It’s the weekend, finally.

Weird how being in the office for only three days can still feel like an eternity; but we have reached the finish line on another business week and thus another weekend edition of the DOOP.

We can tell you that we are on the verge of another signing, not one we can provide great detail into since there is no finalized deal except that the coaches are wowed by “his potential to be a big time player.” That came from assistant boss Rob Vartughian who also said we are at the tail end of getting a deal done with this player, so unless that flops, as deals sometimes do, expect an official announcement next week.

Philadelphiaunion.com also asked both Vartughian and head honcho John Hackworth that if they had to say how finalized the roster is as of right now. And after a few seconds to ponder, both felt the club is in the 85-to-90 percent range of being fully complete.

There are only 56 days before First Kick and 13 days before the start of preseason. Hey, 85-90 percent sounds pretty spectacular if you ask us.

In other news…

For those concerned with the reason it took Conor Casey a little while to sign his Union contract, know that you can stop worrying. Casey sealed the deal Thursday and is an active member of the club. But Hackworth was surprised at supporter concern telling philadelphiaunion.com:

“In both cases with Conor and Jeff [Parke] we did our homework beforehand, so it was never a matter of if we could sign him, but it’s a process and you have to have time for that process to take place. Whenever you are negotiating with the player, agents and the league it’s a process. To be honest, I don’t think it took that long to get this deal done.”

Moving on…

A little birdie informed us today that U.S. women’s national team defender Heather Mitts played some lunchtime footy at YSC Sports in Wayne today, which we are sure piqued the excitement (and play) of the afternoon pickup crowd. Mitts, who played a season in Philadelphia with the now defunct Philadelphia Charge of the now defunct WUSA women’s league still has a house in the city and isn’t the only national teamer to be spotted at those games. Teammate Lauren Cheney has a few lunchtime caps as well along with some others.

Next week is a big one with the upcoming MLS Combine (Jan. 11-15) beginning next Friday in Florida and the MLS SuperDraft (Jan.17) the following week.

Look for our combine and draft previews beginning next week with all the insider info on how the coaching staff views the combines, draft and finding those diamond in the rough, (ahem Ray Gaddis).

Lastly…

If you use Internet Explorer to browse philadelphiaunion.com you may have noticed some glitches on the homepage. After some digging, it appears our site provider doesn’t work on any IE versions prior to IE7. With that said, if you go to Microsoft and update the current version you should be fine. And another reminder about our preseason LIVE chat next Wednesday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Do it...DO IT.

Enjoy your weekend…catch you all Monday.

Contact Kerith Gabriel at kgabriel@philadelphiaunion.com