Crew doggedly pursued Hernandez
Watford star lured with goal as starting striker
Crew president and general manager Tim Bezbatchenko traveled to England with director of player personnel Issa Tall to speak to the Watford technical staff and take in the club's final home game on May 15.
They discussed several topics and several players, but the only one Bezbatchenko and Tall were interested in was Colombian striker Cucho Hernandez.
During the trip, they met with Hernandez and his representation at a London steakhouse. What he was looking for was exactly what the Crew wanted for him.
They told Hernandez he would be the top player on the Crew and one of the top players in MLS. He would play regularly and be the starting striker, having played out of position at winger at Watford. He could thrive in MLS and assert himself as a regular player on the Colombian national team, but it would still be a challenge — more so than what many across the Atlantic would likely believe. His parents could also visit and see him play, being closer to Colombia.
The trip was a success. Watford said it was open to discussions about selling Hernandez, and Hernandez had shown an interest in Columbus after buying into the club's project and the trajectory of MLS.
But when Bezbatchenko returned to Columbus and sent an offer, Watford declined and signaled Hernandez was off limits, believing it could get double what the Crew ended up paying for him, sources said.
“At one point we thought there's no chance,” Crew coach Caleb Porter said after the $10-10.5 million signing of Cucho Hernandez was made official Tuesday. “Things kind of fell together at the right moment, and to get a player like him, it does take a perfect storm of events.”
While working on five other players, still wanting Hernandez as their top target, the Crew found out in the most unexpected way that Watford was ready to listen to another offer.
Bezbatchenko received an email from Watford leadership requesting the two clubs continue a relationship. Only half serious and expecting a laugh in the reply, Bezbatchenko replied at the end of the email, something to the effect of “How about Cucho?”
The reply: “Let's discuss.”
The 23-year-old who had played in Europe since he was 19 and signed with Watford at 17 was a long shot for the Crew from the beginning of their striker search. In a matter of a month, a potential deal for him went from dead to finalized.
From interviews with senior staff members, The Dispatch pieced together how the Crew landed their biggest signing in club history.
These senior staff members were granted anonymity to speak candidly about behind-the-scenes details. The quotes from Porter and Bezbatchenko were given in press conferences to reporters.
Identifying Cucho Hernandez
The Crew began the process of
identifying a striker in January when scouting director Neil Mcguiness created a list of more than 100 potential strikers who might be available and fit what the Crew were looking for. The list was compiled mostly through analytics.
Tall and Mcguinness trimmed that list to 56 names before presenting them to Porter five at a time. Almost every day for the next couple of months, Bezbatchenko, Tall, Mcguinness, assistant general manager Corey Wray, technical director Marc Nicholls and Porter discussed players and narrow the list to buckets of guys they thought they could get and players who might be less likely.
From the start, the top name was Hernandez.
Bezbatchenko didn't have to go to the ownership of the Haslam and Edwards families to request a range of what they would be willing to spend. Generated from past discussions with ownership, the Crew had a strategy to be in the range of the ninth- to 11th-highest spending teams in MLS to be able to win without being among the highest spenders. He also kept an open conversation with ownership with constant updates.
“We obviously have a budget ... but the one thing that's different about our ownership group is if there's a player that's outside of our budget, if we can make a case for him and the player is going to be a difference-maker, then they will support us,” Bezbatchenko said.
When the technical staff mentioned Hernandez to Dee and Jimmy Haslam, people in the meeting said they recognized he was a different type of player than anyone else they were presented, and that signing a player of his age and caliber who has played in La Liga and the English Premier League would be a chance to do something never done before in MLS and a statement that they were serious about winning more championships.
But before the Crew could make a move on any prospective player, they had to move Gyasi Zardes and open up a designated player spot. Once that deal with the Colorado Rapids was done, the Crew moved quickly. They tried to get a couple of players, one being Argentine Gustavo Del Prete, before the primary transfer window closed in May, but that was unlikely since most teams are finishing their seasons and unwilling to let
a player go.
The Crew looked at players in Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico. Two of the other top targets who were more in what Bezbatchenko called their “stretch” group were in France's Ligue 1 and Italy's Serie A. But those players were older than Hernandez, who remained the priority.
Pitching Hernandez on the Crew
When the Crew showed interest in Hernandez, he caught fire. He scored a bicycle-kick goal against Arsenal, two goals against Southampton and was becoming a regular starter for Watford. Before that stretch, signing Hernandez seemed like a long shot. Now they felt like there was no shot.
But with Watford likely being relegated to the English second division, the Crew found out Hernandez might be interested in moving clubs. After meeting with Watford around that game against Leicester City — which Hernandez didn't play because of an injury — Bezbatchenko and Tall pitched Hernandez on what his life and career would be like if he moved to Columbus.
Hernandez liked the club's desire to be a constant championship contender and was compelled by the new Ohiohealth Performance Center and Lower.com Field. But he wanted to be the starting striker, above all else. The Crew conveyed that's what they wanted for him.
Porter later got on the phone with him to tell him how he would fit in with the team and what his expectations are for his players, especially players who are the face of the club.
“When he saw (the stadium and training ground), his eyes lit up and clearly he recognized our ownership group and our leadership group and Caleb were focused on being at the upper echelon of MLS,” Bezbatchenko said. “The project was important for him. Along the same lines, he wanted to be the guy.”
During that trip, Tall worked with Hernandez's agent on the framework of a deal so there was one ready if Watford gave the blessing. By the end of the trip, they were assured Hernandez was bought into going to Columbus and knew he could move on from MLS to a bigger league if he wanted.
“He talked about the desire to be the face of the club and to lead the league in scoring,” Bezbatchenko said. “Those are his goals that he set for himself to come to MLS. But what we also recognized is if he does that, teams will be looking at our players.”
When Watford told the Crew there wasn't going to be a deal for Hernandez, they turned their attention to others. They had a deal ready to go with former Houston Dynamo striker Mauro Manotas but were still working on four to five other players, all of whom had been signed off on by Porter and the technical staff.
As soon as Bezbatchenko got the email indicating Watford wanted to revisit talks, he met with ownership before traveling to England with an offer that was higher than the Crew's previous one.
Hernandez's desire to play elsewhere likely changed Watford's mind. Watford sporting director Cristiano Giarettasaid that the English Championship rule of having no more than 11 non-homegrown players on an 18-player matchday roster impacted the decision.
“When you have a player like Cucho that wants to leave because he cannot be guaranteed playing time, and you want to utilize your non-homegrown places carefully, then it became clear it was better to transfer the player,” Giaretta said.
While Bezbatchenko was in Watford, Tall was talking to Hernandez's agent about the deal they had discussed. Watford and the Crew had a deal.
Hernandez flew to Columbus for his medical examination on June 15 with Tall and team operations manager Julio Velasquez, exactly one month since the game in Watford when Bezbatchenko and Tall returned home to find out the meeting didn't go as well as planned.
Hernandez is expected to arrive next week to begin training with his new team before playing July 9 at Chicago Fire.
“He really felt like our league, seeing some of the young players that have come in the league and have flourished, like it was the right place and right time for him,” Porter said. “And we felt like he was the right player at the right time and the right fit for us.” jmyers@dispatch.com @_jcmyers