2026 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

[mgarbowski]

It's completely depressing how this club seems incapable of letting go.
Sands, Santi, Maxi, Talles

None of these were successful returns for the club. Sands and Santi played just well enough to leave again. We desperately needed a new #10 last year, and instead played Maxi every game while getting below league median production for a starting attacking mid.
Talles gave up when he was last here and has 3 goals in 2 years for Corinthians.
What are we even doing with this retread factory? Are we bringing Jovan back next?


And lol:

Was just looking at the list of players currently out of contract and availble on a free. Umm... this guy has no team right now:

Jesús Medina - Player profile 25/26

Jesús Medina, 28, from Paraguay ➤ Atlético de San Luis, since 2025 ➤ Right Winger ➤ Market value: €2.50m ➤ * Apr 30, 1997 in Limpio, Paraguay

www.transfermarkt.us

 

[JayH]

It's completely depressing how this club seems incapable of letting go.
Sands, Santi, Maxi, Talles

None of these were successful returns for the club. Sands and Santi played just well enough to leave again. We desperately needed a new #10 last year, and instead played Maxi every game while getting below league median production for a starting attacking mid.
Talles gave up when he was last here and has 3 goals in 2 years for Corinthians.
What are we even doing with this retread factory? Are we bringing Jovan back next?

View attachment 14350
And lol:

It’s the least cutthroat front office in sports. Players and coaches can leave whenever they want regardless of the detriment, players can come back whenever they want regardless of the detriment.

 

[gbservis]

It's completely depressing how this club seems incapable of letting go.
Sands, Santi, Maxi, Talles

None of these were successful returns for the club. Sands and Santi played just well enough to leave again. We desperately needed a new #10 last year, and instead played Maxi every game while getting below league median production for a starting attacking mid.
Talles gave up when he was last here and has 3 goals in 2 years for Corinthians.
What are we even doing with this retread factory? Are we bringing Jovan back next?

View attachment 14350
And lol:

I was just trying to find options that fit Dunivant's new theme of trying to get the old band back together.

If Pascal tries Magno at striker I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

 

[mgarbowski]

I was just trying to find options that fit Dunivant's new theme of trying to get the old band back together.
Online when I
If Pascal tries Magno at striker I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

I knew you were not serious but it was funny to see your post come online while I was writing mine.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I swear the way some of us talk about this team you'd think we were D.C. United or San Jose or a team perennially at the bottom of the table.

We have been to three conference finals in the last five years. This team is doing something right. Could it be better? Sure. I understand a lot of the frustration comes from their business practices and opaqueness, but they really are not that poorly run.

 

[FootyLovin]

I swear the way some of us talk about this team you'd think we were D.C. United or San Jose or a team perennially at the bottom of the table.

We have been to three conference finals in the last five years. This team is doing something right. Could it be better? Sure. I understand a lot of the frustration comes from their business practices and opaqueness, but they really are not that poorly run.

I know America is a playoff culture. But soccer globally is a regular season sport. I think this team takes a lot less heat because of their playoff success of the last 5 years. In the same way they took a lot of extra heat for their early exits in 2016-2019.

The fact is that playoffs have a lot of randomness to them, especially matchups that go to PKs and even more especially single game elimination matches that go to PKs. If you just look at regular season, we have been underwhelming for over half a decade. And without PK wins we would have zero trophies.

So for me, I don't wipe away the trophies because of our good fortune. I am grateful that we won those.

But as I look forward, I don't want to bank on luck. I want to see the team put together a squad that could compete, not just on luck in the playoffs, but legitimately challenge for the shield.

We haven't done that for many years.

 

[mgarbowski]

I know America is a playoff culture. But soccer globally is a regular season sport. I think this team takes a lot less heat because of their playoff success of the last 5 years. In the same way they took a lot of extra heat for their early exits in 2016-2019.

The fact is that playoffs have a lot of randomness to them, especially matchups that go to PKs and even more especially single game elimination matches that go to PKs. If you just look at regular season, we have been underwhelming for over half a decade. And without PK wins we would have zero trophies.

So for me, I don't wipe away the trophies because of our good fortune. I am grateful that we won those.

But as I look forward, I don't want to bank on luck. I want to see the team put together a squad that could compete, not just on luck in the playoffs, but legitimately challenge for the shield.

We haven't done that for many years.

Footy's answer is my answer which I have made clear and offered before. Additional very important points include:

• The best measure of a team's quality is the regular season. It is also the best predictor of winning MLS Cup, and for 3 straight years this team has never put itself into position to have better than <1% chance of winning the Cup.
• I and many forum members pay high 3 figures to high 4 figures to go to regular season games. I believe a small number even pay 5 figures. A 2-3 week playoff run that still ends with a loss does not make up for 8-9 months of poor to middling expensive soccer.
• Since 2023 NYCFC seems determined to attempt to relive the 2016 Sounders Season, which is notable for being the only time in the last dozen years that a team was bad for the first 58% of the season, signed one great player in late July (Lodeiro), climbed into 4th Place and won MLS Cup. It's not a good model to base success on. In fact it's even harder now for two reasons. First the MLS schedule now has teams playing 70% of the season by late July. Second, the league is so much better that 1 player has less ability to move results.
• 2023-2025 is the worst three year stretch in club history measured by each of Total Points, Goal Differential, and average Table Position.
• For those who think I was too harsh on Sands and Rodriguez, the 2 years they played after coming back is the second worst two years of NYCFC in Goal Differential, the worst for average position, and tied for the worst 2-year point total. They're not responsible for the team being terrible, but they did not elevate the team while they were here and then they just left again, which was fully predictable. So what was the point in returning Jimmy and Santi but not having a striker for most of their first season and watching them walk away after 2?

No, we're not DC or Chicago. But we used to aspire to sustained excellence and we don't any more. NYCFC has not entered a season with a complete and competitive roster since 2022. 2024 maybe qualifies under completeness, but those signings were like trying to pull 2 cards into an inside straight.

It is an interesting thought experiment how I would react if NYCFC were more like Atlanta. For several years now their results have been consistently and substantially worse than ours. 2023 was the only year they finished above NYC since 2018. But they enter almost every season with a full roster stacked with players including a few new signings one can reasonably expect to be great. Somehow all their big signings disappoint. Their one credit is they go for it all season every year and don't half ass the roster for 70% of the season. I'd probably complain. Almost certainly I would complain. Even without MLS cup in 2021, I would not trade their 2019-2025 for ours. But I would not be wondering what the team's plan is, and why it seems to involve purposeful mediocrity for more than half of every season.

Are we going to sign a striker by the close of the winter transfer window? My hunch is yes, but not with high confidence.

 

[BC19]

I swear the way some of us talk about this team you'd think we were D.C. United or San Jose or a team perennially at the bottom of the table.

We have been to three conference finals in the last five years. This team is doing something right. Could it be better? Sure. I understand a lot of the frustration comes from their business practices and opaqueness, but they really are not that poorly run.

Fair opinion but I agree with the others about the regular season. So, we win a few extra games at the end of the season to cover some blemishes. Those are never home games because we finish too low on the table.

The team hasn’t sniffed neither the Champions League in half a decade nor any place near the top of the conference or league table. We throw away results in February and March because of self imposed transfer ban throughout the early part of the offseason.

 

[Davo15]

Love Maxi but at his age he should be a rotation player not the star we're relying on.

I swear the way some of us talk about this team you'd think we were D.C. United or San Jose or a team perennially at the bottom of the table.

We have been to three conference finals in the last five years. This team is doing something right. Could it be better? Sure. I understand a lot of the frustration comes from their business practices and opaqueness, but they really are not that poorly run.

I get what your saying BUT we're in a glamour market with an ownership group that have the money and connections to make glamour signing but choose not to where as a handful of other teams are going out and getting those kind of players. It's going to breed resentment .

 

[KevinJRogers]

It’s the least cutthroat front office in sports.

I'm wondering if we're about to see a cultural change. Not so much going cutthroat as tamping down the "we'll help you reach your dreams" narrative in favor of "we're here to compete and win."

At least I hope that's the case. And we shouldn't underestimate what having our own stadium means. We're not vagabonds anymore. There's a real and tangible impact to that. At the same time, the roster rules are gradually loosening and there's more money to be made, too.

What we really need is to hear from Todd Dunivant. Has there been a presser where he and Brad present their vision for the squad? I get that Todd has just started, but was there even an introductory press interview? If there was, I haven't seen it.

 

[Gene]

SHAZAM! (if true)

https://twitter.com/x/status/2011109421104185746

 

[mgarbowski]

SHAZAM! (if true)

https://twitter.com/x/status/2011109421104185746

That Pigeons account has some weird takes. This isn't the first one I've seen this week.

Yes, if we transfer Fernandez and don't replace him or Martinez, we are exceedingly thin up front. We're very thin as is with him. But you have to think that offloading him makes it more likely than the current odds that they plan to bring someone in this winter window.

 

[KevinJRogers]

That Pigeons account has some weird takes. This isn't the first one I've seen this week.

Yes, if we transfer Fernandez and don't replace him or Martinez, we are exceedingly thin up front. We're very thin as is with him. But you have to think that offloading him makes it more likely than the current odds that they plan to bring someone in this winter window.

It could work all around. Juli needs to be in a system where all he has to think about is attacking the goal. Trying to press and track back doesn't work for him. He always ends up out of position. And it's easier to find minutes for one guy than two, so we can slot Agu in and be done with it.

Now to see what Dunivant will do with the roster space.

 

[gbservis]

That Pigeons account has some weird takes. This isn't the first one I've seen this week.

Yes, if we transfer Fernandez and don't replace him or Martinez, we are exceedingly thin up front. We're very thin as is with him. But you have to think that offloading him makes it more likely than the current odds that they plan to bring someone in this winter window.

If the playoffs are any indication, Julian wasn't going to play enough to matter for depth even with Martinez out. In the 5 playoff games Julian played (1, 8, 1, 1, and 30 mins). Even without a replacement for Martinez, the addition of Magno drives his playing time to next to nothing.

Julian has had 3 years to try to understand our tactics and has shown zero progress. With his skills, he could possibly do better with a team that played him in a far more simplified role. At this point, if they can get anywhere close to what we paid its time to move on.

 

[ezbeezy214]

I’d take him the airport. This team is lacking the dynamic direct winger that can stretch the field and that’s not, even in optimal form, what he provides. He has shown to flash a wand of a left from time to time and has tricks to get in space but hes not getting up and down a quick game. In MLS, that role is ultra important and why the improvement of Ojeda, and the idea of Jones gives us more hope. I don’t see many mins for him even without Martinez either.

 

[BC19]

That Pigeons account has some weird takes. This isn't the first one I've seen this week.

Yes, if we transfer Fernandez and don't replace him or Martinez, we are exceedingly thin up front. We're very thin as is with him. But you have to think that offloading him makes it more likely than the current odds that they plan to bring someone in this winter window.

The idea, from this tweet, that Julian Fernandez might play at the 9 is insanity.

 

[KevinJRogers]

The idea, from this tweet, that Julian Fernandez might play at the 9 is insanity.

I've seen this bandied about in a few places. In a way, it kind of makes sense. Fernandez is like a can opener. He only does one thing, and when it works, it's fine. But if you try to use a can opener for anything other than opening a can, you run into the problem of diminishing utility.

So, just give him one thing to do.

The thing is, he's not really a center-forward, either.

 

[moogoo]

That Pigeons account has some weird takes. This isn't the first one I've seen this week.

Yes, if we transfer Fernandez and don't replace him or Martinez, we are exceedingly thin up front. We're very thin as is with him. But you have to think that offloading him makes it more likely than the current odds that they plan to bring someone in this winter window.

Identity confirmed.

 

[ZYanksRule]

That tweet said it would be a loan with a fee and option to buy so another dead slot on our roster if this happens.

 

[gbservis]

View attachment 14351

Identity confirmed.

haha, not me, but I still think if Julian was going to be here for depth, the only position he could have played was ST. Pascal gave up on playing him on the wing, and those weird sub appearances at CAM totally destroyed our offensive flow. Ultimately, Julian moving on and the team getting a more capable player is the best solution.

Edit: just to add, I don't use any other social media, so all my poorly thought-out takes and half baked ideas are NYCFCforums exclisves.