MONTREAL – For a second straight winter, Toronto FC made the biggest splash – expansion teams aside – in this year's MLS transfer market.
So when Impact owner Joey Saputo was asked for his general thoughts on the offseason at a roundtable discussion this Wednesday, he couldn’t escape the state of affairs at Montreal’s historical rival.
“When teams spend a lot of money to bring big players in, MLS loves it,” Saputo told reporters. “It’s unfortunate for us, because the team that spent the most is our biggest rival. Honestly, I have to say that I hope all those movements MLS teams have made will help bring the league to another level. For sure – and I said as much last year – we have to be more sensible, finance-wise, and we have to keep building a team without spending money we don’t have.”
While Montreal’s signings have been shrewd – former Standard de Liège captain Laurent Ciman, on a non-Designated Player deal, comes to mind – Toronto’s have captured headlines across the Atlantic: US international Jozy Altidore and Italy international Sebastian Giovinco, most notably, signed multi-million dollar deals with the Reds.
Such signings, Saputo said, will not “influence” the Montreal front office. But he admitted that they do put more pressure on the Impact.
“We have a plan,” Saputo said. “We have to keep working with the plan. The only thing that changes is that, if we’d planned to bring in a player from Italy, for sure, the player now thinks that, in North America, there’s gold in the streets and he starts asking for money that doesn’t make sense.”
Olivier Tremblay covers the Montreal Impact for MLSsoccer.com.
