FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution announced their year-end roster moves on Monday morning, saying goodbye to some hard workers for the badge but setting the stage for a winter transfer window that promises to see even more significant additions as head coach Caleb Porter enters the second season of his tenure at the helm of the Revs. Among those departing New England are winger Dylan Borrero, defender Xavier Arreaga, and striker Bobby Wood, while it was also announced that defender Andrew Farrell will be continuing with the Revs after penning a new one-year deal that will see the New England veteran begin to undertake coaching duties with the Revolution Academy.
Speaking on the roster moves, sporting director Curt Onalfo told reporters on Monday that it is never easy to let go of players, but that his hopes for the upcoming transfer window and 2025 season were high and in keeping with what fans expect from a Revolution season and what the Revs expect of themselves.
“Any time you say goodbye to players, it is a difficult situation,” Onalfo said. “But we had a very difficult season, and so we had to look very closely at our current roster and how we can improve upon it. With all the decisions that we made, our plan is to bring in players that are going to perform at a better level than the ones that no longer will be here.”
Onalfo went on to detail the thinking behind the decision to decline the club’s options for Arreaga and Borrero, highlighting how a change in the latter’s roster status would have had significant implications for how the club is looking to manage its resources.
“Any time you are talking about players publicly, I am not going to be speaking in great detail just out of respect for them,” he said. “But in the case of Arreaga, he came in and did very well for us in the beginning. But his form, for whatever reason, really dropped off and to such a level that we as an organization, the coaching staff and front office, just made the decision that we would like to allocate those resources to a player that we believe can do better in that position for us. Those are difficult decisions. I think, for whatever reason, he had a hard time dealing with going to the [Ecuador] National Team and actually not playing. I think that hurt him and his performances with us, especially when you look at how he performed earlier. So, that was a difficult decision, but when players are on good salaries for our league, you really look hard at those players, because you have to be consistently producing. That's the name of the game. So, that was the situation with Arreaga.
“In the case of Borrero, it is a difficult one. He is an extremely talented young player who had an awful injury. He was just on the rise. The thing you guys probably don't know is that his contract graduated; he is no longer a U22 player [beginning in 2025], so he was going to have a really huge cap hit. When you look at what his current contributions were post-injury and then you look at some of his struggles a little bit off the field, and family – he wasn’t able to have his family here because of visa issues and things like that – I think it wore on him. When you look at the whole picture and you look at the money that's being allocated for us, it was a difficult decision for us to say goodbye to him, and we'll use that money for other players.”
The Revolution have demonstrated capability in the transfer market during Porter’s inaugural season in Foxborough – winger Luca Langoni, midfielder Alhassan Yusuf, and goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič all enjoyed promising starts to their Revs careers; defender Will Sands earned himself a new two-year deal with a club option in 2027; and trades made last campaign like the one that saw Sands join the club were lucrative and set New England up well from a salary cap perspective. Now, Onalfo looks forward to seeing that financial flexibility and market prowess put to use once again this coming winter.
“We created a lot of space, so we have room to do things,” the sporting director said. “Like I said, it is going to be a very active window for us. Our last window was extremely active. This will be even more active, and you can just look at the numbers: a third of our roster is going to be replaced. Obviously, some of those players are supplemental roster players and others are senior roster players, but we have to replace them. So, you are going to see a very busy offseason, and we are very confident and very optimistic. Obviously, the front office and the coaching staff are continually aligned. We are excited for the moves we are going to make, and we are excited to start a new season, and to start it well. For us, that was a difficult thing for us. We started the season in a huge hole, so it makes things very difficult to get out of. We are plugging away. We have a great team of people working on it and we look forward to making those announcements when we are able to.”
Onalfo noted that the club was “very, very close to announcing some of these [incoming] roster moves,” but added that there was still plenty of time before preseason starts and the squad as it will be constructed begins the push for a successful 2025.
As far as the standards for success in Foxborough are concerned, Onalfo confirmed that nothing has changed from an organizational point of view, even if the team fell short of those standards this past year.
“We brought Caleb here to build a championship-caliber team, and that is what our goal is,” Onalfo said. “We want to be, obviously, a team that makes the playoffs and positions ourselves to compete for championships. Nothing has changed there. I think often the difference, it's emotional. Athletics are emotional and there are times where, in most cases, the difference between winning and losing is very slight. We had opportunities this year when we were really close. We won five of six games, and you are thinking we are going to just be shooting up. Then all of a sudden, we get faced with a whole bunch of unfortunate injuries. Those things happen, but our goal is to make the playoffs and position ourselves at the end of the year that we can compete for a championship, but step by step.”
And the front office frontman closed by assuring fans that he and the whole organization felt the sting of the disappointing 2024 season as much as they did, if not more.
“Just like I said earlier, the lack of success that we had this year just motivates us more,” he said. “There is a strong foundation to build on here. Our training environment is outstanding, and I do believe the start of the season will be very important. Not having Champions League and that extra burden, I think, will really help us. You know, Caleb is a great coach and he has the chance to be one of the best ever, and in order to do that, it is to win a championship [in New England]. We all set goals. Sometimes we fall a little short, but like I said, the difference between winning and losing is slight. You see it all the time in professional athletics where you have not the greatest season, and then all of a sudden, you put together this incredible run. I’m extremely confident in our coaching staff, in our front office staff, in terms of finding the right players to give our fans that hope. We will be successful; I have no doubt in my mind. I am unwavering in my belief and like I said, in the players and the coaching staff and in our process. We are all self-reflective. We are all looking at ways to become better, and we’re going to have a successful season.”
