Both of these reports come from a foreign outlet that I’m not too familiar with, so there’s your disclaimer.

Ghana Soccer Net says the Union are set to move both David Accam and C.J. Sapong.

From the article on Accam, who the club traded for less than a year ago:

FC Cincinnati, who begin their MLS play in 2019 as a club in the Eastern Conference, have targeted the Ghana international.

Accam, 28, has been identified as one of five current players in the Major Soccer League to help shape the core of their inaugural roster and could be selected during the Expansion Draft, expected to be released on Monday, December 10.

…

FC Cincinnati will likely take the gamble and engage in a draft-trade with Philadelphia Union for his signature.

And here’s the relevant information from the Sapong story:

Major Soccer League side Philadelphia Union are likely to trade Charles Nana Kwabena Sarpong to FC Cincinnati in a major trade, GHANAsoccernet.com understands.

The 29-year-old is among three players including compatriot David Accam who are being considered for the draft-trade.

If there’s any truth to these stories, it sounds like the Union are going to pull a pre-draft deal that would send one player to Cincy on the condition that they select the other in expansion.

This is very similar to how some teams dealt with the Vegas Golden Knights in the recent NHL expo draft. You might recall the Minnesota Wild trading Alex Tuch to Vegas under the condition that the Knights select Erik Haula in the draft. That ended up biting them in the ass, but you can swing these deals to clear salary, too. Ironically enough, the guy who arranged that was new Flyers General Manager Chuck Fletcher.

If you read my hot stove “mystery source” story from last week, you’ll recall that the anonymous person who I’ve now identified as <redacted> revealed that Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner is not too high on Sapong, Accam, and midfielder Haris Medunjanin. I find it interesting that the above report mentions “three players” in consideration, but I have no idea if Medunjanin would be the third. I’ve bounced this thing off a couple of other sources over the past week, and while they echoed the idea that Sapong and Accam are not “rated” by Tanner, nobody told me that they were working on some expansion draft deal to move both at the same time.

However you feel about Sapong and Accam, moving either would be a big win for the Union in the clearing salary department, since Sapong earns half a million dollars and Accam is a seven-figure player who hits the cap at the DP threshold. Clearing out both would certainly allow you to take a shot at a pretty good striker to beef up a group that now includes Cory Burke and nobody else.

Sapong, now 29, scored four goals last season in 32 games. He was the team’s starting striker before losing his center forward job and moving out to the wing. Accam, age 28, scored a whopping one goal as he dealt with a lingering sports hernia issue that I guess really hampered him. Sapong scored 16 goals in 2017 and Accam 14, so both players really had disappointing campaigns.