The list of interested parties for American defender Jonathan Tomkinson has grown once again.
EFL League One clubs Cardiff City and Port Vale, as well as League Two side Notts County are all interested in him, sources close to the player confirmed to SBI. Tomkinson remains a free agent this summer after his Norwich City contract expired in June.
Fellow EFL clubs Portsmouth, Reading, Stockport County, and Rotherham United have previously expressed interest in signing Tomkinson this summer, sources confirmed to SBI earlier in the summer transfer window.
The Texas native spent the second half of the 2024-25 season on loan at Scottish club Ross County. Tomkinson made 13 Premiership appearances for Ross County but did not feature in the club’s two legged promotion-relegation series with Livingston.
Livingston’s 5-3 aggregate win condemned Ross County to the Scottish second-tier for next season and ultimately ended Tomkinson’s time in Scotland. Ross County previously was interested in potentially signing Tomkinson outright from Norwich City, but the club’s relegation hurt the chances of that move potentially happening.
Tomkinson made three first-team appearances for Norwich City during this time at Carrow Road, while also spending time at lower-league clubs Stevenage and Bradford City on loan.
A former U.S. youth national team defender, Tomkinson is pushing to make his senior national team debut. He previously featured for the Under-23’s, Under-20’s, and Under-17’s.
Cardiff City suffered relegation to League One while Port Vale earned promotion to League One are finishing second in League Two last spring. Notts County finished sixth in League Two but missed out on promotion.
PG,
You recognize CP for what he is?Right.
CP has done a very good job with Milan. To deny that suggests you have another agenda.
Again name me another USMNT eligible player who has done better job leading his team regardless of the quality of the team.
You can’t.
You got nothing so you’re shifting the goalposts,something you and IV do very well when your original argument comes up empty.
i watched about a half of tomkinson and ross against dundee united, and he looked like one of the better players on the team, not the reason they got relegated. i am sure he can handle c’ship.
third or fourth division england is beneath him.
Vacqui,
You missed the whole point of my response, so I will add clarity and context.
You referenced Pulisic “leading Milan” to be an accomplishment of high order. It’s not…and that’s my point.
For context…
In the 23-24 season, he scored 15 goals, and had 10 assists, in all competitions, but against teams in Serie A that finished in the top 6 of the table, and Champions League, he only scored 2 goals, and only had 1 assist.
In the 24-25 season, he scored 17 goals, and had 10 assists, in all competitions, but against teams in Serie A that finished in the top 6 of the table, and Champions League, he only scored 5 goals, and only had 1 assist.
Milan is a shitty team and when they play against teams of equal footing, or better, Pulisic’s stats are nothing of exception, so what is impressive about him “leading Milan?”
Wait, let me guess, “leading Milan” against shittier teams in Serie A is impressive? Nah, that’s not impressive.
In short, there’s nothing impressive or significant in Pulisic “leading Milan.”
PG,
Pulisic didn’t build a shitty team or a shitty league.
You can only lead the team you are on.
A diamond stuck in a turd is still a diamond. In fact surrounded by has beens, and never wases or never will be’s, the consistency of his personal performance is even more impressive.
Something about Pulisic seems to disgust you. Regardless, he remains the best of a pretty mediocre bunch of USMNT eligible players. Of course, he’s not at all representative of what the “American soccer system” can produce, anymore than Landon Donovan was.
You seem deathly afraid that someone is going to confuse Pulisic with an elite player. You can relax. The closest thing to elite on that Milan squad is the” real Croatian” Modric. And he is basically a part timer at this point.
If not for CP and Musah ( another non-American soccer system american) no one on SBI would give a shit about Milan. Except for me since Maldini has long been a personal favorite.
Vacqui,
Nothing about Pulisic disgusts me. I just recognize him for what he is…nothing world class or top tier in “leading Milan.”
You on the other hand believe Pulisic is a diamond, huh? Diamonds are a hot commodity on the global soccer market. No one is pursuing that “diamond” aka Pulisic, so you’re assessment of diamond is way off the mark.
Funny shit, you always troll on IV, but there is no bigger clown on this forum than you. #Clownboy
Johnnyrazor, Quozzel, and Vacqui,
JR,
In their current iterations, neither Milan or Juve are top 10 teams, nor can they be considered contenders.
The last time Milan won the Serie A title was in the 21-22 season. Prior to that, it was the 10-11 season. The last time they played in a Champions League final was 2007, which was also the last time they won it. Hardly sporting achievements which say top 10.
The last time Juve won the Serie A title was in the 19-20 season. The last time they played in a Champions League final was 2017, and they last time they won it was in 1996. Hardly sporting achievements which say top 10.
Neither club has the funds to be a top tier player in the global soccer market and acquire top tier talent, and the prospects for additional revenue sources in the next 5 years don’t seem to present much opportunity for improvement, so it doesn’t look like that will be changing in the near future.
Also, transfermarkt’s $50M valuation of Pulisic means nothing and is theoretical, in nature, as it is very unlikely that a top tier club values Pulisic the same. At this point in his career, Pulisic is what he is…an average, to slightly above average, player…that has long since topped out in his development. It is unlikely that he would be a consistent starter and difference maker for a top tier club.
Q,
While money is a big factor in the quality of global soccer teams today, using it as the only argument to say, “MLS is a very good league, certainly in the top-10 in the world,” is a stretch, oversimplifying the situation, and a flawed argument. i am an advocate of MLS and a fan, but you are forgetting about Argentina’s league and Liga MX. Currently, and at best, MLS is at the 10th spot, or on the cusp…it depends on a lot of variables.
V,
“Do you know why CP might be arrogant or entitled?
Name me an MLS team led by American player who leads them the same way CP sometimes leads Milan.”
That’s not really saying much. How is that a positive reflection on Pulisic? For the reasons mentioned above in my reply to JR, Milan is mediocre from a sporting standpoint and they don’t have the funds to buy players that can come in and compete with Pulisic for a starting spot. As a result, Pulisic is coasting and is not challenged on a day to day basis.
Okay. That’s nice and t’s fine, as it’s his life and career, but I don’t find that very exciting…do you?
Papi: I was being nice to Juve and AC Milan and Serie A is so scattered each year that their fans think they have a chance.
———————-
I openly admitted transfermkt values are flawed in my first sentence. Pulisic has 3 yrs left on his contract and is only 26 those both raise his transfermkt value, but yes other than Al-Nassr, I don’t think ACM could get that for him either. It does give people a general idea of the talent levels of national teams though. If you want to get to the quarters or semis of a WC you need a lot of talent or a really lucky draw. US has talent but it’s current teams ceiling is no where close to the talent on top European or South American countries. If you go thru FIFA’s top 10 (yes their computer ranking also has flaws) it pretty much matches the transfermkt value top 10. Argentina’s value is lower than France, England, and Spain but that’s in part to Messi’s “value” being 18 million because he’s 38. If you look at those top 4 teams in the world maybe Jedi (because LB could start for one of them but Pulisic wouldn’t and certainly no one else. That was TGA’s original question (which might have been sarcasm) why aren’t we better if we have more guys in Europe. Because all those teams have more guys on better teams in Europe.
PG,
“Name me an MLS team led by American player who leads them the same way CP sometimes leads Milan………”That’s not really saying much. ”
No shit.
Nevertheless answer the question in the context is which it was asked . That is to say name me an American international who is as consistently important to his team MLS or otherwise, as CP is to Milan? I can’t think of one.
“How is that a positive reflection on Pulisic?”
Because his team turn to him when they are in trouble and for the most part he comes through. That’s all you or anyone can do. Milan’s lack of funds or front office leadership or whatever, that’s not Pulisic’s fault. He’s only responsible for what he can control.
It don’t matter if you are playing for Real Madrid or some high school team, if you produce when they need you , consistently, then you’re a leader. That’s a good thing no matter the level you are at.
“Hardly sporting achievements which say top 10.” You misunderstand MLS . They are not about sporting achievement. They are not interested in it. Neither is the USMNT.
Was anyone here other than you talking about Milan or Christian in the same breath as Top 10? You’re the only one talking like that. You’ve been watching IV make up stuff too often. What’s your point?
When the media always bring up ” great tradition”, “massive fan base” that is all code for “Milan scare no one”.
Pulisic has to play for somebody. Milan keep him in shape, pay him enough so he can stay out of trouble. The food is better than what he can buy at SHEETZ. He faces enough good teams and players that he can stay reasonably sharp for the World Cup. What’s not to like?
” For reasons mentioned above in my reply to JR, Milan is mediocre from a sporting standpoint and they don’t have the funds to buy players that can come in and compete with Pulisic for a starting spot. As a result, Pulisic is coasting and is not challenged on a day to day basis. ”
Sez you. There’s no need to have someone come in and challenge him. There are probably about 7 other positions they need to throw money at before they start fixing someone who is not broken. As you pointed out, Milan have no money. So why throw away money they don’t have on a position they don’t need to fix when they suck so bad in so many other places?
I mean, you could replace Christian with Mbappe right now and he would be an upgrade, but if you did nothing else to the team, they would still need more help. I saw Pulisic for a lot of his Chelsea career and at Milan he’s come a very long way.
Now Christian is a top 10 American player. In fact he is the best and there is not close second But clearly you don’t think much of American players so being the best of not much isn’t very exciting is it? And you have a much higher opinion of USMNT players than I do. Of course, Christian, Malik and even Gio, Musah, and Flo are not really American players
JR,
So where is the “other Paxton” and Servania these days?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
People usually miss the point about national teams.
Which is that their dominance or lack thereof is not necessarily mirrored by the performance of their country’s league. Belgium? Croatia?
And also that you can be a very valuable player for your club team but your country may have a certain style and may not have a use for you.
This is why CWC is so intriguing. It is the best chance so far that I have seen for some kind of actual direct on the field comparison of clubs from various countries from different continents.
So far comparisons have always been indirect ( if your team cost 20 million and mine costs 5 million, my team must 25% as good as your team.)
V: I was just trying to think of an MLS team that tried to give the keys to American players. FCD tried it with those guys that were really at the time US Youth players. The project kind of collapsed when they sold Pepi and Tessman and then had a bunch of key injuries including Servania and Pomykal. FCD also hasn’t had a youth player really step up in the last few years, maybe Kamungo but injuries have derailed him as well.
——————————
I will also say to Q’s comparing MLS payrolls to other leagues. If you look at Atlanta and Blackburn who have similar payrolls around 24 million. Atlanta has 12 million in just their 3 DPs and Blackburn spreads that 12 million out to 7 or 8 players. When you get to the 12th highest salary Blackburn guy makes 850,000 and ATLs makes 450,000. The MLS pay structure creates a top heavy roster that makes it even harder to compare with other leagues.
FCD from the outside had a good youth system for a while but they sold and sold and sold and if the coaches who trained the kids up leave and the youth system does replenish, that’s trouble.
dallas has a good youth system but they were also swiping players from other areas that had their own academies. they got cappis and servania from dynamo academy. they got richards by way of alabama and an interim stop at the same houston club team that produced holden, shea, and other pool guys.
but maybe that was a particular coach who is gone now.
last, i think they were benefitting, relative to a team like houston, from the sense dallas was a team where either prospects would get played — as opposed to rot — or get signed in europe. they had the bayern connection.
but last last, they still have more kids on YNT coming up than houston does.
I am confused. If we r so bad at soccer why are all these guys going to Europe or staying in Europe
Because the top 10 teams in the world are full of stars for the best teams in Europe. No reporter in Germany is writing stories about guys who couldn’t make it out of their clubs academy and are being looked at by 3rd and 4th division teams. We have 6 guys who start regularly in top 5 leagues Robinson, Richards, Adams, Scally, Weston, and Pulisic. Only Wes and Pulisic’s teams would be considered contenders. Spain has 6 guys who start at Barcelona another 4 or 5 each from Atletico and then sprinkle in some Chelsea, Arsenal, and Atletic Bilbao. We have a lot more depth than ever but the quality of our top players is still significantly less than the type of nations you need to be to win WCs or even Copa America.
Getting to “Europe” doesn’t magically make a player better, and the truth is MLS is a very good league, certainly in the top-10 in the world. There are only two teams in League One who, per their payrolls, would be competitive in MLS – Luton Town, which still has a £20.7 million payroll ($27.9M US)…but the reason there is, they get parachute payments from the EPL’s TV revenue to avoid obliterating a club upon demotion…which is 55% of an EPL squad’s revenue the first year, and 45% the second. The other team is Cardiff City (£13.9M, or $18.7M US dollars) which would put them at 13th in MLS.
After that, the next-richest squad is Huddersfield…with a payroll of £6.7M ($9M US dollars), which puts them three million dollars below the lowest-spending MLS squad, that being Montreal at right at $12M dollars.
Eurosnobs will try to tell you MLS is “League One level”. Ignore them. There are literally two teams in League One that have an MLS squad’s spending power, and a half-dozen other squads (including feel-good Wrexham) that would rank dead last in MLS spending even in the Championship. You can similarly ignore anybody who tries to tell you that the leagues in Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Scotland, or even the Netherlands are better than MLS. Those leagues have massive amounts of disparity and will have 2-3 teams max that would be favored against MLS squads, the rest would not be competitive over a season.
The top five leagues in Europe are better than MLS. Brazil is better than MLS. The Championship is about dead-even. Turkey as a whole is probably better; their top teams are massive, though their bottom ones are very poor.
So it’s not just about “getting to Europe”. It’s about which squadsyou get onto in Europe, and the reality is that 80%-plus of the teams in European leagues can’t afford to shop for MLS players because they’re too expensive.
It’s when you get to the monster Champions League squads that you really see the difference. Some of them spend as much as NFL teams – $300M plus a year, and they’re doing it with just 25 or so players.
TGA,
MLS has some awful teams, some middle of the road teams and a few really good teams.
Focus just on the really good teams.
How many are lead by USMNT players?
How many are dominated by USMNT players?
How many feature multiple CURRENT USMNT players?
Do you know why CP might be arrogant or entitled?
Name me an MLS team led by American player who leads them the same way CP sometimes leads Milan.
I am not the MLS expert but can’t think of one MLS team with an American like CP.
I get quozzel’s financial arguments but the best MLS teams are not necessarily heavily populated by USMNT eligible players. So quozzel is basically telling us that our MLS foreign players are likely to beat up on League One’s foreign or domestic players.
Okay. That’s nice. I don’t find that very exciting do you?
Maybe someday there will be a dominant MLS team lead by a core of current USMNT players. And that team will win the CWC. Frankly, that might be more likely than the USMNT winning the FIFA World Cup.
But that day is not today.
V: Best I could think was FC Dallas, for the brief time they had Ferreira, Pepi, a healthy Pomykal, Tessman, Servania, and Cerrillo. But they were a mid table team in MLS.
—————————-
Another flawed metric instead of looking at league payroll, you can look at transfermarkt estimated values. The French NT squad that participated in June in NL, the average value per player was 49.8 million euros. Pulisic’s value is estimated at 50 million. Our best player has the value of the average French NT player. The Netherlands has 14 players listed as worth at or above 25 million euros, we have two Pulisic and Jedi Robinson. Looking at GC rosters Mexico’s roster had an estimated value 25 million more than the US. Switzerland was about 120 million more and Türkiye 150 million more. Potential transfer values aren’t everything of course because age factors in Raul Jimenez is listed at 5 million, 1 million less than Damion Downs.
JR,
So where is the “other Paxton” and Servania these days?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
People usually miss the point about national teams.
Which is that their dominance or lack thereof is not necessarily mirrored by the performance of their country’s league.
This is why CWC is so intriguing. It is the best chance so far that I have seen for some kind of actual direct on the field comparison of clubs from various countries from different continents.
So far comparisons have always been indirect ( if your team cost 20 million and mine costs 5 million, my team must 25% as good as your team.)
u missed the point, if we are so bad, why are these euro teams buying our players….
I dont give a damn about MLS…
The answer’s there, if you read it.
“They” are not buying very many of our players. We have a bunch of players in lesser Euro leagues – below MLS level. There’s probably 100+ of those out there now. We have far fewer on teams from the top five leagues in Europe…and far fewer than that on Champions League squads.
We’re producing more talent than we used to. We still have a huge distance to close.
We’re not bad. We’re just not elite yet, and it’ll be awhile before we are.
Because they aren’t bad they just aren’t as good as the great players you need to compete with the top 15 teams in the world.
u missed the point, if we are so bad, why are these euro teams buying our players….
I dont give a damn about MLS…
I am confused. If we r so bad at soccer why are all these guys going to Europe or staying in Europe
I am confused. If we r so bad at soccer why are all these guys going to Europe or staying in Europe