With their inaugural NASL season behind them, the Ottawa Fury coaching staff are working hard to put together a roster for the 2015 season. Fan favourites like Ryan and Heinemann were locked up for 2015 long ago, meanwhile Marc Dos Santos and his staff have spent the winter months scouting and chasing potential targets. Dos Santos was kind enough to step away from the negotiations for half an hour and sit down with me to discuss Fury in the transfer market and how he goes about building a team for the future.



Marc and I met just before lunch on Friday, shook hands and sat down in a meeting room adjacent to his office. He quickly apologized for not being able to sit his office like he usually would, but he has photos of players and their current negotiation status pinned up on the wall, including players who are signed but are awaiting league approval. Only about two minutes into the discussion Marc received a phone call and quickly stepped into his office and shut the door. As I sat there alone in the room, able to hear the muffled sounds of Dos Santos next door, I couldn’t help but imagine Marc putting together his 2015 Fury Roster in a similar to the way an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer in a big Hollywood thriller; with photos on the walls, strings connecting them to last year’s stats and other NASL teams, contract numbers and positions scribbled on sticky notes that have been posted all over the place.

When Marc returned to the room I asked how this transfer window was different than the one last year, where Dos Santos had to build an entire team from scratch. “Last year, the only guys we were able to bring from the NASL were the leftovers, the players that nobody wanted” Dos Santos said. “This year we are able to go get guys that other teams wanted, so we got into the market for that. That was important for us.” The 2014/2015 offseason for Ottawa Fury is really their first chance to compete with the other teams in a transfer market, a market where there are few little transfers and a lot of free agencies. This means a lot of dealing with players agents and less with other clubs over fees.

As the conversation continued I asked about the process he goes through to find the players he needs to build his squad. Marc discussed how he needs to find the best possible fit for the team in terms of what they can afford contract wise, what the players qualities are, and how they rank in the minds of the Fury staff. We discussed the budget of Fury and how the club must live within its means, often meaning they cannot offer players the same type of contracts that other NASL clubs can. “Some guys are not for our budget, that’s a reality. I’ll give you an example, we tried to go after Brad Rusin, who signed in Tampa, and we weren’t even close. So we have to try and get the best possible [player] inside our financial reality, so sometimes we do play “Moneyball”.

Dos Santos wasn’t kidding when he says sometimes they need to play Moneyball, the idea that stats based analysis of players may yield better results when putting together a sports team. His team have been working hard to live within their means and produce a team that can compete with the likes of the Cosmos, but with a smaller budget. “We have a list that, for us, has the top goalkeepers of the NASL and the club they play for, and we try and get information on contracts and keep that. Then who for us are the top ten right backs in the NASL, top ten left backs and so on for every position” Dos Santos explained. I asked how these lists were made, be it based purely on stats, or perhaps scouting opinions, and Marc responded that it is a mix of the two, but stats are important. “Walter Restrepo, everybody rates him in the League as probably the best winger, and he went from San Antonio to New York”, Dos Santos explained, “He had less points than Oliver last year , Oliver had more goals and assists. Restrepo won the NASL Championship and was flashier, but his final product is a question mark. Restrepo is 26, Oliver is 22. Not that we tried to get Restreop over Oliver, but that’s an example of how sometimes [other] people can look at a player and how we look at a player”

Dos Santos and his staff start the building of their club by analyzing the ranking lists they have create, and attempting to figure who is the best player they can afford for the position they need. He explained how they will cross off the names of any players on the list who do not fit their budget, and will go after the next highest on the list. The NASL is not the only league that Ottawa Fury are looking to bring players to the club from, however Marc explained that it is important to have players with NASL experience who know the league and know what to expect in terms of culture, travelling, weather ect. If Fury can’t find what they are looking for in the NASL, they will look at the lower levels of the MLS and their academies, and if they still can’t find what they they need will look at other leagues around the world.

Once the Fury staff have their target players in their sights, they must then start the delicate process of negotiation for a potential contract. With other clubs often willing to be able to offer more money or lucrative deals, Dos Santos must think outside in the box in order to bring potential signings to Ottawa. Marc brought up two issues that he personally feels needs to change in the NASL, the first being that there no salary cap, and the second being that there isn’t a singular currency the players are paid in. This makes it difficult for Ottawa to bring in players because just like baseball, or hockey pre-salary cap, teams like Cosmos, who have a lot of money, are able to out-bid a lot of teams in their league. The issue of currency is interesting because it means that contracts in America could seem more stable, especially as the Canadian dollar continues to go down, where as the MLS has both a salary cap and players are all paid with the same currency, USD.

Dos Santos described some of the ways he reaches out to players for negotiations and how he convinces them that Ottawa is the best team they can sign with. “We have to be incredibly creative. How do we be creative? With our human performance department, quality of training and how we treat players outside of the soccer field” Dos Santos explain. “We brought Randolph here for a weekend, he was in my office and visited the stadium and was shown the city of Ottawa, and we just have to try our best.” Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing players that what Fury lack in budget they more than make up for in giving them a good home and a strong sense of community. The players not only want to join a good club, but also a club where they can continue to grow and develop as players. Having names like Nash, Dos Santos and Grobbelaar on the coaching staff certainly helps give the players a sense of the type of training they will receive and potential development for their game.

One of the things many Ottawa Fury fans have noticed is the abundance of Brazilian and Portuguese (speaking) players at the club. Dos Santos is known to be fluent in English, French and Portuguese, and uses this to his advantage when connecting with players on a personal level. “Rafael (Alves) came here because he probably felt a connection with the coaching staff and some of the players” Marc said “I always say how important it is for coaches to speak more languages. If I would only speak English to Rafael we might not have that connection, when we met we only spoke in Portuguese and I think he may feel home here”. Besides Alves and Dos Santos, midfielder Mauro is also fluent in Portuguese, as well as wingers Paulo Jr and Oliver. These are not only players Dos Santos met while in Brazil or Portugal earlier in his career, but also players he has been able to connect with on a personal level due to shared experiences.

Working in the transfer window with a limited budget is certainly not an easy task, especially with a club heading into just its second year, but I don’t think Dos Santos will uses those as excuses heading into the 2015 season, as it seemed he and his staff have done a tremendous amount of research and planning during the winter. Last year was fun, expectations were low and spirits were high, but there will be little room for mistakes this year as Dos Santos strives for an NASL playoff position in his second year at the helm. It is obvious he has been incredibly busy during the off season, and there is no doubt fans are excited to see what Dos Santos and company have ready for 2015, where they field a stronger Fury squad.