Nguyenter is Back: Revolution Trade for MVLee

It doesn’t matter who is in the front office for the New England Revolution. No one routinely fleeces the rest of the league in trades than our beloved Revs.

Two years after an unceremonious departure from Foxboro under Brad Friedel, the Revs today re-acquired 2014 MLS MVP Finalist Lee Nguyen from Inter Miami. The trade was first reported by Andrew Mahoney of the Boston Globe.

While the Revolution have not officially announced the trade...yeah, I think this is happening:

UPDATE 3:35PM

New England officially announces Lee’s return - the midfielder returns to the club with 191 games played, 185 starts, 51 goals, and 49 assists across six seasons with the club.

Obviously the Revolution are not getting the same Lee from six years ago that went to MLS Cup, however without Carles Gil the Revs struggled to find a fit at the playmaking role behind strikers Adam Buksa and Gustavo Bou.

Nguyen featured only five times off the bench for Inter Miami this year, totalling 92 minutes in all. However in a year an a half in LAFC, Bob Bradley routinely featured Nguyen as a center midfielder, often lining up as a #8 next to a holding midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 setup. While the Revs need Lee as a #10 in the immediate future, that could be a long term role for Lee especially off the bench when Gil returns healthy.

If Skejskal’s information is correct, the Revs basically acquired Lee for nothing. This goes double for the minimum $350K in allocation monies New England received for Nguyen two years ago in his departure trade with LAFC.

Re-acquiring Lee along with MLS veterans Matt Polster, Kekuta Manneh and Tommy McNamara reinforces Bruce Arena’s love of veteran players. Even in a congested season like 2020, stocking the senior roster and subs bench with veteran players could force short term loans for Justin Rennicks, Tajon Buchanan and DeJuan Jones at the USL1 level with Revs II to get them more minutes.

Either way, I expect to see Lee starting and playing around 60 minutes for the Revolution at the CAM/#10 role more often than not, with occasional appearances off the bench in relief. Tommy Mac, Kelyn Rowe and Diego Fagundez are also likely candidates for minutes there if needed especially after the failed Cristian Penilla experiment at the postion.

What do you think Revs fans? Are you excited Nguyenter is back? Leave your reactions in the comments below.