As had been heavily rumored, Colorado signed both Younes Namli and Nicolas Benezet this week. Benezet was reportedly signed to a two year deal while Namli is here on a two year loan with an option to buy. Salaries and transfer fees have not been released or leaked yet, though I expect them to be in the rumored ballpark.
Both these moves should pay dividends. Benezet has already shown he can play in MLS with his time in Toronto and should fit right in as a starting winger. Namli will be the obvious starter in the attacking midfield, and while he hasn't experienced MLS yet coming out of Europa League play is a good baseline to start from. The loan makes this a low risk, high reward move. If things don't work out its an easy separation and since the option to buy is in the loan deal if Namli hits (the more likely scenario) we already have an agreed on price.
Padraig Smith talked about more deals in the works, specifically targeting a young player in Argentina. This matches with the rumored acquisition of Brian Galvan, which seems to be hung up on negotiating his release in the winter window instead of bringing him in on a free in the summer window. Regardless I don't expect him to make a major impact early in the season so while it would be great to have him as soon as possible, not having him shouldn't be a blow to our hopes.
Kudos go out to the Front Office for making all our major signings are done before camp opens next week. Many FO's in the past seemed to scramble and just start their offseason work when camp opened, not finish it by then. We're currently at 25 of 30 players, one extra international, and plenty of time to fill in around the edges. Its nice to be this comfortable entering the preseason.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Monday, January 13, 2020
Rapids Pass On Rest Of Superdraft
The Rapids passed with all three of their picks in rounds 3 and 4 of the Superdraft today. Not a shock, more than half the teams passed on at least one pick. There's just not value any more this low in the draft. MLS should reduce it to two rounds for now and eventually phase it out in favor of another allocation list style ranking when the league gets to 30 or so teams.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Rapids Have Apparently Signed Winger Nicolas Benezet
There have been multiple reports today that the Rapids have signed 29 year old (next month) winger/attacking midfielder Nicolas Benezet. The reports include Benezet himself retweeting the reports, so that's about as close to confirmation as you can get before its official.
Nicolas Benezet plays for EA Guingamp in France's Ligue 2 but spent the last 6 months on loan to Toronto, where he scored a number of critical goals in their MLS Cup campaign. He was hopeful of moving full-time to TFC but the automatic buy clause in his loan was triggered after 6 regular season starts, and after his 5th start he came off the bench for the last 3 games of the season before starting all of TFC's playoff games. Draw your own conclusions.
The rumored cost for Benezet is $500K to EA Guingamp and Benezet is expected to make around $600K. This will make him a TAM player, not a DP. We will also be sending $50K of GAM to Toronto to his rights, plus up to another $50K of GAM if he hits certain incentives.
This is a really solid deal for the Rapids, who apparently beat out Vancouver, Cincinnati, and Fake Salt Lake for his signature. I expect on opening day that our starting wingers will now be Benezet and Lewis with Nicholson and Shinyashiki as subs (and maybe Galvan if that rumor is accurate). This will generate a high amount of competition in training camp and week to week in training between those four players for starting roles and minutes, which will help the young players.
I expect this puts an end to our chase of Ligue 2 winger Jimmy Cabot. The rumor was that we could get him on a free in the summer and Lorient didn't want to sell him, seeing him as too critical to their championship push. With four wingers already and a possible fifth in Galvan, I can't see us signing a DP winger now.
This could be a busy week for the Rapids, with talk of Namli and Galvan growing stronger and players reporting to Commerce City next Saturday for physicals before flying off to camp in California a week from tomorrow. I expect at least two of these three names to be announced by then, and possibly all three. Should they be signed I'd guess we have the vast majority of our 2020 roster set, with only a little playing around the edges left.
Nicolas Benezet plays for EA Guingamp in France's Ligue 2 but spent the last 6 months on loan to Toronto, where he scored a number of critical goals in their MLS Cup campaign. He was hopeful of moving full-time to TFC but the automatic buy clause in his loan was triggered after 6 regular season starts, and after his 5th start he came off the bench for the last 3 games of the season before starting all of TFC's playoff games. Draw your own conclusions.
The rumored cost for Benezet is $500K to EA Guingamp and Benezet is expected to make around $600K. This will make him a TAM player, not a DP. We will also be sending $50K of GAM to Toronto to his rights, plus up to another $50K of GAM if he hits certain incentives.
This is a really solid deal for the Rapids, who apparently beat out Vancouver, Cincinnati, and Fake Salt Lake for his signature. I expect on opening day that our starting wingers will now be Benezet and Lewis with Nicholson and Shinyashiki as subs (and maybe Galvan if that rumor is accurate). This will generate a high amount of competition in training camp and week to week in training between those four players for starting roles and minutes, which will help the young players.
I expect this puts an end to our chase of Ligue 2 winger Jimmy Cabot. The rumor was that we could get him on a free in the summer and Lorient didn't want to sell him, seeing him as too critical to their championship push. With four wingers already and a possible fifth in Galvan, I can't see us signing a DP winger now.
This could be a busy week for the Rapids, with talk of Namli and Galvan growing stronger and players reporting to Commerce City next Saturday for physicals before flying off to camp in California a week from tomorrow. I expect at least two of these three names to be announced by then, and possibly all three. Should they be signed I'd guess we have the vast majority of our 2020 roster set, with only a little playing around the edges left.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Superdraft Results
It didn't come as expected, but the Rapids got their man today. We said yesterday that it appeared Colorado was zeroing in on North Carolina RB/DM Jeremy Kelly, apparently Montreal knew that too. After an on-again off-again trade with Minnesota for the 9th pick Montreal kept it and selected Kelly, two picks in front of the Rapids. Padraig Smith and his team then decided there wasn't anyone else of interest at #11 and traded the pick to Gary Smith and company in Nashville for $75K of GAM.
But wait, maybe (well, probably) they knew something we didn't. They the immediately turned around and traded $75K of GAM to Montreal...for Jeremy Kelly. Somehow the Rapids essentially traded up from #11 to #9 at no cost to them. Well done by the Front Office on that one.
With the 11th pick in the 2nd round the Rapids took defender Robin Afamefuma out of Virginia.
Both Kelly and Afamefuma were born in Europe (Czech Republic and Germany respectively) but Kelly moved to the States when he was 10 and is an American citizen. I believe Afamefuma would require an international slot, which me's he's got a hill to climb to make the team. Right now I project him to sign with the Switchbacks, not the Rapids.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
MLS Superdraft and Young DP
Two big areas to cover today. First, tomorrow is the MLS Superdraft. It kind of snuck up on us with the holidays and the lack of a combine this year.
The Rapids have the 11th pick in all four rounds, as well as the 9th pick in the fourth round (from the Azira trade). I'm hearing that the Rapids are focusing on Jeremy Kelly, a DM/RB out of North Carolina with their first pick. He would be good cover for Rosenberry and allow Anderson more time to mature into the role as well as providing extra flexibility in the midfield if needed.
The rest of the picks are unlikely to amount to anything given the track history of recent drafts. There certainly could be a diamond in the rough out there but the odds are against it. Likely we'll find some good players to stock the Switchbacks with and maybe in a couple of years we'll look back and see we found a solid MLS player.
On the Young Designated Player front, we seem to have our player, if reports out of Argentina are accurate. We have apparently signed Brian Galvan from Athletico Colon, a 19 year old midfielder. The situation seems to be that Galvan is out of contract in June. Players are allowed to sign future contracts once they're within 6 months of the end of their current contract. Colon seems to have lost track of Galvan's contract status and allowed him to get into that 6 month window without locking him down for the future. The Rapids apparently swooped in and got him signed before Colon realized their mistake.
Needless to say their fans are not pleased. There is currently negotiations going on between the Rapids and Colon to buy him now and get him here in preseason instead of waiting for the summer transfer window. It would be great to get him in now but that has to be balanced against how much its worth paying to get a young DP for the first half of the season when you know he;s showing up in July.
Galvan has only made 8 appearances for Colon in his career so far. He suffered a knee injury 9 months or so ago that's kept him out but he's made 4 appearances in the last month and a half or so, according to Transfermarkt. I expect that this is a move like Barco was for Atlanta, not expected to be an immediate impact but a long-term move. Either he becomes a star for the Rapids or he becomes an asset we can sell on for more money than we paid for him.
The Rapids have the 11th pick in all four rounds, as well as the 9th pick in the fourth round (from the Azira trade). I'm hearing that the Rapids are focusing on Jeremy Kelly, a DM/RB out of North Carolina with their first pick. He would be good cover for Rosenberry and allow Anderson more time to mature into the role as well as providing extra flexibility in the midfield if needed.
The rest of the picks are unlikely to amount to anything given the track history of recent drafts. There certainly could be a diamond in the rough out there but the odds are against it. Likely we'll find some good players to stock the Switchbacks with and maybe in a couple of years we'll look back and see we found a solid MLS player.
On the Young Designated Player front, we seem to have our player, if reports out of Argentina are accurate. We have apparently signed Brian Galvan from Athletico Colon, a 19 year old midfielder. The situation seems to be that Galvan is out of contract in June. Players are allowed to sign future contracts once they're within 6 months of the end of their current contract. Colon seems to have lost track of Galvan's contract status and allowed him to get into that 6 month window without locking him down for the future. The Rapids apparently swooped in and got him signed before Colon realized their mistake.
Needless to say their fans are not pleased. There is currently negotiations going on between the Rapids and Colon to buy him now and get him here in preseason instead of waiting for the summer transfer window. It would be great to get him in now but that has to be balanced against how much its worth paying to get a young DP for the first half of the season when you know he;s showing up in July.
Galvan has only made 8 appearances for Colon in his career so far. He suffered a knee injury 9 months or so ago that's kept him out but he's made 4 appearances in the last month and a half or so, according to Transfermarkt. I expect that this is a move like Barco was for Atlanta, not expected to be an immediate impact but a long-term move. Either he becomes a star for the Rapids or he becomes an asset we can sell on for more money than we paid for him.
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