Inter Miami CF sporting director Paul McDonough joined Extratime driven by Continental following the group stage draw for the MLS is Back Tournament and dropped some revelations about his future transfer plans for the expansion club.
Miami will resume their inaugural season in their home state next month, taking part in the opening game of the tournament against Florida foes Orlando City SC. Drawn alongside them in Group A were NYCFC, Philadelphia Union, Chicago Fire FC and Nashville SC.
They will be facing Orlando, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Joining the Extratime team, McDonough said he hoped to be able to make use of the roster space he left available at the start of the year. Those plans remain uncertain, though, with the MLS transfer window currently paused due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that led play to be suspended on March 12.
"I did leave room to add players and I wanted to add players and we were going to be adding players," he said. "The pandemic came and now the biggest problem for me is trying to figure out when the league is going to let us add players. I've got roster space, I've got cap flexibility, I want to add players before we play in Orlando. I don't know if they're going to let that happen.
"If they don't let that happen then we'll compete in the tournament and we'll look to add players after the tournament for the last portion of the season," he continued. "Our plan hasn't changed, we've actually got a little bit more flexibility. I always thought I'd add two more. I think we'll add three significant pieces. We're number one in the Allocation ranking now (current No. 1 team LAFC are reportedly set to sign Andy Najar), we'll definitely use that and then we'll add a DP and then still another TAM-level player."
Inter Miami went into the season with Argentine youngster Matias Pellegrini and Mexican superstar Rodolfo Pizarro as their two Designated Players. And McDonough reiterated that he intends to use Miami's remaining DP slot to bolster the team's attacking options.
"I think the DP will be an attacking player, definitely," he said. "I've always said I wanted to get a TAM 8 and then the third player by Allocation. it gives us a lot of flexibility. with the guys on the Allocation list, we could go with an attacking player or somebody wide."
