This episode of the Hudson River Blue Podcast drops the same day the MLS Primary Transfer Window closes, so our conversation is dominated by talk of New York City FC and transfers.

Before wading deep into transfer discussion, hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan and producer Andrew Leigh review New York City FC's depressing 2-0 defeat at Gillette Stadium against New England Revolution.

Nothing went well against the Revs so we've got plenty of (bad) things to cover, like failed Pascal Jansen lineup experiments, the team's continued attacking struggles when playing away from home, and whether or not NYCFC's season is already approaching or in a downward spiral.

That discussion of what went wrong in New England naturally blends into transfer talk, because the performance again highlighted glaring NYCFC weaknesses that could use addressing by way of new player signings.

Knowing what we know about New York City FC nine games into the 2025 season, and without a wave of new signings set to burst through the door on Transfer Deadline Day, we try to answer an important question: How good can this year's team really be, and what should expectations be given how little there's been in the way of incoming transfers since the summer of 2024?

That gets John Baney going on a solid rant about City Football Group and the NYCFC front office's approach to team-building and the disparities between how the team talks and acts publicly, and how they actually operate with their transactions or lack thereof.

We spend less time than usual in this episode previewing NYCFC's next match, blame the transfer deadline, but we do share our predictions for the trip across the northern border of the United States to face Toronto FC – a team with only one win this season but one, like New England, with just enough momentum and motivation to cause NYCFC problems.

Listen to the full episode and then find more of our coverage by following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and by reading all our work at HudsonRiverBlue.com.