Who is Houston Dynamo DP signing Ondrej Lingr? No, really. Who is he? | OneFootball

On Wednesday, GiveMeSport's Tom Bogert reported that the Houston Dynamo were in the final stages of signing Czechia international Ondrej Lingr to a Designated Player contract for a transfer fee in the range of $2.6 million.

To which the overwhelming response from many fans was: "Huh."

The 26-year-old Lingr clearly has considerable ability. Players who play for their national teams in the European Championships, and who are signed by one of the biggest three clubs in the Netherlands don't get to those stages without ability.

But if this was the move to put a bow on the Dynamo's roster overhaul after parting with Adalberto Carrasquilla and Hector Herrera in the offseason, it is one of the peel 'n stick variety.

Because, really, who is Ondrej Lingr?

Born to runner-up?

The guy's CV is literally a collection of "second-most-populars." He signed for the second-most popular club in Prague, then moved on to the second-most popular club in the Netherlands. For much of the time on that career path, he was presumably his manager's second-most popular player at his position, given he has not made more than 19 starts in a given domestic season since moving to Slavia Prague as a 21-year-old.

Among Roman aplahbet-using peoples, he utilizes the second-most popular first letter with which to begin a derivative of the name "Andrew."

Lingr does have two double-digit goal seasons from his time at Slavia Prague, which set the table for his mostly unsuccessful move to Feyenoord. But the Czech top flight is arguably a step down from MLS, not a step up. And Lingr's statistical profile suggests he won't be a provider in the way most attacking central midfielders are expected to be in MLS. He has eight primary assists. In the entirety of his domestic league career.

None of this means the Dynamo are wrong for signing him. They may very well have made a series of shrewd moves that will set up the club to recover after a slow start, in which they've taken only one point from four games. And if so, they wouldn't be the first club in MLS to build a contender with lesser-known and lesser-heralded parts.

The Philadelphia Union have been arguably the best at it in recent years. Minnesota United played at a pretty high level without any real star power last season.

But the point here is that the Houston Dynamo's actions go against what they've communicated publicly for two seasons, that they're done operating like a smaller market club since the ownership takeover by Ted Segal.

Because every reasonable appearance is they've reverted to the pre-Ted Segal way.

Latest in a trend

When Lingr's acquisition is officially announced, it will follow that of the transfer of American winger Duane Holmes from Preston North End, a move made official while Holmes was recovering from a broken leg.

Holmes' arrival followed two late preseason trades. One sent Nico Lodeiro to Houston in the kind of veteran renaissance project that echoed some of Dynamo manager Ben Olsen's best D.C. United teams led by figures like Dwayne De Rosario, Fabian Espindola and Alvaro Saborio.

The other involved a swoop for up-and-coming American midfielder Jack McGlynn from the Philadelphia Union, after McGlynn appeared not to attract as much interest from European suitors as the Union may have expected.

Maybe some of this appearance of bargain shopping is bad luck or bad timing. In particular, it appears that Houston was in on Holmes before his injury. And in fairness to the Dynamo, arguably the most intriguing signing they've made in the last year -- Lawrence Ennali -- suffered an ACL tear two games into his MLS career after his summer arrival and hasn't seen the field since.

But the signing of Lingr is clearly contrary to the claim of a new big market era continuing. The best-case scenario for Dynamo fans is that it becomes evidence that sporting director Pat Noonan and Olsen are better at building a roster on a budget than their predacessors. Because they knew who Ondrej Lingr was. And we didn't.