Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all have had an enjoyable week and that the minutes are counting down to a restful weekend for you all.

The absence of Whitecaps matches feels odd, given the packed fixture list this season and has been a bit of a welcome respite before the chaos of the run in.

This doesn’t mean the landscape has been devoid of news — new arrivals Richie Laryea and Sam Adekugbe are off to the races training ahead of what one imagines will be their debut once the Leagues Cup break ends.

Regardless of your feelings of the long term merits of signing these guys, it is pretty exciting seeing them in Caps gear, in the flesh, running around at training.

I can’t remember the last Caps transfer that has garnered this level of interest and intrigue from the fan base. Probably the most analogous one would be Lucas Cavallini, bringing in both die-hard Caps and Canadian National Team fans, much like the same crossover for Adekugbe and Laryea.

Cavallari had the added benefit of seemingly being the striker the Caps were missing after years of Octavio Riveiro-esque signings. But Cava wasn’t joining as promising of a team and there was more of a sense of relief that the Caps were opening up their chequebook, rather than surprise and delight.

I remember being pretty fired up about the Mathias Laba acquisition for so clearly and thoroughly filling a need for the Caps and, more recently, Ryan Gauld and Andres Cubas have hit the ground running in an enthralling way.

But these remain the boldest moves in recent memory solely from the short-term perspective, a clear effort to lift a good team to, hopefully, something more. Seeing both players in training kit has made that effort a bit more concrete.

What other exciting signings am I missing? Should we even be excited at all? Hop into the comments and let me know. For now, some links …

Shameless Self Promotion

A CPL update, as Pacific FC get back on track.

Best of the Rest

More on Adekugbe, Laryea and what lies ahead

If I never had to read another story about Eden Hazard …

Bev Priestman was given a vote of confidence, despite an early exit from the World Cup

Vancouver has been secretive about what it is agreeing to in order to host World Cup matches