There's no sign of a bed or sleeping bag in or around the TD Place office of new Ottawa Fury FC coach and GM Paul Dalglish.

He may have just hidden them before sitting down for an interview with the Sun on Monday, or maybe Dalglish really does get home for a few hours of sleep every night. But if he does, it's not for very long.

Sun spies around Lansdowne say the new Fury boss has been putting in long hours, working weekends and nights putting together a new-look Fury squad in time for training camp, which is already around the corner with a scheduled start date in mid-February.

Dalglish chuckles when this is put to him, the kind of chuckle that says, "ha, you don't know the half of it."

But Dalglish is having fun. Unexpected fun, because he never figured when he took over from Marc Dos Santos that he would have quite so much work to do putting together a competitive roster for 2016.

All of a sudden, it seemed players were leaving left and right, chief among them captain Richie Ryan, midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic, striker Tommy Heinemann and, most recently, defender Colin Falvey. Other popular players like Drew Beckie, Ryan Richter, Oliver and Nicki Paterson also moved on.

"It's been real fun, (but no), it wasn't expected when I first came in, it wasn't like we wanted to do a mini-rebuild," Dalglish said during a wide-ranging interview. "When I was watching the team before I got the job, there was nowhere near as many changes as what turned out."

Having successfully navigated his way through a few high-profile transfer agreements, Dalglish is nearly finished the fun part of the job, having added a number of new faces over the last few weeks. Fury has 17 players under contract for the spring season with another two signing announcements imminent, plus the addition of a third goalie. That's about where Dalglish wants his roster to sit, 20 or 21 players to give him room to bring up a few deserving academy players to train with the first team.

"It's only fun if you get the pieces that you actually go after," Dalglish said, adding he's happy with this success rate in that area so far.

"We're quite lucky with what we've managed to bring in with the challenges of the exchange rate."

With new additions including Rich Balchan, Onua Obasi, Kyle Porter and Fernando Timbo at the back, James Bailey, Lance Rozeboom and Jonny Steele in the midfield and Dennis Chin (along with another player or two) up top, Dalglish believes he has filled his roster with players who should all fight for a starting spot.

"We've not had a training session yet but I want every player that's on our roster to want to play," Dalglish said of competition for positions.

"It's a fresh start for everybody, we don't have a starting 11 in mind going into preseason. We've got good players and a lot of the times the team's going to be picked on form."

Despite the turnover from last year, Dalglish said he hasn't had to do much to sell the program to potential players.

"I think the program sells itself," he said. "I just tell the truth. I think if you lie or use a used car salesman job (it will backfire).

"People see the facility, they see where the team finished last year. A lot of the players have got mutual friends. It's not been a hard sell, it's been having conversations with people, telling them were they fit in and how they'll fit into our way of playing."

It's clear Dalglish wants to develop talent and not rely too heavily on older players on the downswing of their careers.

"I always look in a players eyes and ask what their motivation is," he said. Sometimes the motivation coming to the NASL is to finish their careers. I'm looking for players that want to move forward."

NO RUSH TO NAME NEW CAPTAIN

There will be a new captain of Ottawa Fury FC when the 2016 season starts April 3.

Who that will be, however, remains anyone's best guess.

With Richie Ryan now a member of the Jacksonville Armada, there are a couple obvious front-runners to take the captain's armband, but new coach/GM Paul Dalglish doesn't plan to rush the decision.

A safe bet would see wagers placed on either goalkeeper Romuald Peiser or Julian de Guzman taking on the captaincy, though there are no guarantees. De Guzman missed significant time with injury last season and may miss time because of international duty with the Canadian Men's National Team, while there are pros and cons to having a keeper as captain.

Third-year Fury defender Mason Trafford also wore the armand in the regular season finale in 2015 with Ryan out and Peiser getting a rare game off.

"That's something we will sit down with the staff and a few of the senior players and move forward from there," Dalglish told the Sun on Monday. "We've got people in mind and the decision will be made as a staff.

"If you look at the squad, (new signing) Lance Rozeboom was the captain of Austen (Aztex), Peiser was captain at times (last year), Trafford's neen a captain, (new signing Jonny) Steele's getting to a point in his career where he wants to start having a leadership role."

All to say is the club won't lack for leadership in 2016.

FURY SIGNS FORMER TEEN STAR

It's not every day the chance presents itself to sign a player once touted as the next Leo Messi.

So it's no surprise that Ottawa Fury FC coach/GM Paul Dalglish jumped at the chance to sign Gerardo Bruna, a 24-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder who, less than a decade a ago, was ranked in the top-10 on World Soccer Magazine's list of Top 50 Most Exciting Teen Footballers. That same list included names like Sergio Aguero, Gareth Bale, Alexandre Pato, Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.

While Bruna's career hasn't gone to plan -- he suited up for both the Real Madrid and Liverpool programs in his career but never appeared for either first team -- Dalglish sees in him a young player with plenty of potential upside if put in the right scenario.

Both Dalglish and Bruna agree that could be Ottawa, which is why Fury inked Bruno to a pre-contract that kicks in July 1 when his current deal with League Two side Accrington Stanley runs out.

"He's a pure playmaker," Dalglish said of Bruna in an interview with the Sun on Monday. "He's playing at a lower level at the moment (and) just wants a fresh start.

"I'm really excited about him. He's going to be very good for this level."

Bruna began his development with Real Madrid at age 11 and played in the cub's academy for five years before signing with Liverpool in 2007. He would go on to spend two seasons with English Championship side Blackpool following a sting with Spanish second division club Huesca.

Bruna said it wasn't a difficult decision to sign with Fury as the club enters its third season in the NASL.

"After I spoke to Paul and learned of the club's interest in me coming to Ottawa I didn't hesitate to take the opportunity," said Bruna. "To move to such a lovely country and into a league that has so much potential to grow is very exciting."

FALVEY DEPARTURE OUT OF FURY'S HANDS: COACH

While many Ottawa Fury FC supporters were disappointed to see popular defender Colin Falvey sold to Indy Eleven last week, there was little surprise.

Much less than, for example, when captain Richie Ryan was transferred to Jacksonville earlier in the off-season. But according to Fury coach/GM Paul Dalglish, the circumstances weren't all that different. Basically, both players had strong years and were offered more money to go elsewhere than Fury was willing to pay to keep them. Falvey's situation just materialized later than Ryan's.

Though a clause in the Irish centre back's contract could have seen Fury lose him for nothing, the club was able to get cash back in return for the 30-year-old.

"It was the same as Richie Ryan," Dalglish said of Falvey. "He had a great season last year and had interest. Somebody was prepared to pay him a lot of money.

"He knew what he could earn (and) we weren't really in a position of power with that one ... we wanted to get something back for the club and we managed to do that."

Twitter: @chrishofley