A Postmortem on Sporting’s Summer Transfer Window

Wednesday evening the MLS transfer window closed, for Sporting KC it ended in disappointment for most fans with the club not able to get a marquee signing over the line to close the window. Kansas City’s final two weeks of the summer transfer window turned what had been a solid, if unspectacular window into a bad window for the club.

Before we focus on those two weeks, let’s see what Sporting did this window before the final two weeks blew up the transfer window for the club, because the club added seven new players to the team this summer, five of them are expected to be main contributors for the club.

Or Blorian
First, before the window even opened the club already looked to improve their defense, as they signed Israeli defender, Or Blorian, to a pre-contract all the way back in February. KC tried to get him in during the primary window, but were unable to reach a deal with Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who at the time were chasing the Israeli Premier League title. Blorian arrived in KC during the World Cup break. He’s played in six of Kansas City’s eight games, all of them starts. At this point he’s been a consistent MLS starter for the club and been a step up from where the defense was before the World Cup.

Emir Karic
The club’s second signing of the summer was also announced before the transfer window officially opened as Karic came in as a new left back for the club from Austrian club, Sturm Graz. Karic actually leads the club’s new additions in appearances (eight), starts (seven), and minutes (635).

Moises Mosquera
The club finished their early part of summer shopping before the window opened as Mosquera was also announced before the window officially opened. Mosquera joined the club on a transfer from FC Juarez in Liga MX. Of KC’s three new defenders, Mosquera looks to be the best of the three based on early returns, though his red card in only his second start and third game gave off some frustration, his physicality is something that Sporting has lacked on their roster this season.

The trio have seemed helped the defense seem to solidify, though it’s not helped with results or with conceding goals. The club has just one win since the restart of play from the World Cup break and has conceded 18 goals in those eight games, a goals per game average of 2.25, which is only .25 GPG better than their GPG over the first 14 games of the league season.

After those three players were added, rumors were the main point of focus for much of the rest of the transfer window with the likes of Andre Luiz, Yann Gboho, and the big spending on Mohamed Salah all being linked with a move to Kansas City. Combine that with the reports that Peter Mallouk was wanting to move the club into the DP model, 3 DPs, 3 U22s and it led to excitement of what was to come for Kansas City in the rest of the transfer window, even though the club ended up not signing Salah.

Then the final two weeks of the transfer window started and things got busy. Sporting KC mutually parted ways with midfielder, and Designated Player (DP), Manu Garcia. A few days later, the club received a cashfer trade from the Seattle Sounders for another of their DPs, Dejan Joveljic. In the middle of this KC acquired DP, Andre Luiz and U22 player, Owen Wolff.

Andre Luiz
Kansas City’s newest (and now only) DP, the club’s record signing from Olympiacos only made his debut last weekend as a substitute against the Vancouver Whitecaps playing 24 minutes. The hope is that him combined with Capita Capemba on the opposite wing will give Kansas City the transition attack that they’re wanting and needing from their wings.

Owen Wolff
Kansas City set a league record for a cashfer for a U22 initiative player when they acquired Wolff from Austin FC. $4.5 million with the potential for $3.1 million more. Wolff has yet to debut for the club as he recovers from an ankle injury.

At his availability last week, Sporting’s Chief Soccer Officer (CSO), David Lee, said the club was going to be aggressive in the final week of the transfer window, but not be irresponsible. Lee had said the club would focus on attacking positions in the final days to attempt to improve the team. Stating that they are trying to take the team and make quantum leaps in their competitive level. But continuing that if it meant some short term sacrifice for the medium and long term sustainable success, that is what the team would do.

Based on how the window ended, the team is going to have some short term sacrifices for the long term success. On deadline day there was no big deal to bring in a DP, or high level player. Instead Sporting made two moves to acquire players from within the league on loans through the end of the 2027 sprint season. The two teenagers are homegrowns Ruben Ramos Jr. from the LA Galaxy and Seymour Reid from New York City FC.

Ruben Ramos Jr.
Ramos has played most of his career with the LA Galaxy’s second team. He’s scored 16 goals in 50 appearances for Ventura County FC in his career. His time in MLS has been limited just fourteen appearances, 306 minutes, and a goal.

Seymour Reid
Like Ramos, Reid’s found success with New York City FC’s second team in MLS Next Pro, scoring 15 goals in 22 appearances. Again like Ramos though he’s not gotten much time with the first team, appearing in 21 games, but totally just 180 minutes, scoring one goal.

In his media availability after the window closed, Lee said they were active up until the window closed, but knowing their plans and the fact that any foreign DP brought in would be likely to get just eight to nine games, they had to fit into the club’s long term plan. Lee said that the risk for the players that they were looking at was too how because it’d reduce their flexibility and to use DP slots in the future.

It’s a tough idea to swallow for a lot of KC fans who have heard words similar to those brought up by Lee from the previous regime where the three transfer windows and issues adding people in the winter window from Europe, or integrating a new signing midseason in the summer window. Meanwhile the team continues to trend down in the table and get results on the field, looking set to miss the playoffs for a club record, third straight season. At the same time look set to finish the bottom of the league for the first time in the club’s history while setting league records for futility.

It’s hard to see Lee’s point of view that overall the team has improved from where they were when the summer window began. The team has struggled with ball progress up the field and added just Luiz and Wolff this summer that would be considered known options that help contribute to that. Meanwhile the defense, while improved isn’t markedly better statistically than the one that took the field before the World Cup. And while Taylor Calheira was one of the leading scorers in the USL Championship this year, he’s yet to find the net this year, and of KC’s other attackers, they have eight goals (Calvin Harris 3, Stephen Afrifa 2, Capemba 2, Shapi Suleymanov 1), the same total Joveljic had for the club before he moved to Seattle. Maybe the defense will shape up as Blorian and Mosquera get more comfortable as a center back pairing, maybe Luiz and Capemba on the wings together will help unlock Calheira as a scoring option for the club, maybe one of Ramos and Reid will have a break out run to close the season and continue it in the sprint season. That’s a lot of maybes while at the same time feeling like there aren’t a lot of things around this team that can be relied on that are positive.

The team has a lot of work to do to win back fans who are losing interest and losing hope in seeing improvement. And while the summer transfer window started decently, ending it with the thud that was yesterday, I can’t blame fans.