After signing star midfielder Alejandro Pozuelo to a Designated Player contract, Toronto FC were given a jolt of new life following the departures of Sebastian Giovinco and Victor Vazquez.
With more assets available, including allocation money and the No. 1 Allocation Order slot, it appeared that TFC would be bringing in another player or two before the end of the Primary Transfer Window. The club publicly discussed their desire to bring in a dynamic attacker and possibly a defender over the past few months. But as the calendar turned from May 7 to May 8, that window shut with no more new signings to be presented.
What happened at the end of the Primary Transfer Window for Toronto FC?
“The players that we were targeting: clubs didn’t want to let them go," general manager Ali Curtis told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday. "It wasn’t a question of financial resources, it was the clubs, from a competitive perspective did not want to let the players go in this moment. So we’ll move on.”
One of the players TFC were heavily linked with to spend their No. 1 Allocation Order slot on was US national team center back Omar Gonzalez. That deal never materialized.
“I don’t comment publicly on players that are under contract with other teams, and Omar is under contract with Atlas as my understanding," Curtis said. "With that being said, all of the guys we were looking at this window, I’m comfortable moving on from. Not that to say that they won’t be considered moving forward, but we have a lot of other considerations on players. We’ll pursue those very aggressively.”
That's where Curtis turns his attention to now. On July 7, the Secondary Transfer Window will open, and the club will still have those assets.
“We have some players we feel really good about, that weren’t available this window," Curtis said. "They’ll be in the conversation over the summer window."
In the interim, Curtis indicated he feels very comfortable with the current squad and that they will be looking to ink a pair of Homegrown deals in the coming weeks or months.
Another reason TFC didn't feel pressured to move at the moment? They lead the Eastern Conference in points per game, having played just eight matches, and things can change quickly in this business. With two months to effectively evaluate how the roster is playing out, you can't truly know whether or not your needs will be the same come the midpoint of the MLS season.
“You have to be really careful of spending in the Primary Transfer Window," Curtis explained. "It’s very easy to make mistakes. It’s the time you need to be most disciplined, because you don’t exactly know who you are. Sometimes there’s false positives. It’s also the time that teams have the most amount of financial resources. It’s easy to make bad decisions, even when you have a process. It’s hard to be disciplined, patient and know what you’re doing with every dollar spent.”
