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Columbus Crew GM Issa Tall promises incoming transfers to fill holes
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- Columbus Crew GM Issa Tall promises incoming transfers to fill holes
A series of detonations shattered what had been a quiet offseason for the Crew. Forward Cucho Hernandez, the greatest player in franchise history, was sold to a team in Spain's La Liga . Two days later, another forward, Christian Ramirez , a clutch performer in high-stakes games, was traded to the Los Angeles Galaxy for a pile of general allocation money.
The earth stopped shaking, for now. Let us take stock. The Crew set a raft of club records last year. At the end of the season, forward Alex Matan left via free agency and winger Yaw Yeboah had his option declined. Aside from some weird business regarding forward Marino Hinestroza , all was quiet for months. Then the Cucho bomb dropped, and the Ramirez news followed.
When the Crew open the 2025 season, they will be without Cucho Hernandez (right) and Christian Ramirez (left). Diego Rossi will be expected to carry a large offensive load because of those departures.
In round numbers, the Crew took in around $15 million in transfer fees – and they lost about half of their goals and half of their assists from last year. As some Crew fans have noted, this felt like 2010, when the Crew declined options on the incomparable Guillermo Barros Schelotto and captain Frankie Hejduk, as well as Duncan Oughton and Gino Padula. The team that won the 2008 MLS Cup and two Supporters' Shields was thus gutted. Crew fans didn't like it, but they understood. That roster was aging, and 2010 was time to reallocate.
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In important ways, last week was different. On paper, the Crew went from an MLS Cup contender to a team fighting for a playoff spot. In a matter of a couple of days. It felt like a self-inflicted wound. Why the gouge, when just a couple of tweaks were in order?
Is this a rebuild?
"No," Crew general manager Issa Tall said.
Tall actually drew out the word a bit: "Nooo."
"We don't want to stand still, because that would be counterproductive," Tall said. "We've used the word 'freshness.' So, hopefully we will add some pieces that will help (with) that."
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Hernandez, who will turn 26 in April, wanted to go to Real Betis and play in La Liga to better his chances of playing meaningful minutes for Colombia at the 2026 World Cup. Ramirez, who will turn 34 roughly two weeks earlier in April, was born and raised in Southern California and is going home. Both players had a strong voice in their transactions, which took months to put together. Crew fans get all of that. What they don't quite get is the timing of this bloodletting and how it has pared the roster with fewer than three weeks to go before the season opener.
This week Crew general manager Issa Tall brought in around $15 million in transfer fees – and parted with about half of Columbus' goals and half of its assists from last year.
"I'm the first to say we're trying to get better," Tall said. "Would we be better with Cucho on the team? Yes, of course. However, the circumstances happened that – as much as we wanted to do something (to keep him), Cucho is gone and he wanted to leave. It's something we should almost, I want to say, celebrate, and be happy for him.
"We move on. Our goal is to be better. We need to bring in pieces. We need to bring in the right pieces."
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Tall paused. He was on the phone from Palm Beach, Florida, where the Crew is training through Feb. 15. He said he was getting excited as he watched the Cucho-less, Ramirez-less team go through its paces. He doesn't have to remind anybody that Wilfried Nancy knows how to coach up the lads. He did anyway.
OK. But about the new pieces that are supposedly on the way?
"We've been working on that," Tall said. "We've tried to bring in some players, and (we) don't have time to get into every single target that we've had. … If we were in a panic mode ... and we make a rushed signing for the sake of signing someone, I think we're going in the wrong direction. I want to repeat: My staff, we are composed and we are confident in what we're doing. We're working on those things and hopefully in the next couple weeks, we'll have players. That's the goal."
Tall has a small pile of roster spots – including at least one designated player slot and two or three U22 slots – and he has cap space and GAM. He's targeting a center back, a holding midfielder and, of course, one or two forwards.
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Tall said he has targets for incoming transferal. He aims to sign at least two players before the season opener, which is Feb. 22 against Gregg Berhalter's Chicago Fire . He said that he will use the DP slot opened by the departure of Hernandez and indicated that Darlington Nagbe would be bought down to open another DP slot.
"If there are two DPs that we can sign in the winter, we will do it, for sure," Tall said. "But if we believe it's better to wait for the summer because we will have a bigger pool and we have targets that for sure will come in the summer, then we will wait for the summer."
The winter transfer window closes April 23. The summer window is open from July 24-Aug. 31. The rhythm of the rest of the soccer world makes the summer the busier market; Schelotto, Hernandez and Federico Higuain , not to mention Diego Rossi , were all summer transfers.
"What I want to tell fans is, I want them to be excited about the season," Tall said. "I am. We are. … Look for some impact players to come in. We're not going to hide from that. We have to sign impact players that make a difference. At the same time, we already have a strong core of players that everybody needs to be excited about. We returned most of the players that just had the best season in club history (by many measures). But the idea is to bring in elements that will help us get better."
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Tall sounds confident. He is not asking for the fans' trust, but he expects he will earn it. And we shall see.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: MLS transfer news: Columbus Crew GM expects to sign one or two DPs
