistant. Moved over to AZ at Alkmaar for two years from 2013 to 18 mainly at the academy level then as a first team assistant moved over to azed al-khamar for two years as an assistant then four years as a head coach till this year in which he moved to fernand vargas in hungary and left on december 31st to take this job the hungarian side i believe they're second in the division right now they've won a couple big

games in europa league action i think they're plus 16 in goal differential and the azed teams never won in dutch league standards but they got some big victories in european competition and they remained in the top five for the most part which is what's expected of them and so he's now officially been brought on as nycfc's new coach it is as out of left field as it could be but it's cfg and they're kind of doing their own thing well i think that was the surprise that there's no obvious cfg ties to this and um so my my one prediction for nycc head coach and wasn't exactly a bold prediction was wrong so what do i know um first of all excellent pronunciation on fern vicos which, as you see,

I got tased in the middle of that because I was scared of it. Well done, David Goss. And two, he was an assistant for Arne Slott, who, as you well know, is the king of all kings as a Liverpool manager right now. That's all I got. He also is bald, so he's part of that bald mafia with Arne Slott as well. They should have put up a picture of Jaap Stam instead. That's a deep cut instead that's a deep cut

he um he has no obvious cfg ties i don't think ronnie dyla did he no he did like i thought before celtic assistant it would yeah i think so though i will just add that i think this team operates from a coaching point of view similar to a a player point of view, which is this is CFG getting him into their system. My guess is there's a ton of data out there that says he plays the way CFG wants to play. He is, I think you would call an up and coming coach, even not the youngest person, but has, you know, is a coaching expert and now getting the opportunity to do it as a first team manager. Now it will be about four or five years. So like that would be my expectation of what they're doing and everything I've seen him talk about and everything I've seen people talk about with them is

what you'd expect front foot, high pressing, playing aggressive CFG, wanna or, you know, NYCFC wanna flip the field and be that type of player type of team. And so that is what they expect him to bring. So it all fits together. Let's go into another move that you broke right as we got off the air on our last show. Pepiel, baby, coming back. Got more time to make my Pepiel over Maranchuk take.

I'm officially worried is what I want to say as well. Hell yeah. So yeah, Pepiel is returning to Charlotte FC on loan again, but this time he would not be a designated player. When the season ended, that was Charlotte's goal. We cannot pick up the purchase option

because he'll be a DP, but we want him back if we could have him around max time. And they're getting that to happen right now. I think that's a really, really job well done by this front office. And look, Olympiacos could have dug their heels in and said, screw you. How does this really benefit us?

So well done all around is kind of what I'd say. And now he's coming back. And that gives Charlotte even a little bit more. They were going to have patience on getting the right guy in. But if they don't make another signing, they're still going to be good. So this is the best spot to be good so yeah this is the best spot to be in where you you just raise your ceiling your floor is where it is pet bl he's not going to be the starting number 10 for a shield winning team necessarily right maybe maybe

not right but that could be coming they want Miguel Amaro those talks are still happening that's still the goal that's still the hope they have other targets as well and now they could be more patient and to be fair to them they were patient last year even when it wasn't clear that they had enough in the tank to be good at the beginning of the season Liela bought it and debut I think until like March 30th um and then he was kind of in and out with international duty and a couple injuries they they let uh Enzo Capetti leave before they were able to bring back Swiderski or sign anybody else new, and Pep Biel didn't come until deadline day. So they did all this last year, and now they're acting from an even stronger spot.

So I'm really bullish on what's going to happen with Charlotte FC. And the other side of this, and you can go back to Biel, but just to add before I forget, they have set a price for Karol Swiderski. They want €3 million. We'll see if they get it. But there have been calls about Karol Swiderski to Charlotte FC, which um we'll see if they get it but there have been calls about carol swiderski to charlotte fc which if he does leave would open another dp spot so in addition to the al marone chase and the other targets they have there they could add another one if swiderski does leave i would add on the swiderski side getting a player in pepl who

probably not dp level but in theory has been a DP in Major League Soccer, and not having him fill that spot allows you to be also more confident or stronger in your Swiderski standing because if you don't move him, right, if teams out there know enough to say, well, you need to get rid of him so we actually aren't going to meet your valuation and, like, we're going to try and drag this out to the last day, you kind of have a team already, Swiderski in or out, that has high enough chance creation with Ajamang that you're going to be a playoff level team for the first half of the year.

So not only does it give you the strength to sort of stay on your ground on the Almiron coming in or whoever that DP is, I think it gives them even a little more standing because you basically have a DP off a DP deal for you, whether Swiderski is in there or not. I like the move as well. Obviously, I'm a fan of his game and it will be really fun to watch him on the field with the elite talent. If it is Almiroen, like to have him at a 10 with Abada and Almiroen out on the wings, that feels like a really special setup for thisotte team and would be exciting if they got it over the line speaking of getting it over the line sounds like polish tom bogart has finally signed with the new york red bulls his name is victor bogash come on tom try a little

bit harder here that's uh that's my my dad so bogey has been a family nickname forever my dad and me get that on soccer fit a lot and then um so any different variation of Bogey has been a family nickname forever. My dad and me get that on soccer field a lot. And then any different variation of Bogey Savage. And now Bogosh, I think you could add this too. I think that this is all going to just come into the melting pot. I think that all works. And, of course, he chose to go to New Jersey. Yeah, he did.

But we've got to be careful here. And I'm using the Paulie Walnuts fingers for those who aren't watching on the stream. We've got to be careful here because he turned them down in the summer i gotta be a little cautious he said no to new jersey at first you get it you get a second and in this household new jersey is a great american hero you get a second chance here because you ended up coming but we're watching you you better like pork roll you better yell in traffic or do whatever that's all i gotta say uh eight goals to assist in 1200 minutes in the polish second division over the last two years i wrote in

parentheses can you say matthias jorgensen on this i remember they signed him from i believe oab in denmark and i watched him play a lot of games for new york red bull stew in which he was not better than tom barlow and Brian White, and they spent X millions of dollars on him and lost X millions of dollars on him. But once again, Red Bulls are going to Red Bull. And I think the one positive, we have said this a couple of times, the Red Bulls have not lost any pieces from last year's run. So as long as they keep adding, the Andres Reyes trade separate,

your hope is that your level is pretty high and then whatever you can get from these new pieces just makes you that little bit stronger a little bonus red bull content here john token um i'm told that there's still a ton of interest in him there were some talks happening nothing that's like kind of official or imminent i am still of the opinion or still of the expectation that john token is going to be sold this winter again that's what's happened we still have to see but they did turn down a bit bit the offer from Holsten Kiel in the summer because the transfer window had already closed. I think that they're vindicated on that.

They made the run to MLS Cup. John Tolkien was obviously playing all the games. You have to sell him this winter, and you cannot hold out for every last penny. Not saying that they are, but this needs to end with him being sold to Europe. There are two German clubs that are interested, and then a couple others kind of scattered across. we'll see exactly where that one ends but again i'm assuming

that he is going to leave this winter and i think that's everyone's assumption right now and we think that they have the next piece in place um for that move but that would be i think even more than andres reyes i think that would be the one big change just because Tolkien's such a central part of the way they play. But it's something they've been preparing for for two years at this point. So your hope is the club is ready to move to the next step with that. Omar Campos has been sold by LAFC to Cruz Azul. He was signed for $5 million, sold for $4 million. So kind of a break even.

He never broke through as the starter. was signed for five million dollars sold for four million dollars so kind of a break even he never broke through as the starter and if he wasn't going to be the starter and you're able to flip him for this type of money i just think it makes sense yeah and the other important piece of information is he asked to go back to mexico um his partner is pregnant i believe this was a familial decision was part of the driving force so again i think that's that's good by LAFC because, I mean, again, they did get money back. They didn't let him go for free, so that's all good. But I think that they were preparing for him to play more minutes this year.

I thought he showed some decent moments. Again, they shelled out a good fee for him because he's a talented young player. So well done by LAFC to not kind of stand in his way. It felt like they kept trying to push him into the starting lineup, and he kept losing the spot. And so you ended up with Palencia playing at a high level, and Ryan Hollingshead can play on both sides and is a starter. It doesn't matter which side he starts on,

but he has to start with the way he performs for that team, and Campos was never able to win the spot. Now, an hour and five minutes into the show, Tom, now we get to talk big Mexico move. This is what everyone's here for. Alan Pulido. The reports are that he is headed back to Mexico. I believe it's back to Chivas as well.

And that SKC could be getting off their biggest signing in club history and someone that I think a lot of people would call the biggest bust. Yes. In club history as well. Yeah. Alan Pulido is very close to returning to Chivas um there's about you know 50 different very good reporters in Mexico who've reported this uh C.L. Merlo has been one of them um it's to you at the end oh everybody has it like there was a reporter who was doing a live shot from outside of the hospital or wherever he was getting his medical done this is real um the reports of Mexico say it's about a million and a half fee.

I thought it was going to be zero on this one because he's had such a big contract. His age is like, he turns 34 in March. He has been healthy for, I think, one full season with Kansas City. And he's about to leave. So I think that this would be a very big boost for this team if indeed, as Peter Vermees has been saying since the end of last season, we are going to spend money.

Ownership has pledged that we're going to spend more money. Let's see. Because whether they add another nine, Willie Agata, I think he should be, so he should have a chance. They desperately need a DP 10. They've needed that for a long time. Even when Gotti Kinta was on the team,

when he was kind of in and out with injury as well. But particularly after Gotti Kinta left, you need a DP, need a DP 10, or a creative attacking midfielder. I don't, like, they're very fluid with their DP spots. This is a team that they've kind of used to try to maximize their allocation money. So, you know, one year it'd be Johnny Russell, another year it'd be Dan Rojawi, another year it'd be Redoya, right? Just go sign two real DPs that you don't need to do the musical chairs for anymore. It's been long enough, and I think the fans have rightly gotten um impatient and there's a lot riding on this offseason and they need to show

the ambition they need to show that hey we're not just saying the easy thing to say in a press conference we're going to be spend more we're going to be more competitive we're going to do this all right do it and that has happened right now alan plito potentially about to leave i think that shows me that it's true or at least peter vermice in the front office believes it true because my assumption i don't know this for a fact my assumption is the only reason why he got a new long-term contract was fear of they're not going to give us any money to sign anybody new right it is um there is nothing about sporting kansas city's last two years that say run it back like if we do it all again it will all change i get

there's a lot of injuries that happened some of them are to injury prone players some of them are just unfortunate and like you need a change of pace or a change of place for the player i was one of the people who said when alan palito came off 2023 14 goals that i thought they should resign him because i didn't think they'd get money to go out and replace him at the level that he was at but that always came with this risk and at this point you're better off cutting your ties if another team will bail you out and the other part you always have to bring back up is chivas are an outlier on the planet she he has more value to chivas than

anyone else so if they're going to give you an offer that's probably the best offer you're going to get and you have to take that and you have to take the opportunity to get out of this deal and even if you don't fully respend on it just getting a player who cohesively fits and is available fairly often like if it ends up being a gadi kindle level player but is on the field 26 times this year you're a better team than you were last year and as you said willie agata is good enough to start at center forward in major league soccer and if you can go out and get a high level 10 or high level chance creator wherever that position comes from for this team then you're probably better off some of the parts than you are right now. And I think a lot of Sporting Kansas City fans are feeling a lot of excitement around this

in that you probably thought you were stuck. And this now gives a little bit of opportunity and a little bit of movement for this club. And one that I did not expect. Like if you had asked me, we did our 10 offseason things. We didn't bring up Sporting Kansas City because I did not think there would be any flexibility to make big moves for this team. And so now this is a huge opportunity for them to have that open DP spot to make another move and do something else going forward. If it goes official, we will talk about it even more. And I think then we'll start to dig in on what a replacement could look like, else this club could do and what they look like as a group going forward a few other pieces of news and notes

not a ton to dig into we're going to get a lot of news over the next week because preseason finally starts for a bunch of clubs next week and so on a lot of these will they won't they stories you reported that toronto fc is trying to get out of lorenzo insigne we obviously know the evander story lucho all of these them choosing to or not choosing to report to preseason is a big start of that not every club starts next week but that's going to give us a lot of information um by itself a few other official signings the chicago fire sign philip zinker nagel a 30 year old danish winger who played at bodo glimt last year which is of course where their um new what chief sock not chief soccer director is that the sporting director yes under two yeah none under

greg who is the chief director of football uh at that club comes from so it makes a ton of sense experienced player to bring in maddie crooks is heading in the other direction going back to the champo after a short time in major league soccer andrew weeby cries quietly by himself uh in the corner and you have reported that orlando city had a bid for a Zendaya turned down by Club America. Correct. And talks were stalled because there was an offer for Club America manager Andre Jardim to go to Botafogo, and they didn't know if he was going to take it or not. He is staying.

That is official now. And as far as I understand, that ends the pursuit of Alex Zendaya for Orlando City because the way it's been described to me is that Jardim loves Zendejas, and you can see that as how important he's been over the last three title-winning campaigns, consecutive, and that if Jardim is the manager, Zendejas ain't leaving. Or, like, I don't even know if there would be an amount of money that could be realistically paid to make that change. So Orlando City has plenty of other targets as well.

They're looking to add a DP winger. Zendejas, not coming. It does, though, give us a little bit of idea for Orlando on profile. It is not a like-for-like Facundo Torres swap in terms of young potential. You're talking about more of an experienced player. Ojeda was already a step in that direction. I think this one even further.

And for a team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals won an open cup two years ago that makes sense you're moving into more of a win now territory if you can do it and i think for orlando fans that should be exciting that should be what you want with the way this group's set up i would just say this doesn't mean 100 that all of their other targets are you know 24 to 28 like they've been linked with some young players in south america and i could absolutely see them going back that route the same way that they did with vicundo torres i forget if he was 20 or 21 when they signed him um it was a significant fee of 7 million he was one of the brightest talents in south america they could do that again it won't it's i wouldn't say that it's definitely going to be an in prime

player like cindy this has been fun a lot to about. The chat's been on fire. So we are going to come live back on Friday, not Thursday this week, as I am actually going to be at the MLS Media Marketing Tour or whatever they call it. Offering around your right-footed services for somebody who can't run to everybody. Anyone who will talk to me. I believe Wilfred Anze will be there. I don't remember the list. I was trying to think of what coaches were going to be there. So I can talk to them specifically. But the chat's been awesome to be a part of. So come on Friday once again with your questions, your thoughts, your jokes, whatever you want. Shout out to Drew, who is a deep SKC fan.

Epic in the Discord. We appreciate you. We did get a question here from Danny W wesson who needs a timbers update tommy uh truly desperate and we had a few questions one of which was mainly like how worried should i be as a timbers fan of how quiet and slow the timbers off season has started yeah i think that they're gonna get a deal to gun for kevin kelsey don't know for sure hopefully i'll have an update on that soon but if it's not kelsey then they'll sign another U-22 initiative forward. The last I asked about Jonathan Rodriguez and whatever rumors have been linking him back to Mexico or to South America, again, as of a few weeks ago, it was,

this is not happening. You can say that definitively. Things change. So that's why I'm couching it really, really carefully here by saying that. That was the update from a few weeks ago. I don't think anything has changed, but who knows. And then they had been in the market for a defender for center back it hasn't worked out they they were pushing for jack elliott who signed with chicago jack elliott did not want to go to the west coast happened so

i'd imagine they're going to be working in that direction as well plus there's going to be some outbounds eric williamson is the name i keep hearing on the trade market i feel like i've said this for a year um but i do believe that this is the the window that that is going to happen that he would be traded and that should free up both salary cap and some maybe some allocation money depending on what the deal is so yes portland timbers i understand the frustration that's not for a lack of trying and um we'll see what happens on the evander front there are no offers yet um i guess it's not 100 determined that he's definitely going to leave i'd still say i'm assuming that it's a departure rather than a reconciliation but everything's on the table i would also say outside of evander most of these moves are not squad changing moves you're talking about maybe a starting fullback

you're talking about maybe a central midfield piece you're talking about we already know they are working on the u22 center forward and so they are moves that if they get made later in the window it's not the worst thing in the world because it's not a central piece the big thing that matters is evander if he's not coming back you now need your best player to change if he is coming back then this roster is pretty settled from what it was last year and you start to go into like how can we tweak and get half you know half advantages around the core of this team? But your spine is going to be the same as it was going into this season. I think that they're going to add – absolutely, if Williamson leaves,

as I'm expecting, they will add another central midfielder. What the designation is, if it's U22, Tam, or whatever. I'm expecting that. Again, given what I've heard about their search or pushes and offers for beyond Jack Kelly, there were other players that they were interested in too. I think that there could be another addition in central defense. They have a lot of players there, so there could be a departure, but there's nothing that I know for sure.

And the young center back, whose name I'm putting up, Finn Sermon, they are very high on him. So again, he's already on the roster, but that could be a a change they know that they need to change the defensive spine some way whatever that looks like because the goals conceded last year were way too many um and even if that's as simple as kamal miller you're playing left back and and stay at home like an elbow back that's cool but i think that there's going to be some more movement there porland timber is trying to get some moves done, as is everyone else.

A lot of fun here. Thank you once again to all of you for joining us. As I said, we will be back live on Friday. If not, it'll be out as a podcast as always. Working on some other shows. We're going to have a special guest tomorrow to help break down things in NWSL, and then we'll continue on here into the offseason. Thank you once again to all

of you for listening thank you to you tom and we'll talk to you again very very soon