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The stable, while youthful and still somewhat of a mystery, is deepening.

Real Salt Lake this week finalized the year-long loan move to bring one-time academy product Brooks Lennon back to the organization that put him on the track to signing with Liverpool FC as a teenager. The 19-year-old forward/midfielder from Paradise Valley, Ariz., joins a pool of relatively unproven players that will be called upon to deliver when the time comes in 2017.

Lennon has seen the bulk of his minutes with Liverpool's U-23 youth team since making the move to England in July 2015. At the RSL academy, he starred on a team stacked with homegrown talents, several of which are his teammates once again. But unlike those days in Casa Grande, Ariz., Lennon will be battling for first-team playing time against the likes of Jordan Allen, Sebastian Saucedo, Jose Hernandez and Ricardo Velazco.

The expectation for this another youngster joining the attacking fold?

"We're not bringing Brooks here as an ornament," RSL general manager Craig Waibel said Tuesday. "The interest level in Brooks was not because we thought it was a cool story. We're bringing Brooks here because we think he's a good player and we expect him to come here and compete just like he has the last year-and-a-half at Liverpool, to get on the field and be consistent, and that's a challenge for any young guy."

To Waibel, Lennon projects to compete for minutes out wide in RSL's 4-3-3 formation, but said the 19-year-old striker has the skill set to feature in an approach that utilizes two strikers, should RSL or Real Monarchs deploy such tactics. Allen, entering his fourth year at RSL, entered the preseason as the favorite to land the starting role opposite Joao Plata. Yet everything remains up for grabs for that spot out wide.

"We certainly aren't painting a picture that's hard to understand in terms of the expectations for those young guys," Waibel said. "It's there for the taking. Whichever one of those guys steps up the most is going to get the most chances and my personal expectations of Brooks after the environment he's been in in the last year is that he's going to come in and find his way on the field."

Of RSL's seven offseason signings to date, five have come on the attacking half of the field, highlighted most recently by Lennon's loan move finalized Monday. He joined RSL in the first portion of preseason training camp in Casa Grande before joining the U.S. U-20 national team to prepare for the upcoming CONCACAF U-20 Championship. Lennon is joined on the team by Saucedo, Justen Glad and Danilo Acosta.

» More moves to come?

Is RSL's roster set for the March 4 opener at Rio Tinto Stadium against Toronto FC?

"Before March 4, I don't know if I anticipate moves," Waibel said, "but I would tell you for the first time in a long time we do have freedom to make some. The first time since I walked in the door, we do have the ability to make another impactful move, but that's what we're being very careful on."

So far, RSL has penned a new Designated Player in Slovakian attacking midfielder Albert Rusnák, signed MLS veterans Chad Barrett, David Horst and Luis Silva and added the likes of Homegrown player Jose Hernandez and back-up goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel. Earlier this offseason, Waibel said he and the front office had targeted a wide attacking player as a potential final piece to their puzzle. A third DP spot remains open, after all.

"We're in the market and we're definitely not done looking," he said. "If we don't make a move before the beginning of the season, then I would certainly say we're going to be players in the summer."

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani