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Episode 425: Mailbag for week 25
83 Plays2 years ago
We tried something new with the mailbag episode: Rather than soliciting questions from Twitter, we sourced them from our new Discord server. We were really pleased with the quality of questions and talked a lot about roster building, who might succeed Brian Schmetzer eventually as well as talked a bit about the new minority owners. It went so well, that we think we'll keep doing it this way for at least the next few weeks.
This is also a good chance to promote the Discord server, access to which is limited to Sounder at Heart Supporter tier members and above. There's a lot of fun stuff already being discussed there and you can get in on the action too by becoming a member.
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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here.
You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.
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Transcript
Sponsorship of Nos Arietes by Full Pull Wines
00:00:00
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 sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Here we go. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS co-pointers! Here come three games through the middle to crowd it! The vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
00:01:04
Speaker
Seattle Sounders the greatest MLS team in history This is a tiny doll
00:01:34
Speaker
Is
Mailbag Episode - Listener Questions
00:01:38
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our sounder at heart subscribers. This is the mailbag episode for week 25 of the MLS season. I am Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit. This week, we are going to be trying something
00:01:42
Speaker
that why you young people call twerking?
00:01:56
Speaker
different. And we'll see how this format sticks. But for now, all the questions in this week came out of the new Senator discord server. So if you want to get involved, you need to get that link. And if you want to get that link, you need to become a subscriber. So hopefully,
00:02:15
Speaker
People want to do this thing, and they find enjoyment from us answering their questions, and I was really impressed with the quality of questions that came to us out of the No City at Dis mailbag room in the server. But Aaron, you want to just go ahead and get us started?
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll second that, I think being able to go past 280 characters maybe is helpful. Yeah, exactly. And if you were doing that on Twitter, I probably had you blocked because you're a blue subscriber.
00:02:46
Speaker
First one is from BP2U. I don't have any new questions to ask about this current squad or the state of the team. So let's talk about next season.
Potential Roster Changes for Seattle Sounders
00:02:55
Speaker
At this point, how big of a roster purge are we talking about? And if it's significant, what does the start of next season look like? Gigi, how much time do you think it would take the team to settle in? Yeah, so I think the starting point, I wrote a column a few weeks ago, or a couple of weeks ago at least,
00:03:14
Speaker
this being probably the most important and potentially impactful off season in Sanders history. And I think sort of the starting point is you're probably gonna have at least two new designated players. I think you're gonna have probably at least two new TAM players and probably two new U22 players. And that's like, I think really the starting point
00:03:40
Speaker
You know i in this in the call my i talked about something like fifty two percent of the sounders salary cap commitments this year are gonna be off potentially off the books this off season and that's even before we start getting into the rumors of expanded roster your salary cap.
00:03:58
Speaker
space and new roster mechanisms and all these other kind of things. And, you know, if we see many more games like we did on Sunday, I think we probably will see even more turnover than we might have otherwise expected. Like, I'm sort of expecting a guy like Albert Rissnack to be back, but maybe not as a DP. You know, I'm under the assumption that Raul Rui Diaz will be back.
00:04:25
Speaker
And, and I don't know, you know, a new who, who's not out of contract, but maybe, you know, there's a lot of guys on this team who I think could be gone potentially. And yeah, I mean, if, if, if it depends on who I, how much of the core part of the roster gets moved. But like, I know, I know that what was funny is that after I wrote this thing about how
00:04:47
Speaker
impactful of an offseason was going to be. The starting lineup I predicted for first kick looked a lot like a lineup we'd see this year, except for maybe a new number 10. Yeah, I think I'm with you. I definitely think there's going to be huge significant changes to the roster. I don't think there's any way that there can't be, but I think it could potentially be the roster just gets completely gutted that the sounders have
00:05:14
Speaker
A lot of players who have value that maybe they don't want to be part of the roster anymore or conceivably, like they maybe wouldn't want those players to be part of the roster anymore for tactical reasons or just because they want to shake things up. I think they could also replace a couple of players and run it back otherwise and be significantly better. I mean, I think it's very weird team right now.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah, you make a couple key additions or key changes at impactful positions and why not? Why couldn't this be a much better team? You know, if you have a, you know, let's just say you have a new number 10 and a new number nine, you could very easily run this roster back and expect significant improvement. But yeah, I think if Nico Lodero and Raul Ruidiaz were producing
00:06:06
Speaker
at even a level that barely clears the bar of acceptable for a designated player, this team would not be struggling anywhere near as badly. They're just not producing at all.
Schmetzer's Reluctance to Change Lineup
00:06:15
Speaker
Right. Yeah. That's a big problem.
00:06:18
Speaker
All right. This is from Jeff Nusser. He says he has two questions. One, why is Schmetzer so reluctant to ever shake things up? He talked again about line of changes, but that rings hollow at this point when he doesn't follow through. He gets a lot of credit for being a great man manager, and he almost never rocks a boat with his roster. But the only thing I could think of are a couple of instances of benching defenders. Does he just believe his guy is way more than we do?
00:06:40
Speaker
or believe in this guy is way more than we do. Is he reluctant to disrupt the locker room? I know comparisons to Europe can be faulty, but man, I have to think that a European approach would have benched guys like Nico and Ruidias long ago without a lot of thought about such mentality. And then on a related note, he wants to know, at this point, is it plausible to believe that a frontline of two Morris, literally anyone has a higher likelihood of production than two Ruidias along with
00:07:08
Speaker
I guess we can take the second part. I'll just take the second part first if you want to jump into the first part. I don't know.
00:07:20
Speaker
That's, that's tough. Uh, I don't think you can put like Paul Rothrock as the center mid center forward and expect better production, but, uh, anyway, do you want to tackle that first? Yeah. And, and I think on the second point, I think that if, if, if two and Morris are left.
00:07:41
Speaker
forward and center forward. And I think in a perfect world, Christian Roldana is your right winger. That's to me what they should be doing. Yes.
Impact of Smoke on MLS Games
00:07:54
Speaker
And that kind of ties in, that dovetails nicely with the first question. It's driving me insane.
00:08:00
Speaker
I love Brian Schmetzer. I have defended him a lot. I still think he's a very good coach. I do not know what he's doing. I do not get it. It's the same players lining up the same way, being instructed to do the same things. And it's been happening for over a calendar year now, since last season. It's the same stuff. They're failing in the exact same ways. And it's gotten worse, if anything.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's what struck me is just how it does seem to be getting, you know, for the last six games, they went from not scoring a ton, but at least playing really good defense to just like not doing either. Yeah. I think the thing that really shocks me is that
00:08:52
Speaker
This was something he talked about and we've come back to this several times on this show. This is something he talked about at the end of last season of he was trusting guys too much. He was trusting them to work things out.
00:09:09
Speaker
And then what happened early this season, he was forced to make changes. Raul was hurt. There were a lot of different things he had to do. I don't think there's any way Leo Chu was expected to be nailed on starter earlier in the season, but he was, and he took advantage of it. Jordan Morris looked great as a striker, as a center forward.
00:09:29
Speaker
When he was forced to make changes, he found ways to make it work and to make things work. And then everybody more or less got healthy and it's back to the same old stuff. Yeah. And, and I agree. I think, I don't think that every club in Europe, like you're going to see Roland Nico get bench. There are plenty of clubs in Europe that, that have the same issue. And there are teams in MLS that are quick to bench their main guys.
00:09:56
Speaker
But I don't understand how they can keep doing this. And that doesn't mean Raul should never play again. That doesn't mean Niko should never play again. But the idea that they are just guaranteed a spot is shocking with their level of production or lack thereof. Yeah.
00:10:19
Speaker
Um, so the next one, it's a two parter from STL sounder, but the second part of it is, is I think more or less the same as the last one. So we'll just go with the first question. Uh, do you think we'll see ever see a game postponed due to smoke?
Issuing Shares to Fans for Sounders Capital
00:10:32
Speaker
I mean, I, I would think so. But that threshold is I think we were just reminded is very high. Yeah. And I don't know that it's the threshold is not going to get lower. If anything, the threshold, like, I don't I don't know what the official threshold is. I guess I've heard that it might be if the AQI goes over 200.
00:10:56
Speaker
They would postpone it, but you know, we were up at in like the one seventies or something like that one eighties for the game, maybe in one nineties. And that's like a tell. There was no serious discussion about postponing the game. And I guess on some level, from a practical perspective, like a just purely logistical perspective, I kind of get it. You know, they.
00:11:21
Speaker
If you move, you know, you want to do everything you can to avoid postponing games. Uh, just because the logistics of it are a pain, but, uh, I was shocked that there was no water breaks. There was like a seemingly no effort at all to mitigate the effects of the smoke. And, and you know, the players said they noticed it, but they didn't, they weren't complaining. Um, but, you know, I don't know. It's.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm willing to believe that the fitness level of professional soccer players is high enough that maybe it's not that bad for them to deal with, but the lack of a lack of water breaks was pretty nuts. I think of anything, it's...
00:12:08
Speaker
encouraging people to leave the house and come together together in large numbers. It's not just the athletes, right? But like 30,000 people sitting in smoke for two hours doesn't seem great to me. And I'll add...
00:12:27
Speaker
I best I can tell the league makes these calls not on the ground. Yeah, like the Sounders or the team doctor or whatever like best I can tell that it's a league decision unless I suppose it's possible that someone on the ground could be like, this is this is insanity. You can't play and they write.
00:12:47
Speaker
press the red button or whatever but seems unlikely yeah uh all right so this is a this is from cw they've got one serious question one silly one they said there's a lot of change on the horizon and the roster will probably look pretty different next year pretend for a second that the mass exodus is full bore nico gone rusnak not willing to play for tan level
00:13:07
Speaker
Rui Diaz bought out, A-Bear and Ariaga out the door as well. You've got three DP spots that are open and Tamm to play with. What scheme are you installing and who are you bringing in to do it? Realism is appreciated, but feel free to dream big and let's dream it up post summer window because this likely won't, will come in changes. Uh, and then I'll just add the second question and maybe you want to take it this first. Who's your least favorite and most favorite timbers head coach of all time?
00:13:34
Speaker
Uh, least favorite is definitely Porter. Uh, my favorite is Gavin Wilkinson. That was really fun when he was the head coach for like four games. Yeah, that was a yes. Yeah. From that perspective, that's a good, it's a good show. I don't even remember who the first coach was. John Spencer. That's right. That's right. Yeah. I actually haven't had that many coaches. I guess it was John Spencer, Gavin Wilkinson.
00:13:59
Speaker
Kayla Porter and Gio Savarese. So they've only had four coaches. And Gavin Wilkinson was never intended to be. No, he was the total interim only coached a few games. So I don't know. Do you want to play around with this? Yeah, I mean, it's an it's an almost impossible to answer question.
00:14:17
Speaker
I mean, I think the kind of scheme you're installing depends entirely on the coach. If I'm the coach or if I get to pick my coach, then I would love to see a team that plays a little more quickly, that presses a little higher, that likes to counter. I think that would be a lot of fun and I think they've got decent personnel to do that even without those guys. But I mean, I'm definitely looking at
00:14:46
Speaker
Uh, young attacking players from South America and from second tier leagues in Europe. I think that the best DP signings are, are targeting guys who are, you know, early prime, uh, in, in those leagues in like Belgium or Argentina or Brazil. Um, I think those are, you know, you've, you've got a good chance of.
00:15:10
Speaker
selling those players on. I know the Sounders have tended to look at their core DP guys less as investment players and more as like, we're going to get the best years of this player's career. And I think that's a totally fine approach too, but I think those leagues are still the ones you're going to look at most likely.
00:15:30
Speaker
I'm not a huge fan of the aging superstar strategy. It can obviously work out pretty well. It can obviously, it can also blow up in your face to a pretty large degree. There's not another Lionel Messi out there to sign. So I know that people have sort of wish casted greets men. And I think that would be fun. You mean you? Well, other people have done it too.
00:15:52
Speaker
I mean, and to be clear, like he's not a guy I would go after if I were running the team, but there are worse guys, like if you're going to go that route, if you're going to be European, European player that there are worse guys to go after than that. But I do think that whatever they do, it has to be holistically thought out. Yeah. Like they have to have a system in mind.
00:16:14
Speaker
they have to have. And I think that the Sounders do sort of have like an organizational DNA that they go after that sort of guides them in these decisions. But I hope that organizational DNA is flexible enough that it doesn't force them to sign carbon copies of Nico and Raul because I don't know how much I don't know whether those are the players you want to build a modern team that you want to compete for the next, you know, five to seven years.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, yeah, I'll just add, you know, I don't think it's unreasonable to think in this scenario that, that there would be a different head coach in part, because if it's bad enough that they have to blow the roster up that badly, like there's a threat. Like I think Schmetzer is going to be back next year. I really hope he's back because.
00:17:05
Speaker
If he's back, I think that means the centers kind of pulled it together this year. And that's frankly what I'd like to see. But I am also a realist and if things, if they look like how they've looked at the last five games over the last nine, I don't, I don't think he's going to be back. I don't see how you can bring him back. I mean, there, there's a threshold. Like I don't think he's on the hot seat today, but I, I think that you have to start
00:17:35
Speaker
asking questions about everything. They've been very bad.
00:17:44
Speaker
They have been bad and bad in a way that is not enjoyable or bad in a way that is like uniquely frustrating. Yeah, bad in a way that's like you banging your head against a wall kind of thing where you're doing the same stuff and you're expecting different results. And I will give them credit for overhauling their approach this season, but they have not adapted well in season.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah. All right. I'm going to shout out Rano because he basically asked the question that we just ended up answering about Brian Schmetzer. So good questions. They're all so good that we've got lots of exposition. But the next one is from Rai Boon. Is there any ability in MLS for a team like the Sounders to issue shares to fans to raise capital for signings, all chip in $1,000 for a relevant fractional ownership to make this team competitive again?
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean there isn't and like MLS does not accommodate this sort of investment mechanism. I suppose it's possible they could. It would be as easy as the board of directors making a decision or board of governors to make a decision to
00:19:02
Speaker
to allow this kind of investment, they don't. All that said, the premise of the question sort of being like the sounders don't have any money to spend, they've got plenty of money. Like these guys that they just brought in as owners have money. Don't delude yourself into thinking that the sounders just can't afford to make these changes. I don't think they have limitless capital. And I think they want to be smart about the money they spend. But
00:19:29
Speaker
They're building a $100 million training facility right now.
00:19:36
Speaker
There's a there's a narrative emerging that the reason the roster is in the shape that it's in right now is because ownership is not willing to buy out the players that are on the roster and that they don't have the money to
Sounders' Financial Strategy and Transfers
00:19:47
Speaker
do that. And then even if they did have the money to do that, they wouldn't be willing to spend. And I just do not see any evidence of any of that being true. No, I have one. They have one buyout right here. Sure. They could have bought out one of NATO or Raul, but they probably don't have somebody to bring in right now.
00:20:06
Speaker
Like maybe there's a scenario where they were working on making a signing and they would have bought somebody out if they had made the signing and they didn't. And I think it's important also to note that if they were going to do that, that's a decision they would have had to make months ago. And months ago, I don't think it was quite so obvious that Nico and Raul are as washed as they look right now.
00:20:31
Speaker
Because what you don't want to do is you don't want to make a decision like two weeks before the end of the transfer window to buy out your one of your two designated, you know, two most theoretically most important players, and then make a rushed signing. Right. And you I'm sure the answer to that is we should always be prepared to make a big signing. Sure, I guess that's just not how it works for any clubs that aren't elite elite level clubs. It's just not
00:20:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it took it took what like three or four months to convince Nico to sign right exactly that's exactly and and I think that I just it's frustrating because I feel like every time the sounders
00:21:16
Speaker
have a situation where it feels like they're about to make a big signing or they're going to sign somebody, this crops up again. And it's like before they signed Nico, it was the same thing of like, well, they let Blanco get away because they don't want to pay for him. And then they ended up signing the best player in club history.
00:21:33
Speaker
couple of years later, it was the same deal with Raul, where people are saying, no, they don't want to spend any money. They're going to sign a free agent from somewhere, and then they pay the biggest transfer fee they've ever paid. I think that it's fine to be frustrated with the speed at which the club does some things, although I think their track record gives them some of the benefit of the doubt there.
00:21:57
Speaker
But I don't think that the answer is always, well, they just don't have the money or they don't want to spend the money. I just, I don't think there's any evidence to support that. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Watson's counter wants to thank everyone for their patience, but now the wait is over.
00:22:17
Speaker
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00:22:47
Speaker
This is from Edward Y. Says, it seems that new who has been victimized recently, would a formation shift to a three five two and set up like a back three? Yemar Regan, Ariaga, midfield five of Roll Dawn, Jal Paulo, Atencio, Rusnak, Reed Baker Whiting with Chiu and Morris's forwards. Does that make sense?
00:23:10
Speaker
So I guess he's talking about benching New Who in this scenario. I'm not opposed to the idea, which I feel like I have a long enough track record as a New Who defender to
00:23:22
Speaker
You know, to feel okay saying that and feel like it's not reactionary. He's been rough. He's been pretty rough. I think since he came back from, um, from having malaria. And I don't know if that's why he's been rough or what. I mean, I don't, I don't want to speculate, but he's not been a good player as long as the Sounders have been playing poorly. And I would say, and I would say the Atlanta game was about as bad as we've seen him. And it wasn't just that he got beat on both goals.
00:23:50
Speaker
It like there was multiple examples of him like diving in and just making really sort of a new who ask. Yeah, mistakes news whole thing is has always been his values and how good of a of a marking and and you know taking other players out of games are.
00:24:10
Speaker
And it certainly didn't happen in that game. And that's a tough assignment. And I don't, I don't think new who's like, I think he could use a couple games off and I think the sounders could use a pretty dramatic change if for no other reason than to sort of wake people up and get people engaged in the way that, you know, they're playing again. So, so I, you know, maybe I don't, I don't know if this exact formation is what I would pick, but
00:24:40
Speaker
I mean, I will give this person credit for coming up with an interesting way of assembling this. And I do think it would be, I'd be intrigued to see how Reed would look as a left wing back. I don't know if Chu and Morris make sense as a forward combo to me, in part because I just don't think
00:25:04
Speaker
I don't, I just don't think that's true. Like I don't, I don't think that that really works, but, uh, I don't think this is the, like, I actually am intrigued by the idea of a Yemar Reagan, Ariaga sort of, uh, trio with, you know, rolled on with the actual wing backs and no, it's an interesting look.
00:25:23
Speaker
I also I would say that you could even though I think the impetus for doing this would be getting new who off the field You could play new who as a nominal left back who stays at home almost entirely And you could put rolled on at the right center back Position and just have a really unbalanced thing where two is basically playing as a left as a left winger Even though he's nominally a forward see something like that. Yeah
00:25:51
Speaker
Uh, the next one is from dudes be who got an answer in the discord, but maybe some other folks would like the answer. Did we gain some new owners? If true, what is the story behind that? Yeah. So, uh, three new owners joined the club last week, I guess, uh, two of them are locals.
Introduction of New Seattle Sounders Owners
00:26:10
Speaker
Uh, Adam Cilipski, who is apparently the CEO of Amazon web services. Yeah. He used to be the CEO of Tableau. Uh,
00:26:20
Speaker
very rich person. And then Rick Cantu, who is like, like, this is the kind of owner I think we want in the in the club. He's, he's like a very much a local, he went to SPU, he played soccer at SPU. But he's him and his brother, I guess started redapt, which is like a
00:26:39
Speaker
like a software company, I think, is that right? I don't know. I think they're a team consulting company. There you go, whatever. He has a lot of money. And then Jay Stein is a little bit more of like a serial investor type. He also has a minority share in Leeds, in the Colorado Rapids, or no, Colorado Rockies, not the Rapids, the baseball team. But he's like a real estate,
00:27:06
Speaker
investor type, but all these shares came out of Adrian Hanauer's majority share. So presumably that's actually injecting some potential capital into the club. I think one of the things that people didn't entirely appreciate when Joe Roth sold his shares is that that wasn't really injecting capital into the club. That was just enriching Joe Roth.
00:27:30
Speaker
To the degree that those people were interested in spending money, I suppose that's true, and there was new ideas and new energy or whatever.
00:27:40
Speaker
It wasn't necessarily like there was all this new money that they could spend. In this case, it's a little bit more, there's new money that they can potentially spend. All three of these guys apparently have expertise that the owners that they think can help. Jay Stein, obviously the real estate stuff, the sounders are doing all those things with long anchors.
00:28:02
Speaker
You can kind of extrapolate the others there, but yeah, it's I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I can't tell you that what's going to come of it, but that's that's what happened. All right, so. Let's see.
00:28:22
Speaker
Kind of good. There was actual conversation going on here. So we got to kind of go down here. All right. So this is from a fat monk, full head. He says the sounder spent low eight figures on acquiring or on a commitment to roll re ideas a few years ago. Uh, it was, and it was something in the 10 to $13 million range. Uh, what do you think our realistic limit is for a single transfer this off season? And, and what do you think our total transfer spend will be? This would include buying out really ideas if they decided to do so.
00:28:54
Speaker
It's a tough question. I have no idea what the sounder's situation is financially in terms of cash on hand or what they're willing to commit because obviously transfer fees are amortized.
00:29:14
Speaker
I can see a scenario, it's not inconceivable to me where they're spending like 16, $18 million on a single player, but I think in just a transfer fee, but I think if they're doing that,
00:29:27
Speaker
One of their other big signings is a free agent. I think 20-ish million has got to be the limit to how much they would spend on transfer fees in this window. And I think that that's almost certainly... I would be shocked if they spent more than that. I think it's probably going to be closer to like, I don't know, 12 to 15 million. That's just in transfer fees. That's not...
00:29:52
Speaker
contracts and I wish that I know this is tilting at one mils, but I wish we talked about total outlay because I think that's a much better metric to use. Because if you're spending $8 million on a player, but their salary is $200,000 because you're paying for their potential. It's a very different investment. It's a very different investment. Anyway. Yeah.
00:30:22
Speaker
I don't know what the budget is. I think 12 to 15 is probably on the higher end, especially if we're just talking about this window.
00:30:34
Speaker
I would say the reason to be bullish on believing they'll spend a lot though is, you know, they haven't spent any money, like literally any money on an actual cash and transfer fees in the last four transfer windows. So that's two full seasons worth of transfer windows that they've not spent any money. Prior to that, they had been pretty consistently spending in the three to $5 million range every year. And so, you know, right there you figure that's 10 million potentially
00:31:04
Speaker
On top of whatever they were. Theoretically budgeting for twenty twenty four and and i mean you can get to twenty million using or i guess i would be fifteen million. Just using like the basic math of saying like how much they should have in the budget no i don't know.
00:31:24
Speaker
how accurate that is, but, you know, in 2016 they spent, you know, they, they committed like $10 million to Nico 2018. They committed $10 million to row read is then they, they, uh, in 2019, 2020, they got, they brought in gel Paulo on a transfer. They brought in game or on a transfer. They bought an Ariaga on a transfer, uh,
00:31:48
Speaker
Then they bought Leo Chiu in 2021. For a while, they're spending a lot on transfer fees. They've just not been doing that recently as the roster stabilized. I guess you could argue that the reason they spent all that money was in order to with this in mind. They haven't had any out really. I think that's one of the big elements.
00:32:13
Speaker
for this to really be all sustainable, they need to have some outgoing transfer fees, or they need to have money coming in from transfer fees as well. And that's a separate issue, I suppose, from this question. But yeah, I mean, I would think in the 10 to $15 million range is a realistic hope. Yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it'll be, it'll be interesting, um, to see what their strategy is. I mean, we know what Garth's strategy was for players. We don't know what Craig Weible's strategy is. Um, that's true. So yeah, it'll be interesting. Um, all right. Next one. This is a fun one, uh, from Ben W zero zero zero zero one. If you were building a team from scratch next year, one of the thoughts, experiments, Craig Weible mentioned, which current starters would you 100% one on that team?
00:33:03
Speaker
You know, the easy answer, I think, is Christian Roldan.
00:33:08
Speaker
but that's also, you know, the reality is, you know, we don't know how well he's going to come back. You know, we just don't, uh, hopefully he does. I would think all things being equal. He's probably number one on the list. And then after him, I mean, I guess Jackson Reagan in part because he's so cheap and, and relatively young, um,
00:33:37
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think everyone else, there's just there's, you know, there's room for questions. Yeah, I like I would. It would take a lot for me to say I don't want Jordan Morris to come back or Apollo or. But if I had to build around one guy. Maybe Leo, too. Yeah.
00:34:01
Speaker
Well, but I think it's well, I guess that's not what he's saying. He's saying, what would you like to have starting now? Who do you who would you say I want someone to? Yeah, I mean, yeah, good point. I guess I misconstrued the question. Yeah, I would pull those. I think I guess why I hedge a little bit is that if the price is right, like if you can make a trade.
00:34:25
Speaker
if you can get a million and a half in allocation money for Leo too, I think I'd do that. Jordan Morris a little harder. I'm inclined to want to bring him back almost no matter what, just because I don't know you're going to get the value you want from him. Yamar, I want to bring Yamar back for sure. I would say I'm like 80% on Yamar. He's a very good player. He and Reagan have a good partnership.
00:34:55
Speaker
But he has value. He's getting older. Yeah, that's a fair, if the rate offer comes. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's none of the designated players. Um, you know, like I, I, I would be happy if, if first snack was back, but not as a designated player. Absolutely not. Um, and I mean, I wouldn't be unhappy if he wasn't back, I guess, but I think the thing that that's, that I always have to remind myself of is that.
00:35:25
Speaker
Continuity and familiarity is a big part of a team having success.
00:35:32
Speaker
can be satisfying to thinking, you know, just being like, let's just get rid of everybody that has pissed us off at any point in time this year. Um, and I've certainly done that, you know, had that, but I guess to take this question at, at face value, I don't think that's what he's suggesting. I think he's just saying like, if you're starting a team from scratch, which players are you building around? Yeah. Right.
00:35:56
Speaker
And so I think there's a case to be made that most of these, there's a lot of these players who they aren't, I guess maybe the overarching case or to the point it makes to me is like, there aren't a lot of players on this team who are in expendable. Now I think there's a lot of useful parts and I think a lot of these guys are going to be back.
00:36:17
Speaker
And they should be back. But if you're asking me like gun to your head, like you make it like who are you just, who do you can't imagine, uh, trading. And I would say Christian Roldan is probably the closest person just because he ticks so many boxes. Yeah. He and Reagan are the only ones where if I were starting a team completely from scratch, I would, I would probably want them on that team. Um, yeah.
00:36:43
Speaker
All right. So, uh, this is the last question. This is from Jared. He says, I'm in no way advocating for his exit, but if Schmetz should get should get sacked, what does that managing shortlist look like?
Potential Successors to Brian Schmetzer
00:36:56
Speaker
Precky seems like a natural choice. Pat Noonan seems like an interesting choice. I'll just add, I would not have thought of Pat Noonan, but all of a sudden hearing that intrigues me. Yeah. Um.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, for whatever reason, I'm not sold on Pat Newton and I shouldn't be skeptical considering how good Cincinnati has been, but I'm just not. And I also, I mean, the Sounders could probably pay more. It's certainly a higher profile job, but
00:37:33
Speaker
I would, I mean, if you're him, would you leave Cincinnati? It's a fair question. I mean, it's a fair question. And it's not like he has real strong ties to the Sounders. He played here one season and it was mainly because he had a relationship with Siggy. Yeah. There's not anybody in MLS that
00:37:53
Speaker
necessarily comes to mind. I think Newton's as good of a shout as you're going to get an MLS. Precky, I mean, I don't think Precky is I'll just say I don't think Precky is the obvious choice off the current. There's not anybody on the current staff that if they became head coach, I would be
00:38:14
Speaker
I think, I mean, Juarez was probably like, if Schmetz gets fired this year, Juarez is probably the interim, right? But I'm not sure that I would be thrilled with that as a permanent hire. I don't think I am skeptical that Gonzo was the right guy, even though I love him and I wish that he would be, but Atlanta has not been very good under his watch. So yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's lots of coaches out there.
00:38:44
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, I mean, I, I tend to think you have to assume it's someone with sounders ties. Um, I think Andy Rose is of the coaches on the staff. Andy Rose is the one who I think is most likely to be a head coach again. He's also like 32. So I'm a little skeptical that he's going to be the sounders coach, uh, immediately. Um, who else is out there? There's not, I mean,
00:39:15
Speaker
I don't think this is a situation like I don't want to create a situation where I'm like, Oh, you can't fire Schmetzer because there's no one else out there. I mean, at some point, the results are the results and you and I'm like, so for the sake of this exercise, like, yeah, I like the idea. I will say this. I like the idea of going after a Pat Noonan just because I feel like there's a chance you can sort of like
00:39:38
Speaker
remind everyone we're the Seattle frequent sounders. And if we want your guy, we're going to do everything we can to get him. That would be kind of nice. Piss off the other half of Ohio.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah, right, exactly. A lot of people might not know the original reason Columbus hated the Sounders was because they basically recruited Siggy right out from under Columbus. But anyway, it's an interesting thought. I do think that whoever succeeds Schmetzer and whenever that happens,
00:40:17
Speaker
They're going to try to, it's going to be more of a continuity than it is a starting fresh type situation. I just don't think the sounders, at least right now, they don't have a starting fret. It's so ingrained in their DNA that
00:40:34
Speaker
there's like a sense of continuity throughout everything that I would be jarring to see like a foreign coach come in with all new coaches, uh, all new assistants and all new relationships and just sort of like starting over. And I would think that that almost the only way that happens is if like Adrian isn't the owner, which I suppose is also possible, but I mean, it's hard to argue with what they've done so far, but I think if they go with continuity and it doesn't work and they make a bad hire,
00:41:04
Speaker
Maybe they are less inclined to have the next hire be. Sure. Right. Right. That's, I guess that's right. I think you're right. Yes. That's, I guess that's sort of the point I'm making, but, um, all right. Well, that's, that's the show. That was a long episode. That's like a whole, that was like a whole episode. Um, but, uh,
00:41:27
Speaker
That was a lot of fun. I like taking these Discord questions. And I think we're going to do this for at least a little while, see how it goes. And I'll just give another plug. To become a Discord, get access to the Discord server. You need to be a sound or hard subscriber at the supporter level or above. So as much as we appreciate the tier we're calling backers, the value add to
00:41:55
Speaker
increasing your sponsorship or your membership is basically getting into the discord and there's some other perks as well.
00:42:04
Speaker
really want to shout out everyone who's been, I've been absolutely blown away at how many people have signed up to support Sound at Heart, support us, to support Right Out of the Valkyries. It's been a really fun thing to see. And I'm really, I am really genuinely excited about the future of this entire endeavor. And thank you for doing it with us. You guys, you listeners are a huge reason why this is working. So thank you.
00:42:35
Speaker
Uh, and with that said, uh, I'll sign off, uh, thanking also our sponsors, full pool wines and Watson's counter. I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Aaron and Lickett. This is no Saudi at this and you will never let God alone.
00:43:48
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!