With the opening of the summer transfer window just two days away, reports and rumors of potential signings are popping up more frequently. Atlanta United has recently been connected with Atalanta midfielder Aleksey Miranchuk, and now Fabrizio Romano himself has an update on that pursuit.
Originally, it was reported that the Five Stripes had sent a bid of around $11 million for the Russian midfielder. A couple days later, Romano reported that Atlanta United Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra was in Italy to hold talks for Miranchuk with Atalanta. The current Europa League Champions were reportedly asking for $15 million.
In his latest report, Romano states the deal could be done soon. If that is the case, the Five Stripes may have their Thiago Almada replacement in time for the home stretch of the MLS regular season and potentially the later stages of Leagues Cup if the club makes it that far. He will need to wait for his visa to come in before hitting the field.
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Ah yes, Eastern Europe… home of (checks notes)…. Norway.
It is east of Atlanta and in Europe. So it’s eastern Europe in that way
It will certainly be difficult for any mere European league veteran to match the beauty and skill of how Luiz Araújo played the game.
So, Marcelo will call him a robot or a Soviet-era mechanic too? :0)
What about the other trend. First a player from Georgia, then Atalanta; what’s next, a player from Adelaide United or another AUFC?
Gareth Southgate is available.
I was going to thumbs down but he’s not a bad coach. Just one who plays to not lose.
The player acquisition strategy has clearly shifted from toolsy South American kids to mostly polished Secondary Euro league players. Not sure why the coaching decision wouldn’t follow. Frank de Boer would win silverware with the roster GL is assembling.
We could use some not losing around here.
Wish we had a coach on board before we started making signings. I know you can’t do nothing in the interim but I feel uneasy about tieing up significant roster capital without the buy in of the new coach. Feels like this is backwards
Leave your Ukraine flags at home.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10564077/amp/Russian-international-Aleksei-Miranchuk-refuses-celebrate-scoring-Atalanta.html
Where you are from is only part of who you are. It is not the entirety of who you are.
Was he playing in Atalanta? If so, why leave?
(also: €15 million is more like $16 million)
He was a rotational player at Atalanta last year. He logged about 1800 minutes and 19 starts (42 appearances) across all competitions last year. He was pretty productive, though, with 4 G and 10 A in that time. That works out to 0.7 G+A/90, though, which is a good number. He played a ton the year prior in Torino but was not quite as effective (they were mid-table, where Atalanta was 4th last season). His previous two years at Atalanta, he was used a lot less, but was still productive when he played with G+A/90 around 0.85. At Lokomotiv he got a few starts at ages 16 and 17 then seemed to get regular rotation minutes, then earned a first-choice starting job and then you also see his numbers kind of improve over 3 years as a first choice guy, then he went to Italy.
His per 90 analytics reveal a player with elite playmaking in the attacking end. He was near the top of the charts in key passes, xA and goal creating actions, IIRC. He also is decently big at 5-11 or 6-0 in height and about 160-165 pounds. That may serve him well in MLS, which is physical (permits a certain amount of hacking).
Because I wanted something to compare to, according to FootyStats Josef was around 0.29, 0.23 G+A/90 at Torino, 1.18, 1.12, and 0.98 his first three seasons with us, and this year with Montreal 0.72. Miggy was around 0.66 with us, and generally around 0.18 with Newcastle except for the year they made headlines where he was 0.47.
Thanks for posting this, I ran out of time and couldn’t get to the Josef comparison. It’s not quite apples to apples because Josef not only changed leagues but also moved from wing to striker, but it does highlight how a guy that’s a prime-age player but stuck on the edge of the starting lineup in a major Euro league has more than enough talent to come in and be an impact player in MLS.
My main hesitation with making the conclusion that he’ll trend upward like Josef did is that Josef came to be the point of a well-formed attack under the leadership of Tata. He naturally will get more G+A that way, and had the team and tactics around him to succeed.
Admittedly he still had G+A/90 of 0.81 in 2022 when he didn’t have the team, tactics, or physical speed to help him. But I will be worried that Miranchuk is going to flounder until we get a coach that knows how to combine him and the rest of the roster to the best effect.
So would he rather be a role player on a Champions League team or a key piece on a team 3 points from the cellar without a coach?
Boca’s got his work cut out for him.
Would he rather get paid about $3m per season for two years, or $4m per year for four years?
Serie A squads are extremely stretched financially. They and French leagues are selling because they’re going bankrupt.
https://www.footballbenchmark.com/library/unsustainable_salaries_and_the_grip_of_debt_serie_a_loses_another_427_million
Hopefully the visa doesn’t take as long as it took Thiare
I mentioned on a different thread that it’s very possible that any international signings this summer would likely not be available to play till the MLS restart after the Leagues Cup.