MONTREAL – Jack McInerney will be in Montreal for 2014 and, the Impact hope, beyond.
Addressing the Montreal media several hours after the Impact sent Andrew Wenger to Philadelphia to land McInerney on Friday, Impact sporting director Nick De Santis disclosed that the club holds a contractual option to retain McInerney for an extra year.
“And we’re going to exercize it at the end of the year,” De Santis said.
McInerney’s presumed expiring deal was a topic of discussion during a conference call earlier on Friday afternoon, when the newly acquired forward said he’d been “informed not to talk about my contract situation.”
He also reiterated that he’d look into the possibility of a move to Europe “if it comes along,” but insisted that he was happy where he is.
“If I’m going to be playing, I’m going to be happy, and that’s not going to change what I think or where I want to go or what I want to do,” McInerney said.
For the time being, McInerney called the possibility of playing with Marco Di Vaio, “one of the best finishers MLS has ever had,” as a potential “dream come true.”
While it is too soon to speculate on the kind of working relationship the two will enjoy, McInerney said he was looking forward to learning from Di Vaio, who he got to know last summer at the 2013 MLS All-Star Game.
“I know we’re pretty similar players, style-wise,” McInerney said. “He’s showed his quality this last weekend against us, and I think that's only going to help me. Whether I'm playing with him or behind him, it doesn't make that much of a difference, because I'm going to gain so much experience and hopefully he can kind of pass that torch on to me.”
Both McInerney and De Santis said they were “excited” about the transaction, which De Santis will please every party involved, including Philadelphia, who’d already thrown Wenger’s name into short-lived trade discussions with Montreal during the 2014 MLS SuperDraft.
“For a year-and-a-half, every other day, teams have called us [about Wenger] and we’ve always said no,” De Santis said. “Philadelphia have shown lots of interest in Andrew over the past months, and we came to a point where we told ourselves that the option of getting Jack McInerney required a decision. I think that, in the end, both teams feel good with the decision.”
Olivier Tremblay covers the Impact on MLSsoccer.com
