Analysis: How the Revolution entered the global marketplace on their terms

Tajon Buchanan celebrates scoring for the New England Revolution last season. (David Silverman)

In the wake of the best regular season in MLS history, the New England Revolution opened the spigots to the transfer market during the offseason.

Tajon Buchanan (Club Brugge) and Matt Turner (Arsenal FC, summer transfer) are already on their way to Europe after reported $7 million moves. Adam Buksa is on deck after he nearly departed on the final day of the January transfer window in Europe, according to Revs sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena.

This flurry of moves is a product of the players’ individual successes and the Revs’ growth as a team over the past few years. But it doesn’t necessarily create a pattern or a pipeline to replicate in the future.

Analyzing the Buchanan and Turner transfers, you realize they came to be mostly by chance. Both players had to prove themselves just to get into collegiate programs, and few predicted either would become candidates for the European market. Buchanan was a late-bloomer who had to pay his own way to get into a Syracuse University ID camp, then spent nearly two years with the Revolution before scoring his first professional goal.