Updated with analysis: Revs quiet in last hours of transfer window

Updated, 1:30 p.m.

With the lunch hour passing us by and with no press releases heading out of the soccer side of Patriot Place, it's pretty safe to presume the Revolution made no moves as the Secondary Transfer Window shut at 12:59 a.m. ET early Thursday morning.

That means the club’s summer business ceased Monday when New England sent Krisztian Nemeth to Sporting Kansas City.

Outside of Nemeth leaving, the club brought in two players earlier in the window were defensive midfielder Cristhian Machado, and centerback Michael Mancienne.

Manager Brad Friedel noted on The Sports Hub Wednesday afternoon that no deals were imminent, but that was 13 hours before the window closed.

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While the transfer window has closed, teams still have until September 14 to sign out-of-contract players, which means there is technically still time to add to the squad before the rosters freeze for the remainder of the season, until the day after the MLS Cup Final.

With no deals made, it means the club will move on to the last 12 matches of the regular season with 26 of a possible 30 roster spots filled, including Chris Tierney, who is on the season-ending injury list.

The Revolution are still awaiting Mancienne’s work permit before they can add him to the roster.

Nemeth went back to Sporting Kansas City in exchange for $350,000 in allocation money and a 2020 first-round SuperDraft selection. The Nemeth deal also opened up a previously-unavailable international slot for the Revolution: MLS teams had eight slots for overseas players for 2018, but Nemeth had taken up two slots — his own, as well as one the Revs traded to Columbus in order to acquire the striker as he returned to the league after a stint in Qatar.

That trade offered hope to Midnight Riders and Rebellion members — official and unofficial — in Revs Colony that the club would turn around and use that international slot on one of the areas of need in the squad: left back, or a proven finisher to help the team make a serious run at MLS Cup.

However, Tuesday’s media availability at training dampened those hopes.

“Deals are always possibilities,” Friedel said Tuesday. “If we can get one over the line, then great. If we can’t, then great: we have a very good squad here.

“Whether a deal can get resurrected or started knowing that paperwork needs to be filed at a certain time, some deals are better to be made in January, some can happen now. All I can tell you is it’s a possibility. It’s not an inevitability.”

If there are no additional players brought in before Sept. 14, Friedel will then look to the offseason and the Primary Transfer Window.

BSJ Analysis

It's looking as though the club is prepping itself for January -- "Some deals are better to be made in January," Friedel said on Tuesday -- when certain holdovers from the Jay Heaps regime are out of contract; they'll be released, and it'll be time to make way for Friedel's choices, growing closer to truly making this team Friedel's team.

Yes: we all know that Friedel has been in re-build mode since he took over last November, and I honestly cannot wait to see what this team and the roster will look like when I go to the first training session in February 2019. Yet the current club is still in playoff position, if barely, and the question begs to be asked: why abandon the current efforts -- making the current team better -- and the fans' hopes for a playoff run in 2018?

And this is a question that needs asking, too: does ownership and the front office just expect the fans to waste 22 weeks of their lives every season, and then accept a "wait until next year!" approach in the middle of August? I don't think that's acceptable.

Let's apply the Revs’ approach at the deadline to the other four teams. If the Red Sox had an almost there team and needed to make a serious move in the last week of July, and Dave Dombrowski failed to deliver the pieces that would put the Olde Towne Team over the top and in pennant contention, Red Sox fans would run him out of here on a rail. If Danny Ainge didn't make prudent moves to boost the Celtics, there wouldn't be many happy people wearin' the green. If Donny Sweeney (no relation) didn't do the same thing for the Bruins -- I'm still scratching my head as to why Cam Neely gave Peter Chiarelli so much leeway in 2013 and ’14 -- the same thing would happen: Bruins faithful would growl. And if the Patriots….

Wait, what am I saying? No one questions Bill Belichick and lives to tell the tale. Silly me.

This type of approach in Boston sports -- the City of Champions -- is unacceptable.

With all due respect to Friedel, he can say and preach all he wants about having a "very good squad" and a lack of panic over the last month's worth of results, and that's true and all -- look me in the face and tell me the Revs didn't out-play Los Angeles Galaxy before they defecated the linens, or created more chances than Orlando City before two set-piece goals happened -- but certain players in the current squad have shown they are not good enough mentally for a serious run. They're talking the talk and all about correcting individual errors, but the same things keep happening in matches.

With space on the roster, the Revolution should have gone out and secured a strong left back and a quality finisher to finish the job this team started earlier this season.

The Revs are an almost there side. With no moves at the deadline, they’ll continue to be an almost there side until those issues are addressed for a longer spell than nearly a full game.