I think you may want to go back and recount because we definitely have not had 50 success stories. A lot of players got frozen out, albeit due to talent levels, but frozen out nonetheless, and then unceremoniously dropped from the team.
2017 Roster Discussion
- Thread starter NYCFCfan
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Its a 28 man roster with 11 starters and 7 players on the bench. There are going to be people who are frozen out due to talent and who's only purpose is to exist in case of injury. Its the nature of the sport, especially in a salary capped league. You can't blame the HC/FO for that.
Do you think Mena didn't fit for talent reasons? What about Poku? What about that Diego guy that never got a chance?
That's just off the top of my head in the last year. Those are guys who were obviously talented enough to help, yet they were obviously not liked.
Gonna have to disagree with you there on Mena and Poku. Mena was a talented defenders whose biggest weakness was a killer in our system.
Poku was a talented guy that didn't have the stamina to play a full 90, needed to develop tactical awareness and was in a crowded midfield. And then the biggest piece to that was a great offer came our way for him.
Wholeheartedly agree with you on Diego. He always looked decent IMO when he got minutes. I have no clue why RJ was flipped to LB and JH got on the field instead of him.
Well he's got that one guy on Reddit.
They didn't fit for one reason or another, and getting unceremoniously dropped/sold is a fact of life for the journeyman player. Unless you're one of the very best on the team, its going to happen.
Mena was great a 1v1 defending, yet failed at just about everything else. Poku wouldn't play defense and that's before the fact that he couldn't put in a full 90. Diego probably didn't impress in training to knock someone out of their spot.
Players getting unceremoniously dropped cut and moved is a fact of life in the sports world. The teeming majority of players know that. Its only the rare few, who are good enough, that can hope for any real long term stability.
So... here's something.
I've been trying to get information over the weekend and here's what I got:
I've heard from two different places that this is a loan and not a transfer. There is so far no confirmation that he will be a DP either.
Few Q's on Sands -
He's in our academy system at the moment?
He's eligible to be our (HISTORIC) first homegrown player?
Any risk that if we don't sign him now someone else could steal him?
He's getting a fair amount of media hype after the Emelec game. If he can be signed HG I don't see what we're waiting for.
Edit: I stopped being lazy and read one of the recent articles on him. Reyna makes it pretty clear what the plan is:
"He's proven he can play with the first team," said director of football operations Claudio Reyna before Wednesday's match. "But we haven't yet discussed that with him or his parents. It's one of the first discussions we'll have when we get back from Tucson.
"We have to speak to his parents about the possibility of signing but we are not even there yet. We'll take it slow with him and see how he does the rest of preseason."
Makes sense. I kind of blocked out the whole part about this being a kid still in junior year of high school, lol. That Ecuadorian punk who gave him a bloody nose should feel terrible!
http://www.espnfc.com/new-york-city...mpresses-new-york-city-fc-boss-against-emelec
He's in our academy system at the moment?
He's eligible to be our (HISTORIC) first homegrown player?
Any risk that if we don't sign him now someone else could steal him?
He's getting a fair amount of media hype after the Emelec game. If he can be signed HG I don't see what we're waiting for.
Edit: I stopped being lazy and read one of the recent articles on him. Reyna makes it pretty clear what the plan is:
"He's proven he can play with the first team," said director of football operations Claudio Reyna before Wednesday's match. "But we haven't yet discussed that with him or his parents. It's one of the first discussions we'll have when we get back from Tucson.
"We have to speak to his parents about the possibility of signing but we are not even there yet. We'll take it slow with him and see how he does the rest of preseason."
Makes sense. I kind of blocked out the whole part about this being a kid still in junior year of high school, lol. That Ecuadorian punk who gave him a bloody nose should feel terrible!
http://www.espnfc.com/new-york-city...mpresses-new-york-city-fc-boss-against-emelec
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I have to agree with this. Except for Mix we've never had anybody that was expected to start and play a big role, not start and then be completely banished from the team. Many fans drank the Poku koolaid during desperate times, but the fact he's been subsequently unsuccessful in the NASL should prove the point that he wasn't worth starting for us. Mena has glaring failings and Diego Martinez had never seen the field for River, the guys was so flying under the radar his only pic on our team's website when he was acquired was a blurry long distance thing that look more like police surveillance. Not exactly a star. We can disagree with PV on any of them, but none is a glaring mystery comparable to Mix's.
And a 1 year loan at that, correct? If so, it really fits the narrative that they didn't get any of their top targets and he's a solid fill in for the season while they plan on some TAM/DP movement in the Summer window.
Ultimately the only ones who lose in this situation are the fans.
Club pays what it agreed to to Mix, business expense
Mix gets his salary
Fans want to see Mix playing, get stuck watching Mikey Lopez in a playoff game, AND have a team with 750k less talent than it could have.
Club pays what it agreed to to Mix, business expense
Mix gets his salary
Fans want to see Mix playing, get stuck watching Mikey Lopez in a playoff game, AND have a team with 750k less talent than it could have.
Herrera himself says he's coming to NYC
I can agree with all of that, but I don't really think what you're saying is refuting my point. Talented players don't work some places. We all can agree we aren't actually batting 49/50, as we've just pointed out.
Just like you said, it's a fact of life, salary capped league, etc, etc...all of that just makes it more baffling that we don't put on our big boy pants and cut a check. As T Tom in Fairfield CT says, the people they are really hurting are the fans.
If you don't like the contract you agreed to and you have an out option, you just take it. It's a sunk cost at this point. This idea that they are making some principled stand to demonstrate to prospective signings how hard line we are is not born out of the reality of how teams/player markets behave. I can't believe that any element of our due diligence process relies on, "Hey, we were stubborn jackasses in the past, and we'll do it again if you test us."
I mean, freeze a guy out if you want, but why would you want that acrimony around when you can easily rid the club of it? We're walking around with an infection and refusing to take the antibiotics we already bought because we just don't like the taste.
They're not taking the antibiotics because of the taste, but rather because they're afraid of the shits they'll have for the short period thereafter. ... the lost $1.5M is a real crapper for the accounting guys, but jeez, just write the damn check and everybody will be smiling tomorrow with selective amnesia.
For the non-Spanish speakers: I'll be here in Venezuela for about five days taking care of some papers so I can join NYCFC in the US later.
This follows the timeline that we reported last week.
Yeah, thought about that analogy, too. Just decided to skip that part.
But I do want take the "principled" stand argument refutation one step further. If you're a humble, do-no-wrong, lunch-pail player who just wants to help the team win, will run through a brick wall on command, and you're desired in multiple places and evaluating options, which would appeal more to you?
1) Sign for a FO who has proven that rather than own up to a mistake/a personnel issue (use whatever term you want here, trying to find one that isn't loaded is hard), they will hamstring the roster, salary budget, training environment, and, consequently, the teams ability to win just to prove a point?
OR
2) Sign with a FO who recognizes the simple fact that mistakes will occasionally be made in signings, acknowledges that, and moves forward as best as possible in a way that doesn't hurt the players who are the "right fit" or bring un-necessary drama/acrimony/doubts into the equation.
For me, it would be a no brainer. "Hey, I bet I'll like working for the guys who don't think they are infallible and resist making a public example out of a ballyhooed signing who doesn't turn out to be a good fit. And ADDED BONUS! These other guys over here actually have more room under their cap for me to negotiate a higher wage!"
Yeah. The "send a message" to others tact really doesn't make sense, so I don't even buy that they are considering that purpose. If anything, it would be because it's personal, emotional and acrimonious. But it's just so stubborn, petty and stupid to continue down that road again, while also fucking both the team's ability to compete and its fans, so I still would think that the team is waiting until midnight to either resolve mutually or, if necessary, unilaterally. If they don't, it will be a real faith killer for me.
How do you fit Pirlo, Ring, Maxi and Herrera on the field at the same time?
Maxi must be a winger in PV's eyes.
TMac, Shelton, Lewis, Camargo to the bench. Maybe RJ too.
Wouldn't mind that 4-3-1-2 right now to make this all work. Let Harrison play off of Villa and bang them in.
Maxi must be a winger in PV's eyes.
TMac, Shelton, Lewis, Camargo to the bench. Maybe RJ too.
Wouldn't mind that 4-3-1-2 right now to make this all work. Let Harrison play off of Villa and bang them in.
Maxi-Villa-Harrison
Ring-Pirlo-Herrera
Mata-Brilliant-Callens-Chanot
Are Ring and Herrera the piano carriers for Pirlo?
I'm not sure Herrera is an everyday starter. At the very least he will have to earn it. I think only two of the following will be on the field at any one time: Pirlo, Ring, Herrera, Sands.
If you wanted to go defensive, you could take out whoever is playing CAM and use two 6/8's next to Pirlo (a la
canchon 's post above mine), but with everyone penciling Chanot in for RB, I'm not sure we need two defensive-minded midfielders and what would effectively be a 3-man backline.Similar threads
