As soon as Colin Miller became FC Edmonton’s new head coach last November, he began working on a deal to bring central defender Carlyle Mitchell from the Vancouver Whitecaps to the Eddies.

Caceros spent the 2012 season with FCE. And, he helped sell Edward on the idea of coming to Edmonton. In the cruelest of ironies, Edward got a job, while Caceros was left off of coach Colin Miller’s roster.

“We are still discussing things,” said Miller. “Paul and I have a good relationship, and we are trying to resolve the situation.”

FC Edmonton chopped five players from the roster Saturday, including veterans Chris Kooy and Kenny Caceros. As well, while 2012 NASL Best XI defender Paul Hamilton was not part of the cuts, he is also not signed, either.

“It’s not a nice situation,” said Miller after the first of the team’s two training sessions Friday at the Commonwealth Fieldhouse. “We’ve worked with these players for two weeks; it’s a situation where some of them have really got to liking the city… And I understand that these can be life-changing decisions for some of these players, both positively and negatively.”

Even though his agent declared that the Canadian forward, who represented his country in January friendlies against Denmark and the United States, had come to terms with D.C. United last weekend, the move was only completed Thursday.

It might seem like a strange decision. Chris Nurse, in search of another second-division title, came to a franchise that finished in last place in the league last season.

“I have spoken to Paul (Hamilton), he knows he has work to do,” said Miller. “There are weaknesses in his game that I have seen, and that we have talked about. I think the experience that Albert Watson (the Northern Irish veteran who came to FCE from Linfield FC) brings will help Paul with his game."

“It has been fantastic so far,” said midfielder and 2011 NASL Best XI member Shaun Saiko. “From my time at Middlesbrough, this was the kind of preseason training that we did. We’ve started the preseason off brightly, there have been no lulls. You have got to get after it.”

“We want to drip-feed these young men into our first-team environment and, hopefully, get them into our first team as quickly as possible,” Miller said. “In the first team, there will be massive changes, but there always will be a continuing influx of Canadians into the first-team group.”