3rd Degree the Podcast #293

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Buzz made a weird sound there too. [00:00:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's all getting cut. [00:00:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:00:14] Speaker A: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree NEP podcast. [00:00:18] Speaker C: 3Rd degree the 3rd Degree NEP podcast. [00:00:23] Speaker B: 3Rd degree 3rd degree. [00:00:29] Speaker C: Never care. Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to episode two hundred and ninety three of 3rd degree the podcast. What an off season this has been so far. Color me surprised for sure. Hi, it's me, Peter. And look who returns for the new year and episode 293, which obviously will be one with lots of stuff in it. It is the good Dan Crook, who is without a manager, by the way. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Is this thing on? I haven't done this in a while. [00:01:05] Speaker C: Are you back? Only to celebrate the fact that Luton Town has fired their manager and is looking for a new one. [00:01:10] Speaker A: I'm very happy about that. Rob Edwards, last year in charge definitely mirrored Nico Estevez in Tactics in denial of certain makeup of the roster and in terms of wanting to start a new chapter. [00:01:28] Speaker C: Well, I hope whoever they hire fixes it soon because Lewton is in a bad spot right now, aren't they? [00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You know, so relative. [00:01:38] Speaker C: Hey, you've been there before. You know what this is like. This is old territory for you. And of course. Well, I'm glad you're back, by the way. And happy New Year to you and your family. Let's see, here we go. Your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself. And a very, very busy man the last 72 hours. It is Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Hey, Peter and Dan. I would just like to point out that Dan was coincidentally gone just in the time where Santa Claus was making peak appearances all over the world with that big old bushy beard. [00:02:18] Speaker A: My beard ain't got that much gray in it. [00:02:20] Speaker B: I mean, you know, you can color it up for a little work. Side work. [00:02:23] Speaker A: That's fair. [00:02:24] Speaker C: I like the third degree pod conspiracy theory that Dan Crook is actually Santa Claus. I think that's pret it. [00:02:30] Speaker A: It beats the one that anytime I have a conflict, I'm clearly drunk in a gutter somewhere. At least this one is like keeps professionalism somewhat there. [00:02:41] Speaker C: Or you're doing a custom only fans channel extravaganza for somebody in particular. Yes, I forgot. [00:02:48] Speaker A: I'd schedule that better personally. [00:02:51] Speaker C: Very good. All right, so let me just. Before we get started, I want to take an accounting of all the bullshit that's happening right now that we need to get into. 1 Jesus Ferrera no longer an FC Dallas player. Traded to Seattle. Check To Paul Aeriola. Trade is about to happen. Being traded to Seattle. Half. Check. 3. The rumors of Alan Velasco being sold back to an Argentinian club. Spin the wheel. Insert club name. Here is absolutely a check. For now, Peter Musa has interest heating up from Premier League and other European clubs. Check. 5. Alara Mendy apparently is or maybe is not coming back to Dallas. Who knows? Check. Dallas has resigned or signed not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six homegrowns to the senior roster and seven, Bernard Camungo was signed to a new contract. That is a lot Buzz. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:55] Speaker C: What in the world is going on? [00:03:57] Speaker B: Well, it's been a crazy couple of weeks and the craziness just continues, you know, and we talked, you know, the beginning of the winter about the idea that you needed to clear the deck to do some things and they're, they're doing that. So as we always say, be ruthless over the winter. And so there's a whole lot of moving pieces right now. And really, you know, three days from when players are reporting or starting camp even, we really have no idea what this team's gonna look like. There's still a lot of work to be done. So only, only the, only the first part of it is apparently partially done. So we got a lot to talk about. [00:04:37] Speaker C: So it's an interesting time because earlier today there was an exchange between me and the well known fan or I don't even. Is he a curious member? I don't know. I don't know. [00:04:48] Speaker B: I don't think so. [00:04:49] Speaker C: I don't know if he's a member of the, of the Discord or not, but the Twitter account account at. At Sad Fans was suggesting to me that people listen to this podcast and take what we say is fact. And he disagrees with some of that stuff. And a couple of things that he said, I think he's either misinterpreted or misunderstood or taken a bit out of context. The first is the idea that you, Buzz, suggested that the roster was locked and was never going to change for the next season. [00:05:23] Speaker B: No, well, that's not what we said. You know, when the, when Dallas hit the off season, I'm sure everyone will remember they actually had like six or seven players over the limit because they had so many injuries. They had gone out and added all these pieces, you know, and they started to cut and decline options and not bring guys back. And then they put out a list of, of four players they were still negotiating with. That were out of contract. And if you added all those players in to the players that were left, you basically had a full roster of people, which was true. The point, of course, was that you're not going to bring back all four of those people. And also we immediately started talking about and writing about how it was a really bad idea if you just did that and they really needed to do all these other things. And then from there there have started to be all these other. So I don't think we ever were trying to say that the roster was locked at that point, just that it was full if you did nothing else. And the team was going to be really bad if you did nothing else. So that was really just a starting point and a setup point for what we felt was a winter where when you miss the playoffs, you're going to change a bunch of stuff. And that has proven to be true. [00:06:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think just to. To stick up for you a little bit on that point is that you even wrote an article talking about all the things you recommended they should do to correct the roster. I think your original idea was, hey, look, you could see a world where this is the roster for 2025. And it would be. It will be difficult for them to get away from this unless they make some dramatic changes. And it appears that those dramatic changes, or at least many of them have taken place. [00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah. If you took them at face value of exactly the people that they currently had and the people that they were talking to, it would have been pretty much exactly the same roster. And that was the point. I proceeded to immediately write an article and we talked about it on the pod A bu about how they needed to move Jesus and. And Paul Areola. I immediately started talking about how you clear a bunch of cap space, which involved, you know, redoing some contracts and other things. And then I wrote another article that talked about how they should go forward, like what the tactics should be, who they should shift around, what players they should get rid of, what players they should keep. So we've been talking all along about there needed to be a relatively large amount of changes when you're a team that missed the playoffs and that we were expecting them with a new coach. We were expecting them to be making lots of changes. So, yeah, it's been the plan or not the plan, the thought process all along. Was that me a winter of change? [00:07:59] Speaker C: Yep. And I think the other one that he brought up is largely directed at me because I think I'm the one that's has suggested this is A potential future, which is the idea that because of the renovations, the fact that the stadium will be at half capacity and therefore game day revenue and ticket sales will be greatly reduced for not one but the next three seasons, that what we're seeing right now is a clearing out of the pantry of a bunch of old and stale food. But they're not shopping at Irwin or Central Market. They're actually restocking the pantry with groceries from Aldi's and what and playing the kids and on a, you know, a money reduced roster is what we're looking at here for the next few years. Now, this is, I'm not saying this is what's going to happen. What I'm saying is, is that I can foresee this what the roster looks like by the time the season starts in 2025 because of just what history tells us on how the Hunts manage bottom line roster construction. And that's just it. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And to be fair, we don't really know one way or the other which one they're going to do. Whether they're going to cut budget or they're not. They are not particularly vociferous about the direction that they're going. In fact, for the record, Zenata and Hunt both talked about getting back to what they feel is the club's DNA, which you saw today, which is the six homegrown signings, which is the develop of the youth. To be fair, we're also seeing them go to the 2DP and 4U22 initiative model, which brings in a bunch of GAM, but means you'll have one less DP next year. That doesn't mean, of course, that they're completely in on this Play the kids cheap model. But as you say, history does show that that's kind of the direction they want to sort of go. The signings of guys like Velasco and Peter Musa are outside the normal. They both have been nice, you know, and we would like them to continue to do more things like that. But they're not the normal. The normal is much less. And their moves on their surface show that they are doing that and kind of heading that director. But at the same time they're also doing the moves that allow them to clear boatloads of salary mechanics in order to bring in more guys like Allen and Musa. The thing is, since they flat out said two DPs and four U22 initiatives, there's not going to be another DP other than Allen or Musa unless they sell one of those two guys. Those are your two DPs. So you can't, you can't look at this club right now and say, oh, there's some big moves coming. Well, sort of. You're not going to get a DP move because they've already got two. Unless they sell one. You might get Reto, Ziegler, Yara, Mindy, type that Ibiaga, those Tam moves, those guys that are, you know, Paul Areola style, 1.7 million and down, that can be bought down because they have a boatload of gam. Now do you call those big moves or do you call those like solid strong move? You know, there's a difference there in what you might call that. But again, they haven't officially cleared Paul's, Paul's money yet, but they're going to. So everything's relative. We are talking about FC Dallas, you know. Yeah, but, but they're, they're, they're showing their cards a little bit here pending a sale of Velasco or Musa, which obviously will radically change things. And then you're looking at a massive complete rebuild and then all bets are off about would they get, what kind of dps would they go get and that kind of thing. That's a totally different level of conversation when that happens. [00:11:40] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think so far, at least at the time that we're doing this, they have gotten rid of two players that were making one making 1.7 million, one making 2.2 million. And the two of the replacements make well less than DP dollars in Abubakar and Julio Anderson. Julio. And then the, the new 30 something year old midfielder whose name now escapes me off the top of my head. I assume he's not making more than six or seven hundred thousand dollars. So it's, it's not like it's. Yeah, Romero. Thank you. It's not like they're replacing salary for salary here. And in fact they've made some significant savings already today. To be totally fair, the transfer window doesn't open for a bit or you know, isn't. Doesn't close for a while. Lots of things could still happen. I just tend to work off of what I know in terms of how the Hunts operate. This club, that's where I'm coming from. [00:12:34] Speaker B: Well, they, we started the winter talking about them being over the cap somewhere. Maybe like in my calculation it was maybe somewhere between 1 to 2 million and they've, they cleaned that up. Then we started talking about making a couple big moves in, in Jesus and Paul in order to give yourself some capital to make to do some radical things with your roster. They're doing that. So, you know, they're following the steps that we laid out they needed to do in order to then now try and rebuild them and get better. And so I think we can have an expectation that there will be some pieces coming in. They're not going to be dps. Zanada has flat out said they're not done at center back. You know, Ermendi just today said he wants to come back to FC Dallas. So, you know, there are going to be more pieces but I, you know, huge pieces. They won't be because they're not. They don't have the DP slots. [00:13:23] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate at sad FC Dallas fans for being a good, good fan and an excellent Twitter account in terms of the, of the fan base. I'll just say I can't get away from the idea that Clark Hunt is looking at reduced revenue for three entire seasons and think that he's about to go, you know, spend more money or the same amount of money he's been spending over the last few seasons. It just. But I. Nobody would be happier to find out that I was wrong than me. So there you go. Dan, we hadn't heard from you yet. Do you got any kind of overarching observations about all of this noise and movement that's been taking place since we last talked to you? [00:14:00] Speaker A: Oh, it's all just very exciting, isn't it? We're used to. It feels like every off season it's. Well, you know, they haven't signed anyone yet. They don't normally until the middle of camp. We don't really know what's going to happen. Kit talks like the only thing to worry about and you know, we've got Training camp officially starts on Monday. The players report on Saturday. We don't know who the assistant coaches are other than Michel. We, we don't know the plan. You know, six homegrowns are most of them likely to be with North Texas SC or loaned out. Are they going to play the kids? What's going to happen with Areola? What's going to happen with Iaramendi? It's just. Yeah, it's exciting. I'm liking it. It's fun. It's not just the usual. Ah, great. Cool. Yeah, let's wait until the season starts. [00:14:56] Speaker C: Well, let's run through all of the different talking points and I guess obviously the one to start with would be the fact that the what at one time was the face of the club, the crown jewel of the Academy the largest homegrown contract signing in league history. All sorts of statistical, important, statistically important records and factoids and things that make him very important to this club. The son of a club legend who came through the academy to become a club hero himself, Jesus Ferreira is no longer an FC Dallas player and has been traded to Seattle for a deal that I am shocked to say, Buzz, if you really get into the weeds, is actually a worse deal than we even thought it was last week. [00:15:41] Speaker B: Yeah, they, they have on paper they have added a little bit to the money. Like it now is up to $2.3 million in GAM. But they traded a little bit of security or guarantee in that, in the sense that 800,000 of it is based on Jesus performance. And you know, with his injuries he's had lately and his struggles he's had lately, you know, that's not a guarantee that you're going to meet those metrics. We don't even know what they are, of course. So there's some looseness in that. The, the international spot that came in return is worth about 250,000. Leo Chu, let's just arbitrarily say maybe he might be worth about. If you had a trade for him straight up, maybe you might have to pay like 500k GAM to get him. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Well, it's worth with him keeping in mind Seattle paid three and a half million for him. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, but I think, I think like if you tried to trade for him, I don't think you would get. You would. It would cost you that now because his contract is up at the end of the year. So I think maybe you would pay like 500k gam if you wanted to get him. I think part of the value that Dallas season him is the idea that they could turn around and flip him because he wants to leave the league. I understand. I don't know much about him to be fair. So I don't think the, the value of that really adds up to the $3 million in GAM. And I did do some more digging and I found out that the Las Palmas trade, not trade sale of Jesus that we talked about happened last summer. That price was $3 million, so way off the 12 million that they would have gotten from Russia. So that that 3 million kind of was setting the bar. And that's the $3 million threshold for what you can get if you had sold him. And that deal fell apart because Los Palmas failed to sell a player that they were trying to get out in order to get money in. So that's why that deal fell apart. And so you can talk about Jesus having been wanting to leave here since way back before the Russia deal. You can go all the way back to the summer before, really. So the kid has been wanting a fresh start. That happens all the time. He's been with the club since he was 8 or 9 years old or whatever it was. I get that he said something today, or maybe it wasn't today, about, you know, wanting to win trophies. You know, there's. He obviously had an itch and desire to go and to be honest, it doesn't even matter that he wanted to or not. You know, when Dallas misses the playoffs and is a bad team, you have to look at your team and say, how can we get better? And you don't trade Jesus because he's a bad player, because he's far from that. You trade him because in a league that has restrictions on cap and restrictions on roster, when you have the luxury of a player playing his same position, Logan Farrington, who is producing at a similar level, that gives you the luxury to not use a DP in that position. Even though Logan maybe is by some people's consideration more of a nine. I don't think so. I think he's better as a winger. So that gives you the luxury to move another piece. Like for example, if you had a nine that came in and was banging in 15, 20 goals and he only cost like 100k, well then you would sell Musa for anything you could get. Just because that's the nature of this league and you have. That's what we talked about all the time. You have to be ruthless. So this deal makes sense for both parties in the sense of moving on. And when it comes down to Jesus value in the open market, that $2 million contract is a killer because the only teams that can really afford that are teams in the top five leagues. And really then only teams in like the top 25% of any of those given leagues. If you're talking like a mid tier league outside the big five, or even a mid tier team in any of those big five leagues, they can't afford $2 million, like the Las Palmas thing, that would have broken their club transfer record, $3 million for Jesus. So you know, this in the end is about the only really mechanism Dallas had in order to move a player that they need to move to try and do some things. So in the end it works out for all parties. I remain like you, Peter, I think disappointed in the Hall. I don't know what Wait, but, but. [00:19:56] Speaker C: When the real disappointment, the surprising disappointment out of the final numbers is that if Jesus doesn't play a single minute for Seattle, all Seattle has to give Dallas is 1.5 million in GAM like that. That's the base of it. Everything else on top of it, outside the international spot. And Leo Chu is. Works under the premise that Jesus hit some sort of preset performance. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Even the salon. [00:20:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And who knows what those are. I mean, it could be he dribbles the ball three times with only his left foot for two minutes or something. I don't know. It could be that he has to hit 15 goals. [00:20:35] Speaker B: Right. That's the criticism we've been talking about for a couple years now though, right? Is the risk reward decisions that Dallas has made with their roster. We talked about that a whole bunch over the last two years and they've done it sort of here. Again, they're making a bet that Jesus is going to be better than he has been the last year and a half, two years. I think that's probably a safe bet, you know. So I get the idea that you're gambling that he's going to come good, probably fairly safe, but also. But again, it's not. There's a risk factor there, you know. But at the end of the day, they really had to do this. I'm just as I say, I'm slightly disappointed in the return, particularly because I don't think Leo Chu helps you at all. I think you've got. When you've got Bernie and you've got Farrington, like we just talked about, you don't. When you got Farrington, you don't need a winger. And they also went out and got Anderson. Julio. So what does Leo Chu get you? I mean, he might be like, if Lasko's here, he's like fifth or sixth. [00:21:24] Speaker A: At wing, I think. You know, you mentioned the idea of flipping him. Seattle turned down a bid from Fluminense last year for 4 million for him. They don't need the money. They need the players that are going to contribute for the club World cup and everything else, which Jesus is. Paul Aeriola could be. FC Dallas is looking for the money. So if you give, you know, if you give Andre a guy who is, you know, if he's good at one thing, it's getting money for players, and particularly Brazilian players. You give him a 4 million dollar asset and no incentive to say no, actually, we want more than that, then that kind of. That weighs that transfer back and ultimately outweighs kind of what Las Palmas offered for Jesus. [00:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's, that's more betting on your ability to perform. Like, right, you're betting on Jesus's ability to perform, and you're betting on Zenana's ability to perform at the thing that theoretically is his best asset. So if you can flip chew for a larger bit of money, then you really are, you really have won the gamble and you have won the bat. And then, and maybe in a year from now, we look back on this deal and think, boy, what a crushingly amazing deal. It's just risky. [00:22:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I, we were talking about this last week, Dan, that we can look at this trade from all different kinds of angles. And the only thing that I feel really solid in saying is, is that we will have no idea as to who won or how well this thing played out until the end, at the earliest, the end of the 2025 season. Based on Jesus, how Jesus performs for Seattle, I just don't know how that's going to play out. And how we got to this point is also a large part of this story. Like, how it ended is really, I mean, I think we can all agree that none of us ever imagined that Jesus Ferreira's end as an FC Dallas player would transpire anything like this, especially the fact, because we, I still don't think we've dug in enough to the concept that Dallas needed to get a dude off their roster so badly, his attitude, his vibe and his money, that they turn around and sold him to a direct in conference nemesis that has kicked him out of the playoffs, what, like three times in a row? Like, I, I still can't cotton in my head how we got to this point. And it's really strange. [00:23:41] Speaker A: I think it's going to be one of those transfers the five years later you kind of look at and you make the real assessment, like a bigger version of, you know, trading a player for a draft pick. Well, what, what became of that draft pick? Did it, you know, did it get used for trading up? Did it get exchanged for an international roster spot? Tam money? You know, does it turn into Brian Holling's head in the second round of the 2013 draft? Something along those lines. The true value is going to take a little while. Same with Chris Richards. The one and a half million was kind of crappy. Then he gets sold to Crystal palace and suddenly there's a few million more and you're like, okay, you know, now they've kind of got a decent haul off it. So, you know, he needed a, he Needed a new fit. FC Dallas needed a new fit. He is a luxury. He is kind of like the US. What Oscar Pereira used to say about you don't want to move a player around to kill two positions because he's not really a nine, he's not really a winger, he's not really a 10. He likes to kind of drop back into the six almost, which isn't going to work for Quill's style in any way, shape or form. He's had his injury worries. It's. Yeah, it's just a really good time to kind of move on and just. It's a good, solid part of the rebuild. It really helps with the cap deficit that they did have. And now I know, like Armand keeps talking about absolutely stacking Gam and what they could potentially do with that. [00:25:23] Speaker C: I am dying to know. And I. I'm certainly going to be watching a lot of Seattle games next year because how Jesus performs and how he fits in with that group and his tactical, you know, his positional tweeness, as I think we like to call it. [00:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:39] Speaker C: How that all fits in Smetser's system and how he gels with those guys or he's not the big fish in the pond anymore, he's not the leader and not the one like does. Do we start seeing Jesus just behave himself and not fall back into the midfield because he feels like he has to do everything because he's on a better team? And I don't know. I think that's really going to be interesting to watch next season. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Buzz. Well, he doubled down on being a nine, so we know where he wants to play. We'll see if he does. [00:26:05] Speaker C: Or against Jordan Morris's position all day long up there. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you never know. You can move guys around, play two striker system. Who knows what they're going to do. You know, we're not. I'm not anywhere near knowledgeable enough about Seattle and their setup to think about what they're going to do with Jesus, but it's going to be fascinating from afar to watch and see how it goes for him. You know, I mean, like, I'll always have a cheering interest in the kid because he came through the system here. He's David's son, you know, so. [00:26:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I said. I said to you guys earlier, I never thought I'd ever see a day where I really missed the farewell video. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Well, I still have hopes, of course, that Jesus will make his way to Europe and get the opportunity he wants. So good luck to him for Sure. [00:26:47] Speaker C: I just hope he doesn't score a winner in the 97th minute of an MLS playoff game against Dallas and hopefully. [00:26:53] Speaker B: Won'T celebrate against his old team saying that. [00:26:55] Speaker C: I do think somebody out there, I don't care who it is, needs to set the over and under of the amount of minutes played. It will be before Jesus scores his first goal against Dallas. So we can set the over and under betting line and people can pick the over or the under. [00:27:16] Speaker B: I mean, I have no idea how many minutes it'll be, but I would imagine that Jesus is the kind of guy who will score in the first game he plays against. [00:27:23] Speaker C: So you're gonna set that at like 45 minutes and take the over and under? [00:27:27] Speaker B: No, it'll be in the second half. But yeah, that's how it goes for Dallas and that's how it goes for Jesus. [00:27:35] Speaker C: It would be an outstanding addition to the list. Would it? [00:27:38] Speaker B: Well, yeah, for sure. Probably to eliminate Dallas from the playoffs, I would imagine. Oh, that's the kind of thing that. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Happens, just stick it in and twist it. Buzz. [00:27:48] Speaker B: I know, I know. I mean, you've been around long enough. This team, you know. [00:27:51] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's funny to me because in the midst of all this, the Paul Areola trade, I think we've been told by multiple people and Buzz, I know you got mixed up in this, that that deal has been agreed to, that just has not been officially announced. [00:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it almost died. Like I, you know, the, the, my source I had that was saying it was dead was acting on like two to three day old info. You know, when they had actually heard that it was completely dead. Basically what, what happened in the, in the late stages of it was that there was a problem from the FC Dallas side about how they were going to do the buy down part. There, there was. So if everyone's not clear Paul's $1.7 million, he still is going to get his money. So like for the part, for the Seattle part, they can't have that much of a cap hit. So they're going to get him on a much cheaper number and Dallas is going to buy down a section of his salary. Now originally we had heard that they would use the buyout. So what, what I was told was that something happened and they, whatever method they were trying to use was not going to work. So the deal was basically dead like three days ago, basically, maybe even last weekend, maybe the deal was dead. And they managed to keep working and keep working and they resurrected it and figured out, apparently figured out how to do it. And my understanding from talking to a couple different people and reported by people like Bogart and other people quite clearly is that that trade's now gone to the league office and it just has to clear the league hurdle and it'll be announced. So like, could that be tomorrow? If you're. Or on Friday, the day you're listening to this, perhaps most people, it could be this weekend. You know, basically the trade is imminent. It'll happen any minute. [00:29:35] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, I think there are a lot of people that are going to be sad to see Paul go. [00:29:41] Speaker B: I will be. Yeah. [00:29:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Because he's obviously a great locker room leader and everything, but man, that was another critical piece of the roster. To be able to correct it and fix it. You had to get him off the books. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah. This comes back to the idea again, you know, if, listen, if. When Nico Estebus put this roster together with Zenata's assistance, the committee, you know, they, they were betting on guys like Legit and Areola and Jesus Ferreira and three seasons later, the team has gotten worse each season. And when you miss the playoffs, you then have to evaluate everything you're doing on one of the things that you have to evaluate is the what you're paying people to what they're giving you. And while Paul is an amazing captain, amazing leader, amazing guy, he's not going to be in the current setup a right wing starter, which is what his pay scale is in line with. You certainly don't expect to have wing backs of $1.7 million price. So there was a, there was a, there was a poor fit there and because of the fact he was effectively a fourth dp, they were having to pay just boatloads of money to buy him down, which was costing them large chunks of their available GAM that they had at the time. So it was really important and I wrote back in the day that how important it was and I've even come to believe it was even more important than the Jesus deal in terms of clearing pure value. Because not only do you clear the roughly million dollars that you're having to buy down, you're now clearing a salary slot for a Tam Gam D piece, whatever. It's going to be that 744, 100,000 for next year. So that's a big, big piece that you've now opened up to give yourself the ability to do things. And Dallas loves these guys that are on just a little bit money above that TAM thresholds from everything from Reto Ziegler, who was on like a 900 down to like Ibiaga this time, which is probably will be about like 10k over that number. You know, your value may vary on how much mileage you get out of their signings, but they love that stuff. [00:31:45] Speaker C: Dan, Jesus and Paul in Seattle. What do you think? If you're a Seattle fan, what level of excitement should you have about either or of those guys? [00:31:56] Speaker A: I don't really know where either of them actually fit in. Like you mentioned, Jordan Morris is, is the nine there. He's got a DP deal now, you know, the priority is surely to play him. You've got De La Vega on the right, which, you know, that would be Jesus's other spot or potentially Paul Ariola's other spot. You know, I don't, I don't know enough about that team overall, but it seems like, I don't know, it seems, it seems like Jesus could be like Raul RUY Diaz kind of just coming off the bench late in games and. [00:32:38] Speaker C: That'S gonna drive him nuts, isn't it? [00:32:41] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe there is a concession to it. Maybe there is a. Maybe Schmetz has got a new plan and it involves kind of all of the pieces. But you know, obviously over time they've had to move Christian Rodan further back to kind of accommodate him in the team with the attacking players they do have, much like we saw with Paul Ariola last year in, in Dallas. So yeah, I, I just, I'm not 100 sure where either of them fit in. [00:33:09] Speaker C: Well, maybe Spencer will be the person that finally plays Jesus in the best position possible as an off striker. Buzz and they'll, they'll make a, they'll make a tactical information change and, and, and we'll, we'll finally see the best out of Jesus. [00:33:23] Speaker B: Because the weird part about that is that I don't think Jesus thinks that's his best position because whenever you play him there, which I think is where he belongs, he then runs all over the field. So he only stays up front. If you play him as a nine, you know, it's going to be weird. [00:33:36] Speaker A: I was gonna say, yeah, you'd kind of. He would be like Albert Wristnack's direct replacement in that case they just resigned him, didn't they? [00:33:44] Speaker B: Not wrist, not. [00:33:45] Speaker A: Oh, didn't they? [00:33:46] Speaker B: I think they did today. [00:33:47] Speaker C: Yeah. I always thought that Jesus is roaming about and coming way back was because he just got tired of not getting the ball enough and it just felt like he had to do thing. It's like the BLAZ Perez effect. Remember when Blaze used to be the nine and would. You'd see him back playing right back. It's because you just felt like Buzz, Buzz Blaze thought he was the best player in the team and needed to do that to get the team to do anything. [00:34:11] Speaker A: And that was also get forward. [00:34:14] Speaker C: That's true. Yeah, I, yeah I, I'm really fascinated to see. I like see Paul to me for Seattle is just a bench player and a guy that they can call on for different tournaments and come in late in the game and, and be a great locker room guy in what I think is already a really solid room. Jesus is the one that I, Man, I just die. I mean I could totally see a world where Jesus goes to Seattle and because he's not the man suddenly blossoms into this different player than we've ever seen in Dallas. You know what I mean? Because he's on a better team and he's not the one being counted on and he's not carrying it on his shoulders. [00:34:51] Speaker B: But I also weight doesn't have his dad's weight doesn't has more freedom. [00:34:54] Speaker C: Yeah. But I, but I could also see him going to Seattle and running around on that God awful NFL turf day in and day out and getting hurt a lot and not being available or not a lot. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Matt. I hope not for his sake. I mean for Dallas's sake too. Cause if that happens, if he goes up there, he's hurt a lot of time. You're probably not gonna hit those metrics. You're not gonna get all that money. [00:35:14] Speaker C: But see, this is what I was saying last week, Buzz is the, is the real value of this deal for Dallas no matter what the amount is. I know you wanted $3 million, Buzz. I know you felt like there was a bottom, there was a line in the sand that he's not worth trading. But at some point is not getting that vibe out of the locker room and that $2.2 million off your books worth it alone? Unto itself, the vibe's not that killer. [00:35:40] Speaker B: I think it's. I mean I, I know what you mean. The countenance. But I, I think it's more about the, the roster. I mean that's the major for. That's why they had to do this. I just always felt like if the pro, if the price isn't there, if Seattle's not going to come up to value which they, they have with that risk factor that I think you had to be willing to wait, you know, and like get it in the next window, you know, you have to be able to. If you have a player that is difficult, you have to, at this level, be able to coach a difficult player. You can't, you can't panic, sell a guy just because he's difficult. And Dallas all the time talks about how they want to be Seattle, the team that makes the midseason move to vault them up. So I just was, I just wanted to felt like this whole time with this deal, like, yes, you need to do it, but don't be afraid to wait six more months when there might be more money and more in the world and more movement in the world, but at the same time, like, I totally get why they feel like they need to do it now. I get why Jesus thinks he needs to do it now. And I, and if you can live with the risk of a him meeting the metrics and baby, can you get for Leo Chu what people think you can. If you can hit those things, then, then this deal may look fabulous. But, you know, I, I, I just, I hate seeing panic moves or poorly thought out moves, and I'm just not 100% confident that this is the best return, but I think it's what we're going to have to live with. So I, I'll, I'll get you, I'll get over it. I mean, especially if the metrics all come out and they managed to turn shoe into something, then, then I'll be fantastically happy. [00:37:19] Speaker C: So, yeah, I just, my observation is I think this was the only deal they had on the table available. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. [00:37:26] Speaker C: And, yeah. And getting them off the books and out of the room was, was priority number one. And check that box. [00:37:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:37:34] Speaker C: Which, you know, and here's the reality, because in the last 24 hours, one of the other items that we've talked off and on about, mostly as a joke or dismissed because we just thought it was a lot of, you know, agent noise and everything to get him a new deal, which he got and just signed, it seems like a couple of weeks ago. Alan Velasco staying in Argentina because if I'm correct, he has not returned to Dallas as of the time of this recording for his Saturday report in. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:02] Speaker C: And may end up staying there and playing for Boca or River or some team down there. And the number that we've heard is what, $10 million in a transfer fee? [00:38:13] Speaker B: Well, it's, it's varying. You know, the thing about media in Argentina is that the level of attention there is like the NFL here. So you, you've got multiple people out there reporting conflicting things and so they have very. And, and, but yeah, these are all people with massive presences and massive audiences that are making these reports. And so which ones you buy, you know, it's up to you because I'm not getting anything on this domestically, but apparently we're seeing reports of Boca and estudiantes both offering 10 million. The FC Dallas wanted 12, but was also willing to talk if you're willing to do a sell on percentage. And so today we saw A, that Alan apparently got in a car accident with his and his agent, but it's fine. B, the Dallas said yes to 10 million to Boca, but was then negotiating sell on percentage. We also saw one that said Alan is refusing to fly back to the United States because he wants this deal. And then we also saw one that said Dallas has not agreed to the $10 million price. And, and that there is no sell on at all. So, you know, whether any of these are true is hard to say. We have seen Bogart report that the Boca did make a $10 million bid. So your money and mileage may vary on whether this is actually happening or not. Certainly there's enough smoke and heat here that there's definitely some fire to this transfer. Is Allen actually getting on a plane or is he actually refusing to get on a plane? I have no idea. We'll see you Monday or Tuesday when we actually get to training. We'll find out whether he's here or not, and maybe by then we'll have seen a deal go through. There definitely is enough here that you can't assume that Alan Vlasco. We'll be back this year. [00:39:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So pause that for a second because then, like, not like, like we needed any more drama going on, was at least some reporting that Peter Musa had interest from Nottingham Forest. And Lester, I think we talked about this. Did we talk about this last week? [00:40:15] Speaker B: We did, we did. And we have not seen a lot of news on this since then. [00:40:18] Speaker C: All right, so what I want to. The, the, the reality that we all need to discuss now is that the 2025 roster may be one that doesn't. That we know isn't going to have. Jesus. We know it's not going to have Paul, but now it may not even have Alan Velasco and Petter Musa on it. [00:40:35] Speaker B: Yeah. It seems like the 18 million pounds asking price for Musa is what's kind of like shying teams off a little bit. But keep in mind those European windows, specifically the, the English window. Dan. I'm right. Runs till the end of January, so there's a lot of time for these teams to. And at least one of them needs to get money in and before they could do that kind of deal. So. So, you know, I'm not going to hold my breath that that deal's not happening either. But again, we have. Not unlike the Alan Velasco thing where there's now a report every 20 minutes. There's been nothing on Musa since then, but I imagine his feelings might be very different depending on whether Musa. Sorry, Allen. Is here or not. You know, if Patter. Musa is going to look around and see there's nobody else here but me. What am I doing, you know, Or. Or is the. The technical director and the coach in there talking to him, saying, hey, here's the five more guys we're bringing in. You're going to be fine. You know, these are the things we don't know we're not privy to, so it's going to be hard to say. So stay tuned on this one. [00:41:39] Speaker C: Well, yeah, I mean, this is a long way from the concept of, oh, my gosh, this roster looks really locked in for 2025 unless they make some big moves to. We suddenly flushed out all three of our DPS and sold off several other guys. I mean, it would be a completely different. [00:41:56] Speaker B: They could have zero DPS in a week from. [00:41:58] Speaker C: Yeah, it would be nuts. [00:42:01] Speaker B: Hey, by the way, I just bought the Newcastle Retro jersey while we were talking about that, so that's cool. [00:42:05] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:42:06] Speaker C: Nice for you. So, Dan, again, I'm gonna let Buzz and I take a sip of water and breathe. You got any other additional thoughts about all this you want to throw in? [00:42:17] Speaker A: No, I'm just. I'm just excited, man. That's. I don't know, silly season. It's great. [00:42:23] Speaker C: You just like all the noise. [00:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:25] Speaker C: You don't. Look. You don't care how it all. How it falls out. [00:42:28] Speaker A: I mean, I care how it falls, but we can go back and forth about the potentials of. Of Jesus and the potentials of Paul and how they perform in a different system, how they perform in. In Dallas and their relative values to their salaries and everything else. But ultimately, this is year one of a rebuild with a new coach, knew just about everything. The only real things that were locked in going into the off season were Farrington, Pars, and potentially Musa. Unless, you know, someone can hit a silly number, in which case you're like, yes, please. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Well, I guess that is part of the question, which is would. Would we be upset with or blame the Hunts for selling Velasco for $10 million or $11 million and Musa for 18 or 20 or whatever that number is. [00:43:23] Speaker B: Well, it would always depend on if there's a sell on or not. I don't think you'd get a sell on at 18 million for BUSA. But the thing about FC Dallas in particular, MLS in general and the position that those organizations hold like in the world strata, you know, in order to try and build at this level, you have to be what I would effectively call a commodities trader. You need to buy low and sell high. You know, that's the way this business works. That's the way soccer works. So if Alan Veo, you flipped for 10 million, you got him, you spent eight to get him and you flip him for 10 coming off of an ACL injury. 10. I, I 12. I'm in 10. Okay, give me sell on. If you give me a sell on percentage at 10. Fantastic. 12. Fantastic. I, I am not 100% sold on Alan Vlasco being the answer. I think there are questions about whether he would be a David Ferreira level MVP type player if he comes inside or not. His, he's not as impactful on the score sheet as I would like him to be. So I would be happy with that price. I think it's a fair value for that kid. And 18 million for Musa, you know, a year later because that's 22 million domestic MLS. I mean MLS money dollars, that's what they call those. 22 million US dollars, 18 million pounds. That's doubling your money in one year for a guy. It's a business. You can't, you can't shake that off. That's fair. That's way more than fair. That's a huge return. You know, we saw the way the club completely changed when they pocketed 20 million on Pepe. Those two players would absolutely 100% more than make up for any revenue downfalls you would have by a long shot from the stadium being, you know, closed down partially. So I, you know, I 100% get it. You would get each of those guys could get you up to $3 million in GAM. And when you use it on selling a player or you can appropriate it over the years, you don't have to use it this year when you've already stockpiled so you could add it on the next two years. You could have a really nice chunk of money moving forward to do some things for your team. [00:45:27] Speaker C: Yeah, and I guess, I guess the big question is, is that if you, if we all agree that selling those two guys for Those amount of money is totally understandable and the right thing to do. The question then becomes what's the level of confidence that the Hunts will go out and then go out and spend that money to replace those players? [00:45:46] Speaker B: Well, that's the question, isn't it? I mean that, that's the difference between what we're talking about with Asus and the Logan Farrington ready made replacement. Now if you think Farrington's better as a nine, which a lot of people do, then you think, great, I've got a ready made replacement for Peter Musa and maybe I don't have to go spend it a nine again. I think Logan's better as a winger so I would like to see them go out and do something else as a nine. But remember, Peter Musa costs, what's it down 13 million. So if you pocket 22 million for him, take that same 13 million and go get another player a similar caliber and you pocketed $10 million. So you'll have, all your DP spots will be open. You'll have just absolutely crushing amounts of TAM and GAM to, to facilitate signing of another player. Would it happen in the next two weeks? Probably not. But you know, we saw last summer when they tried to get a center back and they fumbled that one. So your mileage will vary on whether you think they can do it or not. But you know, new coach, listen, it would just go from a, from a middle road rebuild to a complete rebuild. I mean, I don't know how big a difference we were talking about. [00:46:47] Speaker C: All right. And this is, this will probably be a key element into trying to figure out, you know, what their plan is in terms of adding new players. Can you explain to me and for anybody else that doesn't know what the rule is about? You know, Armand was last week was talking about this giant Richie Rich pile of gam and tan that they were collecting. Isn't there, isn't that, that, doesn't that have a, a date stamp on it like you have to. If you don't spend that TAM or GAM by a certain date, you lose it. [00:47:19] Speaker B: It depends. Some of it yes and some of it no. You get it from a lots of different places and a lot of it has a tag of when it's for. You get it. For being a team that missed the playoffs, you get it. When there's an expansion team, everybody gets a little bit. When you have a player taken in an expansion draft, you get a little bit more. When you, when those are all like the, to the Jesus trade, the money is clearly identified. Like 1 million this year, 500,000 next year. Like it has. It's clearly marked what year it's for. When you sell a player for over $3 million, you can take up to $3 million of that money and apply it when you want. So you could say, let's say if you sold Allen for 12 or 10 or whatever, you then have 3 million to play with. Well, they've got so much this year, they probably would not take that three and apply it this year. They probably would, you know, amortize it out over the next couple of years. Like maybe a million a year for the next three years, they would give themselves. So some of it expires in specific windows, and some of it does not. This is part of the stupidly opaque MLS rules that make this all incredibly complicated. Even people who do this for a living, to understand people mess this stuff up and they work for the clubs. Right. I mean, mistakes happen, and people leave money on the table. So, like, you know, when you. When you have a. When you have a bunch, like Dallas does right now, that's all in one season, or a lot of it's in one season, they probably will want to try and package it and move it for something. Like when they spent 2 million of it to get Paul, for example, you know, like Seattle's doing to get Jesus, you know, you try and do some different things with it. You know, that's why even when these deals happen, Dallas won't be done. Like, other things will come from it. And that's what our mom was talking about. The way it doesn't expire is you go get a player, and then that. That asset then is a player that lasts for years. So it's. It's an incredibly awful system, and it's really hard to explain how it all functions and what has value and wasn't. What doesn't has the value. Like, why is a international spot almost always going for 250,000 GAM? You know, it's sometimes it's just what the market has set. So it's stupid. [00:49:38] Speaker C: All right. [00:49:38] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:49:39] Speaker C: So. No, there's no reason to apologize. It is complicated and gives everybody tired head. Yes, Needlessly complicated. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:49:48] Speaker C: But I guess the question is, with all of this happening. [00:49:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:53] Speaker C: And let's just work under the assumption that Velasco is staying and Musa is staying, that those sales aren't happening and those guys are here to play. What do you. What do we ultimately think? Dan Hunt and Andre Zenada and whatever the mystery TD guy's name is that we've never seen in public. I'm kidding. What. What is the plan? Because how much of the. Also the news that they sign Bernie Camungo to. I was shocked they signed him for as long as they did because I still have no idea what they've got in that kid. [00:50:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:31] Speaker C: And that they signed six homegrowns. I mean, there are MLS clubs that haven't signed six homegrowns in their entire history. Dallas signed six homegrowns today. [00:50:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:43] Speaker C: What does that mean in terms of what the plan is for 2025, if anything? [00:50:47] Speaker B: Well, the six homegrowns mean nothing really, other than maybe Diego Garcia, because most of them are. [00:50:53] Speaker C: And how is he a homegrown? [00:50:56] Speaker B: That's another mystery. I. My guess is that Diego Garcia is a homegrown because even though he signed a professional deal with North Texas first, he retroactively then went and played in the academy after that. And somehow that qualifies, I guess. I mean, it's mls. Don't argue with it. Just accept the fact that that's awesome that they got him as a homegrown. Okay, so Diego Garcia will be in the mix for next year, but that's really it. Oh, well, Collode is the third keeper. That's, that's fair too, is, you know, third keeper. How much is that third keeper going to play? Well, last year it was zero. So who knows? Like, you know. And the, the other part of the equation is that you can now have as many homegrowns as you want. Hence Dallas signing six in one day. And they don't have any salary cap hit. So again, you can sign as many as you can afford. Like, you literally could go sign 30 academy homegrowns tomorrow. You could go find your top 60 guys in the academy tomorrow and sign all 60 of them if you wanted. You know, they're not all going to be active. You can only activate a certain number of them at a time, you know, based on that 30 man roster. But who cares if you're talking about teenagers, Right. They're all going to play for, for North Texas or whatever. So the bigger meaning of the homegrown signings is the, the doubling down and the returning to the club DNA that Zenata and Hunt talked about. This is the action that follows up that instruction. Developing players, trying to get them into the first team, trying to sell them. This is all what they did. Kamungo is the difference between. We don't know the number yet, but more than likely is the difference between A bare minimum senior roster player on the leading minimum and more like a. Probably something in the neighborhood of like what an Ema Tomasi made or Nakosi when he first got his first contract extension. That, that kind of like you're an important player but not a starter value. You know, get him off the league minimum, probably double or triple the money, but relatively speaking, the money probably, we're still guessing at the point is going to be minuscule and essentially nothing like, you know, not, not really any kind of thing to worry about at all. [00:53:05] Speaker C: Are you, are you pleased that they signed Bernie or surprised they signed him to that long of a deal? [00:53:10] Speaker B: Well, remember that Quill's the one who found him. So I would expect Bernie to go do really well under Quill. So, you know, there's a history there and an interest and a love and if you will, he's the guy that brought him into North Texas and developed him. [00:53:24] Speaker C: So we're convinced that the Kamungo's big fall off last year was all tied to formations and tactics and being asked to do something he didn't. [00:53:33] Speaker B: He wasn't because the minute they switched formations late in the season and Lam played him at a actually high wingers position, you're like, oh, there's Bernie, right? You know, it wasn't a couple, but a couple of games, but it was pretty clear. [00:53:45] Speaker A: Are you saying he's not a wing back? [00:53:48] Speaker B: Not a wing back, not a false 10 underneath, not a high striker, you know. [00:53:53] Speaker A: Well, it's also hard. He's, you know, he's a guy that didn't go for an academy. He didn't have like that day to day professional coaching until he got with Quill. So to, you know, for him to be two, three years into, into that position to then go, right, okay, you're going to play here next week, you're going to play there the week after, you're going to play that. We used to talk about Ryan Hollinshead when he got switched from left back to right back and he'd spend half the game just instinctively going to the wrong side. And that was a, you know, a guy who was a near 10 year professional at that point. Like, yeah, Bernie was really throwing, just kind of thrown in the deep end on that one. [00:54:35] Speaker C: So six new homegrowns. Bernie Camungo, I guess the other thing was, is that I, is that the Alara Mendy? I guess he's a free agent, but Dallas owns his rights. There was word that Austin and Nico were talking to him, but apparently that didn't come true. So now we're leaning towards the idea that Alara Mindy may be back. [00:54:58] Speaker B: Yeah, there was a quote, it's, I think it was a TV interview. The video's out there where he says that he had a great season and that he's really hoping that he's going to come back to FC Dallas and that he hasn't signed a deal yet. But I would imagine that yr mini being back is probably waiting on some of these other moves to happen to clearing roster spots and clearing the money to bring him back. Because, you know, he's not, he's not on that Bernie contract. He's on more of a, you know, it won't be a. I don't think it'll be a TAM level deal, but it'll be, you know, 4 or 500 like he was on last year. I would think, you know, that is not unreasonable to have him expect to get the same money. So that one may just be a question of we have to actually have the Paul trade happen in order to have the money to be able to, you know, put you on the roster and buy you down or whatever. Because that's a weird thing. People don't. One of the weird things you can do with TAM and GAM is you can buy down players just in general. You know, they don't, they don't have to be Tam players or DPs. You can just buy down anybody, you know. So I'm sure that pending some weird other things happening, I would imagine that Yara Mindy would be coming back. Otherwise, I don't know why he'd be talking about it. He would, he would be saying, no, I'm moving on or whatever. So. Especially because he is a worldwide free agent. [00:56:14] Speaker A: I would love to know how far the, the Austin thing got because there was definitely interest and as far as I'm aware there was an approach of some kind, but was that they didn't want to necessarily pay for his rights to FC Dallas. What was it? They didn't want to pay him what he wanted. And if they didn't, then does that mean maybe FC Dallas also isn't going to want to pay what he wants if he, you know, if he's valuing himself how he performed, performed early in the season rather than kind of later in the season and then going on to another year? [00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah, you never know with these deals. Sometimes in the past, way in the past, Dallas would promise a guy, hey, if you come in and play great and you're an MVP level player, you know, we'll, we'll triple your money. And then the guy would have a great year year. And then he'd go, where's my money? And they'd be like, oh, no, we meant like literally the MVP of the league, you know, so like, for all we know, I mean, he had this idea of, like, if I come in and play great, you're going to give me a million five. And they're like, well, that you played well, but not great. And so here's 500k as well. [00:57:17] Speaker A: @ that age, you get kind of like the Matt Hedges thing, you know, where it's like, you can have a year deal. No, I want two or three. Guaranteed. Yeah, we're going to go every year. [00:57:25] Speaker B: Yep. [00:57:26] Speaker C: Wow. Well, it is absolutely going to be a different look burn in 2025. No matter how this all plays out, it just, it'll be some, some extreme one way or the other. I can't quite figure out where it's going to go. I am curious if either one of you have spent any time thinking about the reality that when the season starts in 2025, out of that entire second generation of homegrown players that were on this team at one time, the only one remaining is Pax in Palm Call. [00:57:57] Speaker B: Well, he's the only one that wanted to stay. And think about the boatload of money they made with all those guys, selling all those guys. What does that mean, though, about wanting to stay? [00:58:08] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, John Arnold tweeted something yesterday about the idea of what does it mean when players, these, these kind of like star level, homegrown players plateau at Dallas and move on? [00:58:24] Speaker B: Well, sometimes it's related to the fact that Dallas is obviously has historically struggled to win in this league and win trophies. But to be fair, I just think that anytime you have young athletes who have come through one particular team since they were kids, that after a while they're just like, I wonder what the rest of the world is like. [00:58:44] Speaker C: It's get out of mom and Dad's house theory. [00:58:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you know, like every one of those guys that said it's time to move on, they're like, I bet if we went back, 90% of them had like some sort of, you know, like, I need to change off the field. You know, like Edwin, Edwin Cerea, for example, was turning down Dallas's offers. He didn't think they were offering him enough money. So they were like, well, he's about to be out of contract, we better get him. What can we get for him? You know, Kellen Acosta had quite notably some off field stuff that it made him say, you know what I've lost. There was a famous meeting, right? He went to Poppy and he said, I've lost the love of this game. I need to go try and find it somewhere else. I just need something new. And Jesus is the same thing, you know? [00:59:26] Speaker C: Nine. [00:59:26] Speaker B: He's been here since he was nine, man played in his dad's shadow. I get it. [00:59:30] Speaker C: Yeah. There was an aspect to John's tweet though, that got me thinking because I guess there's an implication, I don't know if he meant it this way or not, that players that left Dallas became better players when they went to other clubs. And it got me wondering, is that actually true? Was Kellen a better player? Was Edwin Cerrillo a better player? Was insert name here, a better player at another MLS team? Or did those players just end up going to better teams? [01:00:00] Speaker B: Well, Kellen's not. Was not better. His. His peak was at Dallas. In my opinion, Evelyn has gotten better, but he was obviously quite young still, so he's, he's still progressing towards the peak of his career. So it's not surprising that everyone has gotten better, you know, and a lot of those other guys that wanted to go were. Were sold to big teams or were or were have flamed out. You know, everyone's path is different. So I don't think there's a developmental hang up at FC Dallas. We've seen kids come through here and become really great players. I mean, look at Jesus in Paxton. You know, injuries aside, Jesus became an 18 goal goal scorer in a single season and tied the club record. Paxton got to where he was getting into the national team before his injuries caught up with him and really have derailed his whole thing. And he was like 20 years old when that happened. [01:00:45] Speaker C: So Sylvania is the other one. [01:00:47] Speaker B: Sylvania, Reggie. Reggie probably has gotten better, but again, he left at a time when he still had multiple years till his peak. Sylvania has been so injury hurt in Toronto. They just cut him and he's with nobody, you know, because he's been. He keeps getting hurt. So I don't, I don't know that there's a struggle. And I don't think Servania is a guy who was like, I need to get out of here. Nico7 didn't like him and just traded him. So I mean, like, I mean like, I didn't like him as relatives. Like he hated the kid, but, you know, it's just like, hey, he's not the player for me. I'm trade him. You know, that happens. [01:01:21] Speaker A: It's always hard. And this is kind of like part of the infancy of the academy for FC Dallas and really for Major League Soccer. How a player does. They leave early, they're still developing physically, emotionally, mentally. Their peak is a long way off. You could look at, would Frank Lampard be the player he got to if he stayed at West Ham? Would Jack Wilshire have had the career that he should have had and not had all the injuries if he stayed at Luton instead of going to Arsenal? You can kind of do that until you're blue in the face. And with Dallas, like Philadelphia, like Rail Salt Lake, like New York Red Bulls, there are a lot of players that you can do that particular exercise with. [01:02:07] Speaker B: I'll tell you, if you were to go down to you pick any team in the academy and go to every kid in that team and say, hey, are you going to play for FC Dallas for your whole life? Every single kid, all 30, would say, oh, no, I'm going to go play for Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Right. There's not a single. Paxton's the only player I've ever heard of. And even he said, like, I'd be happy to play my whole life here, but I'd love to go to Europe too, you know. [01:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Paxton's dream was to play for Arsenal, but he always said, I want to be mvp. [01:02:38] Speaker C: First of the team or the league? [01:02:41] Speaker A: I think he said the league, but it might have been the same. [01:02:43] Speaker B: He's the most FCD kid ever and he's just barely all fcd. [01:02:48] Speaker A: Oh, do you remember on Tanner Tasman's podcast with Johan Gomez and I. Sorry, the other guys escape me now, but they kind of talked about that, how you're right all in playing for FC Dallas, but realistically, you understand, like, you have a career that you're trying to make, and FC Dallas isn't the top of that particular pyramid necessarily. [01:03:14] Speaker C: That is an interesting perspective, because I think that probably isn't how most fans perceive the players. They. They think they're all dedicated to the club in the same way the fans are, but that this is their career. And while you may, if you think about it, realize that, you know, they have bigger ambitions and aspirations than playing in Frisco, Texas, their entire lives, it is a weird feeling. I mean, I. I was talking about this on the radio show last week, which is, I think, depending on where you are as a fan of this sport, whether you're relatively new or you've been watching it a long time. This has been an interesting experience of growing up as a fan with a club who is birthing and growing and nurturing an academy and all of the side drama and emotions and stuff that come with that. And this whole Jesus Ferreira thing is a great example. You know, it's funny to me and Dan, you may laugh at me when I say this, but there are a lot of really interesting parallels running right now between Jesus Ferreira and FC Dallas and Marcus Rashford and Manchester United. They're like really eerily similar parallels, obviously on very vastly different ends of the spectrum in terms of the sport. But they're both homegrowns, they're kind of big stars that clearly just wanted to get away from each other, but their salaries are so massive. It was really, it's really hard for both of those clubs to get rid of those guys. And there's a lot of emotions that run through that. And that's just been an. For me, that's been an interesting experience of kind of watching and learning and having all those emotions and experiences as this thing has gone on for the last. I don't know, how long has the academy been around now? 15 years or so. [01:05:00] Speaker A: I mean, even positionally, you know, they, they both have that same sort of struggle of where do you put them in team and how do you. Yeah, you know, how well can you accommodate for them? Both of them are big name players, but they're not necessarily a paradigm shift for just about anyone that's going to be able to afford them. [01:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it's weird how, how similar their stories are. All right, so there's a lot there. We could talk and prattle on about all of this forever and ever. I, again, I think ultimately we're not going to have any idea how this thing plays out until we actually see what the roster looks like. And even then you can say, well, they may end up having to go do some stuff in the summer and we hate those. And. But that may be part of the reality of this. I. And at the end of the day, I'm still convinced that the stadium situation plays some part in this. The amount of that or the percentage of that, I think is up for debate. [01:05:59] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see whether that's true or not. If they sell, you know, a Velasco or a Moussa and then how they respond after that, that will tell us a lot about that kind of direction. [01:06:10] Speaker C: Well, what I think is interesting about those two things is I can, I can see a scenario in which they say look, we didn't know these guys were going to go, so we don't really have a plan to replace them. So it's going to take us a while to do it. [01:06:24] Speaker B: Oh, 100%. Yeah, of course it will. [01:06:26] Speaker C: Because if they sell out in Velasco today, do they have a plan to spend that money to replace him? Do you think they have a plan in place? [01:06:34] Speaker B: Well, they should have, but they probably don't. [01:06:37] Speaker C: Right? [01:06:38] Speaker B: You know, they, it may not have occurred to them that there was a chance that this money was actually going to come in because we've been hearing this Velasco rumor for like three years now, since he got here. But that's the thing is like, because of that, you should have had a plan in place for. And to be fair, I think they probably have some level of plan because we see these players that are similar profiles that occasionally get linked or they have these like, agents as there was interest from FC Dallas, they very well may be putting out feelers for like, what happens if Alan Lasko gets sold. Like, we're not in those rooms, so it's impossible to know. But like, there should be a plan in place for all the time for any player that you lose in your whole team. Well, maybe not scrubs, but this. You can you go back to like what happened when they lost Paxton or what happens when they lose Giovanni? Jesus. Like, you should have a plan, you know, you shouldn't have to panic and be like, and make some rash decisions. You know, maybe that plan is Liam Frazier, but that's a plan. [01:07:36] Speaker C: Right? [01:07:36] Speaker B: Right. [01:07:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:07:37] Speaker B: So. [01:07:38] Speaker C: Well, I, and I, I recognize that I'm. Let me say this, I am glad that there are curious on your discord and there are fans, like sad FCD fan who are optimistic that the Hunts have ambition and are going to restock this roster. Well, I'm just, I, on the other hand, in the jaded old turd who thinks at this point all I see are six kids, the guy that's known more for his goofy hair than he is defending the Sox guy, and some random 30 year old midfielder that I, I have never heard of before in my life. And that's you know what I'm saying? That's kind of where we're at at this point. Nothing about what's happened so far is exciting to me in terms of what this team's going to look like for 2025. And I feel like I, I, I hold my reservation in place to say let me see how this plays out for the next few, you know, by the time the season starts. [01:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah, the one, the one that made me raise my eyebrows was to go to the two DPS for U22 initiatives because you get this extra pile of gamma. They. And they were trumpeting through various digitals and whatever that. That like, oh look, there's this 202 more million dollars in GAM. You can do these great things with it. Well, you've given up a DP spot, so I'm not entirely sure what you do with that gam. [01:09:00] Speaker C: And you've also pointed out that their track record of signing U22s isn't actually. It's actually sucks. [01:09:06] Speaker B: It's actually terrible. [01:09:07] Speaker C: What's the list? [01:09:09] Speaker B: It's Shabol, Shun Giovani, Jeus Quinones. Whose names? First name I can't remember. Ennisali and Giovani Jesus. Those five. [01:09:21] Speaker C: You said Giovani Jesus twice. [01:09:23] Speaker B: Oh, did I? Oh gosh, I'm so good. [01:09:24] Speaker A: He named him twice. [01:09:26] Speaker B: I'm doing it from memory. Shun Keones, Giovani Solly. There's one more. [01:09:35] Speaker C: He's so good you can. Can't remember his name. That's such a great signing, Such a critically awesome signing. [01:09:43] Speaker B: But the point is like the reason the U22 mechanic is set up the way it is is because you can buy a player for a million bucks or something if he's really young and it won't count against the cap. So like you, that's the thing about that slot is that you don't need the game. And if you're getting GAM from these other deals or whatever and you're getting GAM because you missed the playoffs and you're getting game because of expansion year. It's like, I don't know what that extra 2 million GAM this year from dumping the DP spot gets you. I'm just. I'm just not. It feels a little bit like celebrating something that, like, how am I going to actually use that? It makes me think that perhaps you're going, oh, Jose Mulatto. That's the one we missed. Mil. Oh my God, he's the worst one. The. The. [01:10:35] Speaker A: They paid money for an asali. [01:10:37] Speaker C: Fair. Fair. [01:10:41] Speaker B: The odds are higher than NSAI will never play for this team that he will actually play for this team. The. The point of that is that like they're going to have a whole bunch of GAM and TAM and stuff and the only thing they may be able to do with it is trade for some stuff. But I will say that like they actually have some roster Positional holes they need to fill before they even sell anybody else. Before you move Paul, before you move Allen, whatever, even not counting all that stuff, they actually have some positional holes they have to fill. So. But you know, we may see some trades or something. [01:11:14] Speaker C: Yeah, but. And I don't, I don't mean to come off as being defensive about our position and I don't know if you buzz and Dan and I are all exactly in the same spot, but it, you know, like for example, getting rid of three DPS and moving to the. The 2, 4 deal triggers two reactions that I think align with things that we fear about how this club is run, which is a. Is it feels like it's a money saving move because now you're not going out having to spend a massive amount of transfer dollars on some big DP signing. Right. Plus whatever salary that cost you. And two, you get all this free money to go spend on players. Well, this, that's, that's part one, I shouldn't say two, that's part one of the thing that we worry about, part two is now we got to worry about does this team have the front office aptitude to go out and sign quality U20 twos? [01:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think they're one for five. I'll give them Giovanni Jesus as being a solid piece until he blew his acl. [01:12:17] Speaker C: Yeah. But do you understand what I'm saying that. [01:12:19] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [01:12:20] Speaker C: So when, when I, when people tell me I'm being a pessimist or a negative Nelly about this, that's the kind of thing that I point out and go tell me where in this club's history I should look at this and go, oh, that's a really good sign. Things are going to get better. [01:12:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I would, I would say the ones that I really, that make me think they actually could do this are Velasco and Moussa, which you're about to sell. And, and you're going to have one less DP this year. Like I. My assumption when you were going to get rid of Jesus and get rid of Paul and open up all some money was then you would now be able to bring in a DP at a position that would ask. Give you some immense value. Not that you were going to not have dps. So that's that or not have three dps. So that's, you know, DPS are everything in this league. Their ability, you can crush U22. There are some amazing U22 signings in this league. They ain't here in SE Dallas. [01:13:12] Speaker A: Well, I think that's, that's it. Right? They, they're in a position now where they've previously used the U22 initiative to figure out those guys that probably aren't MLS level or in insurance case is, but you can very quickly flip him and make 50% profit. Now they have to treat it like LA did in getting Jovalich. They have to, it has to be a hit. And the thing is, I think this plays into, this plays into FC Dallas a little bit. Because when, before U22, when they had three designated players, two were YDP's, one was a technicality. FC Dallas was always kind of like the narrative was always, well, they don't use their DP slot spots. They just kind of have two that are technically there. Okay, that's great. They can be U22s now. You don't have to, you know, waste a spot effectively. [01:14:11] Speaker B: Here's the thing, though. They. Of the four U22 spots, three of them are full. Leo Chu is one of them. And I imagine that was because there are some mechanics that involve what happens when you sell a U22. One of them is Giovanni J. Zeus, who I am starting to think maybe out for the whole year, because why go get Shaq more if he's not? And the third one is. And Asali, who I think is entirely possible, will not play a single minute next year. [01:14:35] Speaker C: I forgot about Shaq Moore. [01:14:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So you're gonna have one. Well, you know, that deal happened before last podcast, so we didn't. [01:14:41] Speaker C: I know. I'm just, I, I. Well, I want to make sure that I give them credit for the moves that they've made. And that was one that I forgot. [01:14:47] Speaker B: I like that move. Good move. But, you know, that's three of your four spots that are. One might be sold. One is not going to play because he's hurt, and the other is not going to play because we don't think he's very good. So you have one more U22 spot instead of a DP spot to do something with post Jesus and Paul move. So. [01:15:05] Speaker A: And it's, it's going to be really interesting to see kind of how those evolve because, you know, we obviously spent a lot of time last year talking about using the buyout or using IR and, and freeing up roster spots, freeing up salary spots, space. You know, there is obviously a lot of chatter about Giovanni Jesus. So the buyout could be there, IR could be there. We don't necessarily know fair what, what Paxton's going to be like. And if that Affects that and Asali, I mean honestly, I hope they just kind of figure out a way to get rid as soon as possible because yeah, he's. He's not. He's not productive to the roster and now that that spot is, there's more onus on it to be. There's more importance to it. So you kind of can't have any dead weight. And he is a, he is a North Texas SC guy. He is not, you know, he doesn't have the luxury of being half of the six homegrown sign today that will just go back to North Texas SC on loan or go out to another club on loan. He. He kind of counts where he is here. [01:16:20] Speaker B: Here's where I am on Solly one of the home runs they signed today. His name is Daniel Baron. I think that he'll be the starting North Texas left wing next year and played most of the season with North Texas next year. If I had to start pick between him and Soleil on a game, I would pick Daniel Baron 10 games out of 10 and he won't play for FC Dallas probably next year. And in a. Sally will be with SC Dallas 100 of the time next year and I wouldn't pick him once over that kid. [01:16:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I. Look, there are. There are a lot of parts to me that cannot figure out how Andres Anada survived not having his head chopped off at the end of the 2024 season. And it starts with the Ennis Soli signing. Like that one to me remains a really weird mystery. [01:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:05] Speaker C: And I think we've all along the way Buzz have heard really weird stories about that particular deal and, and questions being asked about how that thing went down. [01:17:16] Speaker B: Someone suggested to me today, and I can't remember who it was kind of half joking that like if he was just Canadian, would they have bought him for the amount of money they did? And the answer would be no. Like they bought him because he's. Because, oh, he's Romanian. Oh, Stoichka said he's good. Oh, that's cool. Let's buy that guy, right? So I mean like they're susceptible to the Euro lights too, I guess. [01:17:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:41] Speaker B: I mean this is a kid they got cut from the Toronto FC academy. So I don't know what we all expect. [01:17:46] Speaker C: Well, I guess this is Andres and not his big opportunity to prove all of us wrong that he actually knows what he's doing. And this is. And, and, and to be fair to him, you know, we had a big giant fear that this was going to be a really Quiet off season and it's been anything but. This has been the most activ. Interesting and, and worthy of discussion. I thought all these podcast episodes were gonna suck rocks, but they've been, you know, fun to do because we've actually got stuff to talk about. So. [01:18:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this is, this is really a winter where you're gonna theoretically see him, we hope, do the things that he's supposed to be good at. You know, this, the Kenny Flip Chew. Can he get these U22 guys, you know, with this buying and this selling. This is the why he's here. So, you know, we'll find out. But you know, we're still looking at a team that I said, like there's three for me, three positional holes in this roster, just in very basic terms, before they even hit the. The. Forget about selling anybody, just like for now, like fundamental basic roster building. There's three missing pieces. [01:18:50] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I guess the other part of it is, is how good are they at scouting and evaluating talent to bring into the team? And, and, and I think that, yeah, that's very much still up in the air. [01:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. [01:19:02] Speaker C: You know, so we'll see. Preseason does kick off. They go, they all, all players have to report Saturday. [01:19:08] Speaker B: That is it probably is all over everybody on Saturday. Usually the physicals historically take a couple, two days because there's a lot of players. So half, it's Saturday, half Sunday. Whether they tell them they ought to show up on Saturday or not is whatever. I mean, this weekend they're all reporting and then Monday will be 13th is when Camp officially opens. [01:19:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:29] Speaker A: Ah, shit. [01:19:30] Speaker B: What's that? [01:19:32] Speaker A: I normally go to training on an MLK though, because I'm off work and I confirmed it is absolutely going to be open this year after it wasn't the last couple years. They leave for Portugal the day before. [01:19:46] Speaker B: Sorry, Dan. [01:19:49] Speaker C: Well, here we go. The 2025 season is upon us. I did notice that they threw out a trailer that MLS and the production company that did. What is it? Need for Speed. Drive for speed. [01:20:03] Speaker B: What is the one Formula One thing? [01:20:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:05] Speaker A: Drive to survive. [01:20:06] Speaker C: Drive to survive. Those people that Apple and MLS went out and hired to go do a documentary style series on the 2024 season came out and there was not one millisecond of FC Dallas in it anywhere to be found. [01:20:22] Speaker B: I'm sure they'll be in there a tiny bit, but you know, it's. They're not a sexy team nor were they any good and they don't have a lot of personality. So I'm not. [01:20:29] Speaker A: That's probably a good thing as well because the first season of drive to survive was good and then it just turned to out of bollocks. [01:20:35] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, if there's an analogy to be made, FC Dallas will be like the Williams team that they just never talk about. And yeah, it'll all be Daniel Riccardi, Red Bull, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, and whatever that shrimpy little dude was that had the pencil mustache on one of the F1 teams. It'd be all those Dallas. [01:20:56] Speaker B: It's gonna be Beckham and Messi. Come on. [01:20:59] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay. And I, I can't remember when they said they were going to start showing that on Apple. [01:21:06] Speaker B: Oh, no. [01:21:07] Speaker C: All right, before we go, Buzz, you have said a couple of times that there are multiple holes in the roster and I haven't given you the opportunity to kind of explain those. Why don't you do that before we move on? [01:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. I had this model for positional responsibility that I've used for a long time. [01:21:24] Speaker C: Very hottie. [01:21:25] Speaker B: I know it's. It's super nerdy, but I've used it for years and it always has worked. And. But you know, the Sonata Hunt flexibility thing kind of throws it out the window a little bit. But pretty simply, they traded away Sam Jonker left back and they have not added a left back. So you have Marco Varven and what you're. So you're short a left back, then at center back you have Ibiaga, Tafari and Abubakar and that's it. [01:21:54] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. They. And they moved Sante, didn't they? They've loaned him out. [01:21:58] Speaker B: They own. Yep. So you need a starter, challenger or capable. I've been calling them CB1 because we want him to be a CB1. We want a Reto Ziegler, left footed, intelligent, veteran kind of guy maybe or primal for even better. But those are expensive. And then you need to replace Carl Santi. And for me, in this model you always want five center backs. The fifth one is a young. Usually two years ago it was Met Korcha. Last year it was a Met and. Or Carl, you know, because Matt kept getting hurt. So like, okay, so those are the three spots, left back, two center backs. So you're going into camp and this was the winter of rebuild the defense. Remember? That's the whole thing. The defense needs all this work. Remember how excited Sonata was for Musa Jesus and. And Al Vasco all to be together and scoring and how he wanted to see Those guys feeding Musa, how great that was going to be. So really it was just the defense that needed work. Remember that. [01:22:55] Speaker C: Are any of the six homegrowns or I know one of them is a goalkeeper. Any of the five homegrowns that left are left over, over defenders. [01:23:01] Speaker B: One of them is a right back, Malachi Molina, but he's a fair bit away from being ready for the first team. He's not even a starter in North Texas yet. He's one for the future. One of those, Diego Pape who's a 9, that's Eltran's little brother, Anthony Ramirez is a 10, false wing, Daniel Baron is a left wing and Diego Garcia is an eight. Okay, so no, none of them are defenders other than Molina who's a right back. Doesn't help you at center back or left back. So I, I just wanted to point out that like you know, in basic needs of what they talked about, which is restructuring the defense and improving the defense, there's still three holes. So forget about whether you're going to go sell Velasco or Musa. There still is work to be done as they enter camp. So those sales aside, they still got, they still have to do some things and they have all this Tam and Gam now. So maybe you go out and try and trade for a piece somewhere or maybe you go do some sort of non big time star signing. They have not including Yara Mini, they have two open international spots so you could do Yara and one more if you wanted. So some flexibility, some roster positions are available to do some things and you got three holes to fill. So good luck. [01:24:12] Speaker C: And then Trinity FC Dallas Trinity are in that weird break, winter break. And this is also one of the weird side effects of playing this winter schedule, which is we're learning that the roster that we have come to know over the first half of the season is getting somewhat disassembled and they're losing their best player in Sam Mezza and second best player. Who's their best player? [01:24:37] Speaker B: Mana Brooks. They're six. The veteran six national team cap player. [01:24:40] Speaker C: Okay, fair enough. But the. But Mez is going back because her loans over and there's a whole load of the younger players that are all moving on to go play in school, whether it be college or high school for goodness sakes. And now they got to go back and reload the roster for the second half of the season. [01:24:58] Speaker A: Well, they knew that was coming. [01:25:00] Speaker C: Oh, I know. I just don't think, I wonder how many just kind of your rank and file fan knows that that's gonna. That this is happening. You know what I mean? [01:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, at the start of the season, they talked about Mesa being through the end of 2024. I'd put some stuff out a couple months back about. Originally it was only three. Three Academy players were moving on. It was going to be Jordan Hardiman, Kiara Gilmore and Olivia Belcher. We're all going off to college. The Camden Fuller thing is a bit weird. Going back to play high school before going to tcu. But Camden wasn't really getting a ton of time. So I don't know if maybe that. That, you know, the Travel plus Academy and everything else kind of factored in there, but, you know, it gives them a chance to bring in a couple more from. From Solar and FC Dallas, potentially so. [01:25:58] Speaker C: And I don't know if either one of you have caught wind of the buzz that there's no pun intended, the noise in the wind, that they've got some sort of significant announcement of some sort of player acquisition for the second half of the season. [01:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah, there's some rumors out there. I'd be exciting to see what. Who that is. That'll be fun. I mean, any kind of player that you could talk about coming to the Super League, that's like an exciting player that's going to create. No, no pun intended. Abuzz. You know, that's. That's fun because the NWSL clearly is the higher value, higher money league at this point. So it'll be really exciting to see somebody come in that'll be getting some notice. That's fun. [01:26:33] Speaker C: I was told that when I learned who the player is, it will, quote, blow my hair back. Back. [01:26:39] Speaker B: Wow. So that's pretty huge. [01:26:43] Speaker C: All right, well, there you go. That's what we had. An hour, 20 minutes or almost an hour and a half. [01:26:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, about an hour 20. [01:26:52] Speaker C: Plowing through all this noise, I'm trying to think if we've forgotten to talk about any part of it and I can't. [01:26:59] Speaker B: Well, let me give you. While you're thinking about, I'll give you a couple shout outs. Number one, Real Madrid's coming to the Dallas Cup. Again, super cool, but give me the Super Group. [01:27:06] Speaker C: So is Newcastle. [01:27:07] Speaker B: Newcastle. Newcastle we knew about already, but I'm super excited for Newcastle, of course, but Real Madrid, so that's a good get. And there are three kids in the FC Dallas Academy that have been so far named to U17 teams for the CONCACAF. What used to be the CONCAF Championships, but now is just called Concaf qualifiers. So Josue Fuentes is a goalkeeper at U17. Ogier Vega, who's also U17 and Diego Echeveria who's a U17 16. So congrats to those three guys. [01:27:33] Speaker C: Very good. Well, I'm trying to think if I. I think that's about it. [01:27:37] Speaker B: That was a lot. [01:27:38] Speaker C: That was a lot. It's a weird going ons in old FC Dallas land for sure. [01:27:44] Speaker B: I will say one more thing, that we think there's another loan coming, that a player will be loaned out from SC Dallas, like Carl Sante was loaned out. So we're waiting for that to happen too, which will affect obviously the roster build as well as you go into the. Although, you know, a player that would be loan probably would fall into the category that. Where a homegrown could potentially replace them. So you wouldn't necessarily see a direct replacement like you need for Carl Sante. But still stay tuned for that to possibly happen. [01:28:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And just to kind of put a bow on it. I do think, you know, over the last several seasons I, I feel like we've used the theme of ambition, like taking a measure of the Hunt's ambition and kind of said, you know, we're going to get a real idea of just how ambitious they are as a ownership group and in your mileage may vary on where they went with that. Like I think at the. When the 22 season started with the Velasco purchase and the Legit and Areola move, we thought, okay, wow, they're really showing ambition. And it seems to have wandered since then. And I. And, and so I think. Well, yeah, and then Moose. The Musa thing. Yeah, the Musa one was always a weird one to me because it just kind of came out of the blue. And it was weird that they spent all that money for Peter Musa but then didn't spend the money to support that purchase. You know what I mean? [01:29:03] Speaker B: Like, I. Yeah, well, don't forget too, there's a Benfica involvement in the Peter Musa. So that there could be layers to that whole scenario. [01:29:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:29:12] Speaker B: Not aware of. [01:29:13] Speaker C: So as we move into the 25 season, I, I think it's fair to go back and say this is another measuring stick of trying to figure out where the Hunt level of ambition is. And, and, and, and we'll just kind of keep an eye on it. I mean, obviously it's good that they're making moves. I just. I feel like it's okay to be guarded or suspect as to how it's all going to play out as we move towards the the start of the season. [01:29:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we're six weeks basically from the start of the season. You know and Dallas has definitely had postures lately of, you know, we may not by mid season when we have something different than we have at the beginning of the year. [01:29:46] Speaker C: Right. [01:29:46] Speaker B: You know, and they're. But they definitely have publicly stated that they want to try and get back to their more their DNA of their history, which I think is more about these players that they've traded for and spent a bunch of money inside the league, these veteran fringe national teams. Your Paul's, your legit who admittedly was their best player back in the last season. You know, more for these guys coming through these U22 initiatives now, these homegrowns now. So we'll see if they can balance. Remember, that's always the thing. Right. It's great to want 11 homegrown starters, but also can you win with that? What's the balance? Where's the, where's the ambition at the top of the roster. So stay tuned. [01:30:24] Speaker C: Well, I think it. And this is something we can, everybody can ponder on for the next week and we can really start to get into in next week's episode, which is just look at where the, where the roster sits today. Assume that Velasco and Musa are staying and they're not selling them. Ask yourself this question, is this roster better, equal to or worse than the roster at the end of last season? [01:30:48] Speaker B: And we'll save our answers. [01:30:50] Speaker C: Well, I don't. I think, I mean to be fair, it's too early to really answer that question because there's so many holes to be filled. But you can begin to start to think, you can kind of see where they're at at this point, take a measurement of what's left to be filled in and start making okay, now these other additions are really critical or this isn't going to be a better roster than last year. It may be a younger roster, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a more competitive roster. Fair. So everybody ponder on that. Dan, it's great to have you back. Hope you're doing well. Hope you had a good holiday season and good health and all that stuff, my friend. [01:31:25] Speaker A: Good to be back and yeah, well, healthy and all that fun stuff. [01:31:30] Speaker C: Let's go Hatters. Come on, let's pick it up. [01:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But at least we've got a new stadium coming and that's all paid for and we get a bunch of free transfers to look forward to and Watford got battered today. I always enjoy that Yeah, I know you did. [01:31:47] Speaker C: Thanks for coming back, Dan. Excuse me. And Buzz, I know you're a busy man. I know this is a. This is like your favorite time of year. You're like a kid in Christmas. [01:31:56] Speaker B: I wrote more FC Dallas articles today than I've ever written in a single day before. It's incredible. [01:32:02] Speaker C: Your fingers, boy. Are your fingers arms tired? [01:32:04] Speaker B: Yeah, boy. I was like, you know the little cat gif where the cat's going. That was literally me today. [01:32:11] Speaker C: All right, buddy, good talking to you. And you kids out there, you curious out there, you stick in there and enjoy this time. This is the good times to be a fan and enjoy all the discourse and discussion and speculation and drama. This is when it's good fun. So we appreciate you and so thank you FC Dallas Curious fans. We will speak to you next week on a fun filled episode of 3rd Degree, the podcast. [01:32:37] Speaker A: It's never a dull moment. 3rd Degree, the 3rd Degree NE podcast. [01:32:44] Speaker C: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree N podcast. [01:32:48] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd Degree.