During the Revolution’s first 23 seasons, they had been notoriously anti-transfer fee. But in the last year, the Revolution paid out more than $12 million in transfer fees for Gustavo Bou ($6.7 million), Adam Buksa ($4 million), and Carles Gil ($2 million).

Such a scenario is not as likely now, as MLS teams have changed their tune on transfers.

When Omar Colley was a teenager, he impressed during tryouts with Sporting Kansas City, performing as a central defender in preseason matches in 2010 and ’11. But SKC refused to pay a transfer fee to Colley’s Gambian club, so he moved on. Colley, now 27, went to Finland, Sweden, then to Belgium’s KRC Genk, which paid a 1.7 million euro transfer fee before selling him for 8 million euros to Sampdoria in Italy, where he is now a starter.


In the last two weeks, four team-record transfer fees have been paid for players to join MLS: SKC for Alan Pulido ($8 million); Columbus Crew for Lucas Zelarayan ($8 million); Vancouver Whitecaps for Lucas Cavallini ($5 million); San Jose Earthquakes for Cristian Espinoza ($2.5 million).

Buying talent should improve the quality of play in MLS. It also should provide an incentive to sell players, which could become another means of producing revenue.

Arena moves quickly on roster

Bruce Arena has been working fast. Arena, the Revolution’s sporting director/head coach, has acquired five players in recent weeks — well before the Dec. 31 deadline he set for player acquisitions.

So, the Revolution roster should be virtually complete when the team reports for preseason camp at the new training facility Jan. 18.

In previous seasons, the Revolution have gone into training camp missing key pieces. Two years ago, Lee Nguyen reported a month late after a contract dispute, and was eventually traded. Last year, Gil arrived in time for the second preseason match in Marbella, Spain, but the Revolution’s wait for a second Designated Player extended well into the regular season.


This time, Arena brought in MLS free agents Kelyn Rowe and Seth Sinovic, both former Revolution starters, plus Buksa, a Polish striker; Dutch defender Alex Buttner; and French defender Samba Kamara, whose signing was announced Monday.

The Revolution have not had success with former French Ligue 1 and 2 defenders, having gone through Benjamin Angoua, Claude Dielna, and Didier Domi. Angoua struggled to adjust during the 2017 season. Dielna played out of position at left back, and also was likely a victim of unrealistic expectations in 2017 and ‘18. Domi, who played for the Revolution in 2011, played nine games, then retired.

Progress report on Buksa

Buksa has yet to perform for Poland’s national team, but has been on the bench behind the country’s top strikers — Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, and Krzysztof Piatek. Buksa noted Poland is so deep at striker, players such as Kamil Wilczek are not getting callups. Wilczek, 31, leads the Danish Superligaen with 17 goals in 18 games and is Brondby IF’s all-time leading scorer with 92 goals in 163 appearances; second on the list is Teemu Pukki (now with Norwich City), who totaled 72 goals in 164 games.

Buksa, who became the Revolution’s third Designated Player when he signed last week, has received mixed reviews in scouting reports. A Europe-based Polish scout termed Buksa as the country’s best young forward prospect. Another evaluated him as capable of being on an MLS team’s game-day roster but not a regular starter.


More Buksa items: he learned to speak Italian when he was 16 years old playing for Novara. After Novara was relegated to Serie C in 2014, Buksa returned to Poland to join Legia Gdansk, where he played his first professional games. Legia Gdansk’s coach was Peter Nowak, a former Chicago Fire midfielder who coached the Philadelphia Union and was a US national team assistant.

Liverpool develops talent

Liverpool has compiled a 19-1-3 record in its last 23 matches after a 4-0 win over Leicester City Thursday. The Reds’ only loss since Sept. 17 was when they fielded a junior team for a 5-0 defeat against Aston Villa in the League Cup last Tuesday. The next day, Liverpool captured the Club World Cup with a 1-0 overtime win over Flamengo in Qatar.

Liverpool brought several junior players to Doha to sit on the bench, but none were scheduled to play. Meanwhile, Flamengo brought on Lincoln, a forward who turned 19 this month, and he nearly equalized with a half volley late in the match.

Liverpool appears to be developing talent, but few of their junior players have a realistic chance of making their mark on the first team. One former academy player who might have made an impact was Rafael Camacho, who scored 20 goals in 37 games in two seasons for Liverpool’s junior teams, and also made two appearances at right back with the first team. But the emergence of 21-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold led to the exit of Camacho, who returned to his original club, Sporting, on a 5 million euro transfer this year.


Jesus sets tone

Other Portuguese coaches are following the path of Jorge Jesus, who guided Flamengo to the Copa Libertadores and Brazil’s Serie A titles in his first season.

Jesualdo Ferreira (Santos) and Augusto Inacio (Avai) could be joined by Carlos Carvalhal or Jose Peseiro, who are candidates for other Brazilian clubs. Ferreira and Inacio both led Porto to three titles, and Ferreira also took Sporting to a championship.

Jesus brought an attacking mindset and tactics to Flamengo, pointing the game away from the conservative, defensive style that has characterized Brazilian soccer recently. But Jesus, formerly of Benfica and Sporting, had major advantages with Flamengo, one of the best-supported and richest clubs in South America.

Santos finished second in the standings last season, but struggles to match Flamengo financially. Avai is in Brazil’s second division.