It is not that simple. Because there are a zillion factors that go into assembling a great team, and then managing them to do that.

And that's truth.

I also don't think I'd go out and make a huge signing either, given the circumstances. But it doesn't mean we're in a great spot, either.

I think waving it off by saying spending money doesn't matter is willful denial.

Like, it's not as simple as that, but it's also kind of silly to think it doesn't have a much better chance of improving the team than not spending.

They do, and that's because they got lucky with their spine, the way we did years ago.

I think they paid all of 500k for Berhalter. Plus a couple of players having career years. Brian White.

I think my interpretation is that we pretty much stopped splashing. PDLV counts, in my book. But other than him? No Oba, no Deuce, no Lodeiro, no Ruidiaz.

Been a long time since we had that ambition. And I think it's missing Garth, and Adrian has just gotten too conservative.

Yeah. It's not as simple as "spend money and you win."

But it's probably true that if you don't spend something, you can't win. Vancouver was very good this year. And then they splashed for Thomas Mueller, and now they're great.

And the reason why there's no evidence of that, no way to prove it, is because all other factors are not equal. Not in the slightest.

At the risk of maybe stating the obvious, spending money is not a guarantee of spending it well.

However, I find it impossible to believe that spending more money doesn't have the potential to give you a better chance of success. That is, all other factors being equal, money matters.

It's not. But neither is peanut buttering all his goals across a bunch of leagues with varying teams/roles and assuming he'll score 14 goals in a season, or anywhere near again instead of having his g/90 plummet.

Apologies. You said a goal every other 90. Yeah, that's about right.

Pretty strange that you think the only stat that matters for a DP is the number of goals they score.

After eight years, I think we can say he won't be scoring goals at that rate.

In 2023, he played 300 fewer minutes and scored a total of 5 goals, his top performance in MLS before this year.

He's scored 5 goals in a season four times.

I think we can say he's good for about 5 goals a season.

K. Scoring 14 goals doesn't make you a DP-level player. But do you.

Did he have a career year? Yes. Would you put him on a DP contract? No.

It's super-easy to argue he isn't a DP-level player.

He's never scored a third that many goals in his entire career except in 2019, in the USL Championship. It's an outlier season, and he won't repeat it or come close again.

They are playing Vancouver in the MLS Western Conference Final.