2022 Roster Discussion

Our FO is so good I cant believe they would make such a lousy deal for Sands as I thought on first impression. If I assume the FO knows what they are doing (I do), this is the scenario I think we are looking at:

1) James Sands is playing for Rangers for 18 months because the FO think it is a good move in his player development and they trust GVB as his Coach.
2) At the end of 18 months NYCFC can force Sands to come back to NYCFC to finish out his contract (they won't but the bottom line is Sands is an NYCFC player at the end of the loan).
3) Rangers exclusive option to buy is actually a right of first refusal to match any transfer offer during or at the end of the loan.
4) Man City will be offering an appropriate transfer fee to move him onto their books in 18 months (e.g. Harrison, Diskerud) for more than any Ranger offer or, alternatively, another club will present an option that CFG accepts on behalf of NYCFC at the end of the loan.

When I make these assumptions I think Sands/Rangers is a win-win deal for Club and player that will provide a financial benefit to NYCFC in the summer of 2024 that is likely to be substantially higher than anything the Club can get today. With some solid Champions League experience for Rangers this plan is making sense to me.

gbservis one upside to getting a transfer fee in 2024 rather than 2022 is that each club will be getting $400K less in annual TAM in 2024 than they will get in 2022, but I dont think thats a significant factor in the structure of the deal -- I think the FO believes James will be more valuable for NYCFC playing for Rangers the next 18 months than he would be continuing to play for NYCFC during that timeframe.


We will also be playing in a stadium by 2024
 
one thing that's confused me a bit...

Sands is going on loan, but the digital team puts out messages as if he's leaving the team for good (e.g., thank you posts). I think that shows, they really don't expect him to ever come back.
 
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My Spanish is very bad so after seeing the club post Feliz Compleanos to Santi I thought we lost him

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one thing that's confused me a bit...

Sands is going on loan, but the digital team puts out messages as if he's leaving the team for good (e.g., thank you posts). I think that shows, they really don't expect him to ever come back.
I don't want to be Mr. Conspiracy but I'm going to be Mr. Conspiracy and once again note that he has been completely removed from the NYCFC roster page at the MLS website even though loaned players are usually there. It's not like NYCFC haven't lied about his stuff before, though if this is some sort of lie/misdirection/whatever, it is s lot less troublesome than the "Lampard signed" lie. It's probably nothing, but if Sands is not on the MLSPA salary list come September, I'm going full

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ETA it could simply be that Rangers are paying his full salary and that effectively takes him off our roster while other loaned players are still being compensated by MLS. Who knows.
 
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I don't want to be Mr. Conspiracy but I'm going to be Mr. Conspiracy and once again note that he has been completely removed from the NYCFC roster page at the MLS website even though loaned players are usually there. It's not like NYCFC haven't lied about his stuff before, though if this is some sort of lie/misdirection/whatever, it is s lot less troublesome than the "Lampard signed" lie. It's probably nothing, but if Sands is not on the MLSPA salary list come September, I'm going full

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If I were a betting man, I would say to you that I think Rangers are paying his salary, thereby taking him off our books. Sands costs money against the salary cap, so to loan him means we need salary cap relief. So I bet Rangers paid a nominal fee and are paying his salary, thereby taking him off the salary cap books. That may be why he's not on roster lists anymore.
 

I would say yes. He´s not as dynamic as Maxi, but he is a solid 10 who, with the kinds of pieces we have to surround him with would probably be a good fit. I mean, Rusnak feels like the kind of player who would find a higher gear surrounded with better players and in a more attacking, dominant squad. He is also good taking free kicks.
 
I would say yes. He´s not as dynamic as Maxi, but he is a solid 10 who, with the kinds of pieces we have to surround him with would probably be a good fit. I mean, Rusnak feels like the kind of player who would find a higher gear surrounded with better players and in a more attacking, dominant squad. He is also good taking free kicks.

I feel like we've had interest in him before, right? Maybe I'm wrong about that.

By the way, we are one week away from the start of training camp. Four weeks ago this hour we were playing MLS Cup.
 
I feel like we've had interest in him before, right? Maybe I'm wrong about that.

By the way, we are one week away from the start of training camp. Four weeks ago this hour we were playing MLS Cup.

I don't know that he was very available before now, but I know a lot of pundits noted that Rusnak was with Viera for the Man City youth team and so he was well aware of his skills and how well he would fit in their system. I think considering Man City's knowledge of him, they must have at least had a discussion about it......but I haven't seen us as identified as one of the teams that have had a discussion with his people.
 
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Here's a twist on the day -- reportedly my Gunners are looking at Taty for something in the neighborhood of £15 million. Didn't know that. For those of you who don't follow Arsenal, we've gone very young this year. Well over half our goals have been scored by someone 23 years of age or younger, and the average age of our Starting XI is the second-youngest of any team in Premier League history.

And we didn't throw over the table until we were three games in (and had a disastrous start to the campaign) so in reality we're really young. Thomas Partey is 28 and Granit Xhaka is 29; Lacazette is 30. None of our other first-team are older than 23.

He'd fit right in. Plus, you know, it would make me happy. :laughing: Report: Arsenal join West Ham in race to sign £15million-rated 23-goal ace (hitc.com)
 
Our FO is so good I cant believe they would make such a lousy deal for Sands as I thought on first impression. If I assume the FO knows what they are doing (I do), this is the scenario I think we are looking at:

1) James Sands is playing for Rangers for 18 months because the FO think it is a good move in his player development and they trust GVB as his Coach.

The SPL is a poor quality league - I don’t think his development goes through the roof playing against Gary Mackay-Stevens and co every week. The European games are good experience, but Rangers don’t tend to pull up trees in Europe - they’re already done this season, and there’s no guarantee Sands will play any European games at all during his time there (their campaign next season could easily be over after as little as four games)

2) At the end of 18 months NYCFC can force Sands to come back to NYCFC to finish out his contract (they won't but the bottom line is Sands is an NYCFC player at the end of the loan)

How does this benefit NYCFC at all?

3) Rangers exclusive option to buy is actually a right of first refusal to match any transfer offer during or at the end of the loan

Why would this be in the contract? Rangers don’t need an option to match anyone’s transfer bid. Any exclusivity deal would be in place to ensure that the only team who can make a bid in the first place is Rangers - a team with comparatively little financial clout, and almost no history of paying the kind of transfer fee we’re expecting for Sands

4) Man City will be offering an appropriate transfer fee to move him onto their books in 18 months (e.g. Harrison, Diskerud) for more than any Ranger offer or, alternatively, another club will present an option that CFG accepts on behalf of NYCFC at the end of the loan

Fine - but why do this in 2024 instead of now? Are we that sure that his value will increase between now and then? This is a huge assumption of risk, not a “win-win”

Thoughts above in bold, but in short I think you’re giving way too much credit to the FO here.
 
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Thoughts above in bold, but in short I think you’re giving way too much credit to the FO here.
Totally agree with you on the quality of SPFL. Most of the teams are USL level except for Rangers and Celtic. I think Sands skillset translates much better to leagues that play better soccer.

If the most they can get for Sands today is $2M and they think he will be worth $5M at the end of the loan, then NYCFC will be better off at the end of the loan.

Rangers know that CFG can grab Sands and want a ROFR.

I agree with you that its an assumption that this loan will increase Sands transfer market value.

The FO makes moves that do not pan out (Mitrita) but when I first looked at this loan deal I thought it made zero sense and I dont think the FO makes moves that make zero sens. This was the best set of reasons for the deal I could come up with and this framework made me feel better about the loan. Bottom line is if the loan does not increase James' transfer value then this is not a good deal for NYCFC.
 
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