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What would Ryan Kent bring to the Sounders?
887 Plays1 hour ago
It was a pretty interesting week in the world of the Seattle Sounders. On “What we learned this week w/Niko” Jeremiah and Niko Moreno discuss what appears to be the imminent signing of English winger Ryan Kent and the ramifications that may have on the roster. They also discuss the evolution of Obed Vargas and what kind of impact the infusion on Club World Cup money could have on the Sounders.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Announcements
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Come on, Shad, let's I saw you, my fry!
00:00:18
Speaker
The Seattle Sounders have done
00:00:40
Speaker
This
00:00:51
Speaker
is a time nice work on your little yacht yacht thing
00:01:06
Speaker
I've ever since sounded hard, what a commentary that we didn't take the open cup seriously.
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, c Pacific Northwest.
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adiates.
Sounders Updates and Team Energy
00:01:46
Speaker
I am Jeremiah s Shan, and this is what we learned this week with Nico. So of course I am here with Nico Moreno of Pulsal Sports, of Soundert Heart, of Lobbing Scorchers. How are you doing? Hey, man. I'm excited. It's been a good week.
00:02:01
Speaker
It's crazy what a little report, a little bit of like glimmer hope will do for the energy the energy of the fan base and everybody. I'm i'm excited that you and I were able to provide this sort of glimpse of, wow, maybe the team does care and maybe the team, you know what I mean? yeah it It was so down in the dump. So I just want to start by saying that, that I'm happy that everybody has been so engaged with our story, that everybody seems to be in a way better mood.
00:02:34
Speaker
whether you think this is a a home run or not, we'll talk about that. But in general senses, I just get people that are excited. the the The ads have been all over, people have been talking about this right and left. So I'm just excited to see people so into the Sounders after you know some bit of a slow rough start. So before before we get into the move itself, I wanna go a little bit behind the scenes.
00:02:58
Speaker
So I woke up on Monday morning, And I have an email from you that was sent at 4.30 a.m. And I'm like, what is this?
00:03:10
Speaker
And I open it up and I'm oh, my gosh. And we had talked about this. like so This did not come completely out of the blue for me, but that you had the report and that you were ready to kind of put pen to paper on it.
00:03:24
Speaker
or whatever, ah that was news to me. Like you did not told me at midnight, hey, I'm gonna be writing this story. And then I was like, oh, you did send me a text message at 4.30 in the ah But I was like, so I'm scrambling, like getting it together.
Nico Moreno's Impactful Sounders Scoop
00:03:40
Speaker
like um I almost was actually almost late to get my daughter to to a school because I was like trying to get this story edited because I was like, if he sent this to me at 4.30 in the morning, he is worried that someone else is gonna get this story.
00:03:52
Speaker
And then the funny thing about it was that not only that, but then, man, this story, i don't think I was prepared for it. It got picked up a lot of places. Like we don't – I'm not – like we have been doing this a long time.
00:04:04
Speaker
We were getting cited by like the Daily Mail, bb BBC. BBC. ah The Seattle Times. I mean, all kinds of places were.
00:04:15
Speaker
TransferMark had us linked in there. i mean, it was all over the place. It was this was in it sort of like was, oh, this is a guy who has some real name recognition. I don't think I appreciated that one. this story and I didn't I mean like I said me you had been working on it uh we had talked about it the week before I've been making sure that I did my homework as I I tend to do it's it's a little bit harder these days because Tom uh Booger's so good and there's so many other people that are ready to go with this information that I was trying to be as thorough and quick on the story as I could and
00:04:48
Speaker
I think it was at at midnight. It was a little bit after midnight when I got the confirmation of everything. So I think I texted you at that time. oh yeah like There's no way he's up. So then I started getting all cut up. I tried to go to bed. And so I laid down in my bed and I'm just like...
00:05:05
Speaker
you know, in my head about is somebody gonna get it, is somebody gonna not? I literally could not sleep, so I got up and what did I do? I started to just watching videos of Ryan Kent, highlights, ah full on games with Rangers, i mean, whatever I could put my hands on that that had him on just so I could have a better idea of him as a player, because like you said,
00:05:27
Speaker
we did I didn't really know he had this sort of... No. I had no idea. who I'd never heard of him, be honest with you. I'd never heard him before this came across. Me neither. And, you know, my son, he's a FIFA guy. Apparently, he knew him to do because hes he's a pace abuser, as the kids call it, in the FIFA game or whatever. yeah And that's why he knew him. and And, well, all of that just was like, man, I got to really get into this.
00:05:47
Speaker
And all of sudden, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, I should just ride it because if he wakes up to it, he's going to have something to go off. We'll get this as soon as we can. Yeah. And that's what happened. I just started writing, writing, writing. And it was 4.30 when I finished it and I sent it away. So I got zero sleep. I bet. But it was um it was great. It was just exhilarating just because, i don't know, I was a little bit of adrenaline.
00:06:11
Speaker
I did love it. It's gorgeous. ah Ari had no idea that it was me. It was the funniest thing. I was watching it and he's like, oh, it looks like Sounder Hart is reporting this story. And I'm sitting there watching you and I'm like, he doesn't realize that Nico wrote this story, does he? Yeah, and I mean, honestly, I had not mentioned it to him because I just wasn't there mentally, to be quite frank. And I was just trying to like get prepared to watch the game. So I ended up watching the Sounders-Houston game one more time.
00:06:40
Speaker
So I was just like not there necessarily. I had dropped a couple of games. Hints. Hints at him that, oh you know, I've been up all night. Maybe we'll get some stories.
00:06:51
Speaker
But I don't think he really realized what was going on. But all in all, it was fantastic. We got it out. And I love to hear that he got picked up by so many people that it did have such a big impact. It had a lot of traction. It had a lot of traction. I'm just going to go just tell people.
00:07:08
Speaker
So I'm looking at my text messages right now. 1152 p.m., which is honestly, normally I'm awake. I'm surprised I didn't see this. But he says, hey, contact me ASAP. And then the next message is at 424 Sent you an email, blah, bla blah, blah, blah.
00:07:23
Speaker
And then at 7, hey, did you see the story? And I'm like, yep, yep, yep. I'm looking at it now. So just very funny. um That's a little how the sausage gets made sometimes. But like, ah you know, you mentioned Tom. He was very – that was sort of an an aha moment too for me when I heard him talking about it on SoccerWise where they – and they were very – complimentary to you and to us.
00:07:49
Speaker
And he was just like, yeah, this is a guy who a year ago was, I was thinking should be an MLS DP type of player. I've been waiting for some MLS team to reach out to him. I'm, you know, and I think people are a little surprised that it was the Sounders.
00:08:01
Speaker
I'm not, which I don't know, makes sense, I guess in some ways, but it's, it does feel like a very Sounders move and to get a little bit more into it, it, it looks like it's ha I mean, like everything we're hearing, it sounds like it's going to happen. Yeah, and again, thanks to Gas and Tom for being as as nice as they were. Those are two guys that are you know top of the line yeah media guys. So I was happy to get that shout out from them.
00:08:24
Speaker
And yes, um can I go into updates on it? Yeah, go ahead.
Ryan Kent's Potential Transfer Discussion
00:08:28
Speaker
So definitely, it sounds like there's been ah an agreement, a verbal agreement. It's not signed yet, but they are confident that it will get signed today. So we're recording here on Friday at noon.
00:08:41
Speaker
it's gonna get through today. So I've also gotten confirmation that this is gonna be a one plus one situation where just as we reported initially, and I think that I was wondering if that was gonna stick or not because I perhaps felt that maybe Ryan Kent would want a longer term. I don't know. Yeah, that's it we can talk about that. But but but it definitely got confirmed 1 plus 1 through December with an option for 2026, which gives Seattle all of the leverage to to to manage the deal. How does he do?
00:09:14
Speaker
Does he fit? Does he not fit? Does it make sense economically? So to me, it's a fantastic, brilliant move by Craig and and, of course, Sean Henderson, who is the guy who's always keeping tabs on this sort of um veryy So I think the way to think of this deal is very similar to the Paul Areola move where here's a player who has a pretty high ceiling.
00:09:38
Speaker
who not that long ago was considered a borderline elite player. i mean, he was like, the reality is that he was good enough to be signed by Fenerbahce, who is like one of the biggest teams in Turkey, which is a ah regular competor competitor in European competition. He made six starts in European competition for him.
00:09:58
Speaker
So it wasn't like he was completely left out of the team. It was really not until Jose Mourinho showed up that he fell out of favor. And and my understanding, essentially, ah like looking through what happened is just for whatever reason, him and Mourinho did not see eye to eye at all on what they were doing. Mourinho basically stashed him deep in the roster, wasn't playing him. And he was so he was trying to engineer his way out.
00:10:23
Speaker
In the process of that, he felt like some deals didn't get made that he wanted to get made and he was ready to basically sue them to get out of his contract and they eventually mutually parted ways. So that happened in October. Correct. And I think there is an there is, I would say if there's trepidation, it's that here's a player who's been out of contract since October and still hasn't found a place to play. Now part of that from what I can tell is he was really trying to get back to Europe.
00:10:51
Speaker
He looked at some Saudi teams, he looked at an iran Iranian team called perceppa here Persepolis, something like that like that. And so he had some off some options, but I think his top choice was to get back to Europe.
00:11:05
Speaker
And so maybe, and so I don't know, it's interesting how he ends up back in MLS. I don't know, maybe the Sounders had some relationship with him, I don't know about all that stuff. But I would imagine he's looking at this as a way to sort of revive his career. He's still only 28. He's still got potentially, I mean, there's no reason that he can't get back in form and be a very good player again.
00:11:25
Speaker
but that's probably going to take some time. A couple of things on that. you You're absolutely right. And, you know, we added some of that in the story. Part of the stuff that after reading so many things that night,
00:11:38
Speaker
some of them are coming back. There was one incident in January where there was a deadline trade day.
00:11:48
Speaker
where Lazio ultimately had him in a bag to move from Furnavachi to Lazio. That falls apart, and a lot of people have indicated to me that that's kind of the start of the issues for him with Furnavachi, and that essentially creates a bad, toxic situation between club and player, and essentially he's kind of...
00:12:09
Speaker
blacked out, blacklisted. Yeah, because he didn't really play the second half of the season. That is correct. So so that's kind of what I remember from that. And in terms of the relationship with the club and again this just came up because you mentioned that and you know i did so much reading today i don't know why i thought that um andy rose was the one that had some sort of connection to him yeah oh you know what that's interesting ah the the lines but it was so late that i just i don't remember much but well he was bouncing around in the same leagues that andy rose was playing in in like in league one and stuff
00:12:46
Speaker
Because he was originally a Liverpool Academy player. And like a lot of Liverpool Academy players, he went on loan a lot early on before he ends up settling in at Rangers. And so it's possible that he and Andy Rose crossed paths in England at some point.
00:13:00
Speaker
Because, of course, Andy Rose spent several seasons playing in England. But that'd be fun to look at. That would be fun to look at. But i do remember that in some sort of way or form, I thought that day...
00:13:11
Speaker
At 3 o'clock in the morning, that rose was the the negative connection. The connection. interesting. was like a madman. Like, I'm telling you, i was... you had You had your board up like guy always sunny in Philadelphia. oh Yeah, was just... It was like one of those things where I just... I don't know, i saw red. but but But I did remember that. So we'll look into that. But all in all, I think you you you hit a spot on, right? I mean, this is, quite honestly, out-of-the-box...
00:13:38
Speaker
innovative move for the sounders who had been criticized for being too conservative, only looking within MLS, yada, yada, yada, this and the other. I feel like this is a move where the potential is as high as it can be and This could essentially and I don't want to get anybody too excited and I'm not going to say that this is a for certainty of it, but this is kind of like that parlay that I like to play where, you know, I'm putting on 35 and I could potentially get like a big change back.
00:14:08
Speaker
This one could, in my opinion, this guy could essentially be a Denise Buonga type of player. I mean, the thing is, you you mentioned Denny Buonga, and I actually went and compared because was curious. So the two players that strike me as similar profiles to him, Johnny Russell, Denny Buonga, both players. So Denny Buonga was coming from. a midtable french team Johnny Russell was coming from the championship. So these are maybe not exact and analogies, but they are they came over at very similar ages.
00:14:39
Speaker
And if you compare their last three seasons before they came to MLS, they have very similar production numbers. They are sort of, vague know there there are kind of similar players.
00:14:50
Speaker
ah There are wingers who like to who like to cut in. They are, you know, and just. Pacey. They're pacey, exactly. They like to dribble. I mean, if you go and watch Ryan Kent's highlights, they are, he's the kind of player where you can cut together a really impressive highlight reel because he does, his high moments are really high. Now,
00:15:11
Speaker
It should also be said that he has not panned out everywhere he's gone. His production has gone up and down. You know, he didn't play a lot at Fenerbahce. So there are, it's not a guarantee. I'm not gonna sit here and say this is a DP player that they're signing on a, you know, on a sub-TAM contract, but there is that potential. Absolutely. It's also possible that he does nothing. So I don't wanna, I don't wanna get too far out of our skis, but when you're talking about what the Sounders could do,
00:15:41
Speaker
The 100th percentile performance is a very, very high performance, even if it's not the likely, you know, the 50th percentile performance is maybe not that good. But this is a player that has real potential. So, I mean, there's reason to be excited about it. I think anyone who knows who he is can tell you there's reason to be excited about it. There are obviously red flags, but they're not paying a premium price for him. They're not. They're not. And again, this is a guy that at one point was worth $20 million on the transfer fee.
00:16:09
Speaker
I talked about Lazio wanting him. I actually ended up talking to a couple of people in in Spain who actually I got some friends in Spain right now, you know, working with Sevilla. And they were, you know, Villarreal and a couple of other teams wanted him in Spain. So it He's a player scouts know. Yeah, scouts know him exactly. Right. he's He's definitely someone that everyone who's involved deeply in the game, this is has it got a name they immediately know exactly who you're talking about.
00:16:36
Speaker
I think he moved actually from Liverpool to Rangers for like $10 million. dollars So he's a, I mean, he is a, that was a long time ago, five years ago, something like that. But he's ah he's definitely an intriguing player. I think, again, if you're talking about the Sounders shooting the moon sort of with this, they have almost this free, a free play. I think you actually may even use that analogy previously. And they're they're going to they're make they're treating it like a free play. and I think that's great. Yeah, because so many times we've seen them be conservative in a movement. And this is not a conservative movement. No, no, this is ambitious. And, you know, I don't want to get into the ambitious war in general, but the move specifically is not ambitious maybe in terms of the money aspect, but the potential and kind of like the risk-take sort of situation.
00:17:17
Speaker
This is not conservative. This is not your Julian Gressel or Juwan Jones or any player that we kind of mentioned that might have been more of a certainty, but the the the ceiling would not be as high.
00:17:28
Speaker
This one is is on the other end of it. So... In terms of the move, I think it's positive for what you're getting him in the moment that you're getting in him. You're basically adding him as a depth piece and it's going to create competition. And and you know we'll talk about that here afterwards in this show. But all in all, just want to say that the move to me is a good move.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, I like it, too. I think the other question it asks, it forced you to ask, though, is what are the sounders see as where are they? Where is this all heading? Right. Because the reality is that he is not a this is not a immediate.
00:18:05
Speaker
fix for anything that's currently ailing the Sounders this week. He's not going to suit up this week. He's not going to suit up next week. The reality is that he might not make his, even make his debut for another month.
00:18:17
Speaker
And who knows when he's regular, he's regular. or I would think the Sounders would be very happy if they, if they told you, if they, if we told you that, they had him ready to go fully fit by the Club World Cup, which is in June. They'd probably be thrilled with that. yeah And I think it's entirely possible that he had maybe not even made more than one or two starts by then. That's two months, two, three months almost from now.
00:18:43
Speaker
So I think they they are looking at this as a move that's down the road. This is not a fix for anything that's happening right now. So that's one thing to know. But the other thing is that he's a winger. He is not a wingback. He is an attacking winger. How that fits into this roster is an open question because right now they don't really play with traditional wingers.
Ryan Kent's Tactical Fit with Sounders
00:19:04
Speaker
Georgie Manungu is essentially the only real winger that they've been playing with. Paul Rothrock a little bit. Rothrock is really playing as a wingback right now. Yeah, and he's excellent. Yeah, and he's looked pretty good. So it it forces it'll force them to ask some questions, and maybe they don't even see him as a starter right now. and They might just see him as ah an option off the bench.
00:19:21
Speaker
But he is –
00:19:24
Speaker
He's a piece that they don't have right now. They don't have a real analogy for him on the current roster. No, no, absolutely. And, but you know, we can talk about this as well. From the point that he hasn't really had a professional game, competitive game in. Since July. Since July. He's been out of contract since October.
00:19:43
Speaker
So what sort of shape he's in, it's concern number one. but Concern number two is not even a concern, it's just a reality of a circumstance, but the visa process for his P1 visa tray to to be able to play here will take at least a month. And we have no idea if if it could be longer than that.
00:20:02
Speaker
So that's exactly why this move is interesting, it's ambitious, but it's like you said, potentially more leaning towards Club World Cup, how are we going to compete there? Leagues Cup. Leagues Cup. And playoffs, really. yeah Sure. and and And that's where you're going get the best out of this move. And that's honestly where...
00:20:23
Speaker
the the best teams that have done it over the last couple of years in MLS, that's what they shoot for. That's what LAFC got Garrett Bell when they did and when he played, although he got that one great moment, that's what they brought him on for. Well, and this is the thing I think you have to almost think about this is this is really a ah summer transfer type of move. Exactly. Because that's when he's going to hit, that's when he's going to come online. Yep. This is, i mean, if you get anything before the summer transfer window opens from him, you almost have to look at that as a bonus. But...
00:20:51
Speaker
If things go reasonably well, he should be ready to go by the time the summer transfer window go opens, which is good. you know This is ah player who you know it's going to take a little time. It's going to be a little bit of a slow burn, but there's real potential there.
00:21:04
Speaker
ah On other things related to I think that's – are we good to move on from that, you think? Yeah, no I think we're we're good to move on. Maybe I just thought if potentially he is as good as he is, how would you shape that?
Injury Updates: Jordan and Pedro's Return
00:21:20
Speaker
Final third of ah the attack. I think that that's ah that'll be a good question. And I think that sort of dovetails a little bit into the other bit of I think good news that came out this week is it does look like Jordan and Pedro are closer to returning than maybe it seemed. It was funny. We asked Brian about it on Monday and he was sort of like, I don't know. And then he.
00:21:41
Speaker
And then he goes on on softy on KJR and is like, no, they're they're actually they're looking really good. And they're they're like, we might get him back and a we might get Jordan back maybe next or Pedro back next week. And then Jordan back the week after that. and it was like, oh. And then ah yeah yesterday when we talked to him, he sort of said the same thing, which is like, yeah, it looks like they're getting closer.
00:22:01
Speaker
But that's also good news, because even though they're not going to be back this week, it They're both out there doing stuff training wise that shows that they are closer to returning than not. Yeah. And I think right off the bat, we had talked about Pedro being able to do some work on the ball, being able to shoot kind of totals. It was an asset here.
00:22:21
Speaker
But, you know, In my opinion, i hope that they don't rush him in. I feel like no you have enough depth where you'll be fine there. But I will say that I'm hoping that Brian and Softie are like besties or something because he not only went all out to like confirm injuries with him, but he also talked about the Ryan Kent thing.
00:22:42
Speaker
When Jada Evans asked the exact same question here, he was super cagey about. it And then went on and then on KGR, if people missed it, it's it is worth listening to because it's kind of funny. He says, well, you might want to check the TSA website to see if a player named Ryan Kent came through SeaTac today.
00:23:00
Speaker
and And then, don't know. Maybe he's you maybe he's been at the facility. I don't know. And then he like did this whole scouting report on him. And it was just very funny because he definitely did not say that with us on Monday. Oh, no. He was cagey. We just didn't want to talk about it. I mean, i have no idea. And he was like a ah cat that caught the – ate the bird on Thursday. Exactly.
00:23:20
Speaker
100%. I mean, come on, man. And then he went and when and talked about it, got super open about it. But anyway, I just wanted to point that out. It was kind of funny. For Mr. Brian Spencer. Yeah. ah But that does lead us into this weekend. San Jose is a team who – Rehab went through a pretty significant overhaul in the offseason.
00:23:41
Speaker
Bruce Arena obviously is a big part of that. And he changed their formation. They're now playing a 3-5-2. They brought in a bunch of big players.
00:23:52
Speaker
Chicho Arango, the top one, but Joseph Martinez as well. And this is really a different team. They started off kind of gangbusters. They won their first two games, but they've now lost three in a row and they 4-1 last week.
00:24:05
Speaker
I don't know, what what do you make of San Jose as the Sounders go down there? A place where they've had a lot of... they've so The Sounders have weirdly struggled against San Jose, ah especially at home, but in in San Jose as well. Yeah, no, ah look, this team passed two sites two two sides to the coin.
00:24:24
Speaker
In one end, I feel like they are a dangerous team. offensively i felt like that 4-1 against charlotte didn't really tell you the whole story chicharango for some reason just had a bad game in this one he could have started the game off with a goal like in the sixth minute where he gets a game in front of goal he doesn't put it away i counted six chances that typically chicho arango would put away and he didn't in this one and interesting and you cannot give charlotte that sort of ability to just settle into the game. Now, I don't want to take anything away from Kalina because he was great. Kalina was all over it and he stopped some great shots.
00:25:03
Speaker
But at the end of the game, their issue in San Jose, I'm saying, is transition defense. They got exploded with direct balls behind the the defensive end.
00:25:14
Speaker
that The pivots couldn't keep up. And once the first goal fell, they just really laid on thick on San Jose, where the goal that they actually get back ends up being on a PK that Chicharango puts away. But other than that, Charlotte kind of dominates the game at a certain point. So that to say that I think this team although not balanced, they are a team that could put Seattle under pressure and they could pin them back and put them under their own third. And Seattle has had moments where they do play a little bit too deep at times. So I'm hoping that they don't and they do keep that line of confrontation as high as Brian has wanted it in specific times. I think about the Charlotte game yeah here at home where that could have been the perfect game plan for that specific game.
00:26:05
Speaker
ah The results didn't come around, but I feel like if Seattle can keep that sort of intensity, they can really affect the game against San Jose. It's not an easy game though. San Jose has always been a rock on the shoe for Seattle. It's just as RSL where you know something bad's going to happen. You know they're not going to play at their best. So how do they kind of manage that? That's interesting. But I really like what I've seen out of this San Jose team with with Kay, who's an experienced player who can control the ball, who knows exactly what he wants and how to get the ball out of the bag. And Harkes is kind of like that disruptor, that guy that's all over and is going to make it difficult.
00:26:44
Speaker
So I feel like they have a really good sense of how they want to play the game offensively. Defensively, they have their issues. Yeah, Christian Espinosa has been an interesting one there because he was, ah you know, one of the top wingers in MLS and Arena moved him to wing back.
00:26:59
Speaker
And I don't imagine he's doing a lot of defending back there, but he's – You know, he he definitely creates some problems offensively. nos But I would think that's an exploitable hole in their defense because i just can't imagine that he is much of ah a defender back there. Yeah, and look, to be honest, they've really – they have had issues and they've really missed Hernan Lopez.
00:27:25
Speaker
He's their 10. He was the guy that amplified everything. And he's out now. And he's out with a shoulder injury. Yeah. So now they have to drop Chicho because Chicho could do a little bit of that ah false nine or ten sort of situation with Judd in front of him.
00:27:40
Speaker
Judd will give you a little bit more of that ah high energy pressing occupied space and then Chicho will get into those half spaces and be that guy that really is the dangerous guy. He's the one that's getting in front of goal. He's the that's going to be dangerous. So how does Seattle kind of manage that? That's going to be interesting.
00:27:57
Speaker
ah But Espinoza, to me, is by far the most consistent and quite honestly, the most fully talented player that that that team has. He could do it all from ah where he stands. He could come outside. He come inside.
00:28:13
Speaker
He could link up. i He put a couple of beautiful balls this season. ah whenever he's been able to have the ability to play with Chicho Arango up at the nine. So this is a team that's quality.
00:28:29
Speaker
Seattle's going to have to do a lot more on the offensive end. And that's where kind of my question mark is for Seattle is the magnifying glass for me is going to be on how well they move offensively, how engaged and active Jesus Ferreira is.
00:28:46
Speaker
Because three games now at the nine, I'm ready to see a bigger upgrade, an improvement on on his play. Because he is a guy that to me can really be the key to sparking the season in the right direction this team. Yeah, I mean, Jesus is a player who clearly has a lot of talent.
00:29:07
Speaker
We're seeing... glimpses of it but he has not really put it all together you know we talked about how he only has one shot and two starts at the number nine that is not enough but that is i think at least partially the result of him not really meshing with his teammates as a number nine he moves differently than jordan you know jao paulo talked about it this week about how He's just not going to be the same player, and we have to recognize that, and we have to play him differently. He wants the ball to beat.
00:29:37
Speaker
He wants to be able to combine with teammates. He wants to do stuff around the top of the 18-yard box, whereas Jordan is crashing the box. He's running in behind. He's doing a lot of things. These are just different styles of play. It doesn't make one better than the other, but the Sounders have to recognize that this is their danger player, and they need to be feeding him, and so that means they have to adjust the way they're playing. They need to adjust the way they're playing.
00:30:00
Speaker
ah So, I have high expectations still for Ferreira. I'm not ready to to sell on this guy. I think he's still a very useful player, but this is a game where you would like to see him shine.
00:30:13
Speaker
No, 100%. And look, I don't mind the criticism because I've said this a thousand times. It comes with the role. It comes with the reflectors that the move was made under where he was kind of labeled as the answer to what Seattle was missing. So,
00:30:29
Speaker
He's going to be criticized, but I am with you in that I believe in his talent. I believe he'll find his rhythm with this group and we'll put it together. My eye will also be on Obed Vargas this game around.
00:30:45
Speaker
He's likely going to play a little bit higher, in my opinion, this week. And how... In the past, I've seen him do very well whenever he played at the wing or whenever he played a little bit higher because he has a lot of dynamism. He understands the game very well. I think that if him and Jesus, who had some sort of connection in the preseason, yeah can harness that, that's going to be interesting to look at. So how that association between those two comes around,
00:31:16
Speaker
I'm interested because we what we're going to get out of certain players. We know what we're going to get out of Albert. He's going to be dangerous on set pieces. He's going to be the guy that puts guys through. He's going to have a solid to decent game.
00:31:26
Speaker
But those other guys, that's what's really going to make this whole puzzle kind of come together. Yeah. All right. So we're going to I'm going we're going to break right now. We're going to come back. We'll talk a little bit more about Obed.
00:31:37
Speaker
Again, he had a nice little interview. You had some good exchanges with him. I wanted to talk about that a little bit more. We're going to talk about the Club World Cup money and sort of what that means. But yeah, you're listening Nos Adietes and we'll be right back.
00:31:49
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:32:31
Speaker
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00:32:40
Speaker
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00:32:53
Speaker
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00:33:10
Speaker
Just to make things extra easy, we'll put a link in the show notes too. Thanks.
00:33:17
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:34:04
Speaker
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00:34:17
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes. We're here on what we learned this week with Nico. Nico. We had another good interview with Obed Vargas today. i always love that he that you guys get to have these little exchanges in Spanish because I feel like he opens up a little bit more.
00:34:33
Speaker
But one of the things I thought was kind of a fun little thing was we were talking about the interpersonalness of the way that he is – so he was in Mexico or he was in Spain this last week with the Mexican U-20 team. And one of the things I thought was interesting is he talked about how – This is sort of when he's with the Mexican national team, that's sort of the first time he's in a social environment where he has to speak Spanish and he's around other Mexicans like he is. When he grew up, obviously he spoke Spanish at home.
00:35:03
Speaker
But outside of the home, he was English speaking all the time. he went to it Even though he went to a Spanish, he was we were asking about this, even though he went to a Spanish immersion school, these were all gringos who were yeah who are learning Spanish. He was the guy who spoke. So there were like his friends back in Alaska speak English. That's his link language among friends.
00:35:21
Speaker
So when he's in and when he's with the Mexican national team, it's like, oh, these are different guys. Yeah, no. And and i thought it was interesting to know that he I think you asked the question about how he integrated like culturally. Yeah. And, you know, they seem to taking him in. I mean, he's Spanish.
00:35:38
Speaker
You can tell he's not a native, you know he wasn't born in Mexico. So at times that can be a little bit of a, if not an issue, you kind of get labeled, you know, a little bit.
00:35:50
Speaker
So it was nice to hear that, you know, he, he maybe does things different. you i think He said he doesn't like the loud, the loud music music. And he's like, yeah, but whatever. yeah But it was funny, like little things like that. He's like, they just are a lot more free with how like he is much more of a, ah i kind of sense is that ah a little bit of a rule follower. yeah He's more into his routines. He just,
00:36:11
Speaker
lives differently than these guys do. And they come in and they're blasting their music at night and he's, i kind of get the sense he's like, i maybe like, yeah maybe can we chill? Yeah, can we bring it down, man? We got a game tomorrow. ready No, I know it is kind of interesting. And ah it was funny that, you know, he talked about,
00:36:27
Speaker
Here, he mainly speaks English. And even with the guys who speak Spanish, all those guys kind of speak English. Pedro's English is very good. I think he gave yamar way too much credit on his English. But according to him, he talks to him in English. I seriously doubt that. but But you think of who his friends are on the team, like Danny Leyva, probably Jesus.
00:36:47
Speaker
You know, these are guys who are gonna are probably defaulting to English. Yeah. as well. Immediately. Immediately. and And you know, he mentioned how hard it is to understand guys like Pedro. And I feel like Gaymar, he has a little bit of Argentinian accent. And if you're not a fluent speaker and Anyone who is a bilingual understand this, Spanish accents are very different. Dominican Republic, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Argentinians. And it's difficult to understand just the way you call a pop, a soda pop. It could be gaseosa, it could be, okay, I'm not gonna bore you with it, but it this means to everybody differently. so Well, he was talking about the way you say socks. Socks, yeah. It's different than it's like this word in the word I think he's said he said that he uses for socks is the word that Pedro uses for pants. Yeah, exactly. Medias. Right. Yeah, he was backwards. Medias for Pedro's socks and for okay is leggings. Oh, okay. And so that that part is interesting. So yeah it was kind of cool.
00:37:48
Speaker
I feel like people would like to know that sort of dynamic quick because, you know, hope those are the things that a guy like Obey kind of has to deal with moving back and forth from club and and and international play.
00:37:59
Speaker
It was in the the other kind of funny. Someone asked him about ah what he made of the U.S. struggling. And he's just like, that's not my problem. I think i think put whatever. they like they that dumb yeah I'm not going to touch that. He said, Pochettino got it. He got it.
00:38:15
Speaker
But it is it is interesting to see how that that goes. I also thought it was a little interesting. He didn't seem to be angling. like He seemed to almost accept that he might not be in the World Cup plans, which I guess makes sense.
00:38:29
Speaker
And obviously a lot can change. like he And he he's been very good about this, is that his club form is going to determine his his place in the u s in the Mexican national team. If he's not...
00:38:42
Speaker
balling out here he's not going to be getting called up to the senior national team he doesn't seem upset about that he seems to accept that this is where he is in his career right now and if that means he's got to prove himself with the u20s that's fine and he's but i i think that he knows that his best path to getting into the world cup picture is to be as good as possible with the sounders and that's got to be great news for sounders fans Yeah, and I wonder if that's gonna at all influence his decision of where he moves, whether or not he moves.
00:39:17
Speaker
Because we both know, you and I, that There's a good chance that he's gone by the summer, perhaps, if the right offer comes along. But him as a player, if it is a you know maybe a Turkish team or maybe a team ah from Belgium, like do you make that move or do you just wait and see before the World Cup?
00:39:40
Speaker
I don't know, but i thought it was interesting, something that we could probably touch with him in the future because it is kind of ah a big decision for him. It is a big decision for him. And I do think that the Club World Cup is probably a big part of that, too, because hit that's his chance to line up against some of the, frankly, some of the world's best players, some of the best clubs in the world and show off a little and and and put himself in the shop window and ah
Sounders' Club World Cup Financial Prospects
00:40:06
Speaker
attract some attention. and I think...
00:40:09
Speaker
you know he's not I don't think the Sounders have any illusions about what they're going to be facing in the Club World Cup. The reality is that they're playing three very, very good teams. Paris Saint-Germain is one of the maybe the most talented rosters in the world.
00:40:24
Speaker
Atletico Madrid is a very, very good European club. Bodo Fogo obviously is coming off the Copa Libertadores. Exactly.
00:40:35
Speaker
And this is they're also a very talented team. So that they're going to have their work cut out for them. But one of the things that we finally learned this week about that is how much money is both guaranteed and on the line for this.
00:40:48
Speaker
The Sounders are going to be guaranteed $9.55 million for showing just for showing up And to put that into a little bit of context, they have never paid a transfer fee of that much. they that is a That's wild. and they have That's essentially the equivalent of signing another front of shirt sponsor.
00:41:09
Speaker
And that's essentially the yearly, that's ah a little less, but around what they get a year from Providence to be their main shirt sponsor. It's a lot of money. And on top of that, they can get a million dollars for every tie in the group stage.
00:41:22
Speaker
They get $2 million dollars for every win in the group stage. Another $7.5 million if they get out of the group stage. And then it goes up from there. I don't think we want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Yeah. Getting out of the group would be a huge deal.
00:41:37
Speaker
and So we don't necessarily need to talk about what would come after that. yeah But that's a lot of money and it'll be interesting to see how that gets both spent, but also how much of that the players get. Because if you look at the way the CBA is written, it looks like they're guaranteed about a million dollar prize pool to share amongst them amongst the the players.
00:41:56
Speaker
But this is a bigger prize pool than I think anyone envisioned as possible ah in 2021 when this was signed, no MLS team had played in the Club World Cup. This version of the Club World Cup was not even really conceived of. There was no idea of a billion-dollar prize pool coming into this thing. So I would think that the Players Union, Players Association,
00:42:19
Speaker
went to MLS and was like, hey, we anything we could do about renegotiating this? Because that's a lot of, i mean, you're asking a lot of the players to go into these games and you want them to feel like they are playing for something too.
00:42:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's so interesting. I would honestly think, and I mean, obviously it's not my money, but you know, at least double the the million dollar price for split between the the players. Because you also don't want to have a group that thinks that They're not getting worth what they've put in because all every single one of these players has...
00:42:56
Speaker
made this team get to where they got to with blood, sweat, and tears. So, yeah man, I think that doubling up that would be the bare minimum. But it will be interesting how much of that moves around.
00:43:07
Speaker
does that Obviously, that's not going to come immediately. So that if there is going to be like a big move for the U22... But they know it's coming. They know it's coming. let's say Now they know it's coming. to And they should be able to budget for it. And that's, i think, the real next question is, let's just say...
00:43:22
Speaker
call it seven or eight million dollars is coming to the club itself. I would hope that they are looking at that as a almost immediate reinvestment. I would agree. ah Like there's no reason that they shouldn't be lining up at least one U22 and being able to spend a little bit more than maybe they are originally planning to spend.
00:43:42
Speaker
But theoretically, that could fund very significant u twenty two transfer. I'm sure there's going to be other monies. there They can take some of that money. I'm sure they they'll spend it on other parts of the organization.
00:43:53
Speaker
And it is important to note that that money does have to be, through MLS rules, that money has to be reinvested in the club. So it it can't just go into Adrian's pocket. Not that I would necessarily expect that to happen.
00:44:04
Speaker
But it it should go into the transfer budget. Some of that money should go into the transfer budget. I would hope that the Sounders are seeing this as an opportunity, not necessarily to bolster their roster specifically for the Club World Cup, but to make a holistic move that is going to help them this season and down the road.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah, no. And... but You do want to see that. And whether, because I do expect the U22 to be used in a striker. I really hope that is either someone who they've been targeting where they could be just a straight up cash out buy within MLS.
00:44:39
Speaker
Or if they're going to go with somebody abroad, that it is somebody that you pay an actual transfer fee for. Right. And that you're looking for that person to be a centerpiece of the team moving forward. Right. We've talked about the need to just understand that Jordan, as good as he's been, he is 30 plus. You do want to make sure that i mean if if you're not looking at Jesus as your second option striker because he does better things back aligned, then you need to bring somebody in who's going to be that second guy. So if you need to do that now. You need to bring him in immediately.
00:45:14
Speaker
And that would make me feel like this team is looking at this 2025 campaign as we got to win something. Absolutely. They should. Right? And as they should. Right.
Fan Excitement for Ryan Kent's Signing
00:45:23
Speaker
Absolutely. they've They have said all season long, all building up into this, is that the success in this club is defined by winning trophies.
00:45:31
Speaker
And the way you win trophies is not directly correlated to how much you spend, but that the the amount you spend is sort of a statement of purpose. And I think that's been one of the frustrations in the fan base is that – They talk about winning and they do do some winning. But part of this is more than just results. It's sending a message to the fans that they are invested as as they are giving you a reason to be excited. And to circle this back around to the Ryan Kent thing, I think that's what's so exciting about the Ryan Kent thing is that it's an exciting move. It's something that you can get into, that you can get your teeth around, that you can watch – I mean, as simple as something to be able to watch the highlight package of be and imagine him in a Sounders uniform, balling out like that.
00:46:15
Speaker
And I think that's one of the things that we've not been able to do as much in the last few years, is just get really excited about new players. Because the reality is that this is an entertainment business, and they need to be entertaining. And I think sometimes that's what we get lost in during, admittedly, a run of success, but ah a run of success that hasn't felt as fun as it should have. Absolutely. And it's always great to have a sustainability with the guys you bring in from the the academies and the way you kind of build your roster. But those guys, those X factors, that's what sometimes sells. And look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Ryan's...
00:46:51
Speaker
ah dr ryan's acquisition is going to put butts in the seats and it's going to be like Messi came to town. But I feel like there will be an increase of people that want to come watch.
00:47:03
Speaker
there's There's a big fan base that follows Rangers here. I know that for a fact. How much do they know about him? Do they want to go watch him? There's English fans think this has been a very productive week. think we learned a
00:47:18
Speaker
get there a little bit bigger and it all goes back to what you said entertainment plus value plus people get excited and that's what we want to see and of course hopefully that comes along with wins right exactly exactly well ah nikco i think this has been a very productive week i think We learned a lot this week did
Nico Moreno's Contributions Across Platforms
00:47:35
Speaker
learn a lot. This was that this was like this was a good week for for having this podcast, I think.
00:47:40
Speaker
But, of course, Nico Moreno, you can find him Blue Sky at El Rolo NW. You can find him on Pulse of Sports. You can find him on Lobbing Scorches. You can, of course, read him on Sounder Heart, and you can hear him every week on this podcast, Nos Arietes.
00:47:55
Speaker
Thank you for joining me again, Nico. No, thank you, man. I appreciate it. It's great. One thing that I also wanted to add is that ah people were asking, and I didn't want to... not not not answer. They were wondering about the potential international slot for oh yeah Ryan.
00:48:11
Speaker
Just so everybody knows, he would occupy one, yeah and it'd be the last one that the sound And they'd have to go out and find it. They'd have to ah acquire another one. But honestly, the reality is that that's a something you can... when they have The sounders have the flexibility that they should be able to go out and find.
00:48:25
Speaker
It usually costs you between $150 and $250 in allocation money, which they have done a good job of of creating space for that. So... I don't think that's something that fans should get too worried about Absolutely, and that's what I wanted to make sure that you brought up, because it is something that, I don't want to call it easy, but but it's very doable. It's very doable, yeah. It's very doable to do. So that's the one thing that i think I had in my notes that people were really concerned about, but I appreciate everybody listening, all the comments, everybody engaging.
00:48:54
Speaker
Make sure that you do follow, obviously, Sounder A Heart, continue to provide, become a subscriber. get behind all of our sponsors. and And I'm just happy that this was a great week.
00:49:06
Speaker
It was a great week. It was a fun one. A lot of good stuff going on. But Nico, thank you for doing this. I am Jeremiah Shan. This is No Sarietes, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network.
00:49:19
Speaker
And we will catch you next time.
00:49:58
Speaker
I expect the LAFC who is motivated ah to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that they' they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really brew in the party.
00:50:11
Speaker
You guys like that? and a what Awkward joke, dad joke right there, huh?