Los Angeles Blues News Release -- www.labluesprosoccer.com
Friday, December 2, 2011
FULLERTON, Calif. – The excitement was clearly palpable at the Blues’ training facilities in Fullerton this week, as the USL PRO club entered the final stages of negotiations with a pair of players the coaching staff has been keen on for several weeks. With those signings seeming all but locked down, Head Coach Charlie Naimo revealed that others might follow shortly thereafter and added that his staff has been working to squeeze one more key event into the busy offseason calendar before the holidays.
The two players likely to put pen to paper in the coming days are both skilled attackers, one among the most talented young Americans, the other a charismatic goal-scorer with experience in one of Europe’s top leagues. The Blues coaches are determined to not waste any time as they look to add more pieces to a roster they expect to compete for the 2012 USL PRO championship.
“We’re trying to schedule one more quality game before the Christmas break and maybe have a couple of guys come in that aren’t so local,” Naimo said. “That’s all in the works now and we’re hoping to have an answer on everything very soon. We also let a few more guys go this week. If we don’t feel a player has a chance to be signed, we’ve been a little less lenient about letting them stick around and try to raise their game. We just can’t be as patient now, with the season less than four months away.”
The Blues Head Coach gave fans of the Fullerton-based club reason for excitement.
“We’ve definitely identified some guys we think could help the team next year,” he said. “We have an offer out to one more player and there are several others who have trained with us at some point who we feel are as good as or better than what we had last season. But we still need to see some of those guys back in camp before we can make final decisions. The good thing right now is that it’s not about a lack of quality. A lot of the guys out here could easily make the team, but we just can’t have too many similar players. So we’re really using this time to differentiate and choose the right pieces.”