The Front Office Apparently Took A Gold Cup Vacation

We are now 11 days into the 31 day summer transfer window.  So far the only thing approaching a valid rumor was a brief blip around Michael Carrick last night which the Front Office dispelled this morning by saying there have been no discussions with him.  Squashing that story is the ONLY thing we've heard out of the front office in regards to player movement during the transfer window.

This is more than just disappointing, its insulting to the fans.  When the team move Cronin and Burch they asked the fans to be patient as this allowed them the freedom to make a big move.  When the winter transfer window closed they asked the fans to be patient as they had plans for the summer window.  Well the summer window is here and a third of the way in we're done being patient.  The time for action was last week.  To remind readers of the statements from the Rapids:

Denver Post on the Burch/Cronin/Gatt/Saied swap:

Rapids sporting director Padraig Smith said.  “We feel like the upside of what we’ve brought in and the financial flexibility it gives us on the cap to continue to target an offensive threat is going to be a positive for the club in the future.”

and

With a significant amount of cap space cleared, Smith said Colorado is now free to chase its main attacking targets. He said the club hopes to do something before the transfer window closes May 8, but could strike a deal during the summer window that opens July 10 when European teams are in their offseason. 

“We’ve identified a number of key targets and the additional financial flexibility this deal gives us will put us in a position to execute on those plans,” Smith said. 

 Colorado Rapids podcast with Smith after the winter window closed:

We were doing this with an eye on what the future would bring – making us better immediately in terms of Nana Boateng, and also the future in terms of building increased cap space which would allow us to turn around and get the attacking assets we need to help us become a more balanced team. 

and

I think the window opens on July 10th. We’ve been over in Europe scouting quite extensively on a number of our targets making sure we watch them on multiple occasions so we have a sense of who and what they are. That’s a crucial thing, because one of the things Pablo and the players have done very well is built a strong locker room mentality down there. It’s important that we bring people in with the right mentality to fit in, so they can contribute right from the start. That’s hugely important for us. What we’re looking to do is obviously improve on the attacking side. We always want to make our team better in every area of the field, and we continuously look at that, but there’s no doubt we haven’t scored enough goals and we haven’t been good enough on the attacking side where we want to improve.

and

We want to be a playoff team year-in and year-out and that’s what we’re trying to build here.

and

Well we expect to compete in 2017. I mean that’s the bottom line here...So that was a challenge but we’re only eight games in, there’s no reason why with this group of players and with some of the additions we’re looking at in the July window that we can’t put ourselves in a position to be competitive this year. And that’s our aim, to be competitive year-in and year-out.  

And from the Denver Post last week:

Mastroeni has said he expects the club to add two players in the coming weeks, including one who “will definitely raise the level of the group.”

So the club has absolutely set the expectation that we will add talent in this window and compete for the playoffs.  Despite that, from all appearances to the fans the club is doing nothing, and this team is not competitive as its currently built.  Taking their time would be understandable as the 2nd best team (as they were last year at this point) and they're trying to make the right news to get that last piece of the puzzle without disturbing whats working.  When your the 2nd worst team you can't take your time.  You need to fix the problems immediately.

Lets say the Rapids sign somebody by tomorrow. Unless its a trade within the league its probably going to be somebody who hasn’t played since their season ended in May (slight chance its from another summer league). That means at least a couple weeks of conditioning before their ready to start. At best they’re ready for our next home game the first weekend of August, and that’s if they’re ready to handle the altitude. Of course by then two more games will have gone by which means at best this new player is available to start 14 games. And we gave up Cronin and Burch after game 3 for this move.

At the same time they are doing nothing to improve the team they're sending out season ticket renewals with their new "system" that automatically renews your ticket unless you opt-out int he next 3 weeks.  Also any payments you make are non-refundable if you don't realize for a couple of months that you're paying for next year, but they'll apply the money you've paid to single-game tickets if you want to cancel your season tickets after the 21 day window.

I feel like the Front Office are playing the fans for suckers (again) but this time they're not even trying to hide it.