“We realized that this would be a great opportunity for our bench players to get some game time in a developing league,” stated Roughnecks General Manager Wayne Farmer. “Our agreement with the MLS allows us to loan players that typically wouldn’t get playing time with our Starting 11, while allowing us to recall them in case of a long term player injury or some other necessary reason. It really allows players who might struggle in USL to have a chance to blossom in MLS.”

Sources with the Fire report that General Manager Nelson Rodriguez is very happy with the new deal as he expressed frustration recently at the difficulty of acquiring players for the 2019 season.

“We plan on starting these players immediately,” stated Rodriguez to The Nutmeg News. “Tulsa has some great talent that will really help our team out without costing us an enormous amount of money. It’s only logical for this to be the new pipeline going forward from the Chicago Fire to Tulsa Roughnecks. Path to PRO!”

With the new agreement in place, Rodriguez indicated that he plans on acquiring all the pacy wingers that the Roughnecks have on their squad.

“We have some deficiencies this season, but it’s nothing that a pacy winger won’t fix. You have to score goals in order to stop goals from scoring goals. It’s all about wingers.”

The Nutmeg News will have more on this when the Fire ask whether they can have access to the Roughnecks draft picks for 2019.