CF Montreal | A crucial summer transfer window to relaunch the season

Gabriel Gervais and his new strategic consultant Corey Wray have their work cut out for them.

The MLS transfer window opens on July 18, and runs through August 14. It’s coming fast, really fast. And the club’s room to maneuver, for now, is slim as can be. That said, adjustments are clearly needed to give a new direction to this up-and-down 2024 season.

On Wednesday, at a press conference, the president said he wanted to free up space on CF Montreal’s payroll: the cap, set at $5.47 million in 2024, is almost reached. He also wants to get rid of players by the end of 2024, he who has a full roster of 30 players in his hands.

“We’re looking at all the possibilities,” Gervais said of the transfer window. “Whether it’s loans, contract buyouts, trades. But if we trade, it doesn’t help us particularly, because we’re going to fill a position in the squad.”

The Wanyama case

The first move that Gabriel Gervais could make is obvious. We can even imagine him tapping his foot impatiently while waiting for July 18 to be able to act, especially since he himself insinuated it in his comment quoted above.

The redemption of Victor Wanyama’s contract.

Wanyama is the team’s only designated player (DP), and thus its highest earner. The Kenyan is paid $1.8 million by CFM, but only $683,750 is counted on the club’s payroll, under the DP rule.

It’s a very high price to pay for a player who has only made 3 starts in 21 MLS games in 2024, without being injured. Clearly, Laurent Courtois saw the same thing as his predecessor Hernán Losada, who had also left the player out of his lineup at the end of the season.

Each team has one buyout per season at its disposal. In Wanyama’s case, this maneuver would allow the club to breathe a lot better under the cap, as well as free up one of the 30 places in its squad. In addition to satisfying a player who, while remaining professional, has not failed to make his discontent known in recent seasons.

Mathieu Choinière, will he leave or not?

Yes, the request for a transaction is still in the air, and Gervais was tight-lipped about the subject on Wednesday. “We have an option [sur le contrat de] Mathieu for next season, he recalled. Mathieu is a star player, the coach can count on him. Our intention is for him to stay here for a very long time.

Fine. But what offer will the club make to this Quebec star of its Academy, twice named to the MLS All-Star Game? To a type of player that it should, in theory, want to promote if it wants to keep its promise to “rely on the Academy” and offer a “local flavor” to the fans? To a midfielder who could very well flourish elsewhere in the league, in the event of a trade, with better compensation than what he is receiving today – estimated at between $300,000 and $400,000 – from the CFM?

The way out for some?

On the other hand, other names on the Montreal roster probably deserve to go and test the leather under other skies. We are thinking in particular of Mason Toye and Lassi Lappalainen, high-earners (more than Choinière) often injured, and who have been around the Montreal garden quite a bit. The contracts of these two players expire next December. Even if they have options attached to their agreements, the CFM would probably do better, sportingly and financially, not to activate them.

Others, like Grayson Doody, Ousman Jabang, Alessandro Biello, Ilias Iliadis and even Rida Zouhir, are young players who get almost no minutes while occupying those coveted spots on the club’s contract list. For them, the option of a loan to the USL or the PLC would be an option. Except perhaps for Zouhir, who already tried the USL experience in San Antonio last year. Although not named by Gervais, he seems to be one of those players “who don’t want to be here anymore.”

The needs to be met

The interim president and sporting director said he didn’t want to “show his cards” to his MLS counterparts on Wednesday, briefly stressing that his needs were “all over the field.” So we’re going to do it for him.

The main flaw of this team is the absence of a real playmaker, a creative number 10 capable of finding holes in the opposing defense, making the move that opens the game, and doing so repeatedly.

Bryce Duke, while showing flashes of good quality at times, has been too uneven in his performances. Dominic Iankov? The sample size is still small, but there are also serious doubts about both his ability to stay healthy and the continued buzz he can generate on the court.

Obviously, every team wants an attacking midfielder like that. The challenge will be to find one that meets CFM’s needs, and especially the tight financial constraints it imposes on itself.

In attack, sooner or later we will have to plan for the departure of Josef Martinez, who came to Montreal in particular to get back in shape and regain his profile as the ace scorer of this league. If he succeeds, we can assume that it will not be Montreal who will offer him the contract he will require.

The right-back position, beyond Ruan, is thin. The Brazilian hare has started 21 of the team’s 22 MLS games. He’s one of the hardest-working and most successful players on the roster. But he’s going to get burned if he keeps up this pace. Behind him is Lappalainen, who has been unable to stay healthy for two years. Then, nothing, unless they get a player out of position.

In goaltending, neither Sebastian Breza nor Logan Ketterer offer a real threat to Jonathan Sirois’ starting spot. A little competition in that department wouldn’t hurt.

Will Gabriel Gervais and Corey Wray be able to resolve all these issues by August 14? Probably not. Especially with the limited manpower during this period of restructuring of the sports department at CF Montreal.