Its Like Deja Vu All Over Again

You'd be forgiven if you thought you had already heard today's news out of the Rapids because its all very familiar.

First of all the team announced the loan of left-back Miguel Navarro from Tallares in Argentina.  If that sounds familiar its because last offseason we sold Navarro to Tallares after having loaned him there for the 2024 season.  To recap:

In December of 2023 we traded left back Andrew Gutman to Chicago for a bunch of GAM and Navarro.  A month later we found out Sam Vines was available and brought him back, making Navarro expendable.  We loaned Navarro to Tallares at that point with an option to buy, which they exercised.

Of course after that we went into last season and realized that Vines wasn't the old Vines.  We tried using Jackson Travis there, but that didn't work out either.  So we traded for Rafael Santos from Orlando and he was more solid than either of the other two.  Of course we declined his option at the end of last season and let him walk and he signed with St. Louis.

So a week before the season starts our options were back to Jackson Travis and Sam Vines, options that didn't work last season.  Or at least, that's what we thought.  It turns out that Navarro was already in camp and training with the team, he was probably the 'Trialist' that subbed in to the Orlando game for the Rapids.  He has a green card already so he'll be eligible as soon as FIFA processes the transfer.

I have to ask though, what are we doing?  Since we sold Vines in mid 2021 we've signed Lucas Esteves, Alex Gersbach, traded for Andrew Gutman, signed Jackson Travis as a home grown, traded for Miguel Navarro, re-signed Sam Vines, traded for Rafael Santos, and now reacquired Miguel Navarro to fill the left back hole.  8 players (one twice) for one role in 4.5 years.  Now our plan is to spend money to get a player we already had under contract 15 months ago.  While I can't really blame the FO for going for Vines when he was available and making him the starter (imagine how mad we would have been if he signed somewhere else in MLS?) not working to get Navarro back when Vines started faltering in 2024 or keeping Santos after last season seems like a more efficient plan than this.

Later in the afternoon the Rapids held their season kickoff press conference with head Coach Matt Wells, Team President Padraig Smith, and KSE President of Team Operations Kevin Demoff.  Again, fi this event seemed familiar and repetitive its because it was.  We saw Demoff and Smith say largely the same things in their end-of-season presser in November, and we've seen Smith say these same things over and over during the last 8.5 years he's been in charge of the team.  Essentially "trust us, we've got it right this time because of A, B, and C".  Yeah, I've heard that one before.

The one notable quote was from Kevin Demoff when asked what a successful season looks like.

Our expectation is to compete for MLS Cup and a successful season is taking meaningful steps in that direction and being in that conversation

So that's the expectation.  Meaningful steps towards winning MLS Cup.  I have my doubts but we'll see.

Honestly the best part of the quote was that he prefaced it with coming at it from a different angle having just finished a season in the NFL where they lost in the NFC championship and is that successful season.  That's right, Dark Side defense baby!  Go Hawks!

So yeah, a day of repetition for the Rapids.  We'll see what comes next, hopefully not a repeat of the 2025 season.