As MLS makes a new effort toward transparency, Revolution’s roster issues come into focus

New England might have to wait until the offseason to make serious changes.

Revolution fans earlier in the 2024 season. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

May 3, 2024

Whether you’re a decades-long American soccer fan, or perhaps just an enthusiastic Football Manager player, the byzantine and opaque structure of roster rules in Major League Soccer has occasionally made it a less approachable product.

Making sense of its salary cap exceptions, its roster designations, and its various distinctions regarding the laboriously named “Allocation Money” has required a focus and discipline that has often outstripped the interest of not only casual fans, but also local media coverage.

While American fans are used to — and in fact seem to enjoy — the niche transactions and roster management decisions of other North American sports leagues, MLS has arguably taken it to new levels. Created largely for the stated purpose of avoiding financial catastrophe, which befell its North American Soccer League predecessor in the 1980s, the complicated roster designations and requirements have been seen as a feature (and not a bug) in the league’s strategy to survive and grow.

Yet even if fans were able to parse the intentionally arcane rules, examining its specific application to their favorite team remained difficult. A lot of information was either missing from league websites, or impossible to consistently keep track of without greater transparency.

Fortunately, MLS recently made an effort to (at least partially) amend this, disclosing “Club Roster Profiles” for each of the 29 teams in the league. International roster slots, contract lengths, contract types, and other interesting pieces of information were listed all in one place.

From a Revolution standpoint, the roster profile illuminates the realities of a team that could find itself in transition over the next year.

Mired in a dismal 1-7-1 start to the 2024 season — the worst in club history and, needless to say, good for last place in the Eastern Conference — New England is already locked in with three “Designated Players,” a contract category which is allowed to exceed the salary cap. Given the unique nature of a Designated Player spot, they are a valuable commodity (each team is currently only allowed three). It’s a mechanism that’s given MLS teams the chance to sign players like David Beckham, and more recently, Lionel Messi.

New England fields Designated Players Carles Gil, Tomás Chancalay, and Giacomo Vrioni. Of this trio, Gil is by far the most established. A team captain and former league MVP, the Spanish playmaker signed a contract extension earlier in 2024. But at 31 years old, Gil can’t be expected to carry the burden all by himself over the course of the eight-month MLS schedule.

The problem is that Gil’s fellow Designated Players, Chancalay and Vrioni, have yet to fully find their gear. Chancalay, an undeniably talented 25-year-old winger, has been criticized by head coach Caleb Porter (hired in the offseason) for not doing a better job to fit into the larger tactical structure of the team. Vrioni, the 25-year-old center forward purchased from Juventus in 2022, has simply failed to consistently score (the Italian-Albanian has one goal in eight league appearances this season).

“I think we’ve gotten Giacomo in really good spots to score goals,” Porter said in his Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s matchup with the Chicago Fire. “He just has to score the goal. He knows that, if you asked him that. He has been put in good situations to score, and then he just has to finish.”

A incongruent winger and non-scoring striker occupying two of the three Designated Player spots are trouble enough for New England, especially as both players have been benched at various points already this season. Still, the roster profile also put a spotlight on the team’s other issues.

Though he regularly starts only two center-backs at a time, Porter now has four on the roster whose contracts include the usage of “Targeted Allocation Money.” This financial tool unique to MLS provides another path for clubs to sign players whose salaries’ exceed the 2024 “Maximum Salary Budget Charge” ($683,750), meaning that New England is committing a sizable portion of its allotted salary investment to a positional redundancy.

While center back Andrew Farrell (one of the TAM contracts) can also play right back, fellow central defenders Dave Romney, Henry Kessler, and the newly acquired Xavier Arreaga all play the same spot. In a league with little margin for error in terms of salary distribution, New England invariably has some of its more expensive players on the bench.

Porter and New England’s front office are obviously aware of these issues. The club explored trading Romney prior to the closing of the primary transfer window for MLS on April 23, but wasn’t able to make a move. Arreaga, who Porter appears to favor as a more possession-oriented center-back, was brought in with an eye toward the future (though his presence only compounds the salary issue in the short term). The lack of cap space (and roster flexibility) prevented any major attackers from being brought in.

For now, Porter will have to work with a roster he largely inherited from Bruce Arena. He might be afforded more options when the secondary transfer window opens in July, especially if reported changes to MLS roster rules are implemented in the summer (including an additional Designated Player spot, a potential extra buyout option, and more General Allocation Money).

But it will likely be in the offseason that Porter and sporting director Curt Onalfo get to truly reshape the Revolution roster. One of the more interesting aspects of the MLS roster profiles are the listed contract lengths, a piece of information that was less known beforehand. New England will have as many as 16 players out of contract at the end of 2024 (depending on the usage of “option years” in contracts). It could become a moment to finally create more cap space, and thus room to maneuver.

To that end, New England seems to be focused on maximizing that opportunity whenever it emerges. Paul Tenorio of The Athletic recently reported that the Revolution are adding former Los Angeles FC global scout David Kammarman to the club’s staff as the head of player recruitment. Kammarman, an eight-time MLS Cup-winner during his front office career, has been widely praised for his scouting effectiveness with LAFC.

It could end up being just the hire that Porter, Onalfo, and New England need. Nailing the important contract decisions, a crucial factor for any professional sports team, is especially critical in MLS. Understanding its many rules is one thing, but successfully utilizing them — as the Revolution’s poorly balanced roster demonstrates—can be quite another.