2026 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread
- Thread starter LionNYC
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How about we find out who the HELL is making these decisions in the first place? #WhiskyTangoFoxtrot
I can't believe we haven't even heard who the interim Sporting Director is. Even if Brad is making the calls in consultation with the Mothership in Manchester, could we at least hear that?
I'm all for keeping the cards close to the vest and doing business with discretion and discipline. But this strikes me as bizarre.
Never sooner than next day. On a few occasions a bit later.
it’s understandable so teams have a chance to communicate with the affected players before the info goes public.
ZYanksRule
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How about we find out who the HELL is making these decisions in the first place? #WhiskyTangoFoxtrot
I can't believe we haven't even heard who the interim Sporting Director is. Even if Brad is making the calls in consultation with the Mothership in Manchester, could we at least hear that?
I'm all for keeping the cards close to the vest and doing business with discretion and discipline. But this strikes me as bizarre.
Amen to this, brother. It's laughable that we don't know who the interim SD is. Insulting to our fandom.
It better not be Brad! He's a good guy but he's the business head of the team and isn't really a sporting person.
Odds are it's one of the assistant sporting directors, but since the team doesn't really have an online database of employees, we just don't know who that person is.
The secrecy is almost pathological. If I didn't know better — and I don't, so there it is — I'd say marketing is driving the bus rather than the sporting department.
I'm not particularly enamored of the marketing, either. But I'll leave that for another thread.
ZYanksRule
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I think we can blame the public relations department. The PR head came from Manchester where this sort of thing is commonplace, and NYCFC has always done the bare minimum when it comes to media availabilities and media relations. It's probably one of the reasons the mainstream NYC media doesn't cover this team for the most part. They make it so hard that most media organizations don't feel the juice is worth the squeeze.
Fair guess. We also don't know how much marketing/PR leeway individual franchises get in a single-entity league, although I can't imagine someone like Don Garber not letting teams do the paint-by-the-numbers stuff.
In any event, not publicly naming an interim Sporting Director is totally on us. Either we don't have one on this side of The Pond and the calls are being made in Ferran Soriano's office, or we do and the organization just doesn't want to say so. Which is unfathomable if you're trying to build from your existing fan support.
Which we absolutely should. The people (like us) who have been with the team from the very beginning and have been waiting over a decade for this time to come — a home of our own — are the core of the community.
Full credit to the organization for finally getting there. It can be hell to try and build in New York, and CFG had to partner with the biggest of the big dogs and write a massive check to get it done. There's not a single one of us who don't recognize what it took.
But damn, if we're going to get on the back pages and be a thing, we must do better than simply using the players to sell swag. And we absolutely need a face other than Brad's to be the connection between the press and the front office. Even a temporary one.
How much say / role do we think Pascal has in this?
ZYanksRule
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You would imagine he is part of the conversations, but the ultimate decision rests with the sporting director.
One of Lee's early-season excuses for inaction was the need to wait for Pascal to evaluate the squad and provide feedback on the type of players he wanted. I think he certainly has input; the question is, does he have a say on the actual player selected, or does he just get to state the need and type of player he wants? If the Bogert/Lee reporting is true, even Lee didn't get a say on some key players, so unless the approach has changed its hard to imagine Pascal or anyone at NYCFC getting full say on actual big spend player slections. Those decisions are reserved for the brain trust with the deep MLS knowledge that led to the selection of Bakar, Ojeda, Fernandez, and Jovan.
I think it’s possible that it never actually occurred to anyone at the Club to announce the interim sporting director.
When Reyna was SD, David Lee was known to the more devoted portion of the fanbase as his second and as the team cap guru.
Now nobody knows who was Lee's #2 or even is acting SD with league mandated decisions are being made.
Now nobody knows who was Lee's #2 or even is acting SD with league mandated decisions are being made.
It's not Brad. He might sign the papers in the absence of a designated SD. But I'm confident he's not making the decisions.
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First name? Last name? Or just "Christopher!"
NYCFC ready to build on this year’s momentum into bright future
When the calendar flips to 2027, the year will prove to be one of the most transformative for Major League Soccer, both on a broad scale and locally in New York.
nypost.com
I couldn't read the article, but I came across it after a few Google searches. Someone named Clark Thompson, who does not appear to have any mentions anywhere on the official NYCFC site, does have a LinkedIn stating that he is the Director of Player Personnel and does seem to be mentioned in the above article.
This, stunningly, may actually be the case.
Clark Thompson is an almost comically clichéd name for a secret agent.
Clark Thompson is the NYCFC Intern
