SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Vasquez To Austin, SD New DP Winger, Sounders Move & More

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Soccerwise is back live in 2025 and it is a big one trying to catch up on all the moves going on across the league. Tommy is still scooping so the guys start on his breaking news about Brandon Vasquez approaching a return to MLS. Then they dig into the other big stories in the league from Philly landing on Bradley Carnell to San Diego looking to continue their roster build. 6:35 Brandon Vasquez & Austin FC 20:55 Bradley Carnell Officially Takes Over Philly 28:20 San Diego Pursuing DP Winger Oleksandr Zubkov 35:50 Seattle Sounders Adding Talent 45:00 FC Dallas Rebuild 51:05 Leo Campana & Revs Big Signings 57:18 James Sands Loan & NYCFC Manager Search 1:03:05 Timbers CF Search 1:06:30 Klich to ATLSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

the sweet dulcet tones of winners never lose or whatever the name of our generic title song is back and beautiful david goss tommy scoops with for SoccerWise live once again on YouTube. So if you're listening to the podcast, you want to go watch us, you can go there to watch the show. If you're watching live right now, thank you. And if you're listening on pods, welcome. Happy New Year to everyone that celebrates. Some people may be on different calendars. I respect that, obviously. And I'm happy to be back with you, Tom. I will say this. I love our theme song.

It's one of my favorite things about the show. But you know I've been watching highlight tapes of potential MLS attacking signings. And, like, maybe I need a deep dubstep background song that we just have changing show to show, pulled out of these highlight reels for every single person you are reporting could join mls now that you say that i'm actually surprised that that's not where your inspiration was for the show theme song that it wasn't like if this can be played in the back of a grainy video from uh an 18 year old player who's ripping up the croatian league or this young winger from Turkey or something else, you know, a player from an Academy field or something.

That's what we need for the show. Yeah. I think it would, I think it would be a fusion of all things that work. So I think it would be the perfect way for us to go. I'll work on that now. So you've got that to look forward to potentially Tom, how was your break?

Do you feel rested? Do you feel calm new year new you new year new me died died starting one of these days a couple one of these days that that that's where we're going the motivation is here to uh to make some changes david goss that that's what it is what about you um i'm still recovering from new year's eve so hence so far it has been new year new me because i've been incapable of doing anything else but now that i'm back on with you i feel like i'm in fighting form so i don't really do resolutions mainly because i know i won't stick to them so there's like

only sadness involved with that being like oh look what i said i like all the people who ended the year being like oh i do that thing where i like write something i'm thankful for happy about like once a day or once a week put it in a jar and then read it going into new year's eve to be like oh look at how great of a year it was it's like that's a great idea again follow through from me is going to be minimal so i'm not sure how well that works um but i am excited for the year to come i'm excited to be back with you this show on Friday because we were still sort of recovering and coming back from the holidays.

But now we are going to be back twice a week. I said to you, like, what schedule do we want for offseason? And you were like, there is no offseason. The grind is permanent. We are ready to roll. You're already scooping today. I got on pretty early

to start building out the rundown because I wanted the latest news in there. And you're already connecting U.S. men international attackers to teams across the United States, but mainly focused in Texas. So we will talk all about that. We will talk, of course, about the Philadelphia Union's new head coach. We will talk about the Seattle Sounders becoming a Premier League team all of a sudden in the middle of this offseason. We've got San Diego designated player signings potentially around the corner that you have been reporting on as well.

But shout out to Ted Unkle, officially retiring. The man in the arena, the center of it all for so long. Obviously, Christina Unkle, one of the center of it all for so long. Obviously, Christina uncle, one of the faces of refereeing as well. I'm assuming we'll see Ted uncle on a TV somewhere as well. I know that one had a ripple effect through the MLS community in this holiday season. So shout out to him for his career and shout out to all of the fans who now have to find a different thing to pretend they're angry about and be obsessed about, even if it's true or not true going forward. One more thing before we dig into all of the news. I believe it has gone official that the third co-host of SoccerWise, Jordan Angeli, is now part of an ownership group that has an NWSL team. As of course, soccer-wise permanently is for Denver, as we have always said.

And you can see it on our bottom line right now. Sportico reporting that they have finished the negotiations, I believe, and are on the verge of being announced as the 16th NWSL side. Tom, we're behind. We don't own a professional sports team. So we have to get on that. We joke about how much cooler jordan is than us and all the others this was before she joined the ownership group of a professional soccer team like she was already lapping the field here at soccer wise internally

this was before she added a uh professional soccer team to her portfolio so um i already knew we had no chance but like this is just her like running up the score right now it's actually disrespectful if you ask me i don't know how to handle it because i'm like you know it's kind of like one of those things you text people as a joke and then it's real uh and so i'm not gonna be like hey jordan what's what's the plan here what's the ideas what's going on she is um in new zealand on vacation so i'm gonna be covering for her Over the course of the next few weeks On our NWSL show Got some great guests lined up

That I'm really excited about The offseason's already been on fire in NWSL Free agency, of course Changing with the new CBA And no drafts So now you have all these top college players That are starting to sign with different teams So I'm really excited to dig into that

We've got a lot of mailbag that we have to dig through As it kind of fell by the wayside with the push into championships in both leagues. So we're going to dig into all of that. And we've got some guests lined up as well on the MLS side to talk. But I'm not even going to have ice cream shop segments. This is ice cream shop shows. We are in the season. It's like 65 in Miami right now.

So it's an acceptable temperature i think to eat ice cream although as you have learned over the last few weeks i do not think it's acceptable for adult seed ice cream at all but that's my own thing and i feel like i hit you with that one out of nowhere because i had to throw something into the group chat to fire people up every once in a while but these are the segments. These are going to be scoop shows top to bottom because we are into the offseason. Let's start in Texas. Tom, you started reporting this, I think, a few weeks ago

about Brandon Vasquez potentially returning to Major League Soccer. The big news, though, has shifted over the last 24 hours. Take us into it. Yeah, Brandon Vasquez, Austin FC are nearing a deal to sign the American center forward from CF Monterrey. What I was told last night is that pretty much the verge of being finalized in terms of, you know, paperwork stage, final details. Final details is really where we're at with this one. It looks very good to get done.

Brandon Vasquez has been at Monterrey for the last year. He joined from FC Cincinnati in a deal worth seven and a half million dollars that is exciting and i think austin fans are extremely excited um about the potential of finally having a center forward that they've been waiting for that they've been looking for and i it feels like this would be sort of one of the last big pieces for them obviously dp would change things they brought bukari in the summer and it makes sense i think in a fit with a lot of these pieces what do you make of where austin would stand then if this move got done very good so let me start with brandon vasquez i think would be a very good signing for a lot of teams because I think what he does can fit in just about anywhere in any style. So his movement is elite and he played in a high pressing transition type

team with Cincy with another forward next to him. And they were awesome. This team is a 4-3-3 where he'll be a lone center forward with Sebastian Drusi kind of playing off of him, a very different profile to Lucho Costa. And again, assuming this deal gets done just in case anything gets taken out of context just want to be clear that nothing is totally done yet but but we're very very close i say that all to say is that he i think he can play in so many different systems because of that movement because of his aerial ability that he can give a plan b what austin has struggled with for

the majority of their time in mls has been when plan a isn't working they don't have a plan B. What Austin has struggled with for the majority of their time in MLS has been when plan A isn't working, they don't have a plan B. And for three out of the four years, plan A did not work. They had the one run to the Western Conference final. That year was really good. That showed what it could be. But so many other times, either the high line would be too naive, or the possession would be too intricate or the systems all of that everything that josh wolf was trying to do they didn't have a plan b now they do usman bukari first and foremost club record signing seven million dollars from red star belgrade he's very technically gifted he can do a lot within possession obviously but he's also one of the

fastest players in the league so there's plan b okay. Okay, if they're going to play a high line, we're going to put Bucari behind. Brandon Vasquez would be, okay, they're sitting deep. Some of these aimless crosses become a lot more dangerous when you are aiming it towards Brandon Vasquez. If we can't play out of the back very well, we have somebody to lump it forward to because Brandon Vasquez can play with his back to goal kind of like a typical target man.

But again, he did so much more than that and with FC Cincinnati I think that this would be an excellent signing for Austin FC if they do indeed get it over the line yeah I agree with you um and it's interesting because you bring up Lucho Acosta and difference to Drew see I would actually bring Brenner into that conversation and talk about when Brandon Vasquez played with other elite finishers, he showed that he's a high level chance creator from the center forward position. And Drew, he's obviously not a traditional number 10, but he is a goal scorer. And that's where I think Vasquez is a really interesting fit for this team in. He's a big finisher, like you talked about off of of what bucari creates off of what the team creates

but he is also a willing creator for teams and when you look at his numbers his underlying numbers he has always been in the top percentiles when it comes to expected assists and chance creation as a center forward and so when people look at him that's not what they think of because of his size and his physicality but he is really comfortable in those positions. And that's what I like about this move is you're not choosing because you have Drusci, who's from the previous generation or previous, you know, front office and is a different type of player, I think, and fits maybe in a different system than what Austin's going to end up building. And you've gone out and spent on Bukhari. And I think Vasquez can help you cash in on both of

them. I think that's, what's really exciting for Austin fans on top of the fact that he's entering the prime of his career he you put his numbers together in the article that you put out 10 28 goals 12 assists in two years with Cincinnati just happened so this isn't like oh we don't know what he'll be we don't know how he'll fit into the league we don't know how he'll be comfortable the league. We don't know how he'll be comfortable. I mean, he could drive from Monterey to Austin and plant his stuff down and then play in a league in which he's been extremely successful. And as you said, is flexible and capable of playing in different systems. And I think is a pretty good centerpiece now as you try and continue to build this thing going forward. They have Diego Rubio, who I think fits some of those things as well. Rubio obviously never healthy

and so that's a huge question mark but again you talk about what worked in Cincinnati you could play the two together if you end up in a situation where Drew's he gets hurt and Rubio's healthy or if it's working or if it's successful I think to have talent that still gives you flexibility is a really big deal for a team that's still finding their feet and coming in under a new coach. And I think Brandon Vasquez has shown he's a leader in this league. He's been part of really good locker rooms and he's been part of really successful teams. And he's done so with a lot of variance. Like, remember in Cincinnati how much, first of all, change there was under different managers, but also the Brenner rumors.

And Vasquez continued to perform through all of that, not knowing who his partner would be, and then trying to bring in Bupenza and see what works and what doesn't. And, you know, Jurgen Locati, through all of that, Brandon Vasquez continued to perform at a high level, whether it was goal scoring or chance creation. And so there's a lot to like about this. I think you can feel it from the Austin fan base.

Like this feels like a different type of move for them and something that feels solidified in that they are now entering maybe that other sphere of major league soccer and being in those conversations and Bukhari gets you there as well. Yeah. And I'll kind of want to go back to that. Like some of these moves, I really liked a lot like Bukhari.

I'd like to profile it again, whether it like a hundred percent works out or not. This was a lot different than whenhari I'd like to profile it again whether it like 100% works out or not this was a lot different than when they signed Emiliano Rigoni right you looked at that and was like I don't see it from the underlying numbers I don't see it from the box score numbers and I don't really see it from the eye test but hey maybe it works out and then it didn't and I think that Brandon Vasquez like the floor is so high here even again in this Monterey fans haven't been thrilled with him the the new coach doesn't seem to rate him like he was kind of left behind for preseason because of the transfer stuff and hey like we don't think he's going to be a central part his underlying numbers are are

absolutely off the charts for monterey and again part of that is playing in a team that's going to be dominant on the ball for most of these games in league of mechies but in the first half of the 2024-25 season against other forwards 98th percentile and non-penalty xj 98th percentile and expected assists like that's that's a really really good player again you can control for yeah they're going to create more chances and he'll be around more chances because that they're going to be attacking more but like again we have enough of a sample size for this player that we know it's real. Moontower Soccer says, do we feel like not having a true creator on this team

will be a detriment to Vasquez's output for Austin? I think Bukhari is that creator for him. Like, as you said, he's a big finisher in the box. So living off service from the wings, they've also done really well at the fullback positions to have fullbacks that get high in the attack. I don't think it will be an issue because of that. And I think he's being brought into playing a specific system that will create chances for that center forward position.

So I don't worry about him. We got some other comments about Vasquez and his career. So one of the comments from Twitch says Vasquez was linked to Europe, went to Mexico instead. Think the idea was he'd move to europe from there do you think he'll be a little disappointed to end up back in mls for a different team so there was one bid rejected from europe um i think it was in middlesbrough it was it was the summer of like six months before he ended up leaving that was the only one from europe there was interest from from burrow or a couple other clubs but it didn't turn into bids so monterey was the ended up being kind of the only option on the table in that january and we need to remember that these are our financial decisions

as well he tripled his salary in mexico and like he wouldn't have done that in europe right like that's not always the be-all end-all i understand that the better conversation probably for a podcast is to talk about hey how would he have fit in in the championship or what what if he went to club bruges or something like that right but like it's just not realistic in either transfer better conversation tom would be be better play harder fight higher europe yeah exactly um so yeah and like say, and again, this doesn't mean that he wouldn't have left, but, like, since he couldn't make him a DP, they just couldn't. They didn't have the space and everything else, right?

And maybe you could argue they should have, right, if things happened to Pupenza, but, like, that wasn't something that was going to happen. He had to leave to get his contractual value. And I'm never, ever going to blame a player for that. And, again, like, we talk about some of these teams outside of mls just because it's not europe like monterey are a huge team club america are a huge team we talked about palmarish and and some of the the flamingo some of the big big brazilian or argentine clubs like the global soccer sphere is larger than just europe so i think that i try to challenge that at any point

we can and just the last one is, no, the mood, the idea wasn't for him to go to Montreal and then go to Europe, because I think that you accept Mexican teams don't really sell to a team like Raiados. Like they have all the money. Like they don't need more money.

They want to win titles. Hermann Bertrami was a good example. His release clause was 15 million, both Portland and since he triggered triggered that because they said, the Monterey were like, we don't need money. We can't stop you if you trigger his clause, but we're not entertaining offers below this, right? So that's where Monterey stand,

and that's kind of a generality for Liga Mequis clubs, that they're slow to sell players to Europe. So that is a false premise. That doesn't mean that this was a complete failure because this isn't selling going from monterey to you know the europa league because that you know kind of when you chose that path to go to monterey you probably accepted that it was really unlikely that that next one was going to go to europe but let me just add here and let me just add here and obviously had not had these conversations in the last five months, but I've interviewed and sat with Brandon Vasquez before. He seems to have a really clear understanding and idea of like what life is made of and how the world works.

I don't think he is only solely focused on one thing. Like when he was at Cincinnati and it felt like time was coming to an end and you were asking questions, kind of was open to like yeah there are a lot of different paths there are a lot of different options and I do think Pochettino has come in and said anyone who plays well has a chance and I think that shifts your thinking as well which is if you're solely focused on the 2026 World Cup which no player is we focus on it as fans I think more than players do I think Pochettino has opened the door to like play well be a factor you will get chances if you play well with the national team then then you're going to be in the conversation to start at the center forward position and so I think for Vasquez that opens things up as well and I think he will be a really good face of a team

let's finish off with Austin here who um have signed Ilya Sanchez already as a free agent coming over from LAFC. And then you, Tom, were doing some reporting around a potential another central midfielder for them? For LAFC? No, for Austin. Sorry. For Austin.

Do you want me to say it? Yes, I do. Because I texted you this earlier today. But go ahead. Basard Sabovich. I just didn't want to have to say the name. Oh, sorry. Basard Sabovich. I just didn't want to have to say the name. Oh, sorry. Basard Sabovich.

So he's a free agent, Swedish midfielder, like I said, out of contract. Austin aren't interested. I was kind of told, you know, the likelihood isn't super high at this point, but things are still fluid. So that's kind of where things stand there. Yep.

I think it just shows though that austin are not done even if they get brandon yeah that's finished they're not done feels like maybe they've settled at center back um after the year they had bringing in svatok and having him as a starter but it feels like central midfield trying to now replace alex ring uh who they let go is sort of the last piece for this team. And they're going to be, it feels like, turning over a lot of different stones. I would also assume they are not putting Iliye Sanchez in pen as a starter. This sounds like they're maybe trying to find another option and let Sanchez be part of

a three-man unit. Yeah, but I mean, so they could kind of go either way there, because I think a three-man unit of, you know, two starters out of Iliye, Danny Pereira, and Owen Wolfe, like, makes sense. unit yeah but i mean i so they could kind of go either way there because i think a three-man unit of you know two starters out of ilia danny perera and own wolf like makes sense i could see them adding another starting or trying to add another starting caliber player like this player in particular but this one doesn't feel like the end of the world like obviously dp fellard was the big uh the big priority um and you know what they did over the summer with like savataga and desler and everything else.

So I think that they're in a good spot where they have room and flexibility to do more. But if they get Vasquez over the line, I think that was the last glaring need. I mean, you could say center back as well. But I think between Savataga, Heinze, Koskante, and Weissman, they have enough there, hopeful. They are spending money on that position, so we'll see. Yeah, this feels like if they get Vasquez done, you're probably one more piece away,

but you're also still in a situation where you're stuck with salaries from the previous regime. And so this would be a competitive team to play out this year to then even flip the roster even harder. And that more we're talking about depth with a lot of those positions, but they've gotten out of Matt Hedges. They've gotten out of Jossie's artists. They've gotten out of Alex ring,

which were all huge contracts for pieces that weren't performing at a high level. And so now you could start to fill in some of the money that those players were taking for you and yet continue to get more competitive going into this season. All right, let's move up the East coast or to the east coast i guess and let's talk philadelphia uh because they have officially announced bradley carnell as their new manager we talked about this before we went away for the break when the rumors came out the reports the connections whatever and now it's official tom

i don't feel much different than i did then which is I think this is actually a really good place for them to finish. He understands their system. He understands the league. He's had success in Major League Soccer. And it seems like he's going to fit a lot of the things they're asking for. Philly's going to be driven from higher up the ladder, right, from Ernst Tanner all the way down. And so the manager is going to have to be a part of that.

And Bradley Carnell seems to fit that pretty well. Yeah. So at the start of this coaching search, what we said was whatever the name, whatever the person is that, you know, everybody's going to have their own little tweaks to their own little views on things.

Generally speaking, we know that this is going to be a high pressing transition candidate, one who wants to play youth and develop youth. Those were the two factors that were non-negotiable. Those were the candidates that they were speaking to. Thomas Lesch was someone I reported was a frontrunner. He was a finalist alongside Bradley Carnell. And I'm sure there was more names that I haven't gotten.

But Lesch took the Red Bull Salisbury job when it opened up. So when Bradley Carnell's name kind of came up, I thought that made a ton of sense. I think that this is a really good hire. Someone with MLS experience. And again, first and foremost, is going to play this style. So last year, Philadelphia union, we're kind of middle of the table.

Like it wasn't like glaring red, like red alarms of in general, where their numbers stood stylistically. Like they were 15th in MLS in direct attacks, 11th in passes per defensive actions, 6th in attack speed. Those aren't bad numbers on the face of it. Internally, Philly are furious at those numbers. That is why there was a coaching change. And we've talked about it on the show plenty of times. I don't need to rehash everything. They want to be top five in those categories and not five or not

four, right? Like four or five, it would be a disappointment, right? So expect all of that to kind of ratchet it up moving forward. There, you know, some of the numbers that aren't public, high intensity sprints, high intensity closeouts, high pressure, stuff like that. All that is going to be back to the top five. They were doubling down on that. And that is what Bradley Cornell will do. So that's a good hire for what they want to do and they have proven in the past under Jim Curtin with several different kind of like iterations of the team there were a lot of players that had been here for multiple eras Andre Blake is obviously one but Kai Wagner would be two and Kai Wagner it was a question in the chat that um you know

he's linked with Parma what I was told and why I was a question in the chat that, you know, he's linked with Parma. What I was told and why I was a little bit distracted was that there have been no official offers or anything to Philly for Kai Wagner yet, but we'll see if Parma come in from anyway. There were, you know, it was Casper Shabilko and it was, you know, Jose Martinez was there for most of the time, right? But like they moved players in and out within the core. So I don't doubt their ability to add, you know, underrated players that fit the system very well. It's just how high will this take them in a conference that has Columbus and Miami and Cincy at the top. You have the Red Bulls as the defending conference champions, of course, that have reload. There are a lot of very good teams in the East and Philly believe that they can still get to the top doing exactly

what they're doing and just making it um you know dialing it up to 11 and rather than say spending more money and getting more in prime players the other thing is the pathway to them spending more money is making more money which comes off playing young players and selling those young players and then obviously a big thing for a club like that is going to be second and third moves. And so right now, Philly sits in an okay place where they've done their first initial set of sales, the Brendan Ironsons, the Mark McKenzie's of the world, which you're hoping now, I mean,

Brendan Ironson continues to move a lot of it on loan, though. You're hoping that as those players continue to move, more money comes back through. And then you need that next generation of players to sell and to make money. So for Philadelphia, if the conversation is like how do they win mls cup the pathway might be okay you take a half step back for a couple years while you push some young players into the team and set yourself up to be able to sell those players quinn sullivan obviously a great year cavin sullivan is like a whole different story in his own thing but it feels

like you're going to open up some spots, some minutes at fullback, some minutes in central midfield for some more young players. CJ only one that I know they're really excited about. A lot of pieces in the attack coming through Saidi, the captain of their U 17 team, one of the best young forwards in the country. So like there is space for all of that to happen.

And I think they would say, if we play our style, like you just talked about, and we ratchet it back up to 100, we're going to be competitive, even if we don't have the better talent or more experience on the field. And if we can be competitive through that stretch and then sell and bring in a bunch of money, then maybe we can make our run. I think Philadelphia is going to be a lot like a non-soccer American sports team where it's like four-year cycles of like we build, we build. I mean, we're Knicks fans, right? They built, they built. You throw everything on the table for one shot at a championship. Then you have to break it down and rebuild it once again. I think Philadelphia is probably closer to that in like you're going to have to find those minutes for young players in those few-year stretches. And then maybe you put it all together in three years and you say

well it turns out that enough of these pieces are ready to go right now in this group that we can try and win uh i will say the signing here uh ian glavinovich center back from newell's old boys it's a year-long loan with a buy option uh 23-year-old center back from Newell's played a little bit for Argentina's U23s. Is a little bit of a step up. Normally, you're talking Venezuela, Ecuador, no first division experience, stuff like that. This is a ready-made starter for Philadelphia, which is a sign of like, we're going to try and bring some support in to help our new manager get this thing settled. Yeah, I like the point to Glonovich.

That is kind of where I was going with like, yeah, we didn't know who Kasper Shabilko was. We didn't know who Kai Wagner was. We didn't know who Jose Martinez was. All this. And like, I'm still like, maybe I'm not necessarily surprised because I understand that fans would like to see more money spent. And fans are rightfully upset about everything that happened with Jim Curtin and that should leave kind of a sour taste because he's a club legend and I think we all think he's one of the best managers in MLS but in the recruitment area for the most part not everybody gets 100% right but

for the most part they've done this several times over where it's like I don't know who Jacob Glessens is who's this guy why don't know who Jacob Glessens is. Who's this guy? Why don't we sign somebody better or bigger? Well, guess what? Defender of the Year, right? So this feels like in the mold of some of those other signings that they've had that we didn't know. So I was surprised at like, oh man, who is this? I had some of those comments from folks that I feel like if they've earned your trust on anything, it's a signing like this that, again, not every single one is going to hit,

but they've had a pretty good record. Yeah. He's obviously the replacement for Jack Elliott. I think the idea is a little bit more athleticism at that position as well to make Glessness' life easier and to try and solidify things centrally and obviously helps you then expand your game, be able to press higher and all over on the field. So a lot going on there for Philadelphia.

They've re-signed Alejandro Bedoya. We already talked about that one before we went on the break, and we'll see how things solidify under Bradley Carnell as we get ready for preseason, which is like just around the corner. Let's talk about San Diego now because they've got a lot of work to do, trying to build a roster brand new, fresh. And, Tom, you've got the latest report here today. I will give you the name here, Alexander Zupkov,

28-year-old Ukrainian international. Who are they? You are reporting that they are working on trying to finish as their next DP signing. Yeah, so San Diego are in talks with Shakhtar donets for alexander zypkov he's a 28 year old ukraine international with 37 caps he's a really good winger he's a right winger so they would be looking to put another star opposite chukuluzano this would obviously be a designated player spot if they can get it done what i was told is that there was a bid for

something around 5 million shaktar one more shhtar, I've come to know more about them from some other teams that they've been negotiating with around MLS for several players. Not always the easiest to deal with is what the feedback has been from multiple spots. And I want to be sure to say that this wasn't anything that San Diego told me. This is from my previous reporting on other situations.

I'm talking to, say, agents on generalities with this. So it's not always straightforward. These things can take some time. I was told that these talks have been ongoing. This isn't something that, you know, kind of just happened. So this is a long-term target. This is a player that they really, really like and they hope to get it done. But hey, if a deal doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen. So this is a player who mainly plays on the right wing. He's got, like, his numbers are really really strong it's you know five goals and five assists in you know 750 league minutes this season like that's an incredible return he's in the 99th percentile for non-penalty goals 97th attacking actions 96 key passes 95th expected goals plus expected

assists like this dude is one of the best wingers outside of the top seven leagues or whatever in europe like this could be a really big signing and stylistically i thought that they would say with their second dp i was assuming it was going to be a young player um i'm i would really like the idea of them coming out of the gates, firing with Chukulisano on one side, Zubkov on the other. And then, like, they're going to have a ton of young talent. They are going to have that. It doesn't need to be all 11 positions and all backups. So I would really like this potential move.

Yeah, this is, when you sort of said it, and then I went in and dug in on him, this is a profile that I didn't totally expect for San Diego. Like you just talked about, the expectation I think was it was going to be Chucky, maybe a couple of players that have some experience in the Right to Dream setup from Scandinavia, and then a lot of young pieces. And that's not the case here. 28 years old, full international, playing at a big club like shaktar and i went

and watched some of his highlights you better believe a ukrainian international who played in hungary and was rumored to go to turkey has the full dj beats on the highlights but a huge winger like physic physical size which you like to see coming into major league soccer because it's tough for a lot of attacking players um and can go both, likes to play on his left foot, has scored a ton of goals, has created chances as well. And you know that you'll have openings. If Chucky Lozano's on the left and he is as good as they expect him to be and there's nothing else San Diego can do if he's not that player,

but if he is, he's terrorizing teams down the left and he is attracting a ton of defensive attention. And so if you're a right winger in that setup, you need to be, one, able to crash the box and be a goal scorer, which I think he is. And two, you're going to have a lot of 1v1 chances because the teams that you are playing against are going to be shaded away from you.

And I like seeing San Diego be aggressive with a move like this because you can play younger pieces then inside of this setup and say the game doesn't fall on your shoulders like we have experience that will carry us with high leverage moments and as long as you do your job we can continue to be competitive and you can find your feet in the professional rank so i think he'd be a really interesting signing they also signed franco negri uh in the break while we were off, took him in the reentry draft, and then were able to agree a deal with him. That's some more experience on the outside to bring into this team. And I think you start to look at a team with a lot of pieces that are comfortable in possession and a team that can try and control games out the gate, which is really exciting, I think, if you're a San Diego fan. Yeah. Like this would be,

I, I, again, I don't, I was kind of expecting that. Hey, true. And then a bunch of young players.

I can, I get like this, the, the two Danish players that they have, those are in prime players. Like they, they brought in other veterans within the roster already. Like you said,

Franco Negri is one, like he's not like old, right. But he's not like a young rising player. That's good, man. The balance is so important. It not old, but he's not a young, rising player. That's good, man. The balance is so important. It is so, so important.

You can be a developing, selling team while also trying to win and also having some players. Chucky Lozano doesn't block more young players coming through. In fact, he helps. That's kind of a misnomer for teams that, for teams that care about youth development. Like, not all these teams are going to be Red Bull Salzburg. And guess what? Red Bull Salzburg spend five times more money than everybody else in Austria. So, yeah, they can have essentially a U23 team because their U23 players are all some of the most high-priced players in the league.

So, that just doesn't work in MLS is my whole point here. And, again, I would, this would answer a lot of questions about their current roster. And again, questions that I would think are a little bit unfair because there's still plenty of time to get it started. They still need another central midfield starter, and I'm certain that they're working on it. But Zubkov would be a huge, important piece if they can get it done. Yeah, I think an exciting one.

When you watch his tape, he's played mainly in Ukraine. He played at Fernand Vakos in the middle, in between his time with Shakhtar. And so hasn't left Europe before, hasn't really left the country, which I think is a little bit of a concern where it's just like, you know, big upheaval and change going into a season. But you got to bring someone in, and his profile fits really perfectly with what you want as a second or third dp on your roster i'm sorry this this is a very good time because

we just talked about philly and then you mentioned uh honest saidi and now we're talking about san diego san diego acquired the rights to uh uh to sign honest cd there you go philadelphia union all right well not a player that's going to come through the ranks then for the philadelphia union makes a ton of sense for san diego i do think listen if you want to see what san diego's youth setup could look like a lot of pieces for philly have come from san diego san diego was an open territory up until san diego came into the scene so it is one of those places where you talk about players from michigan you talk about players from Michigan, you talk about players from West Florida,

you talk about players from New Mexico, Las Vegas area. San Diego is one of them. I think the MVP of the GA Cup last year, Diego Rocio, also a San Diego native. He's in the Philadelphia Union Academy. So not shocking to see San Diego now go out and try and figure out ways to get some of these players back into their system. And then obviously going forward, those players you assume would be part of their system. So thanks, Tom.

We kind of came full circle on all of that. That was really efficient of us. Perfect timing. As it happens live. Let's move on. Let's talk Seattle. Because I mentioned it in the open. The Seattle Sounders are now officially a Premier League club.

They are in the rumor mills for any player you've heard of uh who wants to make a ton of money and play at a high level let's start in Major League Soccer and then we'll move into the real big names and all of that Albert Rusnak's deal seems to be done it's going to be a DP contract for two years what with a third year option i think for him to continue there and the big news now is around jesus ferreira tom you've been the one sort of leading the charge on this one so give us an explanation of what we're looking at um so yeah they are finalizing a deal to sign jesus ferreira this was a very complicated one our friends at sound red heart first reported on on December 10th that there were serious talks between Dallas and Seattle for this player,

and they have been working through it pretty slowly over the holidays, but, you know, working very hard to find a resolution, and they did. So part of what this was hinging on was Jesus Ferreira agreeing to a new long-term contract with the Seattle Sounders. That has happened. There's still paperwork to be done and everything else, but that's the only thing that kind of stands in the way of this getting done. This deal is for 2 million gam in international roster spot and winger Leo Chu. So Dallas wanted a 3 million valuation, whether that was, obviously they wanted allocation money, but, you know,

they understand that not all teams have $3 million gam being able to be thrown around. So getting 2 million gam plus a player in Leo Chu plus another asset like the international roster spot, that brings the value up to around three or whatever their asking price was. So Jesus Ferreira, very, very close to being a new player at the Seattle Sounders. This is a fascinating move. This is one we have not really seen in major league soccer. Jesus for himself is already an outlier, right? He is the only homegrown.

I think that got elevated into a young DP contract. And so there's already like a lot of pieces of his career that are unique and other players are now going to follow to then get traded off the back of that and then come down off of the dp contract all of this is unprecedented and stuff we haven't seen before i think in an ideal world the seattle sounders would be going out and trying to bring in an evander level player a miguel almirón to try and compete at the club world cup and do all those things that doesn't seem to be the way that major league soccer is set up so once again for the

sounders i think they have done as well as they possibly can in the limitations that they sit inside of i love jesus ferreira as a player i'm not sure how all of this lines up jesus ferreira again he's played as a 10 he's played as a center forward he's played as a winger jordan morris has played on the wing he's played as a center forward Rousnak has played across central midfield Roldan can play 13 positions of the 11 available in a starting lineup there is a clean way that all of this fits together in a starting lineup and looks really good very rarely will Seattle have the best player on the field in any of the games they play even in major league soccer they will always have the fifth best player on the field though if all of these moves come to fruition and that is a pretty reasonable

way to win in mls and win outside of mls potentially i agree so i love the flexibility i love the interchangeability i love how these players fit um i'm curious as to whether jesus ferreira will be down the central the center or it'll be jordan morris like one of them will be on the on the wing and one of them be through the center like you said with with albert rusnak and that that deal is you know again just waiting to be announced this is my understanding that's the assumption again sandra hartnick moreno has reported that as well um he can play a little bit deeper if need be or he plays the 10 pedro de la vega if albert rusnak isn't available he can play the 10 so there if need be or he plays the 10 Pedro de la Vega if Albert

Rusnak isn't available he can play the 10 so there's so many different pieces here that can be rotated around and again like Jesus Ferreira for whatever he isn't or whatever he hasn't gotten to it's a really good MLS player yeah no really productive MLS player who is just about to hit his like prototypical prime so I I like the move a lot I understand why it was time for him to leave Dallas um I understand why it was difficult for him to find the right spot in Europe because not a lot of teams can match the you know the the package of the transfer fee plus his salary and now he gets a fresh start in Seattle he gets a it's a fresh start but he gets to play with a lot of players he's played with you know Jordan Morris uh Christian Roldan this is and maybe it'll be Paul Areola coming next

we'll see so this is a very interesting move and yeah it's not it's not a seven million dollar center forward from abroad it's not them trying to get Brandon Vasquez from Montserrat I think it's a really good deal and a really good player and i think it was jeremiah that pointed this out online and it's a good point and it's one of the reasons that some of these deals have worked for seattle in the past is seattle save money in places other teams don't one being they have a lot of domestic players so seattle are constantly trading international roster spots every year and they're picking up 150 200 000 in allocation money to all those deals on top of that they have a decent chunk of players like jackson reagan and jordan morris and christian roldan but they never had to pay transfer fee for us so that then readjust

their salaries and the way that they hit your books and the allocation money you've had to use to keep those players on your team and then they went went out and signed a DP and Albert Rusnak, who was a free agent inside of MLS that they didn't have to give up a transfer fee for once again. And then they bring him back. And so because of that, because of the longevity of players, guys like new who Tolo and Yai Mark can get green cards and not count

against your international roster spots on top of the homegrown talent, like a Jackson Reagan. And they're hoping more going forward. Obed Vargas, all of that, you save all of this money. And so you are able to then go and make a splash like this, which another team in MLS would say, well, we can't give up 2 million allocation

to then bring Jesus Ferrer and make him a max-time player. Like, we just can't afford that across our books. Seattle can do that. Now, again, as I said, in an ideal world, would they then also bring in an elite number 10 from overseas and sort of try and break the bank and all that yes but inside of what they're doing this is as competitive as you can be and i think you're right in talking about jesus ferrero of like he was the best player on dallas two years ago when they made a playoff

and if he's not hurt they actually may have have knocked Seattle out. That's how good of a player you're bringing in at 24 years old who could get better and could be better in this setup in which he's an elite chance creator. And now you've got Morris and De La Vega and Rusnak around him. And he's an elite finisher. And now he's playing in front of talent

like Christian Roldan and maybe Jao Paulo coming back and Obed Vargas and Rusnak. So there's a lot to like there. There's a lot of promise. They are putting together the MLS super team, which I think is fun and nerdy for us and exciting. And I think if you're a Sounders fan, it should be exciting as well because we talked about going into the playoffs,

like what's the future? Rui Diaz gone. There has been a lot of guarantees with Seattle for a few years, And some of those are coming to their end. Rui Diaz now gone. Nico Ladera gone the year before. We don't know how much longer Steph Fry is going to play. Like there are all these pieces to have a young player like Ferreira on a four-year deal, whether he makes it to the end of the deal or not, I don't know. But like to have those pieces in place now going forward, I think gives Seattle that high floor floor once again yeah that that's the best way to put it is like this team is going to be very good this like there's a lot of controls there's a lot of high floor here and again i'm

very interested to see how it's going to fit how everything's going to look how it's going to look against psg in the club world cup um but that like, that would be nice if they get a result there. But you know, what's more important is beating LAFC in the conference semifinal. And I think that this makes them a better team.

Let's finish with Marcus Rashford. Jesus Christ. Are you joking? What do you want to say about Marcus Rashford? Nothing. I don't know. He plays for Manchester United

right now. Who cares? Cool. So the story that came story do you think the seattle sounders are gonna sign him do you think that the story that came out while we've been off is that he has been mentioned that well sorry wait let me let me make sure i want to accurately report this words have been said by human beings in places in which potentially other people have been mentioned and discussed but never

talked to and all those other things the big story coming back around is that the sounders are going to get a bunch of money from fifa for playing in the club world cup coming up this year and that maybe they will spend that money on some players and maybe that player will be one big name player instead of a host of other players obviously you still you still have a salary cap, so you still have to fit that in. Seattle is at their max on designated players. Is that correct? Yes. If Rusnak gets re-signed, as we expect him to be on that DPU deal

with Jordan Morris and Pedro De La Vega as the other ones. So not sure how it would happen. I'm not sure you create like a messy Beckham rule for Marcus Rashford. If that's the case. Why stop talking about this? None of this is real. Why are we wasting breath? Man, Tom.

What's the point? I knew I could get you there. I knew if I worked hard enough, I could get you there. Let's finish this segment out actually talking about Dallas though. Because Dallas, part of this trade, Jesus Ferrer. We think Paul Areola is following him uh they've already made a trade for anderson julio from rsl for sam junk one up to 500 000 allocation money and they also made a trade for shack more who originally was a dallas academy player before he left to go to europe into the academy ranks first came back

around i believe it was a 1.5 million dollar signing by nashville originally when they brought him back into major league soccer yeah and now he gets traded for 150 000 in allocation money let me like that's less than anderson julio just got traded for in major league soccer for a u.s international who got paid or got bought for 1.5 million dollars um there are also reports connecting petar musa to a potential move to england two premier league teams in there in nottingham forest and leicester city so active right now for dallas with a new head coach in eric quill what do you make of what they've done so far and what they're sort of looking like

i'm interested to see where the dust settles because like you said there are a few other things up in the air like areola um again i would expect both for aaron areola to get done but you know we don't exactly know right now peter musa is more important in that for in that frame because he's a really really good center forward in this league and it's not a surprise that there are that there's interest for him i was told in the summer ipswitst Town had him on their list when they were trying to decide who they were going to spend their money on at center forward. So I think he's destined to, like, this is going to happen every window, I think, until he moves on somewhere because he's really, really good.

If he leaves, that changes the math completely on kind of what you think about this team. But what I will say, I really like the shock more um addition i know that he's expensive on his contract and that's why that the game was so low because natural we're trying to free up space i liked it when he was signed by national because i thought he he fit them very well it did not work out so i was wrong there could be wrong again on it on this happening but i'll hope springs eternal pull me once uh anderson julio i think it's fine i mean i i think that he probably just had his best career season um i don't he's a useful squad player i don't know if they're relying on him for more but um the biggest addition kind of right now is alan velasco gonna be fully healthy next season i think he's an excellent player signed a new

contract to kind of quiet some transfer rumors. One day he will be transferred abroad, whether it's back to South America or going to Europe. But for right now, I'm expecting very safely that he's going to be here next year. So there's a lot of pieces I like. And maybe part of my fear here is, I've said this about Dallas,

this would be the third year in a row being like, I really like these pieces on paper. And then they're just disappointing. And's not fair to eric quill that's not fair to what the changes they're doing in this roster it's just part of me is afraid to get optimistic because i've done it a couple years and you don't want to get hurt again you don't want fc dallas to hurt you i get that tom um it there's there's a decent amount to like like you said I think the big one is like where does the dust settle on all of this what does the roster look like going into day one the Alan Velasco addition coming back from injury sort of puts you at a place in which you can I don't want to say it this way because this is a team that didn't make the playoffs last

year so it wasn't good enough but like you're probably going to replace a level of Jesus Ferreira and Paul Areola's production already with him coming back into this team so if you are looking at it and saying okay we can stay kind of similar with if musa stays and we get all this allocation money for these players we finally figure out a future for jesus ferreira and we're not always stuck in this and then shackmore brings you up another level at that right back position he is a more consistent starter than anything they've had that has been like the weirdest hole in major league soccer that dallas just could not find a legitimate starting right back for the last i don't know how many years um and so you get solidified there a

guy who knows the area um i'm not sure 100 what what we're going to see from Eric Quill's team. And that, I think, will sort of tell us how well this move works out with Shackmore. I think Nashville wasn't the right setup for him. I think he wanted to get forward into the attack. They wanted to play a little bit safer. He's not an elite 1v1 defender. And you didn't see his elite attacking output as a player at Nashville and so I think he kind of got stuck in the middle and he was average but getting paid to be a high level starter in the

league and it didn't work out there but it could work out for Dallas if they choose to play through him a little bit more play him a little bit higher they still need to find more cover at center back for a player like that to play higher and just as a team in general to get better but besides that there's still i think enough for them to be competitive with this group and anderson julio he is he's a wild card so if you get seven great games out of him if velasco is actually healthy and musa still there that's probably enough to help your team be more competitive um and leo chu you could start to get a little bit of production out of him as well. So Dallas starting to read a tool under a new coach. That's all for our big headline stories that we wanted to do.

There are 900,000 other things that have happened, Tom. So we're going to take 15, 20 minutes here. And we're just going to hang out and talk through a few of them. You wanted to call it a draft i think so i i didn't want to call it a draft because then you go into a war room mode how are we grading this who wins i'm just talking i'm a draft of our most in what we've been most interested in over the last few weeks that we haven't talked about yet okay um i called it a draft so it's on the bottom line as a draft and I'm going to win the draft is what's going to happen.

This did, that was the thing that I was trying to guard against. I like use calling it a draft is correct. It's just now that you're like, okay, who are the judges and what, what are the, it's just what we're most interested in. That's all about victory. We have a million questions in the chat as well on a lot of different teams. We'll hit on some of them here. Um, and we will try and get to as much of it as we can. Let's start with you,

Tom. I give you the first pick in this draft. So specifically Leo Campana to the new England revolution, but I think we can cover the whole new England revolution, what their movements have been over the last few weeks through, including today, something new reported, but I want to start with Leo Campana.

I love this trade. I love it for new England few weeks through, including today, something new reported. But I want to start with Leo Campana. I love this trade. I love it for New England. I think that, yes, it's a new league record for allocation money. But this is a fringe Ecuador international. Early prime. Entering his prime. Proven in MLS that he scores goals. Even whether it's not a lot of chance creation.

Or whether it's, hey, you get to be the backup to Luis Suarez and you'll play inconsistently. I think that this 1,000% answers the who is our starting center forward that they've been asking since Adam Bukza left. This fits perfectly. He can, again, putting him with the chance creator of Carlos Hill and between Luca Langone and Thomas Chancalay, the front four makes a ton of sense. I really, really like it.

And the fee, while high, they knew that they were getting that money back immediately from the sale of Esmer Baraktyrovich to PSV, which has just gone official. That deal is around $2.5 million up front, up to $6.5 million, including add-ons, with a sell-on clause. I think that's fair value. That's awesome to move this player on. Goss, you take it from here on the academy side of things.

Was any, like, the idea that they brought through Noel Buck, Peyton Miller, Esser Bartarevich in the last few years, if somebody told you that in 2019, what would you have said? I would say I've never seen a Revs Academy game because they've never been competitive enough to be on a field in which i'm watching at a youth tournament straight up and and then within three years they have completely flipped the script and they are now a team that has i would say even more pieces coming through that can go for big numbers yeah and so credit to this club for that and then the way you complete that cycle

is i don't think that they perfectly handled the noel buck situation but that's okay that doesn't like they he ended up going to southampton on loan like he still made the move and now esmir bark taravich they they didn't say we're demanding x amount of dollars and tajan buchanan sorry he's another one matt turner georgie petrovich those weren't exactly the same as these academy ones but it's part of the larger picture. They should be getting a lot of credit for what they've done on a developmental sense, on a sell-on sense, on an identification sense.

It has been very, very good. That is what they've been the best at for their own history since, whatever, 2020, 2021. Mark's been cheered on. I'm repping New England. Falls River's Mark's original bumpy pitch. Like, so, again, and the way that this ties into Campana is that Ezra Barktervich's sale paid for that.

Yep. So it was like when Dallas traded for Paul Ariola. Yeah, the $2 million was a big number, but they just got – they had more to gamble than they knew what to do with from some of their sales. The most valuable thing you can do to generate allocation money in this league is sell a homegrown player. And they did that, and it got them essentially a free roll on Leo Campana. And I think that's really, really good business.

And then I'll just add as well while we're talking, they are in talks to sign forward Ignatius Ganago from FC Nantes, Cameroon International. That would be a loan with a purchase option if the deal gets done that serious talks nothing is agreed yet but that's a target and that would tell me that they are very confident that they'll be able to move on for Giacomo Veroni because if that deal happens Veroni is third string on a team that will play with one center forward who just dropped that one on me at the last second. Obviously, I went and watched my YouTube highlight reel of Ganango

and true center forward, mobile player, has scored a ton of goals in League One. Like, we're not talking about League Two. We're not talking about a, like, non-top five division. Like, those are real stats. And that's where you sold Adam Buksa. That's where you've operated in and around with some of these big signings and on top of all that you don't need that player to hit immediately because you're bringing in Leo Campana Leo Campana is as close as you can get in major league soccer to

a guaranteed thing and still having potential sell-on value going forward he's 24 now so maybe that window's starting to close but he could play for you for a year or two and you could still sell him for a decent chunk of money and as you said this was allocation money that the refs had already knew that they had generated and so you go out and get a player i love leo campana's game similar to brandon vasquez he's a big center forward who's comfortable with his feet can connect connect and play. It's not just a big finisher who's trying to get into the box and get at the near post. Like, you can play through his feet. You can connect with him.

He can link up. He can help create for other players. And you mentioned the front three for them. High-level chance creators. True wingers. Carlos Hill looking for just points to play off of and make his life easier all of that fits with leo campana and what he can do for this team and so it's a huge addition and and just my last point on this like why the finances why i love this so much like he was signed for a three million

transfer fee from wolves to enter miami that's why he was initially a young DP. Like this, you're getting a DP. If you signed him from Independiente de Valle, or from Wolves, or from any, name any club, this is probably a designated player because of the transfer fee. And because it's from within the league, they're getting it on a non-DP deal.

And I just think that that is really, really well done on the financial side. Yep. Do you want to spend 15 minutes talking about Luis Diaz now? Coming back to Major League Soccer. No, I'm okay. The king. Is that your biggest?

Yeah, that's my biggest story. That's how I win the draft. Luis Diaz on a free agent signing out of Costa Rica. The Rebs have made a lot of moves. Obviously, we talked about it before we went on break. They brought in two center backs already. International center backs. I like the center backs by the way.

In the Revs Academy. Coming through the two team. So I would like to see them get some minutes. But I can understand it's not going to be yet. But Noel Buck is coming back as of now. From the loan. So he might be a part of this group as well. In central midfield.

I'm going to go NYCFC. I think from a story point of view this coaching search has been fascinating like i think the moment they let nick cushion go you're like all right someone from cfg i've never heard of before like line them up and they didn't do that but they did at the same time the name being connected in hudson river blue who i shout out all the time on this show uh was first to this pascal yanson he was at the time when this was reported the head coach in hungary of fernan bakos uh one of the biggest teams in that country he had been a head coach and assistant coach at azad alkmaar for four years and worked in the psv setup as an assistant and academy coach for about eight years before that um he has now left his hungarian club i believe the statement the club made was that he had been purchased by a

large international team and good luck in your time overseas and so everyone thinks that's pointing to a chance at nycfc that you know the cfg group and all of that makes sense and on the back of that nycfc loaned james sands to st paulie through the end of the european year this year so that would be this summer you know he would be eligible to come back into that second transfer window with the option for the loan to be extended through 2026 if quote certain conditions are met i like this move from nycfc pure nerd mls status joe larry says all the time everyone makes the playoffs in mls so like you have a player in james sands who wants another shot at europe you think you could get potentially a big sale for him you're sort of going to risk that first half of the season a little bit

to let him go and try this. And if it doesn't work out, you've got James Sands coming in this summer who can be a starter and an elite player in central midfield or if you need a center back. And if it does work out, now you get to sell your first ever homegrown for a big fee to a team in Europe. So I understand and see that and and yes i think that's a good way to look at it my first read was nycfc are doing james sands a solid here because

they already did this loan with no obligation to rangers he so he had his chance in europe and when he came back to nyCFC, he could have went to Standard Liège. Ronnie Dyla was the coach then. Obviously, he coached him at NYCFC. Now he's at Atlanta United. But when he decided to come back to NYCFC, NYCFC had to re-recruit him as to why the Standard Liège was going to pick up something close to the Rangers purchase option. But Sands believed it was best for his development to come back to NYCFC. So I think NYCFC would have had every right to say, yeah, look, we're not opposed to you leaving again, but we're like permanent, if they want you, permanent deal.

And they didn't do that because that obviously would have ruled St. Paul out. So I think this is NYCFC doing James Sands a solid because it's not a purchase option if certain conditions are met, Goss. It's an option to extend the loan for another year. So you're sitting in this purgatory again where you don't know if he's coming back. You don't know exactly how much money you might or might not be getting for him. Again, I'd imagine that maybe on this one, they'll replace his salary spot and just, you know, hey, if St. Paulie don't keep them then, or and maybe they'll do this in the summer rather.

But like, I think that there's a lot of unknowns with this. And I think that they would have been well within their right to say, hey, like, we've done this for you before. If you want to leave again, it's got to be a permanent deal. So we're not in limbo again. So like, NYCFC did him a solid. So I don't disagree with you, but I would say selling him off the back of a successful loan at a Bundesliga club is better than selling him off the back of an unsuccessful loan to a Scottish club. Fair, fair.

And then his play in MLS, which has been pretty high level, but not with national team, for him to show outside of that. He also has signed a contract extension before this loan was put in place so i know i see if you have even more control over him for longer because i think you probably were ending up in a spot where you were back into the re-recruiting process which is if he wants to play out his deal and go on a free that's probably his best ability to go to the whatever team he wants to go to and now you're in a situation where you're back working together for all of this and him being a homegrown helps a little bit in the at least you didn't spend a huge transfer fee and the way he will hit your books coming back into your team won't affect you as much so the

space you have to leave for him is a little different and it's a club with a global network that should be able to loan players inside of that. I agree with you. I think in general, this works out for both sides. And I think it's an interesting move. And I don't know that every team would be capable of doing this. But I think that fact that they are capable puts them in a strong spot to be an even better recruiter. Like if you're going to kids in the Northeast area and you're like, hey, by the way,

this is what we did for James Sands. If you come here we promise we will get you to the right spot eventually i think this sort of helps you i think that's totally fair um and again like it wasn't there are other situations where i'll say like you know hey why did real salt lake sell andres gomez during the season well one it's a great offer and two for that reason you said. I just thought kind of this one that, like, it would have been fair for them to say, okay, free, free. So, like, again, it's a different way to look at it positively.

I can understand maybe fans wouldn't totally because this is, again, doing the player a favor, but I think that that stuff is important, and I think that that stuff does come back around in a positive way. Tom, your next chance to try and match me. So I'm very interested in the Portland Timbers U-22 forward situation. They, as I've reported, acquired the negotiation rights from FC Cincinnati for Kevin Kelsey. They are still in advanced talks with Shach, Kutar, Donetsk.

They're working on it. I believe that they're optimistic that that's going to get done. They have another option, and a really good one. Dor Turgman from Maccabi Tel Aviv. He's an Israeli 21-year-old with seven caps for a national team. And when I reported that

he would be another target, I got a text from someone who knows that league that the players are like, wow, it was immediately like, dude, like, how much? Like, this would be expensive like this kid's really good like hey if they're able to convince him to come here it was that kind of like talent that that was being kind of described back to me by somebody who wasn't at the Portland Timbers because obviously if you're scouting a player you're super excited about like this was a third party this was this wasn't somebody with with any bias towards the deal. They're like, oh wow, like I didn't expect that an MLS club would

be kind of seriously chasing him. I still think that this ends with Kevin Kelsey, but I really like, I would like either outcome here for the Portland Timbers. You just got a career year out of Morrow. I don't trust that that's going to happen again, neither by minutes played nor goals played. And that's okay. I really like having a U22 initiative forward, a guy like, so Kevin Kelsey, he was good for his like really good, I should say for his first, you know, month and a half with Cincy. And then he kind of tailed off. That's what young players do, man. Like they're not, you shouldn't be signing like, and they weren't. And I want to say that, but like, if Kevinsey was coming into a situation here in portland where all right pal whether you're good bad or indifferent you're

starting 30 games because we don't have another option um that would be as silly as with with mora saying whether your knee is good bad or indifferent we need you to start 30 games pal and i think the combination of those two players in this attack is going to score a ton of goals. Not that the attack needed any more of a boost, but I think that this was a smart and necessary move to get a serious challenger for that starting spot with Mora. And then between those two players, don't even have to think about it. We're good at center forward. Okay. We talked the Kelsey thing when the rumor first came up, and I'm still not convinced it's the right place to spend the resources for Portland.

But I don't disagree with you that it won't make them better and that they'll have one of the best attacks in the league. Obviously, having Ariel Lassiter serving balls in from the wingback positions is the biggest part of all of that. And if Dora Tugerman ends up coming, he gets to leave a trash team because he plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv, which is a garbage side. And so that's a big opportunity for him going forward.

That reminds me, by the way, I didn't put this in, but one of the off-season best stories, which I forgot, was that the San Jose Earthquakes coaching staff is the classic Bruce Arena coaching staff. Because Dave Sarakin coming back from Israel, Shalari Joseph, the legend, shout out to him,

and I think it was Aiden Brown was the other piece that they added, and it's like... Steve Ralston too. Let's get the band back together. Steve Ralston was like always destined. He's a San Jose Revs guy. Like, come on. That's exactly, exactly, exactly.

There was no chance, and then they proceeded to trade players back and forth between the two. Tanner Beeson's now joined Jackson Yule in New England. Earl Edwards Jr. has now come back over to the San Jose Earthquakes. So that whole storyline is absolutely hilarious. My next pick is Atlanta. We talked about... Oh, we tried to sneak in a bonus there.

Yeah, we talked about Matias Click right before we finished, which was you sort of had floated the idea of them trading him, but not getting off all of his money just to sort of move the club along for DC, which we'll talk to you. See, maybe later that I don't understand, but boom,

Atlanta United being smart and major league soccer again, like that's not a bad way to win things. You go and get another team's DP. He's not going to hit your books as a DP. Even if he does i think we discussed it he is a high level soccer player he is just not the best player on a team so now you bring him to a club with big time signings in front of him established pieces already in the attack it is a really comfortable spot for him to be in he gets to play in a big

environment in front of a big crowd um i it just makes a lot of sense for what atlanta united's trying to put together and i think this is one of those moves that happens we talk about other big names and other big positions and then you get into a playoff run and you're like wow as you go through this roster and see where this team has hit correctly to be competitive this is the type of move that shouldn't happen because he's a dp and shouldn't be available for this but garth lagerway and chris enderson were playing the league and not just playing you know what is numbers and how do players fit it's understanding similar to what philadelphia did when they were able to bring in caranza like okay where are other teams at in this league? What restrictions do they have?

And how can we maybe take advantage of them? Yeah, I love this. I really love this fit for Matty Kleck to Atlanta United. I love for both him on the field, but also a situation where he's not definitely going to start 34 games. He was really, really available. games he was really really available like he was super consistent in his availability for dc united i thought he was good not quite a dp atlanta united are getting this man on a senior minimum contract are you joking the the pick two

starters out of bartosz salish tristan miyamba and matthias click that's really strong one of them again is is on the league minimum. Looking at their roster, they still are going to add two DPs, and I'm sure that they're going to spend a lot of money. So, obviously, Alexei Maranchuk is one DP. The non-DPs on this team, Savalo Bojanice, Bartosz Lisz, Matty Klick, Tristan Miumba, Stian Gregersen, Brooks Lennon, Pedro Amador, Derek Williams, Brad Guzan.

That is an awesome spine. And to still be able to add a dp forward and then a dp something else yeah and x amount of u22 initiative players if they want like yeah that's really really good yeah it's it like i said it is the right move and what we just talked about with seattle with jesus frera of like you save money in all these places and then you can spend it big kristen garth were the ones who set that club up that way. And that's what they are now doing for an Atlanta club that has operated in the dumbest way possible for a very long time. And now starting to function as a real team.

And then you add in the spending ability of like Maranchuk. Crazy number. That's the move Seattle can't make. They cannot afford Maranchuk. They can't get in that convo. But if you take some of the know-how that Seattle has operated on and then add the Arthur Blank checkbook and I got a text from someone who was really

upset that I didn't say this on the other last show. A blank checkbook because it's a blank check. I was just about to say well done there and then you stopped and had to explain the joke first. There you go. All right, Tom, you're up next.

Jeremy Obovici to LAFC. We spoke about it on the show that he was probably, you know, assuming, rightfully so, that Rusnak was going back to Seattle, that either J-Bo or Jack Elliott were the top two free agents on the board. And J-Bo is off the board. He's going to LAFC. And when we were talking about this, we were like, we really really like this player we don't know what the obvious fit is and I did not see LAFC in any way because I didn't think that they were going to be able to match whatever money

J-Bo is going to get in free agency for a player that's going to be second choice to Olivier Giroud so the interesting side of this is will it work out J-Bo can play in the wing but they already have a ton of wingers don't know what's going to happen with Boguch or Oliveira this month, but they have Danny Buonga, they have David Martinez, they have a bunch of other players. So is the fear that Olivier Giroud might be a half step off what they thought and this is insurance? Or is it just, hey, this is a really good player and we like him at this number,

so let's just get it and figure it out later. So I'm very curious as to which one of those this is and what's going to happen to either Olivier Giroud. Best case scenario is he's working out very, very well as, again, I still think he's going to. And then Jeremy Bobese probably isn't playing that much, which would be an issue. And the other side would be the issue of Bobese's playing a lot because Giroud isn't playing well, which would be a issue and the other side would be the issue of a bobas he's playing a lot because jerud isn't playing well which would be a bigger problem so this is one of those unlike the portland situation where it makes sense where you could almost you could split whether it's kelsey and mora whether it's 20 to 14 games played or 22 to 12 right like anything like that where between the two of them you're going to get all all of your 34 games 90 minutes a game this one's a little bit different because they're putting a lot into druid they're probably putting

a decent amount in jeremy abobasi it's a long-term deal um and he's a good player and he had options so whatever they told him is that he believes he's going to play so i'm very curious what exactly all this means the deal is the part that's most confusing to me of like the length of the deal for Jeremy Abobese in that I think there's a decent chance if he didn't want to play in San Jose anymore, the market wasn't as hot for him as I would have expected because it is weirdly a position of comfort for some teams that normally would be in this. Like the simple one, Colorado, right? Colorado is going to sign a player inside of Major League Soccer who is good because they don't have to pay a transfer fee and everything. Hoffa Navarro is the best player on the team. He's been solid. They don't need to fill that role. You look at some of the other teams that you'd normally put in

a conversation like this, Vancouver, they've got Brian White. They don't need to fill a position like this. Salt Lake, they've got Chicho. So, like, I think in the end i look around in the league and you'd say maybe nashville would have made sense because if they're going to play surge on the wing they might have a hole at the center forward position and that would have been an opportunity toronto they're just a mess of a club and like you could throw anyone in there montreal from a pure talent point of view but that might block some younger players that they want to play in that position maybe charlotte

um if swiderski is going and they're trying to fill in alongside the ajagod but again that's your starter as it should be and so charlotte were the other team that were that were closest to jeremy boby i don't know how close it got but but they they were pursuing him as an option and that makes sense in the they're going to spend dp money in the rest of the attack and on the wings and like you get more solid play in center at center forward but you don't look at this league and you don't see a lot of teams and you're like center forwards the big need and so i think if you're jeremy abobese and you said i don't want to play in san jose anymore and you go out and look around things i I think maybe the market wasn't as hot. That's where the length of this deal is odd to me.

And it wasn't, you know what? This is a competitive team. They're going to play in every competition. We're going to go deep in competition. So there's a ton of games. And it's a high-level team with high-level wingers. I'm going to score a bunch of goals. You'd think it would have been a one-year deal or a two-year deal to say can i flip that into my next big deal that's the confusing part to me

because if you're lafc i'm fine to have done your due diligence to have popped in and said hey like this is what we give you and then you'd hope at bovis he's camps like no way he's a better player than that and then if the deals don't come around then you come back to that table and say okay it's odd to me though how long he chose to sign on for but maybe he wants the stability maybe he wants the comfort of knowing where he's at or maybe there's been other promises but on the scenes of like if you play x games and you score x goals either we'll trade you we'll sell you or shirud's only here for a little bit of time because of his age and where he stands in his career. Let me go this one next and then we're going to finish up.

Chicago, an early holiday gift. The era of Gaston Jimenez has come to a close. It is going to be remembered as a time in Chicago. Not a glorious time, not a successful time, but a time in chicago not a glorious time not a successful time but a time and obviously it sucks for him that he is the pain sponge for a lot of this it's not his fault someone offered him more money than he was worth and it's not his fault to take all of that money for as long as he possibly can but greg werhalter and his new staff which he has put together it's a very interesting group we'll talk about that another time um the group he's putting together to sort of run front office things around him they have decided that we have come to our end on the gaston jimenez experience and um someone in our discord said it very nicely when it happened

of like early gift to all the chicago fire fans uh for that experience to be over they've also sold uh tobias salquist back to denmark uh this time to norzaland he is a danish national and so chicago continues to clean up the books and sort of get off a lot of the pieces they've been locked into over the last few years underperforming players on high level contracts not really a good way to build a roster. And so congratulations to Chicago fans. And I know that Gaston Jimenez Day will be one that is remembered yearly going forward in the Chicago area. This player typifies this entire George Georg Heiter. It was an awful signing from the second the ink was dry. It somehow signed multiple contract extensions, I believe.

One of which to make him a multi-year maxed hand to take away his DEP spot. Of which they picked up an option. Just so many different directions. Of like, oh yeah, this is why so many other signings haven't worked. And again, like you said, feel bad for piling on. Though, he didn't exactly seem like he was covering a ton of ground when he was on the field. I remember his first season, I was watching, and I was like, I don't know if he's just moving at a different pace or whatever.

I was like, it seems like he's not putting in a whole lot of effort here. So I will criticize him for that. But like you said, on the financial side of things, good job by his agent. It's not their job to say, you know, I think he's not quite worth this. But this player, this deal deal more than anything else typified uh the last four years uh for the chicago fire and now they're on to uh greener pastures you are up next tom you can try and win this on your final pick dc united they are so there are a few things that i've liked here, but I think I'll just kind of talk about it in totality. So they're nearing a deal right now to sign

Australia international center back Kai Rolls from Hearts. That looks interesting. Mustache guy, respect that. They've signed South Korean U-22 initiative goalkeeper Kim Jun, 21 years old. That's interesting. See how that goes. Matai Akimbone is officially at bournemouth

that deal was done today all this reported by me as well um and just kind of again i don't love the finances that have happened with the matias click deal what happened was they had to use their 2025 buyout on steve birnbaum who retired due to injury still don't understand that it's unfortunate i don't a lot of questions here but so i don't love that moving on from matthias click to save a couple hundred thousand dollars on a salary cap it was useful maybe it's more about just getting into a new era moving along forward um but again look this was a deal signed by the previous regime and this deal for click that included um an automatic trigger for his 2025 season, which triggered halfway through his first season at the club,

2023. Why make that a trigger? If it was that easy to be triggered, I don't know. It wasn't me doing the deal and it wasn't kind of the new regime of the front office. So they can only deal with the hand they were dealt. So maybe it was just,

let's just move on, get out of it. Now, if he's crowned as dp whatever we want to play more young players in central midfield anyway so i'm very curious to see what they're going to look like i don't have any idea if the new forward they signed is good the uh jao peglo like i and i that sounded mean i don't mean it in that way i mean it in that like this could be one of those where you look back and like i don't know man like not comparing them to

any of these players but it was funny to like look back at some of the like smaller scoops i had where people would be like i don't know who that guy is and it'd be like oh looking back like tatsy cassianos people should have cared a lot more like when that came i understand why i'm gonna do the name so i don't know what's going to happen with this player but in mls just because you don't know the player doesn't mean it was like danny buonga on lafc any other good example that you want to put up it's like i've never heard of this guy. What is it like? You know,

maybe he sucks. There's been a lot of players who have come in that you never heard of that stink too. But I'm just saying it is like, it feels like there's a mystery here. I don't feel promising about DC United where it sits right now. Last year was the best year it's been in a while. The click stuff is really painful but it is also still trying to deal and clean up the old regime and so you can only really

like you can only really blame the people in charge so much for that and as you said you're hoping some of these pieces hit really well an australian center back who played in scotland whose first name is kye is just like classic that's gotta be a fan favorite day one um you know him and the lads are you know hanging at the horse races and watching the cricket and whatever else is going on uh and that's all for our draft there are like 900 million things to talk about we haven't done all of them because we can't i will say i'm intrigued by the gaston bruggemann sean davis trade i never thought sean davis was a red bull style player i thought nashville was the right fit i think he is a really clean possession passing player and the galaxy is a better place to do that and if the galaxy can do that and continue to get a player in production like that while missing Gaston Bruggemann who we didn't think they'd be able to

afford anyway I think that's a pretty good way to get off of that and then Nashville gets the MLS Cup MVP who we know when healthy is a difference maker at his position and probably a good short term fix in central midfield now that Annabelle Godoy and Dax McCarty before that have moved on and they haven't really been able to fill that. So that's a trade that interests me. We are holding off talking Elias Manuel trades because of respect to the Brooklyn coffee shop community. I know everyone's really dealing with that one heavy and we're going to have Kaylin Carr on for a special segment to break down all of that. And we haven't talked Miami. We talked Leo Campana going in the

other direction miami have a bunch going on you've already reported fafa pico headed there as a free agent obviously uh i believe he played in usl there for a number of years with miami fc scored a ton of goals um so that's a familiar area for him and then the rumor is that Tado Allende, 25-year-old winger at Celta Vigo, came from Godoy Cruz, could be headed to Miami as well. People are going to play with Messi. So we'll figure that out whenever it happens. And we'll see what Miami looks like going forward. All right. Got a lot to talk about over the next few weeks.

All of this stuff will continue to churn and continue to change. I know we had 9 000 questions in the live chat we've had a bunch in the mailbag as well we're going to do our best um to dig into all of that going forward and so everyone who's saying what about houston what about lucho acosta what about this what about that as those stories come together and you know tommy scoops is the one to report it we will hit them if you want join our patreon it gets you access to our discord that's where we've got the live feed of everything tom reports coming at you as well as our depth charts which tom has cleaned up over the last few days so they all look accurate for moves that have happened you could see jesus

ferreira on seattle you could see a bunch of the pieces that have moved around and where they fit in. And we'll continue to update the salary cap tables alongside that stuff as well. So you can get an idea of how much these players cost and how they're going to affect their teams and how many years some of these contracts are for, which informs a lot of these moves. By the way, a lot of these moves are this player is not going to resign. Their deal is coming to a close. We have to move them for something right now or the other way as well we will try to talk about toronto we clearly have some toronto questions in the chat uh we have no information about them and we do not have a coach in toronto which is always a good feeling but i did have a friend text me this

morning and say reminder jesus man has plays in India right now. And that's probably the most of Toronto thing that I could possibly say. All right. Thank you to all of you once again for listening. Tom, as always, thank you for being here. We'll be back next week with the full staple of shows as we ride into 2025. Thank you all. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.