It’s that time of year again. The weather turns cold, mugs of hot cocoa are passed around, twinkling lights line the streets, and the Chicago Fire front office moves to foist the consequences for their own failures on the players.
Today begins Major League Soccer’s offseason calendar of events. At 12pm CT today, all teams who did not compete in the MLS Cup Playoffs were required to notify League HQ of which players they were exercising options for and which players had received bona fide offers. While most teams announced their option decisions earlier this afternoon, the Fire waited until just before the end of the business day to make their announcement.