Orlando City's on-loan forward Daryl Dike continues to enjoy a successful loan spell at Championship side Barnsley, meaning the natural next step is the player being linked to a move away from MLS. In Dike's case, that link comes from a BBC profile with reporting that Orlando turned down a $10 million from one of the Premier League's big six clubs.
It inspired a debate amongst the Extratime crew this week: What is the right price for Orlando to agree to sell Dike?
Andrew Wiebe thinks this could be a pivotal moment not just for Orlando, but for the league as it begins building a habit of selling talented young players to European clubs. As the habit builds, it is currently hard to gauge valuation but building the habit means that might not always be the case.
"For Orlando City and for MLS, I think this is a really big moment," Wiebe said. "I think this is a moment for them to sort of enter the market and behave in the market in a way where they're not sort of the noobs 'cause there has been a little bit of that. Not getting max value or losing a player like Cyle Larin, whatever it might be. Now is the time, the way MLS is positioning itself with the quality of talent that's coming through, particularly on the younger side, for the league and the clubs and the executives and agents and players to just be a little bit more strategic."
Carr also referenced Larin, who left Orlando for Turkey's Besiktas in 2018 after a protracted saga. Carr feels Orlando is much better situated to not just to negotiate a deal for Dike, but move on from him because of the team's improvements since then.
"I think in the past, [Orlando are] saying, 'Well, we've got a lot up in the air. It's a volatile situation. We've had multiple coaches. This player is really one of the main, key assets,'" Carr said. "It's not to diminish Dike's influence on the team. I think he can be an even bigger player for Orlando City, but they're in a better position with [Oscar] Pareja coming in and the way that they have a system and a culture all around it and talent around it which really allowed Dike to flourish and take his time developing around the season."
Orlando's official stance at the moment is that Dike will be back after his loan ends in May, but with a loan spell that has so far seen the player score three goals in 10 matches, Carr thinks he may be ready to for a big move.
"There's always a question still of saying, this is what it looks like in MLS. It looks really good in Dike's case — just was fantastic, especially in the back half of the season, but then the loan. It's really worked out for him at Barnsley," Carr said. "He looks ready from what I'm seeing over there."
Hear more on Dike and the latest in MLS on this week's episode of Extratime.
