According to a report late on Monday night from the Washington Post’s Steve Goff, Bobby Boswell, D.C. United’s long tenured center back, is headed to the south in a trade with Atlanta United. According to Goff’s sources, what United would get in return was undetermined, though it’s likely not to be much different than what United got for Lamar Neagle on Monday.
With the playoffs well out of reach, it appears that D.C. United are using this secondary transfer window to begin reshaping the club for the future. Boswell, in two different stints with United, has spent seven seasons with the Black-and-Red. In between, he played six seasons with the Houston Dynamo, racking up 365 regular season appearances in 13 campaigns.
However, this year, Boswell, has been mostly deployed as a reserve. Ben Olsen went into the season with Sean Franklin partnering Steve Birnbaum at center back, breaking up a partnership that had mostly thrived since the middle of the 2014 season. But even with Franklin not working out at center back, Olsen turned Kofi Opare for most of the season. Boswell has 10 starts and appearances for United this season, scoring his only goal last month against the Dynamo.
After a rather dull transfer window, United’s activity over the past week has accelerated. Nigel de Jong was linked to the club before an even more audacious bid for Gary Medel. Bruno Miranda was announced as the team’s first transfer this window on Friday, and Zoltan Stieber, an Hungarian midfielder, is set to be announced before the deadline. Neagle was traded back to Seattle for a fourth round draft pick in the upcoming MLS SuperDraft just hours ago. United will still be on the hook for some of his salary this year, but the departure of Neagle, and potentially Boswell, will help United clear cap space for 2018, as well as open up spots on the senior roster for moves in the near term.