2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

Ok. You were responding to me saying we don’t replace players on loan so I thought you were addressing that. I misunderstood.

My intent in replying was to agree that we haven't and note that we don't have much roster room to even do it, which is poor management by Lee.

Instead of finding a replacement for sands and finding an impact player for us to win, he's prioritizing protecting homegrowns leaving. Shouldn't they be signed to the ii squad? That's where they will be playing anyway.
 
I'm not well-versed in MLS roster rules especially how all these homegrown players count to the numbers or not but we surly must have some spots:

Unreplaced Departures from last season
- Jasson
- Magno

Departures this off-season
- Sands
- Barrazza
- Hope-Gund

Likely Departures soon
- McFarlane
- Jovan

That's 5 confirmed departures and 2 likely additional departures. I honestly don't understand how we don't have roster spots.

If McFarlane and jovan leave that'll give us 2 more spots. But as of right now, there's 29 on the active roster.

We signed a keeper and two homegrowns this year. That's sands, barazza and hope gund.

I can't remember who took jasson's spot.
 
I believe some of the homegrown signings are "off roster" and don't count towards the 30-man limit, but I'm not positive about that.

We should be signing a replacement for Sands (a homegrown isn't that), and either a DP or U-22 to replace Magno. If Jovan leaves we have another U-22 spot.

This was never going to be a busy window for NYCFC, but there are a couple moves they can make.
 
I believe some of the homegrown signings are "off roster" and don't count towards the 30-man limit, but I'm not positive about that.

We should be signing a replacement for Sands (a homegrown isn't that), and either a DP or U-22 to replace Magno. If Jovan leaves we have another U-22 spot.

This was never going to be a busy window for NYCFC, but there are a couple moves they can make.

Forgot about this roster mechanism. My earlier rant made no sense taking this into consideration.

Did some digging. 5 of the homegrowns on the roster last year were off roster.

We signed 2 more homegrowns, who also meet the requirements to be off roster so let's assume they are.

That leaves us with 22 active roster taken and 8 spots free (one dp). If McFarlane leaves as expected and jovan gets transferred as we hope then we have 2 more spots, one of which is u22.

Regardless, to have 8 spots on the active roster to sign some proven, impactful players and not sign anybody remotely close to that, well that's just stupid. Dereliction of duty even. We need a proven dmid and I'll take a proven goal scorer too. And some depth in midfield and left back.
 
I suspect they feel Haak is their Sands replacement, which honestly isn't outrageous. And believing that anyone on your roster under 23 years old will be better this year than last is a decent bet.

And I agree that those assumptions aren't enough to keep up with the league.

I stopped keeping my player movement spreadsheet after last March, but it is worth noting that our latest first off-season non-homegrown new signings were*:

2020 - January 11 - Zelalem
2024 - January 20 - Wolf
2022 - February 7 - Martins

So we aren't in totally uncharted territory.



* Not including 2021 - February 13 - Amundsen
 
I suspect they feel Haak is their Sands replacement, which honestly isn't outrageous. And believing that anyone on your roster under 23 years old will be better this year than last is a decent bet.

And I agree that those assumptions aren't enough to keep up with the league.

I stopped keeping my player movement spreadsheet after last March, but it is worth noting that our latest first off-season non-homegrown new signings were*:

2020 - January 11 - Zelalem
2024 - January 20 - Wolf
2022 - February 7 - Martins

So we aren't in totally uncharted territory.



* Not including 2021 - February 13 - Amundsen
I think the frustration, at least mine, is not that signing players this late is uncharted for the team moreso that it just doesn’t need to be the case. Almost every team in the league has made a legitimate first team addition aside from perhaps us, Vancouver and Toronto. It just does not need to be done this way.

And based on results it’s not like David Lee has cracked some secret code to success. He’s just dogmatic and stubborn.
 
I thought it was a snarky comment about moogoo usually having more to say (which I enjoy) and the topic meriting more thoughts (which it does).

So many layers to this onion.
Ha I get it. My attempt at a forums version of the “how much time do you have?” response to “how are you?” was def open to interpretation! I have long been a fan of a snark free forums so it was def not intended as that.
 
And based on results it’s not like David Lee has cracked some secret code to success. He’s just dogmatic and stubborn.
Lee lost all ability to expect patience when he took a full year to replace our top striker and delivered Mounsef Bakrar for 7 goals in 1.5 seasons.

ETA: How does it go? "Fast, good and cheap. Pick two of three."
Lee only delivered on cheap.
 
Last edited:
Compromise stadium nickname: The Iron Triangle
Saturday Night Live Happy Dance GIF
 
Lee lost all ability to expect patience when he took a full year to replace our top striker and delivered Mounsef Bakrar for 7 goals in 1.5 seasons.

ETA: How does it go? "Fast, good and cheap. Pick two of three."
Lee only delivered on cheap.


This team is very difficult to like at times. I don't demand championships every year or superstars at every position but I do need the ownership group to seem like their trying. If the priority isn't on trying to win championships and putting out the best team here they can manage it makes it very hard for me to justify things like spending on MLS Season pass again this year.
 
Lee lost all ability to expect patience when he took a full year to replace our top striker and delivered Mounsef Bakrar for 7 goals in 1.5 seasons.

ETA: How does it go? "Fast, good and cheap. Pick two of three."
Lee only delivered on cheap.

Not to nitpick your point but Bakrar wasn't even cheap. I think Lee paid $3M for him and then $8.5M for Jovan. He didn't even deliver on cheap. He missing on all three in my book.
 
Back
Top