It was a busy couple of days for Crew fans paying attention to the rumor mill.
First, there was Grant Wahl's report that Mix Diskerud's potential move to Columbus was close but hit a late snag. Then, Taylor Twellman offered some rumblings on the Crew's offer.
While Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter today confirmed that talks "really got to a point where [they were] going," he also struck down the notion that there was a handshake deal in place. He did say, however, that that he learned two things from the process: that potential deals are not done until the agreement is signed and also that Crew Chairman and Investor-Operator Anthony Precourt was relentless in his pursuit to make the Black & Gold a better team.
"The first thing I mentioned was the commitment level of our owner to go after this," said Berhalter. "He didn't hesitate at all, and I mean not at all. We were right in there and always willing to go the extra step to get this deal done."
Although the club did not complete the signing with Diskerud, Berhalter stated with confidence that his club would "be in a position like that again" and that it was an exciting development for the Crew regardless.
"We're going to be aggressive in going after the best guys, because that's the commitment from [Anthony Precourt]. He's not afraid to allocate funds to do this. I've learned that in the last couple of weeks. I've learned firsthand how committed Mr. Precourt is to turn this team into a winning team."
While yesterday evening represented the deadline for MLS transfers with players who entered the transfer window under contract with another club, the Crew now turns to the September 15 roster freeze deadline for players who are either out-of-contract globally or would be coming from another MLS club.
"This was a big fish we were going after because of the circumstances. We put a lot of energy into that," said Berhalter. "We've been working on other things and now you start to execute some of those other things. Now we're talking about, like we mentioned, players out of contract or players in the League. It's a different profile than what we were getting, but we still feel like we can find someone that can help the team in the short-term."
Berhalter confirmed that the Black & Gold had been awarded midfielder Romain Gall via an MLS weighted lottery today, and also revealed that his side still held the top allocation ranking.
"We're not closing the door. We're still number one in the allocation ranking, and I think that’s important because we're still in that position. The dialog can continue. We're not shutting doors on any player. We'd have to reevaluate it and see if it's the same type of deal we want to do, but we're not closing any doors."
