Just for fun, I’ll list each player as a win, loss, or draw (for the guys who haven’t yet or never got a fair amount of time to make a difference). To qualify, a player can’t be a draft pick that played NCAA soccer, can’t have had significant MLS experience before he got to DC, or be an American coming from a foreign league (e.g. Davies).

Rodrigo Brasesco – Loss
Junior Da Silva – Loss (not that it cost us anything)
Carlos Varela – Draw (only played 6 games)
Pablo Hernandez – Loss
Branko Boskovic – Draw
Juan Manuel Pena – Loss (when the 37 year old you signed to marshal your defense ends up unsurprisingly being hurt on the time, that’s on you)
Cristian Castillo – Loss
Floribert N’Galula – Loss (didn’t even make it out of the preseason!)
Danny Allsopp – Loss
David Habarugira – Loss
Dejan Jakovic – Win
Ange N’Silu – Loss
Franco Niell – Loss
Gonzalo Martinez – Loss (call it a late lead that was overturned by 2 late goals against)
Marcelo Gallardo – Draw (that’ll be debated, but he did play well over the first 40% of the season, and attendance was pretty good that season)
Jose Carvallo – Loss
Gonzalo Peralta – Loss
Louis Crayton – Loss
Ibrahim Koroma – Loss (that may be harsh because he was only 19 at the time)

That’s a record of 1W-3D-15L, and that includes being awfully generous about Gallardo. Even the one successful signing, Jakovic, is a player that a) is hardly outstanding and b) has injury and consistency problems. That also doesn’t note just how bad some of these “losses” were (if I’d have done scores, we’d be looking at a lot of 4-0 or 5-1 scorelines).

In other words, an unacceptable string of signings (especially compared to our domestic work, drafting, and trades within MLS).