One Week Left in the Transfer Window: Roster Needs for All 30 MLS Teams
There's a few teams who should be vying to bring home a US U-20 star, while the Chucky situation remains unresolved in San Diego
This is it, folks. This is the final time we’ll be dealing with MLS’s weird, misaligned transfer windows. That’s because the league made the decision, two months ago, to extend the secondary window – the summer window – into September.
"With the Secondary [transfer] Window extending into the month of September for the first time in two decades [excluding the COVID-adjusted 2020 season], the conclusion of the MLS window will align with top leagues from around the world, giving MLS teams a greater opportunity to acquire high-quality international talent in their run to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs," the league said in a statement back in January.
That date change in the summer transfer window is of a piece with MLS’s decision to, as the quote says, “align with top leagues from around the world” more closely on the entire schedule. As a result of that, next year’s winter window actually becomes the secondary window and, while the exact dates aren't fixed yet, chances are it'll run for a single month instead of… yeah, this long, misaligned window that ends kind of in the middle of the season.
What I’m saying is that the primary transfer window is somehow still open for another week, officially closing on March 26*, and that means teams are free to make some moves. And if those moves don’t get done now? Well, you’ll just have to wait until after the World Cup.
(*) Believe it or not this is actually an early close to the window. Prior to this year the primary window stayed open until mid-April, which meant that teams were often making major moves with a quarter of the season in the books.
Here, in brief, is a team-by-team guide of what each team most needs, and the room they’ve got to operate:
Vancouver Whitecaps
- Premium Roster Slots open: 1 (2 DPs/3 U-22s)
- Available GAM: $20,945
Biggest Need: The ‘Caps have done such a great job with both signings and player development that they have zero clear needs. All hail our Canuck overlords!
Keep that U-22 slot open, by the way, and plan to use it on Rayan Elloumi.
