2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

moogoo said:
Lee has said over and over the club's strategy is to sign promising players and develop them.

he has mentioned that if there is a proven player that makes sense for them from a business standpoint and everything else works, then they would go for it, but this hasn't happened yet. to me, this means his mindset is that if a proven player falls in our lap we'll take it, but we aren't going to pursue a proven player and would rather find prospects to develop.

I would love it for Lee to prove us all wrong, but for a few seasons now, he hasn't gone out and signed proven players. I think we got lucky with martinez. no one else who he went out and paid big bucks for has shown they can influence a game in any real positive way.
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I'm not asking for a proven, 23-24-25 year old. I'm asking for a promising 21-year-old. A guy who's a little more ready to produce in MLS than Ojeda, Fernandez, and Mijatovic were. I understand we're not getting a bona-fide well-known star, I'm just asking for a player that will produce this season.
 
ZYanksRule said:
I'm not asking for a proven, 23-24-25 year old. I'm asking for a promising 21-year-old. A guy who's a little more ready to produce in MLS than Ojeda, Fernandez, and Mijatovic were. I understand we're not getting a bona-fide well-known star, I'm just asking for a player that will produce this season.
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we don't need a promising 21 year old. we need a proven DP that's going to join the team and immediately make it much better by influencing the game. that means no young DP. we need someone who is in their prime or at the end of it, who is maybe struggling to get minutes at a top club in a big league in europe.
 
Antidote P. Smiley said:
Fernandez is 21, Ojeda will be 21 this season… I think we are good with “promising” 21 year olds.
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And many MLS pundits believe at least one of them is going to breakout this season.

moogoo said:
we don't need a promising 21 year old. we need a proven DP that's going to join the team and immediately make it much better by influencing the game. that means no young DP. we need someone who is in their prime or at the end of it, who is maybe struggling to get minutes at a top club in a big league in europe.
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My #1 want is a star DP No. 10. Would have loved to see us be in on that Evander deal. If we can get a star No. 10, we'll be right there with the East's elite.
 
moogoo said:
Yea agreed. The new strategy to get young players to develop has killed the possibility of that feeling ever happening again cause we simply don't know what we'll be getting cause we aren't signing proven players.

Based on him harping on this every interview he's done, I don't expect us to get an experienced and proven DP.. we are definitely signing a young dp.
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The young player strategy Lee constantly harps on would make more sense if other teams in MLS were operating the same way but no other club would spend all of their money on 18-year-olds. The youth thing is either a directive from the mothership or David Lee fancies himself the Billy Bean of MLS and thinks he's invented some team-building loophole that will eventually pay off. I'm not sure which is worse.
 
Good day to all! My name is Egor and I am from Russia! I really like the MLS league and NYCFC in particular. I have been watching your club since 2022. And I have a question that I would like you to answer. Why didn't Andrade play? Judging by the videos I saw, he looked very good in NYC?
PS sorry for my English(
 
I just want one signing before the beginning of the season. Just one out field player that could improve the squad in some way
 
Worth noting, we may not like how Lee spends money, but we fully lay the ownership for that at his feet.

OTOH, we characterize 17M + 30% sell on for Santi as a gift that magically appeared at his feet.

If we blame him for the one, we should credit him for negotiating the other.
 
Yego said:
Good day to all! My name is Egor and I am from Russia! I really like the MLS league and NYCFC in particular. I have been watching your club since 2022. And I have a question that I would like you to answer. Why didn't Andrade play? Judging by the videos I saw, he looked very good in NYC?
PS sorry for my English(
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All of his highlights look incredible because of his speed. Thiago is a one trick pony. He is very fast and that is pretty much it. Poor decisions with the ball, below average passing, not intelligent with his off the ball movement, and was not willing to put in the effort on the defensive end. Not a great fit for a possession based team.
 
FootyLovin said:
Worth noting, we may not like how Lee spends money, but we fully lay the ownership for that at his feet.

OTOH, we characterize 17M + 30% sell on for Santi as a gift that magically appeared at his feet.

If we blame him for the one, we should credit him for negotiating the other.
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Credit to Lee for securing the funds, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see how effectively—and how quickly—he reinvests them. He already burned through the windfall from Taty and Pereira without any tangible on-field results. As a fan, getting $17M for Santi means nothing unless Lee proves he can use it to strengthen the squad. So far, his track record with major spending is abysmal.

I also question the timing of this move. The Brazilian transfer window has been open since January 1st—maybe this deal only materialized recently, but there’s a clear pattern of poor transaction timing under Lee. It took over two years to replace Taty, Gabby left mid-season leaving us without any good options at RW, Santi departed after the team had spent most of training camp building around him, and we still have no backup left back or replacement for Sands. Lee always has justifications—whether it’s waiting for the “right” Taty replacement or giving Pascal time—but at some point, it’s fair to ask why this club is perpetually reactive. Key departures happen at inopportune times, and our slow, drawn-out responses consistently leave us shorthanded, costing us points.
 
Matt Doyle’s latest Substack talks about the intra-MLS money deals. He says it’s good because it keeps great players in the league. Previously if a player was worth several million dollars or more you had to sell elsewhere. The reason this matters is the league has a roughly 50% hit rate on even the best bets placed on prime age and established players from overseas.
So when the Crew sell Cucho and we sell Santi both outside the league, MLS can expect only 1 great player returned to MLS between us on average. But when Evander or Acosta are sold within MLS you can be confident that 2 teams lose great players but 2 teams gain great players.
The success rate on younger acquisitions is even lower than 50%.

So yeah, selling Santi for $15-17M is nothing to celebrate currently.
 
moogoo said:
we don't need a promising 21 year old. we need a proven DP that's going to join the team and immediately make it much better by influencing the game. that means no young DP. we need someone who is in their prime or at the end of it, who is maybe struggling to get minutes at a top club in a big league in europe.
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I nominate Raheem Sterling
 
On Gio, I wasn’t being entirely facetious. He needs minutes. Dortmund don’t rate him and are a train wreck in any event. They aren’t going to sell him for anything if they don’t play him.

We are selling our guy who plays his position and need a replacement. We take him for a year and then can plan the succession.
 
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