I don’t care for Walmart. The one near me has a weird smell and the clientele often times just finished feeding cheetos and kool aid to their 18 month old in aisle 7. I’d rather order from Amazon in the comfort of my own home…pants optional. (Wait…am I Walmart’s target demo?)
But they’re open. When you need supplies for a lab you were gonna do the next day and you just realized at 11:30pm you forgot to buy the painter’s tape and wing nuts…open is key.
How many times have you read that Team A from the Premier League needs to strengthen, but Team B from the Bundesliga/Serie A/wherever doesn’t want to sell during the winter transfer window? Answer. Often.
Enter MLS. The season has been over for a month and training camps don’t start until February/March. This is the time of the year when MLS teams can sell players and not have to lose them in the middle of the season. Southampton needs help at center back, you say? Aaron Long would love to move to England and NYRB have plenty of time to plan for a replacement. Fortuna Dusseldorf could use some help in midfield? I hear there’s a kid named Paxton Pomykal that would look good in a lower Bundesliga side.
Here’s an article that lists out team needs for winter transfer window in the Premier League.
The point being, teams are looking for players in January and there’s not many to be found. Teams in other European leagues are not thrilled about giving up their best players in the middle of the season. Go figure. But if the grocery store closed at 9pm and Walmart is still open at 10:30pm when your wife suddenly realizes she doesn’t have the ingredients for the class snack she was making to bring in tomorrow…guess where you’re going?
Burnley apparently need a right back. Reggie Cannon. Step right up. The league should position itself to sell players in January as mid-season adjustments or replacements for teams that find themselves in need of a boost.
I know there are work permit issues for players moving to England, but surely Holland, Germany, Belgium (the leagues with less stringent foreign player rules) could use some winter reinforcements too.
MLS Claims they Want to Sell
If you do a quick search of “MLS should become a selling league” you’ll find this:
If they really do want to become a “selling league” the January transfer window might be the easiest, most effective way to do so. Let the European teams know you’re open for business. When you get a reasonable offer, maybe don’t give them an FU counter? *cough* NYRB *cough* Be willing to sell a talented young guy a season before you really want to. MLS wants to be a selling league? Prove it.
Offseason Excitement
Baseball has the winter meetings. The NFL has the draft. The NBA has the trade deadline. MLS has…rumors about random players spread through 11 months of the year? Make this a thing. I’m not really an MLS fan. I watch games here and there because I love soccer and to watch possible future USMNT players, but I don’t have a team I root for or anything. A concentrated period of players flowing from MLS to Europe would get my attention.
If the league was able to sell 10 players or so to top divisions in Europe every winter I would for sure read about/listen to/etc. content about those moves. I don’t care about Atlanta or Newcastle and I still check in to see how Almiron is doing. I root for the guy because I want American soccer to do well and have an improved reputation across the world. Even if it’s not an American at the moment, it could be an American next time…
If you enjoyed this and would like to be informed of future articles type your email address in the box and you’ll be notified of each new post. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @blharreld 🤓
