:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/8508995/150463493.jpg)
With the international transfer market closed for Major League Soccer, many options are still available for the Montreal Impact to bolster the roster. With 7 games left, the Impact brain trust might still be looking for solutions to finish off the season and/or the next one. Nick De Santis did mention a few weeks ago that the search for an offensive midfielder did not really stop after acquiring Marco Di Vaio.
Between the signing of Marco Di Vaio as Designated Player and now, there was a lot of movement and talks around the Montreal Impact, roster wise:
- Official talks between the Impact and Clarence Seedorf
- The signing of Alessandro Nesta
- Gone are Tyson Wahl (trade), Justin Braun (trade), Miguel Montano (loan)
- Acquisition of Dennis Iapichino
- Huge trade as both the Portland Timbers and the Montreal Impact swap #1 goalkeepers: Troy Perkins and Donovan Ricketts exchange goalposts.
Free Agents from Europe
The attractiveness of talent from Europe is always present. With the financial turmoil in European Soccer, Major League Soccer has already and will continue to take advantage to good signings financially and sport wise (not all of them though). Many top-flight clubs cannot afford to keep a deep roster of high paid players and will gladly release some from their contracts (if still under contract).
It is an option for the Montreal Impact to either get a player from Europe to finish off the season, to then see him go back to Europe on-loan for part of the winter. Another option would be to make/announce a signing early next year.
By September 12th, Montreal might know if a playoff run is still viable or not and that might trigger different roster movements to better the team for the short-term and/or the long-term. It will be interesting to see how things work out as the technical staff has shown to be dynamic and flexible.