Sporting KC
Felipe Gutierrez returns to Sporting Kansas City
Veteran midfielder added for depth
Sporting Kansas City did not take long to make a move when the summer transfer window opened this week. Former Sporting KC midfielder Felipe Gutierrez has returned. Gutierrez and SKC agreed to a contract through the rest of 2023 with an option for 2024.
Gutierrez was a Designated Player with Sporting KC from 2018 through 2020 although he missed the full 2020 season after knee surgery side-lined him. With Sporting KC, he scored 19 goals with nine assists in 63 matches across all competitions. Gutierrez and Sporting KC were unable to agree on a contract for 2021 so the Chilean midfielder returned Chile where he rejoined Universidad Catolica, his first professional club.
In 2022 he briefly returned to MLS as a summer transfer with the Colorado Rapids before going to Al-Wasl FC in the UAE Pro League. Gutierrez and Al-Wasl agreed to part ways so he could return to Kansas City.
“It was an easy decision to come back to the team,” Gutierrez told media. “I’ve been talking to Peter a long time with a chance to come here because when I was here it was a joy to play, the way we play and how we play. I want to feel that feeling again. That’s why we made the decision to come back. My family was also happy here when we were here.”
In order to make room for Gutierrez, Sporting KC placed defender Kortne Ford on the Season-Ending Injury List. This move opened a roster spot and budget space equivalent to Ford’s salary.
“Well, obviously we had a choice to make regarding the season-ending injury with Kortne,” SKC Manager Peter Vermes explained to media. “With that and then also making sure you get somebody who can at least contribute in some way. It really made a lot of sense, based on the fact that he’s been here before, he knows what we do and, in my opinion, he probably can play seven positions on the field. So, with that, I think it was an easy decision.”
“He was always an incredible competitor, he’s got a winning mentality, which is a great addition as well and that will help the group,” Vermes added.
“I never wanted him to leave in the first place. It was all centered around his injury and so the good thing is, you know, we did maintain a good relationship and we also communicated a couple times,” Vermes stated. “When he went to Colorado last year, we were actually talking prior to that as well. And so this is a good timing, works out for both parties and I’m glad that he’s here.”
Seven positions?
Vermes was asked if he would be expected to appear in all seven positions. “Possibly, if we need it because he can do it. He can play left back, he can play either of the three guys in the midfield or any three of the front. If you play false-nine, he can do all those things and he can do it from a technical perspective and then also mentality-wise as well. He’ll compete in all of positions.”
Ready to play!
With Al-Wasl Gutierrez played 759 minutes across nine games with a goal and an assist in league play and three more matches with a goal in their Cup competition. His last match was in May so may need to work towards a greater fitness.
Regardless of fitness, Gutierrez is ready to play. He has already let Vermes know multiple times that he is ready. “He wants to play. He wants to be with the team this weekend, but I’m not ready to do that,” Vermes stated. “I would say from Wednesday on there’s a possibility that he could start getting into the (gameday) 20 possibly and maybe getting a few minutes here or there. I want to make sure that there’s a level of fitness there that can stand whenever we’re going to play him.”
“He’s couple years older but I’m not also looking for him to be 90 minutes, “Vermes elaborated. “I need him for situations like this, where we have three games in a week, where there’s going to be a big push at the end of the season. We’re going to need him there so it’ll just be great places for him to pop in and give the team, whether it’s, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 maybe even 60 at a point.”
Good Move?
It will remain to be seen how much time Gutierrez plays and how much impact he will make when he does step on the field. At his best in 2018-19, Gutierrez was one of the more dynamic players in the league and filled several roles for SKC. As Vermes said, he can play any of the midfield spots or even on the front line. True for any older player under Vermes, he has to be ready to play an outside back spot as well.
While fans would understandably want to see a younger player brought in during this window, it is a low-cost, low-risk with the potential for a high-reward move. With Sporting KC oscillating between playing really well and shooting for the bottom of the table, an experienced Gutierrez may be just the help Vermes and his men need.
Late in a game when Sporting KC needs a little offense, Vermes will have an option. Now when he looks down the bench, he sees a goalie, a center-back, an aging midfielder with lots of bite but not a lot of offense, and a forward with low confidence. Gutierrez will give a veteran option that can create, score and fill a few spots in a pinch.
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I’ve been taking a hiatus from commenting, though still watching every game. But I just have to share my excitement about this one. My favorite SKC player since I began following the team in the mid 2000-teens. I know it’s somewhat irrational since it’s yet another PV veteran special and the team overall needs to emphasize younger players, but I just cannot make myself criticize this. How I hope he can recapture some of the magic he brought to the field in his first go-round!
I agree that he may be one of the best/most skilled players SKC has ever had. I love your enthusiasm. Mine is dampened by the likelihood that Hernandez, Duke, Cisneros and even Tzionis are going to be pushed farther down the depth chart. Adding more dudes over 30 to a team that’s struggling to get above the playoff line might get us there this year. But playing all these old dudes is just going to convince the younger guys to ask to leave next season. So another roster overhaul of young talent leaving and the oldest starting lineup in the league getting a year older, again.
Maybe this is successful and we make the playoffs AND make a deep run. If we don’t, things will just keep feeling older and staler. Ultimately I don’t love the move because of where we are on the table. If we were 4th or higher, I might love the move. So let’s see it PV. Make me love the move.
Oh, I hear you. I’m fully aware of the hypocrisy given my overall stance on Vermes and old vs. young players. Damn him for manipulating me like this!
Hey now, you have every right to fan boy as hard as you can for this move. If PV can’t do things the right way, at least he’s entertaining you.
KCOutsider, I can’t remember if you are aka Farmhand. If you are, your Booneville bridge video was great a couple weeks ago. Really enjoyed it.
Regarding Guti, I agree with everything everyone has commented. It’s exciting to have arguably the most talented player we’ve ever had in my time watching back on the roster. It’s a complete head scratcher from a development perspective. It’s a frustrating double down on old guys.
I will also say it continues to impress me how many players want to return to this organization. It may have it’s problems, but it’s seems to be a very solid place to work if you are soccer player.
Thanks! Great to hear it. That one really underperformed compared to what we expected. YouTube’s black-box algorithms can be maddening. Glad to hear someone liked it!
As to your last point, I suspect it’s a bimodal distribution. PV also seems to have run off a number of players. There’s a bit of confirmation bias in assessing only those players who have returned. That being said, I agree that the set of players praising KC as a play to place is real.
AKA Farmhand – you made me a book rec on the other summer sports site and I hadn’t seen you on there in awhile and I wanted to thank you. It was The Vapors about Hot Springs. Fun read. Thanks.
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the followup.
Outsider. You are right that it could be confirmation bias. You got the nerd in me going. So I spent my evening with some beer, data, and R.
Here was my method. I scraped roster information from FBRef.com for MLS for each year from 2023 to 2007, the earliest season available. I transformed any mention of the Wizards, Impact, and Dynamo FC into their current club names. I assumed correct name spelling. I did my best to correct for people with the same name, though there are surprisingly few of those in league history. There a few instances of the same name popping up a decade later in the league, but I couldn’t find an instance that happened on the same team, so affect on analysis is likely low. I wrote some algorithms for looking at non-consecutive years spent with a team. In theory this also pulls guys who bounced between first team and second team, but I did some sanity checking on names and I didn’t catch much of that.
Sporting is indeed near the top of teams with players that return since 2007. I’ve attached a scatter plot to demonstrate. Hopefully the pic attachment works. Obviously, newer teams are penalized a bit, so I also plotted it as a bar chart. I’ll try to reply to myself to attach that graph, but basically only Seattle and RSL have a higher rate of “recidivism” than SKC.
If anyone is interested in the data or code, I’ve posted in publicly at: https://github.com/evidoni/MLS-Return-Players
There’s some age data in there too. I think I might look at that next
That’s really cool, and very much piques my own inner nerd (if my wife, an R addict, were more into soccer she’d love this too).
I guess I still wonder how much this reflects a collective player willingness to return vs. a PV willingness to pursue them, and how much other noise there is. For example, Portland strikes me as a good place to play, and they’re two levels lower, but don’t suffer from recency bias (been in the league all but 2 years of your analysis period). Chicago has been trash most of the analysis period, and I can’t imagine is all that attractive, but comes in higher than Portland. Sample size is also small enough to be pretty easily confounded by one or two individual decisions.
It’s obviously much harder (impossible?) to do data analysis on why players don’t do something (return), so there’s no real way to empircally test my argument. Any sign of high turnover rates (e.g. players leaving) would be masked by the simultaneous long tenure and/or return of other players. Maybe your age analysis would find it? Though there are still so many other factors involved, like continuity in coaching/management, which SKC has but most other teams don’t.
I don’t doubt that SKC is an attractive place for many players, and it’s clear PV likes to bring back familiar faces. You’ve certainly shown evidence for one peak of my suggested bimodal distribution. But the suggested other peak is much harder to assess since it involves a near-infinite set of options (all the other teams to join) and personal feelings (e.g., did Jaylin Lindsey leave because he wanted to be in Charlotte or because he didn’t want to be in Kansas City?).
Thanks for diving into that and providing much food for thought!
You’re right, of course. Proving the null is pretty difficult when considering all the confounding factors. And I agree that PVs tenure makes this almost an anomalous exercise. Nevertheless, it was a fun exercise and happy to look at other data-driven questions in the future. Maybe your wife can get into soccer through data and R! Happy to take any critiques on my code from her.
This is very interesting. My memory will fail me, but it feels like it should be more players returning (unless I’m not understanding the criteria).
Off the top of my head:
Okay, I won’t lie, it started off the top of my head, then I cheated (https://www.thebluetestament.com/2021/12/23/22851837/can-you-really-go-home-again-sporting-kansas-city).
Ah the beauty of collaboration! Thank you for reminding me of this article, Chad. It helped me revise my code a bit, and I found an error in my logic. If I’ve corrected the problem, SKC actually has the second highest rate of return if we only count number of unique players. Before I was looking at total number of roster spots, I think.
Regarding your list, there’s an interesting conundrum in how FBRef lists players. Juliao, for example, has SKC listed twice in his player profile, but he only shows up once on the full league wages spreadsheet. I’m wondering if players don’t get listed on that who aren’t there at the end of the season. Thommy is on the 2022, so I’m assuming it’s an end-of-season wages spreadsheet
In any case
Felipe Gutierrez
Roger Espinoza
Uri Rosell
Kriztian Nemeth
Benny Feilhaber
Khiry Shelton
Igor Julio
Kei Kamara (maybe because it’s a loan we don’t count it?)
Lawrence Olum
Soony Saad
Amadou Dia
Sorry, that last post was submitted incompletely. Meant to say.
Ah the beauty of collaboration! Thank you for reminding me of this article, Chad. It helped me revise my code a bit, and I found an error in my logic. Our lists mostly match. I have ~5% (n=10 of 190 unique players) returning from 2007 through this year.
Relying on free FB Ref causes some problems that I think may be related to being on SEI, and not being on the roster at the end of the year. Not sure I can use this dataset if I ever do something like this again.
And actually, looking at my list for Seattle, I’m pretty sure the SEI or loan down to the 2s is further conflating the analysis. So I actually think SKC has the highest rate of return in the league.
As KCOutsider pointed out, so many confounding factors and no good way to look at the other side of turnover. Probably the greatest confounder is PV having a long tenure. So my point about SKC being a good place to play is probably unsubstantiated.
In any case, if anyone ever wants some data analysis, happy to look into it. I’m no Encyclopedia Kuhn, but playing with data is a fun hobby for me.
Late to the discussion, but I recall one of those anonymous player survey articles from a few years back. Vermes made the top five if both ‘managers I’d love to play for’ and ‘managers I’d hate to play for’ lists.
Not sure if that confirms or refutes any confirmation bias…
In fairness, he’s the same age as Pulido and younger than Johnny. We definitely rely on those two to perform
To me, it’s not just his age, but his injury history. It’s not clear he’s ever regained his form. It isn’t like he went away, kicked ass, then returned a few years older but the same dude. In fairness, we’ve had that worry about Pulido too and so far so good.
Edit: and just because PV relies on Johnny to perform doesn’t necessarily mean he should. I love JFR, but age is definitely catching up to him and he’s nowhere near the threat he used to be. That’s the worry with Gutierrez.
I wonder what this means for Espinoza’s minutes? Gutierrez an elite depth piece and he was easily our best player for a while. I am happy to see him back.
I think it does reduce Roger’s time a bit.
I’m somewhat wary of this. I was a huge Nemeth fan and was so excited to have him back, but he ultimately didn’t work out. Uri was a bust, Dia was a bust, and I think it’s clear what Khiry has become (to everyone expect PV). I really want this to work out, especially since he was so freaking good when he was here, but it feels like a patch job that’s going to saddle us with another aging veteran and further decrease our usage of younger guys. At this point, I’d rather we miss the playoffs and develop the (little) youth that we have rather than sign guys who used to be good in the hopes that they still have that quality.
Can’t wait to eat these words when we’re playing in the Western Conference Final 🤞🏼
I think you typed this comment at the same time as mine. Or were you reading my mind?
Coming back success happens here too! Roger came back and has been successful. And when Busio comes back then this list will double in size!
I understand the trepidation but Gutierrez has/had far more quality than the far too many re-treads we have had in the last while. I’m hopeful
Preki was the best reacquisition!
Honestly, I would be down for the return of Busio. I wanted him to go get experience overseas to develop into a legit national team player, but it seems like that may not be in the cards for him given the talent the USMNT has there. If he’s not going to develop into that kind of player, then by all means bring him back because he’s very good, still has some upside, and isn’t over 30 (something that can’t be said of a lot of our reacquisitions).
Unfortunately we sold him. So unless we get so bad we move to the top of the allocation order, we would have to trade with the worst team in order to sign him if he decided to come back to MLS.
The rule should be scrapped since soccer is a worldwide sport, but MLS is gonna MLS.
I too would take Busio back (and seemingly so would his teammates), but midfield has to be one of the lowest needs on this team right now. Assuming they can re-sign Kinda (he’s out of contract after the year), you have four starting quality guys in Kinda, Thommy, Walter and Radoja.
The biggest glaring needs are elsewhere (CF is Pulido leaves, RW because Johnny is sadly on the decline, CB always).
I always liked Guti. I don’t like the team getting older, but I think this is a good call. I’d like to see this push Thommy to the wing. Id be ok with a Guti, Kinda, Radoja or Guti, Walter, Radoja combo…both sound pretty awesome to me. Plus, we know that Kinda, Walter and Radoja works.
I’d like to see PV use (4) wingers each game. Start a pair and sub at 60 min. Next game, start the subs and then sub in the prior game starters at 60 min. SKC wingers run like crazy and having fresh legs there would really help. Truthfully, SKC should do the same thing with FBs too. That leaves one sub to give Pulido a break at the end of games.
Sigh…yeah, I’m wishing for PV to use his roster/subs effectively. After a decade + of disappointment, I should just give up on that dream. 🙂
I doubt that he ever gets into the rotating starters habit but hopefully, he will (and he has) use more subs routinely.
LOVED Felipe a couple of years ago. He was one of my favorite players. Glad to see him back but not expecting much from him this year. I hope to be pleasantly surprised
Oh good, more old “vets” to soak up valuable MLS minutes from any potential youngster.
thumbs up
This signing signifies who SKC is currently as a club and honestly puts a damper on who we could be. Right now we are a team relying almost solely on experienced veteran talent to see us through each season. “Experience” is great, but at some point, when you are on a team with a middle-of-the-pack budget, eventually you need to provide experience among younger players. At the moment PV is thinking short-term, not long-term. Makes sense, given his job is on the line, but his consistent short-term player additions have the team in transition every couple of years. I am sold on the fact that PV almost refuses to develop young players. Busio was a special talent that was always going to be great, Salloi had to fight his way into the squad, then was left off, then fought back into the squad, and Felipe, having gone through every single phase of the SKC system from the academy to first team, still can’t get a string of consistent minutes, even as a sub. One thing is clear here, there just isn’t a trust and/or commitment to the SKC pro-pipeline when it comes to the first team. We may lose a lot of promising young talent early (See: Rokas Puskas) if we don’t commit more first-team minutes at least some players coming through the academy.
Has Peter lost the dream (or goal) of fielding an entire starting XI with only homegrown players? Because it sure feels like that comment by him is getting harder and harder to believe still.
This is a good shout Jake (and good comment Josh). I was literally thinking of this very thing as I was reading through the above comments. They seem to further from a Starting XI of Homegrowns than closer to one.
Salloi is a locked in starter. Jake Davis has become one (out of position) because of injuries, but I could (wrongly) see Zusi taking it back when healthy. Then that’s it. Hernandez is the next closest to the field.
I talked to a guy in youth soccer in KC and he said Sporting KC don’t know how to develop players. They “steal” players from other local clubs (or outside territories, like their North Carolina pipeline that dried up after Charlotte FC entered the league or Michigan). But players come and they stagnate. Busio was a rare case. I’m hoping with Declan Jogi taking over, things will be different.
But Peter’s unwillingness to play the kids, is always going to hold them back. He simply doesn’t trust the young guys. I’m sure no one thinks Davis is a starter before he’s forced into the job because of injury. How many other guys are capable if given a chance?
Preach!
The problem with pinning our hopes on Jogi is that the academy has already been decent at development (the youth soccer guy isn’t wrong, but we’ve watched academy kids develop with the 2nd team with our own eyes). They only stagnate when they get to Peter. If they can somehow find their way to starting a string of games with the 1st team, they typically grow into the role. We’ve seen it with Busio, Davis, Jaylin, Hernandez, and Salloi. Unfortunately, the only way this happens is when injuries create a crisis or you have a generational talent…and an injury crisis. The waste of Cam Duke should be a criminal offense.
This move is why PV should not have two jobs. PV the coach can’t give up and should be trying to win. The technical director, on the other hand, should not. The TD should be trying to set us up for the future, not indulging the coach’s fetish for 35yo players. I love Guti. I hope he’s amazing. But what if he is? Is a 20 min like-for-like midfield sub going to make us a championship team?