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The summer transfer window will shut tonight, and Real Salt Lake officials say it will close without an announcement from the team. But RSL general manager Craig Waibel said this afternoon that he remains in discussions with at least two players the team is optimistic about adding after the deadline has passed.
"We've been in discussions with three, four, five different players and options. For a number of reasons, we're not going to get to the end line with three of them," Waibel said. "But we're still in conversations with the other two."
The transfer window, which officially opened July 7, is the only time teams can add players currently under contract elsewhere. But Waibel said he his hopeful RSL will be able to add to his roster—specifically on the back line and in the midfield—for the season's final push.
"There are still a number of very good players out of contract," he said. "Those players are the ones that the market narrows to now. … We're very happy with the conversations we're having. They're guys we're very familiar with and within the next week, hopefully we'll be able to figure out the details on one or two more guys."
RSL officials had previously said they wanted to be "very active" during the summer transfer window.
Last month, the team reached a six-month loan deal (with the option to purchase) for Paraguayan striker Pedro Baez from Cerro Porteño. The 19-year-old has yet to join his new team, however, and Waibel said the team still does not have a firm timeline for the forward's arrival.
Aside from that, it has been a rather transfer period for RSL, which has lacked the cap room and allocation money to make a major splash.
"Getting to the end line on finances has been really difficult for us given our situation," Waibel said. "We weren't able to get one or two of them done, but we're still very optimistic and I think we'll be able to get a couple signings done that we'll be able to integrate immediately."


— Aaron Falk