Rapids Sell Mihailović, Punt 2025 (and 2026?).

I don't know.  This might be it for me.  I'm not sure its worth it anymore.

Tonight was going to be a quick recap of the Tijuana loss last night.  I even said on socials yesterday that:

Tonight's game showed what we all know.  This team has questionable depth at best and unless all the starters are clicking they are completely reliant on Mihalovic to do anything in the attack.  This team suffers not due to coaching but due to stunningly terrible roster construction.

The reason Djordje missed the game was reported as 'personal reasons' and today we found out what those reasons were.  He asked out and the Rapids are selling him to Toronto for $8 million in cash, plus another million in possible peformance add-ons, and keeping a sell-on percentage.  This has been confirmed by multiple local and national outlets, but Bogert had it first.

Further information from Burgundy Wave suggests that Djordje was unhappy with the team ambition and wanted a bigger contract.  Right off the bat the CBA calls for players to get 10% of any sale price fir intra-league sales so he's going to make $800K on the sale and reports are that he is already in talks with Toronto for a contract extension.  Toronto reportedly made two offers the team turned down before Djordje went to the Front Office and asked them to accept an offer.  They tried multiple times to talk him out of it but his decision was made.

I spent most of the day seething over this.  I am a bit mad at Mihailovic for forcing this midseason but most of my anger is reserved for the Front Office who once again has fumbled the ball and in a bigger way than perhaps ever before.  DM is, arguably, the best on-field signing this club has ever made.  Certainly as a straight signing (Balboa was a MLS league start signing and Pablo came out of the expansion draft, Valderrama was a trade) and we just let him go for the same price we got for Bombito last year.  A kid that got 25 pro starts before being sold and who's only 17 months younger than Djordje.

But the amount really doesn't matter.  What the problem is is once again the Front Office has overpromised, underdelivered, and refuses to substantially make any changes to how they're running the team.  They're happy to be MLS's junk drawer where the excess players that nobody wants but are too valuable to just cut goes, and then when there becomes a need for that player the league (or others) opens the drawer and pulls it out to use and the Rapids are left holding the bag.

This is now Awaziem and Mihailovic that have asked out in the last month, and there's a rumor that Fernandez was disgruntled earlier this season which may have led to the trade to Portland.  Clearly something is rotten in Commerce City.

Let me put it plainly:

Padraig Smith and Fran Taylor need to make a public statement this week about what's going on and what the plan is.  And not one couched in marketing speak but a genuine "yeah, this isn't great, we screwed up, but here's what we're doing" explanation.

The Rapids have 9 games left this season (plus playing out the string with Cruz Azul on Thursday).  Without our main offensive engine I think its safe to say we can write off the two Minnesota games and the LAFC game.  And given how things usually go in Sandy we can kiss that game and the RMC goodbye.  That leaves 5 games against Atlanta, Galaxy, SKC, Houston, and Dallas.  We likely need 12-13 points in those games just to make the playoffs.  I don't see how we get there unless Smith pulls a rabbit out of his hat the likes of which we've never seen in this window.

So that puts us into 2026.  Between the Bombito, Awaziem, and Mihailovic sales, and subtracting out the money we used to get Awazioem and Atencio, plus a bit for Cinci's take on the Awaziem deal, we're looking at a kitty of something around $14M-$14.5M the club should have to rebuild (again).  Oh and they have to decide if they're brining Armas back (and he has to decide if he wants to come back).

With that money they need, at minimum, two MLS caliber starting center backs (since Maxso is almost certainly gone), a better left back, an offensive engine, probably a winger upgrade, and a whiole lot fo depth.  Braidon Nourse at the Post is already hearing that the plan is to spend the Djordje money on 3-4 different players.  Breaking $7.2M down three to four ways means we're looking at spending less than $2M a player on average, which sure looks like Smith's failed "buy kids with "potential" and hope they come good" strategy as opposed to buying a couple of guys that can help us win now.

At this point, why should any of us bother being fans?  Its clear winning is not important to this organization.  They want to develop players, make some money, and repeat.  If they get lucky every 3-4 seasons and make a decent Cup or playoff run, that's gravy.  But they're never really going to compete in this league despite what Smith and his "Rapids Way" might claim.

I don't know.  I might be done.  Certainly there will be no Cruz Azul coverage, we'll see if I have anything for Minnesota on Sunday, or the rest of the season.