The MLS secondary transfer window closed on Wednesday night and Atlanta United — barring any unforeseen twists and turns — came out on the other end with Alexey Miranchuk as its only major signing. The guys give their thoughts and look ahead to what might be next as all signs now point to the club setting up for more major changes in the winter.
Watch the replay anytime: https://youtube.com/live/5DBAmNd6LXA
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I feel like these guys couldn’t build a team on FIFA on the Xbox.
In case anyone here cares:
New Russian mid has a visa and arrived in ATL last night.
Caleb Wiley started, played well as a very high left back for 90+, and was subbed out in stoppage time. Strausbourg took a point from a 1-1 road draw.
I’m glad they didn’t sign anyone. I want them to hire a coach so they can have some input on who we sign. With our track record we would have made some long term signing and the new coach would come in and blame the fact that he can’t win a game on the roster. It doesn’t make since to sign anyone before a coach is in place, although they certainly tried.
I agree. But they seem in zero hurry to find a coach. I know usmnt is a much higher profile job, but nice to see they made a bold swing. I’d sure like to see a little if that here.
When Garth came I suspected this was a reset to be a run of the mill, let’s make the playoffs, keep the rubes happy, stop work all the “big club” nonsense, kind of move. And I’m convinced of it now. Just a bummer.
I kept my tickets – I think the deadline has passed, I don’t even know. Maybe next season will be better. But I’m very ready for this one too be over. If I’m in same boat next year, I’ll be paying attention to deadlines.
Ok well why not go ahead and hire a coach then? Garth says he “reached out to a couple people and they said they weren’t interested in coming in mid-season,” give me a friggin break. Some world class manager isn’t going to fall into our laps again, we’re not that kind of organization anymore. You’ve got to go out and GET your manager, if he’s leery of coming midseason then give him a pay bump, Blank isn’t gonna care about an extra $500K.
See, they’re the rub. You think blank doesn’t care about an extra $500k. How do you know that? I think he does care. And I don’t think he cares that much for the team anymore. He won a championship then thought ” is that it? This isn’t like the super bowl.”
Blank is old and probably out of touch with the team at this point but there’s no reason to think he’s said a single thing about the coaching search, DP signings, or lack thereof. Like all billionaires he’s made so much more money since COVID that he probably doesn’t give a single fuck, he handed the keys to the guy everybody told him was the smartest guy in American soccer and that was that.
That Garth is running the team like we’re the San Jose Earthquakes and can’t even fill our DP slots is the more puzzling thing.
Funny. MLS sometimes gets the rap of being a retirement league. I often bristle. But what is Garth? He has a perfectly good gig on Seattle. Why move? Ride out this last job, make a ton of money, said into the sunset?
It’s not all his fault. This is the new direction. Atlutd is just a line on the balance sheet.
This leadership is a disaster. You are wasting my time and money. We expect more. You couldn’t improve in the open transfer window or you just didn’t want too? From founding member to done with you.
If they had rushed a signing people would have complained that they panicked.
Buckle up and get accustomed to mediocrity. Garth specifically stated they were not starting a coaching search so they could focus on acquiring players during the window. He failed in miserable way. They dragged all the Founding Members a Season tickets holder along with the “wait til you see who we sign. We have 20-30 players identified.:
So…. was that just the lying, cheating Lagerway or did they just fail miserably and fall flat on their face.
The answer doesn’t matter. This season and all our season ticket money was flushed down the drain all while enticing everyone to stay with empty promises.
We got spoiled by the talent we started with and will not see any level of success that matches it in the near future.
Unfortunately they gouged my for $10K on my tix this am. This will likely be the last time and I will most certainly take advantage of the buy back program and sell them back them buy them half price on the open market.
We got our Star in 2018. Lets let it shine bright!
i am / was a legacy sth. 8 years strong until 3.5 weeks ago when i opted out. it was very bitter-sweet at the time. but the combination of years of sub-par performance on the field and off, utter indifference by the fo to sth’s (including those of us who were there from the beginning) and no confidence that there was even a plan in place…much less the ability to execute…was the final nail in the coffin for me and my wife. Nothing that has happened since i opted out has done anything but confirm the decision we made.
and exhibit a: in the last 3.5 weeks, absolutely no attempt at contact from the customer service team…not even the agent i mostly dealt with thru the years. no email, no phone call, no text…nothing. that’s a pretty damning indictment in itself imo.
Yep. It was magical then poof it was gone!
Only thing I kind of disagree with is your Leagues Cup analysis. While I probably won’t watch much more, I would be all over it if the pathetic team I support was making a run. But my team does not make runs.
Well at least MLS recognized they can’t expect MLS teams to keep playing league games AND match up with LMX teams during the same week. I like the idea of LC more than USOC, TBH. Maybe one day we will open up the roster slots and go to a straight cap with FFP for fees and then they can do both at the same time as real leagues do with outside/secondary competitions.
Well said and agree across the board. Its sad that I look back at times of passionate disagreement (slightly revisionist, perhaps) over various aspects of the state of the club and miss those at times difficult interactions because we at least we had something we were all passionate about.
I can take one thing being wrong at a time, whether its the wrong coach, wrong DPs, wrong supporting cast, injuries, whatever.
But now its just a complete circle of suck. I could take being patient with players if we had a coach. I could take being patient on a coach if we were making splashes on players. I could take being patient if there was more transparency about what we are building towards.
But to see virtually no progress other than one allegedly strong signing in the aftermath of 3 critical departures, no news on the coaching search, and a nice increase in renewals as the cherry on top??? No thank you.
Its almost cathartic seeing everything falling apart because I think the message might finally start to translate. Its sad that I have to root for a continued unraveling based on the premise that thats our best chance of escaping this pit of despair.
Yeah, this window went horribly, not just in function but also in messaging. I think all of the moves up until the lack of additions this window have been good and/or made good sense since Lagerwey arrived. He said it would take 3-4 windows to get the roster sorted. This was the 4th. He’s also said this window is the most critical four weeks since he’s been here in terms of player acquisition. If that’s the case, just fire him now. The odd we’re back, baby comment is ludicrous to me now. We are short a DP and don’t have a coach on top of probably needing to upgrade LW and it’s unclear if Amador is actually starting-caliber. I mean, I guess anyone is for a team that is in 12th place in the EC (and far, far off the stated goal of 4th place or better).
This season was looking bleak before this window, but there was at least some hope that we’d get two new DPs and maybe other help and then see something interesting over the last several weeks of the season. Not a miracle run, but you know, seeing the new pieces fit in and a good run of form to close the season and give some optimism that with a new coach and offseason we will be in the hunt. They’ve certainly painted themselves into a corner for the winter. Next year needs to be really good.
Related news:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AtlantaUnited/s/uhrrgevLz5
Screen shot if you do t want to link.
Soooo… why no 4th U22?!
It’s less pathetic to do this and not have a 4th U22 than state you’re down a DP? I don’t know what they plan to do with all of the GAM, because that doesn’t carry forward like TAM does. It’s also ringing hollow because Garth has said repeatedly he doesn’t really value those U22 slots for counting on key starters (and they didn’t sign a 4th as you noted). They didn’t really choose this, they ass ended into it after blowing this window despite having maybe the biggest transfer war chest in MLS history. All we got was a replacement level (I hope) LB and a DP CAM that no one had really heard of before we signed him (I do think he’ll be a good player, unless we fail to get a good coach and a DP striker and a LW, but you know…).
It’s cap games. They’re going to buy down current lower salaried DPs most likely.
The lack of urgency around this rebuild is really surprising given Lagerway’s track record of summer window-driven turnarounds.
The optimistic reason is more or less what ShortRound lays out below – we’ve got a new coach candidate and a plan for rolling out the new coach + buying their players during the December window and there’s going to be a well choreographed and rollout that will build excitement and interest again. The two negative reasons that jump to mind are either that we tried and failed, or that the FO cares more about club finances than on-field performance.
In reality I expect that it’s some complex mix of all of those that we’ll never be privy to, but the one thing that is clear is that we simply cannot draw the interest from players or managers that we once could. Just makes me sad.
If there’s something positive I can glean from this, something that’s been expressed before is waiting to spend the money on players until we get a coach so they can get the players they want. If the coach doesn’t want to start on a sinking ship and wait for the offseason, then it follows that you’ll also have to wait to get your players until then as well.
That said, you better have a banger of a coach that’s planning backstage. And Gallardo and it sounds like Pochettino are now both taken, so the number of home run candidates are dwindling.
possible…but if that’s the plan, then why not come out and say it?
“hey everyone, we don’t want to make the same mistake again of spending money and building a roster without a coach, vision, strategy, staff in place. so the job is rob’s thru the end of the season and we’re gonna be playing the kids and seeing what we have. winter then summer windows, with a manager in place, we will be very aggressive in finishing out this roster.”
i could get behind that. what i can’t get behind is what’s happened and garth then declaring “we’re back” sigh…
I think you lose “casual” fans by admitting that. Coming out and saying “hey things won’t get better till winter” most likely drives ticket sales and overall interest down.
As a more committed fan, I wouldn’t mind that. It would suck seeing them admit this season is a wash, but at least I could prep for something.
As a university of South Carolina fan, I’m unfortunately already accustom to mediocrity and hope that never pans out. So I’ll be here next season regardless.
i could honestly argue that we’ve already (mostly) lost the casual fan. regular mid-week crowds of 35-40k are now in the teens. regular weekend (top closed) crowds of 50k+ are now in the 20’s and 30’s for the most part.
as far as admitting the season is a loss, i think they could generate a bit of buzz around the “play the kids, build the future” narrative, but we’re a fringe playoff candidate at best. this season is already a wash imo.
Ha. I don’t know that I would consider myself positive on much of this. For what it’s worth, I suspect holding off on buying players before the coach to be incompetence rather an a tactical decision.
I’m also highly doubtful that they have a 10/10 coach waiting in the wings. Vieira seems like our best option at the moment, and I would consider him a 6 or 7/10.
Abject disaster. Why would anyone pay to see this team play???
You would have posted this same comment regardless of what moves were, or were not made.
I basically agree with him, but I wouldn’t have if we got Bergwijn or Miggy.
I think the Bergwijn offer might have been just a ploy by the FO to “show” that they “tried” to get a high caliber/profile player but couldn’t. When in fact they were never serious about getting him. Thinking we would be stupid enough to believe that
This is just paranoid nonsense.
Article posted this morning. Doesn’t offer anything new on negotiations, but talks about the potential fit with AU.
https://www.90min.com/posts/why-eldor-shomurodov-is-perfect-for-atlanta-united
Garth should have stayed in Seattle.
So did the striker signing reported yesterday fall through? What a disappointment this year has turned out to be in so many ways, I can’t even count. Perhaps the biggest of all being Garth’s unearned confidence to say “we’re back” after a pathetic first 2/3rds of the season, followed by an even sadder Leagues Cup campaign. And after all the dust has settled from a $50 mil outbound we’ve ended up with just one worthwhile signing (sadly, Amador isn’t going to be much to write home about and will be nowhere close to the talent level or ceiling of Wiley).
Such cajones it took to raise ticket prices for 2025.
We are back, BABY!”
The “baby” in “we’re back baby!” Is a reference to how raising prices on STH is like taking candy from a baby
According to Tom Bogert on Morning Footy this morning this signing is not happening. Kinda pathetic how many players were rumored but ultimately rejected the move this window. Who is responsible for convincing players to join the team? Fire that guy!
“You’ll love the coach!”
“Who is it?”
“Ah, trust us! Look at our track record!”
So, Boca out, eh? I’m okay with that.
That’s a good point. This pitiful transfer window seems grounds to me to fire Boca. I mean other than the debacle that is 2020-2023 transfer windows. There was some (pitiful) argument to keeping him around once Lagerwey was giving him analytics support and direction, but I mean come on – how is our answer to Almada leaving, who we’ve known was leaving for years, is a super sub no one feels strongly about, and our answer for Giakoumakis, who we’ve seen coming for months and should’ve been prepared for given his transfer and injury history, is no one?
Didn’t you hear? It’s Rios, he’s been on FIRE! /kindasarc
“We are focused on players because we have four weeks, so June 18 to Aug. 14, to make our team as good as we can,” he said. “And I think after that, we’ll be able to catch our breath a little bit.” – Garth right before the transfer window opened
If Boca fails to bring in a second DP or at least a buy-downable or whatever attacker on top of Miranchuk idk how he could possibly keep his job, that would be an outright failure and dereliction of the duties Garth impressed upon him.
No announcement yet, so I guess we struck out on a 2nd player.
Now we get to “catch our breath” because we were so busy in the transfer window. Gee whiz.
Right! So, when we think we’re signing someone out do sign someone “Lagerway good!” But if we don’t? “Boca Out!” Send reasonable.
At this point, fire them all.
Oh lagerwey is on a short leash in my mind too. I no longer just trust his decisions, particularly with the way some of the players in his era are inconsistent, and how burned we are by his promises this year. I’m just not at fire him yet, because it’s still only 1.5 years in, but he absolutely needs to get the coach and winter window 100% right. Boca meanwhile has long overstayed his welcome.
I also do not appreciate that when Garth came here; he said he needed 2-3 windows to get all the existing contracts and player’s rectified. Now he says he needs another 2-3 windows. When does it end?
When he gets fired.