Coffee with the Caps, Monday December 28

Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope the holidays were bright and merry for those of you who celebrated (for those who do not, I hope you found some brightness and merriment in something else).

We are in the generally quiet week between Christmas and New Years. It is even quieter in MLS world usually, as January is when the real rumors start to heat up as the European transfer window opens and things start to crystalize ahead of the next season.

The Caps have gotten a bit of a jump start, however, with a fresh round of rumors linking them to a would-be young DP attacker.

Now, this isn’t really a surprise. The Caps’ needs for attacking talent and stated desire to bring in some young DP players means that there will likely be many more rumors attached to them than players eventually brought on.

I won’t dive super deep into this one for that reason — not only are Huddersfield Town interested, other English and European teams are said to be weighing a bid. FC Cincinnati is also reportedly linked to the 20-year-old, meaning the Caps would have competition even from within MLS.

Vene Casagrande appears to be a pretty legit Brazilian journalist focusing on Flamengo but there still are too many other teams involved at the moment to give a ton of clarity. Sounds like Flamengo could use the cash and wouldn’t mind selling, with Casagrande saying a move is all but inevitable.

Lincoln has only one goal in 230-some odd minutes of Seria A play this season but has fared much better in Copa Libertadores play, with a pair of tallies in 3 matches played. He’s gotten some serious looks at the Brazilian U-20 level and has spent about three full years with the senior Flamengo side. If you’re a Youtube highlights person, his are pretty impressive:

This move in general would leave more questions than answers. What would it mean for Theo Bair (probably not good things)? Why would the Caps keep Tos Ricketts around (because he’s Canadian)? It would almost certainly be a move to fill the shoes of Fredy Montero, confirming his likely departure.

But really the reason why I’m not sure I buy this is because it would seem mightily reckless for the Caps to aggressively be pursuing two young DP players when it is still unclear what that rule will look like.

It is all but guaranteed they would have at least one young DP slot to play with (Deibar Caicedo, anyone?). But beyond that there is uncertainty. Will there be three slots? Will it be fungible based off how many senior DP slots are used? We don’t know and I can’t imagine the teams themselves know.

That makes planning a bit hard and I suspect that’s why we’re seeing the rumor mill staying well ahead of reality.

In truth, the Lincoln deal would be a coup for the Caps. He has been compared favorably to some really impressive strikers and while he wouldn’t be long for MLS, he would be a chance for the Caps to put out a formidable striker pairing. I just wouldn’t hold your breath that there’s anything to this.

Shameless Self Promotion

It got lost in the Christmas week shuffle but we put out our final Team Takeover piece, this time for the TAM players. A lot of agreement here but still an interesting capstone to a fun series

Best of the Rest

A new episode of The Third Sub with guest Tom Bogert of mlssoccer.com, where they talk about the Young DP rule (among other things)

MLS veteran Lee Nguyen is departing the states to head to Vietnam, his second stint in the V League. Best wishes to Nguyen, a guy I always wished the Caps could have nabbed

In Lionel Messi’s tell all interview with a Spanish TV station he said he would like to play in MLS, meaning we’re going to get a thousand news cycles from one throwaway comment

CONCACAF is said to be tweaking the Champions League. An interesting sneak peek here