Houston Dynamo: Past, present, future of Mauro Manotas transfer

Houston Dynamo look ready to deal star striker Mauro Manotas. Here is the past, present and future outlooks of the impending transfer, including what it means for Houston moving forward.

The Houston Dynamo are reportedly set on dealing star striker Mauro Manotas.

The hottest interest at this time comes from France’s Ligue 1. The leading queries for what it takes to get Manotas on the pitch comes from Nantes, Montpellier and Saint Etienne. Of those three, Montpellier is the only club confirming the front office has a formal offer out for a forward. Observers also emphasize his projected $4.5 million also puts him in the budget of Nantes.

Manotas will be hard to replace. In 2019, he led Houston Dynamo with 13 goals and 92 shots. He was second on the squad with eight assists and 30 shots on goal. Totaling the past three Dynamo seasons, Manotas has 48 goals and 120 appearances.

His performances have established him as one of the premier center-forwards in Major League Soccer, so much so that any transfer would likely be a move across the pond and to Europe. They also mean that Houston will have to construct an excellent offseason to maintain their offensive firepower in Manotas’ wake.

In the present, they will depend on previously acquired forward Darwin Quintero to supply the goals and assists that Manotas delivered. The Dynamo acquired Quintero from Minnesota United with the intention of playing him at forward. The player also shows effectiveness as an attacking midfielder. Quintero’s scouting reports detail abilities dribbling past opponents, excellent ball control, finishing, and creativity in the final third with a high number of chances created, through passes and crosses.

And for the future, the Dynamo will develop a 20-year-old Uruguayan striker, Brian Ocampo.

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The right-footed right-winger plays in Uruguay for Nacional in the Primera División. Scouting reports show Ocampo shows high ability in ball control and dribbling past opponents. However, reports show he’s a work in progress and wouldn’t be close to a one-for-one replacement for Manotas. So as he develops, the gameplan has to be for the Dynamo to rely on Quintero replacing the production the team expected from Manotas.

At the same time, the reports assure that ability and potential for Ocampo is vast. His addition to the Houston Dynamo roster along with Quintero represents the best of two worlds. They can immediately replicate the Manotas production with Quintero, who had 21 goals and 20 assists in a little over 4500 minutes over two seasons in Minnesota.

While this past season was a down year for Quintero, with hints of attitude problems working under Adrian Heath, his numbers are undeniable. Nevertheless, at 32, he is not a long-term solution for Dynamo. That is where Ocampo enters the equation. Ocampo is the project, someone who can develop as he takes his place on the bench, while Quintero is the genuine Manotas replacement.

Consequently, then, Manotas is slotted as a great symbol of Houston Dynamo past. Darwin Quintero is the present. Brian Ocampo is the future. And it’ll all be encapsulated in the 2020 Houston Dynamo season.