Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union have signed a new assistant coach. Dick Schreuder is headed to the Union from Dutch side VV Katwijk, according to the club’s website.
The Union traveled to Clearwater yesterday to be warm.
While Union owner Jay Sugarman’s financial spending with the Union has come under great scrutiny, his real estate company, iStar Inc., fell to a new 52-week low in the stocks.
Local
Bethlehem Steel FC kicked off their pre-season training as well.
The Union aren’t the only club in town with a new coach. Junior Lone Star FC have named long time JLS vet Fatoma Turay to be their new first team head coach.
MLS
Jack Harrison is officially headed to Manchester City, who will in turn loan him to Middlesbrough.
The Orlando rosterpalooza continues. This time, Orlando City have brought midfielder Uri Rosell back to MLS, sending TAM to FC Dallas in return.
Atlanta United’s Carlos Carmona is headed to Chilean side Colo-Colo.
Seattle Sounders have signed Norwegian midfielder Magnus Eikrem.
LAFC continue building their roster, signing former D.C. United defender Dejan Jakovic.
National
Q&A with USMNT legend and US Soccer presidential candidate Eric Wynalda.
Top US Prospect Erik Palmer-Brown is reportedly heading to Belgium on loan from Manchester City.
With Tim Howard and Brad Guzan on the way out – or out already – who will be the next USMNT goalkeeper? Statistically, it will be the bald one. There is a bald one right?
Around the globe
Deadline Day: Arsenal have officially signed Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng from Borussia Dortmund for an Arsenal-record €63 million transfer fee. In turn, an apparently encouraged Mesut Ozil has signed a new contract of his own with the club.
Manchester City broke their own club record, signing young center back Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for €65 million.
Chelsea signed left back Emerson Palmieri from Roma for €20 million.
The rest of deadline day updates, live.
Orlando really did it right within the confines of their salary restraints. They obtained Meram, Rossell, and Klestan, all from within the league (Rossell is kind of from the league) using GAM and TAM. Not to mention they did the same to get Dwyer last year. These are the moves that the U should be making if they can’t afford to spend actual US currency….
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The assistant from Holland is also an interesting acquisition. Experience with young players since Holland is a selling league? Pressure on Curtin?
It’s an interesting pick-up. I assume Ernie has had some sort of relationship with him in the past. His resume isn’t super strong – mostly coaching for semi-pro and amateur teams – but he did get a team promoted (up to Div 3), so there’s that.
Agree on all points. Yes to both questions.
It’s worth noting that Schreuder left his team — a team he has in first place — mid season to come to the Union. Now, the Union are a bigger club than a third tier Dutch club, and the pay is likely higher, but c’mon. This is Curtin’s replacement if things go south.
2 things that are somewhat unsettling here:
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1) Sugarman’s stock is at a 52-week low? So, his company is not doing well? His main source of income? Anyone else see us becoming even more of an afterthought until iStar stabilizes? And even then, he may become even more gunshy about finances. Wonderful…
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2) NYCFC’s “transfer” of players is so shady. I’m curious what it will take for the league to take a long hard look at what they are doing and how they are skirting the rules.
Pretty sure the league is totally fine with NYCFC doing whatever they want. I mean it’s not like they have ever followed the same rules as any other team.
Yeah, they are in LA Galaxy territory right now. Way too much money for Garber to start harping on them to follow ‘rules’.
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On that same vein, how in the world did Diskarud rake in a 4 1/2yr contract with ManC? I guess his dad is better salesman than I thought. Sure he’ll never see EPL minutes, but he’s gotta be pulling in some $$$.
The Mix Diskerud thing is really bizarre. City Football Group is definitely going to test ethical boundaries of the sport. They own half a dozen clubs, I think, so they can loan Diskerud out. They could send him to Girona or Melbourne — they have a club in Japan and another in Uruguay.
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The Harrison deal is odd in that it’s a situation in which a player is loaned for under what the going market was willing to pay. I’m sure the FA might be curious about that, too.
“The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin’ to the top
The Sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a’ cruisin’ down the ville”
The Mix contract is part of what I’m talking about. That contract involved a transfer fee, which gets translated into TAM for the NYCFC to use.
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So, CFG sold Mix from themselves to themselves in order to get money from the league to sign players. Mix might get tickets to the Man City games, but he’ll never suit up for them. This was just a manipulation of the system.
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And Harrison’s price tag may have been inflated for the very same reason. Higher transfer fee means more league money.
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I may not have the details completely correct, but you get the gist.
the iStar stock is still dropping today by the way…ugh
Union fans! buy iStar!
I’m for Stefan as USMNT Keeper.
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Dude is a complete freaking stud…. with feet, oh so such good feet.
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When you see a keeper slide to the end line alongside the gol to outlet numerical advantage, receive a pass under duress in order to keep possession, then cycle it wide across his own goal mouth… well….
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he was here.
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Its cool though, we play Route 1 to CJ Sapong.
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Regarding the Dutch Assistant coach… correct me if I’m wrong, I’ll go back and dig through my records, but pretty sure I argued for this very thing from the beginning with Earnie.
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I’d rather him as a head coach, but maybe first we need to assimilate a bit.
Let’s do a Force Field Analysis on the Schreuder appointment:
Forces that Help: Curtin gets an assistant coach with more than 10 years of coaching experience who has been touted as coaching an attacking style while focusing on youth development. And he’s Dutch, so he may have more solid coaching training and credentials than his boss. He’s had success getting Katwijk promoted from 4th to 3rd Div. status. And it appears that Earnie knows him, at least enough to hire him, and probably for cheap.
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Forces that could Hinder: Katwijk is apparently only a semi-pro club, so acumen aside, not MLS level by a long shot. He may not know MLS very well and knowledge of MLS is regarded as a key to success. He’s going to need a ton of film study to scout MLS style of play and the proclivities of his opponents, especially MLS defenders and refs. Importantly, he will not be a scout (a major FO gap), nor a mentor to JC, nor a threat to JC in 2018, so the head coach is not likely to feel he has to compete against him.
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I wish him great and rapid success. But he isn’t a #10.
Looks like the Union were in on Clement Grenier, but attacking midfielder chose to stay in Europe.
I saw that too and am glad they are showing ambition in the slightest. If the FO let some more leaks like this out, their fans wouldn’t hate them so much because they can see they are trying to be competitive.
Transfermarkt value of 1.8mil.
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Bad sign to miss on player but dollar amount is a good sign at the level player they are looking to bring in.
Yup. We need a 10 that is worth at least $1.5 mil. It’s a requirement in this league and especially in our system.
Actually it’s 2.5 million converted to U.S.dollars.
Even better then. My $1.5 mil is really the base based on previous Union spending. Should really be more in the $3 mil range if we are being serious.
Good call John…looked right at the number and ignored the currency.
Kudos to the team on this, if true. They get a lot of negativity here (and very very rightfully so), but this is exactly the type of move they need to make. They deserve a pat on the back for trying to make it happen.
Ugh, should we celebrate the players when they hit the post? I’ll applaud the team when they sign a 10, not just reach out to one.
So now we move onto what’s plan B? Would it be fair to guess this is at least a search in DP…..TAM money territory maybe never reached before?
No kudos to the FO for trying. Thats BS. Make a deal already and quit being happy for effort.
It’s less being happy about an effort and seeing there is an ongoing search really in progress. Sorry to tell you but I like more than just the game. I find the hot stove fascinating.
Everyone is raving about Orlando but I’m not that impressed. They let us put six in the net to end the season and haven’t addressed their back line. So a lot of nice names but still a glaring weakness.
Meanwhile a legit number ten for the Union makes us go from out, to a young team that might actually be able to compete. Granted the kids have to contribute but that is part of the plan, so I see some constancy.
Huh? They acquired Rossell and Kljestan. Their possession will increase dramatically and Rosell was one of the best holdin midfielders in the league when he left. That game we put in 6 meant Nothing, a game where Curtin should have played the kids. You want the kids to compete? They gotta get on the god damn field first. I’ll bet you now that Orlando finishes at least 10 points better then the U.
Bingo. I’ve seen this movie before, where the FO claims to have been interested in a high-value, DP-level player (Michael Bradley, anyone?), but they were really just trying to make the fans think they were “trying” to do “something” but were thwarted by some rich club that was willing to “overpay”. Talk is cheap. I’ll believe it when it actually happens.
Disagree with you here. The Union had made banners and were set to announce MB arrival at the club, but he instead chose TFC becuase they had a 5 year plan and a true direction.
If my French still works it sounds like Curtin flew there to try to convince him to come over.
I thought I saw it translated to was ready to fly there, but he chose to stay because he wants to try and work his way back into the French national team. Thought if he came here, he wouldn’t have the same exposure.
Can’t argue with that decisions. This is the level player we should be going after so that’s good. Still gotta make a deal though.