Will Packwood is not signing with New England
Optimistic me says CFG laid out a 3-year plan to build a winning ballclub:
Year 1: Assembly and evaluation, there will be growing pains
Year 2: Reinforce and strengthen, identify the needs and bring in some top talent, including a star DP in his prime
Year 3: Tweak and solidify, address all remaining weaknesses
Pessimistic me says they aren't committed:
Year 1: It's an easy league, those guys will be fine. Is our branding visible?
Year 2: Stop bothering us, here's a 38 year old your fans will recognize.
Year 3: ???
Oh god, I hope optimistic me is right.
You seem to be backing up my idea that year one was about setting the club up and writing the playing side off due to the limited options available to build a team with expansion squad rulesOptimist you is pretty much on the mark. It takes time and a bit of patience to build a team. There is a vision and a plan.
You seem to be backing up my idea that year one was about setting the club up and writing the playing side off due to the limited options available to build a team with expansion squad rules
Like I said don't understand the rules,so year 2 you can basically just sign players that other teams release as no good ?Eh, it's not like year 2 opens up a wealth of new player acquisition methods.
We have no academy, and we have little trade bait for grabbing guys from other MLS rosters. It's pretty much free agency for us for a while.
Our free agent acquisitions for this season were:
Villa
Saunders
Lampard
Fitzgerald
Mendoza
Mix
Poku
Nemec
Alvarez
Meara (loan)
Calle (loan)
Facey (loan)
The biggest compliment I can give this group is it's a "start." Villa's been great when healthy, Mix is fine, and the jury is still out on Calle. Mendoza was a complete whiff, Nemec has underperformed, Lampard spurned us, and the rest were never really expected to be stars.
Next year's free agent class needs to outperform this one, not only in success rate, but in total number and potential. There's about six guys in this class that were expected to be big contributors. We hit on 2 or 3, depending on Calle. Next year, I want more like 4 new major contributors, which means we need to throw more darts at the board, or hit more bulls-eyes.
I guess it really does just take time. Cycle a few big free agent classes through, keep what works, and work on getting that academy off the ground. Still, our first year effort was disappointing.
Like I said don't understand the rules,so year 2 you can basically just sign players that other teams release as no good ?
How does trading work then ?
Will Packwood is not signing with New England
So year 2 doesn't look much better ,overseas players teams don't want,other mls teams players they don't want,no academy players ,little chance of trading anyone ,and 1 more DP allowed.I meant international free agency.
For domestic free agency, my understanding is that MLS contracts are more like options. After every season, each team tells the MLS office which players they would like to keep again next year. Everyone you don't want to keep goes into a "re-entry" draft, where teams pick in order from that pool of players. Typically, those player suck.
You can also trade for players from other MLS teams. You can trade them other players, draft picks (there's also a rookie draft for young players graduating from their college teams), or money (but there's a limit to how much money you can give to another team.) Trades happen occasionally, but your resources to trade are pretty limited.
Last way to add players is to build an academy and grow them. We are about five years out from starting to graduate players, considering we only have a U-13/14 team so far.
So year 2 doesn't look much better ,overseas players teams don't want,other mls teams players they don't want,no academy players ,little chance of trading anyone ,and 1 more DP allowed.
So it looks like you carnt assemble s team of good players,but you can assemble a team of average players to gel and work as a good team
Good explanation and analysis, except I believe Mix went through the Allocation Ranking process for USMNT players and former MLS players returning from abroad.Eh, it's not like year 2 opens up a wealth of new player acquisition methods.
We have no academy, and we have little trade bait for grabbing guys from other MLS rosters. It's pretty much free agency for us for a while.
Our free agent acquisitions for this season were:
Villa
Saunders
Lampard
Fitzgerald
Mendoza
Mix
Poku
Nemec
Alvarez
Meara (loan)
Calle (loan)
Facey (loan)
The biggest compliment I can give this group is it's a "start." Villa's been great when healthy, Mix is fine, and the jury is still out on Calle. Mendoza was a complete whiff, Nemec has underperformed, Lampard spurned us, and the rest were never really expected to be stars.
Next year's free agent class needs to outperform this one, not only in success rate, but in total number and potential. There's about six guys in this class that were expected to be big contributors. We hit on 2 or 3, depending on Calle. Next year, I want more like 4 new major contributors, which means we need to throw more darts at the board, or hit more bulls-eyes.
I guess it really does just take time. Cycle a few big free agent classes through, keep what works, and work on getting that academy off the ground. Still, our first year effort was disappointing.
"There are possibilities in England and America," Packwood said. "Lots of different possibilities are being looked at. I'm sure the right choice will be made eventually. It's just a question of when."
I sure hope we are one of those options. Seriously, what would be the harm in signing him? We are starving for defensive depth.
I've never seen in all my years, a MLS team make big changes at mid-season. Maybe a DP or a signing or two but never a revamp like what happens sometimes in europe.
Kries said he'd be shocked if John played at all this season.I agree, I dont think we will see anything huge. Maybe DP3 but unless they know the DP4 slot is a real thing for next year I wouldn't be shocked to see them wait on it and see who they can get next summer. At the very minimum we need another CB, doesn't have to be a DP, but we have no depth at this point. Unless they know John is close, but I havn't seen any indications of that.