I mean, at this point it's tradition that's driving me to start these threads more than anything else. And I figure if there's any forum that should be able to understand that, it's an Aggie forum.

What's there to say? We missed the playoffs...again. We sucked so bad that we forced a legend into retirement. We don't have a permanent coach. We do have a permanent owner who is causing a permanent problem. Hard to be optimistic about the upcoming season but...we go again!

DMB for HC.

When thanking the mayor for his kind words after his retirement, DMB said something to the effect of "it's been a great 6 years in Houston and this is only the beginning"

You may be on to something.

For some reason, I thought his goal was something more in the front office than on the sideline.

It probably is. Not sure a rookie coach is exactly what this team needs anyway.

Multiple reports that Tab Ramos will be named the new Dynamo head coach.

Holy ****

Was just coming here to post that...did NOT see that coming.

are they going to go out and actually spend some money on players now?

Dre_00 said:

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Multiple reports that Tab Ramos will be named the new Dynamo head coach.

Holy ****

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<inserts Please Sweet Baby Jesus gif>

ja86 said:

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are they going to go out and actually spend some money on players now?

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I would think/hope that he wouldn't have taken this job if that wasn't the case...fingers crossed.

It's not like we have any youth to develop sooooooo....

WHHHHHAAAAAAT?!

Hopefully now we can get our youth development off the ground... Its shocking to me that in a city the size of Houston with the talent pool available that we cant produce anything.

Shocking!

Never heard of him.

But whatever works, I'm for.

I can't believe we got him

This is as good as we could have hoped for

So the big question...is he going to have a chance to actually go out and add some talent?

And if he does, what are the big needs? Already lost one of the best left backs in the league to retirement, Boniek isn't getting any younger, and you have to figure Elis/Manotas/Quioto are gone sooner than later.

Can't do it all at once but my $0.02... you gotta overhaul the whole damn thing. For now I'd start by keeping any young guys with upside and vets with zero value. Would consider selling guys like Elis / Manotas / Quioto in order to fund a rebuild. May be tough sledding for a 1-2 seasons depending on who we can get to fill in the gaps but we weren't exactly a playoff squad this season anyway.

Matt Jordan said they had a pretty big offer for Manotas ($5-7 mil) a couple of months ago. Don't know if the interest is still there but selling him would be a good start. If you could get another $4-6 between both of Elis and Quioto then you have some bank to work with.

I would assume that Ramos is going to do his own evaluating and then start making moves. As stated by others, that all depends on whether he's given the latitude.

Would an European team make a move in January for one of those players? If they do, they likely aren't getting much playing time as they won't be match fit and they'll be coming in mid-season.

If I had to guess, the more likely scenario is that there isn't a lot of significant interest from Europe in January which means they stick around till summer and then...who knows.

Looks like the Dynamo are trading for Darwin Quintero. 600k in allocation money, 3rd round pick, and Marlon Hairston heading Minnesota's way.

Not sure what this means for existing players but it's a big move for sure.

That means we will have 3 players in the millions salary range? Perhaps it is a new dawn for ownership...

Stu Holden is here in town. Teasing some big announcement to happen tomorrow.

jeffk said:

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Stu Holden is here in town. Teasing some big announcement to happen tomorrow.

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Did anything come out of this?

Not that I could find. He was in Houston and Austin and said it was soccer-related, but I never heard anything about what it was.

Maybe he'll actually pass to his teammates there, since more of them are Latin American.

Quit passing to anyone not named Angelo Rodriguez this past season for us in MN. Skilled player though good get.

What do we get in MN in Hairston?

A squad player who played primarily on the wing for the Dynamo. He's only played a full season of games once in his career.

Dynamo trade Willis to Nashville for Zarek Valentin (who Nashville acquired in the expansion draft) and some TAM. Move makes sense given Beasley's retirement as I believe Valentin can play at either fullback position. I presume this means that Deric will be the undisputed #1 next season. No Dynamo players were taken in the expansion draft.

Apparently Holden was hanging with the Austin FC crew last week. Just drove through Houston on his way up there.

Et tu, Stu?

Can you blame him? He likes to hang out in cities that are passionate about their soccer team.

Meh, he's still a Dynamo legend. He's not switching shirts for anything other than swag at this point.

In other news, Dynamo trade Quioto to Montreal for Victor Cabrera and $100k in GAM. It's actually pretty amazing that they got what they did for him considering he said two months ago he was never going to play for the Dynamo again. He's also made it clear he wants to play in Europe and the Dynamo retained a portion of his sell on fee should a club come for him. He definitely provided some offense but was always a bit inconsistent. Memo had more or less taken his spot in the starting 11 anyway.

So that's 3 trades in...3...4 days? I can't remember another time when the Dynamo made so many moves so early in the off-season. Interesting to see if the club looks outside of MLS for other roster moves or stays within the league.

That's awesome

Also, cool bit of news, Claudio Reyna announced as Austin FC Sporting Director.

With him, Ramos, and Mastroeni we're just getting the gang back together in Texas.