February 7, 2025 • 17 mins
Laurel Pfahler of Queen City Press joined us to discuss Luciano Acosta's issues with FC Cincinnati GM Chris Albright, and what's next for the 2023 MLS MVP.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
VSPN fifteen thirty onm oegor thank you for listening today. Yesterday,
right when we were wrapping up, I subscribed to Queen
City Press, which is the FC Cincinnati publication newsletter authored
by Laurel Faylor, who does an awesome job covering the
Orange and Blue. And she published a piece yesterday where
(00:22):
Lucho Acosta kind of went scorched earth on Chris Albright,
the GM of FC Cincinnati, and says, look, this guy's
pushing me out. And I'm cool with everybody else, but
I'm not cool with Chris. The situation with Chris running
the clubs not working on paraphrasing him here. If you
want to read the piece, go get it. You should
subscribe if you're a fan of FC Cincinnati Queencitypress dot net.
(00:43):
And so I wanted to get Laurel on to talk
about this because the season's about to start and it
feels like chaos is unfolding with FC Cincinnati. It's good
to have you, Laurel. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm doing okay? Thanks for having me on. I was
happy to talk some FC Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, yeah, and there's and there's a lot to talk
about and and the season hasn't even started. There's there's
a lot here that that you wrote about yesterday, and uh,
I think the fallout is going to be interesting to
follow him. I'm kind of curious when when Lucho Acosta
is kind of unloading for lack of a better term,
on Chris Alright and you're his audience, what's going through
your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I would say it's it's a little stressful because obviously,
you know, I cover the club. I need to you know,
I am there for players. You know, I try to
give a voice to the players. But you know, he
had some pretty, you know, not great things to say
about Chris Alright. So I mean I had to go
to the club, and in that sense, you almost feel
(01:42):
like you're betraying the player because I'm basically taking what
he's saying and giving it to the club and they
get to respond. So but you know, that's the job
of a journalist is to try to be fair and
at the club did deserve a chance to respond. I
did try to reach Chris Albright soifically, and he did
not respond to club just wanted to go on and
(02:03):
do a statement. So yeah, I mean it was just
it's kind of feels like he said, she said things
when you get into this type of stuff. But something
we deal with in sports where players are going to
be unhappy with their situation and if they get frustrated enough,
they want to air it out. And so that's that's
kind of what happened here. You know, the club is
(02:26):
supporting Chris Albright through this. So Luke chosen preseason with
the team right now still training off to the side,
and there's just a lot of uncertainty you think about
what happens next.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, uncertainty and I'm sure, at least to a degree
some awkwardness. Where where did this start to go wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, he takes it back to the end of the
twenty twenty three season. Now, that was the year that
f C Cincinnati won the Supporter Shield. He was the
league MVP, and he just got a contract extension at
the end of it. He and his statement to me
went through some of the players that he felt like
the club turned its back on, or you know, there
(03:09):
were the roster did get overhauled basically after that season,
which was I would say pretty surprising just to have
a Supporters Shield season and then basically five returning starters.
The next year. Now a lot of them. They couldn't
bring back Brandon Vasquez, they sold Alvaro Burial wanted to
move on and then you know yours and Mascira was
(03:32):
only here on loan, so he had to go back
to Wolverhampton in the Premier League. He's not gonna stay here.
But there are a couple of guys that had options
declined that they you know, the club did try to
negotiate to bring back, which he mentioned like Junior Marino
and Santi Aris, two guys he was really comfortable with,
He was good friends with them. He felt like there
(03:54):
was too much overhaul, basically that they needed some continuity
and the roster, which makes sense. But at the same time,
you know, he's not a GM and Chris alright has
a vision of how he's going to build a roster.
He does have a salary cap he has to deal with,
so depending on what salary demands were like, he might
not have been able to work it out with those players.
(04:14):
So I kind of see both sides, like it's a
tough job for a GM and a salary cat league.
But you know, you also see that Lucho probably when
he signed that extension as a league MVP felt like
they building around him and he had some players he
was comfortable with, and the club ended up kind of
turning away from those guys, as he put it. So
(04:35):
that's kind of where it started. Then he goes into
kind of just he didn't have a good relationship with Chris.
Chris wasn't returning his text messages, and so, I don't
you know, it's I know, last year was a really
challenging year for him personally too. He mentioned at the
end of the season that he had some family matters
that he was dealing with, and so I think it's
just all all the frustrations of you know, he's very competitive,
(04:59):
and they ended up losing in the first round of playoffs.
That factors into and so I think we saw a
lot of those emotions come out right after the last
playoff game when he kind of told us that he
was looking to move on, and then, you know, I
don't know, I know the club was working on trying
to move him this off season and that didn't work out.
So he's reported late to the preseason. It just seems
(05:22):
like it all kind of came to a head here
recently and he just kind of wanted to let the
fans know what why he wanted to leave.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, it's it's pretty interesting Laurel failure. At Queen City Press,
you you know, you cover this team very objectively, and
so what's interesting to me is, you know, we get
folks on who called these games and talk FC Cincinnati,
and they always talk about well, Pat Newton and Chris
Albright and what a great job they've done, and I
mean the results, certainly in twenty twenty three spoke for themselves.
(05:52):
And so I guess there's a part of me that's like,
wait a minute, this guy who has been given a
lot of credit for, you know, the way this club
has turned into and you know, one of the best
teams in Major League Soccer in a very short amount
of time. Suddenly a guy who's a league MVP is
unloading autumn. And so from where you sit, what what
criticisms of Chris Albright are are fair? And maybe which
(06:14):
ones are a little bit unfair?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I would say, I mean there is kind of a
theme that we're hearing with because this is an odd
preseason and that Luca is not the only one that
didn't show up. Luca Origano and Yuya Kubo, we're both
late as well, and you kind of start to wonder
there the communication aspects of somewhere these guys are either
(06:41):
not understanding how the roster is being built, they don't
understand the salary cap. Is that something maybe needs to
be communicated better from the GM. I would say, if
it gets to the point where they're not showing up,
then that's where maybe Chris needs to have some I
don't know. I'm not there, I'm not in the room.
I don't know what conversations he has had, but it's
just seems like they're not on the same page in
(07:02):
that regard. You know, you can't really uh, there's not
much as far as the roster they you know, look
at where they were their first three years in MLS.
You you have to see that when Chris Albright got here,
it was a complete change. He brought in Pat Noon in.
He had a lot of the pieces that were brought
in by former general manager Gerard and I Camp and
(07:25):
like Luco was signed by him, and a lot of
the pieces that have really led to a lot of
the success of the team did come from that former GM.
But it took bringing in a guy like Pat Noon
in that really and really a GM that understood the
mechanisms that MLS. You know, all their roster rules are
really unique and it's challenging for a foreign GM to
(07:45):
to manage. So Chris came in and really did a
strong job of find finding ways to maneuver those intrics
that are involved in building an MLS roster and they
ended up winning the first trophy for the club in
MLS in twenty twenty three. So, you know, he obviously
(08:07):
understands what it takes to win in MLS. You could say,
you know, he hasn't done great at the forward position.
The forwards he's brought in to this point, Aaron Bupenza
ended up being a train wreck and they ended up
having to terminate his contract. They tried at the deadline
in the summer, they tried, you know, really hard to
(08:27):
bring in some really good forwards and as Chris put it,
they were kind of left at the altar at the
end and they ended up having to bring Nico Giochini
on loan and he ended up with no goals, no assists,
and he was on a DP spot. So there is
questions to what he can do at that forward position,
and that's a position that's really impacting Lucco, like he's
(08:48):
the creator and he needs the forward he can work with.
They did bring in Kevin Denke that there's a lot
of high expectations for him. He was a top goal
scorer in Europe over the last two years in Belgium,
so there's hope there, but it's just a little concerning that,
you know, Luto's not on a field to work with
him at this point. There's a lot of uncertainty there.
(09:10):
So I would say just the criticisms with what he's
done at that forward position are probably valid to this point,
but it's still kind of a well, we got to
see how it goes this year and then maybe we
can reevaluate that he's had some you know, he took
a risk on Aaron Bupenza and it didn't work out.
You're not gonna be perfect on every signing, so that
(09:31):
would be probably the main thing that I think could
be a valid at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Preseason training begins and maybe a week or so in
pat noon and kind of sounds off on the guys
who aren't there, and there were a lot of us
who found that pretty refreshing. What did you make of
what he had to say about the players who at
least at the time, weren't at preseason training.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Man, I'm stillfule of writing about all this. I can't
imagine how it is for Pat You're not having to
deal with all this. It's like he he's the guy
that's supposed to be able to work with these players,
and from my understanding, like the players do have good
relationships with him. He's gotten a lot out of the
players that have been brought in, and you know, he's
done a pretty solid jobs as a manager of this team.
(10:17):
But yeah, he doesn't have these pieces on the field.
There's a lot of injuries right now. It's just feels
like they're had. I mean that's two weeks from there,
from the first game, and there's just a lot of
uncertainty if they don't have a left back in yet.
So he is trying to deal with all this. I
(10:38):
think he's very frustrated. From those comments, you could tell
he was trying to put pressure that they have an
obligation to the team. You know, they do have contracts,
so that is a real thing. But to me, it's
kind of like Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are you know,
going through contract disputes right now, you could kind of
(10:59):
equate it to that if you want to, Like, Lucho
is the Joe Burho of s C Cincinnati, and so
the fact that he's not on the field they don't
have a replacement for him is pretty concerning and you
can kind of feel that frustration from Pat Noonan in
every interview he's doing at this point.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, it feels, it feels chaotic. And the season doesn't
start in April, it starts here in two weeks. I
will admit to you this as a newer soccer follower
over the last ten years, that sometimes when I read
about transactions, I get really confused. So explain this to me, like,
I'm like, I'm nine years old. What's next for Lucho
(11:38):
and is there any possibility that he is in the
Orange and Blue when the season starts actually playing games.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, he did have an opportunity to transfer to Argentina,
so it's kind of like a trade. They can sell
Luco to another team in another league. They could also
trade him within the league. Now there's these cash trades. Uh.
Previously you had the trade for allocation money, which is
(12:08):
just a way to buy down players salaries so that
they're under the salary cap. But right now, the biggest
opportunity that seems on the table is is what would
bring him back to his home country in Argentina. FC
Cincinnati and Studiantes in Yeah, in Argentina have come to
(12:32):
a transfer an agreement on a transfer fee, so they
agree on what would be paid to SC Cincinnati to
buy Luco's contract, but Luco has not agreed to a contract.
And my understanding is the verbal discussions they're pretty far apart.
Luco's making four point two million dollars here and I
(12:53):
think the highest paid players there are making about a million,
So I don't know what the offer is, but I
don't see that one happening. And unless there's an MLS
team that's going to swoop in, which could happen. Teams
are kind of at the end of the you know,
right before the season, you kind of tend to see
a flurry of movements just trying to finalize his rosters.
(13:16):
There's a player named a Vander that's with Portland and
he's not in camp with them right now. He's kind
of dealing with some things with them and that he
wants to leave, and he would be a suitable replacement
for Luco. They're very similar in their attacking skills. But
I would say right now, two weeks from the season,
(13:37):
unless you know, I guess you have to kind of
plan on Luco being there. But if he's not even
in training with the team at this point, it kind
of seems like they're really trying to move on.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
So one more, you're generous with your time. Laurel Faylor
Queen City Press. You know, he's the MVP two years
ago and they had the best team at least in
the regular season in the league. And even though last
year kind of got some ways over the second half
of the season, you know, they were still considered a
contender in the Eastern Conference and Luco at times last
year it felt like they were asking him to do
(14:09):
way too much. If you take him off of this
year's team, how many wrongs do you knock him down?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I mean, I think by the summer they they would
be able to rally. I think they have enough talent
on this team that they can still you know, the defense,
I think if Matt Miask is back, I think they're
gonna be a lot better defensively. Hopefully that can keep
them in a lot of games. But I mean, he
is You saw anyone that watches this team when Luco
(14:39):
was not on the field because he's injury or whatever
was going on, it looked a lot different. So it
is a huge piece to be missing. It's like relying
on you know, Big Browning instead of Joe Burrow. You know,
they did okay, you know, but they didn't make the playoffs.
And yeah, so I would say it, it doesn't look
(15:04):
great not having him on the field. He is there, creative.
They spend all this money sixteen point two million dollars
to bring in this new forward, Kevin Denka, and they
have no one to throw the ball to him. To
put it in football terms, like he's I guess the
Jamar Chase now. So yeah, it's it's gonna look a
lot different without Leuto. That's why it's so critical that
(15:27):
they either figure this out and get a replacement in
as soon as possible, or I just I don't know
how they're gonna manage without him. This points.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Subscribe to Laurel's work, go to Queencitypress dot net. It'll
be worth your time and your money. If you're an
FC Cincinnati fan, I can thank you enough for doing this.
I hope you do it again and enjoy what's left
of the preseason. It feels like every day there's something new,
so we'll be reading. Thanks so much, Thank you, you
got it. Laurel Faylor, Queen Citypress dot Net. A chaotic
(15:59):
PC head off season for FC Cincinnati. We associate the
Bengals right now with chaos. Chaos is the word of
the day there with the Orange and Blue, with the
season opener closing in very very quickly. Eight away from
five o'clock, Joe Burrows media tour was kicked in the
hyperdrive today. He didn't say much that was new, but
(16:20):
he did talk. I love it. We'll get to that.
The Bearcats won last night, which is important. How they
won matters a lot more, and we'll spend a few
minutes with Travis Steel as well. Coming up at five
thirty five, plus a poll question that I just put
on Twitter at Moeger thanks to my friends and yours
at United Heartland Insurance. A lot to get to between
(16:41):
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Speaker 2 (17:21):
This report is sponsored by Staples to
VSPN fifteen thirty onm oegor thank you for listening today. Yesterday,
right when we were wrapping up, I subscribed to Queen
City Press, which is the FC Cincinnati publication newsletter authored
by Laurel Faylor, who does an awesome job covering the
Orange and Blue. And she published a piece yesterday where
(00:22):
Lucho Acosta kind of went scorched earth on Chris Albright,
the GM of FC Cincinnati, and says, look, this guy's
pushing me out. And I'm cool with everybody else, but
I'm not cool with Chris. The situation with Chris running
the clubs not working on paraphrasing him here. If you
want to read the piece, go get it. You should
subscribe if you're a fan of FC Cincinnati Queencitypress dot net.
(00:43):
And so I wanted to get Laurel on to talk
about this because the season's about to start and it
feels like chaos is unfolding with FC Cincinnati. It's good
to have you, Laurel. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm doing okay? Thanks for having me on. I was
happy to talk some FC Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, yeah, and there's and there's a lot to talk
about and and the season hasn't even started. There's there's
a lot here that that you wrote about yesterday, and uh,
I think the fallout is going to be interesting to
follow him. I'm kind of curious when when Lucho Acosta
is kind of unloading for lack of a better term,
on Chris Alright and you're his audience, what's going through
your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I would say it's it's a little stressful because obviously,
you know, I cover the club. I need to you know,
I am there for players. You know, I try to
give a voice to the players. But you know, he
had some pretty, you know, not great things to say
about Chris Alright. So I mean I had to go
to the club, and in that sense, you almost feel
(01:42):
like you're betraying the player because I'm basically taking what
he's saying and giving it to the club and they
get to respond. So but you know, that's the job
of a journalist is to try to be fair and
at the club did deserve a chance to respond. I
did try to reach Chris Albright soifically, and he did
not respond to club just wanted to go on and
(02:03):
do a statement. So yeah, I mean it was just
it's kind of feels like he said, she said things
when you get into this type of stuff. But something
we deal with in sports where players are going to
be unhappy with their situation and if they get frustrated enough,
they want to air it out. And so that's that's
kind of what happened here. You know, the club is
(02:26):
supporting Chris Albright through this. So Luke chosen preseason with
the team right now still training off to the side,
and there's just a lot of uncertainty you think about
what happens next.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, uncertainty and I'm sure, at least to a degree
some awkwardness. Where where did this start to go wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, he takes it back to the end of the
twenty twenty three season. Now, that was the year that
f C Cincinnati won the Supporter Shield. He was the
league MVP, and he just got a contract extension at
the end of it. He and his statement to me
went through some of the players that he felt like
the club turned its back on, or you know, there
(03:09):
were the roster did get overhauled basically after that season,
which was I would say pretty surprising just to have
a Supporters Shield season and then basically five returning starters.
The next year. Now a lot of them. They couldn't
bring back Brandon Vasquez, they sold Alvaro Burial wanted to
move on and then you know yours and Mascira was
(03:32):
only here on loan, so he had to go back
to Wolverhampton in the Premier League. He's not gonna stay here.
But there are a couple of guys that had options
declined that they you know, the club did try to
negotiate to bring back, which he mentioned like Junior Marino
and Santi Aris, two guys he was really comfortable with,
He was good friends with them. He felt like there
(03:54):
was too much overhaul, basically that they needed some continuity
and the roster, which makes sense. But at the same time,
you know, he's not a GM and Chris alright has
a vision of how he's going to build a roster.
He does have a salary cap he has to deal with,
so depending on what salary demands were like, he might
not have been able to work it out with those players.
(04:14):
So I kind of see both sides, like it's a
tough job for a GM and a salary cat league.
But you know, you also see that Lucho probably when
he signed that extension as a league MVP felt like
they building around him and he had some players he
was comfortable with, and the club ended up kind of
turning away from those guys, as he put it. So
(04:35):
that's kind of where it started. Then he goes into
kind of just he didn't have a good relationship with Chris.
Chris wasn't returning his text messages, and so, I don't
you know, it's I know, last year was a really
challenging year for him personally too. He mentioned at the
end of the season that he had some family matters
that he was dealing with, and so I think it's
just all all the frustrations of you know, he's very competitive,
(04:59):
and they ended up losing in the first round of playoffs.
That factors into and so I think we saw a
lot of those emotions come out right after the last
playoff game when he kind of told us that he
was looking to move on, and then, you know, I
don't know, I know the club was working on trying
to move him this off season and that didn't work out.
So he's reported late to the preseason. It just seems
(05:22):
like it all kind of came to a head here
recently and he just kind of wanted to let the
fans know what why he wanted to leave.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, it's it's pretty interesting Laurel failure. At Queen City Press,
you you know, you cover this team very objectively, and
so what's interesting to me is, you know, we get
folks on who called these games and talk FC Cincinnati,
and they always talk about well, Pat Newton and Chris
Albright and what a great job they've done, and I
mean the results, certainly in twenty twenty three spoke for themselves.
(05:52):
And so I guess there's a part of me that's like,
wait a minute, this guy who has been given a
lot of credit for, you know, the way this club
has turned into and you know, one of the best
teams in Major League Soccer in a very short amount
of time. Suddenly a guy who's a league MVP is
unloading autumn. And so from where you sit, what what
criticisms of Chris Albright are are fair? And maybe which
(06:14):
ones are a little bit unfair?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I would say, I mean there is kind of a
theme that we're hearing with because this is an odd
preseason and that Luca is not the only one that
didn't show up. Luca Origano and Yuya Kubo, we're both
late as well, and you kind of start to wonder
there the communication aspects of somewhere these guys are either
(06:41):
not understanding how the roster is being built, they don't
understand the salary cap. Is that something maybe needs to
be communicated better from the GM. I would say, if
it gets to the point where they're not showing up,
then that's where maybe Chris needs to have some I
don't know. I'm not there, I'm not in the room.
I don't know what conversations he has had, but it's
just seems like they're not on the same page in
(07:02):
that regard. You know, you can't really uh, there's not
much as far as the roster they you know, look
at where they were their first three years in MLS.
You you have to see that when Chris Albright got here,
it was a complete change. He brought in Pat Noon in.
He had a lot of the pieces that were brought
in by former general manager Gerard and I Camp and
(07:25):
like Luco was signed by him, and a lot of
the pieces that have really led to a lot of
the success of the team did come from that former GM.
But it took bringing in a guy like Pat Noon
in that really and really a GM that understood the
mechanisms that MLS. You know, all their roster rules are
really unique and it's challenging for a foreign GM to
(07:45):
to manage. So Chris came in and really did a
strong job of find finding ways to maneuver those intrics
that are involved in building an MLS roster and they
ended up winning the first trophy for the club in
MLS in twenty twenty three. So, you know, he obviously
(08:07):
understands what it takes to win in MLS. You could say,
you know, he hasn't done great at the forward position.
The forwards he's brought in to this point, Aaron Bupenza
ended up being a train wreck and they ended up
having to terminate his contract. They tried at the deadline
in the summer, they tried, you know, really hard to
(08:27):
bring in some really good forwards and as Chris put it,
they were kind of left at the altar at the
end and they ended up having to bring Nico Giochini
on loan and he ended up with no goals, no assists,
and he was on a DP spot. So there is
questions to what he can do at that forward position,
and that's a position that's really impacting Lucco, like he's
(08:48):
the creator and he needs the forward he can work with.
They did bring in Kevin Denke that there's a lot
of high expectations for him. He was a top goal
scorer in Europe over the last two years in Belgium,
so there's hope there, but it's just a little concerning that,
you know, Luto's not on a field to work with
him at this point. There's a lot of uncertainty there.
(09:10):
So I would say just the criticisms with what he's
done at that forward position are probably valid to this point,
but it's still kind of a well, we got to
see how it goes this year and then maybe we
can reevaluate that he's had some you know, he took
a risk on Aaron Bupenza and it didn't work out.
You're not gonna be perfect on every signing, so that
(09:31):
would be probably the main thing that I think could
be a valid at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Preseason training begins and maybe a week or so in
pat noon and kind of sounds off on the guys
who aren't there, and there were a lot of us
who found that pretty refreshing. What did you make of
what he had to say about the players who at
least at the time, weren't at preseason training.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Man, I'm stillfule of writing about all this. I can't
imagine how it is for Pat You're not having to
deal with all this. It's like he he's the guy
that's supposed to be able to work with these players,
and from my understanding, like the players do have good
relationships with him. He's gotten a lot out of the
players that have been brought in, and you know, he's
done a pretty solid jobs as a manager of this team.
(10:17):
But yeah, he doesn't have these pieces on the field.
There's a lot of injuries right now. It's just feels
like they're had. I mean that's two weeks from there,
from the first game, and there's just a lot of
uncertainty if they don't have a left back in yet.
So he is trying to deal with all this. I
(10:38):
think he's very frustrated. From those comments, you could tell
he was trying to put pressure that they have an
obligation to the team. You know, they do have contracts,
so that is a real thing. But to me, it's
kind of like Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are you know,
going through contract disputes right now, you could kind of
(10:59):
equate it to that if you want to, Like, Lucho
is the Joe Burho of s C Cincinnati, and so
the fact that he's not on the field they don't
have a replacement for him is pretty concerning and you
can kind of feel that frustration from Pat Noonan in
every interview he's doing at this point.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, it feels, it feels chaotic. And the season doesn't
start in April, it starts here in two weeks. I
will admit to you this as a newer soccer follower
over the last ten years, that sometimes when I read
about transactions, I get really confused. So explain this to me, like,
I'm like, I'm nine years old. What's next for Lucho
(11:38):
and is there any possibility that he is in the
Orange and Blue when the season starts actually playing games.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, he did have an opportunity to transfer to Argentina,
so it's kind of like a trade. They can sell
Luco to another team in another league. They could also
trade him within the league. Now there's these cash trades. Uh.
Previously you had the trade for allocation money, which is
(12:08):
just a way to buy down players salaries so that
they're under the salary cap. But right now, the biggest
opportunity that seems on the table is is what would
bring him back to his home country in Argentina. FC
Cincinnati and Studiantes in Yeah, in Argentina have come to
(12:32):
a transfer an agreement on a transfer fee, so they
agree on what would be paid to SC Cincinnati to
buy Luco's contract, but Luco has not agreed to a contract.
And my understanding is the verbal discussions they're pretty far apart.
Luco's making four point two million dollars here and I
(12:53):
think the highest paid players there are making about a million,
So I don't know what the offer is, but I
don't see that one happening. And unless there's an MLS
team that's going to swoop in, which could happen. Teams
are kind of at the end of the you know,
right before the season, you kind of tend to see
a flurry of movements just trying to finalize his rosters.
(13:16):
There's a player named a Vander that's with Portland and
he's not in camp with them right now. He's kind
of dealing with some things with them and that he
wants to leave, and he would be a suitable replacement
for Luco. They're very similar in their attacking skills. But
I would say right now, two weeks from the season,
(13:37):
unless you know, I guess you have to kind of
plan on Luco being there. But if he's not even
in training with the team at this point, it kind
of seems like they're really trying to move on.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
So one more, you're generous with your time. Laurel Faylor
Queen City Press. You know, he's the MVP two years
ago and they had the best team at least in
the regular season in the league. And even though last
year kind of got some ways over the second half
of the season, you know, they were still considered a
contender in the Eastern Conference and Luco at times last
year it felt like they were asking him to do
(14:09):
way too much. If you take him off of this
year's team, how many wrongs do you knock him down?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I mean, I think by the summer they they would
be able to rally. I think they have enough talent
on this team that they can still you know, the defense,
I think if Matt Miask is back, I think they're
gonna be a lot better defensively. Hopefully that can keep
them in a lot of games. But I mean, he
is You saw anyone that watches this team when Luco
(14:39):
was not on the field because he's injury or whatever
was going on, it looked a lot different. So it
is a huge piece to be missing. It's like relying
on you know, Big Browning instead of Joe Burrow. You know,
they did okay, you know, but they didn't make the playoffs.
And yeah, so I would say it, it doesn't look
(15:04):
great not having him on the field. He is there, creative.
They spend all this money sixteen point two million dollars
to bring in this new forward, Kevin Denka, and they
have no one to throw the ball to him. To
put it in football terms, like he's I guess the
Jamar Chase now. So yeah, it's it's gonna look a
lot different without Leuto. That's why it's so critical that
(15:27):
they either figure this out and get a replacement in
as soon as possible, or I just I don't know
how they're gonna manage without him. This points.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Subscribe to Laurel's work, go to Queencitypress dot net. It'll
be worth your time and your money. If you're an
FC Cincinnati fan, I can thank you enough for doing this.
I hope you do it again and enjoy what's left
of the preseason. It feels like every day there's something new,
so we'll be reading. Thanks so much, Thank you, you
got it. Laurel Faylor, Queen Citypress dot Net. A chaotic
(15:59):
PC head off season for FC Cincinnati. We associate the
Bengals right now with chaos. Chaos is the word of
the day there with the Orange and Blue, with the
season opener closing in very very quickly. Eight away from
five o'clock, Joe Burrows media tour was kicked in the
hyperdrive today. He didn't say much that was new, but
(16:20):
he did talk. I love it. We'll get to that.
The Bearcats won last night, which is important. How they
won matters a lot more, and we'll spend a few
minutes with Travis Steel as well. Coming up at five
thirty five, plus a poll question that I just put
on Twitter at Moeger thanks to my friends and yours
at United Heartland Insurance. A lot to get to between
(16:41):
now and six on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
From the UC Health Traffic Center, Heart disease is the
leading cause of death in the US. If you're at risk,
trusts the experts that you see help for innovative and
personalized heartcare. Expect more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound seventy
five after Mitchell Avenue, disabled vehicle moved onto the right
shoulder on northbound seventy one. Accident on the right shoulder
(17:14):
between Redbank and Stuart Road and Kellogg Avenue, and accident
at eight Mile Road. I'm at ezaic with traffic.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This report is sponsored by Staples to
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