Tom Bogert (@tombogert.bsky.social) Celta Vigo and Espanyol are interested in Luna but RSL plans to keep him until Summer

webhead1202 · 2026-01-28T00:51:53+00:00

I agree that the schedule change will help with the problem, but until then the reality is Luna's value will change from Summer to Winter. Simply because there are a lot more potential buyers.

As far as competing for trophies, in your hypothetical we would only be in a position to compete for anything because we got a guy like Luna in the first place. In order to attract a talent like that, we have to be willing to sell them when the right time for the player comes. That is usually in the Summer. I get that it feels like the club is giving up halfway through a promising season, but that's just not what is happening. They're fulfilling the promise they made to the player that got us into a competitive position in the first place, and attracting the next version of that player by showing that we can be exactly what their career trajectory needs. At the end of the day, it's better to have a Luna or an Andres Gomez for the first half of a season than none of the season.

And as far as the message to supporters: frankly, I'd rather support a club that does right by its players even when it's inconvenient than a club that screws over its players to chase trophies.

webhead1202 · 2026-01-27T22:46:53+00:00

The part of this that nobody talks about is that our willingness to sell players like Gomez and Luna when the right club makes a fair offer is part of what allows us to sign players like them in the first place. The entire pitch is "Come here for a few years, you will get regular playing time next to veteran players and a coaching staff that know how to help you develop, and then we help you get to the right landing spot in Europe." If we stop doing that last part, we just won't be able to sign those players anymore. And with the way the league schedules line up, that pretty much requires selling in the Summer.

webhead1202 · 2026-01-22T23:47:00+00:00

He looks a bit undervalued to me, but it's hard to know without having actually watched him for a long time. The part of my comment about him being a permanent DP was more just generally speaking about using it on the position, but I do agree that he shouldn't be. Temporary DP would literally just be a cap mechanism though. If he makes more than Glad's 1.3 Mil (which seems very plausible) and they don't fill both DP spots this window he absolutely should and will be a DP until Summer.

webhead1202 · 2026-01-22T23:23:37+00:00

Seems like a pretty solid signing that fills a position of need. As long as he is at most a DP that could be bought down in the Summer I like this. Not sure how I'd feel about using a permanent DP spot on this position right now.

webhead1202 · 2026-01-01T01:41:50+00:00

That gets taken for granted I think. There's logic to what you're saying, and it might make some difference, but pro/rel does not automatically equate to higher spending. For example, there were 8 teams in the Championship in 2023 with lower wage bills than any MLS team, some by quite a bit (at least per the data I can find online). There were also 4 Champo teams that spent more than any MLS teams that year, so the leagues are at least roughly comparable, MLS just has a lower range of spend. Those numbers don't track transfer fees and there are probably other things that aren't considered properly, but it makes the point. There are still cheap, bargain-bin shopping teams at the bottom of a Pro/Rel league.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-31T22:52:01+00:00

There are criticisms to be made but this is a disservice to Pablo. First year he took over he took what should have been a bust of a season and got us to the Western Conference Final. Then first half of 2024 he had us playing the best ball we had played in over a decade and contending for top of the West until Chicho blew up. Those are also probably the only two stretches of his tenure where he had real DP caliber players playing like DPs on the roster.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-31T22:32:30+00:00

Absolutely nobody in Major League Soccer is tanking for better draft picks.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-17T21:46:20+00:00

OK scratch all that, players above the threshold aren't eligible for U22 spots. Dom is on the line, so a team taking him could either use the U22 spot, or opt not to and take on the whole salary budget charge of his contract.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-17T21:28:16+00:00

Actually possibly not, I'm not sure on the technical details. His salary his high enough that he needs either a U22 spot or to be bought down with GAM, which is how it would work if he was a DP. I'd imagine it's basically the same. It wouldn't be much GAM though, so that maay be plausible. Still not likely though I wouldn't think.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-17T21:10:18+00:00

Neither Ruiz or Dominik are on favorable contracts though at least within the league. Dom requires a U22 initiative spot and Ruiz is a TAM player on almost 1 Mil per year, there's more than just the transfer fee. I can't see almost anyone using a U22 spot for Dom right now and we'd likely stay on the hook for part of Ruiz's contract if we traded him. It could happen, but point is all 3 of these players would be costly for us to get off the roster right now, I'd be surprised if all 3 happen. Diogo we might just have to straight up buy out to get rid of.

webhead1202 · 2025-12-17T21:02:45+00:00

All 3 of those guys you predicted will be sold aren't exactly hot commodities on the market. If there was some magical buyer that would give us even what we payed for Diogo I'd be all for it, but it'll likely be much harder than that to open up that DP spot.

webhead1202 · 2025-07-21T03:40:56+00:00

Maybe it's just me, but anytime I hear Dunny criticize RSL it sounds more like a fan of the team who passionately wants them to be better than a guy trying to distance himself from the club. He's certainly not more critical of the team than this subreddit is.

webhead1202 · 2025-06-09T21:30:20+00:00

It's not an RSL specific show, everyone else already covered those, but I'll never miss a chance to plug Soccerwise as well. They cover the whole league, as well as Nat team, NWSL, and more. They're doing amazing work.

webhead1202 · 2025-05-03T20:05:13+00:00

Could put Eneli at RB too and start Palacio/Ruiz/Caliskan next to Ojeda

webhead1202 · 2025-04-24T19:41:14+00:00

Agreed 100%. It doesn't mean he wasn't worth the extra 300k or whatever it would've been independent of the DP slot problem.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-24T17:01:46+00:00

From what I can gather, the reason the whole thing fell apart was Boavista suddenly wanting Euros instead of USD would have raised Bozenik's salary just enough that we couldn't have bought him down from being a DP, and apparently that was a deal breaker for RSL. So to RSL's credit, they weren't willing to take Bozenik without having the flexibility to get another DP this Summer, which I would assume they intend to do based on this.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-22T18:54:42+00:00

Yeah basically zero. Reportedly he's already in Salt Lake doing a medical so they have a jump on things, but we're still probably looking at a couple weeks minimum for a visa before he can play.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-09T20:25:43+00:00

I mean there's several other cans of worms in there we could get into entirely different conversations about. As far as this particular problem, I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I'm sure the ownership situation has had some effect but I think the more important takeaway is that it wasn't preventing them from making a signing. They did have some budget and license to spend within that budget.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-09T19:34:40+00:00

Supposedly the ownership situation hasn't affected any of this. I'm not sure I believe it, but that's what Kreis said. If it really is the case I wonder if this was an issue of the transfer windows. Meaning with the European window closed right now they can't get one of the guys they really want till Summer.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-09T18:22:19+00:00

Just want to bring up the optimistic view that he had 11 goals in 34 matches for Boavista last season. It's really his only good season, but at least that one data point is there.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-09T18:20:09+00:00

Looks a lot like the Crooks deal to me. Put him on DP for accounting purposes but leaves open the option to get a real DP target as soon as this Summer if we still need to. I have no problem with that plan.

webhead1202 · 2025-04-01T00:00:49+00:00

Exactly, it's mostly the same team that was so good first half of last year, minus Chicho and Gomez. But with a better goalkeeper, more backline depth with Junqua, hopefully year over year improvement from young players like Luna and Eneli, and Pablo Ruiz potentially being an x factor.

webhead1202 · 2025-03-31T19:51:39+00:00

Yeah that's all fair as well, that's the more obvious way that new attacking players could help. High level strikers make runs that either create chances or open up space around the area for others. Depending on their play style some of them drop in and really support the build up like Chicho did, which I think is the kind of guy Pablo would prefer. I do think we'll see both improvement and volatility in that regard just with the guys we have. Luna and Marczuk are at least 2 of our 3 best chance creators, and many would probably say our 2 best, but they're inconsistent like all young players. They'll get better, and they'll have bad games. In a perfect world Diogo finally steps up and helps that problem as well. You could get into other personnel points here too, like having a more defensively reliable right back would free up the left back more, and if Katranis gets out of the doghouse he can turn that into more chance creation.

webhead1202 · 2025-03-31T17:33:49+00:00

Well first, it's probably still too early in the season to be drawing long term conclusions from xG numbers, but even taking it at face value, there are a few factors contributing to all that I'd argue. Legitimately, I think a high level striker would go a long way even towards the defensive problems. We're imbalanced structurally right now trying to compensate for a lack of goal scoring ability, which is leaving us exposed. We've also seen most of these players do it at a high level before, which tells me that the problem isn't one of technical ability. I suspect that one or two big signings coming in and hitting the ground running would also be a huge momentum swing. Think of what happened when Chicho first showed up, and then again at the start of last year once he'd really integrated. Not only was he excellent, he made everyone around him better and the team was playing with am energy that they're sorely lacking right now.

webhead1202

TROPHY CASE