iced1776

or the quality of other imports and mls teams is greatly inflated by the defeatist mindset of this board

It's been a long time since a team has won MLS Cup without significant help from quality attacking players that took some actual money to bring in. You have to go back to KC in 2013, and Colorado in 2010 before that. Yet Red Bulls continue to insist they can win it through youth and 'diamond in the rough' international signings.

Being skeptical of an approach that has not actually worked in some time is not "defeatist".

https://www.onceamet...mlett-red-bulls

I don't agree, but an interesting counterpoint and argument for why he's still around and may continue to be.

 

Ben Cork put a whole lot of words into basically saying that we shouldn't blame Hamlett for anything because he was set up to fail and is a nice guy. Both of those two things are very likely true, but imo Sporting Director is too important of a position to forego accountability for any reason. This is very reminiscent of how defensive our local media was of Armas despite such glaring signs that he wasn't doing his job well enough.

 

You don't get a pass on a $2M bust because someone else made a misleading headline. Or for near total inactivity in the transfer market because you didn't have any experience in a similar role beforehand. There are no participation trophies here.

i would be shocked if Hamlet didnt get reassigned to scout after this fiasco. 

 

Scout? This man needs to be reassigned to fan.

You can argue about who's valuation is more accurate, but the disappointing piece is that it looks like we are still very much only looking for diamonds in the rough. I was really hoping with Thelwell and Struber on board, Red Bull would open the checkbook and just let them spend fair market price on the players they want. 

 

If you have $600k to spend on a leftback, at some point you have to just go get a leftback that's worth $600k. If you're holding out until a club is, for whatever reason, willing to sell you a player worth multiple times that, then odds are good you end the off-season without a new player altogether. That's what has been happening the last couple seasons.

Edwards had played a fair bit on the left as well, apparently. Theres always a small chance he winds up there.

 

I've seen conflicting opinions on this. At least one Stoke fan has said that like Duncan, he has only played on the left in an emergency and like Duncan, didn't look very good on that side.

Doesn't say whether its straight from a source of just Ives' perception but the article says NYRB won't be making a bid.

 

Taxi will want at least a TAM-level contract wherever he lands. Seems like the ship has sailed but in a vacuum I'd be happy giving him Parker's TAM.

There's also an early Sal Zizzo reference.

 

I was wondering how triggered NYRB fans would get hearing Zizzo being the second player to get a call-out after Adams lol

 

Awesome video and a rare insight into what coaches really do between picking the lineups.

 

But Jesse for the love of god pay for a little bit more bandwidth, made the video tough to watch

 
You get what you pay for when you hire a guy who had never been a Sporting Director: mistakes.

Assistant coach to sporting director is still one of the wildest promotions I've ever heard about in sports, I don't think the pure insanity of that move has ever been truly appreciated.

I'm risking a thread split here but the discussion of how transfer dollars are spent piqued my interest and I totaled up the inbound/outbound transfers since 2011.

 

According to Transfermrkt, we've sold players for about $14.3M and spent $13.7M on inbound transfers. Throw in the a few more mil to account for building the academy and USL team from the ground, and it looks like at minimum Red Bull is reinvesting what they make in sales.

 

Still some fair questions on whether you'd expect a bit more in the 'inbound' column given the money Red Bull is saving on guys like Adams and Clark, or given their deep pockets to begin with. Just thought it was interesting how close they've come to breaking even on the transfers.

Kyle Duncan, who made a whopping 2 appearances for the Valenciennes reserves before coming back to NY had even less of a resumée than Harper does.

Duncan's level of experience now is still arguably lesser than Edwards'.

I'm not saying that those two are world beater signings, but let's not get carried away with the doom and gloom.

 

Even if Edwards is a small step up from Duncan, that's not what was holding our team back last year.

 

Still plenty of off-season left and at least some hints that Red Bull just might spend something, but I'm not buying any idea that the first team moves made so far have made us a materially better team. Imo we're actually worse.

I am of the opinion any academy signings are a good thing. I don't care if he doesn't help first team this year. There's quite a bit of negativity here.   

 

I don't think anyone is annoyed with this signing, or any academy/USL signing in a vacuum. But lots of fans are simply and understandably fed up with the lack of investment in the top end of our roster, and don't share your confidence that a championship can be won through the youth pipeline alone. So you're going to see a lot of eye rolls from those fans with each of these announcements until a true impact signing is made.

Concerning for who?  For Hot?

 

I'm guessing he means the academy as a whole if players are leaving "just cause". Could be seen as a lack of faith that we're the right spot to grow their careers.

Did I miss the Kyle Duncan rumors?  Surprised to see him left out of so many lineups.  I don't think it's a stretch to predict Long will be gone in the summer, but I wasn't aware so many see Duncan moving on as well.

 

I think some are just assuming that Edwards might be a little bit better than Duncan. I've got Duncan penciled into my week 1 lineup, that's his spot to lose.

Don't mean to be harsh, but that team doesn't look solid at all. It looks like one that maybe wins 10 games in a 34-game season. Weak midfield, bad centerbacks, mediocre-to-poor fullbacks and strikers.

 

Yeah still time left in the off season and Thelwell has been so active I'm hopeful some bigger signings are to come, but right now that lineup is objectively worse than the one that got us to 6th place in the East with a first round playoff exit last year.

 

At minimum, if we're talking about being title contenders, that lineup likely needs another upgrade at striker, holding midfield, and possibly both CB spots.

From the style of play, sounds like this is basically a direct Ben Mines upgrade?