We’ve been CONCACAFed
2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
ZYanksRule
Registered
Hard to know what happened, but at the end of the game in those highlights it looked like Alonso took a bad landing as he fell into the net and immediately reached for his knee. It was right near the end of stoppage time.
Looks like he came flying in and planted his right foot and it just stuck. Very much looks like a turf injury to me. The foot doesn't slide when it should, and all the kinetic energy is transferred to the ankle or the knee and pop.
That was bad turf, too. Cheap stuff like indoor/outdoor carpet over a concrete bed. Nasty.
ZYanksRule
Registered
Our last Tico was injured right before the World Cup and wasn’t able to play either.
Matarrita immediately came to my mind, too. I remember how absolutely devastated he was.
Unless we beat Philadelphia, we are 11 days from the deadline to exercise options and submit bona fide offers at noon CT on Wednesday, November 26.
www.austinfc.com
At some level, these are somewhat mechanically functional decisions, and I want to presume we have a reasonably capable person who acted as Lee's second who can fill in the form and hand it in. But there are also real sporting, value and budgetary priority judgments that go into this that will bind whoever gets hired. These aren't the big roster decisions we love to obsess about but they do matter and not everyone will agree whether Player X is worth more or less than $Y and every decision constrains the next even at low budget charges. We should have someone in charge by now who will continue to be in charge going forward.
It's been 6.5 weeks since Lee left. There's no transfer window and no customary "season" for hiring roster executives. If someone wants a new job they can just leave their current position at any time. You know, like Lee left with 2 games remaining in our season and nobody cared about the timing. All sorts of opinions but nobody thought "that's a bad time and he's abandoning us." Not even me, and I always complain about in-season departures. We can hire someone from Europe or Latin America or MLS or NWSL or USL: really from anywhere and they can just leave to take this job, now.
Semi OT:
Again I presume they exist but this is an extreme level of opacity even by NYCFC standards.
Totally OT:
I'm pleased to see Katie Cahalin is now Director, Content. She was long my favorite club photographer. And David Hiller, my very first ticket rep from January 2015 is still with the club as Director, Partnership Development.
MLS Confirms Calendar of 2025-2026 Offseason Roster Building Events | Austin FC
Major League Soccer (MLS) recently announced the 2025-26 calendar of offseason roster building events. The offseason’s first notable date is the club deadline to exercise options and submit bona fide offers, which occurs at noon CT on Wednesday, November 26. The full calendar of events is as...
www.austinfc.com
At some level, these are somewhat mechanically functional decisions, and I want to presume we have a reasonably capable person who acted as Lee's second who can fill in the form and hand it in. But there are also real sporting, value and budgetary priority judgments that go into this that will bind whoever gets hired. These aren't the big roster decisions we love to obsess about but they do matter and not everyone will agree whether Player X is worth more or less than $Y and every decision constrains the next even at low budget charges. We should have someone in charge by now who will continue to be in charge going forward.
It's been 6.5 weeks since Lee left. There's no transfer window and no customary "season" for hiring roster executives. If someone wants a new job they can just leave their current position at any time. You know, like Lee left with 2 games remaining in our season and nobody cared about the timing. All sorts of opinions but nobody thought "that's a bad time and he's abandoning us." Not even me, and I always complain about in-season departures. We can hire someone from Europe or Latin America or MLS or NWSL or USL: really from anywhere and they can just leave to take this job, now.
Semi OT:
- I don't know why the internet served up a story from the Austin FC site in response to my search instead of from MLS.
- It's annoying that NYCFC doesn't have a similar story that I could find after a targeted search.
- It's more annoying that I don't see one person on the club Front Office list with a title related to roster management or sporting coordination in any way.
Again I presume they exist but this is an extreme level of opacity even by NYCFC standards.
Totally OT:
I'm pleased to see Katie Cahalin is now Director, Content. She was long my favorite club photographer. And David Hiller, my very first ticket rep from January 2015 is still with the club as Director, Partnership Development.
Last edited:
Ha. I also had David Hiller as a rep. Not sure I would remember that except that I knew someone in college by the same name.
ZYanksRule
Registered
The fact the Club hasn't even confirmed who is serving as sporting director in an interim fashion is shocking. Someone has to be managing those details! Who is it? Who was the assistant SD?
I have a list of 10 reps I've had which makes it easier to find emails when I occasionally want to look things up. I probably missed 1 or 2. Dan Steeves was actually before Hiller, though he was really a Director/Manager who did grunt work in 2014 until they staffed up. He took a lot of the complaints from fans about the disappointing jersey reveal event and Lampard nonsense.
For several years I considered the CFG ethos and culture to be firmly rooted in "corporate best practices," meaning the kind of stuff consultants extoll. There were exceptions and failures like Lampard. I'm still bewildered at how they handled his fake signing and diversion. But on the whole I thought they had a strong clinical corporate devotion to high standards and best practices.
I don't any more. They are slow moving beyond what it takes to be careful. They are secretive to a fault. I have no sense that they choose to treat fans better than a cost-benefit analysis level. They largely overcome these faults though I continue to think on field results are sliding compared to 2016-22. And I wonder if an owner with a different culture and maybe more local ownership (not that I have anyone in mind) would have done better building local support. But successful or not, I no longer think they follow the book or have a commitment to doing things the right way.
Last edited:
It just occurred to me that I developed my first assessment of club culture under Jon Patricof and Reyna and the change seemed to become apparent after a couple years of Sims and Lee. Maybe my mistake was assuming the culture came from CFG.
Some of you might remember that I somehow ended up in a one on one meeting with Patricof that lasted more than an hour. I never met Sims but he and Patricof are very different.
Some of you might remember that I somehow ended up in a one on one meeting with Patricof that lasted more than an hour. I never met Sims but he and Patricof are very different.
ZYanksRule
Registered
I have met Sims and have found him to be friendly, engaging, knowledgeable, and in it for the right reasons. He has given lots of lip service to opening up more information for the fans but hasn't actually done much aside from doing a few team-released Q&A sessions. It seems to have gotten worse the last couple years, they have really closed up the information flow this season.
Is the lack of urgency around finding a new SD more evidence that the big decisions are not happening locally?
The only rumor of a sporting director thus far was from another CFG club, so yeah, big decisions are more from Manchester.
ZYanksRule
Registered
To be fair there are no big decisions being made right now. When the season ends and they do offseason contract renewals, that's the next big decision. But I'm sure there are day-to-day operational things the sporting director has to worry about, and it would be nice to know who that person is.
Your first assessment was also made when CFG consisted of only Man City and 3 years of NYCFC. Today, it is a group of fourteen clubs. Expanding from a set of business processes built for a single, vertically integrated organization to a fourteen-entity international conglomerate is extremely challenging, and there are clear signs that CFG is struggling with that transition. Some people speculate that they have simply lost interest in NYCFC, but I think it is more likely that the organization scaled poorly and that many things are no longer running smoothly for any of the clubs outside of Man City.
The challenge of scaling makes a lot of sense. It's hard for me to work the argument that they have lost interest while simultaneously building a $700M (?) stadium. The interest is there; the coordination isn't.
TBC, I don't know that interest means that their goals are what we want them to be. Is their intent to have a shiny coin - pretty stadium, talent development resource? Or is their intent to win hardware? Obviously yes to the stadium. But in terms of pipeline vs hardware, once the stadium opens (or sooner) will we see that pendulum swing back in the direction we all want?
Good point. Central planning definitely has difficulty scaling. Large companies that seem invincible die because they can't move adeptly. Also founders who both stay and continue to be creative are limited. CFG was Ferran Soriano's baby as much as Sheikh Mansour. He had a vision 15-20 years ago at Barcelona and was hired 12 years ago by CFG. He might have run out of creative ideas, or maybe his vision exceeds his management skills.
The slow pace of hiring and transfers could very well be a expression of the scale problem. I can see issues especially developing and luring talented executives or coaches. Take over a CFG team and you're a cog. You'll never get the credit you think you deserve. Also the pool of insiders can easily turn into a group of schemers and backstabbers vying for the best positions because it starts to feel zero sum. When Pep stays a decade instead of what everyone expected your best next-in-line managers all leave because the prize they really want is unobtainable.
ZYanksRule
Registered
Sounds like there are negotiations for Haak to return ...
The Post does really nice work on NYCFC during Derby weeks and playoffs. Wish they would keep this kind of coverage going all year long.
nypost.com
The Post does really nice work on NYCFC during Derby weeks and playoffs. Wish they would keep this kind of coverage going all year long.
Exclusive | Justin Haak tells The Post that NYCFC contract talks ‘getting better’ — but interest is growing elsewhere
The 24-year-old defender will become a free agent when NYCFC’s season concludes.
nypost.com
Appreciate you sharing the quote. But everyone please click the link. If we want this coverage we need to reward them with traffic.Sounds like there are negotiations for Haak to return ...
The Post does really nice work on NYCFC during Derby weeks and playoffs. Wish they would keep this kind of coverage going all year long.
Exclusive | Justin Haak tells The Post that NYCFC contract talks ‘getting better’ — but interest is growing elsewhere
The 24-year-old defender will become a free agent when NYCFC’s season concludes.
Better yet click the link and then go to at least one more article from there.
