Building For The Future? Or Buying The Present?

[Gotham Gator]

In many press reports about our club, the point is made that we are building a roster through splashy signings of aging but quality European stars. The subtext is that we are doing this at the expense of building a roster through finding and developing young talent.

But, why are these two things mutually exclusive? Can't we spend real money on quality DPs while simultaneously developing young guys for the future. Indeed, isn't it wise to buy existing talent that can produce today as younger players evolve to become our core in future years?

One would think the emergence of young Kwadwo Poku would be enough to dispel the assertion that we are nothing more than a big wallet. But, a closer look at our roster shows that our young core goes a lot deeper than just the young Ghanan-with-a-Green-Card. Let's review.

Jefferson Mena - 26 - Acquired from Independiente Medellín mid-season. Has appeared in 3 games, starting 2. Makes $200K.

Jeb Brovsky - 26 - Acquired in a trade with the Montreal Impact. Has started 12 games, but none since being displaced by Angelino (see below). Makes $129K.

Tony Taylor - 26 - Acquired from NE in the expansion draft. Made 2 appearances with 1 start before tearing his ACL. Makes $84K.

RJ Allen - 25 - Acquired mid-season. Has started 7 games. Makes $60K.

Mix - 24 - USMNT regular acquired on a free transfer from Norway. Makes $750K and is basically a TAM player. A regular starter when not on USMNT duty.

Tommy McNamara - 24 - Acquired from DC in the expansion draft (and made them pay yesterday). Has come on strong this season starting last 11 games and notching 5 goals and 3 assists. Makes $71K.

Javier Calle - 24 - Acquired from Independiente Medellín on a season-long loan. Has made 11 appearances and 6 starts, scoring 1 goal. Makes $225K.

Kwadwo Poku - 23 - Acquired from the Atlanta Silverbacks of the NASL, where he scored 2 goals in 25 appearances. Prior to that, spent 3 years in the 4th division of American soccer. Has played in last 12 games, starting 4, with 2 goals and a team leading 7 assists. We have won every game he has started. Makes $63K.

Patrick Mullins - 23 - Acquired from NE in the expansion draft (and made them pay in Game 2). Has appeared in 16 games, starting 9, with 4 goals and 3 assists.

Khiry Shelton - 22 - Drafted out of Oregon State. Has appeared in 12 games, starting 6, with 1 goal and 1 assist. Has game changing speed. Has been out since early June with an MCL sprain. Makes $88K.

Shea Facey - 20 - On loan from Manchester City. Expected to continue to play for NYCFC as he develops. Makes $120K.

Angelino - 19 - On loan from Manchester City. Considered to be close to ready for a call up to Man City's senior club or to be loaned out in Europe, but may stick with NYCFC for another term. Makes $60K.

Looking at the above, 12 of our outfield players are 26 or younger and 8 are 24 or younger. All of them have started at least 1 game, and over our last 4 games, half our outfield starts have come from this group. Even if you assume we don't hang onto the 3 players that we have on loan, we still have a wonderful core that we are building here.

How about the following being part of the starting lineup in 2-3 years?

- Shelton and Mullins at forward
- Mix, McNamara and Poku in midfield
- Mena, Allen and Brovsky in back.

They will all be mid-to-late 20s - presumably in the peak of their career.

 

[joe]

Calle may be 24, but he has the hamstrings of a 34 year old.

 

[mgarbowski]

Devil's Advocate: some of what follows I believe and some is just to push the discussion.

In a league with a tight salary cap where players of mid-range skill earn more as they age, it is inevitable that a team built around a core of aging expensive players will have a lot of youth just so it can fill a roster within the cap parameters. That's not something for which you can really take credit.

I'm not sure you can count loans as part of a building for the future strategy unless and until the loans get converted.

I think many fans would be aghast at the suggestion that some of our current youth will be a core part of the team 3 years from now. No need to go name by name.

On the other hand, the whole geezer attack is rather ludicrous because the idea that we could build a DC style team in Year One filled with high quality, non famous players in the primes of their careers is itself ludicrous. We could maybe build a DCU style team in 3-4 years. In year one, we had a choice of castoffs plus big aging stars or castoffs without big aging stars. I like the option we have.

 

[Gotham Gator]

On the other hand, the whole geezer attack is rather ludicrous because the idea that we could build a DC style team in Year One filled with high quality, non famous players in the primes of their careers is itself ludicrous. We could maybe build a DCU style team in 3-4 years. In year one, we had a choice of castoffs plus big aging stars or castoffs without big aging stars. I like the option we have.

This is really the core point. We can't just roll out a team of players we've nurtured for 3-5 years. We have to do the nurturing on the fly, so to speak. I think with the group above, we are clearly doing that. Certainly not all of them will end up being part of our core in 2019, but I am comfortable that some of them will.

Another way of putting it is that these guys will be better 29-32 year olds for us in 5 years than are our current 29-32 year olds.

 

[horseytweets]

Buying the present.
While other teams around us are getting younger, we getting old fucks so the team can fill up seats at the Stadium.
Disgusting.

 

[JGarrettLieb]

Buying the present.
While other teams around us are getting younger, we getting old fucks so the team can fill up seats at the Stadium.
Disgusting.

Apparently the average age of the rest of our team is in the mid 30s as well, and our youth development program is so small compared to the rest of the league as well. Your totally right dude.

Oh wait, the average age of the rest of the team is well below 30 and we have one of the largest youth development programs in the league. Do your damn research before you have an opinion.

 

[LeeNYCFC]

Nice write-up. Being new to MLS I'm curious to see what develops year over year with contracts in this league. Does it make sense to extend players clearly paid under their talent level (T-Mac, Poku)? Or does one ride out contracts and have right of refusal to re-sign them at expiration, like an NBA scenario?
Will also be interesting to see CFG's attitude on Facey. They could certainly monetize him in January (Championship club I'd say). But what matters more to them, getting value out of him on a financial level or his ability to contribute to a winner here.

 

[Majik]

Buying the present.
While other teams around us are getting younger, we getting old fucks so the team can fill up seats at the Stadium.
Disgusting.

Troll, troll, troll your boat..

 

[XIValentin]

they're doing both simultaneously. signing stars to capture a fanbase and win some games, and starting a young academy for the future. I don't see what the problem is with all this

 

[Rand]

I think that creating a club from the ground up in NYC, mandated the signing of star players such as Villa, Pirlo, and Lampard (however late for the party). They needed to sell season tickets, and 11 guys named Bob wasn't going to get that done (sorry bob). Going forward the goal should be to grow our younger players into attractions, as Poku has become for many of us, and McNamara as well. I dont think you can count on Facey, or Angelino being here for very long, as they will probably be brought back by Man City at some point. I would absolutely enjoy watching Angelino play for the next 5 years, but it will probably be on tv in the EPL. Being an expansion team isn't easy, and having a win now audience, and building for the future at the same time is hard.

 

[Gene]

they're doing both simultaneously. signing stars to capture a fanbase and win some games, and starting a young academy for the future. I don't see what the problem is with all this

This x 2²

 

[FootyLovin]

Do your damn research before you have an opinion

Blasphemy!

 

[Gotham Gator]

Nice write-up. Being new to MLS I'm curious to see what develops year over year with contracts in this league. Does it make sense to extend players clearly paid under their talent level (T-Mac, Poku)? Or does one ride out contracts and have right of refusal to re-sign them at expiration, like an NBA scenario?
Will also be interesting to see CFG's attitude on Facey. They could certainly monetize him in January (Championship club I'd say). But what matters more to them, getting value out of him on a financial level or his ability to contribute to a winner here.

This is one interesting question for sure.

Our younger guys won't be eligible for free agency when their contracts end, but we could always lose them overseas on a free transfer. My feeling is that as some of the older guys with higher salaries come off contract, you extend the better younger guys at a higher salary and add new younger guys at the lower prices.

 

[Konrad]

My feeling is that as some of the older guys with higher salaries come off contract, you extend the better younger guys at a higher salary and add new younger guys at the lower prices.

Getting rid on Nemec with his $300,000 price tag will clear a lot of room for our younger boys

 

[XIValentin]

Getting rid on Nemec with his $300,000 price tag will clear a lot of room for our younger boys

one things for sure, poku deserves a good chunk of that money

 

[Gotham Gator]

Following up on these thoughts, here is a nice article on our young core players, with a focus on Patrick Mullins.

In his 2,200 MLS minutes, split between New England and NYCFC, Mullins has 9 goals and 6 assists (one of those coming in MLS Cup). He's also drawn a penalty and set one up. He back-pressures at a high level, he runs the channels, he combines with David Villa.

To put Mullins' numbers in perspective: Octavio Rivero has 10 goals and 3 assists in 2,264 minutes this season; Will Bruin has 10g/2a in 1,887; and Dom Dwyer has 9g/2a in 2,080. Mullins is rarely mentioned in the same breath as those guys, but perhaps he should be. Perhaps he's being underrated once again, as he was coming out of college despite all his success and accolades, and as he was ahead of last year's expansion draft.

I'd submit that NYCFC's core of young attacking talent is underrated as well. Mullins, Kwadwo Poku (4g/7a in 879 minutes), Tommy McNamara (5g/3a in 1,168 minutes) and Mix Diskerudare all aged 23 or 24, and three of the four have had genuinely productive seasons (Diskerud admits he hasn't been up to snuff, but anyone who says he lacks the talent to be a very good MLS player is pushing a foolish agenda). All four fit naturally around Villa, the true cornerstone of the team.

Bring them all back, convince Angelino and Shay Facey to stick around, finally get Khiry Shelton healthy, and that's seven starting-caliber players coming into the 2016 season aged 19-through-25 for what is otherwise the league's oldest team. Bear in mind that going young pays off in MLS, as Nos. 1-through-3 in the league PPG table boast three of the league's youngest rosters.​

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...llins-overlooked-talent-and-nycfcs-young-core