🆕🚨Lawrence Ennali ma zostać nowym zawodnikiem @HoustonDynamo‼️ Piłkarz @GornikZabrzeSSA opuścił już zgrupowanie i udał się do USA, gdzie przejdzie testy medyczne. Kwota transferu to ponad 2 mln euro + bonusy + procent od kolejnego transferu.— Sebastian Staszewski (@s_staszewski) July 8, 2024 ℹ️ Informujemy, że Lawrence Ennali wyjechał z obozu i udał się na testy medyczne do klubu z MLS-u. pic.twitter.com/9AhkwruRYg— Górnik Zabrze (@GornikZabrzeSSA) July 8, 2024 It is being reported the Dynamo are about to sign Lawrence Ennali from Górnik Zabrze. The club has already announced that the player is taking a medical for his new team. He is a 22yo German winger
Sources: Houston Dynamo are finalizing a deal to sign winger Lawrence Ennali from Górnik Zabrze.Dynamo will pay around $3m fee. Ennali to be U-22 Initiative.Ennali, 22, dynamic winger. Experience in Germany and Poland. https://t.co/U5YCoyOrnS— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 9, 2024 The Ennali rumor is now Tom Bogert official. The article attached to the tweet doesn’t offer much info aside from what’s in the tweet.
One of these days, the team might sign someone who's name or team isn't at the bottom of the dark web I guess we got our one high level, star player & that will just have to be good enough
We have a money-ball soccer club. I'm actually pretty damn ok with the approach. Theoretically if the money-ball techniques are used in conjunction with competitive spending then the club can fight to be one of the best in the league. Hyper efficient spending becomes a sustainable edge. If the smart-spending techniques are used to avoid spending at the levels of the competition then I don't think it will work to resurrect this franchise.
…and I want to remind everyone that 75% of all clubs on the planet are moneyball clubs. It’s only 3-5 clubs in every league that are big spenders.
I agree. However this is counter to narrative, hype and message that has been coming from the FO. They said "we hear ya about going out and getting star players, better players. Just be patient and wait til summer." Grabbing players from parts unknown may be the right thing to do financially, and hell- it might be the best thing to do in the long run, but it doesn't line up with what we were being fed.
You may well be right. I certainly don’t see 100% of what the FO is saying over here in Austin. Having acknowledged that and not trying to disagree, I don’t remember any messaging from the FO that “stars” are coming. Everything I see them doing is consistent with what I heard them say they are going to do. They are adding pieces consistent with their approach that does seem to be working.
In this one instance where it is a U-22 initiative, 9 times out of 10 with any team it is going to be a player you never heard of. It's the nature of that slot. With the occasional exception, you aren't grabbing talented, known U-22s from any high profile league. I'm not sure I've heard of a single U-22 signing made by any team in the league previous to their actual signing. Looking at some of this kids highlights (with the caveat that highlight films are not particularly useful in general), looks extremely technical on the ball. Quick, not afraid to take on defenders. A $3 million fee is not insignificant historically for this team, especially coming off of a "record" transfer fee (whatever amount that is) for Ponce. I'm happy they are going out and trying to fill what have been the obvious holes on the team this season.
I might be wrong, but I don't recall hearing anything about "we'll be signing star players this summer". I heard, "we'll be adding attacking reinforcements this summer". They've spent at least $7.5 mil on two moves (I say at least, because if I recall correctly the previous record transfer was $4.5 mil so Ponce would be somewhere above that). Relative to the entire history of this team, that's pretty material.
I've been in multiple meetings with Asher where he said bigger & better was coming and that he's heard the complaints about not having star players. Maybe for some, getting players from the witness protection program might make them feel like expectations have been met & these are the "bigger and better" players but it ain't working for me. The approximate 7.5 million spent sure as hell better be more than "reinforcements". They have to be major upgrades and game changers. And all you have to do is watch that wet noodle of a performance last night for proof that we need upgrades and game changers While it's true that a wet raccoon would be an upgrade at forward, that doesn't mean I'm happy to have a wet raccoon on the team. I want and deserve better
If you're reading this, you don't give a **** where a player has played and even though there are decent odds you're familiar with any given player, you are smart enough to know it doesn't matter and you just want more dubs and shiny things. If you aren't reading this, the odds of you knowing any player anywhere are near 0 and the need to recognize a new player increases. That said, a proper amount of wins, style, and gods honest human connection can overcome that. It's not like we're known for having world famous, or any level of famous, talent but damnit if that talent didn't make a relationship with Houston.
I never heard of Sviatchenko before — but I’m in total love with the guy. He is pure Dynamo to me. Honest. Smart. Hard worker. Damn good guy. Guy I’d love to have a beer with.
He indeed is a good player and seems like a great guy. You may not have heard of him but you've heard of Celtic and FC Midtjylland & you know what a player of the year award is. His accomplishments and teams played for are not the same as a guy who one time scored a goal against Brighton or some guy from a team called Gornik Zabrze. Sure, 5 years from now, we could look back and see that these moves were among the greatest in team history. In the mean time, please forgive me for not throwing the parade just yet.
Asked Olsen about the possibility of playing Ferreira and Ponce together. “No, why would I do that?” Says they could change if they needed to but they play with one number 9 and he plans on continuing to do that. #Hustlin4More— Bayou City Soccer (@BayouCitySoccer) July 15, 2024 The Dynamo will not have 3 DPs on the field together any time soon.
Big summer in Houston! These two signings represent our club’s largest investment ever in one transfer window. Largest transfer fee for DP in club history. Largest transfer fee for U22 Initiative player in club history. pic.twitter.com/Tdg41qI4SM— Asher Mendelsohn (@asherhdfc) July 18, 2024
To be fair, that is the point of U22 initiative players. Young developmental project players you hope to sell later for a profit. I suspect that any team that is not doing this successfully is going to struggle to compete with the teams that are. It increases your player budget to sell for profit. So if we had heard of this guy he would be less of a prospect for profit.
Also important to remember U22 players only cost ~$200k against the cap. That’s no matter what the number is on the salary release when it comes out.
It's an apples and oranges comparison. Sviatchenko is 32 years old. If he'd spent his entire career with obscure teams and we signed him at 32, then I'd have some concerns. Would be like when Jordan signed David Rocha. Ennali is 22. If you want named clubs, though, he came up with Hannover and made some appearances with them. Played a full season with Rot-Weiss Essen. Surely you've heard of those clubs. As for Gornik Zabrze, I'd assume you've heard of Giorgos Giakoumakis? Scored a ton of goals for Atlanta and was sold to Cruz Azul? Guess where he was playing at age 26? Gornik Zabrze. There's a world of clubs you've never heard of, doesn't make them bad or players from there bad. It's kind of like corporate college recruiting. When I participated in college recruiting for a former employer, there was a tendency to be wowed by names like Harvard, etc. I maintained then and still do now that I'd rather have a top 10 graduate from a second tier school than the 150th ranked graduate from Harvard.
Agree that the two players are an apples and oranges comparison. That's why I didn't initially compare the two & use them as an example of contrast.
Are the two things mutually exclusive? It's going to be rare that any U22 signing around the league is a "win now" gamechanger.