2025 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

[KevinJRogers]

From a surgical side they have plenty of top tier options in NYC. HSS, NYU and Presby are ranked #1, 3, and 4 nationally for orthopedics. The location choice has to be more about post procedure recovery and rehab with the CFG team which is a high complement as to how they rate him.

Right, that's what I was thinking -- not about the surgical side. They wanted him to train with the CFG staff in England. It's great to know they see the same thing in him I do, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if our training system is somehow lacking.

Of course, I understand the relative difference in resources. And to be honest, if we can leverage Man City's facilities until we build up our own, I'm all for it.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

He is going to the top orthopedic practice in England with a lot of surgeries for the best in the premier league so I imagine CFG has a close organizational relationship.

 

[moogoo]

jansen in pregame presser was asked point blank if he thought there were missing pieces before he had a complete roster and his response was pretty much tow the company line. said he thought the roster was complete and while they do have an eye to the market, he's pleased with what he has and there are no worries on his side.

guess the whole "a few signings" talk from a month ago has gone out the window...

 

[Fantazma]

jansen in pregame presser was asked point blank if he thought there were missing pieces before he had a complete roster and his response was pretty much tow the company line. said he thought the roster was complete and while they do have an eye to the market, he's pleased with what he has and there are no worries on his side.

guess the whole "a few signings" talk from a month ago has gone out the window...

 

[BC19]

jansen in pregame presser was asked point blank if he thought there were missing pieces before he had a complete roster and his response was pretty much tow the company line. said he thought the roster was complete and while they do have an eye to the market, he's pleased with what he has and there are no worries on his side.

guess the whole "a few signings" talk from a month ago has gone out the window...

Saw that as well. It’s frightening. Hopefully just good employee speak and not wanting to go around/over his boss. Otherwise we’ll have the u15 fullbacks suiting up soon

 

[ZYanksRule]

jansen in pregame presser was asked point blank if he thought there were missing pieces before he had a complete roster and his response was pretty much tow the company line. said he thought the roster was complete and while they do have an eye to the market, he's pleased with what he has and there are no worries on his side.

guess the whole "a few signings" talk from a month ago has gone out the window...

Yeah I heard that and it definitely made me worried. I took it as he wanted to support his players but it's a different answer than he gave to a similar question a couple weeks ago, so it absolutely worries me that we won't make any additions in the next four weeks.

 

[moogoo]

Yeah I heard that and it definitely made me worried. I took it as he wanted to support his players but it's a different answer than he gave to a similar question a couple weeks ago, so it absolutely worries me that we won't make any additions in the next four weeks.

with that kind of talk, it really seems like we don't have anything in the works. otherwise, he could just say what he said last month. saying that he's happy with the squad as it is tells me that there won't be any signings this window except for the short term signings from the II squad.

Gonna be a rough first half of the season boys. STRAP IN.

 

[BC19]

David Lee out!

 

[gbservis]

David Lee out!

I don't disagree, I think Lee should take the blame for the poor performance of the U22 signings because IMO making sure we pick players that will fit is his job and he should have been gone along with Nick last year after he spent over $20M on players that provided nothing. That said I think the lack of signings this window are just as much a CFG thing as a Lee thing and if Lee is out they will just send us another CFG lifer boot licker and nothing will change.

 

[413Blue]

I feel better about this roster than I did before opening day. I'm seeing better performances from quite a few players, namely Parks, that makes me realize that Cushing ball had de-valued a lot of our players. If Pascal can unlock more of the talent in these players, our roster, imo, is playoff worthy, which is more optimistic than I was a few weeks ago.

We've got holes for sure, but more strengths than I expected. REALLY wish we either kept Santi or had a replacement already.

 

[gbservis]

I feel better about this roster than I did before opening day. I'm seeing better performances from quite a few players, namely Parks, that makes me realize that Cushing ball had de-valued a lot of our players. If Pascal can unlock more of the talent in these players, our roster, imo, is playoff worthy, which is more optimistic than I was a few weeks ago.

We've got holes for sure, but more strengths than I expected.

I agree we are better than I thought we would be and some of the young guys have provided more than I expected. Still I think they are playing with fire with Maxi, if he gets hurt we are screwed and even if he doesn't they are going to run him into the ground.

 

[KevinJRogers]

I agree we are better than I thought we would be and some of the young guys have provided more than I expected. Still I think they are playing with fire with Maxi, if he gets hurt we are screwed and even if he doesn't they are going to run him into the ground.

We really need a No. 10 in their prime. It's possible Pascal has a solution in mind with what he has at hand, so we'll see. And I'm astounded at Maxi's conditioning. But the realities are what they are.

 

[gbservis]

We really need a No. 10 in their prime. It's possible Pascal has a solution in mind with what he has at hand, so we'll see. And I'm astounded at Maxi's conditioning. But the realities are what they are.

Things have worked out so far—Maxi looks great, Pascal has everything clicking, and some of the young guys have really stepped up. But that doesn’t absolve Lee and CFG of the mess this roster has been through the early part of the season. I don’t want to hear any of their usual nonsense about aiming to be the league’s top team because, right now, their level of ambition is an embarrassment compared to MLS’s elite clubs. And spare me the talk of “building toward something”—the true crown jewels of this league don’t sit back and wait; they load up their rosters and compete every season. Sure, even the most ambitious teams miss on signings or have off years, but no legitimate top MLS club has ever entered a season with this level of indifference toward its roster.

 

[ZYanksRule]

Things have worked out so far—Maxi looks great, Pascal has everything clicking, and some of the young guys have really stepped up. But that doesn’t absolve Lee and CFG of the mess this roster has been through the early part of the season. I don’t want to hear any of their usual nonsense about aiming to be the league’s top team because, right now, their level of ambition is an embarrassment compared to MLS’s elite clubs. And spare me the talk of “building toward something”—the true crown jewels of this league don’t sit back and wait; they load up their rosters and compete every season. Sure, even the most ambitious teams miss on signings or have off years, but no legitimate top MLS club has ever entered a season with this level of indifference toward its roster.

All of this is exactly right. If we don't make any signings this window, stop telling us you want to win MLS Cup. You don't. You're not trying to win MLS Cup with this roster, you're trying to hopefully win some games and keep your fans from revolting while you wait for the windfall of the new stadium.

And our hope that they will put a more representative roster together after the new stadium opens is just blind faith in an organization that has left the roster incomplete since we actually did win MLS Cup in 2021.

 

[KevinJRogers]

Things have worked out so far—Maxi looks great, Pascal has everything clicking, and some of the young guys have really stepped up. But that doesn’t absolve Lee and CFG of the mess this roster has been through the early part of the season. I don’t want to hear any of their usual nonsense about aiming to be the league’s top team because, right now, their level of ambition is an embarrassment compared to MLS’s elite clubs. And spare me the talk of “building toward something”—the true crown jewels of this league don’t sit back and wait; they load up their rosters and compete every season. Sure, even the most ambitious teams miss on signings or have off years, but no legitimate top MLS club has ever entered a season with this level of indifference toward its roster.

All of this is exactly right. If we don't make any signings this window, stop telling us you want to win MLS Cup. You don't. You're not trying to win MLS Cup with this roster, you're trying to hopefully win some games and keep your fans from revolting while you wait for the windfall of the new stadium.

And our hope that they will put a more representative roster together after the new stadium opens is just blind faith in an organization that has left the roster incomplete since we actually did win MLS Cup in 2021.

We have enough young guys. We have enough prospects. We have enough development projects. It's time to win.

To be clear: I totally understand the model we're operating under, and from a strategic perspective, it makes sense. Ultimately, we're a business. We need to be in the black.

But from a sporting perspective, this is the time to find the No. 10 to carry us through 2027, at least. We can nibble around the margins at forward and left back, although we might already have the solutions for those areas already in the squad, depending. We can always use more depth at every position.

What we can't do is expect to win matches without a playmaker. And we can only ask so much of Maxi.

(That being said, I don't know if Pascal has a trick up his sleeve, which is always a possibility. But let's assume he doesn't.)

 

[gbservis]

We have enough young guys. We have enough prospects. We have enough development projects. It's time to win.

To be clear: I totally understand the model we're operating under, and from a strategic perspective, it makes sense. Ultimately, we're a business. We need to be in the black.

But from a sporting perspective, this is the time to find the No. 10 to carry us through 2027, at least. We can nibble around the margins at forward and left back, although we might already have the solutions for those areas already in the squad, depending. We can always use more depth at every position.

What we can't do is expect to win matches without a playmaker. And we can only ask so much of Maxi.

(That being said, I don't know if Pascal has a trick up his sleeve, which is always a possibility. But let's assume he doesn't.)

At this point, even the business model excuse doesn't work. They are sitting on over $4M in GAM and just made $17M on Santi.

 

[FootyLovin]

At this point, even the business model excuse doesn't work. They are sitting on over $4M in GAM and just made $17M on Santi.

This. I will entertain debate and excuses for every position except the 10. Maxi needs a replacement where he can be our super sub.

 

[KevinJRogers]

At this point, even the business model excuse doesn't work. They are sitting on over $4M in GAM and just made $17M on Santi.

To be clear, I don't view it as an excuse, and I wasn't making an excuse for them. But I wholeheartedly agree, now is the time to make a move. We all know what the glaring need is. We all know they have the resources and roster flexibility to make it happen.

Now is the time.

 

[gbservis]

 

[gbservis]

Fernandez and Ojeda appear to be making progress, but based on their per-90 stats, they remain below-average MLS attackers and still have a long way to go before becoming significant contributors. Meanwhile, Jovan is getting some minutes in Belgium but has yet to start consistently and has only one goal to his name. All three have had over a full season to develop, with Julian approaching 1.5 seasons since arriving in the second window of the season before last.

Did the team anticipate that these players would need this much development and were still far from MLS-ready when they signed them? Or was this a complete miss by the scouting department, with expectations that they would be much further along by now?