Since the TAM era began (2015), four of the six Shields have been won by teams with some version of a "build from within" mentality

2015: RBNY
2016: FC Dallas
2018: RBNY
2020: Philly

TFC, who won in '17, also build from within in addition to spending a shit-ton on DPs & imports https://twitter.com/cboehm/status/1325899009970614279

IMO national punditry has gone way too easy on teams that don't invest in their own young players and win nothing, given that there's now a pretty established path to the top in this league.

It's a failure of the way the league is covered.

Everybody fixates on DPs instead. And I get it -- I do, too! And I firmly believe that if the Red Bull mothership had opened up the checkbook for one more big DP during that four-year run, they'd have been a dynasty. It's easy to point to that, and not wrong.

*and* as TFC '17 showed, if you clear both paths (build from within + spend on the high-end), you can build a freaking juggernaut. Gimme both.

But folks around the league need to do a better job of understanding what RBNY, Dallas and now Philly have done.

And the teams that aren't doing that? Well, if they're not winning, they deserve at least the same amount of criticism that the teams who don't spend big on DPs get. At least!

IMO they deserve more, because developing Tyler Adams begets the next Tyler Adams or, to make it more obvious: Developing Reggie Cannon begets Bryan Reynolds.

You win with these players, you profit off of selling these players, and you help them live their dreams.

This is what the model is in MLS now. If you're not making that investment into your youth and you're not creating a culture -- from the top down and bottom up -- that encourages player development, you're leaving both points and cash on the table.