234 replies to this topic

[Brian.MLS]

Any word on Ngoma being on 1st team in '23.

He's with the first team now. Team has big plans for him and he's earned his spot. If he can stay healthy, I fully believe he will be starting by the end of the year, if not sooner.

[Thomas A Fina]

Good signing. Better than Klimala and Barlow imo.

Very low bar though

Still think we have two MLS level subs and then garbage (Klimala and Barlow) and no starter level #9

[Thomas A Fina]

He's with the first team now. Team has big plans for him and he's earned his spot. If he can stay healthy, I fully believe he will be starting by the end of the year, if not sooner.

Do they see him in the Morgan Luq spot or in the #9 spot?

And given his history, thats a big if

[bkizoulis]

Biggest thing for ngoma is having a healthy season. Being frequently injured will stunt his progression too. Hes still only 17 so he will have plenty of opportunities to play.

[iced1776]

Biggest thing for ngoma is having a healthy season. Being frequently injured will stunt his progression too. Hes still only 17 so he will have plenty of opportunities to play.

 

The whole org clearly put injury prevention up front this last year. I guess the injury crisis of 2021 spooked them. Young players were practically bubble wrapped, first team guys got a few extra days/weeks of recovery than usual. Minutes across competitions were closely managed as well, often given as a reason for unexpected subs.

[CRSvideo]

I have to say I'm not all that excited about this one.  Don't have a problem with us bringing him back as I didn't think what we saw was enough to go by, but we signed him for 3 years. I only really remember one game that he played well in.  The rest I recall were pretty mediocre.  So one good game gets you a 3 year deal?  Bringing him back for a bit more (including a pre-season) is fine to see more of what he might do, but that should have been it (maybe another loan?).  I don't see anything from what he gave us or in his history to think that he will likely perform more like he did that one good game and not like he did all the other ones.  A full pre-season with the team might help out, but then it also might not.  Since it's a done deal already I hope it works out, but I'm really concerned that we signed this guy for such a long contract with him only having had one good game with us so far.

[RedBullScouse]

I have to say I'm not all that excited about this one.  Don't have a problem with us bringing him back as I didn't think what we saw was enough to go by, but we signed him for 3 years. I only really remember one game that he played well in.  The rest I recall were pretty mediocre.  So one good game gets you a 3 year deal?  Bringing him back for a bit more (including a pre-season) is fine to see more of what he might do, but that should have been it (maybe another loan?).  I don't see anything from what he gave us or in his history to think that he will likely perform more like he did that one good game and not like he did all the other ones.  A full pre-season with the team might help out, but then it also might not.  Since it's a done deal already I hope it works out, but I'm really concerned that we signed this guy for such a long contract with him only having had one good game with us so far.

We only see him in the games, they see him every day in practice.   We all know the problem with guys who look great in practice but not in games (wasn't Ballouchi supposed to be the poster child for that?), but its still way more to go on than what we have.   

[iced1776]

I have to say I'm not all that excited about this one.  Don't have a problem with us bringing him back as I didn't think what we saw was enough to go by, but we signed him for 3 years. I only really remember one game that he played well in.  The rest I recall were pretty mediocre.  So one good game gets you a 3 year deal?  Bringing him back for a bit more (including a pre-season) is fine to see more of what he might do, but that should have been it (maybe another loan?).  I don't see anything from what he gave us or in his history to think that he will likely perform more like he did that one good game and not like he did all the other ones.  A full pre-season with the team might help out, but then it also might not.  Since it's a done deal already I hope it works out, but I'm really concerned that we signed this guy for such a long contract with him only having had one good game with us so far.

 

For new players entering the league, 3 years is the standard usually with another club option or two at the end. You'd probably get some funny looks from agents coming to the table with a one year deal. From the player's perspective, they have to uproot their life and move to a new country, learn a new language... they want some show of faith that they'll still have a job by the time they get settled in.

 

And from the club's perspective, what happens if we sign him for one year and he has a breakout season? Suddenly now instead of having a huge pay day at the end of it, he's walking for free at the end of the year. Maybe they could have pitched a 1 year + option, but again the player has a say here too.

 

All I can do to convince you that there's reason to hope he can contribute, just remember that Thierry Henry was awful his first few weeks (months?) for us too. Jumping straight into the middle of an MLS season clearly is not an easy thing to do.

[Metrohoboken]

Agree worth brining him in for 1M
Not sure what annual salary is
If they can bring the belgiumguy in then this is good work. More like NYC who has this type of depth in attackers

[Metro dummy]

If Elias Manoel scores more goals this year, then Lorenzo Insigne, then for once the "joke" is on Toronto for paying so much money on a "known" forward, rather than finding the proverbial "diamond" in the ruff.