Architectural Chaos and High-Stakes Volatility: Deconstructing the MLS Transfer Window

Hello everyone and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Joe Lowry and it is Tuesday, which means we are here for an MLS Deep Dive. It's also summer and so as a result, we are going to dive into so many moves that have happened in the summer transfer window. There's been a lot going around the world of Major League Soccer these days. There's a new commissioner as Jeff and Taylor talked about last week and there's also a flurry of moves. So we're going to try to get through as many of those moves, the high profile ones at least as we can on today's show. It is too big of a task for but one man and I am but one man. So we have drafted in the man, the myth, the legend himself, Jeff Ruder to come alongside today. Jeff, thank you so much for being here. How are you? I'm happy to be but two men here with you on this podcast as we relive the glory days of ours and Venger's arsenal and try to figure out what other players from that era we would have loved to see in Major League Soccer in 2026. Specifically. Can we do the other day, Jeff, I looked up where Theo Walcott is at these days. I don't know. Just popped into my brain, not really sure why definitely broken that part of the reason. He's past 30 but still younger than you think. I think he's like made the mid 30s. I don't think an MLS team is necessarily ready to splash a DPS spot on Theo Walcott. 37. My mistake. I would put that in his upper 30s but we're in the right ballpark just like he was going to be 32 forever in my head. If he was like a friend of mine, I'd say no, no, no, don't worry. You're still in your mid 30s. It isn't until 38, right? So like he's in that like kind of wiggle room. It's like his Ohio part of the Midwest and he is in that territory. Yeah. He's straddling the line to be sure to be sure about that. Well, Jeff, we are going to dive into a whole host of MLS moves. Before we do that, I want to point people towards patreon.com slash total soccer show. For more TSS, more different TSS, other stuff, video, audio, discord access, all that good stuff. Come and hang out with us. You can do that at patreon.com slash total soccer show. Joe, I kid you know, this might be the longest doc we've ever had for a Tuesday show. Yeah. So let's not dance around the bush any longer. Let's start with a dancer of bushes often. Sorry. That's like literally dancing around the bush longer, but we do tumbleweed here. I don't know what you guys do. Maybe it's some sort of more green agriculture, but yeah, bushes really are tumbleweed here. Dance around the tumbleweed here, which is the rate of movement that we might be seeing here. With CF Montreal's new signing, they have a designated player. First of all, let's commend them for that because I think that we talked so often about CF Montreal as being a club that doesn't really want to get involved in like building a competitive roster. So like, I'm not saying this is that sort of move, but the first step towards building a competitive roster is using the roster slots and mechanisms made available to you by Major League Soccer, right? And for all of the talk of how restrictive they are, it's more restricting when you don't even try to utilize what's available to you. So let's start there. CF Montreal has a designated player. Joe, it's Alexis Sanchez, finally coming to Major League Soccer. Four months after we had the wow, Thomas Rodriguez finally came to Major League Soccer. Let's see how long he sticks around. I guess let's start there, Joe. Is this feel from a Minnesota perspective in hindsight, especially with Thomas Rodriguez? That felt very much like a quick marketing sort of thing with the boost of getting him ready for the World Cup. But there wasn't really as much of like, this is going to raise our level on the field because of the minutes we expect him to play. Joe, what are you expecting from Alexis Sanchez and Major League Soccer at this stage? I think it could be useful. And I'm less, to be honest, I mean, he played 1,300 minutes in La Liga this past season with Sevilla. I think he had six goal contributions played in 28 games. So it's not like he missed a huge chunk of the season with injury. He just wasn't a regular starter for them. He started a handful of games, came off the bench and more of them. I think he has the potential to be available more than maybe most players at his age profile, 37 years old at this point. At the same time, let's not kid ourselves, right? This is not a DP move that the best teams in MLS would make. This is not, this is a, this is a move that the galaxy maybe would make and we'll get on to more galaxy moves that are sort of in this profile later on when it comes to former Barcelona players. It's a move that maybe the galaxy would make or into Miami would make, but they wouldn't make it as a DP. And I guess that's sort of where I come down is I don't mind the talent addition. I don't care a one lick about the retirement moniker or whatever nonsense people want to throw out there. If Montreal is going to be bad and they're second to bottom in the Eastern Conference right now, I'd rather than be bad with players that I used to like watching and may still like watching. So that's kind of why I feel about this. I'm happy Montreal made this move. It makes it more interesting when I happen to watch a Montreal game and that happens more than, more than most, I'd imagine, but it's not as if this is going to somehow shoot them up the Eastern Conference. In fact, I think it's another reminder. Now that Alexis Sanchez is their only DP because Ivan Jaime's loan has expired. It's a reminder that Montreal are not really playing the same game as most of or all of the other 29 teams immediately soccer. Yeah. I just hope that this leads to moments that are rewarding for fans, right? Like I think that there's still so many fond memories from a decade ago of Didier Drogbo. And that was like, I like Jeff how you mentioned moments that are rewarding, not wins, not trophies. Little breadcrums of joy along the way. Like maybe it's stale, maybe it's not, but it's some morsel for you to have. The bar is here, my friend. The bar is the bottom of your screen if you're watching us on YouTube. They just haven't really had many of those since the heyday of Drogbo and Piotti, right? And so like, even if it's just a few really fun goals, some good interplay with Prince of Wusu, maybe continue to work with the young players. I worry about what this does for the development of any young player when you bring in like a really old but like famous player who kind of has to play in their place. The track record of play is translating from decent minutes in La Liga to Major League Soccer is generally pretty good. So to your point, Joe, that's a drop in the bucket. I will at least pay more attention to CF Montreal because Alexis Sanchez there, even if they aren't more competitive. So I suppose that's something for that. Agreed. I mean, maybe they'll do more work in the window in a high profile sense. I think we have enough evidence to say that that's pretty unlikely. Yeah, probably not, but maybe they'll make some like squad signing whatever that in two years becomes the start of the Columbus crew. We'll find out. Last week, Taylor and I talked about a hypothetical near finished move with Chiqui Luzano going to the galaxy. Joe, that move has become official. Now he is on loan as a designated player with an option for that move to become permanent, that permanent, which is held by the galaxy. Okay, we talked about this a little bit last week. Joe, I'm really curious. I've been wondering what you think because we talked about San Diego without Chiqui. We've talked about going to the media and telling people that Chiqui is unavailable six months before you can find a suitor for him. How are you feeling about this whole saga in hindsight and how are you feeling about the fit of Luzano at the galaxy? I think the first thing that's caught my attention about all this is just the realization about how much discontent there is within the galaxy fan base right now because Chiqui Luzano, we have a lot of evidence. He's a really good MLS player. Chiqui Luzano, when he was on the field and there are more layers to this, right, that we're going to get to. When he was on the field with San Diego, he was amazing. He was absolutely fantastic. He was a direct threat on the left side. He was the opposite to understriere. He put up 17 gold contributions in 1800 minutes for San Diego last year. That is top of the line, DP production in Major League Soccer. The dude is clearly at the level and galaxy fans have been livid about this move. I think I can understand why, in a sense, because you don't know exactly what you're getting. You don't know how focused Chiqui Luzano is going to be. You don't know if you're getting an incredibly combustible player. In fact, it seems like you probably are, but can the galaxy manage that way that San Diego couldn't have something change for Chiqui Luzano that will make him more likely to keep his head in the game. Literally, it not have whatever off field issues played to him in San Diego and basically severed that relationship. In San Diego, of course, not keen to mend it either, so I don't know exactly where the responsibility falls, but I'm certain some of it falls on Chiqui Luzano. But if I'm a galaxy fan, you could do a lot worse for trying to save your season than getting an elite MLS player on loan, basically no risk. Someone who knows a league, someone who's not going to have to acclimatize themselves to a new surroundings, I understand that this is a move that comes with risk, but also your season was never going to be what you hoped it would be with that Ricky Pooch on the field. Really, everything for the galaxy is still building towards the first real new season with the new calendar. If Chiqui Luzano plays well this year and you want to exercise that permanent trade option and splash room as a DP now that Gabrielle Peck has gone and you have a pencil and you have Luzano and you have Pooch, I can see a world where that is a really, really sharp trio. I understand where galaxy fans are coming from. I do think as a general soccer society, maybe we've all forgotten just how impressive Chiqui Luzano was on the field. So I do think there is something to this move, although I will say, through giving me the choice between keeping Gabrielle Peck and doing this with Luzano, I would pick the first of those things. I don't know, Jeff. Am I going to weigh off base with that stuff? No, I would too, because again, something we talked about briefly last week was just that like Luzano looked less focused once it was clear the attack was funneling towards Anders Dreyer and it wasn't that Dreyer, it was kind of the weak side sort of finisher of sequences with the counterbalance and whatever and Luzano didn't want to be bumped down that queue. So, if he predominantly plays on the left and Joseph Paynes will predominantly play on the left, like I'm curious how you strike that balance. I'm curious who you shot over to the right, who is the beauty. I think Paynes will go to the right. I would agree. I think that his skill set would make more sense to just kind of keep as more of a touch line option, right? Like I think that he has a good crossing acumen to and can still find his shots once he drips in the half space. The other thing is, and let's bring in the other galaxy news, sure, and this is that Sergio Roberto midfielder, formerly of FC Barcelona, is now also here, I think that the bigger concern here is that part of what was exciting about the Ricky Pooge signing was that it felt like trying to build a medium to long-term plan, right? And Gabrielle Pack, I think, fit into this really well, Joseph Paynes, so I would say to some extent did as well, too. And so Luzano looks, he's on the other side of 30, so he looks generally like he is a shorter term fit, Sergio Roberto, certainly same sort of thing. So on the one hand, I completely agree with you, Jeff, like their ceiling was severely hampered from the moment Ricky Pooge was ruled out for the season. And this is a team that is built to function with one other player. Are they almost rebuilding plan B a little too stoutly, or do you think, obviously, the Barcelona connections that this is still going to work as constructed once Pooge comes back? It's just, I worry that maybe they're drifting it a little too far from a succession plan, which scares me as an appreciator of Ricky Pooge. The timelines are all so interesting, like you brought in the Roberto move, which I think could be a lot of fun. The dude hasn't played more than 900 league minutes in the last three seasons. He's been injured a lot. And so it sounds like it's a bit risky. It's a bit risky, fair. There's been, and Chippa Mochink, I mean, was pretty cut in the last last season. He played for like a thousand minutes, and he was great last year. And it kind of worked. I mean, Chippa Mochink was more that he was on clubs that were a little too big for him, and just soaking up a few minutes rather than all those injuries. Like Roberto is in such a weird spot. I think he could be quite good for the galaxy. You just don't know, right? It's a risky move. There's no way around it. It's a risky move to get a 34 year old with his injury track record. To me, everything the galaxy are doing right now, and I'll build this into a broader observation. Everything that the galaxy are doing right now is built for now, or is built for in the next year from now, or 18 months from now, somewhere in the next few seasons, whether it's a sprint season, I don't think any MLS team is really building for the sprint season. Or the first season after that, the galaxy really trying to be the kings of the sprint season. No, I feel like it should be the Portland Timbers, and I refuse that anyone, I don't like the idea of anybody else getting their MLS's back adjacent crown. That was theirs, and they should get it again. So I think the timbers are going to win it all in the sprint season. That's what I need to happen. But it's not just Luzano and Roberto, like over 30 guys that kind of fit into that bucket. There's also Kyogo Ferraschi, the striker they signed former Celtic standout, came from the championship where he wasn't very good. 31 years old, signed to a big contract, non-TP contract, but best we can tell like a size and will deal through the 2030-31 season. That's a long time from now to paying big money for a striker that you're not even 100% sure is going to be a starting option for you or not at that point. It doesn't seem to me. I'll say it like this. It doesn't seem to me that Wilcoons is really trying to be all that careful right now as he builds this roster for 30 years' time. And I don't necessarily blame the guy. When you have Ricky Pooge, your trophy window is open. They already won 1MLS Cup. It is conceivable that he comes back from injury and is close to his old self. And you have Luzano that you decided to stick around on a DP deal for the future. And you have Sergio Roberto playing extra Pooge along with a destroyer somewhere in that midfield. And it all works really well. And they are an apex trophy contender. But man, that's a lot of ifs. That's a lot. But Luzano, that's operating on high level, full capacity, although I suppose that's not the strongest one because you could get a different DP instead. But that would be great. And you have to have Sergio Roberto be healthy and not eat up a giant bit of your cap. And Friashi be healthy and effective and not eating up a giant bit of your cap for nothing. And you have to approach the biggest, what if of all, being healthy and available and close to his former. So there's so many ifs. I feel like for what the galaxy is spacking right now, even if I like the Luzano move in isolation. And I kind of do. I kind of do. I don't mind a team taking a swing like that. The galaxy are stacking big swings like risky swings on pitches that aren't exactly over the plate. Yeah. In a way that I don't know that I would in that situation. So I am unfascinated, Jeff. I really am. But what the galaxy are doing. I think they may be the most interesting team to me over the next 18 months compared to anybody else in the league. All I will say is that this is a little reminiscent of past galaxy kind of roster building snaffos that we've seen where you've had, well, it's a heading into 2019, a lot of time becomes a designated player. They have povo and they're both osanthoses. Sure. And they have to work themselves out of that mess. They go all in in 2024 and winning MLS Cup works really well, then they have to gut the depth, which kind of brought them to where they were last year, where they were historically bad to start a season and then, you know, still trying to find their way back into contention. So I guess a part of me also worries that again, Wilcoons has shown a willingness to over commit for the short term and then to kind of walk it back. The hard part is, if you do a side by side and I haven't really done this like necessarily with like scratch paper or anything like that, but if you were to compare 2024 to 2026, would you say the squad is better? And this is something that we do with other sporting directors around the league. And I think it's the only fair way to really look at how these things are evolving. And I'm just not sure right now this galaxy team looks like it's building towards being better than it was when it won MLS Cup. And I do think that as we look at it, the way the bracket broke for them, they were not one of the two best teams in MLS that year, right? That was Columbus and Miami in the regular season and then the Western Conference at the San Diego. So how do we reconcile with the growth of the galaxy versus the growth of MLS? It's just going to be really interesting to see, especially as we get into this sort of like, is it too late for them in 26? Okay, sprint season, how much do any of us put stock in that as being credible? And so now you're kind of a year out from actually starting to see if it's going to work in a pretty normal functioning regular season, a major league soccer. So just a fascinating time to be making gambles like that. Totally agree. I am thrilled to see a lasano up against San Diego later on this year. I think that's going to be absolute narrative fodder. And if he performs well in those games, I mean, there's going to be so much juice. One more, one more move to mention before the break and we'll go quick on this one. San Diego has signed Eli Saturie as a DP. This is a wild back, but I don't think it's been brought up on the show just yet. He is their lasano replacement. They brought him in even before they knew for sure that lasano was going to be out the door. They sort of hoped I think San Diego that he'd be out the door in the winter and the galaxy were interested then and the galaxy were so interested. And so finally that that moved regardless. They were going to bring in a jury and some sort of DP left wing or 27 year old was at the World Cup with Tunisia. It didn't start for them, but came off the bench, I believe in all their group stage games. I had more than half of a goal contribution every 90 minutes in the day and usually coming from Copenhagen. I think Jeff and I'm curious what you think about this. When San Diego make a signing by and large, I kind of trust it. Even though we don't have a lot of data so far, it seems like Dave hit on virtually every piece that they've gone out and signed. I have pretty high expectations for a jury. Are you in the same boat? Generally, yeah, I think so. I thought that my pale greener by and large was doing well as that sort of left-sided wing counterbalance. There's a good track record of players again transitioning from this league, so it's not a league that I really worry about the step up per se. Not as much by way of goal contributions, but what really interests me is his first year in Copenhagen. He integrated by being like the team leader in assists. I think he had 14 assists in the Super League of that year, if I recall. He's very good at working into teams. I think that's relevant data is what I'm saying. I think that someone who could actually come into a new team and be able to instantly catalyze and create chances is going to be incredibly valuable. I think right now when you look at San Diego, they need alternatives for creativity, watching them when they were up in St. Paul a week or two ago, playing against Minnesota, played to a one-one draw, kind of got lucky with one of those penalties where someone was sprouting out of the box and then had a heel clip right on the edge of the box, so it wasn't an attacking motion, but they got a penalty kick and that's the way they get their chance. So much of that is so predictably just funneling to Anders Dreyer without Chucu-Lizano. So it was so clear for Minnesota with their defensive structure, which again, not nearly as good as it was in the last year or two under their Gramsys, but still can generally keep a mid to low block pretty organized. And San Diego was really struggling to break through because there wasn't that sort of credible make weight. And so I think that is the pressure. If someone who couldn't get on the field in a World Cup for one of the worst teams in a 48 team field, which again, you don't do this sort of thing off of transfer, but if you look relative to the nationality, like that's a little concerning. But yeah, I generally think that he can come and he can be that sort of creative spark hopefully and comes in at a good age, comes in probably at a good cap hit. Like I would imagine or cost anyway, obviously comes in a good cap hit because he's a designated player, right? That's a great cap hit for what his salary is. I don't know. I think it could work really well. I think that they needed attacking reinforcements in general and someone who's a little more decisive on the ball than they have beyond drier in the final third. And I think that you can provide that. Yeah, I agree. Lots to like about this, this move for me for San Diego really interested to see how the rest of their season pans out. I'm interested to see the rest of the show pans out. Jeff, I think it's going to pan out quite well. Let's take a break though and find out. Stay with us. Welcome back to the total soccer show. Man, those are some lovely goods and services. I am a fan. Jeff, let's talk about another good in service. No, not really. Let's talk about Carla Holsa and St. Louis and Marcel Hartel and everything going on with them right now. Jeff, St. Louis have been for me one of these stories of the MLS season so far where they wipe the slate clean up with the offseason, bring in a new front office leadership in Corey Ray, add some other pieces. Of course, you'll end to May comes into the new coaching staff and they were quite good, right? Even operating, I think, at a bit of a talent deficit, they have added good pieces and they've been pretty systematic about how they've gone and done it. They've had a lot of loss of flexibility, despite the fact that the other pieces in St. Louis before all the new front office folks got there, signed Roman Burke to a new D.P. deal, which is absolute maddening nonsense. That's what he's not a good player, but still it's ridiculous. But now they have brought in a D.P. and Carla Holsa, 27-year-old attacking midfielder. You can pretty easily imagine him playing in the half spaces of D.M.A.'s 3, 4, 3. He came from Simpsonsport and Turkey for a port of $6 million fee according to the athletic, put up solid numbers in Turkey and Norway before that. I think very much a player that has interested MLS teams in the past and I think he's going to be a solid signing from Best Back in Tell. That news has almost been overshadowed by the Marcel Hartel news recently, where according to the Sky Sports and now others and there's a picture of him at Hanover's Ground, he's headed over to second Bundesliga side Hanover for less than 1 million euros is the transfer fee for a designated player that St. Louis paid more than that for. Now he is leaving. It sounds like for personal reasons there's some sort of situation that he really feels like he'd be best to be back in Germany and ultimately the end of the day this is a game and not real life like it's a livelihood for these players and so it's sort of his real life. It's a big part of our lives. It's a big part of the lives of fans. Sometimes real life is more important and so I am sympathetic to St. Louis in this situation, but it seems like they probably did the right thing. I can't quite wrap my head around Jeff how they got so little for him in return and given the fact that ownership has not been eager to spend big money historically in St. Louis, I do wonder what sort of detriment that's going to be for them. What do you make of what's going on in St. Louis? How do you view the changes that they made at the top of the roster? We're in year one for Corey Ray as sporting director and I would imagine when I was speaking with him before the season, for example, for a piece of the Guardian, he was talking about the importance of not going all in too soon and the idea that it was really important to spend that first window, which is to say last winter, getting a competitive squad together, not forgetting to sign players like the other team in Missouri, but actually building this thing in sort of a sustainable, let's enhance what we already have, but let's not go all in so that in the summer and then the winter we can really go a little more aggressively to build ahead of the 27-28 season, right? And so I would imagine that Marcel Hartel was going to be a massive part of that, right? And you could see it too. He had one of the best goals of the season, like that will always be part of his legacy for me in Major League Soccer, is that worldly that he scored early in 2026. So good moments, energize the fan base, really seem to relate and help them get through a really difficult moment with the EduLuvian situation where he was missing after the tragic death of his wife, right? To be actually able to step up and be a sort of focal point in possession more than he was used to, I think, was really commendable. That said, we are also seeing players struggle to adjust to life in the United States at present, right? There's another case of a player from Germany who played for the Chicago Stars, who also left for personal reasons after just one year, right? Like this is something that is relevant and real, and there's a point then where a player comes to you and says, I'm just really struggling to accume here, I'm really struggling to adjust. I don't think it's because there aren't enough Germans in St. Louis city. I see, like, I think of all of the clubs, this is the Germanist of all of them, not as much as it used to be, maybe since fun has to be left. But the flip side of it is, if that player comes to you, you pretty much have a choice as a sporting director. Either you're going to build a reputation, especially as a newer sporting director, or a newer certainly to the club, right? You obviously have done the job in Montreal, which, as we said in segment one, is a different job entirely. Yeah. Do you write by your players? Hear them out and try to help them get into a better spot, which should in theory help with, like, kind of, the extra soft 5% of recruitment for the next guy, peace of mind that you'll treat them well. Or you say, I'm sorry, we're not getting evaluation. Can you stick it out to the end of the year? And I'm hoping in winter, which at that point, then, you're in the mid season for Hanover and who knows if they have the budget, right? So I'm really sympathetic to the situation that St. Louis has found itself in. And I think that we get really hung up in, like, transfer fees and equating that to, like, a soft form of a trophy, right? And I think ultimately, then, the day, if that is a number that Corey Ray is comfortable seeing for a 30-year-old midfielder who doesn't really want to be at the club anymore, then what's next? That's what matters so much more. It's not necessarily, do we set a record on every transfer? It's like there's such a broader holistic long game that has to be considered here that I generally think that, again, these are just reading the tea leaves that have been presented to me. There's probably other packets of tea leaves that would fill in other blanks for me. But with what I have, it just, it feels like having to try to make the best of a really unfortunate scenario. And generally, being able to move on from those scenarios within a month of them presenting themselves or so, that's a job well done because you're keeping the short-term focus without, while you're still trying to figure out the medium and long-term. Yeah. You're pointed about the long-term vision there, Jeff, for a news-pointing director and a new place trying to establish a reputation, I think is really well-made. And that is, I'm sure, the governing principle, other than just trying to do right by another human being, right? And it sounds like that was a big part of this. Those things absolutely play a part in all of this situation. I do, I mean, obviously we all feel for St. Louis fans because this is a huge bullet for a team with the sixth best goal differential, expect a goal differential, excuse me. The sixth best, expect a goal differential in all of Major League Soccer according to American Soccer Analysis. They have been a really good team, rising up the Western Conference, now finally getting the results that have matched the positive underlying numbers that have been there basically all season. The trajectory was pretty clear for them, where, when I was writing up a tweet about this whole situation, I typed out, like, Dark Horse, MLS Cup contender, like, that they were that, and that I deleted it because I felt maybe one bridge too far, but maybe only a bridge. Maybe only one, yeah. I think there's some room, the wiggle room at the top of the West in the way that there is, and at the east, and who knows, right, who knows what can happen in these situations. And now it's, it's harder. I mean, it's obvious. It's the most obvious thing to say, but it felt like we were, maybe one, it felt like maybe we were one million dollars, like St. Louis going and beating Monterey's bid for Hugo Kipers away from getting to see a Carla Holsa, Hugo Kipers in Marcel Hartel, DP Trio, on top of a team with a pretty darn good structure behind it. Oh, yeah. Actually, strike that. We wouldn't have been able to see that because of Roma Brickie. I take that back. It felt like we were at least, well, like we were one rung above where this whole situation is now, and it's, it's a big bummer. But I feel for St. Louis, I'm, yeah, go Jeff. If we're trying, we're cheery chaps, right? We're generally, we like to see the, okay, so this is maybe what they're working with. I think that's more fun than me. Like, oh, that was bad. That was bad. That was bad. That's generally the tone we keep on the show. What is our version of the justification of signing Roma Brickie to another DP country? I'm trying. I've been spending this whole segment really trying to find it, and I can't. I mean, go, go keepers are hugely valuable, and he's one of the best in MLS, like I think you can, you can make the case. It's actually less that they did it that I, I mean, I believe it was Diego Gighliani who was overseeing things between sporting directors. I don't necessarily hate the end product. If I'm a sporting director coming into a new job though, I'd like to have the option. Like could you just hold off a week or so until you put pen to paper on me, and then we can talk about it. Like hold on. Let's, let's talk about this. Let's figure this out as a group, or just let me do my job, maybe and don't do it for me before I get it. Maybe. Now I've broken back into the negative again. But I. Yeah. No, but that's just for it. It's just rough, man. The good news as, as we talk about, you know, what comes next for them, Carlo Holtz, looks like a really good pick up. I think he's a really good pressing winger, which is going to be really crucial to a yoantime system. He's really used to cutting into the half space. He's left footed. And I think generally a left footed winger, like there's, there's a good track record. Danish left footed wingers generally do very well, majorly soccer at this present. To go back to San Diego a second ago, can play anywhere in that line beneath the track record, which I think will also really help. Not just in terms of where you put them out to start games, but like as games are going to be very comfortable and effective as you try to kind of weave. And if you do some rotation sort of stuff to off, to throw off a defense or a midfield, I think that that's going to be really crucial. There's still a lot to love about the direction of St. Louis City right now under yoantime and Corey Ray. I think that when you look at the evolution of Daniel Edelman as an on ball midfielder, which was something in our season previews, I think that we had talked about is, is the optimism about that and get him out of New York, get him into a situation where he's getting more touches and more time and more encouragement to make the right decision on the ball rather than just, well, you know that the goal was supposed to go on as that way. So hit the ball that direction. And we'll see if you find a target, right, which is pretty much how it was going under Sandra Schwartz and Derek Struer before him. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think that hopefully this is like the first of the headliners who actually maybe sticks around longer. I think that we're seeing a lot of designated players who kind of come and go from St. Louis like other clubs, but that's not necessarily the company that they're aspiring to keep. But generally, yeah, I think a really good pickup for them at this stage and for the long time. Agreed. All right. Let's look at a few other outgoing situations. Yes. Since we were talking about Marcel Hartel, Lucas Harrington going to whole city for $15 million that's newly promoted whole city. There's some add-ons in there as well. Really impressive scouting from the rapids to get Harrington in and to move quickly in the first place. Signed him amidst interests from other places. He was excellent in Major League Soccer and we have now seemingly seen the last of him in Major League Soccer. Good business. But Jeff, I think what you said about money and trophies and sort of that's equating a great transfer fee to like sort of a soft trophy is really well said. That's going to stick with me. I think there's a bit of that here with the rapids. I don't think they had any other choice than to move Lucas Harrington on. And so I'm not faulting them for that. The reality is they need more and better players to actually go and compete in MLS this season and beyond. And now they've moved on talent before and they haven't really improved all that much. So for me, the impetus is still on, well, what's next for you Colorado? And I think they still have a little bit of that to show. They've got money to spend and there's some reports about them being for different players and I do think they're going to make more moves. They've already added another attacking midfielder in this window. They added a bunch of pieces in the winter window. I think they're going to do more. But the reality is those players need to hit basically as hard as Harrington hit and then even harder for them to climb up the Western Conference because they're still not in the spot that they want to be. Yeah. And I think the hard part is like on the one hand, you see a $15 million valuation is reported. It's just like a woga. That is a number we didn't think we would see for a very young defender in Major Lixacus. We're going to take that money. Of course you do. Like, that makes complete sense from squad planning. This is not a club that's known to reinvest every penny that they possibly can back into the roster. That's going to go to other areas of the Cronky Enterprise, right? We all know this. So that's frustrating from a Colorado Rapids in Major Lixacus standpoint. I think also from a Colorado standpoint, the fact he was there so briefly makes it look like a genre. Right? Like, he was there very briefly and then he gets flipped to Villa and then he gets his like big bootcoop box transfer to Saudi Arabia and then the fire becomes the richest club in the world. Like, but it didn't look like the Chicago Fire had a lot in the story of Sean Durant's development, right? They were just kind of a stop in the road and then it was Villa where he really emerged. And part of that maybe is just primarily bias, but I think part of it is also when a player is hardly at a club for like a year or less, it's really difficult to credibly say that club really helped them in their journey. So I think that if the Colorado Rapids are hoping to use this as justification for C-look, not just as our academy players don't look for the next cold bass in the same vines and whatever, who have already had mixed results in Europe, but also consider the young players we're bringing in from other parts of the world. I don't know if this is actually going to be as much evidence of that as much as, hey, our scouting is six months better than your scouting, right? Which fair enough is also still something to do. So a tough one that I think is going to be really difficult to be able to spin into something that the club can use as like part of their direction. When you compare that to the other sort of like outgoing transfer to the Premier League Xavier Goza now, we're talking about to stay in the Rocky Mountain Cup going to Crystal Palace for $15 million. That's one that's going to look really good for RSL, right? Because that's a development story. It's like, yeah, no kidding. You're comparing like a six month stop of an Australia center back to a homegrown player. Obviously, the academy product is going to look better. But the flip side is now they've developed a dynamic player. And that like to a level and a degree we haven't seen RSL do before and I think that their ability to put faith in Xavier Goza at the moment that he was ready is something that other clubs should really be studying when you look at like, think of like Asmire in New England. Think about Nymphasha at Charlotte, like, sometimes you just need to let the fun exciting young player come out because it's going to be good for your team because it's going to be something different. It's something opponents can't game plan for. And sometimes there's actually a really good player who just needs the touches in the opportunity. It's something Major League Soccer can offer for domestic players and good things can happen. And man, good things certainly happened for the brief, but really impactful Xavier Goza era at RSL. Yeah. Yeah. We did a good bit on Xavier Goza. Yeah, we did. So I would just say, I am interested to see what RSL do now that he's gone. Will they add more talent in that spot? I think they absolutely will. Will it be a high level starting impact player or will they give that right wing back spot to Zach Booth? And I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm sure we will see both the rapids in RSL make a move or more than a move in this window, the specifics of that will have to see one more outgoing move and then we'll take a break next option going to Middlesboro. We haven't talked about a lot. We're going to talk more about him going there on our USMT weekly episode tomorrow along with some other USMT transfers. So stay tuned for that. I haven't seen the base fee for this move. Thomas reported the total fee about 7.5 million that it could reach that level, I should say. So I imagine the base fee is less and who knows if the incentives are not. We're seeing Columbus. Now Jeff use Hugo Picard or Malta Almondson as the new left wing back. There's a drop off in the attack. And about how he's like, I said, I mean, Arsenal is uniquely capable in that role. I do wonder just what the drop off is going to look like there, but it still feels to me like there are so many moving parts in Columbus. Recently, there's been reporting around Daniel Guazdog in the Vancouver White Caps interest in him, which I'm sure would have to require some sort of buy out from Columbus. So that would finally get him out of the DP spots and they have to pay something. But he would now actually be off of their roster in that area. So can they move on from him? And if they do that, and now they've arsed and also who's out the door, yeah, they've added Bryce Mendez, but that was sort of the Rossi replacement, even though they're very different players. Now they've added another striker on loan. So he's going to absorb some of the minutes that you lost from Osama Bua Lee. But now you're missing two more key players based off of your roster in Austin and probably Guazdog. There's got to be something more. It can't just be Eric Bae and Bryce Mendez and great job boys were done. So I am fascinated, really fascinated to see what other moves are in the pipeline for Columbus, because they have, especially in Arthson now, a really big hole to fill. And it's really interesting to see with the Bryce Mendez, because again, we're talking about men of a certain age, let's say, right? And it's like, we're adding like entrepreneurs as well, right? There's this sort of like preference towards like European experience here again that can work in the short term. But how is it going to go long term? So it's a safe profile though. I like the Bryce Mendez signing a lot. It's fantastic. I think that could be fantastic. A lot of positional versatility at play as well. So even when Osama Bua Lee comes back, if he is fit and firing and ready to start and be an 80 minute guy up top, you can probably play Mendez off of him either as a second forward or you can play in as like kind of a number 10, maybe a winger as well. Like there's a lot of flexibility there. Spaniards do very well. Major League Soccer. It's really interesting, Joe, to watch, because I feel like we're seeing a lot of them less teams kind of show their interpretation of how they think that a world cup should inform their transfer business where you look and maybe it's like, maybe it's Columbus saying, like, hey, Spain, duh, like more control in the ball. We've been missing that. Let's get a spaniard to run the thing. It works for New England too. You're seeing clubs like maybe Columbus, but certainly Colorado say this is the time to sell because like when is Luke Sarington going to be a bigger name in World Soccer than right after that penalty kicks you? Sure. We got to move him on. Montreal. Oh, I remember watching Alexis Sanchez in a World Cup once. That was a lot of fun. Let's bring him in, right? Minnesota just laid to everything. They don't really do anything. I don't really know what's happened with the direction of that club right now over the last year, but it's just very interesting to see what's been going on with Columbus and what's been going on in this window. It feels like an incredibly lively, like capital H hot, capital S stove sort of approach to the summer. I wish that there was more like transfer, like I wish that there was something on Apple TV. I could just sit down and throw on and watch. It was just like a couple hours of parsing through some of these sorts of things or like, okay, well, this might be in the works, but alas, that is not the ecosystem we live in. I think Columbus would be better to have Mendes without Goss Dogg. I think the Arvston one to your point, Joe, is going to be much more difficult. I think I would probably sign a guy as I think he would, too. But if we're talking like Picard versus Almondson, I think I'm putting Picard there just because he's kind of struggled to make as much of an impact. Eventually, whereas we've seen what multi-aggressive can do is that, like, left-sided center back in the trio. So, I would rather keep him in a better position and then move the guy who's struggling elsewhere. Would have been pretty sick if they'd kept Diego Rossi and had Rossi Mendes and Russell Mabouli coming back from injury next season. That would have been interesting. Instead, Rossi and Hugo Kuiper's are playing for Monterey and Leaks Cup, which feels like a huge mess across the board. You'd be in Miami, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's sometimes you got to do it, man. You got to do it. Liam Messi, less into Miami, I suppose, but nonetheless Vancouver Instant Goss Dogg, they have, according to reports, added their new Peralta replacement and central midfield. Youngster coming from Eastern Europe, we'll talk more about that later on. Yeah. Let's take a break and we'll come back and talk more MLS goodness, stay with us. Welcome back to the Total Soccer Show. Jeff, we are sticking with the Vancouver Angle that we left with just before the break. Sebastian Peralta is now a Middlespur player and he's already done some fun things from Middlespur as well, which we'll get into more of him and maybe some of his success and what we're expecting from him in England later on in the week. Vancouver now have lost a really important piece. Now that said, Peralta has gone six months left on his contract. It didn't seem like there was something really in the cards room to stick around in Vancouver much longer. But the reality is, I think Vancouver and Miami and Nashville and maybe Vancouver, most of all, have been the best team in MLS so far this season, or maybe there's not the true depth of the top of the West, but Vancouver are a really, really good team at the level that we haven't seen a whole lot of majorly soccer before. And now they're missing a player that keyed all of their set pieces and a bunch of their open-play stuff as well. He's gone. Jeff, what do you make of Sebastian Barotha's move and how it impacts the White Caps? It impacts them a lot. I don't think it's a coincidence that since the World Cup break resume now, they're currently have two points from their last five games and all competitions, right? Part of this, I had to check and make sure this isn't just like a domestic league sort of bias, but really when you think of them emerging and breaking through from just being a good contender that's going to show up, maybe be in the wildcard game, maybe be seed five through seven in the West, and hopefully they can win a game in the first round to make a competitive, right? That was the ceiling that we saw in the Vaining Star TV, right? And their emergence in breakthrough, I think, was best embodied, personified by Sebastian Barotha. And I don't think that there was a single player who was more important under Jesper and Sorenson than Sebastian Barotha. When you look at how the attack is kind of rotating with Ryan Gold being injured so much with Tom Smooler coming in and out, you can maybe say Brian White is another one as important in Tom and Tristan Blackman, but he's been injured a lot of center backs happens. So there's been a ton of rotation along the back in midfield. Again, you had Vita, you had Gubas, you have all these other players, wingers, Ali Admed leaves after a year. There's been so much change in the Vancouver White Caps and this has continued to operate I think in large part because of the possessive epicenter. That's a Sebastian Barotha grew into became and really owned. And I think that this year you saw him just so comfortable gliding left to right, forward and backward in the field and just finding where he needed to be to influence the game. It was a lot of what we saw with like Hector Herrera the first time he was in Houston where it was just like so comfortable and maybe not quite as like athletic and nimble as a Ricky Pooge, but still just being the perfect sort of safety valve at every single step with that sort of incision and technical ability to pull off either a good line breaker when it was available or a late arrival at the end of the box for a shot, right? And I think that that is just a profile player that is very difficult to comfortably find who gels with the entire team around him that it's going to be incredibly difficult to actually uniquely difficult because of how the system is to replace him. And those other two teams that we talked about the dynamo without Hector Herrera fell off immediately. Ricky Pooge, when he's injured, we talked about the galaxy so much this episode, right? Like I don't quite think it's going to be that catastrophic because I think that there is a more stable team built around him than we saw with Houston or the galaxy specifically. But I do think that this does cut into their status as the clear sort of Apex team one of the Western Conference and maybe makes it a little easier for other teams to project and say, hey, they're not going to be as confident a possession for the rest of the year. This is how we're able to get at them. Yeah, Jeff, it's a great point. I think you're right about that. I will say you also with your discussion of how many pieces the White Caps have successfully moved on from and maintain their status as an elite team over the last 18 months now. That does kind of make me a bit more bullish on their ability to survive this. I mean, the reality is simple. The reality is with this move, with the goes and move especially, maybe less adhering to move because the rapids don't look like a real contender at the moment. It's the argument for the calendar change or at least it's one of the arguments for the calendar change. There's a reason why sporting departments have wanted this to change because then they can stop losing hugely influential players with months left in the season. It's that simple. And once that changes, MLS from a sporting perspective is going to be better off than it was before, at least in that particular vacuum. That's the thing I'm left with feeling overwhelmingly in this situation is I wish the White Caps just didn't have to figure this out. They didn't have to prove their ability to go and adapt and evolve one more time. This is a great team. Just let them be a great team, but that's just not MLS's spot in the global ecosystem right now and that's just not the reality of the situation. No, it's not. But let's play within that reality that we are in. So there was also reporting from the athletic, I believe, that Sebastian Burrhalter was on other MLS teams' wishless and they were very eager and willing to offer him a designated player contract if he had reached the agency or been available by a trade which never would have happened. Would you have made so that been willing to build a team, you can pick two D.P. four, you 22s, you can pick three and three, like model aside, would you have been willing to pay Sebastian Burrhalter who this year his contract had him at $480,000 guaranteed, been willing to make him a designated player Joe? No, I would not. He brings a lot of value Sebastian Burrhalter. There's no doubt about that. I don't think you'll look around MLS and see the most successful teams have a D.P. of Sebastian Burrhalter's profile. Do I think that a team that had him as a D.P. could still go to win the shield or win MLS Cup? Yes, I do think that. But if I could optimize how I'm building a roster, I would not start with a number eight as a D.P. Like I just don't think he is transformationaly great enough to do that. You bring set-piece value and defensive value first and foremost, and then final ball ability in the box, right? And occasionally latched onto a cutback and crashing the inside the 18 or outside the 18. His numbers are good. Like his numbers look quite good. I suspect that you can nick up for a lot of the set-piece stuff elsewhere in the roster and that is inflated a lot of his assist numbers and his playmaking numbers. And I think you can get the final ball from other D.P.s as well. It's just not how I would go about building. And I would have been, I would have been fascinated, like genuinely fascinated to see which MLS teams would have, would have been interested in doing that, which ones were actually chatting up this situation and really giving it some serious thought. You know what he really has needed a midfield possessive epicenter with some good defensive jobs for about a year and a half and has been slowly waiting to fill that spot Chicago. I don't think I don't think he fits it. I don't think it would have quite worked as well, but it would have been fascinating if he tried it. Not even because the Greg thing, which I didn't even think about when you first asked the question. I don't think Sebastian Barolthor is a great possession in possession player, which is to say he's not a guy that you build through. I don't think his touch is clean enough even then I'm a less to do that. I think you build sort of a round team and then let him play the final ball in the box, which is just a very unique profile. I'm credit the S. Persons and he got so much out of him. I just don't think Barolthor can be a hub in a possession sort of team like Chicago kind of want to be. But I think reasonable people could disagree here. And I think Jeff, there are there are reasons to to rate him quite highly. It's just a bridge too far for me. And I think like, look, I was more bullish start of the year on his World Cup prospects as well. So I know that I generally skew more towards the know he can because of whatever he's done in Vancouver. Side of this polarity, right? Looking at again, the salary data from the first part of the season, there are only three players that I'm a less as players association listed as central or defensive midfielders who earned at least one point or no, at least two million dollars. And that would be Rodrigo Paul at about 9.7 million. Well, he was a tam guy last year. Ricky Pooge at about 5.8 million and Marcel Hartzel at 2.4. And then after that, number four from midfield is Obin Botto in Cincinnati at 1.85 Ustakio on his loan at 1.8. Christian rolled on at 1.77. It's that second tier I think I would have been very happy to bring Barolthor to because I think that then it's one of those where you could have the he's a DP for now, but we can buy him down later or as the cap evolves, hopefully as commissioner Larry Berg sort of changes these roster rules. This is what owners or sporting directors are going to be really hoping for moving forward that the new commissioner is going to really speed up the timeline of being able to do this, where some of these contracts, and this is maybe why you're signing for Ashita until 2031 and some of these other players is because you're hoping sometime in that span, the rules will change so much that it's going to be less of an albatross once you get to 2030, which still feels like a dystopian sort of year. There aren't a lot of midfielders that present Major League Soccer who are earning more than one and a half million dollars, exactly eight of them. So like to your point, the market doesn't really dictate that. The question just becomes how have you built the rest of your team? If you have a striker like Brian White, for example, who's going to be a tam guy best, if you have a lead center back like Blackman who's on a good deal, if you've done the rest of your crew in a way, I think you can justify having this dead and a player, but I also think for the good of his career, getting him at Middlesborough frankly is a better move at this stage because it looked like he'd kind of done what he could do in Major League Soccer. So excited for what it would mean for him and for Middlesborough concerned about what it would mean for the windcats. Yeah, more than fair. Jeff, let's look at a couple of wingers who have signed as or who will sign, I suppose, as a DP in Major League Soccer. The reds have signed Jack Harrison, 29-year-old returning to Major League Soccer spent a lot of time at Leeds and then Everton and Fiorentina after kind of breaking through at NYCFC. Former high school soccer player of the year, really interesting story that we've all kind of remembered in the back of our brains for the last decade or however long it's been now. Made his reds debut on Saturday off the Benz against the Dynamo. The reds need help out wide and they got a DP winger who's done it in this league. One other winger that I want to mention. It sounds like Andre Louise is close to signing for supporting Kansas City. Big money, big money fee. Reported fee is $18 million plus add-ons for the Olympiacos winger 24 years old. Didn't do almost anything for Olympiacos in the second half of last season. But before that, put up 12 gold contributions in the first half of this past season, sort of from August to January for real Ave and Portugal. That sparked real interest from a number of big clubs in Europe. Benfica were interested. He didn't end up going to Benfica. He ended going to another Marinacos club. So in the Nottingham Forest Olympiacos real Ave family, he moved up one rung sort of or just over a rung to Olympiacos, probably a better team than a real Ave. It doesn't really produce there. It isn't sort of mainly in the coaches, plans. It doesn't have a lot of success. But Benfica were still interested, according to reports, Wolves Brentford Southampton, sorry, Sunderland, not Southampton. We're all reportedly interested as well. And it sounds like sporting Kansas City. It had to bump their offer up a little bit to get this guy. But when I look at that list of interested teams, even for the money, that does fill me with some confidence for an in-prime winger. Jeff, which of these moves you more, assuming the Andre Louise deal gets over the line? Jack Harrison, sort of familiar, a little bit safer coming to New England or Andre Louise is more of a wild card going to sporting Kansas City. I mean, Harrison has less he needs to do on his back, just in terms of pure herculean effort to make this thing maximize. So like, I like that because it feels like kind of a complimentary piece that a already solid team has needed and I think now will be in better shape for it. I do kind of wonder at 29 now, Harrison, like, do you think that he wishes that he had gotten whatever he's eligible right now for the United States is what I'm saying? And how much could he have helped over the last four years and how differently his career would have looked there? I don't think he's a play for the future, right? That's beside the point. That's probably for a different episode. With Louise, he probably is a lead designated player in the sense that he's the kind of player who can serve as the main option in the final third, whether that is going to be playing the final ball or finishing them, right? And so that's a really useful pickup crucial one. So I'm going to get at 24. So long as you're able to build the rest of the project, maybe this is the thing. You've increased the urgency. If you bring in a player like that, you can't really dawdle and you can't really do this thing now where you're waiting until week three of the regular season to fill your roster and you're you're waiting until four or two windows after your long time coach last boring director leaves to really start like building that next evolution. I know that they were just really slow to bring in David Lee to replace this point record, but that's kind of the point. They're going to need to pick up quick to be able to justify this because you have a player now. If Brentford is paying attention to him, like the best clubs in the world at least know he exists, right? Like pure and simple. And if Brentford is actually making a plan, Benfica is still interested. That is a player who is going to understandably not need to be patient with a club that's, you know, very comfortable operating 13th through 15th in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer, right? So if this goes to go for the line, as KC, I think just needs to really get it together and get that and actually start doing some competitive soccer team stuff, right? And that I think is actually that moves me a lot because it has been disorienting as someone who's been covering this league for over a decade to have sport in Kansas City be just like completely irrelevant after being constantly in the conversation in a way that maybe we're used to with the Seattle Sounders who are in a conversation of their own right now. But I, yeah, I mean, look at 24. It's a fun profile. I think he's a really dynamic sort of player that would do a lot of good for any MLS club. And the fact that this Kansas City, I think speaks really, really well about what they aspire to be. They just should probably try to actualize those aspirations once in a while. Yeah, I like, I like the Harrison move. I am more moved and just generally more intrigued by what's happening in Kansas City. I think it's kind of a little under the radar just how many moves Lee has made where there's three new shutters along the back line. Three of them basically all joining in this window. Carichet left back, coming from Austria or Blorian coming in at center back, Moskara coming in from Ligemecki's. They've added a new defensive midfielder and Alasé Berghanson who has already been playing joined the first window of the year. And they've added a new at the moment starting winger in Capita who I believe came from Poland at this point. There aren't a lot of, I mean, there's no DPs in there, right? He's still not made a DP move. David Lee, this would be the first one. And there's been interest in, there's been reports about maybe the making another one. Obviously, there was a most solid connection, which didn't come to pass. But I think the reality is, sporting Kansas City are trying to swing at a level that we've never seen them swing before. And we've only seen a handful of MLS teams swing before. Peter Maluk, like every week, that's new owner, Peter Maluk, by the way, for sporting Kansas City. Basically, every week on social media is responding to someone about how he's going to spend a lot of money on this team. And one of the richest trade trophies in MLS history for Andre Lee's, a player that Premier League clubs are interested in and probably would have had for slightly less money. That pretty much takes care of any doubt about whether he's going to spend or not. So I am, I'm just really, really on board sporting Kansas City at the moment and their long-term trajectory. I don't think the rest of this season is going to be especially pretty. It's going to take time for this thing to build. But I think a lot of work has been done. It took longer than anybody wanted, including those in Kansas City. And I think Louise could be a really interesting part of that puzzle, even if there's risk, right? But not as much risk as there would be a lot of other leagues in the world of the DP world doesn't exist. And every dollar of the fee really matters. It just doesn't in this case. And if you're not concerned about your owner pulling back his checkbook after you miss on one player, and you're not in this case with Kansas City and Malook, then then spend whatever money you want. Like I could care less. I mean, in Austin, when they signed Brain of Askays and it was going to be for silly money, I start to worry a little bit, okay, how many misses can you really have? And maybe that's that's not well-informed, worry, or maybe it is. I don't know. I mean, look at it later, similar, right? Yeah, it landed in Miami. I think Kansas City want to be in that bucket of teams. And I think the checkbook is going to be there for them to do that, even as they take their lumps in the market. So, we'll see what this ends up looking like. Pulling out that Mosella didn't work. But this looks fun and interesting to me. Yeah. Any more thoughts on any of these? Or should we move to Atlanta and Toronto and call this one a day? Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Okay. Yeah, with Atlanta, it's funny. So like my first episode, I think that we did as a trio with Taylor was after Atlanta had signed him any a lot and now we're putting a bookend on it. He waited until I was back on the feed to be able to make his quiet meek exit. Didn't understand the signing at the time whatsoever, certainly understand it even less now. Just like a very bizarre sort of profile player to go all in on. Someone that maybe looks good to add, right? But like for the $22 million outlet, just like a wild one, after Union Boo Lin, hopefully is going to find some goals there and remind Europe that he can score goals and remind himself that he can score goals, frankly, at this point. And now Atlanta United has been bailed out of another designated player. I don't know, it's a skill. It is a skill like to talk about Austin again. It is a skill to find someone who wants to take on the designated player who isn't working for you. And Union Boo Lin, thank you, Union. Union Boo Lin, I will say maybe not quite as much of a skill to find someone who will take a distressed asset for a cut rate. Then it would be real skill if they got their money back. That ain't going to happen at this point. And let's see, absolutely crushes it at Union Boo Lin this season. And who knows? Maybe then I'm still not ready to give up my Emmanuel Latte Lat stock, though I do agree when there's no functioning playmakers around him, it was never going to work. Right. And they bet on Miranda checking Amarone feeding Latte Latte Latte. And at a certain point, that became clear that that wasn't going to happen. And it kind of felt like Latte Latte just stopped working. And that became a big old problem. So dysfunction continues in Atlanta. There's been rumblings around them going after Dona Nunez in Braylon Bolo. And Romelu Lukaku, it seems like none of those started going to happen. Avram Marata is the latest one that's come across the board. Like Roberto last played a combo. Like Roberto hasn't played a lot of soccer recently. So risky. Man, I don't know if that's the move I'd be making, even though I think he could be quite good at MLS. And he's a much, he's a player that relies on service much less than someone like Latte Latte, like totally different profile. And he's a really good player that I think would do well. But man, without the pieces around him, kind of just doesn't feel like that's the right order of operations for things to happen here. But Atlanta, wow, I'm going to sneeze. Maybe not, oh, just kidding, fodder off. Go me. Atlanta have pinned themselves into a corner with the fact that they're two DP attackers that are supposed to make life easier for whatever nine you get. Just aren't hard good enough. So the reality is the struggle is going to, yeah, 100%. The struggle is going to continue until the end of 2027 or however the contract is going to be massaged around MLS during the calendar change. When finally, you can get off of Amarone and Morenchek. Until then, it's, it's going to be a bit of a struggle unless there's a bio situation happening here. I just, that's kind of how I feel about Atlanta right now. So what's our projection right now? I've seen some really good coverage from out in Atlanta by rabbi with Jason Jones and others about like the, the trouble sometime line that they continue to be on and how like this whole thing just seems to be spottering year after year after year. Like Joe, with where their roster's at, this is not going to be the rosiest of sections of a podcast we've ever had. How far off are Atlanta from actually salvaging this thing? They're currently dead last in the Eastern Conference and Eastern Conference that does still have the historically bad shield defense of the Philadelphia Union and CF Montreal doing their best. So how bad is it then if they are four points adrift at the bottom of the conference right now? Negative 14 gold difference. There is actually worse or landows is worse still at negative 17 despite them being three points out the playoffs spots. When is Atlanta back? I think can we say that again? The earliest, I'm not ready to say that they're going to be back anytime soon. I don't, I just don't think we have the evidence for that. Man, the moves they've made have been just head scratching where forget the DPs, right? I, I, you can swing and miss on those. There were bits in there to like. There were bits to question. That's all fair. Dumping Pedro Amador. So you can bring in Elias bias. That's not exactly the timeline works, but that's basically what happened. That didn't make any sense to me. Amador was really good and quite cheap and you replaced him with a young player who's not the same level for what reason. I don't understand. Bringing into center backs in this window now who are in a ostensibly a win now profile because they're both over 30 makes zero sense to me whatsoever. The, the long contracts that they've handed out to players that I don't think have warranted them. I mean, it's just been miss after miss for Garf Larkaway who is now I think back sort of swimming and looking for new job situations, which is great news because of the health scare that that was there for a while. So we're glad to hear that. But Garth didn't have the impact that I thought he would. And Chris Henderson has not the impact at all that I thought he would. And Tatumartino's moves have been questionable, at least ostensibly. They, they seem like Tatumartino moves. So anyway, that's, that's my, I don't understand what on earth that Lansing headed are doing. And it's, it's been really bleak. They have been as poorly run basically as anybody outside of maybe some corners of Canada. This, this season, our last season or show. I will say the earliest I could see the window opening is 2027, 2028. That season. So the second full, no, sorry, that would be that would be the first season. So take that back. 2028, 2029. The second full season of the new calendar. That is what I'm trying to get at. So we get to the rest of this 2026 season. Then you get this print season. Then the new 2728 calendar. I'm thinking 2829 is the earliest that this is going to turn around for them. By then, they'll have had the obvious ability as contracts window to get off of their, their two existing DPs. And lots of lot will be gone by that in one form or another. And that's when I think they can sort of start to piece things together as they turn over some of the deeper down roster players. But it's, it's going to be a while, Jeff. Do you think it's going to be sooner than that? Because I really don't, I don't know if I see it, man. I don't see it sooner than that. Though I will say if they caught lightning in the bottle and they did well in the sprint season, it could be calamitous towards the long term project. I think that there's like a handful of clubs that, as I'm getting closer to the sprint season, I'm worrying they take the wrong lessons from success in a very weird sort of one-off format. And I worry that Atlanta, with how much money they've invested in this thing, would just be kind of desperate to look for that silver lining. And so would be willing to treat it more seriously than maybe they otherwise would if they were entering the sprint season in a better state of construction and confidence, right? So I worry about what that could do, but I don't really see it. I think that by and large, most Emma less teams will know to shake that with a relative grain of salt, right? So long as they do that, 28.29 feels realistic. They've got some really long contracts they need to get out of. They've got some youth to rebuild after moving on pretty much every promising prospect, especially along the backline that they could ever generate from their academy. And I think that that's been really counterproductive for the pull of their academy. So I think that will take them longer to look at other clubs that are spending a lot, but still outside the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, Toronto FC now has signed to face a midfielder for Formula 1.0. It's from Haydenheim, Nicholas Dorch, 8,000 Buddhist League of Minutes. He's already debuted. He looked pretty good. I watched some of his tape. So generally, I think they needed that sort of stability. I think Jose C. Fuentes didn't stick in the midfield in the way that we've really had hoped he would, right? So good to evolve that. And I think getting someone, maybe if you're comparing the profile, C. Fuentes, who maybe is a little bit more box-to-box, wants to do more in the attacking half, let's say, getting someone who's going to be willing to do that sort of safety belt and be the guy in the back who's going to be able to just kind of anchor that thing makes a lot of sense. So actually, I really like the profile. Still just not a lot going right for Toronto at the moment. They've got three wins. They are one of just two teams that are only at three wins at this stage of the season. The other one, of course, is Atlanta. I don't know if this changes many of their draws. They get a lot of draws. That's kind of the trick right now. I don't know how much this changes that, but I think it's a really good fit in that 28-years-old should hopefully keep them in the business of getting draws for a few more years. Yeah. Yeah. If doors can be there under Scuba, it's like this fringe DP-capit kind of player. That'll be a slam dunk. That's, I mean, if only he could be one of the greatest midfielder's name on this history, then, of course, that would work too. But I think there's a lot to like about the profile. I'm unclear if he's a DP or not. You mentioned that transfer fee. I think Tom had reported that maybe he was going to be out of the gates, but then he'd be able to be bought down. Neither MLS's release or Toronto's release included anything about him being a DP and Toronto. I haven't updated the roster page on their website. So I assume he's not. I think they have to disclose that in the scientific years. Okay. There you go. I didn't realize that. So that's good news because Toronto desperately need a way here. So we'll see if they can make that happen. They also need other stuff. They need to get healthy, first informed. That's really and the sooner that can happen, the better off that they're going to be. Jeff, we have other moves that we're still waiting to see are going to come down the pipeline or not things in Orlando, things in Atlanta, like we mentioned, LAFC Houston. I mean, there's a lot more that we could get into today. Let's park it now and I'm certain we'll have more material to do more of this throughout the summer transfer window. It is one of the most fun times of the MLS season, Jeff. And it has been a delight to get to talk through all of this with you. Thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, great to see you again, man. I haven't seen you since the press box of the once and former Los Angeles stadium. That's right. I think that's right. Good to see you back in the confines of Riverside, I suppose. And I'm glad you're doing well. You've been doing great work on the feet as always, my friend. Oh, thank you, Jeff. I was bummed to miss last week with you and Taylor. I'm glad we're back. Listen, thank you so much for listening. We will talk more MLS next week. We'll talk more USMT and all that stuff later on in this week. For now, thank you so much for listening, and we'll come back again with it.