2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

We've spent a ton of money on players the last few years. The wrong players, but we spent over $20 million dollars last year on transfers. We can call the team misguided in their decisions, but we can not call them cheap.

And we're spending all that money while being one of the only MLS teams (the only team?) with virtually no stadium revenue. Cincy and Columbus have beautiful, new, moneymaking stadiums. We have to rent fields to play in. We're lucky the team spends as much as it does.
Perhaps I need to rephrase what I am trying to say. We need to go big in terms of star power, like the LA teams. Instead, we are blowing big money on guys from random leagues who no one has heard of. This town loves a big name.
 
This is the same account that linked us with Belotti. Another guy in Serie A that was very good at stops prior to the most recent one. Atalanta Malinovskyi was really good. Haven’t seen much since.
 
Perhaps I need to rephrase what I am trying to say. We need to go big in terms of star power, like the LA teams. Instead, we are blowing big money on guys from random leagues who no one has heard of. This town loves a big name.

That is very fair and I agree with that.
 
We've spent a ton of money on players the last few years. The wrong players, but we spent over $20 million dollars last year on transfers. We can call the team misguided in their decisions, but we can not call them cheap.

And we're spending all that money while being one of the only MLS teams (the only team?) with virtually no stadium revenue. Cincy and Columbus have beautiful, new, moneymaking stadiums. We have to rent fields to play in. We're lucky the team spends as much as it does.

You're being far too generous in excusing their lack of spending. Just from the sales of Taty and Gabby alone, they made over $25 million—yet reinvested less than that in three prospects who have contributed nothing to the team. On top of that, we now have an additional $17 million from Santi’s sale, plus the annual GAM allocation from MLS.

Then there’s equity. They bought the team for $100 million, and as of last season, Forbes valued it at $850 million. Even some of the biggest professional teams in the U.S. operate at a loss, but those losses are dwarfed by the exponential growth in franchise values. And before anyone brings up the stadium investment—that’s not a sacrifice. It’s an asset that will further boost their equity, and it serves just as much as a PR tool to distract from their human rights abuses as it does a benefit to the club. They don’t get a pass for that.

When they founded this team, they promised to compete for trophies and set the standard for MLS. They built a strong roster and won a cup. Now, they can’t just pivot to “development” and expect fans to accept it without pushback. The U22 signings have been a disaster, and the roster decisions don’t align with the ambitions they sold us. There’s no excuse for this mismanagement, and they absolutely should not be let off the hook.
 
Pascal is such a tease.
I’ll take transfer teases 10 days of the week and twice on Sundays. The real tease is having so much of the ball in advanced positions for the majority of a game on the road against a good team and not having anyone incisive enough to create a real chance. Alonso had a few swings at half chances and that was it. Maxi can get the ball out wide to people in space but I still don’t feel like there’s a real threat.
 
You're being far too generous in excusing their lack of spending. Just from the sales of Taty and Gabby alone, they made over $25 million—yet reinvested less than that in three prospects who have contributed nothing to the team. On top of that, we now have an additional $17 million from Santi’s sale, plus the annual GAM allocation from MLS.

Then there’s equity. They bought the team for $100 million, and as of last season, Forbes valued it at $850 million. Even some of the biggest professional teams in the U.S. operate at a loss, but those losses are dwarfed by the exponential growth in franchise values. And before anyone brings up the stadium investment—that’s not a sacrifice. It’s an asset that will further boost their equity, and it serves just as much as a PR tool to distract from their human rights abuses as it does a benefit to the club. They don’t get a pass for that.

When they founded this team, they promised to compete for trophies and set the standard for MLS. They built a strong roster and won a cup. Now, they can’t just pivot to “development” and expect fans to accept it without pushback. The U22 signings have been a disaster, and the roster decisions don’t align with the ambitions they sold us. There’s no excuse for this mismanagement, and they absolutely should not be let off the hook.

I'm not letting them off the hook. Decisions haven't been good enough. Roster management hasn't been good enough. But they've been spending money. They are spending it on the wrong players, but they are spending it.

They are far too slow to react to roster changes, far too slow to sign players, and consistently leave us hamstrung at the start of the season since 2023. It is inexcusable for there to have been no major signings after dropping four major roster pieces from the start of 2023.

That being said, they have been spending money on transfer fees, they just need to reevaluate the type of player that succeeds in MLS, because the decision-makers for this Club, whether they're in New York or Manchester, are signing players for an MLS that no longer exists. The league is improving much faster than our decision-makers realize.
 
That being said, they have been spending money on transfer fees, they just need to reevaluate the type of player that succeeds in MLS, because the decision-makers for this Club, whether they're in New York or Manchester, are signing players for an MLS that no longer exists. The league is improving much faster than our decision-makers realize.

I initially thought this might just be a misunderstanding of the league, and I’m sure that plays a role. But the way they've started this season proves it goes beyond that. They simply don’t care about being a top team in the league right now. Maybe things will change when the new stadium opens, but right now, they are not operating like the club they claimed they wanted to be.

Maybe the Santi situation caught them off guard, but that still doesn’t excuse the complete lack of replacements for Sands, Magno, and Jovan. They had an entire offseason—if not longer—to prepare for those departures. And I’m not buying the excuse that they had to wait for Pascal. Atlanta had no problem making massive signings—why didn’t they have to wait for Ronny?

Player evaluation is difficult, and even the best teams miss on signings. But true top-tier clubs would never allow their roster to deteriorate to this level. This isn’t just a misunderstanding of the league—it’s a combination of apathy and a glaring lack of ambition.
 
I initially thought this might just be a misunderstanding of the league, and I’m sure that plays a role. But the way they've started this season proves it goes beyond that. They simply don’t care about being a top team in the league right now. Maybe things will change when the new stadium opens, but right now, they are not operating like the club they claimed they wanted to be.

Maybe the Santi situation caught them off guard, but that still doesn’t excuse the complete lack of replacements for Sands, Magno, and Jovan. They had an entire offseason—if not longer—to prepare for those departures. And I’m not buying the excuse that they had to wait for Pascal. Atlanta had no problem making massive signings—why didn’t they have to wait for Ronny?

Player evaluation is difficult, and even the best teams miss on signings. But true top-tier clubs would never allow their roster to deteriorate to this level. This isn’t just a misunderstanding of the league—it’s a combination of apathy and a glaring lack of ambition.

I think there's a lot of factors at play. There's some misunderstanding of the league, there's some apathy, there's some financial concerns in regards to the stadium, there's some thought that the early part of the season doesn't matter when 18 of 30 teams make the playoffs, there's some desire to get Pascal time with the team, there's some surprise at losing Santi, and there's some concern about replacing players on loan who they'll be on the hook for in June, there's a belief the roster was better than it was ... I think there's a lot of things going on.

As long as they do make some moves this window, I hope all will be forgiven by the time we get to the meat of the season. This team is still going to be able to win some games between now and April, they should be able to tread water. If we wait until the summer window I'll be right there with pitchforks in hand alongside everyone else.
 
I think there's a lot of factors at play. There's some misunderstanding of the league, there's some apathy, there's some financial concerns in regards to the stadium, there's some thought that the early part of the season doesn't matter when 18 of 30 teams make the playoffs, there's some desire to get Pascal time with the team, there's some surprise at losing Santi, and there's some concern about replacing players on loan who they'll be on the hook for in June, there's a belief the roster was better than it was ... I think there's a lot of things going on.

As long as they do make some moves this window, I hope all will be forgiven by the time we get to the meat of the season. This team is still going to be able to win some games between now and April, they should be able to tread water. If we wait until the summer window I'll be right there with pitchforks in hand alongside everyone else.

That's fair. I do think it's encouraging that Pascal is talking openly in press conferences about the roster being incomplete and needing additions. I honestly don't remember Nick ever saying anything about roster issues, regardless of how bad it was he towed the CFG line and pretended things were fine even when we didn't have a striker for over a year.

Pascal either knows players are coming and/or is secure enough in his position to at least mention that there are roster issues.
 
Awkward Cricket GIF
 
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