Be the GM: What do you do? (Part 1)

Seriously, Micheal D, Papa Bear, myself and others wrote a book on the other thread. Should we cut and paste said novels?

BTW- I am the Dynamo GM and Manager on Championship Manager. Sometimes the MLS system is hard to navigate, much less understand (BTW- I manage Houston, Stavanger Vikings where I went to High School, and Sheffield Wednesday just because they play in such a low division yet have a stadium with a large capacity- great for those future promotions…)

In my fantasy league Landin was good (HA!), but I could never get him to stay after the loan. Weaver is a monster. Signed Doni and he did well for a yr but was too slow (I like faster, younger players).

Trade Boswell and Freeman for foreign slots, moola, draft picks or youth backups with potential. If not, @ least veteran backups with substanitlally lower salaries.

Begin looking for a CAM and proven productive goal scorer.

If a new winger is found, someone (Clark or Cruz) has to go. Probably Clark given Cruz’s age as he’s young. Once Cruz gets a bit wiser/productive in the final third, he’s definitely a starter.

Make a decision on Moffat- starter or bench? If starter, Cameron goes to CB. If not, I’m looking for a DM starter, as I want Cameron to be the CB we hoped Boswell and his 250k was to be- someone to build around.

Freeman starts or goes. I’d commit to rebuilding so he goes.

One of my philosophies- to borrow from Frank Zappa- speed kills. But unlike drugs, speed can kill the other team. I’d begin to accumulate young race horses with lots of stamina. No more exclusively jolly green lumberjacks in the front line. I’d play a faster transition game with a lot of pressing. Formation would depend on players- no more marriage to a formation a la Aron Winter with players who are not even adequate for said formation. In his case, Dutch Total Football becomes Total Foolsball.

As far as scouting, I’d find some really talented domestic scouts and get them a cable subscription to every South American league I could hook up to. Why SA? A spanish only South American player is more likely to fit in and be understood here than an Estonian.

I’d also look @ sending scouts to international youth tourneys held in the States. I might also think of paying scouts with an ongoing stipend supplemented by bounties for good leads.

The Dynamo have one of the best, if not the best) young, developmental GK in Pina. By no means do I want them to ever get rid of him, or to move him. But you also have Tyler Deric riding the pine game after game after game. It’s a well deserved backup role for him, because he is so unbelievably cheap. That’s all good and well, but at the end of this season, as well as Tally has played, does Tally command more salary? I think so.

So now comes the question, what do you do from there? Do you just hold both young guys on your roster and let Deric develop more or do you see your future in Hall, maybe trade Deric since he is quite valuable on the open market, and try to snag some older vet who commands about the same but won’t hold the same value in 2-3 seasons?

Ok, to start BB.com, Freeman, and Garey go on the trading block, too much salary to be sitting on the bench. I’m looking for primarily allocation dollars for them but if we someone has a striker with pace to burn I’m listening.

My back four (plus Tally) stay pretty much the same, from right to left I go Sarkodie, Hainault, Taylor, and Ashe with Cameron as my fill-in at centerback as needed for suspensions and injuries.

Cameron becomes my destroyer at holding mid though I’m also tempted to give Moffatt some playing time there and let Cameron play some right mid (since we keep hearing that rumored to be his best position). Brad Davis owns his spot at left mid with Clark and Cruz platooning on the right, I also considering letting Cruz play a bit of striker to see how well he plays off a bigger target guy like Ching or Bruin.

My attacking mid plan is to first offer Andrés D’Alessandro one billion dollars and my first born to get him in orange. If not the rumored Oscar Boniek Garcia could fit the bill, not necessarily as a DP (not positive of his salary requirements) but I might use some of those allocation dollars to make sure there’s enough cash to get him in the door. If he falls through I start talking Celso Borges out of the last few months of his Norweigan contract.

From there we need to add to the strikeforce. Ching is my undisputed number one with Bruin as his understudy but we’re missing the pace needed to play off him and keep a defense on their toes. While I doubt it will happen I’d throw mad cash at Dos Santos to see if I can get him in a Dynamo kit, if you don’t try you never know. If not I seriously start negotiating with Costly (maybe with an incentive based contract) and get my scouts looking for other South and Central American players who can make an impact on the front line. There has to be someone we can pull out of a lower tier league for good money that has the technical skill and speed to do some damage in MLS.