As we know, since the arrival of Olivier Renard in office, CF Montreal intends to train promising young people. This concept was never better illustrated than after the conclusion of the transfer window.
The day after the transfer window closes on Thursday, it’s time to take stock. Montreal acquired forward Kwadwo Opoku, 22, and defenseman Fernando Álvarez, 19, and traded its oldest player, Rudy Camacho, 32, to the Columbus Crew.
By its youth, the Montreal team still ranks third in MLS, with an average age of 24.1 years. That’s just behind the Big Apple’s two clubs, New York City FC (24.0) and New York Red Bulls (23.7). That said, all of these teams are out of the playoff picture right now.
This facelift is completely in line with the management plan. Summarized simply by Renard, the Impact’s vice-president and chief sports officer, the objective is “to seek out little-known players with qualities”.
To then develop them and resell them for a profit. And once more.
Even though it is a plan that management asked Renard to implement, as he had done in Belgium, he seems to like it.
To illustrate that the strategy is beginning to bear fruit before our eyes, Renard highlights the end of the match against D.C. United in the League Cup. “With some success ahead, we continued. And with who ? Look who was on the pitch,” he said before listing six players born after the Y2K bug, including Nathan Saliba, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, Bryce Duke and Jonathan Sirois.
“That’s the project,” he says.
Camacho’s trade also highlighted the meager number of veterans remaining on this team. Only 9 of the 27 players are over 25, including several reserves like Logan Ketterer, James Pantemis and Ahmed Hamdi.
This puts a lot of pressure on young people to help each other, guide each other and provide advice. However, Renard assured that there is “enough leadership” in the group.
“It is true that now, with the departure of Rudy, we have one less veteran. On the other hand, personality does not necessarily come with age. I’m going to talk about Ishmael [Koné] again: he had personality to spare,” he remarks.
So all these young people will have to progress together and hatch more or less at the same time. At least, it will be necessary so that the stars are aligned and that Montreal aspires to more than a qualification for the playoffs, as is the case this season.
In fact, the mission is to relive the 2022 season. And Renard is already excited for the next season. This will be Hernán Losada’s second at the helm of the team and the whole group will be older and more experienced.
“[Right now] is kind of like Wil’s freshman year. The following year, they were a year older, and then, all of a sudden, the sauce took hold,” adds Olivier Renard.
There are 11 games left to show some encouraging signs and, who knows, maybe more, to get that valuable playoff experience. Time and especially the goals will tell.
After throwing a few arrows at Romell Quioto in his last media encounter in mid-June over his striker’s lack of seriousness in fitness, Renard seemed to see some positives in the league’s top scorer record. club in the last three campaigns. “He’s scheduled for a return [to Montreal] at the start of the week,” he said.
Normally, Renard should have stopped there. However, he quipped that he hoped “the plane would get here with him [Quioto] in it.” He also clarified that it would still be “a few more weeks” before he would see him back in action. One more mentor for young people.
