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Moving on from the Gavin Wilkinson saga
There are still questions which need answered even after Sporting KC parted ways with Gavin Wilkinson eight days after hiring him.
Whew. What a week we had, SKC Nation. But now we can breath a sigh of relief. On a new episode of Shades of Blue, the crew is trying to figure out how to move on from this ugly episode, and enjoy the season.
Sporting KC fans can happily root for their team this season without feeling gross after the club reversed course and parted ways with Gavin Wilkinson just eight days after hiring him.
I can’t believe they actually changed their minds, but I am elated they did. I was wondering how I would cover and interact with the team this year. Now, all of that worry is gone.
But not forgotten.
How exactly did such an objectively bad decision ever get made? Who was responsible? Are the problems which led to this issue being remedied in any way? Should I worry something like this happen again?
These are all fair questions. It isn’t nitpicking to want more information about this story. An organization making a massively important hire only to say ‘never mind’ a week later, is wildly uncommon and at the very least notable when it does happen.
On Saturday, Peter Vermes spoke to the media following Sporting KC’s first preseason game of the year. The first three questions were all about GW, but Vermes refused to discuss it. The long-time KC manager simply referred to the statement released by ownership saying, “there’s nothing more to talk about.”
This is an understandable response from a head coach. He’s focused on preseason and wants to block out all the other noise.
But the problem is that the statement made by Illig, missed the mark as well. There isn’t even an acknowledgement of the faults that led to this hire. If anything, the statement reiterates that the club is proud of the “diligent and exhaustive” process they used to make the decision.
So let’s be glad we can support the players that wear the SKC crest, without guilt. I’m officially excited for the season now! The ball is rolling and we have goals and injuries to talk about!
But it’s hard to forget the Gavin Wilkinson era (week) so fast. Thad calls it a ‘dark cloud’ that will be following along this year. Without any accountability from all this, media and fans will have to question every single thing that comes from Vermes and the front office. They will have to wonder about the judgement of the decision makers at Sporting KC, and be worried when the next mistake will come.
What do you think? Have you moved on from GW or do you still have questions?
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Yep. I’ve totally moved on. Sporting KC has a history making decisions that are financially smart. We are very good at finding players that weren’t thriving where they were at and giving their careers a second chance in the mls. I just think this hire was that same mentality. Getting a guy like Gavin probably was very cheap compared to what he would have normally asked for.
There weren’t any mistakes made. They just took a risk.
I think this explains the move from a pure business perspective. But SKC supporters hold the club to a higher standard than that. And the notion that it was not a mistake is certainly debatable, given the enormous backlash (and loss of STMs).
That’s fair, maybe “mistake” was a poor word choice. A better word would be “wrong”. I don’t think they did anything wrong, they just took a risk and made mistake. It happens in business. That fact is what allows me to move on. It’s like in soccer sometimes a player makes a mistake and it cost us the game. You move on to the next one. Otherwise as a player it just eats you alive. Same for me as a fan. There is little value in dwelling on mistakes. We are all human. It happens, on to the next game.
I find this stance ignoring some key facts: we hired someone that enabled sexual abuse. We hired someone that was directly offensive to a majority of fans. There has been zero transparency on it and as pointed out in the podcast: what else are we being lied to about? I get there will always be a layer of mystery, but this isn’t a small issue. This was a pretty big screw up.
And then SKC listened to their fans and got rid of him. To me it takes a big person to admit they are wrong. Nothing but respect for that. It shows an open mindness.
Only speaking for myself. I’ve had issues with the decision makers at SKC for a while now. This includes why is Illig even here? Why does PV get to keep making the playoffs to keep his position? He’s been here so long that there are no excuses. Roster problem, his fault. Team not playing well together, his fault. Training injuries, his fault. Wilkinson hire, his fault. Get rid of PV and Illig, start over. This year won’t be worth watching. Same team minus kinda. We already know what that looks like.
Illig is here because he owns the team. SKC has always had at least one person in the ownership group with direct responsibility over the team. It used to be Heinemann and when he stepped down it was Cliff Illig and now it’s his son. It would be great if somehow Cliff could fire his fratboy son but I think we’re stuck with him.
As for PV, I mean you kind answered your own question. He keeps his job because far more often than not they’re a top 3 seed in the playoffs and far more often than not they win at least one playoff game.
I don’t want to seem like a huge PV defender but you’re blaming him for a lot of stuff that he didn’t actually do. He hasn’t been scouting players or recruiting since 2016 so roster problems aren’t his fault. He has never been an athletic trainer so injuries aren’t his fault. Wilkinson definitely had fault to go around including PV though.
As for this year not being worth watching you do realize that “same team” was at worst the third best team in MLS for 31 games last year if you include Leagues Cup and the playoffs, right? If you think that’s not worth watching because they haven’t replaced Kinda yet then I don’t know what to tell you. We do know what that looks like, it looks championship caliber.
Sure, Vermes can’t control everything, but this is straight from his bio on SKC’s website:
He might not be directly performing all of those duties, but as sporting director the final accountability does rest with him in my opinion. It remains to be seen how the restructure of his responsibilities will play out, and I am curious to see that.
I respectfully disagree that we were at worst the 3rd best team in MLS last year; we finished the reg. season with more losses than wins and barely made the playoffs (I realize the horrible start to the season was a big part of that). On our day, yes, we were capable of playing like a top team, but I don’t think we hit those heights consistently.
I also think it’s fair to question if PV has taken the team as far as he can and maybe new blood is needed sooner than later. 15 years as HC is an eternity for most professional sports, and I just don’t see the ceiling getting any higher as long as he’s still in charge. Playoff appearances are great, but how long do you keep accepting that as your benchmark without any new silverware until you eventually say, time for a new chapter? I think there’s definitely an argument for both sides but I think it’s a fair question.
We also only made the playoffs because they were expanded. In any other season of league history an 8th place finish would have been out of the playoffs.
I can’t move on that easily. This wasn’t an isolated event but the latest in a long trend of management behavior dismissive of fans. If you cheat on your partner, you don’t just get to say “I’m sorry that bothered you, I won’t do it again” and expect things to go back to normal.
My current thought is I’ll watch the games for the players but not attend or spend any money on the team this year. Which is made easier by that already being sort of my plan anyway since I don’t enjoy CMP as much as I used to, I really want to get to a Current game instead, and honestly I’d like to go to a STL game as well. So it’ll be pretty easy to hold SKC the organization at arm’s length for a while to see how my feelings (and their behavior) develop.
If the follow up story from the Athletic is true that GW wasn’t on the list of the 14 finalists submitted by the search firm, then why GW was hired anyway needs to be explained and the decision makers held accountable.
I haven’t mailed my ticket rep and asked for season tickets again. So I guess all is not forgiven. But I also haven’t taken down the SKC scarfs that line one of my walls either. They’d have been gone over the weekend if we still had GW around. So I’m bummed we did this, I’m bummed we didn’t take responsibility for what was a bad decision, but I’m glad we let him go and I’m happy to hunt for preseason coverage now.
I loved that those questions were asked, but I think it is time for reporters to say “we aren’t asking you as a coach, we are asking you as the person in charge of the organization” or something to that effect.
Remember vermes got a promotion to. A promotion that means he has to be able to directly speak to these things. If he cannot then he should not be in charge. Period.
This pressure from reporters needs to keep up. We need the truth for who at SKC thinks it is OK to hire someone complicit in multiple instances of abuse.