Crew technical director Brian Bliss has returned from a trip to Argentina with more information but not much positive progress toward signing a designated player.

Bliss, who returned yesterday afternoon, said he went to Argentina with one top player in mind and that the Crew, the player and his club still have work to do if an agreement is to be worked out.

Crew technical director Brian Bliss has returned from a trip to Argentina with more information but not much positive progress toward signing a designated player.

Bliss, who returned yesterday afternoon, said he went to Argentina with one top player in mind and that the Crew, the player and his club still have work to do if an agreement is to be worked out.

�It went as expected but also somewhat disappointing,� Bliss said. �You never get down there thinking you�re going to close the deal completely but I think we ended up probably a little further apart than we wanted to be coming home. We�re trying to find ways to try to make it work on behalf of everybody involved: the club, the Crew and the player.�

While in Argentina, Bliss said he also scouted a pair of other players the Crew is considering but only engaged in serious talks with its top candidate for the designated player spot. After months of email and phone messages, the face-to-face encounters were revealing, he said.

�It was definitely helpful, there�s no doubt,� he said. �There�s email and phones and third parties telling you, �This is what they said� and there�s something to be said for that but yeah, you can�t always believe it and you can�t always judge what the meaning of it was in an email.�

Bliss said the Crew management will now discuss what it can do to make the deal work from its end within the next 48 hours and present that to the club and player. The expectation is that by next week, the Crew will know if a deal remains a possibility in this case.

�We�re going to present that later on today or tomorrow and wait for them to say what they�re willing to do on their end to bridge the gap and see if the combination of those two things can make it work and if it doesn�t then you have to move on,� Bliss said. �We can�t be going back and forth.�

If it does not work out with this player, Bliss did not rule out signing a different designated player this summer.

�Why not?� he said. �What�s to say by Wednesday next week we know it�s not happening, that�s June 5. It still gives you until July 27th to find something. Some of these deals take 12 months to pull off but sometimes it can happen in 30 days. You never close the door on that.

�At the end of the day, it was definitely worth going down there, no doubt. Are we any closer to the deal? Maybe a little bit closer, but at least I got a better feel for if we do a couple of things and they do a couple of things I�ve got a better feel for if it could happen.�

In other news, Bliss said international signee Jairo Arrieta will join the club within the next four days. He is eligible to begin training with the Crew immediately but will not be available for selection until June 27.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy