If Roster Rules Didn’t Exist, Who Would You Keep on Sporting KC?

For the Glory KC is back with the 96th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City didn’t lose this week. Of course, they didn’t play either. However, they did make some news. They finally made a signing, basically their first “big” signing of the year. We technically don’t know how much new center back Joaquin Fernandez is making, but I’d guess he’s on a Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) deal which is more than the four minimum contract guys that were signed in the offseason. It may be less, but it won’t be the minimum.

After making guesses how Joaquin will fit in, Sheena and I took a listener question and basically did an entire podcast about it. If we didn’t have to follow any roster rules and could ignore contract lengths, who would we actually keep on this team?

@PlayFor90, @FortheGloryKC If you had the ability to clean house with the current SKC team (ignoring roster rules and contracts), who would you actually keep on the team?

— Natalie Charron (@NatalieCharron) June 3, 2024

We didn’t go through every single player on the roster, but we hit the vast majority of it. There were definitely a few surprised decisions and a few super on brand for us.

It’s an interesting exercise because it reminds you it’s hard to let go. There are only four players fully out of contract after the season and there was an argument to keep all but one of them in some capacity (though I personally took a harder stance).

Then most of the players that Sheena and I agreed we should move on from if the roster rules and contracts didn’t apply, aren’t out of contract and can’t really be moved on from at all without a trade, transfer or the use of the single buyout. In other words, the 2025 edition of Sporting KC will probably look a lot like the 2024 version. It’s important the changes that are made, are done to perfection.

The rebuild for Sporting KC may be long and hard.

Thankfully, we have the KC Current to lift us up in these dire times. They played in The Women’s Cup this week and won the whole dang thing, lifting the first trophy in club history. Shame so little of you saw it, unless you happened to own a Vizio TV. Seriously, the channel was only available on a specific brand of TV in the United States. Wild choice by the organizers of this competition.

In addition to the two wins, we give the tiniest insights on new KC Current signing Jereko and where she may fit in.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

• FIFA Fan Fest coming to KC in 2026
• Sporting KC’s Academy rankings (eek!)
• A few KC Current transactions
• And potential new USMNT coach, Mauricio Pochettino

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

• Sporting KC finally make a signing – 5:29
• No rules Sporting KC fantasy GM – 20:59
  • Definitely Staying – 22:07
  • Definitely Going – 33:37
  • A lot of Maybe/Conditionals – 54:08
• KC Current win two more! – 1:11:29
• KC Current make another signing – 1:24:46
• Digital Crawl – 1:27:21

Upcoming Schedule:

• SKC II vs. Austin FC II, Sunday, August 18th @ 6:00PM 
• Sporting KC vs. Orlando City, Saturday, August 24th @ 7:30PM
  • US Open Cup the following Tuesday
• KC Current AT Washington Spirit, Sunday, August 25th @ 11:00AM
• SKC II have next weekend off

We recently turned on “Listener Support.” Don’t feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we’d appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they’ll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

You can find For the Glory KC wherever you get your podcasts. Search “For the Glory KC” and be sure to subscribe! Here are some helpful links:

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