Really happy for you to take that next big step! I think you have a good base to build on but need a couple of big additions, too. I'm sure it's going to be a fun transfer period for you!
2022 saw Carlsberg reach unprecedented heights. Without any true standout performances, the Danish squad managed to succeed enough on every terrain to slip into the 5th and final automatic promotion spot to PT. In their 10th year, Carlsberg are finally at the top of the sport. That accomplishment, of course, comes with a plethora of new challenges, especially considering the team's current roster construction. They succeeded last year thanks mostly to agining veteran leaders, and currently have zero PT capable leaders in the ranks.
This made for an interesting renewals season. On one hand, the expanded PT salary cap offered them the opportunity to keep on as many riders as they wanted without risking renewals penalties. On the other hand, they obviously had to be mindful to leave enough space for the huge additions they will undoubtedly need to make to have even a small chance of survival in PT.
All told, only one rider of significance was not renewed - Matteo Trentin. Trentin was a huge part of Carlsberg's success the last two seasons after coming over from Mapei in the 2021 transfer season. His 469 points and 37th place in the individual rankings this year were critical to the promotion push. Unfortunately, he was always a short term solution because of his age, and our scouts project that his skills will fall off fairly dramatically this season. Carlsberg made a good faith offer to keep him on for the upcoming season, but apparently he still thinks of himself as a leader, and was insulted by the prospect of being paid like a superdomestique. He walked away from the table and will test free agency, where he will almost certainly make much less than his demands.
Stagiares Samuel Lord and Jacob Eriksson were also released without full contract offers. They will hope to continue their careers elsewhere.
So, every other rider was renewed, meaning Carlsberg are carrying 18 contracts into the transfer season, needing a minimum of 20 riders to compete in PT. How do the salaries shake up?
The most predictable, yet still devastating, salary raise was from Alex Aranburu. Aranburu was paid only € 150,000 season because he signed his contract before several months of grueling Ardennes training that raised his ability and scoring potential signfiicantly. As such, he wanted to be compensated accordingly this time around. After several rounds of negotiations, the two sides settled on a € 285,000 contract for the upcoming season. The Spaniard has gotten his bag, though it remains to be seen what his future in green will be like.
Quite the opposite for the other side of Carlsberg's PCT puncheur duo. Kristian Haugaard Jensen had a pretty disappointing season and ended up being the weaker side of that tandem. As such, he was willing to take a big hometown paycut to stay with the team. He'll make only € 225,000 in 2023, € 45,000 less than his 2022 salary of € 270,000.
Another Danish leader receiving a decrease was Asbjorn Kragh Andersen. The sprinter had a fairly disappointing season in 2022 that he somewhat salvaged towards the end. Still, he was clearly not worth the € 245,000 he earned after a fantastic 2021. The team tried to haggle him into a salary more in line with his peers. Ultimately, his previous salary made that amount of cut impossible, and the team is committed to him as a Carlsberg lifer, so he'll make € 215,000 in 2023.
By now, you've noticed that Carlsberg released only one veteran leader in renewals, not two. Rasmus Guldhammer was much more willing than Trentin to take a dramatic paycut. His € 300,000 wage has been almost halved to only € 160,000, much more in line with his skill level at 34 years old. Word is that he's still looking to move down to CT for one last year of leadership opportunities, but he'll do that on Carlsberg's terms, with a salary already attached.
One more big mover - the golden child - Mathias Skjelmose Jensen. Signed for € 200,000 in free agency last season, his current skill level obviously didn't match that salary. He's still making a good amount at € 120,000, but it won't be quite as oppressive on the team's wage cap. On a smaller scale, Goldwijnn Cannister will now make the minimum € 50,000, two seasons out from his own FA bidding war.
The other movers were fairly small in either direction. Lennard Kamna's breakout 500 point campaign gets him a € 27,500 raise to € 177,500. Sebastien Lander finally had a productive season and was unwilling to keep the same salary, so he'll make € 2,500 more this season for a € 132,500. Arturs Belevics had a great season as well, and while our scouts believe this was something of an overperformance, he capitalized on it. He'll make € 60,000 in 2023.
Gyasi Sulvaran has finally reached his maximum potential, and he demanded a raise as such. He'll make € 82,500 in 2023, a significant bump from his minimum wage as a talent. Jonas Gregaard, on the contrary, saw a small decrease to € 95,000 from € 105,000 after failing to live up to his own prospect hype.
All other riders will make the same wage as last season. See below for full details:
As always, we spoke with team manager baseballlover312 regarding the renewals period:
"This renewals period was obviously quite different from anything we've done before. Having an aging leadership core led to some tough discussions, and obviously things with Matty went rough. But we have a lot of work to do on this roster and needed cap space to do it. Some guys definitely got it in their heads that the team's promotion success fell on them specifically, and we could see that in their demands and our discussions with their agents. So there were some tough increases and unexpected offer rejections. At the same time, we think things went generally alright, and stuff like the Aranburu bump was always in the cards after his training last year. We have a lot of room to work with in transfers for sure."
Transfers are of course next up after renewals, and we'll have availability reports out soon. Carlsberg will have € 1.475 million in cap space to work with as they try to build a competitive PT squad from basically nothing.
This has to be one of the ugliest renewals i've ever seen! Not only have you drifted away from 0's and 5's you've somehow decided paying .500's was at all acceptable!
Someone take this mans PT license away until he learns his lesson!
I also see a man with a clear one-rider plan, and honestly with that team around him it'll work very nicely.
That squad picture looks great with all those nordic crosses but some of those horizontal stripes really destroy the picture. Dont you want to do sth against that?
As expected a jump for Aranburu but he still looks very very low for his stats compared to similar riders. Aside from that looks like a great renewals for you and a good position to be in on the hunt for that PT scoring
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Going up with 1,5m cap space can be both a blessing and a curse. I hope you can make the best of it and go for the 'right' riders that can keep you in PT for another year. Love to see your team with so many regional riders, really amazing.
Congratulations on promotion! You seem to have a solid regional core and some extra money left to go for some additional PT quality. Best of luck for transfers!
TheManxMissile wrote:
This has to be one of the ugliest renewals i've ever seen! Not only have you drifted away from 0's and 5's you've somehow decided paying .500's was at all acceptable!
At least he's staying with quarters of 10k and doesn't get really nasty ...
TheManxMissile wrote:
This has to be one of the ugliest renewals i've ever seen! Not only have you drifted away from 0's and 5's you've somehow decided paying .500's was at all acceptable!
Someone take this mans PT license away until he learns his lesson!
I also see a man with a clear one-rider plan, and honestly with that team around him it'll work very nicely.
Every dollar counts on the way to greatness!
knockout wrote:
That squad picture looks great with all those nordic crosses but some of those horizontal stripes really destroy the picture. Dont you want to do sth against that?
Sorry, Cannister is not for sale.
AbhishekLFC wrote:
Some work to be done for sure to get PT level leaders, but the base is surely very good to be able to get a competitive team together
Yeah, I like my core. it's taken a while to get there. But getting the leaders to make it viable will be the big challenge. Excited for it!
As expected a jump for Aranburu but he still looks very very low for his stats compared to similar riders. Aside from that looks like a great renewals for you and a good position to be in on the hunt for that PT scoring
Hard to really measure Aranburu as there aren't many true comparables of both his type and ability level. I think he may now be overpaid for his points potential, but tough to even know how he scores in PT.
SotD wrote:
Quite a jump from Aranburu, but not unreasonable at all. I think it looks pretty cool. And a lot of the riders are already solid PT level riders.
Thank you! I tried to keep Aranburu down a little more, hoping the previous salary could help get him in under market, but he was a tough negotiator.
redordead wrote:
I'm always amazed how you come up with those renewal numbers, but you're one of the best at it so fair play
Haha, I don't think I'm amazing at renewals, but I've certainly learned a lot over the years. My early renewals were disaster after disaster. At least now I have a plan of attack each year.
Nemolito wrote:
Going up with 1,5m cap space can be both a blessing and a curse. I hope you can make the best of it and go for the 'right' riders that can keep you in PT for another year. Love to see your team with so many regional riders, really amazing.
Thank you! Yeah, I think you know the position very well, and I think I'm headed on a similar trajectory. It's an interesting spot when you need leaders and everyone knows it when you start talking. But hopefully I can make some effective moves.
kandesbunzler26 wrote:
Congratulations on promotion! You seem to have a solid regional core and some extra money left to go for some additional PT quality. Best of luck for transfers.
Thank you very much! Quite proud of my regional core, although I often wish I had more regional leaders (cue Skjelmose's music.
As detailed last week, Carlsberg are in a new position as a promoting PT team. Their cap space and current construction signal that they will probably be buyers this transfer season, as they need to add multiple PT level leaders to have any chance to avoid relegation back to PCT. Nevertheless, some sales are inevitable, especially in the era of rider swaps.
So, as we do every year, we have compiled a list citing the projected availability of each Carlsberg rider ahead of the transfer season. This is based on leaks from management and riders, as well as information we've gathered in earlier interviews.
As always, this list is not determinative of whether a rider will actually be transferred. Rather, it displays the likelihood of a sale given a market value offer at the peak of transfers. A rider listed as "maybe" is not necessarily a 50% chance to be sold regardless of the situational context.
First
Last
Availability
Alex
Aranburu
Maybe
Kristian Haugaard
Jensen
Likely
Asbjorn
Kragh Andersen
No
Lennard
Kämna
No
Rasmus
Guldhammer
Yes
Sebastian
Lander
Yes
Jonas
Gregaard
Unlikely
Niklas
Eg
No
Gyasi
Sulvaran
No
Erik Nordsaeter
Resell
Maybe
Patrick
Olesen
Unlikely
Arturs
Belevics
Maybe
Kasper
Asgreen
Yes
Matija
Mestric
Likely
Mattias
Skjelmose Jensen
No
Hugo
Forssell
Maybe
Mathias
Krigbaum
Unlikely
Goldwijnn
Cannister
No
Starting with the headliners, Rasmus Guldhammer will definitely be up for sale this offseason. He's on a very reasonable wage and doesn't need to leave, but he hasn't been a domestique in over a decade at this point. The team think he's much better suited as a top CT climber or PCT secondary leader at this stage of his career, and would like to give him that opportunity. That's if the price is right, of course. He could also stay in Carlsberg green and KOM hunt in GT's, which would be fun too.
Sebastian Lander will also be available. He was available last season, but didn't garner enough interest to be worth parting with, instead staying on as a secondary sprinter. Then, at the age of 31, he had something of a breakout season with several notable results, the best being a terrific Benelux Challenge where he saved the race for Carlsberg after Trentin's failures. He's still on a very nice salary, but he is better suited to PCT or CT where there's more calendar flexibility for his niche.
Things get interesting with Carlsberg's puncheur duo from last season. Both riders are still at their peak, but neither is quite cut out to be a proper PT hills leader, which leaves Carlsberg in something of an awkward spot. The more likely to go is Kristian Haugaard Jensen, who took a big paycut this year and would be a great value to lead in PCT or dominate CT. It seems less likely that Alex Aranburu would be dealt at 28 years old, just one year after the team invested several million dollars into training him for future leadership. But our sources say that it's not impossible, particularly if a swap deal seems advantageous.
Carlsberg like their domestique core, and so none of those riders are anticipated to be dealt, but they all have varying levels of availability if teams are interested. The exceptions are obvious. Skjelmose isn't going anywhere, Kamna would need an insane offer, Curacao riders will be kept for the sponsors, and AKA is a Carlsberg lifer at this point.
Even with their promotion, Carlsberg don't need any loanouts this year, at least as of now. All their current talents are at least mid way through Lvl. 3. That said, they certainly have talents they are targeting that may be in need of a 1 > 3 loan if contracts are signed.
Likewise, the team doesn't have any specific plans to take in loanees yet, but they are definitely open to it, especially if salaries are reasonable and the rider is of regional interest. Of course, this is not a necessity. In PT, there aren't any situations as advantageous as, for instance, last year's Girmay loan.
As far as buying, it's no secret that Carlsberg hope to acquire at least two PT level leaders. What terrain they are on is still something of a mystery. The team has always loved classics, so we imagine they will be a priority. But don't expect Carlsberg to spent crazy money on fading leaders in their mid 30's just to stay up. The team doesn't see relegation back to PCT as a catastrophic outcome, so long as they get a leadership core in place for a sustainable future.
As always, we talked to baseballlover312, though he didn't give much away:
"Our situation isn't really a mystery. We feel like we have a strong young core, but we're missing the leaders to compete in this division. We'll do what we can to change that. We're adding more than subtracting, but you also need to give to take. I'm always open to a conversation even when both managers know it's unlikely a sale happens. As long as they're okay with hearing no, I'm okay with hearing the proposal. The exception is Skelly. If you ask about Mathias Skjelmose Jensen, I will immediately take that as a sign of bad faith and refuse to engage with you ever again."
We're ready for transfers and will keep you updated as things transpire!
It's been a long journey to the top tier of the MG. Look forward to see how you approach it.
Arturs Belevics had a great season as well, and while our scouts believe this was something of an overperformance, he capitalized on it. He'll make € 60,000 in 2023.
Matija
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