I'm having a hard time thinking that this is 100% nailed down. You think Almiron would consistently make the bench or better at MCFC? If MCFC wouldn't take him, then I don't see how from Almiron's perspective it would make more sense to sign with Atlanta than with NYCFC (not CFG), assuming NYCFC was in the market.
Perhaps I'm being thick, though.
I'm curious whether our strategy will change as TAM increases or salary cap otherwise increases. Perhaps it will change by degrees (for example, we'll be targeting, say, Portuguese-league players instead of Belgian-league. Or more Belgian-league players) vs. dimensionally (for example, less DPs for more TAM-level players).
I had a long post that I was working during class last night but I guess it didnt post.
The competition was between Atlanta and Arsenal to sign Almiron. Almiron probably went to Atlanta because Atlanta offered alot more money than Arsenal. I think this is an important point because until MLS solidifies itself as one of the top tier two leagues below the Big 5, an MLS team is always going to have to overpay for a talent like Almiron if big clubs are involved with the bidding as well.
Whether Almiron would have consistently made the bench or better at MCFC is not really relevant to why more big clubs like Man City and Chelsea are buying up young talent players. You need to take the lens out and move away from looking at this from the perspective of NYCFC as an individual, when in reality we are a subsidiary of a global football conglomerate.
The model that CFG is currently working with is to invest in a ton of talent young players, if one pans out for Man City then great. Everyone else gets loaned to a lower club or sold for profit. Signing a young talented player for a multi-million dollar transfer fee for NYCFC does not make sense for CFG for a number of reasons.
First, if NYCFC signs someone like Almiron and he pans out, there is no easy way for CFG to move him to Man City. MLS controls the contract and they are going to dictate that he gets sold for the highest price to the highest bidder. Second, in this situation CFG would have to share transfer profits with MLS. From CFG's perspective, it makes a lot more sense to have Almiron sign for CFG and then loan him out to NYCFC. They control 100% of the transfer profits and they can move him to whatever team that they please. He would still count as a DP because of his salary, but CFG benefits more than if NYCFC/MLS signs him.
In Villalba's case, we could make an arrangement like Herrera. CFG can loan him out to NYCFC and eat the multi-million dollar transfer fee and NYCFC could bring him on as a TAM player instead of a DP.
Our DP philosophy, needs to be to sign the best DP for our price point period. You only have 3 DP slots and if we really want to CFG's ability to spend translate to on the field success in the current MLS economy, the only thing we need to worry about is hitting home runs on our DP signings. I don't care who they are, where their from, whats their age, how much they make. They just need to produce. We have seen what the lack of DP production has done to this team over the last three years.
I am totally ok with not making 650k allocations dollars for a max transfer profit deal from a DP if CFG is willing to spend millions to bring us players like Herrera. I don't think discussion of Facey or Angelino is really relevant because the league was much different three years ago then it was now. There's a reason why we haven't seen guys like them get loaned to us again.
