Some of you alerted me to this the last couple of days, and to be honest I just dropped the ball and never even noticed Cooke was out there until today. So I apologize. And I see that this story was already broken here, thanks David Falk.

Cooke, a midfielder formerly with the Colorado Rapids, has quite an extensive English football background. The Rapids let him go last month, and he arrived for a trial with Sounders FC this week and has been practicing with the team since Wednesday.

"We wanted to take a look at Terry," Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said today. "Chris Henderson has played with him in the past. We wanted to see where he was at and talk to him."

Reading between the lines, Cooke's arrival sounds like more than just a trial. I get the sense from talking to Schmid and GM Adrian Hanauer that the team is interested in adding the veteran to the roster. Doing so would mean that someone now on the roster would have to be let go or perhaps placed on injured reserve.

"You're always trying to look," Schmid said. "The roster freeze deadline is Sept. 15 so all the way up to Sept. 15, if you can improve your roster in some manner or some form, you try and do it."

Schmid said that around this time of year when he was in Columbus, he signed Adam Moffat in 2007. When Schmid was with the LA Galaxy, he signed Herculez Gomez around this time. Both have had solid MLS careers.

Schmid was asked about the state of his midfielders and the depth at center mid. Osvaldo Alonso and Brad Evans remain starters. Pete Vagenas and Stephen King, when he isn't hurt, have seen action. Schmid said Nathan Sturgis is best used at central midfielder.

"It's a little congested right now with those five guys and we've got four quality ones that are healthy at this point," Schmid said.

Hanauer wouldn't deny that something is in the works when asked if signing Cooke is imminent. But as of this afternoon, he hadn't yet met with technical director Chris Henderson and Schmid, nor had he even spoken to Cooke, because Hanauer has been in New York the past few days for meetings with league executives.

"We know Terry pretty well," Hanauer said. "It's not very often that there's a player of Terry's quality that is free and available to come in and spend a few days with the guys and get to know the team a little bit...but then there's another layer to it, which is 'Does he fit in our system and if he does, can we put a deal together to get it done.'"