Crow Eaten, FO Deserves Kudos

17 days ago when Djordje Mihailovic was sold I went off on the Front Office.  Well, my predictions for the immediate future of this team were wrong.  Its only fair I return to take my lumps and to give the Front Office the plaudits they deserve now that the window has closed (still open for 90 minutes as I write this but its clear they're done).

In this window the Rapids sold Awaziem and Mihailovic, two starters, for a smidge under $9M.  (Djordje gets 10% of any inter-league sale so the $8M they got for him is actually $800K to Djordje and $7.2M to the club).  They then turned around and dropped $8.1M+ on Paxten Aaronson to replace Mihailovic and brought in Rob Holding on a free to replace Awaziem.  On top of that they brought in CB Noah Cobb and W Alexis Manyoma on loan-to-buy deals, traded for LB Rafael Santos, and got the long-rumored CB Lucas Herrington over the line for next season (his contract starts in January).

By the standards of the Rapids that's a great summer transfer window.  Compare that to summer of 2022 when we traded Mark-Anthony Kaye to Toronto to open the window and Smith promised an active window, only for the sole move to be signing Felipe Gutierrez on a short-term loan.  Even by overall MLS standards this is a good window, especially for a team with the reputation in the league Colorado has.

Combine that with the fact that since Djordje was traded the team has won both league games and forced Cruz Azul to penalties without him (they lost to Tijuana without him, but that was the day before the sale was announced).  That includes a big win in Minnesota and has put them in a solid place for a playoff run with 4 games against teams below them in the standings followed by two tough home games sandwiched around our annual trip to Sandy.  The vibes are suddenly much better in Commerce City than they were 2.5 weeks ago.

Breaking down my initial feedback on the players:

Aaronson - Obviously the big move of the window.  A 7 million Euro/8.1 million dollar deal with 1.5 Euros of add-ons.  Smashing the transfer record for the team, doubling what they paid for Navarro when you include the loan fee.  Plus signing him to a 5-year DP contract through 2030, the 21 year old midfielder will be the cornerstone of the this team for the next few years, unless he plays well enough to go back to Europe and make the Rapids some money.  IMO Aaronson has a higher ceiling than Mihailovic did, but he's more raw and has a lower floor (at least at the moment).  We're going to need to bring him along with deliberate moves that build a team to support what he does well.  He's certainly going to turn this team even more into a high press.

Alongside what the player can do, the Front Office going out and making this move after the Mihailovic move sends a statement to the fans.  Reports tonight were that the Aaronson deal only started once Djordje was sold, he wasn't initially on the radar this window.  Never have we seen Smith and Taylor move this fast for this type of signing.  Is it a one off?  I don't know, but it was a sorely needed move to convince the fan base (including myself) it wasn't going to be the same old same old from this club.  Many national writers are suggesting this could be the dawn of a new era of the Rapids but I'm not going that far yet.

Holding - An interesting signing that you have to think the Arsenal relationship played into.  After leaving Kroenke's other club Holding went to Palace where he had an immediate falling out with the manager along with injuries.  If he can overcome those and buy into what Armas is doing we might have a PL center back for 1.5 years.  At 31 I expect this to be a one and done contract to get us over the hump to when our other new CB's are ready to take over as starters.  Holding finally has his visa and will be available in LA this weekend.

Cobb - The one new addition we've actually seen play so far, and he's looked good in the 3-back system we're using.  Atlanta fans are pretty upset that they could lose him and if he keeps playing like this I have to assume we'll exercise the option to buy.  I'm not yet ready to anoint him a 2026 starter but he looks like at worst a good 3rd CB for the team.

Manyoma - This biggest question mark of our signings.  A 22 year old (older than Aaronson!) Colombian winger that has a good pedigree coming from Estuidiantes and the Colombian U20s, but without the stats to back it up. When he looked to be our big signing with a possible DP label there was some concern, but as a U-22 and on a loan to buy option I'm willing to give it some time.  No report if his visa is in so he can be available this weekend.

Santos - A regular starter at LB for Orlando the last two years he's found himself on the bench this season as formation changes and other signings had him not as high in the pecking order.  Hopefully he's able to solidify the position in a way we haven't seen since Vines left for Europe.  At worse he can be a stalking horse for Vines or Travis to step up and lock down the position themselves.  A lot will depend on if we continue with the 3 CB/2 wingback formation or revert to the more traditional back 4 that would likely suit Santos more than Vines.

Herrington - Colorado had been linked with the Australian youth international this past offseason and were just waiting for his contract at Brisbane Roar to run down.  Reports are that Roar got a club-record fee for him, and their prior record was about $650K so assume we paid at most $1M and probably less.  At 18 he's clearly not going to be a starter next February, but i expect him to be an option off the bench while maybe playing with Rapids 2 a bit.

One roster note, Josh Atencio has been bought down from a U-22 player, which allows us to stick with 3 DPs (Navarro, Aaronson, and the currently unsigned Cabral) and 3 U-22 players (Bassett, KDP, and Manyoma).  Reports are that Cabral is expected to sign soon which would free up his DP slot, but the Rapids had to be roster compliant to sign Aaronson, so thus the need to buy down Atencio with GAM.

If I'm picky around the edges there are a couple things that weren't perfect about this window.  We still need a backup striker, the visas are taking far too long (Son got his in two days), etc.  So I might call this window an A-.  But its the strongest Rapids summer window we've seen in a long time, maybe ever.  So once again, kudos to the Front Office.  I will enjoy my crow sandwich the rest of the season.