Editor’s Note: I kid you not, less than 20 seconds after I hit “Publish” on this post, Jonathan Lintner with the Courier-Journal published this. Fondy and MAG RAM are back! Rejoice! We’re gonna win the league!
If you listen to Barrel Proof regularly (and you should!), you’d know that the ever-plugged-in Phillip Durbin had already figured out that Louisville City had granted contract extensions to Scott Goodwin, Conor Shanosky, Kadeem Dacres, Juan Guzman, Niall McCabe, Greg Ranjitsingh, Ilija Ilic, Sean Reynolds, Nate Polak, Cameron Lancaster, and Enrique Montano. Phil figured that out because the USL released each USL club’s transaction log back on December 12, so all that stuff is public information.
If you don’t listen to Barrel Proof, shame on you, but you probably noticed that Louisville City has made quite the to-do over re-signing all of the above, plus Tarek Morad and Guy Abend. This is good! That leaves our 2016 roster at 13 returning players, and continuity is good for most clubs.
Players that are still TBD include Magnus Rasmussen, Aodhan Quinn, Charlie Adams, Adam West, and Kevin Cosestte., Matt Fondy is reputed to be signed to a two-year deal with the club. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be wearing LCFC purple come March, as there are rumors that his contract could be sold to a bigger club.
James O’Connor has said that he expects to sign some new players, too. If we assume Matt Fondy does leave the club for greener pastures, it brings some cause for concern as he scored nearly half of the team’s goals last season. It also remains to be seen whether O’Connor will stick to his hybrid 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 setup or if he’ll make adjustments in City’s style of play due to the loss of Fondy and Bryan Burke.
I’d like to see some upgrades in the forward midfield, myself; another player like Rasmussen, a chance-creator with some technical skill on the ball. We also don’t really know if O’Connor thinks he’s got enough depth in the back line, or if he still plans to go after a right back and let Montano, Morad, or Reynolds play higher up the field. Either way, it will be fun to watch roster moves in the coming weeks and months. Keep up with it all here!