SoccerWise - Top 10 Things To Watch For MLS Offseason + Superdraft & Austin Magic Sales

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

The Soccerwise crew is preparing for a week without live shows. So Tom is setting the stage for what is most important to keep your eyes on. From coaching vacancies in KC & CLB to big DP holes in the attack of TOR, DAL & San Jose. Then they break down all the latest news from trades and signings + Superdraft news.10:15 SKC Coaching Hire Needs13:30 CLB Coaching Search21:00 TFC DP #9 Search28:00 Whitecaps Roster Squeeze33:30 FCC Roster Needs & Dream Dado Valenzuela Homes46:00 Christian Espinoza's Questionable MLS Future45:05 Justin Haak Ideal Landing Spots47:15 FCD & SJ Hunt For Game Changer DP #10s53:25 Sean Nealis & DC's Remake59:45 Orlando City Finding A Way Out Of Muriel Contract1:02:00 Thomas Chancaly Potential MLS Rehab Spots1:03:05 Austin's Dream Sale Of Osman Bukari + Nelson/Rosales Trades1:09:00 Rapids Sign U22 Defensive Mid1:12:25 Orlando Seal Two More Signings1:16:15 FC Dallas Commit Big To The Superdraft

Hello, everybody and welcome back to soccer wise, David Gott and Tommy Scoops with you coming off a screaming match off air that we are now going to continue on air. I've got the Knicks hat on. You've got the soccer wise hat on. I am hidden away in a bunker deep in the mountains. of Colorado hiding from every flu and sickness and cold I possibly can. And Tom, it's our last quote-unquote live show of the year. Yeah, it is. And then you say screaming match, that's just how we normally talk. We didn't see any difference in the volume. This one was upsetting to me because Weeby caused it.

So now we're yelling about Weeby without him in the room. We might have to have Weeby on maybe with a panel of FC Cincinnati fans. to start the year to do a full Jerry Springer show where we're like next to come out it turns out the paternity test is Andrew Weeby and then we have him coming out of the back room we're working on setting up the stage

for that one for the new year we've got a lot of cool stuff playing for the new year The MLS media marketing tour is going to be down in South Florida so I will be there for some cool coverage we're going to have some really cool stuff coming out of that we are working on our preseason plan so if you've got some ideas of the way you want us

to go about that let us know Tom's working on some stuff on his own personal side, a.k.a. having a human being, which is something we're very excited about as well. And, of course, the World Cup around the corner, we're going to continue to cover MLS and NWSL deep in the weeds, as we always do. But we've got a lot of World Cup content that we're doing that. We're pretty excited about just because, I don't know, for me, I owned multiple books about the World Cup.

The best gift I ever got, someone asked me this two weeks ago, and I forgot. For Hanukkah one year, I got a poster, which was like this, like, drawing of every World Cup each year in order and then it was like who won the golden boot a couple of facts about it like in this painting my mom got it for me and I can recite for you in order the host the winner and the year of every World Cup all the way from 1930 that was one of the best gifts I ever got I love the World Cup so I'm really excited to be able to do some of that coverage and we've got some great stuff for you over what is now considered a little bit of a break for a week and a half we've got a Greg Burrhalter interview that I think you'll all find fascinating

there is a point in it which I brought the national team up because he was talking about, you know, fight and what they built. And I said to him sort of like, he kind of stopped talking about tactics. Was that an acknowledgement of shifting? And he goes, I realized no one gives a crap about tactics. So I stopped talking about it. And it was such a good line. We didn't talk national team long because there was some fascinating stuff about Chicago Fire and MLS big picture that I wanted to talk about him with. So that's going to come out.

And then Andre Zanota, we chatted with who he put his money where his mouth. mouth is we taught super draft right before he went and traded up for the second and third pick because of how much he values it looking for the next logan farrington uh so we chatted with him as well big picture mLS especially from his point of view coming from brazil doing a lot of business with mexico argentina and all of that with the new transfer with what we think the new transfer window is coming up so we're going to put those out there and our special with bobby and doyle who have you got some topics to hit today time because you are still working and uh we got a lot to get people primed for to watch for and then we'll break down some news that's been coming out

exactly it's non-stop you joked about maybe some time off not really it's uh it's we're firmly to get to wear your slippers while you text agents from south korea about future players yeah so a lot a lot of working from home which is great um i'll be in be on morning footy december 23rd depending on when you listen to us so that'll be fun and then uh hopefully just home for the holidays for that. But yes, you're right. It's a very busy time. Go around the athletic.

I did just write all needs for all 30 teams. Yeah, that took a while. And those are difficult to write because you start, and I try to not just do it in order because then I just try to go randomly. It makes me feel better about how it's getting done. And you write, so like, let's say the first three teams you write. And then 48 hours later, what you just wrote while you're still trying to finish it, it's already stale or already I need to make an addendum to it.

So that came out and it's finally up. This is the thing where when the schedule change happens, if the schedule change happens. I will appreciate that, actually it won't be true. But what I was going to say is one of the hardest parts about trying to plan season preview is I'm like, all right, cool, let me get a schedule down.

Let's talk to Seattle, January 8th. Let's talk to Santos 8th, January 9th. Let's do things in advance. And then you're like, we're going to get there and it's going to be DP signed on March 1st for a season then that kicks off on February 25th. Gosh, this is what we did last year when we were doing a team by team previews. We're trying to push.

As we're planning it, it was like, okay, who do you think is mostly done with their transfer window? Right now, who has the least to do so that this will live on slash like it won't become old news in three days because they just made like a team changing or like style changing signing. So, yeah, that's always going to be. It is always the delicate dance, classic major league soccer. It is so much fun to be around. be a part of. So I think what we're going to start with here is you giving a primer of the biggest storylines you're watching for so people can keep an eye out as well as people can sort of know,

oh, when this hits, this is one of the big ones. And then we'll go into the things that have already happened over the last few days. Because as you mentioned on the last show, the signing like date for free agents to get the extended money from their own team was right after our show finished, which then we saw all of these resigned. not resigned, re-signed, come in over and over and over again over the last few days, and then we'll hit a little super draft on the back end of it.

So why don't you get us started sort of with those big stories? Yeah. Yeah, so we won't be recording a live show over the next, I don't know, 10 or so days, whatever it ends up being, this is what you need to watch for over the next, you know, 10 to 14 days. These are the 10, I think, most important, big off-season things that I'm expecting to have happened. and let's start with the first one

Sporting Kansas City's head coaching search they are at the final stages I know we've talked about on the show that they have been with three finalists as of a few weeks ago they have to be at the finish line here from what I've heard

I believe that they are very very close so that's something to watch because they haven't made a ton of signings and they have at last count I think it's 16 maybe 17 players under contract and that's because they signed a couple homegrowns to boost that number up. Looking at their roster on the depth charts that have been updated and will continue to be

updated and you get access by... Shout out to John and Hootsky. Our Patreon gets you the Discord, gets you the depth charts. They need, as I was writing it, and maybe this isn't going to be 100% certain, I think that they need new starters at all for defensive spots and defensive mid. And they signed Steph in Cleveland, so there's a goalie competition. if they want to decide another goalie to be a starter, I wouldn't push back against it.

Like, they need five new defensive starters out of the six spots. And maybe if Seth and Cleveland wins that job, that's six out of six spots. So that will have been after. You could convince me, Jansen Miller's a starter after last year. But you could only do that if you have an upgrade at his partner and at one of the center mids in front of him. And like, if he is a staple, you're in trouble.

If he's the other guy, then it all. looks pretty fun so yeah i fully agree with you exactly also this has been what the conversation around skis since 2016 they they have been trying to replace icopara and ilia sanchez since the moments those two players have left so kansas city that one because i think that that's probably closer than some of the other things that i'm going to talk about on this list and that's going to help set up what comes next for them. It mirrors, in one way, it mirrors what we've talked about with St. Louis, that they weren't going to make key signings before finishing their head coaching search.

Now, Yohan's amazing. I'm expecting them to have to do more, but they have significantly less flexibility on the roster than Kansas City does, because David Lee, after he took over, was able to decline literally every option, essentially in front of them, more or less, like, and after their roster update, I think that they had 13 players under contract, something like that. St. Louis is different. more players on a contract they will still make moves but kansas city is the one where they don't need departures to fuel additions because the the roster had so many natural outs with contracts

expiring options up this is just a complete sidebar but i think people who watch this show will enjoy it or listen uh so my internet was taking a hit and i couldn't figure out why and i realized that i had forgotten that i had been streaming afcon on fubo in the background before we got on and that the stream had still been running after i muted it once we started talking so I apologize, but the Molly Zambia game was really inflicting on our recording quality, and now I'm back. That makes me happy, and I'm glad that we figured that out. Oh, we're in the, as we're recording, 79th minute of that game.

Gosh, if you need to go. I mean, big win for Molly. Obviously, we're looking to the Bafana Bafana later who are playing against Angola. Shout out to Kian. That'll be a good game. Shout out to Kian. Number two, for me, another head coaching search. Just do that early as well.

the Columbus crew, it is going to be, the Columbus crew have two things that they need to, air quote, replace that is simply impossible to replace. There, it is not fair, whoever comes in as the head coach to say, you are the Wilford Nazi replacement. That is not fair. Whoever comes in in central midfield as the Darlington Nagby replacement is extremely unfair. He is one of the best winners in MLS history. Somebody, like when Nazi was struggling at Celtic, somebody made a tongue-and-cheek joke of like maybe the best manager in MLS is just whoever happens to have Darlington I'd be at any given time.

Which is funny because the one European team he almost signed with was Celtic 10 years ago. Yeah, right. So those two things again, I always want to be careful in framing and talking about it that you can't expect a like for like replacement on either of those guys.

The first one is the head coaching search. I believe that they are getting closer and closer. The little bits of info I've heard they are progressing, and I'm excited and curious to see where they end up going with this head coaching search. I'm sure, I'm assuming, Goss, by the way, that they'll play, again, there is no, say, we talked about Yon DeMay. I'm sure he'll play more like Nancy than Bradley Carnell, but there is no non-zero, but whoever the next coach is, even if that they're taking general pillars of, like, possession-based high energy, it's not going to be the same thing. Will they play out of the three at the back? That is a huge question.

I don't know, depending on who the next head coach is and what they see in the team. and how they want to play, that's going to inform a whole lot of decisions that they need to make within the roster. So this is the Columbus crew, same thing in terms of the players coming in. We'll know a lot more after they hire a head coach, which, again, I'm expecting to happen. Not to split here's hair, but do you have SKC higher because you think it's closer and more likely to happen while we're off? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And B, take the rankings of 1 to 10 years. Listen, dude, I just want to know how I'm going to win the 10. I just think that generally... I got to know the rules. And so, yeah, the crew is something. But from what I've heard, they are producing. And that's why I'm putting it up here. As you mentioned, it feels like SKC's coach

will have more impact on the roster because there's more work to do, where for the crew, it's going to be more about using what's there. I still just think as much as they've lost, I think Wesum Abu Ali with Diego Rossi healthy for a full year. I think they're going to combine for what, 35, 40 goals, like across all coms. Like, I think those guys are going to pour it in. If you can have some stability behind them up the spine, it's still a top five contending East team, even with a new coach.

That's just like shooting from the hip, not knowing anything. It just feels like there's too much. Right, Rex Arvston, Marrera, you know, Farsi's been replaced along that right side, but that's out of quality, like with. Herrera like they're the weakness at centerback and the reality of the way all these guys skill sets are sort of leaned into what nonce did that's the one big fear which is if you have a coach who can't really replicate that to all these superpowers fall away and now you're seeing the deficiencies of these players of why they didn't why Rudy Camacho didn't get offers from other places why you know Edmondson got traded here why max arveson was converted into a wingback

So that's my one fear, but it just feels like this is a team that's going to be one of the top five goal scoring teams in MLS. And if they can get like the rest of it at a decent level, competitive level, they will still be a top of the East contender in the regular season. And that was a good point too. On Abu Ali and Rossi in particular, I don't really care exactly what formation they play. I don't totally care exactly what the game model is. Like those are two really good players. I know Abu Ali, it's a much smaller sample size. but I think we both feel very confident

that that was a very good signing and hey maybe Goss theorem as Daniel Gossog season two that might be stretching our abilities on that one. What if the new coach comes in and says I want to play some variation of like a lopsided 4, 2, 3,1 in the same way that Orlando

tweaked their game model to just let Alex Freeman be a wingback without there being a wingback on the other side so like what if you play a 4231 Arsson gets a play like a wingback Steven Marrera plays that like right back but like as the right side and center back and then it's Abu Ali Diego Rossi pinching in Daniel

Godzog as a 10 and then a new winger like Hugo Piccar or somebody else Well I'm trying here The other thing you're gonna say like some of Gossdog is can you Can you make the game a bit more frenetic Like instead of Instead of suffocating teams with possession

Which I wouldn't say is what Nonsei wants to do It's a reality of how people play a Nonsei team And then you get into a set game state where you're breaking teams down, set block. If it changes and the game becomes a bit more frenetic, then maybe Gosdok starts to find the openings he's most comfortable in. The question there is, do you lose the skill set of other guys in those moments? So it'll be fascinating to see.

I think both of these are ones where it's a huge moment for these clubs. I mean, SKC, we're talking about the first permanent coach after Peter Vermease in 20 freaking years. Like, yeah. Little of two decades, yeah. every decision made at that club So everything happening for SKC is the first time In the modern era

It's the first time since the fucking wizard It's like this is crazy And I feel like we've been so Numb to them because they've just been Who they are over the last few years That I'm excited to sort of have them pop again I love Kansas City I love the SKC fan base

So I'm excited to have that back in And then for Columbus we're talking about The Day After Tomorrow with Wilfred Nancy And like what they look like So these are huge moments for these two clubs. Let's go into your next few. My one quick sidebar is

if Jason Russell Row was allowed a special exception to just go with Wilfranci to sell them, would he have eight goals in those five games because apparently no other player on that team knows how to finish. Dude, but they were up a man. They got a five XG in that game

against Lute Spanish steals, Aberdeen. And Aberdeen still equalized down a minute, Like, that game shouldn't have been anywhere. Jason Russell wrote would have had four goals. The example of Wilfred Nancy being a saint on earth is his phrase after the game wasn't, these guys are trash, and we should be on a five-game winning streak. His quote was, they deserve to win the other games, and I'm glad they finally got the result. A saint of a human being.

And when he's good, I am going to re-bring up everything the Celtic fans has said about how he's a shit coach. and be like, sorry, is he good now? I don't understand. I'm confused. So they play Rangers on January 3rd. Yeah, that's huge. Also, it's like classic that he comes from these five games that are like a cup final Roma. And then he has one, two, three, three games in like a seven day span to follow that up with, ends with Rangers.

Also, I'm in Colorado, so I forgot. So it's a 5.30 a.m. kickoff labeled for the Rangers. game because they have to be at noon so that people can't be so drunk that they'll kill each other, which is probably unaffective, unaffective game play. Okay, let's get into some signings here. I was shocked that this one, I know you're not doing standings that way. I was actually surprised this one was even on. I just haven't thought about this.

Do you know? Yeah, that's why I wanted to talk about it. So Toronto FC's DP number nine search, the club are cycling through targets. There was a rumor out there of Ben Brerrington Diaz. just not true so be careful on who's linked with toronto um because they people know that they have money that's the british chelaine and that they're looking for a center forward that guy's hilarious yeah yeah yeah he i think he has like the longest losing streak in premier league history like for an individual he got relegated and then sold it's it's unfortunate correlation versus causation

has been on two of the very worst like premier league teams in like the last couple years uh anyway i want to be clear too yeah tmc by I thought a good signing when the links. But it wasn't real. It was not real. So Toronto FC, that made me take a few calls and figure some stuff out. I was not sure if ownership was going to be like, I know that to the current front office and to the current coaching staff,

I know it wasn't you that mismanaged our funds, but you're going to still pay for the sins of Bill Manning. And we are not giving you money or we are giving you the bare minimum of money. I didn't know what the funds were going to look like after they've been burned so bad. And by the way, still paying Insane and Bernadowski. There's not a bottomless pit of money. I wouldn't blame them, even if I don't think that that would be necessarily fair to the front office and coaching staff. But after all of the money that they've spent and the returns that they've gotten on it,

I wouldn't have blamed them for going a little bit shoestring. Well, in the summer, they bring in Georgie Mulhoevich, $8 million fee, and a big new contract. I'm expecting this DP spot to be significant. I don't have a ballpark for exactly how significant, but it won't be Bryn Hildensen is what I want to frame it here, that this is not going to be alone with a purchase option for somebody looking for a fresh start somewhere else. Like the players that I've heard of are serious center forwards

and serious potential signing. So I think that's a really good new, really big boost for Toronto, for Toronto fans. It has been a train wreck over the last few years. Every time that you thought that there might be light at the end of the tunnel, it was another train coming to run you over. They had to sit through, like even John Herdman, they started off well, and then that ended in a disaster.

Bernardeschi, it's like, hey, maybe he's salvageable. Nope, no, he's not. And they had to sit through some bad years. And if they tried to take shortcuts, they wouldn't be in this spot. You are finally at the end of the tunnel. It is not just light at the end of the tunnel. You are out of the tunnel readjusting to what sunlight and happiness might feel like. that's not a guarantee that they're going to be great

but for literally the first time in I don't know four or five years they actually have the chance to be good and I expect them to be good they have some signings to make it's not just a DP9 they needed to they need it to redo the defense they brought in Walker Zimmerman I would like to see another centerback signing whether Sean Johnson hopefully Sean Johnson comes back

but if not maybe either Luca Gavron or another goalkeeper get the DP 9 right and you go from a new DP 9 Georgia has the 10 or the left wing depending Jose Sifuentes with John and Osorio in the midfield, and then Zimmerman and maybe a new centerback and either Johnson or maybe a new goalkeeper, for that to be the new spine from what this team has had over the last five years.

This team is wild, dude. When you look at the roster, they have like no one on the roster on the main spots because they have 5,000 off roster players. Like, credit to them on the one side. They've got eat homegrowns across this team. But then they've got Nico Gomes and Cassius Malula and like all these dudes. I'm not, I'm not convinced Cassius Maelua. I think he might be, I think he might be good.

I'm not entirely convinced. I think he's going to be a dude who comes back to MLS when they finally sell him in like eight years. It's just like a solid start. He started a club world cup for Wieda-Casa Blanca. Bro is playing in Belgium right now and he's legitimately playing. Like he might be, he might be good and everyone's just like, we can't. We cannot do this. But like Zane Malouisis, the, when they had this kick, we're like, we're just going to sign British players.

here's the efficiency in the market is English players coming over they just have some bizarre players on this team and yet there's space on the main roster for them to spend a little bit of money and bring some guys in like you talked about in my estimation I would say Luca Goverin's good enough

that I just wouldn't spend the money at the position like if Sean Johnson's like I like living in Toronto I want to be here yeah 100%. Outside of that I wouldn't go out and spend money here and I would spend on the positions you talked about And it's fascinating to think what this team could be with a legitimate number nine, who's like a star player to lead them from the front. Obviously, Josie Altador is the model with all of that.

Sebastian Jivenko, like two guys you could play through and dominate the game. They're going to make Georgia Mihailovich better. They're going to make Corbino better. They're going to make all these guys look better. They still have Richie LaRaea on the books. Like, if you get a guy who you can feed into, you've got a ton of creativity around him to be able to set that player up. And if it's a player you can play off of,

now Georgia's scoring goals, and you can start to put that on the books as well. So, yeah, I didn't think that they would spend. I kind of thought they were waiting another year, and you putting it down there, it's like, oh, I could get excited about Toronto pretty quickly if they get this right. I agree, and hopefully we'll get better health for Richie La Rea

because he's a difference maker in this league. I don't know if he has to be a DP or not, or even if he doesn't have to be. It was like Osorio was the third DP behind the Italians because it just made sense for Cap and like you're already spending a ton of money might as well. Like you can't go turn around and ask for more. So again, the same thing.

Like with Richie, whether he's a third DP or maybe they could add another one. I'm not entirely sure what happens there, but they can also add up to three U-22 initiative players because I believe Magu Lula doesn't count his one while he's on loan. And by the way, while you were talking, I looked it up. I was like, wow, is he actually killing it in Belgium? He's been an unused sub. I didn't say he was killing it.

I said he was playing in Belgium, although clearly I was wrong. In a very literal sense, he's played three games in Belgium this season. But anyway, so yeah, Toronto is an exciting team to watch this winter. And again, I am happy for those. Those are good fans when this team is good. Man, even when they've been bad, like the atmosphere has been pretty good. So Toronto being good again, I think will be fun. If they are indeed able to get there, they've got a lot of good pieces.

They just need to kind of put it all together. And if they get the right DP-9, that goes a long way. If Walker Zimmerman, I believe that's going to be a good signing. If it is indeed, that's going to go a long way to determining their success in 2026. Next team, next thing that I want to talk about, Vancouver White Caps. What I'm watching over the next couple weeks is new contracts or trades. So part of this magical season is almost to a person, almost every single player, and I'm not exaggerating here, almost every single key player out before. their contract. And it was a brilliant season and there is a lot of stuff here that is going

to be repeatable and they're going to be good again next year. They do have things that they need to figure out this winter. Sebastian Burhalter, he's out of contract in a year. He's on like 300,000. He's not coming back. He's not coming to preseason without a new contract or trade, right? Ali Ahmed, he's out of contract in a year. I would imagine something similar of like, hey, like you got to take care of us or you got to trade us. Tristan Blackman wins Defender the year. I don't know this for a fact, but if you were his agent, would you be asking for a new contract? If you were another team, would you be calling about him? Right? Even Ranko Veselinovich, I've heard his name thrown out there. He had a really good, he's been very, very good over the last

few years. He's currently injured. Matias Laborta, teams have called about him. Andre's Kubas had the team from Brazil in for him. They just, they need to give, again, particularly Burrhalter, Ali Ahmed, and Blackman. And maybe Brian White, if he's asking. because that's a guy who always outperforms his contract. If those four players are asking for new deals, just get it done and figure everything out later. While they do want to bring in new players, they do want to evolve the roster, natural tweaks.

These things are normal. Jada Nelson trade, I thought they did well on that. And they were, he wasn't going to be anything more than a rotation guy next year because Ryan Gald is back. And Ali Ahmed's there, Thomas Mueller. They brought in Kenji Cabrera, I believe, the attacker. So they've got the options there, and it made sense to let him go and get the money.

money there. That Jada Nelson deal should pay for one of those new contracts at least. And then you have to keep figuring it out from, okay, now what do we need to do next? So for me, the Vancouver White Cups need to get this stuff taken care of. It's more about keeping the core intact than going out of any new piece. The Jaden Nelson deal might help you cover two sort of in that you're losing his contract plus you get that gam. It was a ton of gam. I mean, I like the trade for both. I have said. I like what he can bring to Austin. We'll talk about Austin in a little bit. But at the same time, he is not a locked in starter to get that much for not a locked-in starter

seems like a pretty good deal for them and as you said they need to lock in some of these staple guys and you the belief now has to be if we can get Kubas and Gould and Mueller and Vesalinovich and Takayoka who we saw

his deal got done if we can get them locked we can believe that we can develop the next Nelson and Sabi and all these guys around them and so that's where your core is and that has to be your first priority here I didn't realize Ali Adma is just a free agent, correct? Oh, in one more year.

Got it. I was scrolled forward, yeah. Right. So the winter of whatever, after the 26th season, him and Burrhal's were out of contract, spoilers aside, they're not going to get to free agency. They're either getting new deals here or trade. That's wild. Pay my man.

Pay my man. Right. Right. And when I, when the salary figures came out in the fall. the update for the season and I had to I wrote like a best bargain of like the most valuable ex-i for like team for sure I could have done seven white I would even throw like jacenaconda in there guys like that like I just think they've hit on so many of these I think the gondo's very good and I would like to see him play more and I and your hope would be off this year which was

forced maybe that a bodwal can step into a bigger role going forward that you've sort of develop some of these guys. And I think Ralph Pryso's performance should make you confident that that's a rotation player you can trust as well, whether it's at centerback or center mid. And as you said, they brought in Kenji Carrera. So there's some flexibility there for them to sort of double down on some of these guys and let some of the other pieces go. But yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see what Vancouver looks like going into next year. On Ralph Pryso, I would put I would pencil home. I'd write him in Penn as the start. boarding center back next to block.

If Veselynevich, sure. Like, and then you've, assuming that he's all going to be ready for day one. But so for that. For sure, which is where LaBorder now becomes gettable. And if my mind, if they trade Nelson, I mean, if they get, they should get a million for LaBorta minimum. If he's a starting level player and they got 1.5 for Nelson, obviously attacking versus defending a little bit different. Also, the teams we just mentioned, if I'm TFC, how am I not looking at LaBorta as a partner to Walker Zimmerman?

Are you kidding me? And there's multiple teams that I would go in that list. If you can bring in 2.5 mil to 3 mil in allocation with those two guys, you can probably cover most of the rest of it. And as you said, Ralph Preistow is your third rotation center rack. Sam out of Cube, if he's healthy, he's also someone who's eligible in that role. And you brought him the poop guy. So you've got that locked in.

So like, yeah, that to me is the obvious next deal for them. Or you buy him out of it. I mean, it's top to play your second ever appearance at. to Miami in MLS Cup. That was barbecue chicken. Tyler Koleck style. Yeah, that poor guy, man. Number five, another team that doesn't have a ton of flexibility at the moment is

FC Cincinnati. So what I'm looking for for Cincinnati is departures to make room for additions. Their 3DP spots are set, Danke, Evander, Miles Robinson. Their 3U22 slots are set, and they have done very well on the, U-22. Gerberto Flores, Etchenique, and Samuel Guine. Those are three starting-level players. I know that Gerberto Flores really tailed off as the season went on.

I still think he's a starting caliber player, particularly if you're playing next time at Miazga and Miles Robinson. Like, that helps. So those six high-leverage slots, there is no flexibility. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing because I think to a person, you're six-for-six there. You can quibble with the Miles-Ramison DP, but at the end of the day, that's a very,

very very gets one of the best centerbacks in the league so you've got six six key players with those six slots very well done they are they spent a lot of money on on like tam players to buy down you have obi no boto who was a dp that's something in the region of max tan matt miaziga pretty close to max tan he's one year left on his contract teenage adabe is is a tan player but they believe buca is as well so the way that you need to keep funding this is trade transfers, whatever. Monterey have put a bit in for Luca Oriano. I don't expect that to be the last. Luke Orzano was not good enough in 2025. I say that because it's, I think, pretty objectively true. But also, last season, he was on loan with the purchase option. And part of the purchase

option is you have a prearranged, pre-agreed contract. He outperforming that contract, to be fair to him, and kicked and threw his toys out of the play but to try to get a new deal to try to get a transfer first to Cruz Azul and then it was like okay if you're not going to give me the move where I would get a big pay raise you need to give me a new contract here

he doesn't show up for preseason he ends up getting the deal at the end of preseason the entire season he had been playing catch up with injuries and being out of fitness because he missed those valuable valuable weeks at the beginning of the season to get the new contract

then he got the new contract and wasn't good enough and I think that's a fair criticism if Monterey or another one of these big league on mecky's clubs comes in with a better bid I just think you take it at this point I think that that makes enough sense I think that I think if the belief is that you can get a high level of performance

from McKinique and the money you're getting for Oaxano is outweighs what you think he's worth then it feels like the one opening to then say okay for starters if I'm them I'm just going and find an MLS winger i mean i don't need to bring up brian riposo's name for the 400th time for the fifth year in a row but like just go get an mLS wingery guy who you think you can convert into fullback for cheap and like wing back and get that performance and then spread that money across

the rest of the roster as you said and keep things level like in the way you word of like fc Cincinnati needs departures to fuel stuff like i think the belief for fc Cincinnati right should be if the team is as close to similar as last year as possible that they should be even better right like last year should have been a drop and this should be like goss theorem team of like avander with an offseason full year if um what's it called if if noboddo is healthy if you can get a healthy year from matt yes miasga or miles or like i'm not even saying both at this point i'm just saying can one of them be fully healthy and the other one potentially is in and then denkay settling in Cincinnati should believe that if they can keep most of this together

they're going to be even better next year than they were last year. And then if you ask the work you need to do around the edges to keep the roster solid, then I think they're fine going forward. Agreed. And two others to look at, or at least one other to look at, plus a position group. Dato Valenzuela is a guy who's getting called about across the league. That's a, I think that makes sense for everybody in Cincinnati agrees with that as well. Like, hey, if he's not going to play that much and he's a vet, like if somebody meets whatever the asking price,

is going to be, which when you have seven teams calling, you hope that one will, that that's a move that could happen. That bounds by the obviously wants to play more. And if you're behind Avander, it's tough. And Pat Noonan hasn't showed any interest in playing Avander and Dato underneath the Daneke. Maybe, hey, maybe that's something that changes in the offseason and they have a different decision.

But at currently constituted that Dato trade makes sense. And then the other one for me is look at centerback. So now you have Miles Robinson DP. These are the funds that are going. going to this position group. Miles D.P., Miyazga, essentially, Max Tam, Flores U-22, Adebe. How does teenage Adébe get picked up again? What are we doing? So I think that that, so he was of open to a trade, or like they were open to trading him last

winter, nothing happened. So whether, like, I hope that they keep Matt Miazga, but 12 months left in a deal. He's probably looking at the Miles Robinson contract and wanting that. I would understand if there's a move there. But once one of Hadebe or Miyazga, I think, has to go because you do not need all of those resources at centerback for a team that they're really good defensively. And Nick Haglin, if he's your third starter, if it's, let's just say Robinson and Miasga,

try to pencil them in for 80% of the games. Maybe that's silly because of their injury histories. And then your third centerback is a combo of Flores and Hagland. You just can't afford it on another guy. Yeah, you cannot afford it under the cap. That's the issue. If you want to, listen, if there's no cap, spent all the money on centerbacks love it like let's justice for center racks but you literally

cannot afford it and it makes no sense and then on top of that i would argue teenage the debby's on a deal he's not worth and i would argue he hasn't proven that he's worth more that's the part that is like mind boggling all this can i give you my so my dad of valenzuela by the way um montreal's an obvious one he is not a like for like for dante seely but he fits that mold of course the one i'd love to see is Nashville. Kind of in the Johnny Perez move as a different option than Alex Muil or Shafelberg.

I think Quasim's going to be very good this year. But that's where I'd like love to see Dato as like your Hani Mukhtar or Surge rotation guy and then also can fill those minutes underneath. He's at his best, I think, inside his ability to beat guys and play quickly. He has the size, I think, to hang

and he doesn't have to go out wide in players winger. So those are the two that pop for me and Montreal's the obvious one I don't know if it's playing out on the right wing they change formation whatever but you know that's just like a Montreal move yeah you got to imagine that they're one of the teams in for him given the playbook um a team that I would really like for him oh yeah yeah I would really like it St. Louis yeah it feels like a Cory Ray move for sure again I I've right I know that there's friggin I think we could name like 12 teams and we both go yeah like that so there's the markets there for him i would expect to move given that neither side is

like trying not to make it happen and not not like cincinnati's actively shopping him to be very very clear but it's one of those is hey the reality of the situation for the salary cap for the player himself if we can't give him a better pathway to making 15th playing 1500 minutes in mLS or whatever the number is that that he's looking for it's good on them to not try to hold him back next one for me, number six here, the Christian Espinosa sweepstakes. I'm very curious to see where this ends up and what happens, because there's a cap on what teams can offer them. It was the 90% of whatever San Jose offered them. I believe that ends up as like low two millions. And I don't know if there was no cap what a free market would do and what the offers would be on the table in MIS.

I will say, from what I've heard, his camp isn't exactly thrilled by this, this, this, this, this threshold and this, this, you know, ceiling that they have on what offers they can get at MLS. He wants to say, prefers to stay at MLS. But with that, they are more seriously considering Mexico, Brazil, where there's no cap. And again, I don't know if there is offers that are greater than two million from clubs in Mexico, Brazil. I don't have any latest info on that. But what I do know is his camp aren't thrilled. And I think that's part of the delay here in that maybe they were hoping.

hoping for things to be different in, in terms of, like, if we go back into different big, like, free agent sweepstakes in the past, there have been some players that hoped that MLS would make an exception on, on how much, do one. Yeah, for sure. The CBA is written as, per the league's, per the league's discretion on almost all the group. You're not getting the Robbie King's. So there's at least enough wiggle room to hope. So that's, it doesn't appear that that's going to happen.

and so when when I was first reporting that Espinosa was out of contract I would have handicapped it at like 95% likelihood he stays in MLS whatever the number is now is lower I still think it's more likely than not but that's where things stand right now with Christian Espinosa I'm going to do two things first I'm just to start listing guys on 2.2 million that he'll be paid less than if he stays mikhail ura paxton arrensen mirto uzuni chicho arango marcel hardo teago Tiago Martin's Wessam Abu Ali. Those are the guys right in front of Christian Espinosa's current guaranteed comp based off last year.

If he has to drop down, he's probably coming below Ivan Jaime, Matt Turner, Warran Cruz. Yeah, I'd be pissed too, but Christian Esmenosa. Second thing to me means take off the SKC's RSLs of the world. Like he is staying because he thinks he's going to win and he thinks it's a cool situation. And that to me takes us to like L-AFC and like a few. other clubs where it's worth his life to stay and be a part of it. He's not picking a team because he's picking a team if it comes down to that because clearly he would just go to Mexico for the money if that's the case. And that makes me think it will be LAFC where it's like he

stays in California. He lives in a place he wants to live. He has a chance to win if they want to do it. I mean, who else is on that list? San Diego maybe if they want to do it and they want to use a DP spot. Yeah. I would doubt that they're in for him. would be if churkey leaves like firmly doubt that um right and i can't really think of anyone else that would make sense right now that he would go to seattle doesn't have the openings i mean if he wants to move cross country maybe there's something there i don't know maybe atlanta if they move off a dp spot they want him and he wants to play there but yeah it feel this that wording to me feels like he's going to stay for a dream situation if it's not that he's just going to leave

Amalas. Yeah, we'll see exactly how to play that. That's kind of where things is FC Dallas number 10. Christian Espinoza is not going to Dallas if Dallas offers him to because like that's not a, I don't think that's attractive enough for him to stay inside of endless for less money. But I can dream about the service from Espinosa to Peter Musa and Logan Farrington. So don't think you mean, you mean the service to Ricky Lewis and whatever his name was

Phillips? Did I just, Simmons? Nicholas Simmons. Yeah. The super super draft selections. Really quickly on pre-agency. Espinosa is the biggest name, but I would say something similar for Justin Hack.

And to what you were saying, Gus, of this is another one where you're capped. And if he saves an MLS, which I try to be careful, but like, I don't know this for a fact. I'm assuming he's going to say there is real interest abroad in the championship. in Germany, but I would just make more sense from him to be here, but he's earned the right to make that choice, and I don't know what the money is on the table, I don't know what the teams are abroad, but I would expect him to stay here. And for that

reason, like you said, Goss, of there's a cap on what he can be offered. So while I know that there's like 12 teams making offers and stuff, well, if it's like LFC Galaxy, if it's Chicago, if it's, and I don't know any of these

to be particular, I'm just thrown out, you're going to pick those over if San Jose's making the offer. If Montreal is making the offer. Because the money is the same. I think he's going to go to a team that he feels fits his skill set and it's going on. Galaxy would have been interesting pre-glassness with this one. Yes.

I think I think LFC is, would be. To me that LFC is looking for a school. LFC need a centerback. It feels like they have, why would they not be? They have Coasey DeFare and Ryan Porteus. Okay. And Eddie Cigura is in terms of. But those are three centerbacks.

How much depth do you get? And also, when's Aaron Long coming back? At least a fourth. But he tore his killing from late July. So we think he's out for through the summer? I don't, I'm not a doctor. You just stay at out of holiday. I would be, I would be careful to assume you're getting 100% of Matt, of Aaron Long.

It just, to me, of all the teams, it feels like they have a lot of, lot in that spot. And if I'm just an hack and I'm saying, what am I signing for? It's style. It's also space to play. I haven't been a full-time starting major soccer my entire career. So where am I going to find that? And that feels like a weird one to me.

That's fair. I would disagree on that, but that's fair. A couple more here, number seven, FC Dallas is DP number 10. The quickest route, and actually, let's lump these two together, seven and eight is then San Jose Earthquakes D.P. Number 10. The quickest route to going from average to really good in this league is sign a killer DP number 10. Nico Ladero, Carlos Hill, going down the list of the last decade of guys who, and those two guys

were two of the best signings in the last decade. Carlos Hill was like a $2 million fee. I don't remember what Nico Ledero's fee was. It's like, you don't need to spend $20 million to guarantee a really good play. Again, that doesn't mean that every mid-level DP-10 that you sign, you can still get it wrong. Dallas and San Jose could Lope Key be really good next season if they make a really good DP-10 signing. The variance is wide because it could be who did, who is the San Jose guy? Natia Perez-Garcio?

didn't work. They're most recent. I do not remember. They're all the same person. Not Amal Pellegrino. Right. Well, Ernon Lopez.

If they sign Ernan Lopez again, they have signed so many, like, what's his name? What's your running back's name? Scataboo body type number tens in their time, and none of them have pretty much panned out. It is a crazy setup.

I'm looking at all-time DPs. So, that's so good. If they sign Hernon Lopez 2.0, they're not going to be that good. If they sign Carlos Hill 2.0 or even Carlos L1.0, I don't know what it would cost to get about a new England. If you do that again, I think they're going to be very good. And that's why these two searches are so important to me. Last year, I had Dallas, I thought they were going to be really good or not really good,

but I thought they were going to be good because of Lucho. Like, if he plays towards his MVP level, they're going to be one of the best six teams in the West. If he plays like he did last year, they're not a playoff team. So that's why these are so, so crucial for both of these teams. Bruce Arena in year two in New England and year two in the Galaxy won the supporter shoot. So if you follow that blueprint, you add another good centerback, I think the foundation is fine. If you get a sick DP number 10, this team is going to be a serious. So in the number you're talking about, let me try and find this.

as a line, is this player better than Davy de Costa? Okay, so you're talking about someone who's more impactful out the gate. I'm talking hypothetical. Sorry. My point is I'm not going to try to find a fake model and then ask you which team you like better if they both sign that player. So I'm trying to figure out like what this 10 looks like. Martino Heda? Yeah, if you saw Martino Heda.

And I'm glad that you're doing. I'm glad you're doing this because and I make fun of myself for this enough if you listen to the show where all points of Carlos Hill and Nicoladero and Danny Bwonger, like yeah, just do that. Yeah, those are like the top 0.1%. So even like Martino Heda is a very, very good player.

Okay, so if they both signed in Martino Heda level 10, San Jose and Dallas, who do you like more next year? Man, that's a good question. I think I lean Dallas just because Uugide is the best centerback between those two teams. And I think that

Peter Moose is the best forward between those two teams. I think that the ceiling for Dallas would be higher, but the floor for San Jose would be higher. I'm fully Dallas in this. I think both. I think Dallas is a higher floor.

Yeah. And I mean, their floor this year with no lucho for the second half of the year. So if this 10 came in and bombed, I think they'd still be better. And I think their ceiling would be even higher because there's a chance

that Moose is still the best player on this team. and if San Jose signs that player, that player is going to be the best player on San Jose. So that's where that ceiling comes. For sure. Even like, it's Dallas signs Robin Ludd,

which I understand Robin Ludd's not going anywhere, and I'm the only one doing this. But if they do, I like that team. You hope so. Okay. I don't think that's enough. I don't think that's enough. And particularly for at his age level, too.

I'm a big fan of Robin Lutz, but I would be disappointed if that was the new 10 that they signed. but I do think that those two and again if you're just like eyeballing standings Dallas had finished seventh but you know three points ahead of San Jose who finished 10th and 41 you might not be talking about these teams as all right who could be in the upper restaurant in the west I do firmly but Dallas even more and more thinking about it

Dallas could firmly be in the top five with a really really good DB 10 and San Jose again Bruce the Bruce full year two thing is a real thing and if they're able to, and he's been the best at my best players win games. Brian Schmetser is somebody that's in this mold as well where this is not taking away from their tactical knowledge or man managers or anything else. What they do best is we have a special player or we get our special players and I put them in the best possibility for them to succeed. So that's another reason too why with San Josea, you could just see it

because you have so many examples going on a thousand years. so those are there's plenty of other i think dp spots that that we could point to but i think the three of them that we've had on the list here between toronto's nine and the two tens for these two teams um outside of miami's third dp but the variance if miami swings and misses on their third dp they're still going to be really good which is why i didn't i didn't find it relevant to kind to put them on this because it's a luxury at this point though i'm very excited to see in what direction and they go with the ambition and the team and the money and everything else. So I just think that it's a lower variance because if you don't get it right, who cares?

Because you're still going to be really good. So two more here. Number nine, DC United's rebuild continues. DC's signed type of Rebo, five-year deal. And that's a DP-9. We talked about that already. They've acquired Sean Neillis in a trade from the New York Red Bulls per source. It's been finalized in like the 350,000 range.

We've talked a lot about Sean Neillis and our design. I really like that deal. We didn't disagree about this. They kept the number one pick. No, we disagreed in abstract. Now we have specifics. It's a different conversation. Okay.

Oh, now we are going to take your disagreement with it. And they kept the number one pick and drafted Canadian centerback Nicola Markovic. These three moves, I think, are all good, solid, to varying degrees. Because the baribo has, like, good solid. for a DP. Like, he's obviously not the same level as Sean Nealus. I say that all to say, we've, I've been very critical of the process for their new front office and the quotes that came out of ownership that were just asking. I stand by that. I want to say, I am impressed. And maybe it's that the expectations were, you look at what DC has done in the past, right? And I didn't know

what to expect. If you told me their first three significant moves were going to be acquire somebody within the league in a cash fur, trade for a good center back on a decent number, right, both his contract and the acquisition cost, and keep the number one pick and draft a good college player? I wouldn't have said that they would, they're going to sign somebody for $7 million from Romania and then bring in three Tam level players that they're going to be desperately trying to get rid of in nine months. And that's not specific to like this person or this, like, that's not what I meant. We've seen. so many things go awry in this way with this kind of with the head coach and the sporting director that aren't within the league with with a front office that's like it's Dave Casper right now that's not like he was sent away by the team and just to run out his contract and now all of a sudden he's so all of those things would lead you to believe oh they're going to go abroad they're going to do they're not going to utilize the um I guess smaller mechanisms within MLS where the coach is going to give me a new right back from

somewhere else, right? I am impressed on these first three signings in that they're not taking away any of the talent pools that I thought that they might. I fully agree with you. I would add to that they seem cohesive. There are two players coming out of similar systems who I think are high performers in those systems and so you're going to value them over someone else. I mean, value is probably not the right word with Sean Neal's. This is a good deal. Like that amount of money, we've said over and over. 500K is the floor for a starter in Major League Soccer right now. and they're getting, they gave up less than this for Sean Nealus. Now, this is why I do like it.

I said, I don't love Sean Nealus in every system. If they are going to play a pressing system with Tyberiebo up top, and they're going to have Caden Clark underneath, and that's where he's been at his best. And you're looking at a, you know, three centerbacks, whatever it is, with Sean Neal is anchoring it like he did for Red Bulls, and Aaron Herrera is flying up the right wing. Yeah, now I like some of this because they are all fitting into what you're trying to build.

I think it might resuscitate Boris Eno. I like what he, when he plays on the front foot. Maybe it saves Peglo as well. I don't think he's good enough to break down defenses. But like when transition moments, that's where you see his danger. And he can shoot quickly from distance and all that type of stuff. So, yeah, I like this. I like this landing spot for Sean Neeles.

I like these moves so far for D.C. Let's see how it continues. Agreed. And they need a new goalkeeper. I think that they still need another new centerback, like despite Sean Nealb. was coming in because it was just a mess right and Lucas Bartlett wants out so if he goes they definitely need another centerback I think that they need another central midfielder I think that

they need another DP attacker more of a chance creator they have two DB spots open if they want to use it or it's one and they could use two U22s I believe there's a lot left to do I think that they're off to a good start and there will be more to come over the next few weeks for DC United so the DC rebuild is something to watch over the next few weeks and maybe it was I said my expectations too low but i'm i'm impressed by what the start has been no this is a good start i want to see it continue um i say all this in light of they said they'd be a pressing team and then they hired way and runy they said they'd be a pressing team and troy lussain was not able to put it together and never really got there they hired her non losata like they've tried

this five times and it hasn't worked this is the roadmap to getting there um i don't think Tyboreo will be a great DP, but if he can be productive for them on the right contract, I don't really care. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see what else they do. I'd be fine if they didn't go big on anything else. And they were like, let's be freaking competitive. And then maybe in the summer, the right move lands of like, can we build to 27? Because the sprint season is what everyone cares about, dude.

Win the title in the sprint season, man. You've got to gear your team to the sprint season. It's not as big as the NBA Cup, but that's it. And we thank our Dubai Brethren for gifting us the Emirates NBA Cup. How about the flight? The Knicks win the NBA Cup, and it's sponsored by Air Emirates, I believe. So they had like a flight crew bring out the trophy to like put on the broadcasts like before the game. And then the flight crew just.

So there was, what, a four or five person desk of, like, analysts? The flight crew just stood in the space between, like, Taylor, Rooks and Dirk Nowitsky, just like a mere cat, just like, it was like, are the flight attendant just going to stay for the rest of the show? We're on every FIFA event, giving out the gold medals. It's always so weird. Like blankly staring into the camera. Also, Dirk Dvitzky, like what's going on here? Love Dirk.

Awesome. That's good brought. But, to my guy, J.D. Dyer, part of the Amazon on Prime NBA experience, sideline reporter. I know a lot of people heard his British accent and kind of perked up. We're curious by that. He's very, very good. So, shout out. CBS Galazos.

I generally have no idea what was just said in the last few sentences, and it's fine. That's good. Next one. Last one. A couple places that I'm expecting to move DPs out to be able to sign them. Luis Muriel in Orlando, Thomas John Colleen, New England. Muriel has been flirting with potential moves to Colombia. This even started last summer.

Now there's some reporting on that. So he's got a year left on his deal. There's some reporting that somebody will take him on loan. That's just a way of saying a free transfer where Orlando covers some of the salary. So the way that this would work in the salary cap minutiaa is if Muriel, let's say, goes to America to Cali. And America to Cali, no, Orlando want him to leave. So, hey, we're not going to pay the whole contract. You know, we'll pay 50 percent or whatever the number is.

Orlando can just buy out the other whatever the remaining portion is using one of their two buyouts on that the same way that Joseph Martinez was traded from Atlanta to Miami then he wasn't a DP in Miami and Atlanta had to use a buyout on him it's why Matthias Click still counted as

a DC United DP so that's kind of the minutia there so even if Orlando doesn't get 100% salary coverage they can buy out what's remaining and added another DP forward I'm expecting this to happen I don't know for sure I'm expecting that to happen at some point And then New England, Thomas Chonklai, hasn't, like, since he got towards ACO,

I think this is a good player. I think the team's around league could be taken like a flyer on him or if he goes back to South America. But I'm assuming that New England are going to move him out to bring in a new DP. You could sell me on Chancelai. I was trying to look for a team. There's not a ton that make a lot of sense because I assume you have to have the DP spot open. Or you think that the money will come off that much that you can just get a shot at him. So what his salary, and this is why it's also difficult.

I love this league. His salary, so he made a million dollars last year. And you don't acquire his acquisition cost. Like, he's a DP because of his transfer fee. So if you bring him in for a million, like, I don't know if this is what the race for. Let's call it a million game. And then you just pay him as a TAM player. Yeah.

I think. Up to the least description. Like, every other rule. But that is my understanding. That, that's, so if you're another MLS team, if you had to make him a DP, completely changes the conversation. But if you can have him as a TAM player and you have the space for it and a need for an attacker, why not?

I mean, I'm looking around right now. I'm looking at Minnesota. I'm looking at Red Bulls. I'm looking at Minnesota. Ooh, Red Bulls, that's a great deal. I mean, RSL, just because, like, if you can get a cheap deal on someone. The other obvious one, if the money worked where he ends up being cheaper in the end, does Vancouver take a shot

if Vancouver ends up flipping another guy and they're like we want to fill these spots and they're a team that's rehabbed players but obviously you're playing on turf once again blah blah blah blah but yeah Murrell no ML seems going to touch if they can get out of his zeal great Chonkalai would be interesting for other MLS teams

speaking of getting out of deals by the way this was a quick segment we were going to do love this who's Mombo Kari this is a miracle this is a miracle I got to know who these Polish teams are

because I got stuff I could sell I just threw some stuff out I brought some of my good stuff to goodwill to pass on and you know I get a lot of bunch of free stuff that I think's pretty interesting but I can't fit anymore if Polish teams are offering these types of deals for refurbished

recycled throwaways whose mom Bokari was originally bought for $7 million by Austin he ended up putting up what nine goals to assist across 40 plus appearances less than no less than that terrible performance they've now sold him for six point five million dollars with a 20% sell on that's basically breaking even on a player who has tanked his um his value in

his time with you and they get out of a deal that they don't want to be on for a player they don't need unbelievable i'm not going to like jump out and compliment them because they're the ones who signed him but this is as good a situation as you could ask for on the back end this team has gotten north of $16 million in transfers for Sebastian Dreyusi, who couldn't have more desperately wanted to leave, and there wasn't really a bidding more for him, and Usman Bukhari. Yeah. That is magic.

So this is huge for this team. It makes them make more sense. They're replacing his production with Jaden Nelson, who's already better for less money. And then they just went out and traded for Joseph Rosales, Please, 1.5 million to Minnesota. You're, okay. I believe it to cash fare.

Might be gam. I should have been more vague on that when I was reporting it. But either way, Rosales, to Austin, who I think, is he their fifth left back? It's a good player. It's a good deal. It's now that they have a lot of players at that position. Rosales makes sense. I figured he was going to leave Minnesota this winter.

There was a bid from Tigray's in the summer. Anthony Markhanic coming on, like he has, made him, made Rosales. expendable that he leaves with i i hope that minnesota fans don't just remember him for his last action which was the really really dumb red card in fairness he's had a bunch of dumb stuff he had the racism suspension he grabs a red card right at the end of the playoffs he's yes yeah strict strictly on the field he was he was he's been a good player it was a good signing this is what i was like he came in right after curvin ariago who's like one of the low-key better signings in mLS history like he was really good and then they

sold him to Europe for money. Rosales is better than all the guys that Austin has at that position, which means if you're looking for a left back right now, you should be making calls because Austin's a team that should be selling. I also wonder if this is a, we're going to play John Galaher at Winger most of this season. Right back. And so that's one player moved out of this. And then, yeah, we have Bureau and Colmanich when we shouldn't.

And we're going to try and get off one of them. And that's where that position pool ends for. them because now you take away bucari you bring jane nelson in but like your starters otherwise on the wing are hudder o brian and robert taylor until brandon vassquez is healthy and then it's a question of how they're set up but this has been good work for austin like i think this is some of the most exciting stuff austin has done since they've been in the league straight up just like intelligent stuff that makes sense and some production you're already guaranteed it feels like it deepens their team this has just been one of the thinnest rosters every single year since they've

been an MLS. They've never been able to add to it. So all of this feels really good. And getting out of Bukari is massive because you might be tanked with Ozuni and you just couldn't afford to be tank. And you may be if Fasquez can't get healthy, you're tanked in all of these. But like, I think they'll be, they'll be fine now. Unfortunately with the injury, but, but gosh, to your point, starting 2026 with Vasquez injured, if Bukari was on the roster and Ozuni was on the roster, bleak. It would be bleak. So this is, and we need to of us saw this coming, we figured it would have to be some sort of buyout situation if that was going to happen.

The team that bought him, Widzu Lutz, they are in 15th place of the 18-team Polish top flight division. They have a new, extremely rich owner, which is Polish fans are, they're having fun with, like, yeah, even if you, Austin fans are saying he's not that good, you know, who cares? We have the money, like, they're enjoying, like, joking around about, like, yeah, yeah, whatever. We'll buy it if he doesn't work. We'll buy somebody else. It's going to be okay.

This, I think, so this is a new Polish league record fee. You're a sporting director. You're a sporting director that comes into what appears to be a bottomless pit of money. And your first thing is to go sign Borgh for $6. I mean, look at the MLS. First of all. It's a fireable offense. Just go pay.

We, me and you could have recommended a hundred other players in the MLS. Go pay Christian Espinoza that money. Go look at the same team. Bid for Owen Wolf. Danny Pereira. I mean, I think there might be a little bit of acceptance of where they stand in the world and who's actually willing to come there. Yeah, this is insane.

I just wanted to look at their record arrivals in the past while we were talking about this, but obviously, transfer market is the slowest website on the planet besides MLSogger.com. They spent $2 million last year on a center forward from Gank, and otherwise they had only spent over a million dollars twice, 1.3. All of it's within the last year. As you said, they just got a rich owner and has bought their entire deal. This is nuts, dude. This is crazy.

Congrats to his Mon Bukari. Big year in the Polish League for him. I'm really excited to see him do his thing. And he was really good for Red Star Belgrade. So maybe that's the idea of you come from a similar, similar, like, level of meat and potatoes guy. Like, he needs that Eastern European cooking. Just make sure that when the dough is stuffed with meat, there's extra oil around it to keep. it a little bit fresh.

You know what I mean? That's going to keep in plug. All right. Let's, uh, let's continue through here. Uh, this one, Rapids, 22 year old Nigerian defensive midfielder, um, Hamzat Ojidaran from Lens. And your reporting is that it's around a $3 million fee. Correct.

Um, in the 24, 25 season, he made 17 appearances for longs. He came from, I believe the Hungarian league. He's a ball winner. that is his profile he covers ground wins the ball he's not a deep-lying playmaker this is i think a profile i know that this is a profile that the team has needed for a few years they've tried a couple times and this is the most significant investment that they are making into this position i um matt wells is taking over what they want in the play style is he the people that he likes a lot in coaching is that he hasn't worked with to be clear because he has a lot of

of people he has worked with that he likes when he's watching soccer pep cordiola style uh deservey style so that's high energy high possession win the ball back quickly that those kind of things he's going to be a very uh a defensive midfielder who covers ground and wins a ballback is going to be very important because they have enough like connor rowans a really good deep lying playmaker or josh attencio has that potential as well they needed this profile and i'm excited to see how it works out, I think that the expectations for this player should be higher than Limeen Diak, or insert a couple others that they've signed at this position. In recent years, I like this.

I am very excited for the Matt Welles era to begin. And we'll see what else kind of comes from the rapids. Love the Lameen-Diak swipe on the way out. Okay, DC United, we talked about already. Sean Neal is acquired. We like that pick. And then Nikola Markovic taken a little bit of a surprise that it wasn't one of the forwards at the top of the super draft.

And yet, I think, well, one with Superdraft, pick your player. Like Tyree Spicer went first a couple years ago. Like, the college game, just the way it is, it's so fractured. You just have to pick the guy you feel best about. Right. And also, I think there's a little bit of a higher floor on some of these defenders where if you can bring them in and you can get them MLS ready, like maybe they become a rotation player at worst.

And so you have to feel pretty good about that. And I think, again, it just shows DC having a clear vision of what they want to do. I put in on the Red Bull sign of things they re-signed Tim Parker after letting Sean Nealus go. I can't believe I didn't see this coming. When they traded Sean Neillis, I was like, what are you going to do

about the Long Island Energy? And it was sitting right there in front of me. I should have known that you were not contractually allowed to trade Sean Nealus without having Tim Park. Listen, you're going from Massapequa to Hicksville on that move, which is wild because you're going from a trash town to a trash town. So, just throwing that out there.

Suck it, Massapequa, suck it every day of the week. Let's do Orlando here. We've talked about most of these moves. I mentioned Tyree Spicer. He resigned. I like him. I like what he brought. I thought he brought Pop at the end of games for Orlando.

And that was getting comfortable, especially if they lose Alex Freeman. I don't say that in a like for like replacement, but does he become your left back or your left wing back? And then you sort of like you talked about, I don't remember what team we were talking about, maybe Columbus, where you tilt your game a little bit in the other direction. Or it's just as a winger. I like Tyrie Spicer in MLS. I think he has a higher ceiling. I think this is a good spot for him. And then Tiago Sousa is finally official as a U-22.

Yep. Yeah. And then Luis Otavio will be official if that hasn't been announced by the time you're listening to it. So Orlando will have all three U-22 slots filled. Sousa was around $4 million. Otavio was just under $4 million, I believe. Those are really talented kids that they're bringing in via the U-22 initiative. I'm excited to see whether, you know, they hit immediately unfair to expect.

but these are two very, very talented players in a team that could use it. And Sousa can play center forward or on the wing, which will be very, very useful for us. It's going to be wild if Louise Muriel leaves and they end up, like, it was like, oh, they have all these forwards, and it's just like Duncan McGuire. Not saying it's a bad thing. Duncan McGuire is a good player. They paid him a bunch of money, but it was bizarre when they did that of they have Ramiro Enrique, they have Luis Muriel, and now it will be back to what it probably should have been from the original and we'll have gone through all of that over and over again. some reporting out of South America, C.L. Merlo, who we trust, right? We trust C.L. We believe in C.L. That Lucas Hoyos, a 36-year-old goalkeeper from Nul's old boys could be

heading to Atlanta, didn't play much at all in the last season. He is a Newell's lifer, though. He came up to the Academy, made his debut there, played for Velas for a while, came back. That's a Tata Martino guy. I don't know. There's probably going to be five of these that happen. Signing a 36-year-old goal. goalkeeper for Atlanta. Well, you need someone to back up Josh Cohen who's backing up homegrown who comes in, who they didn't, they didn't expect. Jay and Herbert.

Like, why are we using a international slot on this? Like, what is the point? Yeah, fully agreed. Last two, we had Columbus re-signs Rudy Camacho, which is interesting in light of like they don't have a coach, but it probably leans to they're going to try and keep their style a little bit. I mean, it's Rudy Camacho. It's not a big deal, but like, that's what it says to me. And then NYCFC, re-signing Andreas Pereira, who had a really good year for them last year before the leg injury. If you haven't seen it, go to NYCFC's website. The release

photo of him is him like laying on a soccer ball. He looks like he's taking a picture for like A-Town or like 98 degrees back in the day for like some promotional photo. It looks good in the picture just like lounged on a soccer ball. but makes sense for them and they got what they wanted from him and you can assume the production returns when he comes back to health and he's a good piece in central midfield for them. Yeah, so I do like that, listen, he's going to miss most of the year, I assume, given how gruesome that injury was,

and good for NYCFC to be bringing him back and hopefully taking care of him for the future as well, for his rehab for all of this stuff. NYCFC is an interesting team this winter, So they're losing Justin Hack. Pereira is, like I said, missing maybe most, if not all of the season. Alonzo Martinez is missing most if not all of the season. He tore his cell in November.

Brutal. They don't have a natural placement for him on the roster. And there is no natural placement for somebody who scores 20 goals and is that good. So what do they do this winter? They need that. They need another boost in central midfield and central defense, again, with Hack leaving. In central midfield, hopefully Keaton, parks, hopefully the blood clot issues are behind them.

But between him, Aidan O'Neill and Johnny, sure, you're well set up there, but they've got next to no depth behind that. So they're going to need to work a little bit on the fringes and then, again, need, need an answer at center forward, which is super unfortunate with Alonzo Martinez. Okay, let's close out here on Superdraft. We mentioned it a little bit of a surprise. Niccolo Markovic taken with the number one pick coming off a college cup appearance with NC State.

The big news was FC Dallas. And we've got our interview coming with Andres Anota, as I said, put his money with it where his mouth is, how much they value the draft. And obviously they have the examples for it. And so they traded up twice to the second and third pick, 400K for the second pick with Atlanta to get in there in allocation money. And then the third pick was the one that came from Montreal, right? And that was a pick swap with 150K allocation alongside it. I think it was, I think between the two picks, they spent 800,000, and that one was for, Nicholas Simmons, a freshman from Virginia,

who many people thought would be the number one pick, and that's who DC United would go with. So, you know, it's not nothing to put into it. Like, we say, take these flyers on draft picks, 800K in allocation money alongside it, and then you've got the roster spots and potentially international spots for Simmons, it's, it's an investment from Dallas. saying that they've got belief that these guys can break through.

Exactly, and this is a team that has a very robust academy. They were the first team that we looked at as a great academy because of all of the U.S. national team players that they've brought through. They're still, while it hasn't been as prolific in the last few years, every year they've got 12 homes on the roster. So this is a team that has no shortage of young players to turn to. Whether they're all going to hit, obviously they won't all hit, but whatever it is, they will graduate players

in the first team every single year. So this is a team that looked at the draft picks and was like, no, like this is still an investment to make because particularly newer expansion teams that don't have the academy up and running, it makes sense when they kind of backfill the supplemental roster with a few draft picks. You look at the Philadelphia Union,

who I view now as the best academy in the league. They don't look at it. They don't watch college soccer. They literally traded their picks for multiple years at a time. And it's interesting to me Dallas was like, oh, well, we, we traded up to get Farrington, or I believe they traded up, whatever it was, the Farrington move, and then this year, that's a significant investment in this, in this talent acquisition pool, and it's exciting, and it shows that they want

to go through every bucket. You look at Orlando's another team like this. They've long made, made a lot of both money and gotten a lot of quality through the draft, even in the last five or six years. And Kyle Laron was one of the first names. I think that is very interesting. Andre Zanota, when we asked him about it, he sent all names of players that don't, have never played for Dallas. Like, he was saying, we see the value in the draft. And I think he went through Tejohn and Kyle Laron first. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's, I find it interesting where, more interesting, I think, that it's Dallas with a team with such an established academy system that has, that continues to bring players through. This wasn't like a say, hey, I remember when LFC started and they were like, hey, we're just going to start with the U12 Academy. because they were like, hey, we'll just start from the beginning. Like Nashville, it took them a couple years. Those are the teams where you're not surprised. They're, okay, like, we need to fill these spots somehow, and we don't have an academy to pull from yet.

Dallas does. Yeah. Ricky Lewis is from Fort Myers area, played at Georgia Southern, and then Nicholas Simmons, Jamaican background, but I think grew up in the Virginia area and then played at UVA. He had a couple college teammates that were taken as well. Sporting KC, top four pick in here. Obviously, I've been talking Richie Amin

because I got to watch him in person in USL2. I think he's a killer. He's only one-footed, which will sort of limit him, but he cuts guys apart when he gets after them. DC United took him with the eighth pick. And then a couple interesting picks going after this one and some teams that are hoping they land on a good centerback or another attacker that they can use going forward.

But overall, big shout out to the guys who did, the Super Draft stream, or they had like, I was in there for like 45 minutes, loving that. I cannot, I can't believe I can't remember the account. I think I was supposed to open my own YouTube so that I could find it. I was Lee, I was leaving on YouTube and I messed that one up. This is a tough moment for us. Well, no, that both, both of us are like, yeah, those guys are great. The problem is I've been doing so much work recently that I've got focus music as all of my

previous YouTube searches, so I have no idea. Yeah, I have no idea. Outfit, unbelievable. Are you wearing a paddock in the event right now? It's just crazy because I've already, I already, did you have a cross-foot class this morning? My nose tape. And when I did that around three, four in the morning,

and I did my ice bucket challenge, it was crazy because when I was doing my first 500 lifts and I was eating raw meat, I was thinking about this. And I should have put it in then, but I always lose focus right when I'm between my first 500 lifts and my first 50-mile run of the day. So that's like right where I lost it.

But I'll call up my crypto. guys and see if we can get something organized for later so that we can shout them out again yeah your AI assistant okay that's all for us here we thought this was going to be a quick one it's never a quick one when we talk but it was fun and I think never there's a lot to be excited about with some of these teams it kind of has felt a little slow to start which is fine I think you reminding me of all these openings that exist and like there's teams it feels like SKC in Toronto where it's like they're just re-entering the market you just haven't been relevant in a while And if they can be relevant, now you have the pop of three to four more teams that could sign interesting players, that could make interesting moves.

And I think that makes it a lot more fun of a league to cover. I've had a blast this year. It's been really, really fun. I can't wait for next year. We won't be gone very long. But Tom, it's always a pleasure. That's always a pleasure, David, gosh. Great to see you.

Happy Chinooka to you and your family. You got it in quick, because technically it's not. We celebrate the holidays. Yeah, it was done last night. Is it done? I lit eight candles. so I had hope I thought we had one more day I'm sorry for not wishing you a happy Chinooka

already given me 15 of them I tagged you in my Minora Hanukia lighting and immediately responds Ben Bear what is this what's happening like that's why Chinooka guy how dare you

how dare you desecrate this but yeah huge chat out if anyone still listening to everyone who supports us the Discord amazing like yeah it's it really is meaningful that people enjoy what we're doing and people engage with it, even if I'm not in there as often as I'd

like to be as a commenter. I get sidetracked while I'm in my workouts and all that type of stuff. To anyone watching on YouTube over the course of the year, like love the engagement there. I try and go in and respond to a lot of the comments afterwards. Really, really enjoy talking to people there. Anyone who's reviewed the show or rated the show on any of the podcast, that's how people find us. It's really meaningful to us. It's really, really important. and on Blue Sky. I just love talking soccer with people and I'm hoping that people enjoy what we do. So it's been really, really great. Thank you to everyone who's come on the show over the course of the year. All of our guests are recurrings, the McKelley's, Matt Doyle, Weeby, of course, Joe Lowry, everyone else who pops on the show and chats with us and all the teams that have helped get people on the show for us as well.

It's really, really important for us. So thank you to everyone. Happy New Year to everyone. Hope it's a good, restful holiday season. enjoyable, whatever it is for you, go Nix, and we'll talk to you again very soon.