Our Seattle Sounders are in the absolute pits right now with a franchise-worst 12-game winless run. Twelve games, people! That’s brutal. It’s not just us fans feeling the pain either; the front office knew deep down, even before things got this bad, that we desperately needed a serious talent injection. Honestly, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, our boys have been the least active MLS team on the transfer market. We’ve only brought in 53 players from outside the organization, which is by far the fewest in the entire league, and only the notoriously cheap San Jose Earthquakes have spent less on transfers. Yeah, we’re one of the ten least active teams overall for external acquisitions since summer 2020. It felt like it was finally time to change that. And, in a way, it was.
Joveljić Is Here, And That’s Something!
Look, the Sounders actually broke a four-summer streak of not signing a single player from outside the organization! Can you believe it? We actually worked out a $6 million “cashfer” for Dejan Joveljić, and honestly, that’s easily the best bit of summer business we’ve done since we snagged Raúl Ruidíaz back in 2018. There’s a real shot Joveljić could even prove to be a better acquisition than Ruidíaz was, which is a huge deal for us. Majority owner Adrian Hanauer himself strongly implied in an open letter to fans that Joveljić’s signing was just the beginning. And Head Coach Brian Schmetzer practically confirmed those intentions in interviews. So, the signs were all there that more was coming, right? We were pumped.
Late Money Killed Our Bigger Plans
This is where it gets frustrating. Despite all the talk and the big Joveljić signing, the only other move we ended up making was a virtually zero-cost trade for Caden Clark. Now, Clark is a talented player, no doubt, but he’s already played for five different organizations since 2022 and has barely seen the field this year. That’s got to be seen as a huge disappointment, especially when you consider the implied plans for more. So, what happened? Turns out, money came late to the party. Coming out of the World Cup break, there was still no set transfer budget. It wasn’t that there was literally no money, but the front office hadn’t been given a clear amount they could spend strategically. Hanauer, in an interview back in 2024, said he remains intimately involved with the roster-building strategy. This whole situation sure feels like an example of that kind of oversight. It meant our scouts could find players and talk costs, but the slow-moving process definitely contributed to the limited action.
So, here we are, still riding that brutal winless streak, but with a new face in Joveljić that brings real hope. Hopefully, the front office learns from this and gets the budget sorted out way earlier for next time. Our Emerald City deserves a team that’s ready to make moves when it counts, not when the money finally shows up. Let’s see if Joveljić can light a fire under this squad and help us turn things around. We need it.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Sounder at Heart.
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