Twitter Is Ablaze With Talk Of Frank Lampard, Too.

[TonyM]

And I think you are over estimating the number of soccer fans in New York City. The market has to be groomed. Say what you want about NYRB - they have a decent product with a decent star - they average 15k fans a night in a brand new stadium. It's easily accessible from New Jersey and Lower Manhattan.

Their most famous American player is??? Bobby Convey?

Soccer isn't what it is around the world here in the US. It's a sport for hipsters and white men with extra cash in their pocket. What is going to draw the average American is different than what will draw guys like you and me.

For Joey Bagodonuts, there's no difference between Mix and Xavi. We're not talking a transcendent talent like Messi or Cristiano Rinaldo.

This is ADUG and CFG though. Not anything that MLS has seen before. They will deliver in a new way.

I'm just saying not to waste a DP on a fringe US player. Save it for those that'll fit the new style that Kreiss and Txiki will deliver. BTW Lampard tonight doesn't much look like that though ;-) .

Mix and other future US stars should join if possible - not DPs. That in an ideal world obviously.

 

[Trone]

This whole process has to be really challenging for the front office, the expansion draft is in November and they dont know what the salary cap is as of right now. Very tough environment to build a team in. Nov seems like a bad time for the expansion draft, roster should be close to settled by then, maybe that is why Montreal traded most of their expansion picks back to the original team for allocation money in 2011

 

[Trone]

Question for the board - how many DIFFERENT UNIQUE whatever you want to call it fans will walk through the turnstyles for NYCFC's 17 home games next year? Let's say we average 20k a game for the season, totaling 340k in paid attendance throughout the year. Out of those 340k tickets, how many will be different people? 50k? 100k?

I would say closer to 250K unique, i cant see more than 5K people attending every single game.

 

[Kjbert]

Most of the US players are fringe players - let's be honest. You could argue that Mix is one of the Top 10 Americans playing abroad.

It's not like we're arguing about him or Michael Bradley who is a Top 50 International Talent.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Most of the US players are fringe players - let's be honest. You could argue that Mix is one of the Top 10 Americans playing abroad.

It's not like we're arguing about him or Michael Bradley who is a Top 50 International Talent.

In the Tippeligaen (and was rejected on a stint in the Belgian League)? If that is true there is quite a lot of progress to be made in player development.

 

[TonyM]

It'll be interesting to see which academy players are allowed join and how they match up against International players. Marcos Lopes for example would ( it's hoped) be as good as any of the US attacking players and he's only 18. It'd be interesting to see if NYC fans could slowly turn into Man City fans as they take 4 youths to heart. ;-)

Moving the cream of the youths to NY may be risky for their careers but it also could be a great challenge for them and a huge marketing coup for both clubs.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Lampard was very poor tonight.

Perhaps he just had a poor outing or international football is a bridge too far for him now.

 

[Kjbert]

In the Tippeligaen (and was rejected on a stint in the Belgian League)? If that is true there is quite a lot of progress to be made in player development.

I assume you are overseas and don't watch the USMNT a lot. I would argue that we have one of the Top 50 players in the world in Michael Bradley, a Top 5 GK in Tim Howard and another guy in Clint Dempsey who is Top 150 in the world. Outside of that, I think the senior team development has been poor over the past 12 years, but we probably have a Top 5 U-23 crop of players internationally. They should compete for a medal at the Olympics in 2016 and in 2018 who knows.

 

[Trone]

It'll be interesting to see which academy players are allowed join and how they match up against International players. Marcos Lopes for example would ( it's hoped) be as good as any of the US attacking players and he's only 18. It'd be interesting to see if NYC fans could slowly turn into Man City fans as they take 4 youths to heart. ;-)

Moving the cream of the youths to NY may be risky for their careers but it also could be a great challenge for them and a huge marketing coup for both clubs.

I for one would def be a man city fan under this scenario, If youth players came here on loan and i got to them when they moved back I would certainly continue to follow and root for them. Could easily see myself being a man city fan if this happen, as of now I dont have an EPL allegiance. I am a Napoli SSC fan and now NYCFC, I could use an EPL team

 

[SebastianBlue]

I assume you are overseas and don't watch the USMNT a lot. I would argue that we have one of the Top 50 players in the world in Michael Bradley, a Top 5 GK in Tim Howard and another guy in Clint Dempsey who is Top 150 in the world. Outside of that, I think the senior team development has been poor over the past 12 years, but we probably have a Top 5 U-23 crop of players internationally. They should compete for a medal at the Olympics in 2016 and in 2018 who knows.

It was more a tongue-in-cheek comment mate, as I can think of 15 Americans that I would put ahead of Diskerud in terms of talent and potential (not even including established, better players like Dempsey and Bradley, though I wouldn't include either in a top 50) and you're right, I don't even often watch the US national team.

You do produce very, very good goalkeepers, though, so I can't argue that point at all.

 

[SteveMcSteve]

I would say closer to 250K unique, i cant see more than 5K people attending every single game.

Even if NYCFC only ends up having 5K season ticket holders, that doesn't mean every single remaining person who buys a ticket will only go to 1 game. A lot of people will go to a few games, as I'm sure NYCFC will sell partial season ticket packages and flex plans.

 

[TonyM]

I for one would def be a man city fan under this scenario, If youth players came here on loan and i got to them when they moved back I would certainly continue to follow and root for them. Could easily see myself being a man city fan if this happen, as of now I dont have an EPL allegiance. I am a Napoli SSC fan and now NYCFC, I could use an EPL team

Let's hope

I wonder how many other players too could join from the other partner clubs and academies around the world? Could it make sense to concentrate on each one at a time?

 

[Kjbert]

dont root for MCFC - root for Everton, the People's Club

 

[Trone]

dont root for MCFC - root for Everton, the People's Club

I hear you but if say 4 nyc fc loanees went on to be in the starting XI for MCFC it would be hard not to pull for them

 

[Kjbert]

Good point. But if they were that good, for the most part, they would never see the US. They would be on loan to a mid-table EPL squad or sitting the bench for MCFC.

 

[Trone]

Let's hope

I wonder how many other players too could join from the other partner clubs and academies around the world? Could it make sense to concentrate on each one at a time?

as many as the cap will dictate, the good thing about using a DP on say marcos lopes is he would only count as $100K against the cap, can get two DPs for $387K and probably anothe player at the max contract of $387K. If any of those youth players are really that good, it would make a lot of sense to bring them over as youth DP

 

[Trone]

Good point. But if they were that good, for the most part, they would never see the US. They would be on loan to a mid-table EPL squad or sitting the bench for MCFC.

i dont much about them but our Enlgish friends on this thread seem to give some of them very high marks

 

[Trone]

a bit old but...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...manchester-citys-youth-team-to-keep-an-eye-on

 

[SebastianBlue]

i dont much about them but our Enlgish friends on this thread seem to give some of them very high marks

I don't think Lopes or Huws (the two I alluded to being good enough to make or bench next year) being sent to NYCFC as that would disrupt their progress.

But Smith-Brown, Ambrose, Intima, Hiwula, and Bossaerts would be perfect for your squad.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I can't see us signing Mix and Xavi. As you'd presume it'd be set up with a 3 man midfield, Lampard and Xavi with Mix just ahead of them. As others have said i don't think the two behind Mix would have the legs to deal with the pace and power of the MLS.

For a destroyer, isn't that Alonso (the Puerto Rican/US guy) from the Sounders that type of player? Would he be worth getting?

Alonso is probably the best destroyer in MLS. Some of their matches leave me believing he's their entire defense. He's ridiculously fast and has an unbelievable work rate on both sides.

He would be great, but I don't think we'll have a chance to get him, as we don't have anything to offer. I can't imagine Seattle wouldn't protect him during the draft.

I also don't know if he would count as an American or fill an international slot. He defected from Cuba after he had played a match for them. Otherwise, I believe he'd be on the US WC squad.

As for the 2012 Olympic cycle (now 23-24), they really got burned by Sean Johnson crashing them out of qualifying. It killed the upward trajectory of guys like Mix, Agudelo, Boyd, etc. Most of them are just now getting their feet back under them as far as progressing. Olympics would have been their big shop window, and they all missed it despite having a lot of quality on that team.

Boyd would be a fun guy to have, but there's no way he wouldn't be a DP. The same goes for Agudelo.

I wonder how realistic it would be to try to buy someone like Duane Holmes from Huddersfield or even get a Marc Pelosi on loan from LFC. Marc is just now getting back from a serious injury, and at 18-19 yrs old, he's unlikely to step into a defensive/b2b role in their lineup any time soon.

Actually, now that I think about it, Danny Williams would be a hell of a guy in the destroyer role. He's another one that had some tough luck or would otherwise be an established Bundesliga starter. He definitely has the skill and athleticism to play that deep mf role. I love his motor.