Jones’ growth to Homegrown status seems a bit quick
CHESTER >> Jim Curtin’s press conference Wednesday hit all the summer transfer introduction buzzwords.
The Union manager touted the height, athleticism and work ethic of his new signing, Derrick Jones. He contrasted Jones against his current roster, illustrating the aspects of the 19-yearold Homegrown Player’s repertoire that constitute upgrades.
And then Curtin dropped this caveat about where on the continuum of transfer priorities Jones’s deal falls.
“There’s players for the future — doesn’t mean they can’t impact things right away but they’re more for the future — and there’s ones we look to bring in and have an immediate impact in the starting lineup,” Curtin said. “Derrick would probably fall in the first category as a guy who’s for the future.”
That dissonance fell in line with the capture Curtin and company had just pulled off: Bringing in a player who was already essentially part of the club.
MLS’s secondary transfer window will slam shut next Wednesday. When Curtin and Union sporting director Earnie Stewart pull away from the ledge looking out over the teeming pool of potential additions, there’s every likelihood they’ll return with their shopping carts empty.
By this time next week, it could be official that the Union’s net in the transfer window will be the subtraction of Vincent Nogueira and the pseudo-additions of Maurice Edu (from injury) and Jones (from a USL affiliate to Homegrown status in MLS).
With that dearth of action comes the tacit affirmation that for the Union’s early success in 2016, the club is by no means in win-now mode. The battle for a first playoff appearance since 2011 will likely proceed with the current squad, unaugmented for the battle down the homestretch of the season.
This has been a docile summer transfer season in Chester, with few rumblings. In one respect, that’s a positive — last summer’s parade of out-of-contract talent trialing with the club indicated a lower caliber of talents juxtaposed against a heightened need for reinforcements.
Jones’s signing Wednesday is both opportunistic and need-based. The downward trending line that has seen the Union win just twice in six weeks since Nogueira returned to France runs straight through a deficiency in midfield, where Tranquillo Barnetta has been overworked, out of position. That No. 8 role is one Edu will reprise on his return, and it’s the spot on the field where Curtin glowingly praised the intersection of Jones’s size, skill and physicality.
Rumblin=gs within the organization all season had indicated Jones’ progress at Bethlehem Steel made him an ideal winter signing. He’s already under Union control, so why rush? But that timeline was accelerated, in part by roster openings, in part by Jones’s excellent play in USL. And in part, perhaps, because the Union need a remedy in the middle of the field.
Jones is ready to play immediately and could log minutes as a stopgap until Edu returns to health in a matter of weeks, while still playing on loan with Steel to continue his development.
Curtin, though, was hardly unequivocal on Jones’s short-term impact. “Could he come in and make an impact and be in an 18 soon?” Curtin said. “I think so. I think he could. That would be up to him.”
That’s not the messaging that would accompany a foreign signing, and Jones’ acquisition signals a shift in strategy. Once Edu is healthy, most likely sometime in late August if his rehab from a stress fracture contains no setbacks, it won’t be as a No. 6. It’ll be as the Union’s primary No. 8, filling Nogueira’s stead with Jones as his understudy. That would re-establish the two-deep platoon Stewart so values: Brian Carroll and Warren Creavalle at the six, Edu and Jones at the eight, Barnetta and Roland Alberg at the 10, with Leo Fernandes fitting unconvincingly in-between somewhere.
In one regard, the restraint in the transfer market is logical. The Union see Jones as a starter for the future; why bring in a high-priced player to impede his path to the first team unless you’re absolutely certain it’s a can’t-miss opportunity? Curtin declared Wednesday that the Union wouldn’t make moves just for the sake of doing something, a refreshing change for a franchise that has fallen for the illusion of progress before. And maybe there’s nothing wrong with charging the group that Curtin has assembled from the beginning of the season with taking the responsibility for finishing the job and entering the tossup, knockout tournament of the MLS Cup playoffs. These players have had the Union in playoff position all season, rising to the top of the conference for an extended spell. So it’s not unreasonable to think they can level out above the top-six threshold for qualification.
The Union enter a must-win against Real Salt Lake Sunday third in the East, seven points ahead of seventh-placed Orlando City and with the door still theoretically open to making a change if the right situation presents itself.
“A lot of things have come across,” Curtin said. They’re kicking tires, burning up phone lines, checking off lists of metaphors for busyness.
But if October comes and goes and the Union’s chances at ending their playoff drought fritter away on the fall breeze, the summer’s caution will look a lot like costly inaction.