The Vancouver Whitecaps are in the midst of their greatest MLS season ever. With the secondary transfer window opening on July 24th, they will have a chance to push themselves over the top as Supporter’s Shield and MLS Cup contenders. So I thought I would take a look at the state of the squad and where the priorities should be.

An Accidental Passing of the Torch

Here at The Third Sub, we have been talking about 2025 as a “go for it year.” The idea being that the Whitecaps needed to focus on win-now moves to capitalise on their late-prime core before it was too late. But, remarkably, a lot of the Whitecaps’ achievements have come with those core players frequently unavailable due to injury and international call-ups. Obviously, it is much preferable for Ryan Gauld, Brian White, Andres, Cubas, Etc. to be available but the Whitecaps have shown that not having those guys available all the time isn’t a death sentence for them. As such, I think the focus in the next window should shift slightly. Rather than pushing all of the chips in for this season, I think the focus should be on adding players who can help a little bit in the immediate term but who also have room to grow and keep this team in contention for years to come. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every player coming in needs to be an 18-year-old but there should be some eye towards the future, in my opinion. Thinking back to this time last year, I would be a lot more interested in more Edier Ocampo’s than I would be in more Stuart Armstrong’s.

More Guys

The Whitecaps only have 16 players on their senior roster, after the departure of Damir Kreilach, meaning they have to pay a fine to the league for not having the minimum 18 senior players. These 16 include 3rd string keeper Adrian Zenedjas and Sam Adekugbe who has suffered a season-ending injury. So, really, there are only 14 senior players. The only reason the Whitecaps have been able to tank this is because they have gotten outstanding contributions from players on their supplemental roster. Ali Ahmed, Tate Johnson, JC Ngando, Ralph Priso, and increasingly Jeevan Badwal have been major contributors to Vancouver’s success this season. Still, though, the Whitecaps could really use more players who can be reliably fielded in an MLS game.

The Whitecaps have gotten an early start on this by adding Nelson Pierre from the Philadelphia Union. Pierre is exactly the sort of acquisition I am looking for in this window. He provides depth at multiple attacking positions in the immediate term and has the potential to develop into a regular starter in the coming years.

Resources and Special Slots

If the Whitecaps place Sam Adekugbe on the season ending injury list, they would have 15 senior roster slots filled and could add up to 5 players to the senior roster. However, cap space limitations and the fact that they have many supplemental roster contributors means it may be advantageous to add three players with higher cap hits (assuming higher cap hits are better, which they aren’t always).

Placing Adekugbe on the season-ending injury list before the secondary window opens also allows the ‘Caps to sign a “season-ending injury replacement player.” This player would have to be domestic and not exceed Adekugbe’s cap hit, but given that Adekugbe was on 963k in guaranteed compensation, this could still lead to a fairly significant acquisition.

Buying out Kreilach’s departure also frees up 495k and another senior roster spot.

As of March 7th, the Whitecaps had about 1.65m in GAM available to them. However, since then they have acquired 350k in GAM in some very MLS trades (an international slot to New England and the discovery rights to Allen Obando to Miami). So that should take them to around 2m overall.

But the one area the Whitecaps may have their hands tied is when it comes to international slots. They only have one available. One could potentially be freed up by sending Giuseppe Bovalina on loan but you might want him around with Adekugbe out for the season. Any other Internationals you shifted would need to be replaced with another squad player, which basically just leaves you back where you started. The Whitecaps could also trade for another international slot.

So, all in all, you are probably looking at 2 U-22s, one regular senior roster player, and maybe a classic free agent on a contract to the end of the year with two option years if there is more room.

Positions

One position that strikes me as needing more depth is centre-back. The Whitecaps have four senior centre-backs (I suppose Mathias Laborda could also play there in a pinch) who have an average age of 27. Additionally, the WFC2 centre-backs all have varying levels of question marks around them. So getting a young centre-back in makes a lot of sense in my opinion. The Whitecaps have been strongly linked to Luc De Fougerolles, I think he would be an ideal player to slot in here.

I think a centre-midfielder of some variety would also make sense. Jeevan Badwal has taken some tremendous strides this season but he is probably the weakest regularly playing Whitecap at this point (absolutely no shame in this by the way) and he has only played 650 minutes this season. An extra centre-mid frees Badwal up to play more consistently with WFC2 or on loan for whichever CPL team is most desperate for U-21 minutes.

After these two positions, things become a little bit less clear. Fullback could make sense, Sam Adekugbe is out for the rest of the season and is 30. I strongly suspect Tate Johnson won’t be back for a second season, a 19-year-old playing that many minutes and performing that well is going to be setting off alarm bells across Europe. So there are a lot of question marks around left-footed fullbacks going forward. But Jesper Sørensen has often played Laborda on his off side to facilitate a more attacking right-footed player. So in the immediate term, the need for a fullback is not particularly big.

At first glance, striker could be a position it would make sense to add a U-22 player. Brian White is 29 and Daniel Rios is 30 and only on loan. But with Nelson Pierre joining the first team, Rayan Elloumi going god mode in MLSNP, and even Cyprian Kachwele looking promising when he has been healthy, there is already a bit of a log jam brewing. So a U-22 striker might be a hat on a hat.

That leaves the wide attacking roles. There is also something to be said for adding to this position. Ryan Gauld has barely been available so he will be like a new signing when he comes back, but who knows when that will be. Plus, regardless of his health, Gauld is going to be 30 in December. So it’s time to start preparing for a world in which he is one attacking option amongst many, rather than the talisman. I think there is also a fairly decent chance that Ali Ahmed will get a move abroad after the season. So, just like with the fullbacks, there could conceivably be a need next season but right now there is not a lot of demand. The aforementioned Pierre and Elloumi can also play in wide areas and indeed might be more suited to doing so in Sørensen’s system.

I can talk myself into any of those last three, so I think the move is to get a centre-back and centre-mid locked in, then just get whoever the best player available is at one of those other positions.