I hope everyone is fired up for the opening of the MLS transfer window today. I'm sure Fish and his brain trust are looking to be aggressive improving the team.
MLS changes on the day the summer transfer window opens... just in time for Chris Leitch and the other geniuses who run the Quakes to take advantage of them MLS officially announced roster rule changes. Teams are now permitted either of these two options:- 3 Designated Players + 3 U-22 Initiative slotsOR- 2 DPs + 4 U-22 + $2m GAM pic.twitter.com/QbrkppjG0K— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 18, 2024 I know it reads confusing, but here's a graphic per the league release that makes it simplerTeams must declare which path they chose before the start of the season. For this year, they have to declare by August 14 (end of transfer window) https://t.co/KrFfUoiT1b pic.twitter.com/PsOeIG607M— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 18, 2024 The "up to $2m GAM" is because the GAM is discretionary funds,. i.e. each club would pay that out of their own pocket to increase their salary cap https://t.co/o754dctf8Z— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 18, 2024
Not holding my breath. We may pick up an itinerant MLS journeyman, but I'll bet that's the extent of it.
Disagree, Quakes need a defensive midfielder AND a #9 AND a CB... but the most important is a #9 considering the Quakes are averaging 0.4 goals scored per game under Ian RusseLL. The only way to make it happen is to sell Gruezo for any price above $1, freeing up that third DP spot, use it to sign a #9 because good ones are expensive, and bring in a DM and CB with U-22 slots or other mechanisms... trade Ebobisse, Yueill, Beason etc. to add the GAM to make those other additions if necessary. Any GM with an IQ over 80 should know that's pretty much the only path forward... so let's see if Chris Leitch does. Armchair Analyst: What every Western Conference team needs in the summer transfer windowIncluding the Galaxy potentially adding the ultimate game-changing super-sub.https://t.co/HbWSgwjcVo pic.twitter.com/gdMzVkxi7y— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) July 18, 2024 San Jose Earthquakes Top Priority: Find a midfield ball-winner Open DP slots: 0 Open U22 Initiative slots: 3 If you’re dead last in the Shield race, then you have a bunch of top priorities. But the big one for the Quakes right now is either remind Carlos Gruezo of what his main job is, or get someone in to do that job for him. Gruezo has been massively disappointing given how high his level was in his first MLS stint, as well as during his time in Germany and with Ecuador’s national team. The entire backline needs examination as well, and goalkeeper has been an open wound all season. That said, with both Daniel and JT Marcinkowski expected to be back in 2025, I’m not sure there’s anything lined up for that spot (nor, I guess, should there be). I actually like San Jose’s attacking pieces, though Jeremy Ebobisse probably only has the next three months to prove he should be part of the group going forward. Anyway, on a team that’s been this bad, I don’t think anybody’s job is safe.
What are the odds Peter Vermes calls up Chris Letich and something like this happens. PV: Yo Leitch lets make a trade and help each other out. CL: What do you have in mind? PV: I'll send you Alan Pulido and we'll pick up half his salary, a draft pick on the condition you send us some GAM. CL: We'd be interested in Alan Pulido, would you take Greuzo & GAM? PV: We'll take GAM Headline: SKC Send Alan Pulido + Draft Pick to SJ for GAM
Pulido is a disaster as a DP, they look better without him, Willy Agada is 10x better. Pulido is 33, on a big DP contract, and has 5 goals in 25 games. Oh and he has some season ending injury just about every other season, surely that will only get better as he ages into his mid 30s... Quakes need to spend HLM-level money again this time on a DP striker, you have to pay big money for goals in pro soccer. 24 year old 93rd percentile in goals 33 year old, 31st percentile in goals
I wonder if Gruezo’s “level” was really that high in his first MLS stint. I looked at his numbers one time and they were marginally better in things like tackles and interceptions but not like way better. 30% better? Something like that. But then again I don’t remember what he looked like on the field back then. When I watch him it’s hard to imagine a player that was ever really good. He just seems serviceable. Maybe he’s lost a step or 2 and as a result he plays more conservatively on defense? And on offense he is hopeless. I’ve never seen him take a good shot. We had him take a PK last year and it was terrible. Easy save.
Looking at the data, FC Dallas didn't have a great defense but it was pretty good (44 GA in 2018 for example). Might have more to do with the defenders than Gruezo (like Matt Hedges and Reggie Cannon).
If the Quakes want to be relevant this needs to be the standard Gabriel Pec: age 23, 11 goals 10 assists KILLA 🅿️'SRiqui, Joske, and Gabriel connect to find the first of the match. pic.twitter.com/Auo3bik2zB— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 21, 2024 Mateusz Bogusz: age 22, 15 goals 6 assists 1814861286230143369 is not a valid tweet id
Agree, but that would require spending good money on transfers. So far we've only done it once with Hernán in all these yrs. It's probably one of the reasons Kuntz didn't become our GM because he most likely had a plan that required opening the check book more than Fisher's ever done.
The summer transfer window is open and other teams are acquiring cheap strikers that are not Ebobisse or Judd 1815043053318496657 is not a valid tweet id
Kuntz came into possibly the best hand ever dealt a GM in MLS. He had something like $12-15M coming off the books from players like Chicharito and Costa. And he had an ownership group who was wiling to further open up the checkbook beyond those recouped costs. And he had Riqui Puig to build around. He's made good choices so far, for sure. But to think he'd have anything remotely like those kinds of opportunities with the Quakes is grand folly.
Quakes don't want to be relevant. They gave up long ago. Thay are now sleepwalking through the summer transfer window, pretending not to notice. Rick Astley has left the building, skipped town.
Um, the summer window just opened. We'll see how much we're sleepwalking thru it within the next month. I don't think we have much of anything left under the cap, so I don't think we have much room to manuever unless we make some trades. Don't know about the overall budget.
you should be their PR guy. you can make up excuses for this team faster than they can think them up for themselves. amazing... 1) Summer window just opened (never mind fans haven't heard anything about Quakes plans for adding players or doing anything to stop the embarrassment) 2) Quakes need more time before they can be expected to do or say anything 3) There's nothing under the cap, even if the Quakes wanted to do something 4) There's no room to maneuver 5) No money in the budget
I’m not doing PR. I’m simply stating realities.,We likely have very little room under the cap. We likely have little left in the FishBudget. I didn’t say anything about “communicating plans” one way or another.
After all the crap seasons we've had to deal with since Fisher got his hands on our team 16 years ago, we're now on pace to have the-worst-season-by-any-team-in-MLS-ever. That's troublesome for me. I don't buy the excuses.
It's not a question of room under the cap in San Jose. It's more a question of desire to improve. There's none. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Let’s say we have the will, for argument’s sake. What’s the way? Making big moves when you’re up against the cap requires doing things like buying out contracts and trading players. We’re unlikely to do the former because FishBudget. We could try the latter but you have to give away value to get value back. You could wind up better or worse. If you have a surplus in one area and a deficit in another you can try to rebalance. But we have a deficits everywhere, not to mention that we don’t have a lot of great players with great value.