The European season has come and gone meaning that some American players could very well be on the move this summer.
Matt Turner and Jonathan Tomkinson are just two players that are set to become free agents. Turner, who has served as Crystal Palace’s No. 2 goalkeeper, has barely played this season, opening the door for a potential exit from Selhurst Park.
Tomkinson, who has departed Norwich City, could very well be on the move to the English third-tier after interest continues to grow in his services.
Donovan Pines, Lynden Gooch, and Matt Olosunde round out the remaining Americans Abroad players that are also set to see their contracts expire.
Here is a closer look at each of the five players:
Matt Turner, Crystal Palace
If Matt Turner wants to be the U.S. men’s national team’s starting goalkeeper in 2026, then he desperately needs to play at club level.
Turner was reduced to only four appearances at Crystal Palace, featuring in the FA Cup and EFL Cup. The 30-year-old has remained behind Dean Henderson in Oliver Glasner’s squad, pondering what’s next for his career.
There has been no news on whether or not Palace will extend Turner’s stay in South London, but for his sake, a move needs to happen.
Lynden Gooch, Stoke City
Fresh off of his second season at Stoke City, 29-year-old Lynden Gooch is set to hit the market.
Gooch made 23 appearances across all competitions for the Potters, registering two assists and playing 1,149 minutes. The veteran fullback/wingback brings over 350 career appearances to the table, something that many English second-tier clubs would welcome.
Stoke City fought off relegation from the EFL Championship, but might not be as lucky in 2025-26.
Matt Olosunde, The New Saints
Matthew Olosunde’s time at in Wales has been frustrating to say the least.
The 27-year-old fullback made just one appearance for The New Saints this season, before an unknown injury forced him to miss ample time. A former Manchester United youth player, Olosunde has struggled for playing time overall since leaving Rotherham United.
It will be curious to see where Olosunde ends up next, but he certainly will want to get his career back on track regardless of where he goes.
Donovan Pines, Barnsley
27-year-old Donovan Pines looks set for a new challenge.
Pines’ contract at EFL League One side Barnsley is set to expire at month’s end, opening the door for the veteran defender to look elsewhere. The former DC United defender scored three goals in 27 appearances this season, but hasn’t featured since March 22.
Could Pines stay in England? It’s possible. However, his best move might be to return to MLS.
Jonathan Tomkinson, Norwich City
Jonathan Tomkinson has left Norwich City and the question remains, where will he go next?
Tomkinson spent the second half of the Scottish Premiership season on loan at Ross County, quickly playing a key role in the squad. The 23-year-old made nine appearances for Norwich City’s Under-23 squad before making 13 appearances for Ross County in the Scottish top-flight.
Despite previous interest from the club, Tomkinson doesn’t look set to stay in Scotland following Ross County’s relegation to the second-tier.
Sources have indicated to SBI that English third-tier clubs Stockport County, Reading, and Rotherham United have all expressed interest in signing Tomkinson this summer ahead of the new season.
The most important thing for Tomkinson is to play regularly and any of those three clubs would offer that experience.
Columbus reportedly turned down a bid from Toulouse for Arfsten (Tom Bogarts). No amount was given.
gooch, to me, if he ever wants a NT shot he probably needs to come home, SJ would be hometownish, there are teams up the west coast. if he doesn’t think NT is ever happening — and that might be the logical conclusion at this point — then he seems to like the UK, find something in a lower division. why not wrexham. he’d at least be visible back here for a change.
olasunde waited too long and should probably just find another paying gig in no-name europe at 27. struggling in the welsh league sounds like his career here would be USL or worse. he’s a little old and unaccomplished for a MLS team to bet on. [so houston will sign him.]
i expect to see a few guys nominally under deal worthy of this list. turner, yeah. palace didn’t seem wowed and will let the loan expire. goes back to notts forest and they don’t need an expensive backup they have soured on. to me he’s one foot on a banana peel as the NT 1 jersey guy, and not playing much doesn’t help, either for actual sharpness/performance or for the form/hype that seems to matter a lot to the team and fans. i get the vibe poch is trying to get steffen a shot.
to me historically in the last 1-2 years before a world cup smart US players used to consolidate their NT position and find a safe home where they got playing time. if you aren’t playing club and have a bad cap or two NT then you are exposed to competition right when rosters get formed for next year. “pepi.”
so you make a move and make sure it’s a “1” jersey move. MLS, scotland, holland, championship, etc. you don’t max out the salary, you find a team who wants matt turner to come start. turner has a bad habit of landing places where it’s a keeper battle, where i assume he is well compensated to fight for time and sometimes emerge.
to me he needs “safe.” regular playing time. i would assume notts forest will be cooperative.
some others i could see moving, reyna, mckennie, green, brooks, busio, de vries, leal, ledezma, lund, miljevic, EPB, payne, pukstas, gaga.
I kind of think Brooks will probably just retire. He missed the entire season with injury. Not sure DeVries is still playing either, USL seems the likely landing spot if he is.
i see tomkinson as one of the bigger potential upside guys on the list but he’s 23 so he needs to quit bouncing around and find a steady slot and see what he can make of it career/NT wise. ross county wanted to keep him but got relegated. surely someone else back end of SPL would be interested. or holland, scandinavia, austria, leagues that level. or serie B (venezia?) or B.2. i think english third division he’s sliding down from norwich or SPL and one foot on a banana peel. when’s the last time anyone talked about gooch or kelman? (except this thread). and it’s hardly gone great for pines.
and to me it’s an awkward career choice. you do well you were supposed to be good and haven’t addressed concerns you can’t handle EPL or c’ship. you do badly and you can feel the toilet flushing.
last point but IMO england is probably high on the anti-american bias list. bunch of US players whose careers took off when they left and went to scotland, holland, or italy. shorter list, mostly strikers, who they seem ok with, and often at c’ship and not premier levels. i know there are several exceptions but they typically started at a big club, got benched, went to a midtable club, and then suddenly are the greatest thing since sliced bread; while being among the american pantheon. at which point they suddenly get big club interest again.
that sort of flipping around suggests you’re getting an emotional rather than objective evaluation.
anyhow, if he had a c’ship offer, maybe bother, but otherwise, i’d look around scotland where he finally started getting to play, etc.
I’m not sure how much they wanted to keep him, he only played 53 mins total the final 5 matches while in a relegation battle.
dude, we both know there was a late april news article on this very site saying “Ross County has expressed interest in signing Tomkinson to a permanent deal.” you even responded with an anti-ross spin, saying essentially “Not sure he wants to sign with a team that may be going down from the Scottish Premiership.”
ross county, to me, looks like they were just flailing about. they have been bottom 2 several years running.
they couldn’t win a game their last 11 matches of the season and relegation playoffs. they did bench tomkinson at the end, but their bad results continued.
but anyhow, my point was someone else SPL might bite given the platform of this season. i’d think that would be a superior outcome to EPL2, fighting for time in the championship, or playing League One.
1. Nothing is completely true during transfer season. Would Ross County have liked to sign him? For the right price I’m sure.
2. Would Josh want to sign with a club in the Scottish Championship? No. Avg wage for RC is around $80,000 dollars and now that they’re relegated they could probably pay half that. Signing in League One in England would likely pay more than either. Plus the level of play would significant lower in Scottish Championship. So that’s what I was referring to last month.
3. If you watched Tomkinson with the U23s during their pre-Olympic friendlies, he struggled the second half of that cycle. That caused them to bring both Miles and Zimmerman. Those struggles and this limited success in Scotland and League One isn’t going to bring a lot of bigger league offers.
4. League One is about his level currently. But it only takes one manager or sporting director to believe in you.
I think you are correct. He should still have 2 yrs left on his Forest contract. I mean I’m pretty sure he won’t be with Forest next year, but not a free agent.
then same diff. just like if reyna is still in dortmund in the fall both sides screwed that up. at minimum he is/will be shopped, which for purposes of the thread will look identical except they can get stupid and they get their penny back anotherfew months.
reyna has to go by at least winter, even for a nominal fee, or they make nothing off their asset hoard strategy when he leaves for a free next summer.
Isnt Turner on loan to CP? I think Nottingham Forest still owns him-is that contract run out?
Turner and Pines come to mls
That Turner is on a list with a has been, a could have been, and two never weres says a lot about his career currently.
JR
It says he’s a goalkeeper.
Boom or bust with them.
If you remember, Friedel came back to MLS after having some shaky moment with Liverpool I think. He then went back to Europe and kicked arse. I wouldn’t right Turner off.
You’ve got your timeline wrong. Brad went to Liverpool after Columbus. Brad had several failed work permit applications which led him to success in Turkey and then with The Crew. By age 31, Turner has 17 EPL starts and is looking for a job, Friedel had over 50 starts and was the first choice keeper at Blackburn (who were in EPL at that time). I hope Matt replicates Friedel’s success and is the best keeper at the WC at age 31, but his career trajectory is going in the opposite direction as Brad’s leading into his 2nd WC next summer (technically ‘02 was Brad’s 3rd but he didn’t play in ‘94)
Matt coming back to MLS and getting #1 playing time does not guarantee that he would keep his #1 USMNT spot.
Matt needs to find the best deal for himself regardless of where it is.
V: sorry, that is nonsense. despite regular calls, poch has not actually played his steffen card yet, and rarely used his schulte. he has then set up a gold cup call sheet again like it’s turner then steffen. there are no guarantees but he’s put his thumbs on the scales for a particular trio, and has not seriously challenged his 1. it’s turner’s job to lose.
he comes back to MLS, he makes the analytics geeks happy with numbers, and he guards his flank. we in turn are so stubborn or scared not much is really changing unless someone is out hurt. so his task is to stay well.
i wish we had the competition you imply, i keep proposing alternatives, but short of a lund horrorshow there is little accountability. despite our poor results we insist on a particular unit being first choice. that is precisely the guarantee you pretend does not exist.
only ways he loses the 1 shirt are he gets hurt or he stays at notts forest and doesn’t play a second.
i wouldn’t say “recently.” ever since he left NE his agent keeps landing him places where the keeper situation is more of a contest as opposed to a coronation. and then objectively he has consistency issues, plus US snob fans like to talk down “form” issues even as they explicitly or implicitly propose inferior alternatives we have already tried.
i mean, turner has the gig because steffen quite literally dropped the ball as the original 2022 candidate. schulte has 1 win in 3 caps. the situation screams for fresh faces. and we just took the big chance to try some in 5-8 games, and the top 2 roster guys likely to see most/all the keeper minutes are existing frustrations. i am not pro brady or freese but that would actually be rolling the ball forward to see if they belong in the pool.
i mean, gold cup was what gave us turner before. but this has now become very status quo.
IV,
“V: sorry, that is nonsense. despite regular calls, poch has not actually played his steffen card yet, and rarely used his schulte. he has then set up a gold cup call sheet again like it’s turner then steffen. there are no guarantees but he’s put his thumbs on the scales for a particular trio, and has not seriously challenged his 1. it’s turner’s job to lose.
he comes back to MLS, he makes the analytics geeks happy with numbers, and he guards his flank. we in turn are so stubborn or scared not much is really changing unless someone is out hurt. so his task is to stay well.”
You assume a lot for the sake of your narrative.
Such as:
1. It’s Matt’s job to lose.
2. If Matt gets back to regular playing time as a #1 somewhere, his hold on #1 is guaranteed.
3. The coaching staff like it this way
You are conveniently ignoring that Pochettino has been calling Zach in since day one except Zach keeps coming in broken.
However, Zach is the one guy in the pool who might, if he has his mojo back, offer the chance of a significant upgrade over Matt at least for a tournament like the World Cup.
Meaning, I wouldn’t buy either of them as my #1 for my club team but they might be able to hit the heights for a 7-8 game tournament. The World Cup, for all intents and purposes, is just another series of playoff games. American sports people understand playoffs and how players who were non-existent in the regular season are suddenly heroes in the playoffs.
Matt has not been horrible. Y’all forget he is our ONLY keeper with World Cup experience. He was not horrible in Qatar.
IV, you say Julian Green should still be considered for the USMNT because he scored a goal in the 2014 World Cup eleven fucking years ago. It’s hypocritical of you to ignore Matt’s far more recent WC experience.
Matt may well start every game in the World Cup but Pochettino’s attitude with Zach indicates that if Zach can get off of life support and out of the hospital, he’ll be given a chance to make his case.
Zach at his best vs Matt at is best? Two mediocre keepers but I’d probably give that to Zach but not by much.
I think Pochettino wants both to be available and ready for 2026.
As for the rest of the crowd, Pochettino doesn’t really have time to fart around revolutionizing everything the way would you like. Schulte is the emergency contingency if either Matt or Zach can’t make it.
If Kochen sets the world on fire in the coming season that could be something to think about and of course, you’ll be pushing for your boy Josh Cohen or any warm American body with an impressive GAA that you can dig up. But there is a lot more to being a top keeper than your GAA.
Managers traditionally value stability and consistency in the position which explains why they quickly settled, seemingly, on Turner, Zach and Schulte. For now Matt keeps starting. Flawed as he is the coaching staff thinks he’ll do for now.
You seem to think that means he is a lock for the World Cup. I don’t think so. One day Zach might just be fit and healthy and I could see him taking Matt’s job. Even if Zach never plays, I’m sure Pochettino uses him to keep Matt as motivated as possible.