Orlando City really wants Dwyer

Orlando City's manager Adrian Heath took questions from fans on his radio show yesterday. One of those questions was about Sporting Kansas City forward Dom Dwyer.

Any possible move for Dom Dwyer this summer?

Heath makes it sound like they have tried a few times already.  "If we ring Kansas City one more time we're going to get reported to the league.

"There is no secret that Dom wants to be here," Heath continued. "We have tried to bring him here; we have done everything we can. Unfortunately we can't do it yet, but we will keep trying.I think this is his spiritual home, he wants to come back. We would love to have him, but we will have to wait and see how long it takes before we can do it."

The radio show podcast

Spiritual Home?

Dwyer did have great success with Orlando City, leading the USL in scoring and helping them to a championship when he was on loan to the then USL Orlando City in 2013. Sporting KC loaned him back for their championship game where Dwyer scored four times in route to a 7-4 win over Charlotte.

Not sure that makes Orlando his spiritual home considering he came back to Kansas City to win an MLS Cup, a slightly larger prize.

Dom did go to school in Florida but he also played for a college in Texas.

Would he want to go?

Maybe, but he did sign an extension with Sporting Kansas City in the off season and just bought a house for him and his wife Sydney Leroux in Kansas City. There is also no NWSL team near Orlando for Sydney to play for or at least be nearby once in a while in road games.

Tampering?

Andy Edwards, friend of The Blue Testament asks a good question.

Also, someone smarter than me: tell me if that is legal from Heath, or if that's possibly tampering with an under-contract player?

— Andy Edwards (@AndyEdMLS) June 10, 2015

Sports leagues in the US tend to take a dim view of tampering with other teams players. In other words, negotiating with or even putting it in the player's thoughts that another team wants them.

The last version of the MLS tampering rules I could find state:

"Any member, officer, shareholder, director, partner, employee, agent, or representative thereof or any person holding an interest in a team cannot tamper, negotiate with, or make an offer, directly or indirectly, to a player or his representative."

"Same parties also may not tamper with: (i) a coach or other employee under contract with another member; or (ii) an employee at a director level or above of another member, in each case, unless written permission is first sought from the general manager or principal of such other member, which permission may not be denied with respect to upwardly mobile positions."

The NFL version seems a little clearer:

"Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club's player to that player's agent or representative, or to a member of the news media."

"Any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club or any attempt by a club to impermissibly induce a person to seek employment with that club or with the NFL"

Could it be?

While there is no reason to think Orlando City would not want a pesky, goal scoring forward, they do have Cyle Larin who has five goals already this year and they seem to be linked to every other big name coming to MLS.

Does Orlando really want Dom this bad or does it sound like Heath is placating the fans?