"I’m sure that there’s going to be more, I’m sure that Ricardo [Moreira] is not done yet.”
It's pretty safe to assume that Luiz Muzzi meant what he said when I had the opportunity to speak to him about his successor's first off-season at the top of the recruitment chain recently, but I'm sure even he couldn't have anticipated what would come next.
Just last week, our new sporting director successfully pulled off a heist for one of the best right-backs in Major League Soccer, Griffin Dorsey, who already looks to be a steal despite defeat to New York Red Bulls at the weekend.
If Saturday's performance made one thing clear, it's that we need to be more clinical in attack. Alright, our new-look defence did surrender so many goalscoring opportunities that Maxime Crépeau was forced into making a club record-equalling number of saves in a single game, but I'm confident enough that by the time our recent arrivals acclimatise to their new environment we'll be a whole lot more solid.
Our attackers, though, are not the new kids on the block anymore, yet each one of them struggled to penetrate what was a pretty wide open visiting defence. Marco Pašalić, hooked at half-time, was nowhere near his usual, lethal self, and Tyrese Spicer has seemingly caught the Iván Angulo bug over the off-season and lost all ability to choose the correct ball when in the final third. Duncan McGuire, who's the type of striker that relies on service being provided to him, didn't get any service at all.
Like our defence, I'm pretty confident that our attackers can and will get back up to speed over time. But now, after last night's huge revelation, it seems we won't be made to wait at all.
As reported by Tom Bogert, a certain Antoine Griezmann looks set to become Moreira's latest coup. If this one gets over the line as hoped, then I think we're allowed to get a little excited.
Unc still got it
I know what you're thinking. The 34-year-old could be just another Luis Muriel, a washed-up former star looking for one final, generous pay check and a multi-million-dollar property on one of Central Florida's many gorgeous lakes.
But that couldn't be further from the truth. By the time of his move from Atalanta two years ago, Muriel had been out of favour for an entire year. Sure, he'd bagged braces against Sturm Graz and Raków Częstochowa in the UEFA Europa League, but it was pretty obvious from his struggles domestically that his time at the top was coming to an end.
Griezmann, on the other hand, has helped himself to twelve goals this season for Atlético Madrid, including strikes against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid in La Liga, and Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League. He may not be enjoying the minutes he once did, but he's still making his mark in a big way, and on big occasions, when he does enter play.
Muriel managed just five goals during his first season in Orlando. Something tells me that Griezmann won't have any trouble surpassing that.
A welcome addition
Even after enduring two years of inconsistent minutes and injury setbacks, I still believe that McGuire is more than capable of rediscovering the sort of form that made him one of the hottest prospects in this league during his first season straight out of college.
But he can't do it all on his own. The 25-year-old is now our only recognised striker following Muriel's return to Atlético Junior and Ramiro Enrique's shock sale to Saudi Arabia, and that's a lot of pressure even for a man in the form of his life to handle.
He may well need time to get back up to speed, which is a difficult situation for both a manager and a sporting director to deal with when you're losing games. Griezmann, though, would guarantee us goals straight away, relieving any immediate pressure on McGuire to do so himself.
What's more, there's few better players for a young, struggling striker to learn from than the FIFA World Cup-winning Frenchman. Sure, Griezmann will eye this move as an opportunity to add yet another championship to his catalogue, but this is also a huge opportunity for McGuire. Imagine telling him that just a few years ago.
A first for everything
Alright, we needn't fear of Griezmann being just another Muriel. But there's still a pretty substantial elephant in the room that needs addressing.
For whatever reason, we've endured a pretty rocky relationship with big-money striker over the years. Carlos Rivas and Bryan Róchez were our two earliest duds in Major League Soccer, and things didn't get much better with Ercan Kara and Alexandre Pato. The best of the bunch was probably Dom Dwyer, although his romantic return to Central Florida ended in the most sour of notes.
It's no wonder that our most prolific strikers over the past decade have all come from the draft. But we've got to break that duck eventually, and I love the ambition that Moreira's showing with this one.
Of course, it's only natural now to be wary of committing huge amounts of money and trust on players who may or may not be fully committed to the cause themselves at such late stages of their careers. But I'd bank on Griezmann being the man to finally break that curse.