SEATTLE — The facts are these: The Seattle Sounders had the time, money and desire to make a U22 signing this summer and didn’t get the job done. On a basic level, that has to be seen as a failure – or at the very least, a missed opportunity. How big of a deal that is depends on how you look at it.
Talking to the press prior to Sunday’s game against Sporting KC, Sounders GM Craig Waibel effectively confirmed those basics, did his best to explain why that happened and what it means going forward.
Here’s what I took away from his answers as well as what wasn’t said:
Waibel passed his own test
I asked Waibel directly how he would assess himself after the window and whether he let the team down by not getting a deal done. I wouldn’t say he gave a fully satisfactory answer to that question, which is fair enough, but here’s the crux of what he said:
“In terms of the money we had, I mean would it be more fun to sit here with a player sitting next to me? Yeah. That would be more fun. That would look better, sound better, feel better. But do I think it’s letting the roster down, letting the team down? No, I don’t.”
In arriving at that answer, Waibel explained that they had a budget of $2.5-$4 million, did an exhaustive search, came close to signing at least a couple of different players, and ultimately decided that it was better not to sign anyone than to compromise by signing someone they weren’t as excited about. He also explained that they set a high bar, that the player they signed needed to be someone they thought could actually contribute this year, while also fitting within the constraints of the U22 rules that dictate the player can’t be paid more than roughly $750,000 a year.
Essentially, he created a test where not signing someone was ultimately a better result than signing the wrong player. In his accounting, he passed that test.
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I’ll argue that’s, at best, an incomplete test. The history of U22 signings suggests that it’s very rare for one to come in at midseason and contribute anything truly meaningful. Léo Chú, the Sounders’ only previous foreign U22 signing, only logged 153 MLS minutes in his first season and it wasn’t until Year 3 that he was particularly productive. At the time, he was considered one of the better U22 signings.
While I can’t begrudge Waibel for wanting to find a better player than Chú, using him to set the baseline is a little tough. In the entire history of the U22 Initiative there haven’t been any attacking players who made huge on-field impacts in their first seasons. Arguably the two best foreign U22 signings are Dejan Joveljic and Santiago Moreno. Both were signed in the winter and neither had more than four goal-contributions in their first seasons. Notably, though, both players broke out with massive seasons in Year 2.
My point is the U22 Initiative is set up to bring in players that will likely require a fair amount of seasoning before they’re fully ready. Just because a potential U22 signing wasn’t ready to contribute today, doesn’t mean they’re not worth signing. Even if a new U22 signing wasn’t going to contribute now, they’d presumably help raise the level of internal competition and be better prepared to make an impact next year and in years to come. Despite what Waibel said — “the biggest concern I had was adding a body that isn’t gonna contribute” — I think he knows all this.
I can’t help but feel this test was designed in a way that makes not signing someone more likely than signing someone.
