The New England Revolution are in the market for a major addition or two over the summer, with a source confirming to MLSsoccer.com that the club recently reached out about acquiring US men’s national team defender Geoff Cameron.
Cameron has been with Stoke City since 2012, when he signed with the English club from the Houston Dynamo. The club were relegated from the English Premier League in May. Boston-area soccer reporter Frank Dell’Apa reported last week that the Revs were in talks with Cameron's former Stoke teammate Bojan Krkic, who is out of contract after spending last season on loan from Stoke to La Liga club Deportivo Alaves.
The Revs have some work to do if they want to land either, particularly Cameron. They’d likely have to trade up from the eighth spot in the MLS allocation order to have a real shot at the native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, who remains in discussions with the LA Galaxy after they made him an initial two-year, $2 million offer. Yahoo’s Doug McIntyre first reported LA’s offer earlier this week.
The source said that Cameron likely wouldn’t move to MLS for less than a total package of $6 million. The Galaxy do hold the No. 1 spot in the allocation order, giving them first dibs on the soon-to-be 33-year-old should he return to the league. Any club interested in Cameron would potentially have to pay Stoke a transfer fee to acquire him, as well.
Burns declined to comment on either player specifically, but he did say that the Revs are “looking to strengthen the team this summer with hopefully at least another international signing” and that they’re “also in discussions with some domestic possibilities.” He said some of their talks have been with players that would classify as Designated Players.
Even after their busy winter, the Revs have room to make a big splash or two in the upcoming transfer window. Burns hired new head coach Brad Friedel, said goodbye to nine players and signed key additions Cristian Penilla, Wilfried Zahibo, Luis Alberto Caicedo and Gabriel Somi this offseason, but, unlike about half the league, he kept an international roster spot open this winter. The Revs also only have one Designated Player on the books in Claude Dielna and, after netting at least $700,000 in allocation money from LAFC in exchange for Lee Nguyen in May, have a decent amount of budget space.
Combined with a solid start that has them in fifth in the East ahead of Saturday’s match against the Seattle Sounders, that flexibility has the Revs in an intriguing spot heading into the second half.
“One of the things we tried to do from a roster standpoint, from an international roster spot standpoint and from a budget standpoint was provide ourselves with some flexibility,” Burns told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “And we have that flexibility on all fronts to bring in a player, whether he is a player that fits under the max salary threshold, whether he’s a TAM player, whether he’s a DP, we have the ability to add any player in any category, which we obviously feel good about.”
Burns said New England are aiming to make signings as close as possible to the July 10 opening of the Secondary Transfer Window, but he indicated that nothing is imminent. Their priority is to get the signing right, not how quickly they can get a deal done. Their strong start means the Revs can afford to be a little patient but Burns made it clear that they’re looking to add before the window closes on Aug. 8.
“We’re not displeased with the first half of the season, but we still do sit in fifth place. We’re not in first,” he said. “And I think if you asked any team in the league, everyone, including us, are looking to strengthen our team for the second half of the year. So we’re certainly not sitting back.
“Though the first half of the season has been more than what some other people expected, that’s certainly not [the case for] us. We felt like even coming into this year that we had a nucleus of players, a strong nucleus of players and we’ve added to that and we’ve put ourselves in a decent position. We’re not there, we haven’t qualified for the playoffs, but we want to get better and we want to get better for the second half of the year. And I think for all the reasons we outlined from a flexibility standpoint, we have the ability to do that and we feel like we need to do that.”
