FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution general manager Michael Burns said his club has identified several transfer targets as it plots to improve its roster ahead of 2013.
Burns submitted the Revs' discovery list to the league on Monday. The mechanism provides the club with the latitude to pursue potential additions during the winter without fear of another MLS side swooping in to claim them.
The group of selected players could include trialists evaluated by the club in recent weeks prior to the start of the discovery period and external options that have not yet visited Gillette Stadium, according to Burns (above, right).
“We've looked at a bunch of players over the past few weeks,” Burns told MLSsoccer.com. “We'll continue to do that during the next few weeks when we have guys in for training. But the process has already begun to tweak the roster some more for next year. We're actively pursuing a couple of guys at the moment looking ahead to 2013.”
Although the Revs have started to evaluate their choices for next season, they have not reached final conclusions about the players on the current roster. Burns said he does not expect widespread turnover in the squad, but he also noted that the side needed to make significant additions to bolster the group ahead of next season.
“We haven't made any final decisions yet on our current roster for next year,” Burns said. “For sure, I wouldn't think and don't expect there to be a complete overhaul as we did from 2011 to 2012. We still need to make some changes this offseason to be even more competitive and better next year. That's what we're looking at doing and that process has already started.”
The process will continue through the next few weeks as the Revs decide which contract options to exercise before the deadline in early December and try to supplement the squad with experienced and proven players for the next campaign.
All of those moves are designed to continue the incremental progress made this year and push the Revs toward a first postseason berth since 2009, according to Burns.
“I think we were a more competitive team this year,” Burns said. “Last year at this time going into the offseason, we changed more than 50 percent of our roster. I don't foresee us changing 50 percent of our roster again. I don't know what the percentage is going to be exactly, but, for sure, there will be some changes. There have to be.”
