Bill McGuire doesn’t occupy a windowed corner office inside Minnesota United’s workplace in Golden Valley.

Instead of a space befitting his title, the principal owner of the Major League Soccer club occupies something more like a cubicle, without a window and in a row of many just like it.

Behind McGuire’s desk hangs a large framed photo taken after he bought the club in 2012, when it played in the lower levels of U.S. soccer. The picture has then-coach Manny Lagos celebrating with a cast of players at their former home, the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Success has been hard to come by in MLS. The Loons finished 10-18-6 in their inaugural season and 11-20-3 in 2018. After allowing an MLS-worst 70 goals in 2017 and going 3-12-2 on the road in 2017, they gave up 71 goals and went 1-14-2 on the road this season. Both seasons, played under a two-year lease at TCF Bank Stadium, fell well shy of the MLS Cup playoffs.

In front of McGuire on his desk were glossy marketing materials for third-party proposed development plans around McGuire’s crown jewel — Allianz Field, the $250 million, 19,400-seat stadium that will open in April in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul.

On Thursday, McGuire sat down with the Pioneer Press for a 31-minute interview on the state of the franchise:

How close do you feel your team is to making the playoffs?

Well, right now, we’re not. (Laughs.) I think when we enter next year, we will be a playoff contender. I really believe that. I think we really would have been a playoff team if we had not had three major injuries (to defensive midfielder Sam Cronin and wingers Kevin Molino and Ethan Finlay). I think if you take those three players and … some things we didn’t do because we had to fill those holes, we would have been there.

The club has about 10 open roster spots, salary flexibility and probably four or five new starters coming, so how would you categorize the importance of player acquisitions over the next few months?

Huge. It’s really big for the organization. I think people are out working hard and spending a lot of time around the world. Some here, but a lot of people on the road, seeing lots of players — looking to see what can fit in and what works and who wants to come here. (Laughs.) It’s this idea where you say we want people to come, but it doesn’t always work that way. I think we will make some headway.

How would you describe the scouting side of the club? Is it 365 days a year, or does it ramp up around transfer windows?

To me, it ought to be 360 days a year, every year, with a view multiple years out. I don’t think it’s a ebb and flow, per se, because you might not be hot for a particular position right now, but that shouldn’t change the idea of being aware of who’s out there and watching and looking for young players and great talent and opportunity so you are in a position to respond if the need comes. I think when you don’t do that, and you haven’t done that — as obviously we weren’t in a position to do that — you become more reactionary when you do need it. It should be an ongoing, steady, steady, steady focus.

Is it where you want it?

It hasn’t been where we want it, and I think it’s getting better.

In our interview last year, you talked about how you can sometimes be “quickly critical.” How did you look back at 2018 and how strangely it mirrored 2017?

I think we were a better team. Forget the record; we were a better team last year than we were the year before. You saw that in how we handled some very good teams, and you saw that in several games that we maybe didn’t win, but we were there and could have won, maybe should have won.

Now, there were some real stinkers, where it just seemed like people didn’t show up, which I guess is sports. I’m not sure that I’m quite as accepting of that. I think we were a better team. That said, it was … too much like the year before.

We didn’t have the depth that we needed. When we got pressured and we didn’t want to make a change, you necessarily didn’t have the personnel to make that change. We did not get as good as we needed to be in certain areas of play. Soccer is one of those things that it’s not just, ‘Wow, you score a lot of goals.’ Usually, you score a lot of goals and win because your back line is really good and helps set up some of those goals. It’s just so interdependent. I don’t think it’s a year anybody would say they were satisfied with.

How would you view 2019 if it begins like the last two years?

That is a leading question trying to find out a negative reaction, I guess. I think the right way to look at it is we anticipate we will be a significantly better team next year and we will show that on the field — and that will mean away play as well as home play. It won’t be, ‘Wow, we can be a really exciting team in front of the home fans.’ It has to be, ‘We are a really dangerous team in front of our away fans and we can prevail.’ That is what I expect us to be.

You had a connection with Christian Ramirez, so how did you factor in the emotional piece of his trade to Los Angeles FC? And how do you look at reinvesting that money?

(United traded Ramirez, a fan favorite since 2014, to LAFC in August for $800,000, and up to $200,000 more based on incentives. Ramirez scored only two goals in 261 of a possible 1,080 minutes with LAFC.)

I think it’s fair to say that nobody wanted to not have Christian here. … It was an appropriate kind of call to make for the long-run basis, understanding that everybody wishes it might have been different. That is how these things work. I hope in the end, it will be a good thing for Christian and it will be a good thing for us.

There was also an effort to get Christian in a place that was also good for him and him being back home was a big part of that. Hopefully, everybody in the end recognizes the ups and the downs in the decisions like that. It was the right decision for the team and produces the salary room (Ramirez was making $641,000), plus money to get at some of the other needs that we have.

Will there be an increase in player spending going forward?

We will have to look at that compared to the overall budget of everything that we are doing. I’ve been asked that question a few times and I will say, did you not notice the increase in spending that took place? It’s not like we are at the bottom of the league in spending. (United’s $8.2 million ranked 14th of 23 teams in salary in 2018, per spotrac.com.) I think people can expect us to step up and do what is necessary to have a competitive team that, I said, is a playoff contender. That is the objective and we will act accordingly.

On the task force’s proposed “community benefits fund” for the neighborhood surrounding Allianz Field, where do see that going? Any club contribution?

We are mentioned in it. My view is, first and foremost, this club and what it’s doing is immense (with Allianz Field). If we look at that area and the Midway in particular, right now, we are closing in a very short order with what is arguably the finest soccer stadium and one of the most beautiful soccer facilities in North America. It’ll just in itself be a quarter of a billion dollars of money, private money, put into the area where there wasn’t before. It’s produced jobs on site for over 1,800 people, average wage has been $33 an hour and it’s $45 million into the pockets of people. So, hopefully folks recognize (that). And then, of course, new things are happening (a U.S. men’s national soccer team Gold Cup game on June 18; St. Thomas-St. John’s college football game on Oct. 19).

Relative to a community in a larger sense, if the city wants to and thinks it’s a benefit to have a fund created, I would look at it very much like the (Downtown Improvement District) in downtown Minneapolis, and all businesses contribute. If that is the case, and it’s operating down there, we will probably be a part of doing that. That is how I would look at it.

What impresses you about Allianz Field when you see it now 95 percent complete?

I think it’s really special. … We’ve got a building that on its own level, when it’s empty, is really gorgeous. It’s stunning, is what people talk about: the lines, the field, the look. And then you get in and see all the details and inside you say, ‘Look at this!’ … It will create a community around it. It will help draw other things like this (points to renderings of proposed redevelopment plans on his desk).

More importantly than that, it’s going to be a great place for fans and the game. When they had a few of the supporters in, and they were down in the supporters’ end (behind the south goal), they were bouncing around on the stands and yelling and said it was just really loud. It’s going to be incredible. It’s just so intimate inside.

Ultimately, we are going to be excited about the things that hopefully spring up around it. We’ll all just continue to evolve and make it a more dynamic community than what has been there before.

What would you be willing to share about “United Village”?

It was just a name that we used this week in New York at a big convention for retail sales and stuff around the country — malls and shopping centers and new development (points to brochure on his desk). It’s a marketing piece that shows a location, some of the attributes, looking at the demographics, showing all of the colleges and the proximity to the airport and other things. It’s showing some of the area and some of the footprint from the master plan and the buildings — retail, with residential above — starting on the west side (near Snelling Avenue) and moving to the east (across a 35-acre space). Some of the kinds of layouts. It was really directed at the retailers and a little bit about the soccer team. Related Articles Loons’ Adrian Heath, Kei Kamara believe they can strike simpatico partnership

Houston Dynamo scores twice in 2nd half to tie Minnesota United

Minnesota United acquires striker Kei Kamara in trade with Colorado

New Loons star Emanuel Reynoso brings his lifelong ‘fight’ to fresh start in Minnesota

Loons acquire backup goalkeeper Adrian Zendejas from Nashville

How far off are some of these things?

It’s coming along. People are out talking about it. There is a lot of work. This is somebody different. A lot of people think this (development) is the team; it’s not the team. You can see some of the blocks and the options and where you go first. What might be in here. If somebody does a hotel, where would that be? How does it flow together? What could this block be? For instance, there is a discussion about theater. Then there is residential.

We want it to be a place that both attracts people to want to come there and attracts people to want to work there … and is a part of the neighborhood and attracts folks that want to live there because of all that. It’s moving along. Until the final decision is made by Rick Birdoff (the head of real estate firm RK Midway) and the people involved, Mortenson (Construction) and others, as to which building or which pad goes first, it’s a little hard to define just yet, but it’s getting closer.”