We’re in the thick of transfer season, though not everybody’s been busy. Some teams have, however, and of that group, here are the moves that have got me thinking a little bit.
Eastern Conference is below, and soon we’ll do the Western Conference.
In we go:
A fourth* DP in Atlanta
Atlanta United are going to have three true Designated Players, of course. Alexey Miranchuk is already there – he was signed last summer, and lots of reporting suggests he’s about to be joined by faces familiar and not. That’s where the headlines will be.
Deeper in midfield, though, Atlanta snagged what’s essentially a fourth DP for this coming season when they acquired Polish international Mateusz Klich from D.C. United for the 23rd pick in last month’s SuperDraft and up to $50,000 in 2026 conditional General Allocation Money (payable if Atlanta re-sign Klich). They acquired him for essentially nothing and only have to cover $300k of his salary, as per The Washington Post.
Here’s a graph from the press release announcing the deal, plus a quote from new Atlanta chief soccer officer Chris Henderson:
D.C. retain a percentage of Klich's salary charge and his Designated Player roster spot. The 34-year-old Polish international won't be a DP for Atlanta.
"He’s had two quality seasons in MLS since joining the league in 2023. He’s a good chance creator, while also being able to dictate the tempo of a game from the middle of the pitch. We believe his qualities and leadership will be a good addition to our midfield."
Yeah, you read that right: Klich will occupy a DP slot for D.C. United, but he will be playing for Atlanta United.
I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around the budget mechanics of this (D.C. chief soccer officer Ally Mackay is no dummy, so I’m sure there’s a good reason here), but the functional outcome is Atlanta are adding a DP-caliber, deeper-lying orchestrator and playmaker behind Miranchuk, which in theory frees up the Russian international to focus more on pure creation than he did last year. Klich is not exactly prime Xavi out there, but he gets on the ball a lot: 85th percentile in progressive passes received, 76th percentile in passes attempted and 78th percentile in progressive passes completed. Those numbers have stayed pretty steady across leagues, coaches and game models for the past half-decade.
Atlanta didn’t exactly struggle with ball progression last year, but they did struggle with finding the right midfield balance. There was a lot of aimless running and “why’d he hit that?” passing, which led to bad rest defense and worse turnovers, then a loss of control in central midfield. Overall, it caused a pretty poor season by their standards.
I think Klich will be a big part of fixing that.
Chicago build a new central defense
Landing DP winger Jonathan Bamba for a reported $2 million transfer fee is awesome, and I like both Danish winger Philip Zinckernagel’s underlyings and the scouting reports I’ve gotten about him from my European friends. These guys – and whichever DP the Fire sign next, because they’re not done building yet – will make Chicago better.
But new director of football and head coach Gregg Berhalter has always, for both club and country, focused on structure first and foremost. When we possess the ball, where do we play from and where are we playing to? What kinds of passes do we hit? Where are the pieces on the board when we take risks with our movement on and off the ball? Structure of that sort – positional play – comes from the back, and the Fire’s backline has been a mess for years.
That shouldn’t be the case any longer after they signed Jack Elliott (formerly of the Philadelphia Union) via free agency and then brought in Sam Rogers, who’s been among the better center backs in Scandinavia over the past few years and is a once-capped US international, from Lillestrøm.
A lot of virtual ink has been spilled here and elsewhere about Chicago’s failures with DP signings over the past 15 years, but these kinds of moves matter just as much if you’re building an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs-caliber team. And then the ability to use the structure provided by guys at the back makes it easier to coach up younger players like Brian Gutiérrez and new U22 Initiative right back Leonardo Barroso. Not to mention protecting young goalkeeper Chris Brady from shellshock.
Fire fans are right to be optimistic heading into this season.
The Revs doing DP and GAM arbitrage to get their No. 9
OK, try to follow along with this one:
- New England, as of the Dec. 19 press release from MLS, had $5,585,931 GAM available in their coffers.
- On that same day, they traded $2.5 million in GAM and an international roster slot, as well as up to $750k in conditional GAM, to Inter Miami for center forward Leo Campana. He was once a Young DP but is no longer classified as such.
- That trade happened amid a three-week flurry in which the Revs acquired an extra $650k GAM from San Jose, followed by them getting another $200k GAM from San Diego.
- While that was happening, New England were cutting ties – either declining options or trading away – basically every player on the roster who carried a major salary hit aside from their three DPs and last year’s mid-season acquisition, midfielder Alhassan Yusuf.
- They then traded away one of those DPs, striker Giacomo Vrioni, to CF Montréal. While the Revs retained part of his salary hit, it’s not a huge part, and Vrioni is now a DP on Montréal’s books.
- By trading Vrioni, the Revs have the freedom to move from a 3 DP/3 U22 roster model to a 2 DP/4 U22/$2m extra GAM model.
- A week after that trade, MLS announced rule changes in which GAM no longer expires – save for the GAM you get from moving to the 2/4/2 build, which…
- …is the exact amount of 2025 GAM they traded to Miami for Campana.
- Oh, and they transferred Esmir Bajraktarević to PSV Eindhoven, which means they get more GAM to play with.
This was an offseason masterclass from New England’s front office. They might have the cleanest books in the league now, which let them go hard as hell this offseason in bringing in four new center backs (two imported starters and two MLS free agents who’ll presumably be the back-ups), reportedly soon a new U22 Initiative right back, and multiple options in both midfield and attack. That was all while still essentially keeping three DPs on the roster, but not having to dip into their never-expiring dragon’s hoard of GAM because they get to use the 2/4/2 roster model.
Did they overpay a little bit for Campana? Yes. But they did it with GAM they were going to have to burn anyway, and because of all the other moves they’ve made, they are set up to be flexible and cap-compliant for most of the rest of the decade. There’ll be no “oh this team fell apart because we couldn’t afford to keep them together” should they make a run.
I love it.
FC Cincinnati get their No. 9 (we hope)
Kévin Denkey’s got the profile of a guy who will work hard and well in this league. He has been productive as hell at a good level for the past several years, and my guess is he won’t spend his off-field time as a heavy bag. The man checks a lot of boxes.
He also fits within Cincy’s game model, which is largely vertical. But that raises the question: Can Denkey be as effective when the Garys need to put a foot on the ball and turn down the volume a bit? Or when they’re facing an opponent who has decided to sit in and absorb? Can he create penetration with his off-ball movement in possession?
These are the only questions folks around the league have about the Togo international’s fit, and it’s because he just didn’t really have to do that sort of thing with a Cercle Brugge side that’s been down around 45% possession for as long as Denkey’s been a first-team player.
“He’ll be great against 90% of the teams Cincy plays, but those other 10%, I don’t know if he impacts the game,” is what one Western Conference front office type said to me. “And those 10% are the games where they’ll need him most.”
For as long as I’ve been writing this column I’ve said the run makes the pass, not the other way around. Denkey’s proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he understands the truth of that axiom very well in transition and on the counter. If he’s got that other 10% in him, he’ll be worth every penny Cincy paid for him and more.
