3rd Degree the Podcast #284

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh. Mm hmm. Oh. [00:00:09] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree ner pocket. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. The third degree nepocass. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Third degree. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's not to be mentioned on the podcast. Buzz. Edit that out. Well, well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode. This one numbered 284 of third degree. The podcast. He's got a new manager, and we want to know how he feels about it. It is English Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:48] Speaker C: Hey. I had no idea what you were on about for a second, but same. You're talking about Adrian Forbes at Techsomer FC. Very excited. [00:00:59] Speaker A: You've bested me once again, my friend. No, I was wondering how you felt about Thomas Tuchel managing your England team. [00:01:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Totally. Great. Awesome. Wonderful. [00:01:09] Speaker A: You dig it? [00:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. Why wouldn't I? [00:01:12] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:01:13] Speaker C: It's funny. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Runs hot and cold with people, his bosses pretty quickly. I don't know. [00:01:17] Speaker C: That's fine. If he takes it to the fam. That makes me happier. It was just funny people back home to my. Oh, why isn't it an english coach? Oh, yeah. Do you want Sean de. [00:01:31] Speaker A: Laugh and you could have taken. Could have taken Buzz's Eddie Howe. [00:01:38] Speaker B: Hands off. [00:01:40] Speaker A: Hands off. [00:01:41] Speaker C: I. Wicked. [00:01:43] Speaker A: All right, well, wanting to protect his Newcastle, there he is, your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer himself. It is Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:58] Speaker B: I thought you were gonna ask Dan about the updates to his OnlyFans account, since that is what he was doing last week when he was not here. [00:02:04] Speaker C: Yeah, what was that about? [00:02:06] Speaker A: Well, you told us why you couldn't do the podcast last week. You had gotten a custom request from a. From a subscriber to your OnlyFans account, and you had to tend to it since it paid a lot of money. [00:02:17] Speaker C: Sneeze to me. I was building a computer for my wife. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Man, that is one really pervy onlyfans account you've got going on there. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Hey, that's. That's kind of how Buzz bought his desktop. He was watching the guy build it. [00:02:31] Speaker B: I did. That's cool. [00:02:32] Speaker C: That was pretty cool, actually. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Except that guy had clothes on. [00:02:37] Speaker B: He did. He did affect him. Clothes on. [00:02:39] Speaker C: Yeah. But it was really hot last week. [00:02:41] Speaker A: That's true. It was hot. Yeah. I mean, he could work a pretty good sweat or really, really, really sweaty night building a computer on a webcam. [00:02:54] Speaker C: I feel like you've practiced that voice too much. [00:02:57] Speaker A: I get paid for that voice. All right, boys. Well, here we are. We're in that stupid bye week in between the next to last and last weeks of the MLS season. This means nothing. Dallas is cooked. It is interesting. I will say this week as before we get into the game of the day, which we will play dump or keep and talk about Trinity FC and a couple other things before we, before we end this deal, I did want to point out that we're in that point of the year where media people start writing recaps of the season and Matt duo wrote one. I also want to give a shout out to our very good friend, Steve Davis because I think, you know, somebody in Steve's position is always a difficult position to be in because he has a responsibility to the club. But I think Steve also has done a really, really commendable job of being professionally critical, uh, as appropriate, this season. And he, he wrote a sub stack letter this week that talked about a lot of the things that we've talked about. I thought he brought up some of his own thoughts in there that were really sharp and I wanted to give him credit for posting that publicly. [00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it was quite good. And I think it echoes a lot of the same sort of themes that we've been echoing. And, uh, Matt doles thing did, too. So we've talked about. Should be really surprising, actually, you know? [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So Matt is going through doing kind of his recap of every team individually and he wrote one and there were lots of things in there that, that were stuff that we've talked about. And I will just let everybody know because I'm assuming he did it because he didn't ask me if he could. I'm the person he's quoting in the article about the friend who covers the team. That's, yeah, that's the conversation between he and I. The big takeaway from that, that surprised me is that he refers to me as his friend. I don't know how to. I'm kind of, I don't know, Internet friend, I guess. Is that different? Maybe it is. I don't know. [00:04:58] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:04:59] Speaker A: But if Matt Doyle calls me friend, I'm going to accept and take that. Thank you. Matt Doyle. [00:05:03] Speaker B: When I was working in my NASCAR phase one time, we were going through Kansas City and a guy who I've known for like 20 years on the Internet, I would call him a friend and he came and met me and some of my coworkers have dinner and I was, I had told them my friend was going to come meet us and he showed up and I was like, hey, nice to meet you. They were like, I thought you said he was your friend. I said, well, yeah, I've known him for 20 years. He's never met him in person. [00:05:26] Speaker A: He was more than your Internet friend. [00:05:28] Speaker B: No, he is now. [00:05:30] Speaker A: I mean. Okay, all right. Yeah, you've crossed that line. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:33] Speaker C: Nowadays that's called Tinder. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Tinder, yeah. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Never. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Onlyfans pen pal. [00:05:38] Speaker A: Did either one of you ever have a pen pal? [00:05:41] Speaker B: No. [00:05:41] Speaker C: No. [00:05:42] Speaker A: You never had a. Yeah, Dan, that doesn't surprise me. You're a little younger than us. No, pen pals were a thing. And. Yeah, Buzz, I'm 50, almost 56. How old are you? [00:05:53] Speaker B: 52. [00:05:54] Speaker A: All right, so I'm a few years older. When I was in elementary school, I think we tried to do, like, a pen pal program with somebody in another country where you and. You and I think we exchanged, like, one letter each before we got bored with it and it was done with. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Here's what I should have said, peter, is that I'm old enough that I can't remember how old I am. I'm actually 53. I had to think about it for a second. [00:06:20] Speaker A: I got news for you, Buzz. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:22] Speaker A: It doesn't get better. [00:06:23] Speaker B: No, no, it doesn't. I said that. I was like, wait a minute. That's not right. [00:06:28] Speaker A: It only gets worse, my friend. [00:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. When I was in school, they would. I knew people that had been pals from other countries, and I think they offered a program, and I didn't go for it, but I think I remember them offering that and people doing it. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Now I'm trying to think of the last time I actually wrote, hand wrote a letter. And cards. Yeah, and cards don't count. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Uh, summer camp, like sending a. Yeah. Thing to my parents, telling them, like, what I was doing. [00:06:55] Speaker A: I think the last thing I ever wrote was, like, a letter. A spiteful, I hate your guts letter to the girl that broke up with me after college. I think that was really long. I'm sure she showed it to all kinds of people. [00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:16] Speaker A: What a moron. All right, speaking of morons, let's talk about this particular season, Buzz. It's time for our annual game of dump or keep, where we go through the FC Dallas roster. [00:07:28] Speaker B: Well, before you start that, can I hit it one on the format for me? [00:07:32] Speaker A: Item one on your. [00:07:35] Speaker C: It's because the crayons green this time. [00:07:37] Speaker A: Oh, that's right, it is. Why is the crayon green this time, Buzz? [00:07:41] Speaker B: Because we're approaching Christmas holidays. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:07:43] Speaker C: Oh, I thought you just defected to us. Then no. [00:07:48] Speaker A: In the run sheet written in green crayon today, a 2025 roster problem. Parentheses ask Buzz. Yeah, that was the instruction that I forgot to do. Sorry, Buzz. [00:08:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, let me just really quickly say that it is super hard to actually figure out a team salary cap, because there's multiple things that go into a salary cap number for a player. It's not only the base salary, but, like, the bonuses that you're going to get. It also includes, like, what it costs to buy the player, things like that. So, like, the published. There's no published salary cap numbers. The best you can do is try and sort of ballpark it. So I sat down with the 23. I went through the salaries of every player from 22 to to 24, and I looked at how much they jumped each month, each year. Excuse me. And so I estimated 2025. And then I put in all the things, all the roster mechanics like Tam buy Downs, DP's, all that kind of crap. The bottom line is I added it all up and I. And all the numbers are available for what the salary cap and such are going to be next year. And right now, depending on how accurate I got with my numbers, FC Dallas is somewhere in between one point two to one point five million dollars over the salary captain. So going. And that's if you just bring everybody back. Yeah. If you just bring everybody back there around 1.2 to 1.5 over the cap. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm glad you did this, because it dawned on me last week when, I don't remember what brought this up in my head, but I was going through the roster and it dawned on me. I don't. Yeah. That this was going to be a problem. And you've done the math now, because they've got to the best I could. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they've got Paxton's money coming back, and that's about a million bucks. Everybody else's dollars are going up and that, and they've added show and ruan, although I guess those are guys that you really can't count, because we don't. They're. Well, as we'll find out, they're not under contract. [00:09:39] Speaker B: Right. So what I did was like, you can see, like, what a guy's contract has jumped from year to year to year. So you just extrapolate out the next year of it. Right. You know what the DP numbers are going to be? It's up to 744 next year. 744,000. You know. You know, I left the things like Young DP and U 22 the same, which are like 200,000. You know, I bought down everybody that needs to buy down. And so, like, just based on that, like, the club basically needs to dump something like a million to a million five in salary cap in order to get under the cap. So it's like, as we, you know, the exact numbers of that, it's hard to really say. But just as we talk about this team and the build for next year, we just have to keep that back in the mind. The idea that they're going to have to dump, there's a bunch of ways you can do it. And maybe at some point we'll talk over the next couple of weeks when the team's eliminated, we'll talk about how they could do that the best way. But, you know, for today, just. I thought it was important to put it out there that the team will need to take this into mind as they're making a lot of these decisions. [00:10:34] Speaker C: I've got a question for you, Buzz. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:36] Speaker C: Did you do that on Tuesday just so that you would do some impossibly complex arithmetic on tax extension day? [00:10:45] Speaker B: No, I did do it on Tuesday, but it's not why I did it. Yeah. [00:10:50] Speaker A: Well, all right, so moving on to part two of this, it's time now for annual game of dump or keep, where we run through the FC Dallas roster and kind of break down who's under contract, who has options, who's out of contract, and then kind of everybody go around and decide who we want to dump or keep. It's a pointless exercise. Fun, nonetheless. Oh, it's not? Okay. [00:11:15] Speaker C: All right. No, I prepped. I've got a spreadsheet and everything. I even found out how to do the crosshair highlight in Google sheets. [00:11:27] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, so because we can't dump or keep these, let me just go ahead and run through the people that are still under contract for 2025. And I don't know if you want to comment about any of them, Buzz, but let me just run through the list. This is per Buzz anise Sully. I've never seen him play a minute of soccer. Petter Moussa. Martin paws. Paxton Palmikal. Giovanne. Jesus Bernard Kamungo. Paul Areola. Jesus Ferreira. Alan Velasco. Sebastian Leggette. Marco Farfan. Oh. Show is under contract next year. Okay. [00:12:08] Speaker C: Three. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Remember, he has a loan that runs through the middle of the season. So, like, if they. They probably. There probably is an out clause in it if they felt they needed to, but technically, he's under contract till middle of next year. [00:12:19] Speaker A: And when I thought an East Sally was obscure. Here's a name. I don't even know who this person is. Alejandro Zura. [00:12:28] Speaker B: Yep. He's a homegrown. He's, you know, 1718 years old. [00:12:32] Speaker A: Giant question mark over my head. Carl Sante, Nolan Norris, Tariq Scott and Thomas Pandeka, those players are all under contract. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Quick, just a quick, since you brought it up on Ali Azura, is that he was. For my money, he was the best player in Matthew Corcoran's class. After Matthew Corcoran left, he became, like, the midfield general team. He was the first homegrown from that group signed, and I thought it was quite appropriate that he be signed. [00:13:00] Speaker A: Has he been playing with North Texas? [00:13:02] Speaker B: Yes. Starting? No, he. He's gotten injured a couple times over the last season and a half. It's kind of held him back a little bit earlier this year, he was actually doing really well and getting a lot of playing time, and then he got hurt again. So, you know, the bottom line for a kid like that is, like, if you can't say healthy, it's gonna be very difficult to make it, but he's gonna have to find a way to stay healthy, so. But he is talented. [00:13:22] Speaker A: He's an eight, a six, a ten. What is he. [00:13:24] Speaker B: He's a six eight combo. Okay. We have a lot of those around. [00:13:27] Speaker A: Here, but, yeah, on the Matthew Corcoran scale, where does he fall? [00:13:32] Speaker B: Oh, he's not as good as that, but he's pretty good. He's close. You know, he could. He could be a. If he were to progress, you could put him in the. In the same regions as Patrick Delgado or, you know, maybe not quite as good as Paxton, but. But you never know. You never know. So, kid actually taps out where he's going to stop. So he's definitely got some talent. And he's a little taller than. He's tall and thin, which is what. Why I think he gets hurt. He gets it banged up. [00:13:57] Speaker A: Okay. All right, so let's run through. Let's start with the players that are out of contract, because these are three known names, and we can go from there. And I think this is going to be the one that's going to cause the most conversation. Asir Alarmendi. [00:14:16] Speaker C: Yeah, you're kind of almost David Moiseny, intermittent day. [00:14:22] Speaker A: All right, so Alaramendi is the first person out of contract, right? Is this is. How do you want to do this, Buzz? [00:14:30] Speaker B: Well, it's just take turns asking me that first and then Dan first, and then you could throw in, too of course. Okay, I guess I'll go first on this one. I think this is a pretty simple no brainer. You know, the. The age is obviously pretty high. Uh, he'll be 35 in March. But, you know, from game to game, when he's healthy, he often is Dallas's best player this all season at 34. You know, you can't invest in him a long term, and you can't invest a boatload of money. You can't handicap yourself. But if you can find, uh, like, this year, he was on 500 with, uh, you know, up to 550 bonus. If you can get him to come back for the same sort of ballpark money, I think it's a no brainer, you know, whether it's a combination of what he can provide and teach other players, what he can do for your locker room, the kind of leadership he has by example, obviously, just the talent he has on the field. You know, if you can, you probably can't go in and expect 34, 90 minutes performances, but I think it's still a really good piece to have in your team. [00:15:28] Speaker C: 100%. 500,000 is an absolute steal for his quality. You know, that's less than far fun. That's less than Ibi Yaga. That's less than legit Pomocol. That's a quarter of Jesus. You know, for the output, the number of games where he was the guy who ran the most on the team, and kind of, you know, on the ball, actually looked like he had a clue. [00:15:54] Speaker A: So is anybody else curious how Dallas got a guy that quality on such cheap dollars? [00:16:00] Speaker B: I don't know. You know, obviously. I mean, somebody brought them to him, I would assume. [00:16:06] Speaker A: Doesn't that seem insanely low for a guy? I mean, I get it that he's 30. He was 33 when he did the deal. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah, well, he's not a particularly superstar famous. No, it's not like he's Xavi or. [00:16:21] Speaker A: Something, but buzz, that's half what Paxton's making, or almost half. [00:16:27] Speaker B: I figured he must have known Niko Steve, or someone he knew knew Niko Steve, and I figured probably he was. When a guy's 33, 34, that's a high risk signing, as we knew and we all talked about, and probably they were like, well, we'd love to have you, but we can only afford, like, x, y, or z, you know, so he may want a little more money this year. It's entirely possible. And there's a point at which, of course, you have to say, no, you can't break your salary cap shipping when you're already under the gun. [00:16:54] Speaker A: No, that's kind of. That's kind of the point of what. Where I am asking the question, because I'm going to assume based on his performances, he's going to hold Dan Hunt's feet to the fire on a new contract and for a lot more money, especially if Eugene Ansa is making, what, two, $300,000 more a year than he is and barely playing. I'm going to. And then that's where I think gets back to the thing that you guys just talked about. I don't. I would be shocked if he signed another $500,000 deal, and because I'm sure he could go find a six or $700 deal, you know, six or $700,000 deal at another MLS club speaker. [00:17:36] Speaker B: Zero. Well, the one thing I would say about that is he's been talking about how much he loves it here. And, you know, the club's even posting videos where he's saying that. I mean, he wouldn't have agreed to that or said that if he didn't think it was, you know, going to be something he wanted to. To have thrown back in his face in terms of negotiation. So I think that he probably did that stuff where he was talking about how great it is in Dallas and how much he loves in Dallas because he wants to resign, is trying to get them to give him. Because look at how old he is. He's gonna be 35 in March. And we know this club is swinging back as this. As you know, they always are reactionary, so they're gonna swing back to youth again because they went all. Didn't work in a swing back. So he's probably thinking that they're probably not gonna offer him a deal at all. So, you know, it's hard to know without being in there involved. [00:18:18] Speaker C: But I think one thing to keep in mind with him is a player in that position a lot of times coming here is. Is a lifestyle choice. You know, you've just had that interview of Marco Royce talking about being able to go out grocery shopping and whatever else. You know, for a guy who. He speaks English, he doesn't speak an absolute metric shit ton of it. So a city like Dallas, wherever 43% of people are Spanish, first language, it is a. Is a pretty nice, you know, that's a nice transition. [00:18:53] Speaker A: So. [00:18:53] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, here's the master plan we've got to hope for, right? He does like a year with a year option, and then when he's. When times right, he becomes assistant to his former coach, Mauricio. Pochettino. [00:19:13] Speaker A: All right. Do you have a number line in the sand? Like, if he came and said, I want 750, do you say, yay? [00:19:20] Speaker B: No, his age, I wouldn't give him. I don't think I could give him 750. It would be close. [00:19:25] Speaker C: If he hits. If he hits the DP threshold, then that might be difficult. [00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's 744 going in next year. [00:19:34] Speaker A: All right. [00:19:35] Speaker C: Oh, it's gone up that much? Wow. [00:19:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I didn't make that number up. It was, it was in, it was on their website. They, I guess because of the CBA, they've actually determined what some of those numbers are going to be. Cap Tam Gam DP, like, for the next three or four seasons, like, for the rest of the current CBA. So they're all on their website. [00:19:50] Speaker A: Let me just say this. For all the crap we've given Andre Zonata for some really shady and stupid deals, that one is a big, giant gold star for his forehead because, yeah, somehow that worked out very well for him. [00:20:06] Speaker B: Well, probably, as we talk about age a lot going forward, we should put out there that, of course, being a really good athlete and really fit helps you play longer, but so does more importantly, like, the kind of player you were. Like, if you're a brainy player, you can usually play a lot longer than a guy who is just about athleticism. Because you're settled, athleticism will fall off before your brainy soccer will. So, you know, he's a smart guy that plays with his mind, so he'll be able to play a long time if he wants it. [00:20:30] Speaker A: All right, we're going to have to speed this up, or this is going to be a four hour podcast. [00:20:34] Speaker B: You started with the big ones. [00:20:35] Speaker A: I know. All right, well, that was the one I think is probably is going to generate the most conversation. All right, next up, the guy that they picked up to kind of fill in a spot and turned out to be not too bad, who won. Now he's at a deal, and it probably wants a lot of money, so I have a feeling he's not going to be here next year. [00:20:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I would love to keep him at the price. He's at 440,000. That's 70,000 more than Thumasi for a lot more output. But, yeah, he's 29. Turns 30 early next season. This is kind of his last good contract opportunity. Right. So that's when you want to make your money, which isn't really going to be a thing at FC Dallas. [00:21:21] Speaker A: What was Holling's head making. [00:21:24] Speaker C: How is. [00:21:25] Speaker B: Originally less than that. And it got. It got better. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Like, what is he making it la? Do we know? Do we remember? [00:21:32] Speaker B: I know when he left Dallas, it was kind of in that same ballpark. It was like 475 or something. All right, well, for me, I would agree with Dan that there is a number at which I would want to keep him, but I don't think it's actually going to happen because, as Dan says, points out. Quite right. Hollingstead is on 645, by the way. The bigger problem, actually, is Giovanni, Jesus, who's sitting there on a U 22 deal. And that's the guy that you're. The theory behind the U 22 deals is that you paid a fair chunk to get them and they get paid a little less and they have a low cap hit because they're supposed to be developed for sale or developed to become a key part of your team. So they paid some money to get him. They're going to want to develop in that guy. They want to invest in that guy. So I think. I think Juan fell into that category of short term emergency signings, of looks on saying, I need a wing back. You guys are killing me, you know, give me a wing back. And so they did remember that trade cost them almost nothing. So, you know, if Juan comes into the office at the end of season and says, yeah, I'll play, I'll stick around for 400, then I'd be like, awesome. That's great. But I think Dan's right. He's going to want more than that. So I don't think it's in the cards. I think that it'll be between what is theoretically a recovering Jesus and the other possibilities you have. And right back is also a position where you have guys in the academy coming through, too, obviously, before this. Brian Reynolds and Reggie Cannon are really good examples of that. There will be more of those. That's a position Dallas can produce easily. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Okay, so we're just saying we keep them at the right price, is the general consensus. [00:23:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have to be a pretty low price, and we both find that price to be pretty unrealistic. And so we're assuming that he will not be here next year, I think. [00:23:15] Speaker A: Well, yeah. Okay. All right. Last person out of contract is the old man himself, Jimmy Maurer. [00:23:22] Speaker B: Jimmy just completed his UEFA like, front office training course. And you remember a year ago even he was already, you know, doing that kind of work. And his current contract is actually one that's partially front office work as well as play. So I think it's time to let Jimmy retire and move on to whatever's next. Um, you know, hopefully it's obvious or not obviously, but perhaps, or hopefully it's going to be something inside the organization along those lines. Um, you know, and he's a guy who probably would keep himself relatively fit, I imagine, so God forbid you really needed him. You could always go grab him for emergency or whatever, but I think it's time for him to ride off into the sunset. [00:23:59] Speaker C: Hundred percent. [00:24:01] Speaker A: Okay. Salute Jimmy Maurer. All right, the last one that isn't is a buy option, which is different than options. How, Buzz? [00:24:11] Speaker B: Well, he's on a loan, so you'd have to pay the club he's currently under contract with to get him, so that he could be anywhere from almost nothing to $10 million for all you know. That's obviously a big mystery point. So, Dan, go ahead on Delgado if you want. [00:24:28] Speaker C: For me, it's really if the price is right, you know, his salary this year was 150 grand. You can't. Can't complain about that for what he did in the team. But, yeah, that buy price could be horrific, like we've seen with some other one, with some other south american loan to buy options. It could be totally amenable and make it worthwhile. [00:24:52] Speaker B: I'm actually going to say, unless the price is crazy low, I'm going to say pass, because he plays a position where you already have Velasco and Jesus Ferreira and Paxton and Legit and Paul Areola and, um, Thomas Pondecka, and then four or five more kids that are coming through the academy. Uh, yeah, Padrino, who's a phenomenally talented player at North Texas, who I think is a good shot to be on the first team next year, you know, from Brazil. Um, so I just think that, like, his real position is that high ten position, remember? And that's not. That's a position where Dallas has a lot of stuff already and a lot of salary already. Um, and maybe it's a spot they need to dump some salary, but I. I just don't think there's a avenue for all that much pt with him in that spot. Unless, of course, he's just so cheap, it's crazy not to get him. And that's. Sometimes these buys, it's hard to know. So I'm going to say pass. [00:25:47] Speaker A: All right, well, that takes us to the list of players that have options. And speaking of right back, Ema tuamasi tops the list. Buzz, drop or keep? [00:25:59] Speaker B: Unfortunately, I think it's probably going to be drop. Um, you know, Tuomasi is now 27, uh, you know, primary career. In the last two seasons, he struggled a little bit to stay healthy. And again, this comes down to the idea that they've invested a bunch of money in Giovanni Jesus in order for him to be here. You know, if. If they're going to try and keep Ruan, then again, that squeezes them out. You also have Herbert Endeley, and again, that's a position where you have guys in the academy that are going to come through over the next several years. So I don't, I don't. I just. I think that at some point, like, he's one of the longest serving players here. I think he's the only people that have been here longer, Paxton and Jesus. So he's had a hell of a run, and he's a good enough player that somebody else will pick him up, either an MLS or you sell championship. But I think, probably, probably consider to like, as his salary accelerates, he's going to jump up to something around the neck of 420,000 next year, which is, you know, Juan ballpark. So that's a lot to carry again. [00:26:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, the escalator on his. On his options probably going to be a little bit prohibitive for the production he has. So, you know, good time for him to get a fresh start, a fresh approach, and maybe, you know, he can get some of that side of his game, the attacking side of his game back that lacked a little bit towards the end. [00:27:17] Speaker A: All right, this will be an interesting one. Sebastian Ibiaga, dump or keep? Dan. [00:27:25] Speaker C: You know, I actually wrote keep and I don't really know. Oh, I wrote keep if he could. I wrote keep. If he can restructure his deal, don't go into his two option years. That's not going to be worth it. He's 620,000 right now. Try and. Try and get him down, get him on a, you know, centre back three sort of friendly deal. And. Yeah, I mean, he, he's. He's productive. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Yeah, if you. Dan's right about his salary, it should jump to 720 base with like a 783 high end, which means that you have to use some tam gam on him to buy him down a little bit to keep him under the DP threshold. So, like, the fact that they're paying him like he's a DP mean shows you how much they value him. At the same time, he's also going to be 33 in January. Now, he's. He's been relatively fit and he hasn't got hurt very much. Maybe some modern ones here and there. But, you know, I think my hope is in terms of roster building that he's not a deadlock starter next year. And so that's way too much money for a deadlock starter to be at a DP level contract. So it's just, I agree with Dan. The trouble is, like, you don't necessarily want to let him walk because in the open market, somebody will probably give him more than you want to give him. So, like, you need to really quickly right now offer him something, you know, something less than that, but maybe like for three years, so that, like, it would get him to, like, he's 35, but admittedly he hasn't been pretty fit. You can't complain about that part. But, um, I think it's, I think it's like any of these contracts that start to escalate into DP range. You just can't keep picking those guys up indefinitely. So I think he probably is going to be a casualty. On the other hand, if I'm saying let him go, I don't know, the Dallas would, because they really do value him and they may, it may depend on the coach that they end up hiring, but it won't shock me at all if they do pick him up, even though I don't think they should. Wow. [00:29:20] Speaker A: All right. [00:29:21] Speaker B: That's a lot of money, man, for a center back this 33, he is. [00:29:26] Speaker A: A, in my mind, all due respect, he is a bench center back at best. And anywhere near DP money just seems insane. But yeah, I'm just a guy with a radio show. All right, Nikosi Tafari, he actually has options. Buzz, what's the situation with a dump or keep Nicos? [00:29:46] Speaker B: Oh, keep for sure, because his value is actually really good contract wise. The last two years, he's last three years, he's gone from like 190 to 240 to 370. So the math is his contract in the options probably going to be around 400, 4450. So that's basically like where Tuamasi was. That's where Juan was. That's not where Ibioga is. So for a starting grade, we all think center back. That's a good number. He's, he is going on. He'll be 28 in March, which is prime career. He's going to be the, at his very best for the next three, four, five seasons. He's a pretty fit guy. He takes care of himself. So I think that's a no brainer pickup for me. [00:30:26] Speaker C: I think you go a step further and you get him on a new deal in winter. You put him on that deal, that takes him past 30. Know, maybe it's not been the best year for him. His value is probably a little bit lower on the contract where you could get a little bit more of a friendly number. If you let him have a monster season on an option year, you're going to be paying close to DP money. [00:30:50] Speaker B: Yeah. If you give him a five year deal, that would be till he's 32, like a three plus two. I mean, that would be a really smart move on their part if they could lock him down for not dp money and, like, lock him down just maybe a little bit more than he might be next year at 440. [00:31:03] Speaker A: All right, I'm just going to say it. I want to know what the club knows that we don't know about Nikosi Tafari because there was two managers straight that kind of ran wrong side of him. And for a club that was absolutely devoid of center backs, the fact that he sat on the bench for the most part, for the final part of the season with no explanation just raises all kind of red flags with me because it's not like he's a bad player. I just want to know why the coaches decided he didn't need to be out on the field when they absolutely needed center backs. And there's got to be more to this story than we know. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Coach talked about him being. Not being consistent this year, that he was too up and down, too hot and cold. [00:31:50] Speaker A: See, when I hear a coach say that, that tells me there's something else going on off the field. In a personal life, he's got something going on or where he's gotten sideways with another manager or something. There's something else with the Tafar ideal, and I can't put my finger on it. [00:32:06] Speaker B: Well, he has a strong personality, and sometimes that some coaches don't like to deal with that, I couldn't. Go ahead. [00:32:11] Speaker C: Dan Lucci and Nico both kind of had an issue where they didn't feel he fully bought into the tactical side of the game. So, I mean, that can be pretty frustrating, right? Especially if you're a team that's hemorrhaging goals, that one of your centre backs just like, yeah, I'm just going to do my thing. [00:32:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And by the way, I said, too, it's actually three managers in a row that got sideways with deferring. [00:32:37] Speaker B: I feel like sideways is a little strong, but I think that, like, they have not valued him as much as we do, you know, and, well, for sure. [00:32:45] Speaker A: I'm saying sideways because this is a club that desperately needs starting center backs, and he's not playing. If that's not sideways, I don't know what you call it, but I. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Well, he's not been banished from the team or anything. He just didn't get picked for the start, that's all. You know, I mean, it feels like the. [00:33:01] Speaker A: The old fashioned poppy doghouse. [00:33:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it could be, but, you know, those coaches are all gone, so maybe they should have invested in the guy, you know, I think this is another guy that I think a lot is going to depend on the coach, because it depends on what kind of defender you like as a coach. You know, he does play very aggressive. I think he's. When he's mentally aggressive, he's. I think he's better, but he has to also contain himself. He can't be overly aggressive. That's a thin line to walk on his part, Nicos part, you know, and I actually feel like if he had a guy next to him with a bunch of experience that could, you know, sort of help direct the entire defense as a collective, you know, because right now, I think the defense looks to him a lot. You know, like, Ibi Aga is a steady guy, but he's not a leader of back lines in the sense of, like, he's always just been a journeyman, you know? Now his salary says he should be the leader of the back line, but I don't see him out there necessarily coordinating traffic, and that might go a long way to helping both him and Tafari both if there was a guy back there like that. [00:34:04] Speaker A: Okay, I think this one will be easy. Dante seely dropper keep. [00:34:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a dump. It's time, you know, he needs to. He needs to find himself and rebuild his game is. It's over here, I think. But just for argument's sake, his salary next year will be a roughly 300k, which is a lot for. Dude, that's probably not going to play. You know, it just isn't enough there. [00:34:26] Speaker A: Okay, Antonio Carrera, whose turn is it? [00:34:30] Speaker B: Is it Damien or Dan? [00:34:31] Speaker A: Whoever? [00:34:31] Speaker C: Yours. But, I mean, I'm keeping him. I'm promoting him to number two. [00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it's time to, you know, put up a shut up from Antonio in the sense of, like, that they did the loan deal that didn't quite go how they wanted it to, but it was still a good thing for him and, you know, come back and now it's time to be the number two, clearly. And obviously, if you get to camp and he's not, then you can make some sort of adjustment, but he should be ready. I mean, this is a guy that was his started U 20 national team games and been. He was the number two choice. But he did get some starts at that level and he did some really great things when he's played for FCD. So he should be ready to be the number two. [00:35:03] Speaker A: And if you thought you dropped Dante seely like a hot potato. Next up, Eugene Ansa, dropper keep. [00:35:10] Speaker C: Okay, so I did the math. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Uh oh. [00:35:13] Speaker C: Uh, he cost 1230, $2 per minute played. His one goal cost came at a cost of $600,000. Fuck him off. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well, obviously, like, he's. His salary next year will escalate to where it's actually a DP number. You'll have to buy him down just a tiny little bit. With Tam Gam, obviously, the amount of minutes he plays and goals he gets at that number is just insane. There's no way. Just. And he's also 30 30 in December, he'll be 30. So it's, you know, thanks, dude. That's a, that's a good way to. It's not. It's not going to solve your cat problems because when you cut a salary, you do have to replace that salary, but it's still going to be a good. Whatever body they put in there, which will probably be Tar Scott, frankly, who's going to be a player? That costs you nothing. You're saving anywhere from, like, depending on who your literal replacement is. 500 to 700k on your cap, which is a nice chunk. So that's. That's a step in the right direction and a no brainer. [00:36:22] Speaker A: The Os, mister Ansa. [00:36:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Sam Junka. I think that's a no brainer. Got a guy, right? [00:36:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a no brainer. Keep a good value salary. Prime of his career. Fantastic guy in the locker room. Works his tail off until Juan got here. And, and, and Sam played less under Laksan. He was like a guy that even though he was only a part time starter, he was. Had run the most on the team, you know. So he's still top four or five in terms of distance covered and work put in. Can play both sides, can play wing back, outside back, even play wing, can cross. Best cross on the team. [00:36:57] Speaker A: Probably 2.0. [00:36:59] Speaker B: Yeah, he really is. You know, I. Now they, obviously, for some reason they like Marco far from better in a lot of ways. But honestly, the guy's fantastic. Price and a piece for a team. There's a no brainer at all to keep that guy, for sure. [00:37:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, he's turning 28 in the off, actually, in less than a month. He's got the option for next year. I think you exercise option, and he's one of those guys that gives you that luxury that after the winter window, you can see where you're at, what. What needs you still have and what space you have, money wise, and you can kind of dictate his next contract there rather than get to the end of the option. And he's a free agent, and he's like, eh, I'm not a $200,000 a year player. Thank you very much. I will try something else. [00:37:44] Speaker B: And most importantly, he's from Saratoga, California, which is where I live when I was a kid, so I did not know that. [00:37:50] Speaker A: I think it's important that he has the same number of vowels in his last names as consonants. [00:37:55] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's cool. [00:37:58] Speaker A: Next up on the list. Hmm. Liam, the Canadian Fraser. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Dump the canadian destroyer. Yeah. Ride the option for him. 200 grand. 26. You know, you're hoping he kind of bounces back from the injury pretty well. [00:38:15] Speaker B: Seems a pretty solid dumb for me. I think show is better, so I'm keeping show and dumping Liam pressure. I don't think he's good enough. I think he's too one dimensional, and his passing is not good enough. [00:38:28] Speaker A: Would you guys like to fight about that a little more? [00:38:31] Speaker B: No, because it's a small player at the bottom of the roster. Something important. You know, Dan's variety is relatively cheap. I mean, if they kept him, it wouldn't be a big deal, but, you know, honestly, any minutes he got should go to Nolan Norris. So, you know, for me, it's a dump. [00:38:44] Speaker A: All right, this one's easy. We're keeping the beev, right? [00:38:48] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Look, this is one of the best, you know, first season draft picks they've ever had. [00:38:55] Speaker A: I mean, obviously, maybe the best ever. [00:38:57] Speaker B: It might be the best rookie season ever. Honestly, it is phenomenal rookie season. It's so good, in fact, that that guy will heavily impact, like any offseason plans you're making that we'll get into at a much later date. Unfortunately, he kind of got hosed in the sense that college players these days don't get rewarded with good contracts. Even if you're a high pick, you get Nicosia the exact same deal. It's a one plus one plus one plus one, which stinks, because he's going to get Jack squat money for, like, four years. With those options, at some point, if he. If he does it again, like, next year, Dallas will need to really gradually start thinking about how they're going to lock that guy up more long term, because he's fantastic. [00:39:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I wrote fuck the options. Throw a deal at him. Now, obviously, as a technical director, you don't want to do that because a guy that you. $71,401 this year for six goals and five assists, 1500 minutes, is a really, really nice luxury compared to Eugene Ansa. [00:39:56] Speaker B: Yeah, he's in the part of the roster that doesn't count on the cap. So, like, next year, he'll probably be lucky to 80 something because that number, that bottom minimum number will go up. But that's a guy that, like, long term, you know, as he becomes a more valuable player and even, like, a for sure starter, you'll need to pay him appropriately. You don't have to do it yet, though. [00:40:15] Speaker A: He's probably got, like, a side job he's doing or something. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Make a little 80K. He doesn't need a fucking side job for that. [00:40:22] Speaker A: I don't know. He's a Gen Z. Buzz there. Malik. Henry Scott. Next on the list. Dump or keep. [00:40:32] Speaker B: Go ahead, Dan. [00:40:33] Speaker C: I was just gonna say exercise is option. I mean, he's got three of them. [00:40:36] Speaker B: Yep, yep. Option. He's a guy that came out of college. He's been in north Texas all year, showed a little bit. So we're keeping around for another year at least. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Okay. Oh, no, Buzz. Oh, Buzz. [00:40:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:40:51] Speaker A: Steal yourself, Buzz. Isaiah Parker. Dump or keep. [00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, here's the thing. If you want to be a good person, you dump the guy, because you just. He deserves a chance somewhere where they're going to believe in him. But the coach is going to change here. Here's the thing, though. I don't know that it pays to be a nice guy. Like, sometimes you have to be ruthless. And while he has not gotten through here and done much at all, to speak of, of course, he was having a pretty good season with North Texas. And he's cap free, right? He's a general player, so no salary cap hit. Still, that means, yeah, this next season will be his fourth season. And you get. You get protection as long as you would have been in college. So he came out of college basically after his fall freshman year. [00:41:43] Speaker A: But here's the thing, Buzz. This is his fourth year. How many actual FC Dallas minutes has he actually played in all that time? [00:41:51] Speaker B: None. [00:41:52] Speaker A: Okay, so why would you keep him? [00:41:55] Speaker B: Cause he's 22, but he's not even. [00:41:58] Speaker A: Been good enough to play in a single game in three seasons well the. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Coach that was here hated him so you actually don't know if he's not any good or not so like he's younger than Farrington. [00:42:09] Speaker A: All right you've right and do you think he's MLS good? [00:42:13] Speaker B: I think he's got potential to be MLS good and he's a lefty which is hard to find and he can play back or Wingdeen. He has deficiencies in his game there's no question. But he was good enough that like when he, he got signed as a freshman to a, to a home to a generation dues contract people at the time were talking about how he was going to be in the national team within a couple of years. I'm not saying he hasn't lived after that for sure he is not but that doesn't mean you shit can the guy after two seasons that I'm blowing it blow knee. I'm just saying that based on the original potential, based on the fact that there's going to be a new coach here it could be looks on, it could be somebody completely fresh and based on the fact that he's going to be cat protected for another season I think it's not necessarily a horrible idea to keep him. So I personally I would not as a, as a human being I would let him go because the kid needs a new start. There's also the possibility you might not be able to cut him and let him go because he's on a medical. You can't just dump a guy on a medical. You have to work that out. Right. So you probably can work it out if you want to get rid of him. I'm just not necessarily suggesting that you should even though just because of the left side value and the Raja protection value all alone by themselves. All right, but you're right. He's, he has a long way to go and he's not lived up his hype at all. [00:43:32] Speaker A: You know what? I'd like to see him play soccer for once. [00:43:35] Speaker B: Well, right like right now would be his senior season of college. I mean you draft pick guys that are that age all the time so. [00:43:44] Speaker C: I think they also need to get out of that left back conversion because it's just not worked for him. It's, it's like to Marcy when he runs forward he just turns around and runs back. He doesn't hold up the play, he doesn't look for teammates to come into it. He just kind of gets in his head and makes terrible decisions. Let him do what he was doing well in college and see if he can float there. Yeah, that price. Otherwise, he's a guy that was supplemental number 31. He wasn't even technically on the roster. Zero minutes, zero benches. It's not really serving a purpose otherwise. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And even this year when they basically was non existent because he was on that full time loan, basically. Well, he still was a. Played a whole boatload for North Texas. It's not the worst thing in the world to have a player like that. Or maybe even somebody else will take a liking to him and then you could sell him or trade them. I'm. I'm just saying, like. Cause, you know, again, roster protection, right. Cap protection is big. [00:44:41] Speaker A: Next up, Herbie. And keep. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Keep. Because he's actually had these moments of flashes where he does some good things and he's. He's going to be 23 this next season. And we just talked about how you might be getting to Massey gone. Juan might be gone. You know, is Ariola going to be a right back? You know, it might be Jay Zion and Jesus and nothing. So you might need him as a cheap, still kind of guy with maybe a little upside. So I'll keep him. He doesn't cost anything. [00:45:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, he's got two option years. I think you quite happily ride that and see how he progresses. He's, you know, in his little moments, he's. He's looked really promising, so that's encouraging. [00:45:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I wouldn't necessarily leave him in North Texas again. I think if he's not your. If he's not going to be your backup right back, if it's not like Giovanni, Jesus and hime, then there's a point where you might consider maybe cutting them guy, because you want to give the North Texas minutes to somebody who's like 18 or 19 years old and not 23. But, like, if you're going into next year and, like, you need a backup that you've seen MLS action in and cost you almost nothing, then that's a guy that could fill that role. [00:45:51] Speaker A: All right. Amet Corcha, dumper. Keep. [00:45:55] Speaker C: I don't know why they re signed him in the first place. Just let him go find his level and play soccer. [00:46:00] Speaker B: They needed a bottom. [00:46:01] Speaker A: They needed a body. [00:46:02] Speaker C: Yeah, but they didn't need a corpse. [00:46:04] Speaker B: Fair. I mean, he went from four games last year with hardly any minutes to zero games this year. So that just tells you what you need to know. He's also 24 next season. [00:46:13] Speaker A: Has he been playing for North Texas at all? [00:46:15] Speaker C: Yeah, he's 24 now. [00:46:17] Speaker B: Yeah, he's 24. [00:46:18] Speaker A: Is any good at North Texas? [00:46:19] Speaker B: He's fine. You know, I think his minutes were mandated when he went down there. He's okay. He's decent. You know, he gets hurt too, though. He's been. He's missed chunks of time there because he keeps getting hurt. It's like all the combinations are bad. Just let him go play in the USL somewhere or something. [00:46:34] Speaker A: Seaking sibling I think we're going to have a debate about this one. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Whose turn is it? [00:46:39] Speaker A: I don't care. [00:46:40] Speaker B: All right, Dan, go ahead. [00:46:42] Speaker C: He has one option here. I let him use that option year and I make it a do or die. Like you play for your. You play for a deal and you play for a good deal if you don't succeed. Sorry. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Absolutely, 100% keep. Um, he's on 100k. That's super cheap. That's the bottom part of the roster no one cares about. He is. He plays a position that teams pay millions and millions of dollars at. But that doesn't mean that, like in roster positions 27 to 30, you can't keep a spot for that guy. He comes into the games sometimes and outplays people he replaced. He outplayed Allen Velasco by miles last time. Last game. He's. He's super cheap. He works his tail off. He doesn't complain. He's well liked. That's an easy keep for me all day. If he's starting, you have a problem. But great roster piece. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Okay. And last but not least, I think there are people working at Chick fil a making more money than him. Omar Gonzalez, dump or keep? [00:47:43] Speaker B: That's a dump for me. He's going to be 37, 36. I offer him a coaching job in the academy and I'll tell you why I do that. Because the Dallas is not great at producing center backs. He's just about the most experienced us national center back there is, short of Tim ream. Really smart guy. I would keep him all day as a center back and coach in the academy if he wants it. [00:48:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you kind of keep him around in the periphery and if the. I mean, I'm looking at this as a rebuild. I know there's a lot of difficulty to a rebuild if you can't get all the pieces you need at that price. He is really nice as a. As a number four centre back. Obviously he's come into games, he's played decent minutes and he's done fairly well for the most part as an experienced organiser in the defence. I will say, you know, when you're in, whenever I'm in the locker room, he is someone that everyone gravitates to. He is someone that Areola and legit actually legitimately look up to. I've heard Paul Areola say, like, when he does certain things, like, if you ever watch him come off the bench, he does a full sprint to the backline. He doesn't jog on, he full sprints. Ariella says, you do that, that fires me up. That makes me play better. That's a guy I want somewhere around the team. [00:49:04] Speaker A: Okay, interesting stuff. Question about the players that are under contract. Is there anybody that are under contract that you would not be surprised that are not here next season, either through trade or some other reason? [00:49:23] Speaker B: Well, certainly a lot of them. You know, you're talking about a club that missed the playoffs, you know, and it's going to change coaches and the owners mandate, quote unquote, is make the playoffs. So, you know, what you're. You already taught. I already explained how in my rough estimation, there are million, 2,000,005 over the cap. You're gonna have to eat some of that some places. So some of those guys are gonna be gone. If you want to talk about the ways they can get under just by a move or two, there are some of those names on that section that could make massive differences. [00:49:56] Speaker A: So the. So the big dollar names on this list are obviously Velasco, Palma, call Ferreira, Areola. Legit Velasco. I'm not going to count Musa because you're not going to trade Musa. You're not going to trade. Pause. That's it. So those are six guys. There are. In my mind, there are six guys that you may want to have a conversation about Paxton because of his knee injury. We have no idea. Like, I've heard nothing about Paxton's progress, and that doesn't mean that it's good or bad. I just haven't heard anything one way or the other. [00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you absolutely, 100% need to be considering the fact that you may need to buy out Paxton or do an injury settlement with Paxton, depending on how it goes. And we won't know the answer to that until, you know, was to get close to the season, you know, and. Or until they even tell us or Paxton tells us or tells not us. I mean, the world. Okay. You know, I think you're right. Like, the. The way they explain, like, when he was going to have that procedure, like, they were feeling much more optimistic. Well, that sure didn't sound definitive to me. You know. So I don't think anyone there is sure he's coming back, necessarily. So 100%. Paxton, you have to consider that. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Well, I know what procedure he had done, and it is not a hundred, it's not a certainty. I mean, it is. There's a. I mean, it could go one way or the other, and I'm. I obviously want it to go one particular way, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen that way. [00:51:26] Speaker B: Well, there are guys that have had that surgery and then played five or six more years. It's entirely possible that he will. It's also entirely possible that he won't. And so they have to plan for that contingency. So they may have to sit on their buyout, their one buyout. So other. Sorry, we're jumping in there. [00:51:40] Speaker A: No, no, I was just. I was going to move on to the next name, but finish your thought. [00:51:43] Speaker B: So the next one up on, from my point of view, is Paul Areola, who you can has value. The reason he's such a killer for you is that right now Dallas has four DP's. He's a DP. He gets paid a pretty pricey. Where's he at? He's at 1.51.5 base, 1.7. And it hasn't changed. It's been the same. So we'll assume it's the same next year. So basically that means that you're paying a million dollars in Tamm and gam in order to make him not be a DP. So it's not just that he costs you a full DP cap hit slot, is that he also costs you a million dollars. So unless you can one of your DP's and make him a full time DP, that is a boatload of money to be playing for one player, period, let alone if that player has basically become a right back. And so what you have to ask yourself is, is Paul Auriol a starter on this team, on the front line, which is where you play players $2 million? Right? Is he going to start in front of Musa, Jesus Ferrero or Alan Velasco? [00:52:49] Speaker C: I think one thing you also have to consider is next year's, the last year of his, of his contract. He has an option year for 2026. But him, Ferreira, Legit, Velasco, they're all getting to that point where you need to think about the future. You need to think about, are they going to be here at the end of 2025? Are they going to walk for nothing? Are you going to get some kind of value for him. Obviously, Velasco, that's. That's not necessarily the discussion on, but he just happens to be in that. That grouping of eleven players whose. Whose contracts are up next year. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Remember, too, that Alan Vlasco is a young VP, so next year's his last year. So he only cost you like 200,000 on your cap. That's a different than a full senior DP that. That hit. [00:53:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. So maybe Velasco isn't part of this conversation, but Jesus Ferrer most certainly is. And I, you know, I guess there's a chance. I mean, I would. I'm working under the assumption that Jesus wants to go to Europe, and I'm even working under the assumption that he may want to go to Europe so bad, he may pull the Paul, the Paul Pogba news that we got today, that he's willing to reduce his salary to find a club that's willing to take him, to let him go somewhere else. [00:54:00] Speaker B: So there's a couple of clear differences between Areola and Jesus Ferreira. Areola, for example, it does not have, like, a viable sale option to Europe. Maybe you could get somebody to take him and trade inside the league, but then they're going to want him to have to want him as a DP or as a million dollar buy down to that San Diego. [00:54:17] Speaker A: Sure. [00:54:18] Speaker B: I mean, that would be great. But at the same time, the organization absolutely loves that guy. He's a phenomenal leader. He is their captain. He's a huge locker room presence and all that stuff. So the difference, the other difference between him and Jesus Ferrer having a viable potential sale to somebody else in Europe or whatever, you can convert up to 3 million of his sale price into Tam or Gam. So you could easily, because he's a homegrown, you get 100%, up to 3 million, if I read it all correctly, when I read it like three days ago. So you can add 3 million on top of your tam game you're going to go into the season with. So not only would he wipe out your cap, he would wipe out the cap and give you like another two, two and a half million to play with that you didn't have before. So those two guys, Paul, Jesus, really, more than anybody else, you know, maybe packs, in terms of a buyout, those are your three most impactful ways, potentially likely ways that you would have to use one of those chips to get under the cap. [00:55:16] Speaker A: Wow. Think about this. There is a. There is a full potential that when we get to 2025, this is a team without Jesus Ferrera and Paxton. Pam McCollum. [00:55:27] Speaker B: Yeah, very possible. [00:55:30] Speaker A: I never thought about that. That's crazy. [00:55:32] Speaker B: Those two guys have been here the longest. [00:55:34] Speaker A: I know, I know. But they're still south of 25. [00:55:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Ridiculous. [00:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:42] Speaker A: The last name is Sebastian Leggette. In terms of do we want to keep, you know, we want to try to trade him. [00:55:50] Speaker B: He's just barely over the Tam gam line. But again, that was one of those things that we called, I call the luxury player that he and Ariel are really familiar that where, like, if everyone's healthy, is he starting what he started with Paxton, for example? I mean, assuming Paxton's healthy, is he going to be an overhes or Alan? No, he's not. Yeah, so, like, he's a luxury piece and a cap league. Can you afford a Tam Gam? Now, he's a very small Tam Gambio, but he's over that. 744. So he'll be on the 800 base up to 900 max next year on option. But he already took a buy down one time in terms of the salary. When he redid his deal after 2022, going to 2023, he dropped from 900 down to 700, but now it's escalated back up. It's going to be 800, 900 again. So. [00:56:35] Speaker C: And that's it. Like, you know, you can kind of look at averages to figure out what escalators may be, but, you know, he may have the sort of sort that, like Reggie Cannon did that Pepe did, where if you don't act by this point, it's going to go up an absolute crap ton. [00:56:53] Speaker B: It might. Yeah. You don't know. [00:56:56] Speaker A: Well, we've talked all season about this being a roster of dudes, and there is certainly a lot of dudes on this team. And. And we're going to talk a lot about this in the coming months as we get into the next season, how the Hunts and Zenada and whoever the manager ends up being go about planning this, you know, how are they actively looking to take this beyond just another group of dudes? Or are we going to find out that the Ross, the stadium reconstruction and the reduction in attendance, the loss of revenue and all the things that comes with that for the next three seasons is going to be a direct, is directly reflected in another season of just a bunch of dudes? [00:57:44] Speaker B: Right. Then keep that in mind, too. Like I already said, like something like 1.21.5 million over the cap. You have to cut that just to get under the cap. Then you have to start to think about what do I now do to get better because, like, that was not even to try and add anybody. That's just a whole steady. [00:58:00] Speaker A: Right, exactly. [00:58:00] Speaker B: Like if you want it, like, if you want to go get a center back at like a Tam gam kind of number, you have to now cut even more off of your cap in order to get that guy in. Right. Cause the Dallas is already carrying like 32, 33 players on their senior roster, mostly cause they have extra homegrowns, but they also added Juan and show and Frazier and guys like that, too. So it's like, you know, there's two, there's two big chunks that have to happen. One is the just to be compliant and the other is to how do we actually make this team better? And that is a difficult proposition when you're already up against the cap or over it, as the case may be. You know, you may have to figure out how in the hell am I going to get some money? How the hell am I going to open up space? You may be looking at a massive amount of changes in order to make it all, to actually try and be any better. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Well, they could also make a massive amount of changes and really start shooting for that 50% roster made up of, you know, kids academy thing. They might need to and say, you know what? Look, this is going to be a bad situation for three seasons. We're just going to, we're just going to do it this way. We're going to bite the bullet and we're going to run this thing on bare bones for three seasons and then we'll blow it out in 2028. You never know. [00:59:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, if you were just, if you just cut, cut Ansa, cut Juan, cut Frazier, cut Yara Mindy, that probably gets you to your number, that gets you cap compliant, and so you might be looking at next season as this team minus those four or five guys and then some kids, and then you are cap compliant. I don't know if you're getting into the playoffs with that, but no, you're not, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, right? It's like just being, just getting the roster to a normal shape is not nearly the same as actually trying to do thing. And I think there'll be more aggressive than that. I mean, I don't think that they'll go just kids and just dump everybody, but, you know, they, they're going to have to swing and make some really tough decisions in order to try and actually get better and they got to make some hard calls. [00:59:59] Speaker A: Is there a, is there a podcast for LAFC or enter Miami doing this exact same exercise at the end of their season. [01:00:07] Speaker B: You would think there would be. [01:00:09] Speaker A: I don't think there is. [01:00:10] Speaker B: But Lafayette. [01:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. But that's my point, is that those two teams have rosters that are way more than a bunch of dudes. And you do begin to wonder how these are two teams playing in the exact same league under the same set of rules. [01:00:25] Speaker B: Well, somebody just today posted an article about how Miami got themselves set up to get messy and make it all work. I haven't read it yet, but I saw it posted somewhere today. I've been wanting to go read it, you know, to figure out what they did. And I, you know, they had guys all take sub value contracts in order to make it happen. Right. [01:00:43] Speaker C: To be fair, Miami did break the cap rules with the five DP's or whatever they had and were indeed a team of dudes. [01:00:53] Speaker B: I mean, think of it this way. Right now, Dallas has seven DP's for. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Next year and they're buying down four of them. [01:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they're buying down. Yeah, four of them are being bought down with Tam Gam, and then three of them are staying out there. [01:01:06] Speaker A: Wait, who are those seven? Who are those seven? [01:01:08] Speaker B: Just run through the actual DP's are Musa, Ferrari and Velasquez. [01:01:12] Speaker A: Okay, stop right, stop, stop, stop right there. Musa, Ferreira. And Velasco. [01:01:16] Speaker B: And Velasco. Those are the actual real DP's. And then the buy downs. [01:01:19] Speaker A: Well, no, no, no, you're not. Let me finish my exercise here. [01:01:22] Speaker B: Oh, I thought you asked me who they were, so I was going to. [01:01:24] Speaker A: Name them because I am, but I want to run through something first. [01:01:27] Speaker B: Sure. [01:01:28] Speaker A: Are those the. Are those three quality DP's? [01:01:35] Speaker B: Well, Jesus wasn't this year, but he wasn't before. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Okay. [01:01:39] Speaker B: Velasco for sure is. Velasco is probably underperforming in terms of being a DP, but remember, he's a young DP, so he costs you next to nothing. [01:01:47] Speaker A: All right, who are the four others? [01:01:50] Speaker B: Paxton Paumicol, Paul Areola, Sebastian Leggette, Sebastian Ibiaga by only a tiny bit, but is one. And technically, Eugene by just a tiny little bit. What a terrible. [01:02:04] Speaker A: Who is the. It was making decisions. Who is doing this to this team? [01:02:09] Speaker B: Zenata. Yeah, but, you know, again, almost half of those guys are out of contract or on Bosch's. You can dump them. So it's like. It is neat. [01:02:19] Speaker A: All right, excellent. [01:02:21] Speaker B: Technically, you know, AnSa and Ibiaga and Legit all weren't last year, but their accelerating contracts should make them. This is next year. I'm talking about the seven DP, and that's. That's not unheard of for Dallas. They've done that before. They've had, you know, four or five guys over that are over the DP line. Just barely. You know, they. They love that shit. They do that all the time. [01:02:42] Speaker A: All right, so the final game of the season is decision day, home against sport of Kansas City. Somebody tweeted the you and I earlier today buzz this question. I hadn't even thought about it until they brought it up at one added minute. Asked the question if, in fact, this would be the last time this weekend that we will see Dallas play in this stadium as we know it. And I think that's correct. If the plans go as stated, the next time you're in that stadium, it will look different because things will start coming down. [01:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah. What do we. What do we say? They're. They're going to tear. Is it the east side that's coming down first? If I do remember that. Right? [01:03:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:25] Speaker B: We're all sitting on the west side next year. [01:03:29] Speaker C: Well, people are going west anyway. [01:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:33] Speaker A: Yeah. The east. Whatever's coming down is, which is the east side is coming down and will. And part of it will be down, at least some of it, if not all of it, by the time the next season starts. [01:03:43] Speaker B: I would imagine that. Well, not instantaneously, because they've already said that the. If North Texas soccer club gets to the final, that they'll play the final at Toyota Stadium, and then they have. They have bowl games. [01:03:56] Speaker A: Well, I meant if you're going as a Dallas fan. [01:04:00] Speaker B: No, I'm just talking. I was trying to calculate when they would start knocking things down. [01:04:03] Speaker A: Oh, I see what you like. [01:04:04] Speaker B: If they. If they. [01:04:05] Speaker C: January, February. [01:04:07] Speaker B: There you go. Because we say they have bowl games, too. They got to get through, so. [01:04:11] Speaker A: And this may be the last week. And you see Jesus Ferreira in a Dallas jersey. [01:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Or Paul Ariola or legit. Or Paxton or Ansa. [01:04:25] Speaker A: I think those are already on sale in the pro shop if you want to get a 80% off. [01:04:31] Speaker B: Eugene Delgado, Jimmy Maurer. [01:04:34] Speaker A: Lots and lots of it. [01:04:36] Speaker C: There are a few names there that you won't see in an FC Dallas jersey. Maybe a warm up top. [01:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:42] Speaker A: All right, moving on to other topics at hand. Trinity FC played last night. Dallas. Trinity played on the road at DC to donuts. Anybody watch the game? [01:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I did. Okay. The coach, after the game, had a funny quote about looking for to go home. She had no idea how hard life on the road was going to be. I was like, yeah, you think they met three straight road games? Um, you know, they're, they're, they were having a little. The funny thing is, is like we call, I say they think they have a little trouble scoring but they're like the highest scoring team in the league, which is funny because they had that blowout game where they scored six goals. But, but other than that one game, they've had a little trouble scoring. Um, they're, they're really getting hurt by, um, injuries. Broussard, the other starting winger, has been a big miss. Not having her around. Um, one of their starting center backs is out. That's been a big hurt. Um, you know, they, they occasionally get in trouble with pace out of the back. Um, most teams have decided that because the, the, it looks like that because the Trinity midfield is really good with Brooks, Mezza and Danielson, that the, the I, the best idea against them about against Trinity is to overload the midfield and then just make the trinity back for pass out and that's, you know, to the covered players and that's really difficult. Difficult. And so they've struggled with getting, you know, like FC Dallas. The build out has not been awesome, but they are generally speaking, you know, back to front mostly better than people teams they played except for Brooklyn, except they have trouble finishing and, you know, Broussard's missing as a problem and maybe just they haven't quite figured out up front. You know, they don't have a Petter Musa so they could have somebody banging and goals at a high rate. Yeah, but you know, a road point is a road point. You know, they, that was their first clean sheet of the year. So their next home game is going to be good chance to get some points. [01:06:32] Speaker A: So when is the next game? This weekend? [01:06:34] Speaker B: I think it's next Wednesday, I think. [01:06:36] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:38] Speaker A: And that's at the cotton ball. [01:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Let me, before you run off, let me double check when that is that game. [01:06:46] Speaker C: The 25th, 25th against. [01:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, next Friday. My bad. [01:06:49] Speaker A: Next Friday. [01:06:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:50] Speaker A: Is the cut. Is the state fair still going on till the 20th? Oh, so it's after the state fair. Okay. [01:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah, they were at one point they were going to have a friendly on the 19th but then that fell through. [01:07:01] Speaker A: Okay. And North Texas plays their playoff game on Sunday. Buzzard. [01:07:07] Speaker B: Yep. Sunday. Yep. And that'll be fun because they picked that Vancouver team which is reeling and creatoring and had a really horrible backing in those season. So, you know, give that team a shot. They're in the playoffs. They're pretty good. There's probably three guys on that team that'll be with FC Dallas next season, I think. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Um, what time's the game? [01:07:26] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. [01:07:27] Speaker C: 02:00 oh, there you go. No, it's not. No, sorry. That's St. Louis 730. [01:07:34] Speaker B: No, I was gonna say 02:00 with a surprise. [01:07:36] Speaker A: Sorry. Barrachos have an under the lights game Sunday night. Sorry. [01:07:40] Speaker B: Oh, that's a huge game. Well, it is. [01:07:43] Speaker A: It is for me. [01:07:44] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. It's huge. [01:07:47] Speaker A: Okay, well, I think we did it. [01:07:49] Speaker B: I have one local shout out for you. Oh. Zoe Matthews. She's 17 years old from Southlake. [01:07:55] Speaker A: She used to play when she went on this episode of third degree of the podcast. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Well, she won a signed contract with the Houston dash. She's a. She's a jamaican us youth international. She signed with Dash about a week and a half, two weeks ago, whatever it was. So she's 17 from south Lake. Zoe. Matthew. [01:08:10] Speaker A: All right. Congratulations to Zoe. [01:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah, congrats, sir. [01:08:14] Speaker A: What do you think Zoe's making now on that contract? [01:08:17] Speaker B: Oh, I mean, I have no idea. I don't. I think the NWSL might be even more tight lipped about things like that than MLS is, which is crazy, but. [01:08:29] Speaker A: Okay, well, I think we did it. Congratulations, boys. Another episode of Dumper Keep. [01:08:34] Speaker B: I think we've teed up, you know, the starting points of conversations about, like, now. What do you do to get to get compliant? What do you do to start building a team and make it better? We'll have a bunch of ideas on that. I will. I assume you guys will, too, after the final game. You know, over the next couple of weeks, we'll start talking about that thing and. And hopefully soon enough we'll get a coach announcement. So I don't. I don't think there's a coach called announcement yet. You know, we have one more game to play, so. See, and just to remind everybody, we're not going to throw any names out there, but we have heard of other people interviewing other. Other than Peter looks on, so it seems like it's open. Even though we think Peter's still very viable candidate. [01:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he's the leading. I think he's going to get it. I'm. [01:09:14] Speaker B: I think he's probably got the best odds, but, you know, it's definitely not a lock. I don't. You know, if they're interviewing other people at a lock. [01:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. I guess we'll find out in due time. Dan, you got anything else you want to throw in here? [01:09:27] Speaker C: No, sir. [01:09:28] Speaker A: All right, well, it was good talking to you, dude. [01:09:31] Speaker C: Likewise. [01:09:32] Speaker A: And would you like to tell everybody your OnlyFans page address? [01:09:37] Speaker C: I don't even know how they would be formatted to even make a joke about. Unfortunately, I will say in the middle of this, when we were talking about Alan Velasco and Buzz and yeah, he's got a year left. As a year was a young DP. I quickly googled young DP. Exactly that phrase. Not thinking to add the. At the context of MLS, because I was like, that used to be on. That used to age out at 21. What's going on there? And yeah, sure, sure enough. I. My, yeah, my Google history now has like a ton of. [01:10:11] Speaker A: You're on a. [01:10:12] Speaker C: Do you want to look at Pornhub? No, I don't. [01:10:15] Speaker A: You're not an FBI watch list is what you're on now, sir. [01:10:18] Speaker C: I mean, I am anyway, because I'm a green card holder. This just adds to it. [01:10:24] Speaker B: You're not a citizen. Thought you were. Citizen. Yeah. DP Young DP is through the season. Year 23, basically. So this will be his last season as a young VP. [01:10:37] Speaker A: Alan, excellent. [01:10:39] Speaker B: I think it's fair to question that you brought up Peter. Like, the idea of like, is he impactful? That's a legit question. It's like, there definitely needs to be a point. [01:10:45] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:10:46] Speaker B: Soon ish, where Alan Allen's talent starts winning games and starts showing up on the score sheet. [01:10:52] Speaker A: That's a novel, novel, novel idea for a DP. [01:10:56] Speaker C: That part's difficult with his recovery because you don't expect him to be himself even next season. So then you're stuck. Like, you speculate beyond the end of his regular contract. Do you kind of go into his options? What, you know, where do you, where do you. Hot. What standard do you hold him to? Because he's obviously not going to be peak Allen Velasco. [01:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. [01:11:20] Speaker A: By the way, I don't know if you guys saw. Pablo Maurer posted a bunch of graphics related to original MLS design. [01:11:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:30] Speaker A: Did you see that? I had not seen these in a really long time. Did you see the, the Dallas ones when that. When the fury was a name and they used the Fury name but with the burnt iconography. So where there used to be a d now was an f. They obviously. [01:11:46] Speaker B: Had developed that enough to. That got to the. That point. I mean, that was because the other ones he posted were the ones that got used for. Yeah, Metro and for the Galaxy. And obviously those are the. Literally the ones that got used for Dallas Burn. [01:12:01] Speaker A: Yeah, the music was in there. Yeah, there was a little changes in a few of those things, but that was fascinating to see. Yeah, that was really cool. [01:12:08] Speaker C: So I know I only saw the Chicago rhythm one. I'm really excited now. Which looked like the Purple Globe o Jim Cobras from dodgeball. [01:12:18] Speaker B: It was interesting to me that they had the Chicago develop that much because you guys know. Peter, you know this for sure? [01:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:24] Speaker B: That Dallas got a team because Chicago couldn't work out their stadium situation at Soldier Field. Like, that's why Dallas got a team instead of Chicago in 96. [01:12:35] Speaker A: I just wish I knew the timeline between, like, how compact was the timeline between Dallas Doom, Dallas Fury to Dallas Burn, or what the order was. And we should remind people of the. [01:12:45] Speaker B: Dallas doom story that we know about. That was an idea because one of the early documents that they sent around for the burn, that was like, I don't remember what it was. Some sheet about the colors or the logos or something. The file name, like printed in the corner of the thing was doom doc or whatever. That's how we know that that was up for. [01:13:03] Speaker C: I'm not sure how I feel about the Pegasus wing on Islamico. That makes total sense. But it looks weird. [01:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an interesting set of drawings. I mean, I know I had seen those before, but not in a really, really long time. And it was kind of cool to see Pablo bring that up. [01:13:23] Speaker C: Also the LA galaxy on the La Galaxy and Tampa Bay mutiny page. Is that earthworm gym at the bottom left? [01:13:33] Speaker B: That is a spinning galaxy. [01:13:36] Speaker C: That is earthworm fucking gym. [01:13:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So there was, there was an alternate galaxy logo they didn't use very much of. In fact, it ended up being kind of the basis of what their mascot at the time looked like. And yeah, it's. It does have an earthworm gem vibe to it, for sure. Dan, you're right. But that was the alternative galaxy logo at the time. Yeah, yeah. Nike gave everybody essentially a primary logo and a secondary logo. So Dallas was the vomiting Pegasus horse, and then the second one was the full head shot with the wings coming out of either side, which you can. [01:14:14] Speaker C: Get at the third degree t shirt shop. [01:14:17] Speaker A: Right, exactly. [01:14:19] Speaker B: Colorized. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Those were the days, like I said. [01:14:22] Speaker B: The burn when used, the black and white one. [01:14:25] Speaker A: Somebody's going to end up writing an official dissertation on the story of the creation of all those things. Because one of the best parts of all that is that back in 1996, all of that stuff, even the DC united logo was largely ridiculed and laughed at and made fun of. But in 2024, most of that stuff is beloved and romanticized and just everybody thinks it's the coolest shit ever. And it's so funny, uh, that I, I got to witness both extremes of that reaction to that stuff. [01:14:54] Speaker B: The, because of Kevin Payne, DC United was by far the best brand launch their logo needed to work. But, um, their brand launch in general just was phenomenal compared to everybody else's. And by the way, FC Dallas is now the oldest logo in the league. It's the oldest untouched logo. Everybody else has altered their brand or logo. [01:15:12] Speaker A: Well, you know, somebody, you know, somebody in the Twitter thread reacted and said, man, the, you know, Dallas should switch to the burn branding. And, and even I, and I can't believe I'm saying this publicly, and I may ask you to edit this out, but because the, the FC Dallas branding and that shield has now been around so much longer than the old burn stuff. [01:15:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:35] Speaker A: And you and I, Buzz, both know that at the youth level, globally, that is a known icon and branding. And it would be stupid for them to change it now. [01:15:46] Speaker B: It would be. And if I, and I remember very distinctly when they did change that, a lot of people were poo pooing how dumb it was. And I was like, dude, in 50 years, 100 years, that's a perfectly legitimate, fantastic brand. It's like you only don't like it because it's not american at the time. Like, and we weren't used to fc this or that. You know, it's for very standard branding for a club. And I think it's perfectly fine. It's not. I think the logo is not awesome. But you're right. People know that brand, that name. [01:16:12] Speaker A: And I mean, people know that brand outside of this country, like over in Europe. They know what it is. [01:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And mostly because of the academy. Strange. [01:16:19] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Well, it's 95% because of the academy and very little to do with the actual MLS team, but more on that later. All right, very good. Well, thanks again, Dan. Great talking to you, dude. [01:16:31] Speaker C: Likewise, buddy. [01:16:33] Speaker A: And buzz, excellent stuff. [01:16:36] Speaker B: Thanks, man. It's awesome to talk soccer with you guys, as always. [01:16:40] Speaker A: And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week after the season is over on another episode of third Degree, the podcast. [01:16:51] Speaker C: Go FC burning furiousnesses. [01:16:54] Speaker A: Third degree, the third degree, nerd podcast, third degree, the third degree, nap podcast, third degree, the third degree, never again. Third degree, the third degree, never care. [01:17:46] Speaker B: Bushybeard oh, weird. I.