Use this thread for any Buy/Sell/Giveaway Ticket/Merch requests. Off season thread posted first Tuesday in the Month.

Have questions that you have always wondered about MLS, Atlanta United, TAM, Chartered Flights? Use this thread to ask those questions. No stupid questions exist.

What color and template should we use for the 2025 home kit?

Spotted David Moyes at a restaurant in Midtown today. With all the talk about Atlanta United’s coaching search, could he be interviewing for the job? Anyone else heard anything?

Orlando is still our main rival. As much as I dislike both teams my gut and my heart want Orlandfill to lose, so they are more our antagonist than the New Jersey Energy Drinks

Even though I hate RedBull in F1 (I’m a AMG guy), that’s not enough for me to hate NY more than I hate the dumpster fire in central Florida.

Thiago played 80 minutes, but no goal contributions.

So now that end of season decisions have been made, we can have a conversation about our expansion protected list. As a reminder, we can protect 12 players, and homegrowns are ineligible to be selected. We really shouldn't lose anyone that we don't want off of our books.

Easy No: Hernandez, Thiare, Abram, and Ibarra. The first two had options declined, the last two are just wildly overpaid and if they did get picked it would do us a favor.

Completely obvious to protect (8); Amadaor, Gregerson, Guzan, Saba, Miranchuk, Slisz, Sosa, and Williams. Sosa we picked up the option of, and it seems like we need to keep him in order to sell him this offseason for around $4M. It would be shocking if any of these aren't protected.

That gives us 4 spots left.

Lennon I think we protect. He is on $740K and coming off of injury. I don't love his playstyle and how many blind crosses he hits, but I think we want to have him for another season with a team option after that for a player still in his prime.

Mosquera we invested in, and he is at least an agent of chaos. I don't love his game but he could be someone a team might select. He only counts $200K against the cap so it doesn't matter that he is overpaid.

2 spots left.

Rios I would protect. he was on loan but his MLS rights could still be taken. 7 goals and 4 assists is exceptional value when he made only $125K. Depth is incredibly important in MLS, and he fills a role for cheap. He has 19 goals and 7 assists in his MLS career, don't let him go for free. He has a green card, and doesn't take up an international slot.

That leaves 1 spot left. Silva ($600K + int slot), Muyumba ($566K + int slot), and Cohen ($300K)

I don't think that either Silva or Muyumba would be at any risk of being selected given their price and taking up an international slot. They just didn't show enough this season, and if they did get picked I don't think anyone would particularly care. So while Cohen didn't show us much this season, he probably would be most at risk of being selected. In expansion drafts, there often is a keeper selected. I'd personally go with Cohen since I think he would be more at risk of getting picked, but also I wouldn't argue against Muyumba and I go back and forth on it. I would like to see Muyumba under a different coach.

Any other opinions?

Just out of curiosity…If allocation money allowed, would you prefer to have 2 TAM level strikers or 1 DP striker. 2 similarly-talented Strikers would provide more consistency and durability for the position at the cost of a higher ceiling. A DP striker obviously has the potential to be much more talented, but comes with the risk of talent drop-off if injured, on INTL duty, etc.

View Poll

Hey guys, I’m from South Alabama and have been a soccer fan for as long as I can remember (lifelong Man U fan) but I’ve gotten an interest in the growth of the MLS. My girlfriend is from Atlanta and is getting into soccer through me and is interested in getting a team stateside. Is it I guess kosher to support a European team, because as I said I’ve been a Man U for a long time, and be an Atlanta United fan?

Edit: Thanks for the support guys and I appreciate the non gate keeping that plagues clubs in Europe. This has confirmed this is the stateside club I want to follow!

I thought he was getting sold but now they are negotiating with him? These roster rules are weird just sell him open up that spot and give blank more money

Why would Garth and company not give Valentino an honest season or two given the results as a fill in for the remainder of this season? I’m asking genuinely. Why not? Is there something I’m missing? I’m admittedly new to the inner workings of the sport and have been a casual viewer prior to this season. But it just seems to me that there’s chemistry at work that can’t necessarily be replicated with any degree of ease. The players and staff have seemed to respond favorably with Valentino since taking the helm. I’m just saying. What could it hurt? I don’t see any other coach at the helm that could justify the season ticket increase that’s in store for the upcoming season.

EDIT @914pm: Great responses. Some less snarky than others, as to be expected. Personally, I’m still new to the inner workings of overall club management and trying to separate my line of thinking from my usual casual fan and really trying to get a grip on the bigger picture. All responses are indeed appreciated and look forward to any further that add more insight to the conversation.

https://www.atlutd.com/news/atlanta-united-announces-year-end-roster-moves-ahead-of-2025-mls-season

For some reason, I cannot add this post to the existing thread on upcoming dates. It just won't post for some reason. So, I'll try to start a new one.

We've got 2 open DP slots, 2 open U22 slots, and we should have some TAM money to spend thanks to various contracts that we have or will eliminate. So, there should be a ton of new faces for 2025 including several new starters. If we aren't the clear "winners" of the upcoming off-season, something has gone wrong.

That said, here's how I believe our roster breaks-down for next year. Players on guaranteed contracts could be sold or traded, as we saw with GG, Almada, Wiley, Etienne, etc., someone could just choose to retire as we experienced with Dax McCarty, or someone could be bought-out. Meanwhile, not all of the options will get picked-up. But here's where things currently stand for next year as we await the year-end roster decisions that drop tomorrow.

Under guaranteed contract for 2025 or beyond:

• Aleksey Miranchuk
• Saba Lobjanidze
• Stian Gregersen
• Bartosz Sliz
• Brooks Lennon
• Derek Williams
• Luis Abram
• Tristan Muyumba
• Xande Silva
• Edwin Mosquera
• Noah Cobb
• Luke Brennan
• Josh Cohen
• Adyn Torres

Options for 2025 or beyond:

• Brad Guzan
• Jamal Thiare (sounds like we've opted not to pick this up)
• Jay Fortune
• Ronald Hernandez
• Tyler Wolff
• Nick Firmino
• Efrain Morales
• Eric Centeno
• Franco Ibarra (yep, he's still out there, although I'd be surprised if we brought him back)

On loan:

• Daniel Rios: I think we have a buy option

Out of contract:

• Quentin Westberg (apparently retiring)
• Santiago Sosa

I’m seeing posts lamenting Thiare leaving the club, and I want to ask everyone to think critically for a minute. I appreciate the playoff run and the way that Thiare and others stepped up, but let’s take a step back and think about the season. This team was a complete disaster all season, with Pineda and with Valentino. 10-14-10, and they needed help from 3 other teams to even make the playoffs. Couldn’t make a run in either cup they played in. They pulled off a win against Miami absorbing pressure and countering and couldn’t get a shot on goal to save their life against Orlando.
I’m not trying to hate on anyone, I’ve been a loyal fan since 2017, but this team can’t compete with the best in MLS and that is what Garth was hired to do. I expect him to clean house this winter. If there are more than 15 players returning next season we can expect disappointment again. I expect a bunch of “Thank you” posts in the next weeks and I wish those players and Valentino the best. I will always appreciate what they did to Miami, but the club has to move on.

This seems like one of the most active years for coaching changes that I can recall. 11 out of 29 teams are changing coaches...

• Nashville SC: Fired Gary Smith and hired BJ Callahan (interim coach with the USMNT)
• Atlanta United: Fired Gonzalo Pineda, appointed Rob Valentino as interim coach, have yet to name a permanent coach
• FC Dallas: Fired Nico Estevez but haven't yet named a new coach
• San Jose Earthquakes: Fired Luchi Gonzales and hired Bruce Arena
• St Louis City: Fired Bradley Carnell and haven't yet named a new coach but are reportedly finalizing a deal with Olof Mellburg who has been coaching in Sweden
• Austin FC: Fired Josh Wolff and hired Nico Estevez who was fired from FC Dallas
• Chicago Fire: Fired Frank Klopas and hired Gregg Berhalter
• Philadelphia Union: Fired Jim Curtin and have yet to name a new coach
• Inter Miami: Tata Martino left for "personal reasons" and Argentina U23 coach and former Barca teammate of Messi and friends, Javier Macherano, is expected to be named their next coach
• Vancouver Whitecaps: Fired Vanni Sartini yesterday and have yet to name a new coach
• NYCFC: Fired Nick Cushing today and have yet to name a new coach

So, if Garth Lagerwey still wants to hire a "proven" coach with MLS experience, guys like Jim Curtin, Gio Savarese, and Bob Bradley are available, along with Tata Martino if he's open to staying in MLS rather than returning home to Argentina as rumored. Plus, there could be a coach at another club that is now willing to change clubs as Greg Vanney did when he left Toronto for the LA Galaxy. But I don't think any of the other fired coaches fit the "proven" description.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that none of the 11 teams that parted ways with their coaches promoted from within, at least not so far. If Rob Valentino is named our permanent manager, he'll be the first interim coach in this cycle to get the permanent job. Likewise, none of these teams hired an assistant from another MLS club as we did with Pineda 4 years ago. Nashville hired a USMNT assistant, but he had been an assistant for 20 years and served as the interim coach for the USMNT.

Personally, regardless of what other fans say about it, I think San Jose and Chicago have the best hires so far with Arena and Berhalter, and whoever ends up with Jim Curtin will be successful too. There's no substitute for someone with a clear track record of success in our league. Look at the turnaround Greg Vanney has engineered with the LA Galaxy for example. Look what Bruce Arena did for New England in the short time he was there. Look what Oscar Pareja has done for Orlando. He's finally turned them into a consistent winner. Heck, even MLS coaches with mediocre prior records like Ben Olsen and Chris Armas have done reasonably well with their new clubs.

That said, I'd rather stick with Rob Valentino than to hire another high profile international coach. He may still have the interim tag, but he's been around MLS for 5 years now, plus a few years in USL, he took over the head coaching duties twice and out-performed the coach he replaced both times, he's now coached a total of 34 games as interim MLS coach across all competitions, he's proven he can win playoff games and road games, he already knows our club and league, and the players seem to respond to him. In fact, in games where he's had at least 1 DP, his ppg is 1.72 overall and 1.70 this year specifically, which would have been good for top 4 in the East, and that's with just 1 DP and 1 U22. For all those reasons, you could argue he's "proven" at the MLS level.

What say you?

Use this thread for any Buy/Sell/Giveaway Ticket/Merch requests. Off season thread posted first Tuesday in the Month.

Vanni Sartini has been let go. Considering Viera went to Genoa, curtin most likely not comming to Atlanta, who else we got?

Many people praised curtin for what he did with limited resources but I think Vanni did more with even less.

https://x.com/mls/status/1861119575435214865?s=46&t=9LW-aKDEFFS-uiEoMzo8Sw

I’m already looking for offseason news. Thankfully, a lot of the offseason windows/deadlines will come up pretty fast. So we won’t have to wait long for news.

Wednesday, November 27 – Club Deadline to Exercise Options and Submit Bona Fide Offers (1 p.m. ET)

This deadline is only extended if you reach the conference finals, so option year news should come quickly. Only two days away!

Monday, December 9 – Half-Day Trade window (9 a.m. ET – 1 p.m. ET)

This is only for trades within MLS.

Tuesday, December 10 – MLS Expansion Draft eligible lists announced

The protected / not protected list for the draft is announced one day before the actual expansion draft.

Wednesday, December 11 – MLS Expansion Draft

This is when San Diego chooses players.

Thursday, December 12 – Free Agency Opens (1 p.m. ET)

Finally able to sign DPs again. Only two weeks away!

Friday, December 20 – 2025 MLS SuperDraft

Atlanta hasn’t done much in the draft in years, but maybe that will change this year?

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-announces-calendar-of-2024-25-offseason-roster-building-events