NEW YORK – New York City FC decision-makers have said in the past that they do not plan on signing any players until the summer transfer window at the earliest, but that’s not stopping them from continuously working hard to identify talent that could aid their cause next season.
NYCFC head coach Jason Kreis and director of football Claudio Reyna spoke to media about the club’s unique plan to build a team from scratch during their badge unveiling on Thursday night. Both members of the NYCFC brass reiterated that they're in no rush to acquire anyone, but that they are doing their due diligence behind the scenes to prepare for their highly anticipated inaugural season in 2015.
"There's no names that I can speak of yet, but we're talking to many players," Reyna said. "There's a lot of interest to come here and play, and not just Designated Players, but players from all around the world. I'm receiving calls from players, agents every day, and we have to work our way through this process because we can't sign every player.
"But there are some with experience, some young players, foreign-based players, who are talking about coming, and there are also American players within the league that seem interested in coming to play in our great city. We're doing quite a bit of searching."
Largely owned by Manchester City, NYCFC are permitted to bring up to four players on loan from the Premiership powerhouse. Kreis has spent recent months in Europe and already identified some youthful talent in Manchester City’s system, but which players and how many he brings over are still being discussed internally.
"There's actually quite a few very interesting prospects there in Manchester City's Under-21 team that are from various different countries, not all just from England," Kreis said. "There's the potential there to add some really interesting players.
“We really have to weight it all out, though. We know at the end of the day you only have eight international signings that you can make with the rules that we have in our league, so we have to weigh out whether or not that makes sense to use one of those eight on a very young, inexperienced player. Some fantastic prospects, some fantastic potential, but still unvetted, so to speak, in the professional world."
Truth be told, NYCFC have some time to mull over which players to bring on loan or sign as DPs. After all, they have little under 12 months before they officially begin playing in MLS.
New York City do plan to use that time to their full advantage, but there is still a chance that the club could make its initial acquisitions as early as this summer.
“There is the opportunity to sign some players and, if we can, send them out on loans to other clubs [until we start],” said Reyna. “We're working hard to sign some players now, but the truth is that most of the players we sign will be in December or January."
