Welcome, one and all, to Part 3 of the WWMD offseason series. If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, there ya go. I would recommend Part 2 before this bad boy because they are conjoined at the hip.
In Part 1, we walked through the expiring contracts: what Michael (me) would’ve done, what CITY actually did, and where those two paths diverged. In Part 2, we focused on the roster, going position by position and player by player to assess strengths, weaknesses, and overall squad composition.
Now, in Part 3, we get to do the fun stuff.
The fantasy stuff.
The transfer stuff.
This is the part that was largely put on ice while we waited on clarity at the top — first a Sporting Director, then a Head Coach.
Well, now we’ve got Wray and Damet, so damnit… let’s do this thing. (I promise you, there are 150+ Damet jokes locked and loaded for 2026.)
Before we dive in, a couple of important disclaimers.
I’m operating within a limited scope — one defined almost entirely by publicly available data. And that matters because publicly available data excludes nearly all tracking data, which is enormously helpful for evaluating players as athletes, for lack of a better term. There are plenty of players out there who post strong statistical profiles, but whose physical limitations — too slow, too small, not explosive enough — might quietly undermine a move to MLS, or to St. Louis specifically. Those flags often live in data we simply don’t have access to.
In a perfect world, an internal recruitment department would filter players using a blend of statistical data and tracking data, layer in video analysis and traditional scouting, and then build target lists from there. We don’t have that luxury here.
So instead, we’re taking a less-than-ideal but still structured approach:
First, we define specific “roles” for each roster need, with clear statistical benchmarks tied to how those roles function on the field.
Then, use that statistical data to filter out players who don’t meet what I believe should be CITY’s baseline standards. This data is limited in which leagues/players are included. Fallou Fall, for example, would’ve been excluded.
If that passes, we move to Transfermarkt — one of my least favorite websites, but unfortunately, the most comprehensive valuation tool available to us laymen.
From there, we apply some reality checks: filtering out players who simply aren’t coming to MLS, or at least not to St. Louis — an honest acknowledgment of where CITY sits in the global food chain.
If the financials seem feasible, we do the impossible: hunt down match footage or highlights to get some sense of on-pitch athleticism and movement.
If a player checks all of those boxes, they make a list — and then I filter that list down even further, to get what you will read here.
Let’s get into it.
Going back to the Audit - by my count, this roster has:
8 “needs”
4 question marks, each for different reasons
3 players who should be gone before the season kicks off in February
That’s a lot of work to accomplish with only 6 available roster slots.
Mathematically, it borders on impossible.
The Needs
and here are the roster spots:
Centerback
A couple of issues here - we don’t know if Damet is planning on a back four or five. I am operating under the Great Assumption of 2026. What is the Great Assumption, you may ask, and is that a holy day of obligation? The Great Assumption is that Damet is going to play 3/5 defenders, or 3 centerbacks, and no, it is not a holy day of obligation, so no need to cancel your lunch plans.
With centerbacks aged 31, 30, 28, 21, + 21 (JGR), CITY needs a prime-aged player to bridge the gap not only in just age, but also quality, with the Kessler-sized hole here.
So what am I looking for? A ball-progressive right-sided CB in his prime. A player who puts up good defensive metrics but also wants to push the ball vertically.
Henry Kessler
Age: 27
Current Club: N/A
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: Expired
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $2.1M
The first option is to just bring back Henry Kessler. He’s 27, a starting RCB, and will likely cost less than just about anyone else of a similar skillset.
The issue? He can’t stay on the pitch, and CITY as an organization has a truly terrible record in physiotherapy. So much so, in fact, that it would surprise no one if Kessler were hesitant in returning based solely on that track record.
Emanuel Mammana
Age: 29
Current Club: Vélez Sarsfield
League / Country: Argentina
Contract Status: 2028
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $3M
A strong, ball-progressing center back at peak age. He’s under contract through 2028, which means prying him out of Argentina would require a meaningful fee, and likely a significant salary commitment. And alongside Fall, an experienced CB who’s played in Argentina and Europe and won titles in both would be a strong deleopmental partner. But even more so, he would significantly raise the technical ability of our backline. At 29, this would be a win-now move with little to no resale upside, and it would likely require lots of TAM to do so.
Aiham Ousou
Age: 25
Current Club: Royal Charleroi SC
League / Country: Belgium
Contract Status: 2028
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $3.5M
A current Syrian international who came through the Swedish youth setup and earned a senior call-up there as well, Aiham profiles as an aggressive ball-carrying center back with a well-rounded radar. At 25 — unlike Mammana above — there is real resale value if CITY were willing to spend the likely $3–4M required for his signature.
There’s another factor here, and one that checks a box firmly in the “good” column: he’s Charleroi’s captain. Twenty-five, current international, experience across four European leagues, multilingual, and a captain — on paper, that’s a fantastic résumé to both partner with and help develop Mr.Fallou Fall.
Those are three examples of the RCB profile I believe CITY should be targeting. All project as higher-end TAM acquisitions, with a twofold objective: find a player who immediately makes CITY better, and find one who actively helps make Fallou Fall better. If both boxes are checked, it’s a success.
Under that assumption — with Player X signed on a TAM deal — CITY would be left with three senior roster slots and three to four supplemental slots to work with as we move forward.
Now, the infamous left back.
Left Back
CITY need so much here. A good starting point would be finding any left back who sticks at the club for more than six months.
But CITY don’t just need a left back — they need two. And this was easily the most frustrating position group to work through. The data is often flat-out uninspiring, and without knowing whether a guy is a wingback in a back five or a fullback in a back four — which are wildly different jobs — it becomes even more difficult to evaluate what actually translates.
Vasilios Zagaritis
Age: 24
Current Club: Heerenveen
League / Country: Netherlands
Contract Status: 2028
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $2.5M
Vasilios won Serie B with Parma in 2023–24 before making the jump to the Eredivisie, first with Almere City and then to Heerenveen this past summer. He’s started 17 matches, logged nearly 1,500 minutes, and chipped in three goal contributions — while also producing one of the cleaner radars I came across in this exercise.
Heerenveen acquired him for roughly $1M, and a 100–200% return would be good business for both sides. For CITY, this checks several long-missing boxes: a legitimate long-term solution at left back, help on the age curve at 24, and real sell-on potential at a position that has laughably been held together by short-term stopgaps. This is a TAM signing all day long.
This next one is not going to blow you away, but with our roster logjam, versatility and cost are important, and you know who offers that?
Conrad Wallem
Age: 25
Current Club: Slavia Praha
League / Country: Czechia
Contract Status: 2027 - $500k
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $2.5M
I know, I know, I know, I know what you’re gonna say… Michael, weren’t you the one that was advocating against signing him permantently? Why yes, yes I was. What’s changed? Two things. First, the price. The rumored asking numbers a year ago were laughably high, and that appears to have cooled. Second, with the Great Assumption, Wallem suddenly makes a ton of sense.
He can play either wingback spot or push higher up the field (I’m still out on him centrally), and if his salary lands anywhere near the ~$500k range from last season, the value proposition shifts dramatically. I’m already spending TAM money at center back and elsewhere — so any opportunity to avoid that while still adding usable, system-fitting talent absolutely needs to be explored.
Andrew Gutman
Age: 29
Current Club: Chicago Fire
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: 2026 - $600k
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $2M
A domestic option who’s spent the last seven years in MLS — and one I would’ve been hesitant to recommend twelve months ago. In 2023 and 2024, he failed to play more than 12 matches for Chicago Fire FC, which was a massive red flag given CITY’s needs and his injury history.
But last season changed the conversation. He made 34 starts, logged nearly 3,000 minutes, and chipped in 11 goal contributions. Friendly reminder: only Hartel and Klauss had more for CITY last year, and no one else cracked double digits.
Is he flashy? No. Is it a sexy signing? Also no. But MLS competence should not be underestimated, and even half that level of production would represent the most productive left back CITY has ever had. He enters the final year of his deal at 29 and should be attainable for a reasonable fee — whether that’s GAM or straight cash.
A quick update of where we are:
Backup Left Back
This one’s going to be quick — partly because there’s an obvious name here, and partly because this is an impossible position to scout. What we’re really hunting for are productive MLS supplemental players. And guess what? No one wants to sell those guys. When they do, you end up paying more than they’re worth, and the entire premise of the “bargain” evaporates.
Devin Padelford
Age: 22
Current Club: Minnesota United
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: 2026 - $121K
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $1M
Yes, I can already hear it: Michael, why are we bringing back pieces from a roster that wasn’t good enough? Fair question. My rebuttal is simple — we brought back the wrong guys and let the better ones walk. This is a correction.
Under the Great Assumption of 2026 — a return to a 3/5 ATB — a player who can cover LB, LWB, and LCB, costs supplemental money, and doesn’t need to start is genuinely valuable. We know he can play at this level, and at a reasonable price, the risk is minimal.
And here’s the kicker: it also gives CITY the flexibility to move on from a center back, which I would’ve done 2 months ago, but alas.
Goodbye Yaro. Hello Padelford.
Backup Right Back
Remember the issue with finding a backup LB? Same thing applies here, but with the caveat that we don’t even have a Padelford to snag as a known commodity at a known price.
Is this when we shout “Play the kids!” and play Tyson Pearce? Is another year of MLSNP beneficial to development? If Totland goes down, is the system then reliant upon an 18-year-old kid?
So, while knowing it’s completly foolish to do this in searching for this role, I did it anyway.
Jonathan Dean
Age: 28
Current Club: Chicago Fire
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: 2027 - $130K
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $825K
Continuing the raid of our future division rivals, Dean is a prime aged RB, playing a lot games (29), a decent amount of rotational minutes (1672), and is making a cheap $130k. Would that make it more difficult for Chicago to rationalize selling him, becasue he is so cheap? You bet your butt it does.
But Dean is also a very average MLS player — and that’s not a bad thing. He defends well, likes to dribble, and offers a skill set that complements Totland without being a copy-and-paste.
And yes, this is 100% a waste of both my time and yours in the sense that it’s not exciting nor is it at all predicitive of what will happen, but this is the type of profile that makes sense for CITY: not great, not flashy, just competent MLS depth.
The 6
Here is the current midfield pairing for CITY:
One guy does a lot, the other guy does very little. The goal here is to find a central midfielder who compliments the Lion, increases our defensive stability, and improves our ability to progress the ball centrally. Additionally to that, because Löwen is such a high risk and high volume passer, I think it becomes more important that this player be willing and able to turn and dribble through the opposition to offer a varied possession approach for Damet.
And unfortunatley, there is another question to this conversation in finding Löwen’s partner.
Will Löwen be available?
We don’t know, so anyone here has to be able to pick up the slack.
Now, here are some major improvements.
Emeka Eneli
Age: 26
Current Club: Real Salt Lake
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: 2028 - $375K
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $3M
An all-action midfielder who carries the ball frequently and successfully, a high volume passer, and roams the pitch recovering balls. All things that CITY need in a midfielder. Defensive statistics are notoriously difficult, but in doing this, I have found that Ball Recoveries tell one heck of a story. Players that have accumulate BR tend to either be where the ball is - indicating pressing, counter pressing, defensive covering, etc, or they are roaming the pitch as a ball-winner. Either way, that would be an improvement for CITY.
At 26, he’s prime aged, he doesn’t make a fortune, and we know he can hack it in the Western Conference (RIP for one last ride in 2026). One more check mark? Not an international slot.
Yassine Titraoui
Age: 22
Current Club: Royal Charleroi SC
League / Country: Belgium
Contract Status: 2027
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $6M
My DP signing.
There isn’t much else to say other than this: he’s really, really good. Transformatively good. He does everything — and he does it at a very high level. Imagine him alongside Eduard Löwen.
You don’t have to imagine it. Here’s what it could look like.
Yassine Titraoui is valued around $6M, just 22 years old, and playing in Belgium — one of Europe’s best talent-exporting leagues. This is where you push all the chips in. This is where you spend $7–8M and sign a player who instantly becomes one of the best midfielders in MLS.
All of a sudden, you have a midfield where Löwen and Titraoui can operate freely, move the ball vertically, and solve problems on their own — while Marcel Hartel floats into dangerous areas waiting for that ball. And maybe most importantly, it eliminates CITY’s biggest kryptonite.
When Löwen is on the field, every MLS manager worth a penny presses and man-marks him out of the game, knowing there’s no one next to him who can independently figure it out. With Titraoui, you could argue Löwen might be the worse of the two — which would be a laughable upgrade on the current reality.
This exercise is about finding roles rather than names — but this is the exception. This is the guy. Red smoke in the app.
Everyone appreciates a nice pair of Titraoui.
Nicolás Acevedo
Age: 26
Current Club: Bahia
League / Country: Brazil
Contract Status: 2029
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $5M
A former MLSer from NYCFC, and he plays exactly like the Uruguayan stereotype — skillful, feisty, and extremely hard to play through. He’s a high-quality ball-winner who can also progress the ball cleanly, a valuable combo.
Currently a rotational piece at Bahia, the question is straightforward: would he welcome a return to MLS for significantly more minutes than the 1,690 he logged across 18 starts last season? At 26, there’s still upside here — but the long contract and $5M valuation make this one more complicated than it first appears.
Alhassan Yusuf
Age: 25
Current Club: New England Revolution
League / Country: MLS
Contract Status: 2027- $850k
Estimated Value (Transfermarkt): $3.5M
Yusuf profiles very similarly to Eneli — an all-action midfielder with high passing volume, strong dribble success, and plenty of ball recoveries — just at a much steeper salary. Yusuf and Eneli kept popping up throughout this research, and when names repeat, that usually means something.
The g+ metrics were brutal to Yusuf this season. Hopefully New England’s internal evaluations say the same, because that’s the path to availability. He’s still a good player, even if this year’s card is covered in red, look at those dots in 2024… and if the Revs are looking to move on, this is a profile worth splashing some cash on.
Those are four good profiles. What am I doing? Signing Titraoui AND Yusuf/Eneli. The Löwen question marks loom, and there is simply not enough quality on the bench of this CITY squad to make up for it by only bringing in one player.
It might cost ever bit of $8-10M, but bringing in two of these players allows CITY one more shot in this closing window of our best players.
So, where are we after all of that?
If you’re keeping score, CITY are now full on Senior Roster slots, with one Supplemental slot remaining — possibly two, if one of the Homegrowns (Glover or Pearce) slides into a Slot 31 designation.
Doing the rough math, CITY are spending approximately $9M on Zagaritis and Titraoui. Kessler comes with no transfer fee, Padelford and Dean are GAM-able, and Eneli/Yusuf would likely require some combination of cash and GAM. All in, you’re probably looking at $11–12M in total spend.
For a club that’s barely dipped its toe into the transfer market since inception, that’s an astounding number. Is it outlandish? Absolutely. Is it realistic? That’s the point.
These signings don’t just aim to marginally improve a team enough to sneak into the playoffs. The goal here is to compete for trophies — and when you’re relying on aging, post-peak stars, the window to do that is short. You either push the chips in, or you waste the prime years entirely.
And importantly, look at the age profile of these moves:
Kessler (27): prime
Zagaritis (24): prime
Titraoui (22): pre-prime
Eneli (26): prime
Padelford (22): pre-prime
Dean (28): late-prime
This dramatically resets the age curve, as we talked about in the Audit, but also shown here:
No longer is the roster devoid of meaningful contribution from prime-aged players. This is a squad built to be good now, but also one that avoids falling off the Father Time cliff under these contracts — and in several cases, retains real resale value.
But it does leave one need unfilled.
And yes — it’s the one many will argue is the most important.
A couple thoughts on why I ultimately landed here.
First, MLS SuperDraft pick Zack Lillington likely lands on the Supplemental roster. His positional versatility across the back line and wide areas, paired with his technical ability and size, makes him a strong bet to earn meaningful minutes. He likely occupies that final non–Slot 31 Supplemental spot.
Second, remember the Great Assumption of 2026. If (when) CITY return to a 3/5-at-the-back, the depth chart begins to make a lot more sense — especially with Lillington included.
Yes, there’s a glaring need at LW. I agree. But under the Great Assumption, that role functionally disappears. It becomes Hartel — not a weakness, but a strength.
The result? CITY fill every available roster slot (with the potential for one more Supplemental, depending on Slot 31 usage), retain an international slot, and arrive at a roster that is coherent, balanced, and competitive.
It’s a lot. I get it. And your goals may be different than mine.
I want to see a world where we didn’t waste the prime years of Klauss, Hartel, and Bürki only to look back on a handful of missed playoffs. I’m aiming higher — for talent that provides the framework of a team capable of actually challenging for titles.
Will this happen? Probably not.
Will CITY spend $10M? Doubtful.
Would these players even entertain St. Louis? Who knows.
But that’s why people love the transfer window — and transfer talk in general. Because it offers that beacon of light, that lighthouse on a distant shore, suggesting there’s something out there, cutting through the darkness.
It’s called hope.
Be hopeful with me, #AllForCITY.
Forever and always.
Really well done as always. On my priority wishlist is a DP -level 6 to compliment Löwen. What a spine! And it frees up Hartel and Klauss from having to track back so much. Maybe Hartel doesn’t have to run a marathon every game.