Sporting KC
Sporting KC parts ways with Brian Bliss
Sporting Kansas City announced that they have “mutually agreed” to part ways with Technical Director and VP of Player Personnel Brian Bliss.
Sporting Kansas City announced Monday that they have “mutually agreed” to part ways with Technical Director and Vice President of Player Personnel Brian Bliss. Bliss had been with the club since 2016.
During his tenure, Sporting KC missed the playoffs twice (2019, 2022), finished in the top half of the conference twice (2020, 2021) and finished eighth in the conference in 2023, making the Western Conference playoffs. This move comes after Sporting KC’s third straight 2024 league loss — a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Columbus Crew — and their ninth in their past ten league matches.
In the press release, the club noted they will make an announcement regarding the leadership of the technical staff in the coming days. What this means for other senior members of the club, including Peter Vermes and Jake Reid, remains to be seen. Previous reporting by the Kansas City Star has suggested Vermes will be safe this year.
Bliss had been a member of Sporting Kansas City for a total of 15 years, including as a player, assistant coach, interim head coach, technical director and Vice President of Player Personnel. He played for the Kansas City Wizards in 1998 before moving to the coaching side in 2000. He served as interim head coach in 2006 before moving to the Columbus Crew as Technical Director in 2008, and the Chicago Fire in the same role in 2014. He returned to Kansas City in 2016 as Director of Player Personnel and added the Technical Director title in 2019.
This is the second major move Sporting KC has made with their staff this year after they hired, then fired, Gavin Wilkinson as Sporting Director.
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It’s a start, but I’m still worried ownership thinks it’s the end.
#blissout#vermesoutLet the door hit your ass on the way out. Now do Vermes.
Some have suggested the “Sporting will make an announcement regarding the leadership of the club’s technical staff in the coming days” may indicate they have a new director to announce. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I do want to give credit to the club for taking a decisive action here. We as fans have been asking for change, and we’re getting some with this announcement. My only trepidation is that canning Bliss feels more like treating a symptom than treating the underlying problem. Maybe I’m wrong and Vermes will flourish with a new TD in place. I guess we’ll know for sure exactly who the problem is once the new person assumes their role (I mean, I’ve made up my mind on who the problem is, but trying to give every benefit of the doubt possible here).
Or, maybe we’ll get an announcement saying “Peter Vermes has been appointed as interim Technical Director, in addition to his coaching duties.” That would be funny guys, right? Right?!
Yes – hilarious!…
Im not laughing! You’re laughing!
It’s nervous laughter. Never believe them when they say you’ve hit rock bottom.
Unless PV gives up the CSO role and actually takes the demotion to “just coach”, then anyone they hire right now is really just a Vermes sock puppet. Which makes me underwhelmed about that person being very good because no good candidate wants to have those strings attached.
Vermes as a ventriloquist is terrifying. I’m now imagining him doing kids shows with sock puppets.
Thanks for that.
It would be more entertaining him to show how officials get offsides calls wrong (when they really didn’t) with sock puppets than with video. Full marionettes would be even better.
A production of “you’re wrong”
A show by Peter Vermes. Acted and voiced by Peter Vermes.
This is such a cynical take based on fanon that fits almost none of what the actual club tells us about who does what. The whole point of moving Peter to SD was to get him out of the actions of roster building and the whole point of moving him to CSO was to remove him from it completely. Yes, the SD who would be completing the actions of it would report to him but basically all that does is give him the ability to more quickly move on from a guy if he’s not doing what Peter needs from him.
According to everyone actually working in the club Peter isn’t some omniscient, micromanaging presence in their ears at all times telling them “thou shalt or shalt not otherwise I smite thee.” He’s an engaged leader who gives them all the tools and space that they need to find success, or not to.
Speaking of sock puppets…
I just can’t decide if A&W IS Peter or maybe his wife…
I don’t like to go at other posters, but I can’t leave this alone. My 14 year old speaks in a foreign language. He would tell you to stop meat riding Vermes, you keep glazing the fool, no cap.
Thank God for that NY Times article the other day, otherwise I’d have no freaking clue what you meant by ‘glazing’. Lord, I’m so old I’m now relying on old media to learn new slang.
He was like, pretty dang good at technical director though. That whole “golden generation” of guys came from Peter’s time as TD. Probably like 9 of the all-time SKC 11 were guys that he scouted and recruited and signed. Granted, that like MLS 2.0 or whatever, but still. He was measurably better at finding talent to fit his plans in his era than Bliss has been.
The first comment on this Reddit thread about the Bliss firing is epic. So well done.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1dnm61m/meme_so_close/
I love the move, but I hate the timing. Now when they don’t immediately start winning the doomers are going to be MORE vocal that Peter is the problem and are going to make an already challenging season for a fan a dang near impossible one because no corner will be safe to just watch from without someone screaming “SEEITOLDYOUPETERWASTHEPROBLEMYOUBOOTLICKINGSHILLIVEBEENRIGHTALLALOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!”.
Those move doesn’t help anybody right now. It sets them up for this multi-window rebuild that they’ve been talking about and likely takes Peter farther away from it, not closer to it. Peter can’t play for the guys that Bliss picked and they refuse to play for themselves at all. This move is to bring in a new perspective on replacing them. Also, given that the transfer window is about to open it either indicates that Bliss just wrapped up some deals and isn’t needed or that he couldn’t get it done and we’re back to the drawing board. The fact that it came on the heels of Nashville stealing the Viking dude out from under our noses makes me think it’s the latter.
This move will pay dividends this winter, probably not before.
Nashville didn’t still anyone. Sporting was never involved with Yazbek.
for the down voters:
https://x.com/sperrydaniel94/status/1803912447624876113?s=46&t=i6KXgxUyVERFgFY0wKr1cw
That is what I heard. SKC was not looking at him at all. Maybe that was the problem, the last straw was they should have been going after him?
But, what if Peter IS the problem…
I agree, it will be the winter window, not this summer window. See,we can agree on something. The timing is perfect. They should’ve known it wasn’t working, but waited too long. Taking action to correct the course of the team, not the season. It will be interesting to see who gets brought in, who gets transferred out.
We will have to hit the ground winning next year. That’s two transfer windows away and they kept the same coach. Absolutely I expect Vermes to win if he’s staying. He doesn’t get 2 years to rebuild. He’s had control of the team for far too long to get the grace of a new coach in a rebuild.
I think the timing of this announcement right before the transfer window opens tells us not to expect any meaningful signings. Gonna be a long, and likely unsuccessful rebuild fellas.
you could be right, but I also wonder if there is the possibility that bliss and Peter were disagreeing on who to bring in and there was a power struggle with ownership, and ownership sided with Peter. not necessarily saying I think this happened, but lets wait for the transfer window before we say nothing is going to happen.
Would the Wooden Spoon get mounted on “the wall”?
Just below the yellow 2017 put 2024 with a spoon crossing it out. Classy!
This is not exactly ripping off the bandaid. It’s like tearing off the corner that is no longer stuck to your skin. The puss and infection is still covered up. SKC needs to rip the whole bandaid off, including Vermes, in order for the organization to heal and move forward