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It’s silly season, so you can take everything with a grain of salt.

But sometimes you do have to raise your eyebrows and say “hmmm.”

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It’s no secret the Whitecaps have some needs. They’re down a creative midfielder. They need to find a striker who actually fills the net.

Those are top of the list.

Carl Robinson’s off season always features plenty of scouting. He’s been in the UK. He went to Brazil and Argentina.

“The market is strong, the market is expensive,” Robinson told AFTN’s Michael McColl before Christmasof what he saw on his “productive” South American trip.

Looking for diamonds in the rough is not a new strategy for Robinson and his scouts (he also told McColl fans shouldn’t expect him to spend “millions and millions like Seattle). The Whitecaps hoped Octavio Rivero would be one, but he never found a consistent touch against the tougher defenders of MLS and eventually asked to be allowed to return to Chile.