Union sign English striker Jay Simpson

The Union filled one of their biggest offseason needs by signing 28-year-old forward Jay Simpson as a Discovery Signing using Targeted Allocation Money (TAM).

Each Major League Soccer team has a Discovery list of up to seven players who are not under contract to MLS and are not subject to another mechanism (such as the SuperDraft or Allocation Process).

TAM allows clubs to invest in a class of players making between $480,625 and $1 million. It allows teams to bring that player's salary budget figure down.

In 2017, each of the 22 MLS clubs will receive $1.2 million of Targeted Allocation Money.

The 5-foot-11, 186-pound Simpson played for six clubs in England and one in Thailand. He most recently…