As a reminder, a 3/4ths majority is needed for polled rule changes. That means no more than 4 against. We are now at 4 against.
What I’ll say is this.
We’ve talked about it and debated the pros and cons before.
We are currently maybe 10 days from the opening of free agency. And I know that all of us have a list of players we are after, as we do virtually every free agent window. For every roster spot you add beyond 32 and think may add something of value down the road, just add 13 more because for every 1 for you there’s 13 for everyone else. Go ahead and slash potentially 14 guys from your list right now. And re-think the free agency window in potentially 10 days. If we add 2 U21 players, then do the same with 28 players.
I think there’s a misconception that more bids and more spots means fewer targets missed. I know that some of you have been scarred by missing out on players you really wanted. I’m also saying that about myself, haha. I swear the last two things Luigi did here was outbid me for Fabio Miretti and Giorgio Scalvini. But I don’t think just having the spots available means that you’d miss fewer targets. I think the more spots available to fill and the higher the roster number, period, will mean you’ll miss more targets, not less. That’s my opinion but that’s how I see it, always looking at the bigger picture here.
And don’t get me wrong, I often pine to Xavi over text about how I wished that I had 1 or 2 more spots on my U21 team. I do because I scout that much and watch that much footy and read about it and study it and obsess about it like the majority of you. But it would come at a high cost, frankly. And some of us that have been doing it a while are notably (see above) against expanding for that reason and others.
I appreciate the fervor everyone has for collecting players and assembling teams. I think the lack of additional spaces makes the decisions harder, which is a positive of the league’s. And I think it creates a healthy free agent market at Senior and Youth levels, which create exciting transfer windows, which is another positive for the league.
And I ultimately don’t think waiting on or potentially missing on a 16 year old is worth jeopardizing that by expanding any more. In fact, if we found 2 additional owners to expand to 16 teams, I would strongly recommend downsizing rosters at U21 at least back to 30, if not smaller. And the same with Senior teams. Wouldn’t that be a bitch.
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