OBETZ, Ohio – As the summer transfer window approaches, Columbus Crew SC have work to do.
In the span of about a month, the team lost three of its best players.
The club traded away their Designated Player Kei Kamara, on May 12 after a high-profile locker room dispute. That left only first-year MLS striker Ola Kamara and 34-year-old veteran Conor Casey as forwards on the roster.
Just over a week later, center back and key 2015 acquisition Gaston Sauro tore his posterior cruciate ligament, putting him out of commission for four or five months in what Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter called a “freak” injury. Combined with the terminated contract of Amro Tarek, the club have only two center backs on their roster.
And over the Copa America break, Columbus lost their other DP -- and arguably best player -- in Federico Higuain, when the Argentine underwent sports hernia surgery. Higuain is expected to miss five to seven weeks.
After the club’s draw against the Montreal Impact Saturday, Berhalter – also the team’s sporting director – said his staff has a “clear objective” for the transfer window. And at training this week, the Crew SC boss said he’s striving for signings that will make an impact this season, in addition to this week’s announcement that the team signed midfielder Dilly Duka.
“Last year we brought in Gaston, Harrison [Afful] and Cedrick [Mabwati] and they made a big impact,” he said. “So that’s the exercise right now. Can we find someone who will make an impact? I’m not sure it will be as big as those three last year, but we want to help the team. Any move we make is designed to help the team.”
The moves last season were more of a surprise.
Berhalter had said repeatedly that he liked his squad and would only tweak it, but all three players he mentioned played a huge role in the team’s MLS Cup Final run. This year, everyone knows the moves are coming. But Berhalter says that doesn’t make deals more difficult, and doesn’t mean he doesn’t like his roster.
“By and large, we’re comfortable with a lot of guys on our team,” he said. “But the thing is, you still want to improve. Because of some of the roster moves – notably the Kei move – we may want to strengthen that position. And that’s just from a numbers standpoint. So that’s something we may look at.”
Berhalter also knows that impact isn’t guaranteed. He says there’s always risk in adding a player who’s expected to contribute, but believes in minimizing risk and taking calculated chances.
“You still have to accept that you’re going to fail on some of these,” he said. “That’s part of the business. To me, you try to make as educated of a decision as you can make, you try to gather as much information you can, and you want to have the right profile. But we also accept failure in some cases, in some transfers. That’s just part of it.”
With so many spots to fill, will Crew SC have an entirely new look by the end of the summer? Berhalter isn’t showing his cards just yet.
“It’s hard to tell, but I would say we’ll probably look a little different,” he said.
