INDIANAPOLIS – There were plenty of trade options on the table for New England as the SuperDraft approached. Sliding up or down in the draft order or even standing pat at No. 4 looked feasible over the past few days as the trade winds swirled in South Florida.
But with less than 24 hours to go until the proceedings commenced, the Revs ultimately decided they wanted to start the draft instead of waiting to see how it unfolded.
“We've been in conversations with multiple teams about a lot of different scenarios, moving down and moving up,” Revolution general manager Michael Burns told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday night. “When this became real with Toronto and we wanted to do it and they wanted to do it, it made sense to move up to No. 1 for allocation money.”
Burns and the Revs sent the No. 4 selection and an undisclosed amount of allocation money to TFC in order for the right to take the first player off the board on Thursday. It was, in Burns' words, an opportunity that was too good to pass up.
Although Burns admitted the Revs do have a player in mind for that selection, he said they did not plan to follow Chivas USA's path with the second overall pick and reveal his identity before the draft started tomorrow.
“I'm not going to disagree with that statement [about moving up for a specific player],” Burns said. “The question is who are we going to take. I understand all that. Some teams are more vocal about who they are going to pick than others. We won't be announcing any time soon who we're going to pick. We're going to wait until tomorrow.”
