Interesting to hear - especially the old Bradenton setup. From an non-US perspective it does seem like the quality coming through is better (I'm a big McKennie fan) but maybe the quantity is not as much as I'd have expected. I guess Davis at Bayern also counts as an MLS product and people are talking about him as among the best in the world potentially. What will be interesting is if we start to see more transfers between the leagues, I think that's a sign of a league getting a lot stronger, like you saw with Ligue 1 and that period when they were being raided by almost every PL team (Newcastle even became known as Le Newcastle if memory serves), that money filtered into the league and it seems a lot more robust now. I've had some American mates saying there's a good crop coming through though at Fc Dallas - heard Pepi was a decent prospect if you watch them regularly?
Out of interest, would you prefer the best players to stay or is it better for them to play in Europe and then make more people aware of US players who are at the top level?
At this time they absolutely need to leave for Europe. The ability to play with better players will raise your game. Just look at McKennie. His game is light years better than just 12 months ago since moving from Schalke to Juve. Until MLS gets to a higher level those players need to leave to develop. Beyond that, the wages paid to young players in MLS will always propel players to leave, especially when combined with the relative pittance European clubs pay for young MLS players. This is compounded even more by the lack of solidarity payments in the US, so clubs want to sell to ensure some return on their investment.
Until all the MLS clubs go all in on their academies there is going to be a consistent trickle of prospects as opposed to the flood that should be fed by a country this large. There is no reason why LA Galaxy and LAFC should not be swimming in quality youth prospects,
In terms of the national team, right now what is holding back the youth National teams is a lack of quality coaching down there. While I am slightly warming to Berhalter (now at Tepid level), the lower level coaches have not been good since Ramos left. Wolfe was a disaster as Olympic coach. This has led to a prioritization of the old tactic of "get the athletes" as opposed to finding skill players. There needs to be a full commitment at the National level of fostering a valuation of skill and IQ in addition to athleticism.
Finally, you are starting to see the transfers happen in fits and starts. Most of the big incoming transfers (non old Euro edition) are from central and south america. My "local" club, Atlanta, has the 2 largest incoming (Pity Martinez and Ezequiel Baco) AND outgoing (Almiron and Martinez again) transfers. Both of those players are from the Americas. Most of the rest of the highest incoming transfers have been from the Americas as well. When it comes to outgoing it has mostly been young players (even Almiron was only 24).
The pseudo salary cap will always make transfers hard, so I am hoping this goes away at some point.
Oh, and Pepi is gonna be good
, but keep your eye on Caden Clark at Red Bull and Gia Busio at KC.
