Yesterday, members of the New York City FC media cohort sat down with Sporting Director Todd Dunivant at team headquarters in Midtown Manhattan for his first in-person roundtable discussion since joining the club this offseason. Dunivant addressed a variety of subjects, including adding a No 9, possibly bringing in another winger, the squad's roster flexibility, adjusting to New York City, working with Pascal Jansen, and more.
The discussion with Dunivant followed a roundtable with club President and CEO Brad Sims – you can find that conversation here.
Note: The statements below were edited for length and clarity.
Q: How has the transition been? You're pretty early on, two months. This is the first big step you're taking since Sacramento, so how has that experience been, making the leap, and also these first few months, how you're settling in?
Todd Dunivant: It's exciting. I mean, honestly, just being preseason was really good, to be able to totally integrate in with the team, the staff, and get to know everybody. It's such an important part. The people part of this job is the most important part, in my estimation. So, getting to know everybody, and there's so many different stakeholders between your players, your staff, ownership at City Football Group, you know, the fans, the media.
All these things are just part of this job that I love and have been doing it, you know, both as a player and post-playing. So, I love it. But yeah, there's no question there's a transition period and getting up to speed with everything. There's obviously differences with how you do business in MLS than every other league in the world. I'm very familiar with that world, part of that construction process through the CBAs.
This league and this sport are pretty dear to my heart. So, being able to come back to New York and be part of the club at this moment, such an important moment for the club and city, I couldn't be more excited.
Q: Any unexpected surprises, joys, or frustrations?
Todd Dunivant: Oh, surprises every day. There's daily surprises, but that comes with the role when you're dealing, again, with people. There's life happens, things happen, and that's all part of it. I love so many different aspects, but the team aspect is what I enjoy the most. Being part of a bigger organization is something that I love.
I think it's something that, you know, to some might be scary or obtrusive, having a City Football Group, I see it at the complete opposite. Being involved now, going to Manchester, seeing how everything works at the highest level, just been blown away at the humility of folks over there, and in this building, in Orangeburg, I mean, people at the highest levels of the game could have an ego, could have a swagger that, you know, just doesn't exist here. And that's the culture that's been set. It's refreshing. It's great to be part of, and it makes you want to be better. And I think you've seen, too, the history of the club success year after year.
We want to strive to add more stars to our badge, but you see that kind of repeated success, and there's a reason for it. Now that I've been to Manchester, now that I've seen how things work within this organization, you see why there's been that repeated success.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Q: A question about making cultural adjustments, both professionally and personally. You're a West Coast person — do you have to make an adjustment, in terms of living in New York? Or is the business so international at this point that it's an easy change to make?
Todd Dunivant: I'm very fortunate that I did live in New York for a year as a player. Any sort of uncertainties or trepidations about coming to this city – it can be intimidating – I've gotten through that and love this city.
I love the subway, I love taking the bus, I love all the little elements that make New York, New York. I'm fortunate to have a wife that loves it here. My family, before this opportunity ever came up, we traveled here last summer just on a family vacation. My daughter was born in LA, she's 11 now, she was one when we moved, so doesn't remember a thing about it, but has LA in her heart and just, you know, all the teams are her team. We came to New York, and immediately, she was like, "LA, forget about that." Like, this is my city, absolutely fell in love with it. Just couldn't believe the vibrancy of it. It was just like it spoke to her soul, and that was cool. So giving her the news of, hey, guess what? We got to move. That's sad. I get that. But we're going to New York.
I mean, the excitement was palpable, and I think for us as a family, we're up for the adventure. My wife's up for the adventure, and I love the opportunity that exists here in New York. I love the challenge of being in the biggest market, the expectations that come with that. I lived in LA with the Galaxy, but that's New York. New York is the biggest and the best, and with our stadium, with our club, with City Football Group, these are all the best, and that's what I love. That's what I love being part of, and pushing things forward is something that we want to do. It's something that the club has long had aspirations, and that's soon to be realized here. We've already got one star on the crest, and we want to add another. So that's very exciting for us.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Q: The general consensus among MLS pundits is that NYCFC has a super competitive roster from top to bottom, but they're putting all their chips toward next season, for the stadium opening and whatnot. What do you say to comments like that?
Todd Dunivant: I don't know, sometimes when I hear that, I can agree, but also, I feel like we have a good roster now, but also, just making sure that when the stadium opens, that we have the most competitive roster to compete for next season, too.
A big part of my job is thinking about the now, but also the future. So we are obviously focused on Orlando and our home opener and what that means for things. We started the season well, but aren't going to rest on those laurels. And we're not under any illusions that our team is a finished product. It never is. We want to be better, and we know the areas we need to add. We know we need to add attacking help, and we've got to add the right guys. And so we're actively searching for that. We have been for some time. We've been close on different occasions, and we're going to have some money. There's no question about that. It could be tomorrow. It could be this summer.
But we're going to add the right help that we need for this team to give Pascal more tools, to give our team a better chance to win, and give a huge amount of credit to our group, to the mindset that they have of getting on with it and not using anything as an excuse, whether it's having a long 27 straight days leading into our opener against the Galaxy, whether it's the weather, whether it's, you name it. You can come up with 50 excuses every single time why you don't get the job done, but our group doesn't do that. And Nico Mercau is playing as Number 9. That's not his preferred position, but he's doing it for the team. Talles Magnos played as a 9, he's doing it for the team. You see guys over and over, Kevin O'Toole's played a lot of different positions.
Something that Pascal and me look for, is versatility within players, versatility within the team to be able to get the best out of our group, and I give a lot of credit to our guys for doing that. Our job is always to make the team better, and we're going to do that, but it's also to get the best out of the ingredients we have, and that's something that our coaching staff and our greater staff does a brilliant job of.
Q: Can you provide clarity on the Designated Player spots the team has available?
Todd Dunivant: Yeah, we do have flexibility to add a DP. Thiago [Martins] has the ability to kind of go either way. It doesn't affect him, these are all just MLS roster rules and machinations, if you will.
So we have the ability to add another DP. Talles Magno's a DP, Nico Mercau's a DP, and Thiago has the ability. So we want to give ourselves the maximum flexibility to add a DP. And to do that, we want to make sure that we have the room to do it, and we do. So hopefully that answers your question.
