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jamison

Member Since 05 Nov 2003
Offline Last Active Aug 31 2023 07:49 PM

#1434293 Jorge Cabezas Hurtado to RNBY

Posted by jamison on 14 August 2023 - 11:00 AM

Can someone tell our scouting department they can look for people who can actually shave?????

 

Messi's first season was 2004. We're basically trying to compete with the guy by signing a team full of people born after he started playing.  In 5-6 years, that math works out. For now...we're fucked. 




#1434277 What kind of budget do we have for the summer?

Posted by jamison on 13 August 2023 - 03:17 PM

This isn't an entirely fair comparison since they play different positions, but I was curious about how effective Gazdag has been for Philly, and how we've struggled to have a big signing hit for us in terms of scoring goals during that same time (Klimala, Vanzier). 

 

I took the publicly available transfer fee information, and then the MLS Player Union guaranteed salary data. 

 

If you take transfer fee & 2021-2023  salary data, Gazdag has cost Philly $4.07M. Klimala/Vanzier cost us $13.03M across transfer fee & 2021-2023  salary data, minus whatever we got for Klimala which I kind of assume was $0, but, who knows. 

 

In the last 3 years, Gazdag has scored 35g, 24a across 6085 MLS regular season minutes. 

 

In the last 3 years, Klimala/Vanzier has scored 15g, 11a across 4410 MLS regular season minutes. 

 

So, each goal or assist has cost Philly $69.1k.

 

Each goal or assist has cost NY $501.1k.

 

Again, it's not entirely apples to apples since they play different positions and I'm comparing one of the best acquisitions in recent MLS history to two of the worse performing ones, but...two teams playing a similar style looking for foreign talent went into the market and spent money. 

 

One had Ernst Tanner. One did not. 

 

I wish RBNY would spend more money, sure. But...at times they have...and they've fucking sucked at it. 

 

I'm not going to make it, but one could make an argument that we'd be sort of alright with the amount of money Austria is sending us, if the people spending it weren't absolute fucking clowns with that money. Maybe at some point Austria is like "eh...maybe we just keep the money here..."

 

Again, I'm not defending Austria, but next time they are going to send us a blank check, try not to hand it to an empty suit. 

 

Whatever money they send us isn't going to save us, if it's going to the same front office we have looking for talent now. 




#1430639 Enough excuses

Posted by jamison on 28 May 2023 - 04:34 PM

With Struber gone I think we've gone back to being a high floor, low ceiling team. We can't score for shit, but we are solid defensively. We stay in games, but aren't quite good enough to win them consistently. We're average. Hard to play against, but average.

 

Getting Luqui back should help a bit over time if Lesesne can figure out a way to play to his strengths; getting Morgan back will help. With all of our pieces, we're still 1-2 strong offensive players away from being a "good" team, but we're solid enough to make the playoffs with everyone healthy. Ndam has filled in well enough, so that has me less worried about when Reyes & others go on INTL duty, but the only real hope for this season turning into something that we're happy about rests on the sporting director realizing that we need more offense, and I think some combination of Morgan coming back & Vanzeir catching a hot streak.

 

Those seem somewhere between possible & not likely. Ideally, we get some quality replacements so the likes of Barlow & D. Nealis don't see the field regularly. But, that seems like our fate for now. I think we scrape it back together & make the playoffs, but we go out in the first round again as we'd need some sort of big splash signing to come in & make a difference, and I don't think that's very likely. 

 

If nothing else comes out of this year: We dropped Struber & seem to have found a good dude in Lesesne. 

 

Honestly, I don't hate that. I think a worse result would've been Struber doing just well enough to renew his contract. If nothing else, we've gotten out of that scenario.




#1425616 Article on Edelman and Tolkin

Posted by jamison on 02 March 2023 - 08:20 PM

An article in the Star-Ledger!
Remember when there was a reporter assigned to us?
https://www.nj.com/r...tar-politi.html

How old do you think we are?

 

(take the over).




#1425139 Media Day 2023

Posted by jamison on 21 February 2023 - 07:57 PM

Media day is always a fun day. Thanks, Dan.




#1425137 Media Day 2023

Posted by jamison on 21 February 2023 - 07:20 PM


Of course, I wouldn't ask otherwise. I really hope Edelman doesn't settle for Israel ala Klimala.

 

Tolkin: http://www.metrofana...ory.jsp?ID=8522

2008, pre MLS Cup they had a supporters' summit & served lunch. I was sitting there by myself & Jonathan Bornstein sits down next to me, we ate lunch (quick, 10 mins). He was on Chivas at the time and being the MLS Cup, he had the weekend free (ahem).

I was like "You should come to New York...could be big!"

 

Sadly, never worked out. 




#1425020 *Sigh* Another preseason

Posted by jamison on 19 February 2023 - 11:53 AM

Well, glad that pre-season is in the books with seemingly no major injuries. 

 

Coming into the off-season the needed to improve the forward depth, improve the forward quality, get rid of Klimala and figure out the Aaron Long situation/replacement. 

 

Seems like they hit on 3 of those 4, which we would've been optimistic to expect. Still a long way to go to see what Vanzier turns into, etc., but all things considered it was a very good offseason. As long as Reyes & Nealis stay healthy, them not getting more quality depth at CB won't be an issue, but it's a long season and we need to try to find at the very least a standard MLS-level center back, kinda like we did with Corey Burke at FWD. Someone to just reliably spell the two we have without us throwing someone back there who is playing out of position, or counting too much on guys like Nocita who may turn out to be great- who knows- but you can't count on that going into this season. 

 

Overall, I'm optimistic that this team is better than last year's squad, and hopefully Struber has learned as well. It's all basically up to him at this point; gotta improve that home record, a major problem from last year.

 

Fingers eternally crossed, Vamos Metro. 




#1424581 Congratulations on 21 years, MetroFanatic!

Posted by jamison on 05 February 2023 - 12:58 PM

You're so old it's unbelievable. 

 

From Harraby Lad to "what is this word...Qatar?", it wouldn't have been the same shitting on Patistuta, NickSack & Chris Heck without you. 

 

Here's to 21 more years of me reading this site to see if we've signed someone who anyone has actually heard of, and then going back to work. 




#1424554 2023 Jersey is "different"

Posted by jamison on 04 February 2023 - 11:57 AM

Definitely White and Black halves

Right, but you know the drill..... somebody else will be the halves and we'll be the halves-nots. 




#1424268 Klimala to Hapoel Be'er Sheva!

Posted by jamison on 29 January 2023 - 11:38 AM

I haven't wanted to hug an Israeli this hard since the first time I saw Gal Gadot. 




#1424209 2023 Jersey is "different"

Posted by jamison on 28 January 2023 - 12:59 PM

Are they going to spin this as some sort of hat tip to the state of NJ? I don't have an issue with that in theory, just think the execution could've been a bit better, and I'd really rather them start using the word RB on the front instead of the logo; often the training jerseys are better looking than the real ones & we've been staring at the logo for 17 years. Shit is tired.

 

But, either way, everything from arm pit lasers to the gunmetal gray kits from the early 2010s are just window dressing. Fix the FO, do some legit marketing, sign some truly high quality players (I don't care about name/salary, but spend enough to get the guys you need to win). I'll ignore a stupid jersey if the team wearing it wins something. 

 

If I'm making a second jersey I'd go back to the only unique look left to us now that Atlanta has stolen the red & black vertical strips, and that look is the white/black verticals for an away jersey; You can write RedBull on the front in red or black, etc. At least we'd stand out, and have SOME identity to call our own. But, I'm not making the jersey & that isn't energy drink enough, so, nvm. 

 

https://www.vintagef...irt-30828-1.jpg




#1423693 2023 Jersey is "different"

Posted by jamison on 16 January 2023 - 04:42 PM

I saw the Reyes tweet & was squinting to make sure he wasn't traded to Philly. 




#1423359 Dante Vanzeir more than a rumor

Posted by jamison on 05 January 2023 - 06:55 PM

I know nothing about this guy, but we need a mix of mid-career guys to balance out our youth, so if this is a guy we can get, fine. We were so damn young last year. We saw the quality Lewis Morgan brought; if we're not going to be signing big money guys (which, seems like we're not), then go out and try to get 4-5 players like this who are 23-28, have experience and don't cost a ton. I'd be ok with that as our plan; it just can't all be young kids & a "we'll develop them" mentality. There was a period there were we added CCJ, Carmona & some guys that just weren't ready to compete day 1. While that's fine for spots 21-25 on the roster, we need older players with experience for spots 1-19 on the roster too. Coronel was a good example of someone who could start & play at a reasonably high level from jump; I'd like to see more of that level player added. Hopefully the new scout & SD can find more players of that level. Even if Struber sucks, if we feed him lower 3rd roster talent we can't expect top 3rd results.  

 

It's just been very frustrating to watch us go from the Armas regime to the Struber regime without getting noticeably better talent on the field. At times we've tried, at times the players we did have were done no favors by the coaches, but...regardless of who our coach is, I'd just really like to improve the quality of the squad. Shouldn't be *too* much to ask for. 




#1423132 RIP to O Rei do Futebol

Posted by jamison on 29 December 2022 - 03:38 PM

The literal GOAT before that term became hackneyed nonsense. Changed the world, full stop. 




#1423126 Random Player Name Thread 2023

Posted by jamison on 29 December 2022 - 01:26 PM

Mtl dropped the ball on Alan Sonora now available

https://twitter.com/...oC-2e2Up7YsAAAA


 

 

 

Even more than that, Alan was born when his dad was on the MetroStars.

Yeah, Alan Sonora is from New Jersey, is 24, available for not a ton of money (you're not paying a Kaku-esque fee to get him), plays attacking midfielder, and wouldn't take up an INTL spot.  This makes a lot of sense for us to take a 2 year flyer on the guy and see what happens; which means it won't happen, but man...this seems like not an unreasonable ask here. If we're going to be a team that looks for value acquisitions and doesn't want to pay huge transfer fees, etc., this seems like the kind of move that aligns there. 

 

If someone in Europe is going to pay him a lot of money, fine, but it doesn't really seem like it. If we can get him at a reasonable fee...seems like it's worth a shot. He's a decent free-kick taker, for a team who has struggled with this outside of the odd Caceres shot now and again.  https://www.youtube....?v=LoOZiNExNkM