Issey Nakajima-Farran wasn’t a happy camper at season’s end.
After the Montreal Impact traded Toronto FC for him on May 16, Nakajima-Farran had expectations of regular playing time. He made it clear at the Impact’s postseason press conference on October 27 that his 13 appearances and five starts for Montreal failed to meet those expectations, lamenting that he had “pretty much got binned” at Stade Saputo.
But the Canadian national teamer is still set to carry on with Montreal after the Impact picked up his option for 2015 on November 25, and head coach Frank Klopas is ready to welcome Nakajima-Farran to what he thinks will be a “competitive preseason.”
“I sat down and talked to Issey, and it’s not something I did,” Klopas told MLSsoccer.com by phone last week. “It’s just the competition that we had there, and it’s really up to the players, how they do in training or how they perform in games that’s going to make the decision of whether they’re on the field or not.
“When he came in, we didn’t have the depth out wide,” Klopas continued. “Obviously, we brought Dilly [Duka] in, there was [Andres] Romero, Justin [Mapp] got healthy, [Maxim] Tissot was playing really well, there was a lot of competition. It’s really up to the player. And with a lot of the contracts that we pick up, they’re semi-guaranteed deals.”
The makeup of Montreal’s squad is still bound to change, but likely not in terms of wide players. There’ll still be competition with Tissot, Mapp and Duka all under contract for 2015, and with Blake Smith’s return from his loan to Indy Eleven.
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Only Romero’s future is up in the air, and even then, it seems that the Argentine’s future lies with the Impact.
“We’re close to finalizing a deal for him to be a permanent stay with Montreal,” Klopas said.
