This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest. Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend.
Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adiates. Today is Thursday, December 12th, 2024. I am Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today for this end of season mailbag episode is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett. Also, shout out to our sponsor, Full Pool Wines, and of course, our readers.
As you can see, I did not script my intro today because... I don't know. I just didn't do it. What are you going to do? Are you going to get mad at me? Do people want my scripted intros? I don't know if they do. Aaron, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. I kind of like the... more natural just sort of you know just open the show conversational yeah it's nice yeah well uh so here we are it's been a crazy week wild week here
No, no moves. Well, there were a couple of smaller moves, but in the time between my interview with Craig Weibel on Tuesday and by the end of business on. Wednesday, there were like two huge rumors that came up. And we're going to talk about, we are going to get to the mailbag aspect of the show.
But because this is such late, relatively late breaking news, most of these questions are living in a world before these two rumors existed. I'm sure if you are a listener of the show, you know that the centers have been linked to trades for Jesus Ferreira. And Paul Areola from FC Dallas, they are, I guess, essentially separate moves. But they are linked, it would seem. In both cases, the Sounders are trying to get sort of distressed assets, I think.
is a fair way of calling it. But they're trying to get them on reduced contract numbers. So the broad parameters of how I understand this are with Jesus Ferreira. They're hoping to bring him in. He is currently a young designated player. The centers do not want to bring him in as a designated player, so they would have to rework his contract in a way that would...
result in about a roughly 25% pay cut in the short term. It would guarantee him more money in the long term. But I don't know that the Sounders are hoping. that they ever have to pay that long-term money because it doesn't really make sense for Ferreira. The gamble they seem to be making with Ferreira is, or the pitch they're making to him is take a pay cut, put yourself in the shop window.
And if you play really well in Champions Cup, if you play really well in the Club World Cup, if you play really well in MLS play, we are going to do our part. To move you along, he apparently still has aspirations of playing in Europe. He is only 24 years old. He has 53 goals in MLS play. I just want to put that in perspective a little bit. So Jesus Ferreira is the youngest player in MLS history.
to get to 50 goals. He has 53 goals, like I said. Chris Wondolowski, who is the all-time leading MLS goal scorer, at 27, at age 27, had seven goals. So he is really on a breakneck pace in terms of MLS scoring. But he is coming off a year where he was not very good.
He was hurt a lot of the year. I think he only had, what, five goals and six assists or something like that last year? Five goals, three assists. There you go. Even worse than I said. However, I do think it's worth pointing out that his non-penalty... uh goal expected goals plus expected assists was actually pretty close to albert rosnacks last year okay okay
So now whether that's a reason to be excited about Ferreira or a reason to be a little worried about Rusnak is up to up to you. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that, too. So and then the other part of this was Paul Areola. Then all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, this Paul Areola news comes where the Sounders are trying to trade for Paul Areola. Areola used to be a designated player.
He at one point was involved in the most expensive allocation money trade in MLS history. I think when FC Dallas got him, they sent almost like $3 million in assets to DC United to get him. It was a blockbuster trade. And he has been okay for Dallas for the most part. In fact, he had five goals and six assists last year. That's who had that. Playing mostly as a wingback, not much defense, but he was a pretty effective offensive-minded wingback last year. He's an interesting player.
But these two moves together seem to suggest that the Sounders are maybe thinking a lot more about playing a 3-5-2 formation. And then on top of that, we found out it's looking like Albert Rusnak is going to sign a designated player contract, which would... probably be for just two years is my suspicion but anyway taking us all together and there's a lot to talk about i think you can there i've seen a fair amount of excitement about this i've seen a fair amount of trepidation about this
I don't know, Aaron, where are you falling? Are you like, talk me through your emotions. I it's been, I've gone through a lot of them.
in relation to kind of all of this stuff over the last few days um and i think that in in a vacuum in isolation the move for ferrera assuming the return is is reasonable which i i don't think we've heard any specifics but um mls trades are generally pretty fair i think like it's pretty rare that there's a trade in mls where i feel like a team got totally fleeced uh and and the sounders i think tend to do pretty well in their evaluation so
Assuming that the valuation is fair, I think it's a good move. I think it's a move with a ton of upside. If you get 20-22, Jesus Ferreira, you are... getting a guy who if we had never heard of him and we signed him from belgium for 10 million dollars we would be thrilled with that kind of production right yeah he's exactly a 24 year old who is setting his domestic leagues
scoring record and in two years removed from a massive season yeah um and i think like the profile of player that he is where he's just He's kind of a similar player to Jordan, but I think a little more well-suited. Kind of like Jordan is a pretty effective wide player, but I think he's more well-suited to play in centrally. I feel like Ferreira is similar, but...
He can play behind the striker. He can be a little more effective wide, I think, than Jordan can. But I really like the possibilities that having the two of them in the same team could bring. I think that they could really compliment each other. Well, they've looked together when they look good together when they played for the national team together. So, you know, I think if he hits that upside, everybody is going to be thrilled.
And realistically, as you, I think, said a few minutes ago, if he comes in and hits those heights, the Sounders are probably going to make a whole boatload of money off of the sales to Europe. I think I'm very happy with that move in isolation. Areola, I think, is the kind of wingback, fullback. Most likely, he's not going to be a fullback if the Sounders are playing for at the back.
but you know i i think i'm starting to think that there's a really distinct possibility they're going to move to three at the back next year and ariola is exactly the kind of guy i'd want coming in to give some competition at that spot or potentially just kind of be the presumed starter he is not the defender that Alex Roldan is that is for sure but he's I think
a pretty significant upgrade in the attack um and you know if alex is still around i think you've got options for both both looks you've got a more defensive option you've got a more attacking option He provides some really solid depth on the wings. I think he can even play sort of an attacking midfield type role. He spent a lot of his career as an attacking winger.
Yeah, but I think he can play centrally as well. Not as much as a creator, but as more of a just go-at-goal kind of attacking midfielder. He's obviously a less exciting player, but I think we've talked a lot about we want to see some roster turnover. We want to see some competition. And he's like that perfect sort of profile there.
The Rusnak one, I like Albert Rusnak a lot. I think that he is underrated at a lot of things. I think his ability to control possession, his ability to maintain possession. His passing vision, he's a very good creator, but I think he's elite at finding the pass that leads to the pass and breaking lines.
He's good defensively for the role he plays. I really like him a lot. I am increasingly not convinced that he's a DP. I've spent a lot of time looking at his underlying numbers over the last couple of days. And so per 90... He had 0.43 non-penal DXG plus assists, expected assists last year. Ferreira had 0.39. And this is a career year for Albert Rusnak. His expected...
Goal contributions were 12.2. He had 22. That's not including secondary assists. This is football reference, so they don't have secondary assist numbers. He had a great year. I don't think anybody expects him to sustain those numbers. He had six assists from set pieces. His entire MLS career previous to last year, he had seven.
And for a lot of his time in Seattle, his first years in Seattle, obviously he wasn't the primary set piece taker, but he was the primary set piece taker for Rail Salt Lake. So, yeah, I don't. Albert, as a TAM player, I love. I think he's a really good value there. And as a DP, I'm not as convinced. And if he's back, I'm not going to be upset about it. But I think...
If you've asked me this question last week when we recorded, and I think you did, I was on the fence, but more on the side of, I think you should bring him back. And I've kind of flipped, right? I've kind of flipped a little bit.
if he comes back it's it's certainly i don't think the end of the world especially at two years i don't think giving a 30 year old a two-year deal is is any cause at all for concern um but it is just the opportunity cost of what you're doing with your dp spots i think that's the concern
Yeah, I would say, broadly speaking, if you if you look at in a vacuum, you look at each one of these three, let's consider this three moves, right? I think you can like a lot, like maybe even really like all three moves by themselves. I think what the the trepidation comes from what is this? How does this fit into a larger picture of the offseason? And I think from a roster building perspective.
I am okay with Jesus Ferreira and Paul Areola being two of the more notable additions in part because they are. relatively proven players, they're veteran players. They have something to prove as well. Like they are young enough where they have some upside. I really like this team build from a hit the ground running perspective.
I feel like as the team is built right now, there's no reason to think they can't make a run at CONCACAF Champions Cup. There's no reason to think that they can't be really good in league play. I don't... know that there's anything that they could do where you would actually feel good about their chances in the club world cup so i'm just gonna put that part of it aside but i like the way the team looks where i am concerned though is what else we're gonna see
from an ambition perspective, because one of the things that we have been talking about a lot on this show is sort of this malaise that has come over the fan base. And part of it is. The Sounders just aren't playing that exciting soccer. They're winning, but they aren't necessarily winning hearts and minds. And I... And I don't know if in this offseason on paper, you know, going into this offseason, this seemed like a chance to sort of reset those expectations and get excited.
and bring in you know make some splashy moves and those might still be coming i don't want to say that they're not coming because you know they could there's still flexibility to do some some biggish stuff I just don't, you know, and so that's where the that's where my that's the reason I'm not quite as excited as I just don't know. I don't know what else is coming. I thought Craig said a lot of the right things about having money to spend.
wanting to go out and and buy some you know he essentially said this is what they're going to do is they're going to go and get some proven attacking talent and then maybe supplement that with you know younger players so we'll see if the supplementing comes or not but i don't know it's it's i'm on i guess i'm i'm having it i'm trying to have it both ways like i there are things about this i like i'm with you on albert rusnak i think i would have felt a lot better about
giving him a long-term deal on TAM money than bringing him in as a locked-in DP, even if it's just for two years. So I don't know. We'll see. Nothing has been announced yet. Nothing's been signed yet, as far as I know. But it's a it's been, you know, people wanted action this offseason. It's been an exciting offseason. I'll say that, you know, it has. Yeah, it didn't take it long.
No, and it's funny, it reminds me a lot of 2017 when the Sounders went and traded for Will Bruin and Harry Shipp. And sort of Areola and Ferreira are like Harry Shipp and Will Bruin on... heavy, heavy doses of steroids. And I mean, and notably, they also did not sign a DP that that that winter either. But they had a a good year they went to mls cup again they didn't win mls cup but uh you know it's hard to argue with the with the results as a whole but yeah i mean it's it's been an interesting
It's been interesting. I will say I would love it if the offseason continues to go at this pace. From a totally selfish content producing perspective, it's given us plenty to talk about.
it's true it's true i mean this is this sounds judgmental and i'm not gonna lie it kind of is um this is the part about being a sports fan that a lot of people like more than the actual game games and uh so you know it's it's exciting um everybody wants new shiny things i'm certainly in that category um but i'm gonna be much more relieved when the rumors are done and the players are actually on the team
Because, I mean, as of recording time, we're talking about the Ferreira deal like it's, or I am at least, like it's a done deal. And there's actually absolutely no indication that that's the case. I mean, it could very easily end up... not being anything so yeah i'll be i'll be much happier if and when there's an announcement so uh so we can start talking about the next rumor because i'm sure there will be a million more of them right exactly
Exactly. But anyway, so we did. This is a mailbag episode. We have some questions. We may as well jump in. I think we've exhausted this right to the degree we've. Yeah, we've got the same summer later, too, because if he actually, you know, they actually do get signed. Right. We're going to have to talk about it again. Yeah. So.
We want to keep something in the tank. Right. Well, let's kick it off with one from Relio, our good friend, a good friend of the podcast, the blog, and ourselves personally. If you could have had either Paul or Yamar healthy for that last match, which would you have picked? and why i mean it's got to be paul right they as it was like i don't i don't think yamar ness is i mean i suppose you could talk yourself into yamar preventing that goal it's not too far-fetched
But I think their defense was good in that game. It was a nearly flawless defensive performance. And I don't know if Yamar gets them any. the marginally closer to flawless that they would have needed to be in that game. Whereas Paul, I think you can imagine him having more of an impact.
you know, potentially scoring a goal or getting an assist. So I'll say Paul, but it certainly does leave you with a lot of what ifs. I think rather than being comforted, like I thought that the Galaxy would... run over the Red Bulls, and they didn't really run over them, but nothing that I saw from the Red Bulls diminished my belief that the Sounders would have won if they had made a Dan Wallace Cup.
Yeah, I think I honestly think there's a good chance the Sounders would have won more comfortably than a Galaxy and the Galaxy won pretty comfortably. So, yeah, I think it was a tough pill to swallow. But in terms of the question, I completely agree with you. I think Paul is the clear choice there. I think that that's a game he was made.
for there was just so much room for his annoying little gnat style of play that i think could have really um delivered some some pretty significant dividends for the sounders so i'll be thinking about that one for a while for sure yeah
All right, from Twimberly23, how much of this year's offensive struggles are personnel versus tactics? I think this is a great question, and I've been thinking about it for... the last week or so since it popped up in the discord um because i think the answer is not either or but both i think that
Obviously, the Sounders could have played more attacking tactics, and they probably would have scored more. But I think the personnel that they had... justified the tactics yeah i think that the way they played was the right way to play for the personnel that they had i also think too that the offensive struggles were
really bad when they were bad but they really didn't struggle that much offensively in the second half of the season um they were not for the second half of the season if you subtract if you're just going from the midway point of the season until, until the beginning of the playoffs, the average, like 1.8 goals per game. Yeah. And it wasn't like they were bagging a bunch of penalties. They were, you know, they were mostly scoring.
from the run of play now a lot of set pieces like going back to the albert rusnak thing but i mean 1.8 goals a game I'll take that. I mean, that's, that's still not like elite in MLS right now. I mean, MLS has gotten to be a pretty high scoring league, but you are not worrying about your offense at 1.8 goals per game. That's for sure. No, no. I think and I think in the playoffs, like. You want to.
if you're a really sound defensive team you want to double down on that and play to your strengths i think that the sounders could have played more aggressively in the playoffs and probably would have scored more and they may have gotten just as far but i completely understand the choice to play the way that they did um so i think i do think that the personnel determined the tactics and the tactics that they used were the right way to go um however that being said um
they need to get better in the attack. And I think they can do that without getting significantly worse in the defensive phase of the game. They just have to add players. Like you just can't. I think that there's this mindset that people have, this belief that they've settled into that Brian Schmetzer is just a defense first coach and that his teams are always going to be low scoring.
And I think a Brian Schmetzer team is always going to be well organized and he expects everyone to play defense. But he's coached some pretty high scoring teams. And it's easy to forget because it's been a few years, but I think he wants to play more. positive soccer but I think more than anything he wants to win games and keep his job and win trophies
Yeah, and I just did the math real quick, so I'll just share it. But if the Sounders had scored all season at the same pace they scored over a pretty large, like half a season is not a small sample size. That's a 61 goal season. It's not like they have to transform their tactics. If they can just use the tactics that they used during the last half of the season.
that's a that's a very good offensive season so i i don't think that they need to and they didn't lose anything defensively in that second half of the season they were really good defensively as well so yeah i mean i i guess to your point they I do think it's more personnel. And if they have a few more, you know, clubs in their bag, that bodes well. That bodes really well. Yeah.
All right, this one's from Boonstick315. Any chance Morris demands a move if he is pushed back to the wing? He seems to think that playing the 9 is his best slash only chance back into the USMNT. Uh... that's a good that's a good thought i i don't know that playing as a nine gets him any closer to the u.s national team than playing on like if he's begging goals as a winger
I actually would think that's an easier path because the U.S. doesn't have a bunch of goal-scoring wingers. And the way he made it onto the World Cup team wasn't so much because he was a number nine or a winger. It was just that he had... the ability to stretch the field in a way that no one else really on the roster did. So I still think that probably that pathway still exists regardless. And I don't know. I don't.
I think we're going to see him on the wing this year. If they get Jesus Ferreira, the... His best position is as a nine. And so you end up now with two players whose best position is the nine. I think we're probably going to see them both playing multiple positions. They'll probably both play up top at times.
uh so you'll probably like as we alluded to three that we'll probably see some three five two so i you know i i think it'll be interesting to see how they how they manage it yeah i think a three five two with both of them up top
Rusnak and Pedro below them, two defensive midfields, wingbacks. That sounds like a lot of fun to me. However, fair to point out, this question was asked before the Ferreira rumors were... right real thing right right right um but it's still still a totally fair question oh yeah i guess i didn't even answer the main part of it which was is he gonna demand a move and i don't i mean i don't know i don't think he's i don't
I don't know. I mean, I think if foreign teams come in to the Sounders and say, hey, we'll give you $5 million for Jordan Morris, I think the Sounders would probably take that. Yeah, they... they would be insane insane not to and i say that is a very confirmed jordan stan but yeah but i don't i don't like i don't think jordan's gonna force his move to another like i don't think he's gonna pull jesus ferrera
and try to force a trade or something like that but yeah all right this is from uh very totem seven and now i'll just remind everyone all these questions come from our discord uh we've been adding a lot of people to our discord lately i would urge you if you are a supporter or above to send an email to support at sounder at heart.com and we will send you a link to get into the
uh to get into the discord it's a little i realize that's a little cumbersome that would be cool if we could just automatically add everyone but that's not how the system is set up unfortunately so i apologize but yeah come join us on discord it's a lot of fun especially on days like the last two nights where it was just going crazy. And, you know, we have hundreds and hundreds of comments as we're trying to kind of track these things. But anyway.
The Club World Cup will see each club getting $50 million for participating. Since the Sounders won't see that money until the summer, is that something the team can immediately count on? borrow against this off season for free agents or do you see this as money for the following summer and after or is it something else entirely well i have good news for you
We don't really have to worry about it because they're not going to get $50 million for participating. It's not going to happen. There's no chance in hell that it'll happen, unfortunately. I would love it if it did, but it's just not. I think Andre Villas-Boas, the coach of Porto, said that the UEFA clubs were getting something like...
16 million euros and the UEFA clubs are almost certainly getting he may have even said that Porto is getting that much right so I think if they're getting 16 million you got to assume the bigger clubs are getting even more than them. You kind of assume that the South American clubs are getting a little less.
The African clubs, the MLS clubs, the Mexican clubs are going to get a little less. But there's a team from New Zealand in this tournament whose, I think, entire payroll is like... nine million dollars a season if that no it's way less than that auckland city is probably like two million maybe that's the the combined transfer value of the team
something like that maybe like that the auckland is on is like almost a semi-pro team yeah there is a team yeah i don't even know i would be actually i'd be surprised if auckland's salaries are even public it's like that's it's a it's not a big club Uh, and so I'll add a little bit more to this. One of the things.
8.7 million euros is the total market value of the squad okay all right well that's actually higher that's where i got that number from but it's like 20 30 guys that are worth like 200 000 right yeah yeah uh the sounders for the comparison are worth like 49 or 50 million just to put that in perspective uh but the one of the things i read was that fifa is reluctant like the 50 million dollars thing is was a number that was thrown out there a long time ago and
I feel like I have debunked that multiple times over, but I don't know if it was ever true. It may have been a number that FIFA floated to some of the big clubs saying like, hey, would this... would this convince you to plan this thing? But that's not, the Sounders were never going to get 50 million and they certainly aren't getting 50 million now. If they get 5 million, I think that would probably be.
The Sounders would probably be thrilled by getting $5 million. I think I got like $700,000 when they played in the Club World Cup last time.
the centers i don't know the centers may even get docked money because they're hosting games i don't know how this is all going to work but it's it's probably not going to be this enormous windfall that would dramatically change the transfer budget you would like to think that it would impact it in some level because it's it is going to be there's money coming from this thing whether it's from ticket sales or from
from you know some kind of automatic payout but it's it is not going to be the sort of franchise altering a sum of money that it looked like you know for a brief period of time it looked like it might be yeah and i think too the other thing to keep in mind is even in a world where it was 50 million dollars the league is going to take a huge chunk of that um because the league i mean the sounders are a franchise of the league
Manchester City, Real Madrid, they get all the prize money because they are independent entities that are part of an association. The Sounders are the franchise of Major League Soccer. There's revenue sharing to an extent that there just isn't in other leagues. Right, right, right.
All right. The next one is from Andrew. Is Adrian Hanauer's ownership still a strength for the Sounders or is it something they are now going to have to succeed in spite of? You know, I think it's a complicated question. I think that.
Hanauer clearly is not spending the way that other MLS owners are, and I think he deserves criticism for that. But I also think he deserves some credit for continuing to run a... uh a a business that and i i don't want to sound too like capitalistic here and it's like i'm not praising him for running a a solid business. But I do think there's an element of it being a community asset that he's setting it up for long term sustainability, right? And I think that is that is useful.
But in the short term, it is very frustrating to see the lack of obvious spending that that seems to be happening. But they are winning. You know, they still are making. sound soccer decisions and i i think that adrian's leadership plays a role in that whether or not like How much credit does he deserve? I don't know. But he's also, you know, I think Adrian is also setting the, you know, he's doing his part to set the league up in a way.
that allows the sounders to still thrive so i don't know it's it's definitely a double-edged sword uh i i tend to think he's probably still more positive than negative but like i get why people are frustrated with
the spending habits and i you know i i can definitely sympathize for sure i think he like that aspect of it i i do wonder if he appreciates how important it is to inject excitement into the team through spending like i i do wonder if he appreciates that as much as he should yeah i i don't it's an interesting question um i i think he has to to some extent but it almost at times feels like he and this is not
This is only related just to me assuming, making assumptions about a lack of spending, that he's almost doubling down on things to be like, no, we've had a lot of success using this model and we're going to continue doing it.
I mean, I think that a sustainable business obviously has to be fiscally responsible, has to live within its means. And I appreciate that a great deal about Adrian's stewardship of the club. But I think a sustainable business also has to have a... model for sustainable growth and that entails spending money and continuing to be relevant continuing to win trophies
continuing to have high attendance. If you're going to build a stadium, especially if you're going to build a stadium well outside of downtown Seattle, you need to keep people interested. You need to keep people excited. And I think a lot of people that are still going to games, frankly, are doing it because of inertia like.
I don't think you can always count on those people. I don't think you can count on 30,000 people coming to a stadium in Tukwila just because that's something they've always done. Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support.
Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gets you access to everything we produce. If you're able to support us at higher levels, starting at $75 a year, You gain access to a host of other perks, most notably entry into our members only discord where the smartest, funniest, and most engaged commenters share their thoughts and ideas.
To find out more, just visit Center at Heart dot com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening. I mean, I try to give I have season ticket. You and I have season tickets together. You and I don't use those season tickets very often. And it's, you know, it's work to get to give them away every week. And it's not because people don't want to go necessarily. It's just that they have lives and you you sort of need to keep it.
Keep growing the fan base because people's lives get more complicated as they grow up, as we've all found. And so if you're not growing your fan base, you're going to be shrinking your attendance. It's true. And I think some of that is is has been a failure on the part of the Sounders to.
to to reach new fans like i don't want to let them entirely off the hook but i also think that it's just the nature of not being the the new hot novel thing in town anymore um you know the krakener are here and i think a lot of people who demographically would have been sounders fans in 2009 have become kraken fans and i don't think that's something that sounders can really do anything about um
The Sonics are going to be here soon enough. Yeah, yeah. The Mariners are not good, but people are going to the games again. The Mariners are a team where they can... Every time the Mariners get good... you see the excitement sort of like go through the roof and if they ever get sustainably good, that's going to suck up even more oxygen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you have to, you're going to have to spend money at some point.
And I think Adrian is not a guy that's going to spend money for the sake of spending money. And I think that maybe the disconnect between the way he sees things and the way you, well, I don't want to speak for you, but the way I see this. is that to him, if he thinks they can put together a very competitive team that gives them a chance to win trophies without spending a transfer fee, without going out and spending money on players.
He doesn't see any reason not to do that. And for me, I would like to see evidence that he is willing to spend money to go get good players. And that's important to me as a fan. It's important for my investment in the product and all that.
He knows a lot more about running a soccer team than I do, obviously, and I don't want to have a Dunning-Kruger thing going on here. It's pretty baffling, and I know that they did just sign Pedro De La Vega, but my whole thing has always been... you know well they yeah they signed pedro de la vega and a few years ago they signed nico ladero and then went out and got royal rudias pretty shortly thereafter like i get that you can't pay a big transfer fee every season
But it's been six years. They've paid one transfer fee in the last four seasons. Right. And they've paid one sizable transfer fee in the last six. Right. Well, it depends on how you count Chu, but yeah. Yeah. I mean, since, right, the last real big transfer fee they paid before De La Vega was Rui Diaz, essentially, is what you're saying.
yeah right yeah and and i just i don't think i don't necessarily think that that's a model that's going to set you up for great success in mls going forward no and it's it's worth noting that the only team That is spending less on transfers right now than the Sounders is supporting Kansas city and supporting Kansas city is not like they're not the worst team in the league, but they are much closer to the worst team in the league than the best team in the league. For sure.
yeah for sure and i think too the sounders are fortunate in that they locked up a lot of key players to good deals and maybe a less spendy era of MLS and those guys are going to age out at some point. Right. Like you're not going to have Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris forever. You're not going to always be able to land a Jackson Reagan.
you know you're not always going to be able to produce an obet vargas like right yeah they're gonna have to replace these guys they've hit a sweet spot in sort of controllable like they're in a sweet spot of having a bunch of really good players who have relatively controllable contracts. And I don't know how sustainable that is for out of the long, like you, you always would like to have some of those players, but they have a lot of players.
who are still a core of their team who they didn't have to pay transfer fees for. And that's probably not a sustainable model that nowhere in the world. Is that how it works? Yeah. Yep. All right. This is from Danicus. There's been some small discussions about moving on from new who in the off season. Do you feel like this is the right move?
I would be open to either fullback moving if the Sounders are planning to play primarily four at the back next year. I think that if they're going to play three at the back, even... a decent amount of time even if it's not like they're all the time formation i think new who is maybe the perfect left center back for that formation yeah the stuff that he's really really good at
That is the one position on the field, a left center back and a three back formation where that stuff matters the most. And the stuff that he's maybe not as good at matters the least. I would love to have him as a left center back on the team if they're still planning to play fourth at the back. I don't think that he needs to be moved.
Personally, just for sort of stylistic reasons, wouldn't mind it. And it also clears the way for Reed Baker Whiting, which, you know, is a positive thing as well. But I don't think it's something they have to do. But I absolutely don't want to do it if they're going three at the back. I would agree. I would agree. I don't think I have much to add to that other than.
I think he is a potentially elite left center back and a passable center left back. And it's only worth moving on from him if you're getting a really good offer. Yep. Yep. You would think I would be good enough at podcasting at this point that I could have just segued right into this next question, which is about Reed Baker Whiting, and it's from Ken W. That's the charm.
It is. It's true. Being bad. I think that that is the thing that people like about podcasts is when they're bad. So that explains our longevity. You can't be too slick. What is Reed Baker Whiting's path and could he surpass either? either slash both new who and or Alex next season. I would say that he definitely has the potential to pass both of them. I think the Sounders would love for that to be the case. In fact, you know, the thing that's frustrating about Reed Baker Whiting is that.
This time last year, we were having this almost exact same conversation about how next year is going to be a big one for him. And if he can get that starting spot, that would be great. And unfortunately injuries cost him like half the year. And by the time he came back, he never really got into contention for being a regular starter. Like he, I think he only made five starts. He played in a fair number of games.
But it was mostly as a reserve, and it was oftentimes even as a reserve who was, you know, he came in as a midfielder that was in mainly to try to shut down a game. So he didn't get a lot of run. in the positions where he seemingly projects to have the highest potential. So I think that there's a pathway to him winning the right back job. There's a pathway to him winning the left back job. There's a path to him.
If the Sounders are playing with wingbacks, there's a path to him winning one of those jobs as well. I think there's multiple paths for him. But this is going to be a big year. And I think, you know, especially if, you know, there's been a lot of...
expectation that he will eventually move to Europe on a sizable fee. And this is probably the year where he needs to show that type of potential if a move like that is in the offering. Yeah. 100 percent um i i think too he's another player that could really benefit from the sounders moving to to a three set up because i his defensive uh
His shortcomings, I think, are going to be a lot less pronounced as a wingback than as a fullback. And I think that could just help him feel more, because it felt like a lot of his defensive shortcomings last season were a result of... nerves um and so i think if he takes some of that defensive pressure off maybe it's not as big of a problem
Yeah, this is from Jared. Are we likely to get a new contract for OBEB before making any new moves? Any moves for him, I suppose. Or I don't know, maybe any moves in general. Seems like a big contract would fit him and provide some leverage for summer negotiations. I would guess no, because I would guess Obed doesn't really have any interest in signing a new contract. Because I think this is a situation where...
If he knows that the odds are very good that he's going to be moving in the summer, the only thing that signing a new contract can do two things it's going to do. It's going to give him a little bit more money for six months or however long.
and it's going to give the Sounders more negotiating leverage, which makes a move for him less likely. I still think he's moving no matter what, but I think that there's no reason for him to... put himself in less likely of a position to move because I think this is the last, the summer is going to be, it's not the last window in which he could move, obviously, but I think it's going to be the last window in which he can move for big money.
as sort of an elite prospect right if he has another season exactly like this next year in mls instead of potentially going to a bigger club in Europe or a smaller club in a top league, he could be moving to Belgium or something like that. and just not setting himself up for the next move as well as he would maybe like.
I don't know. There's definitely a benefit to the Sounders, you know, to have them under contract for a little bit longer. But I do think that MLS clubs are already in such a poor negotiating position that it's really just a matter of degrees. And it's really... probably not worth potentially upsetting him. Yeah. I don't think he needs to sign a new contract to answer the question directly. I don't think he needs to sign a new contract.
Before he makes a move. I am a little more inclined to think that they will sign him. Interesting. I don't. I mean, you make some compelling reasons not to, but. I would think having the extra money in his pocket would be worth it. And I don't know that it's going to change. Like, I don't get the sense that he's he's like pushing his way out. Like, I think he wants to. move when it makes sense for everybody involved yeah i don't know we'll see we'll see uh yeah i mean that's it you know
I think you probably have better insight into that than I do. And I do think that the nature of this kind of stuff in MLS or just in a league, the level of MLS is probably different than it is in a lot of other places. This one's from the list. Any potential changes to the coaching staff?
Not that I know of. In fact, we talked to that was someone asked about that at the press conference and Craig seemed to think that everyone was most likely coming back. Yeah, it's kind of a straightforward answer.
I will say I thought the coaching staff did a pretty good job. I think the coaching staff maybe did – I think you could even say the coaching staff did a really good job. The way that they sort of turned the season around, I think – goes a lot of that to coaching and yeah if not literally tactics i think just the soft skills of of coaching yeah i think too i mean you don't accidentally go from
being one of the worst set piece team set piece teams in the league to one of the best without there being some significant work on on the behalf of the coaching staff there's just very concrete things you can point to to that wasn't just the players figuring shit out on their own you know yeah uh this is from nate b where do you see nude DP signing coming from in the world, would it be similar to Nico or Roll or is the league moving more towards signings from non top five leagues in Europe?
I think the Sounders cast a pretty wide net. It does seem like Europe is more of a focal point, and I think that especially for more in-prime DP signings, and I think that makes sense just in terms of... MLS's rising stature globally. South American prospects outside of the very, very top end who MLS teams still wouldn't really have a shot at unless they're Atlanta and are willing to throw an insane amount of money at a player.
probably aren't going to be interested to come in coming here but you know a 24 year old from belgium probably would if they're not going to be able to make that next big move in europe so um that seems the most likely but i mean i think
There's still good young players coming from South America, decent and prime players coming from South America or from Mexico. I think it just depends on what the team is looking for, what profile of player they're looking for and who they feel like is on their radar. And, you know, I think a lot of the time we think of the team's scouting efforts in terms of the big, splashy DP signings, which makes sense because those are the most exciting ones, but they...
have a history of signing players from everywhere. I mean, they've signed players from every continent, I think. And they've signed good players from every continent. Don't say Antarctica. I was going to say Australia. Oh, yeah, that's fair. Brad Smith was Australian. That's a very fair point. That's a good point. I mean, he was playing in England. I think that's a legit point. You know, that's a legit point.
uh so you got me yeah you got me they i'll say every confederation right they've signed players from every confederation that is technically accurate so um yeah i think i think they're looking everywhere um And they should be. I mean, MLS is not at a level where they can just focus on the hotbeds of talent. They have to kind of scour the globe in a way that maybe bigger clubs don't.
Yeah, and not to pick on Nate B either. I'll note that neither Nico nor Raul came from top five leagues either. There aren't a lot of... Like the number of players that come to MLS from top five leagues who are like not sort of like who are achieving things at top five leagues is pretty small. actually well the way the way i read that was nicole our role didn't come from europe right because like it used to be most dps were either big signings from old guys or south americans
Right. And Nico came from Boca. That was how I read it. But. Maybe you're right. Anyway, I'm not we don't need to be pedantic about any of this. Yeah. but yeah i do think the league is moving away from signing old european guys which is good for sure for sure i the number of older like the number of dps or any players foreign players that are coming into the league older than 30 let alone
you know, really on the older side is, is getting pretty small. Like most, most players that are moving here, almost exclusively, certainly players that require a transfer fee are almost exclusively coming here. uh you know in their 20s people uh laughed at don garber a lot when he said all that stuff about becoming a league of choice and becoming a top 10 league in the world and blah blah blah and i mean he was maybe a couple years late but
It's hard to argue with the state of the league. Well, and I think it was interesting, not to get too far on a tangent, but it was an interesting... tonal change this year at the league the state of the league address where he wasn't really talking aspirationally any more about getting bigger and and turning MLS into an even bigger league a lot of it was sort of
we've arrived at where we feel comfortable a little bit. And it's about managing a man, you know, they're not, they're not plotting big changes to push them higher up the hierarchy. It's like, you know, they're in the top 10 to 15 leagues in the world now and they're kind of comfortable with that and they can make a good business out of that. And who knows, maybe farther down the line, we'll get where we're talking about like pushing into the top.
you know, five leagues in the world or something. I don't know if that, how realistic that is, but I, I mean, top 10 was always sort of targeted because you get around 10 and, and you're like, well, who are you, like, who do you really think you're going to pass now? You know, like.
Right. Like, do you think you're going to, do you think you're going to pass Ligon? Do you think you're going to pass Syria? You know, like you're getting into that territory. So anyway, it's, it's an interesting tonal change. That's all. Right. And I think refreshing too, because I think there is a point where you have to realize, okay, we've kind of hit our ceiling for the realities that we're in right now and we should consolidate success.
work on sustainability so it's good to hear they recognize that uh this one's from mindy what do you think paul's role will become in 2025 i think he is going to be a rotational starter He started something like 16 straight games at one point this year, I think it was, before he missed the last two games. I think that is a much bigger that I don't think he's going to play that sort of role where he's starting virtually every game.
sometimes twice a week. I think just across the board, the way that the roster is setting up, I think there's going to be a lot more rotation. That seems to be part of the plan, in fact, is that they're trying to create a... scenario where they can almost have two squads that can both be you know reasonably effective and I think Paul will be I think Paul's gonna get plenty of minutes
You know, my suspicion is somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 minutes across all competitions would be maybe a little more than that. But, you know, if he's healthy, you know, he'll probably get 10 to 15 starts, which would be great. yeah yeah there's gonna be what's the minimum number of games they can play next year 42 it looks like 42 and that's the minimum i think the expectation is that they'll play more than that i mean it's not hard to get to 50 like if they know
If they advance out of the first round of CONCACAF Champions Cup, that's right there. That's two more. You're at 44. If you win a couple... Open Cup games, which we don't know if they're going to be playing in, but let's just assume they play the Open Cup games. So you're at 46. They get out of the League's Cup group stage. You're talking 47, 48.
You're in playoffs. Yeah. You're playing two right off the bat. I mean, that's 50. Yep. Yeah. There's, there's, there's going to be a ton of minutes to go around and it's why. And that's not without even advancing very far in any of these things. Yeah. It's why when like signings that are sort of veteran depth signings like Areola or, you know, what have you are suggested and people worry about.
minutes you know not being available to younger players there's going to be plenty of minutes to go around and and i think if you have championship aspirations and you want to still be competitive in a bunch of competitions you have to be willing to say we don't have a set 11 guys that are going to start every game that they're healthy you have to you have to rotate and so yeah i think and having paul and georgie is
your primary attacking rotational guys is very good. Yeah. I think the Georgie's role will be more interesting to watch. And I, you know, I suppose that speaks to if the Sounders are being a little bit more conservative about. bringing in another big name player right now. I suppose it's because they do feel like they have younger guys in the squad who deserve to not be completely pushed out of the rotation.
I don't know how much of the thinking that is, but anyway, uh, this is from Bill Jones, uh, trumpet. I think that's, we're going to start calling them. I think that's good. It stands for us. We're just gonna go. bill jones trumpet we're now eight years into you saying his name on the air uh i think you've been saying that for a couple years now too so
Sticking with the idea that defense wins championships, should we expect to have the same defensive prowess next year? Are there any moves we need to make to secure what we have, maybe reinforce our depth, or even improve it? Sure, I want a DP attacker. But the team taught me to love watching $10 million attackers leave Lumenfield empty-handed. So we got a similar question last year before the season.
uh or at the end of the season some sometime during the off season and i gave pretty much the same answer i'm going to give now which is that we should not expect them to be as good as they were this year we should expect them to be good i think they're going to be Again, one of the best defensive teams in the league. But I just don't think you can count on being that good defensively year in and year out. Although, this is like four of the last five years there have been one of the top.
two or three defenses yeah i mean yeah it's true it's uh i think the odds of the sounders being as good defensively as they were this year next year are probably better than the odds of albert rusnak having as good of a year as he did right so uh i don't know if that's good or bad but but i just i don't think you can assume
that they sure yeah yeah you know will be as good um and technically they weren't as good this year they they gave up 35 goals versus 32 here okay fair enough um but uh yeah so i
I think they're still going to be very, very good defensively. In terms of reinforcing the depth, it's interesting. We talked about Nathan, I think, on the last show and how we sort of... the decision whether or not to bring him back got a little more difficult uh ultimately they decided not to and so i think he's we really like bell and he played a lot more than nathan did this year um
but you can't assume that Reagan and, and Yamar are going to be as healthy. And then you've also got more competitions that you're playing in. So Bell is going to get more minutes. And so do you feel comfortable with Stuart Hawkins picking up?
the minutes that that would have gone to bell had nathan come back or whoever right or do you feel like you need to bring in another veteran center back i think that's a big question i think if you are planning to move to three at the back you probably need to have at least two center backs you feel really comfortable with getting a decent chunk of minutes so i wouldn't mind some some defensive depth um yeah because i think it's it's going to be tested just like the depth everywhere else
Yeah, it will be interesting to see what ends up happening with this Leo Bernie guy who they signed, who I will admit was completely off my radar. I guess I knew the name vaguely. But the Sounders are really high on this guy. He spent four years at University of Pennsylvania. He was a four-year all Ivy League first team. He won the Ivy League Defender of the Year twice.
He was on Ballard FC for three seasons. Sounders watched him a lot. He played, I think, all four years. He played like three or four years with the Sounders Academy. I don't know that he's... you know, MLS ready, but he's the kind of player who you'd be thrilled to get out of the draft. And it's not unheard of. I mean, he's 23 years old, so he's not, he's at an age where he could potentially play. I don't.
think the Sounders necessarily feel like they have to go out and get, I bring this up because I don't know that the Sounders feel like they have to go out and get a veteran center back. I think Stuart Hawkins can also manage more minutes than he I mean he effectively didn't play last year I think he could probably you know if he if he continues to bulk up I think he can be a player who can take some minutes
knew who can go back there. I suppose Josh Atencio even can move back into center back if you're going to be playing three at the back. So, I mean, I don't think they... feel like they shouldn't feel like they have to go out and make big or you know even like a like they i hope they would not go out and spend five hundred thousand dollars on a third center back i'll say that which is what they did on nathan yep
Yeah, I think that's reasonable. I think in hindsight, not bringing back Nathan was a pretty obvious decision. He just played so well in the playoffs that it hurt a little more than I was expecting it to, I guess, to let him go.
yeah it was funny because up until the that playoff performance it was almost like he was the most obvious guy to not bring back and then i was shocked at how many people were really like no i really wanted to bring him back which i get i mean he he played well and i hope he land somewhere because he he's a i think he's a good player yeah i think he's a very good defender but uh yeah i mean it's that money could probably be better elsewhere uh next one's from tim hamilton uh
it's a two-part question uh who's writing the check checks for dps and if the sounders sell a player like obed for 10 million dollars what's the breakdown as far as where the money can be used so As far as who writes the check for the DPs, that's ownership. You know, Adrian is the majority owner. I don't know if he actually owns 50 plus 1%, but he writes the biggest part of that check. But I think my understanding is every owner...
basically pays an even share, not an even share, their percentage share of any sort of like capital expenses like that. Although maybe it's not quite that. It might be a little different. Maybe there's some sort of operating budget that it comes out of. I don't know exactly, but I mean, Adrian is the person that essentially has to green light it. So I suppose you could put it on him.
And if they sell a player like Obed, they can convert $3 million of that into general allocation money. They get to keep the... Because he's a homegrown player, they keep all of it. And then the other seven has to be reinvested into the team. But what counts as reinvestment into the team is sort of a grab bag of stuff. It could be things like... future transfer fees but i think it can also be things like funding the academy or or maybe even funding infrastructure like long acres so uh
it can go to a lot of places but the i think the thing most people care about is the general allocation money and three million of that but you can only do three million for all if you like one of the things that's interesting if you were to trade let's just say that they were to sell read
for 5 million and Obed for 10, theoretically, they could convert 6 million of that into general allocation money, but you can only do 3 million in a year. So they would have to stagger that in a way where... the payments were, you know, maybe not all coming in at once so that they spread out the general allocation money over multiple seasons.
Yeah, I mean, aren't transfer fees typically played in Stallmans anyway? They are, yeah. So that wouldn't be super strange to do that, but yeah. Right, yeah. I do... I can imagine that that sounds dumb to have that restriction. But when you think about what a team having $6 million in general allocation money at one time could do to the competitive balance, I kind of get it. because that's i mean that's basically another full payroll outside of dps that you could just be spending money on so
Yeah, this is from Everett Sounder. Are there any free agents within the league this offseason that could legitimately add to this team? Yeah, I think we looked through the list pretty... uh you know pretty closely and i think the only really the name that really popped out that was interesting was jeremy abopsy who was a really good player at one point um
But I just am not sold on being worth taking a punt on at this point. Other than it would be nice to have him not playing against us wherever he ends up. Because he is... terrorize this for years there are a lot of great players who would have really helped like three years ago um if you know if they had been available um
But right now, maybe not as much. But yeah, you know, we could have had Carlos Vela or Jackson Ewell, Victor Wanyama. Lots of the notable players. They just aren't really any good anymore.
Yeah, I thought this year's crop had a lot of players who should fetch multiple offers. Jack Elliott, to me, is sort of the cream of the... free agent crop i don't i honestly don't understand why the union turned down his option he he's on like unless he had some huge raise but he was he was on nine hundred thousand dollars last year and he was by some metrics like
the best defender in the league at 29. So I don't quite understand why they turned down his option. So I would think he, he's going to be a hot commodity. Edward at West does another one. I'm not saying the Sounders should go after these players necessarily, but there's a few guys out there. I did a story today that highlighted Jeremy Obobese as potentially like a backup striker.
I also highlighted Yamil Asad, who is kind of a wingback. He was at FC Cincinnati most recently. That would be an interesting one. And then who was the other player I highlighted? Oh, man, I should I should have had that ready. But in any case, it was I don't necessarily think the centers are going to be super active in the.
in the free agent market but it would be interesting uh the other one was latif blessing that's right latif blessing oh yeah very flexible player uh he you know i wrote that he has his performances have raged from budding superstar to can't get on the field which i feel like is a pretty fair way of of saying it but um yeah i don't know it'll be interesting i i think the sounders are
Maybe less likely to do anything on free agency if they get both these trades done that they're trying to do. So. Yeah. plan accordingly i suppose the jack elliott thing i guess i somehow missed that he was uh that's interesting maybe i mean maybe if there's a trade market for or any kind of market for yamar maybe that's a yeah i mean he's he's a young he's younger than yamar
But I would think that anyone who's willing to trade for Yamar would just sign Jack Elliott, right? Yeah. Yep. All right. Last one is from Klaxon5. And this is him saying this. This is not me saying this, just to be clear. Nice work to Sounder at Heart and Nico specifically.
Well, I am saying the part about Nico specifically. On breaking the Jesus Ferreira story, without giving away too much, what is the life cycle of reporting a rumor like this? How long is it from the time you first hear the name to hitting publish? I would say it usually depends on a few things. Like sometimes it's it's like an hour or, you know, it depends on where you get the the information from. Because there are certain sources that you feel that you need to get.
multiple sources from because you can't just trust this person by themselves right and then there's other stories where it's like well this is the story like they are the source right yeah so With, I mean, I can tell you with the Jesus Ferreira thing, Nico had that story and we published it probably within a couple hours of it, maybe three.
three or four hours probably because we made a lot of phone calls to sort of make sure things were we were reporting accurately and I think we ended up settling on language that felt good and as stood up we like we didn't get out over our skis as they say so uh yeah i mean it's it's usually hours i would say is is probably the most common you know i i will say i i go back to the uh
long acres story i which i don't know if people care about this stuff but i broke the long acres centers were going to be building a training facility at long acres and that was like weeks if not months of of going back and forth and making sure I had all my information correct. Uh, so it's like, it can, it's a, I guess it depends is the answer.
That Longacre story was one that you were working on for long enough that I kept forgetting that it wasn't public yet. I'm like almost saying something about it. I worked on it for a really long time because the original sourcing on it was not. Uh, I, I didn't, I felt like I had to do a lot of double checking. So, yeah, that's, yeah, that's a, that's a good example of, of the, those two stories are good examples of the extremes of, of how, how much time.
I can tell you that for the most part, we very rarely will go with something unless we feel really good about it. If that helps. That's one of the nice things about... Sounder and her being independent, and I'm saying this as somebody that doesn't really write for the site, so I feel sort of separate from that part of it a little bit, and this isn't back patting as much as it might sound, is that you don't have to write the like...
oh i saw a tweet about a rumor well that'll do some page views so i guess i gotta put it out kind of stuff yeah which is the thing that made me hate writing about soccer i was having to do that for a few years so um i would imagine that that's quite a relief for for you and the rest of the folks yeah on the editorial staff yeah although it's it's funny because i so we just this week i had to i just bend a story that was about gregory
the guy who the Sounders actually were pursuing at one point. There was a story in the Brazilian media, I think, about how the Sounders were looking to sign him. And I had actually written the story, but I wanted to make sure it was accurate. And so I made some calls and was told like, there is absolutely no truth to the story. Yeah. Right. So yeah. Yeah.
uh that's what that happens but we do real reporting i guess is my point that's the that's the main the main takeaway here but all right well that's it right that's all the questions that's all the questions there were a few um that we had to cut for time But I tried to cut ones where we mostly answered them in other places. So well, yeah, thanks to everyone for submitting these. I don't know when we'll do. We'll probably do another off season one. I think so.
But our cadence of recording will probably be less frequent. But it depends. I don't know. We might have one next week if things are going the way they're looking in terms of the signing. So if there's stuff to talk about, we'll keep going.
recording i don't think we'll take like the whole winter break off like we have done previously but we probably will slow down our cadence a little bit i would imagine yeah so this is sort of the the rap show i guess on 2024 season and and looking forward will be well i guess we already did the rap on the season and now we're already in the off season but whatever you understand what i'm saying or i wanted to
It was another good year, Aaron. This has been spectacular. It was, yeah. We did a good job, Jeremy. I think we did. I think we high-fived. I'm pretty sure that we put out an episode every week. every week of the main of the main line show which has got to be a first oh we did 11 more shows this year than we've ever done no question about that and honestly i might have had as much fun as i've had doing it good oh
I'm happy to hear that. That's good to hear. Also, thank you to Full Pool Wines for making it through yet another year of sponsorship. That's amazing. They've been sponsoring us since 2011. That is a long time. I gotta go pay them a visit. I got some nice vino waiting for me up there. And thank you to all of our listeners and subscribers and readers. We are shaping up for a very good 2025.
When we did our one-year anniversary show, I made a comment about how we had just crossed over 2,500 and we were sort of flirting. We were going back and forth over 2,500. subscribers we are solidly over 2600 now so that's uh you know so we continue to grow and that is great i'm thrilled about that we uh
I will remind everyone that if you have a Sounders fan in your life and you want to gift them a subscription to Sounder at Heart, you can do that. I would just go to Sounder at Heart. We have a merch table. that is linked in the top nav bar. And there are links to buying gifts, gift subscriptions, as well as all sorts of affiliate links if you are inclined to buy people.
All sorts of things that you might want during this holiday season. You can do that there. And with that said, I guess I should probably sign off. I'm Jeremiah O'Shan. Signing off for Aaron Campo and Lickit. This is No Sarietes. Remember, you'll never yell alone.