While the potential for more signings is always in the background, Minnesota United FC is currently focused on developing the players already on the team, sporting director Manny Lagos said Thursday.
"It's important that we continue to make sure we're measured in terms of how we want to build the roster in terms of our next moves, particularly in the next couple months," Lagos said. "There's no doubt we're going to be thinking about this summer and how we can grow and get better, and there's no doubt additions will be a part of that dialogue.
"But we're still in that phase where we have to get to know this group … before we can definitely say there's some bigger moves that we want to make."
Lagos said any additions made from now on have to be the right fit financially as well as character- and performance-wise. While saying the team is "wide open" and "not ruling anything out" about possible moves and the timing of them, both short and long term, the main priority is the 26 players on United now.
"We have to make sure, week-in, week-out, this unit is getting better both individually and collectively," he said. "And we as a staff are really continuing to make sure we're planning to be competitive, from now until the end of this year, but for next year as well."
As a way to identify potential additions, Lagos said director of player personnel Amos Magee will travel to Chile this weekend to scout.
"He'll probably see about seven or eight professional games there, and there'll be specific guys that we'll be looking at in South America," Lagos said. "We're not specifically just looking at one country, but certainly the leagues start to close their season there in South America, so there are several players where this is a good opportunity to look at key players.
"Nothing to say that it's going to result in anything short term, but again, it's part of our long-term scouting goal of making sure we build our depth chart, our scouting network," Lagos said. "Sometimes these trips lead to a player in two or three years."
