OPINION: Blame Ownership, Not Vermes, for Sporting KC’s Failings

The 2024 season didn’t go as planned for Sporting Kansas City. Or 2022. Or 2019. Or 2023 really (though the expanded playoffs made it look a little better). The person taking the brunt of the blame for Sporting KC’s failings is Chief Soccer Officer and Manager, Peter Vermes. He has (or at least had) all the titles. He had ultimate say on the roster. He coached the games. It’s understandable.

However, I would argue, much of that anger is misplaced.

Don’t get me wrong, Vermes has his flaws. He doesn’t favor rotating his lineup, unless injuries force it upon him. He is often late to make substitutions, even when things aren’t going well, or players are showing obvious signs of fatigue. He is reluctant to adjust tactics mid-game because he has a plan and he sticks to it.

Historically, young players have struggled to get onto the field. (Would we have Jake Davis be coming into his own if not for injuries to Zusi, Pierre and a failed start by Cam Duke at right back?) And generally, Vermes feels very old school and seems reticent to fully embrace a more modern, analytical look at running a team.

If it only comes down to that list of foibles, then by all means, shout fire Vermes from the rooftop (I did a whole podcast about it).

While those reasons are likely not helping this team succeed, lack of investment in the roster is by far the larger problem. In modern soccer, it is obvious that money can buy wins. You have to spend it wisely of course, but you absolutely have to spend. Sporting KC have not spent.

Blame Ownership

In 2024, as Vermes has been under continued pressure for failing to deliver, his frustration started to leak through the cracks in the foundation that have been forming. It came out that Sporting KC have had not had a budget since the 2020 COVID season. No budget!! How do you run a business without a budget? How do you make a plan? How do you know who to sign? Do you keep someone you have, simply because you know you need bodies? It’s a real problem.

Being the company man that he is, Vermes didn’t come right out and say ownership has been cheap or stingy. He instead says, “we’re in the bottom, bottom, bottom third [of spending].” When he could just say they are at or near the bottom of the entire league. He could have been far blunter.

"We're in the bottom, bottom, bottom third. We need to be somewhere in the top middle third to the bottom of the top third. That's where we need to be and I think we have the ability to get there." – Peter Vermes on #SportingKC's budget pic.twitter.com/iPq1zF2iSX

— KC Soccer Journal (@KCSoccerJournal) July 3, 2024

To their credit, ownership has pledged to significantly raise the budget.

What does that mean? In an interview with the Kansas City Star, managing owner Mike Illig told Sam McDowell the team had spent $15 million in transfer fees over the past 16 years. Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda accounted for around $10 million of that and they came in the same offseason. Illig said they’ll “significantly” eclipse that mark in the next four years. Averaged out, their budget is more than double any prior budget.

Sporting KC are the only team not to pay a transfer fee in 2024 in all of Major League Soccer. That will stop this winter. In his first press conference in the week after the season ended, Vermes said they are committed to a ‘Pulido level‘ of spending on the fee and salary. On the low end, Pulido’s transfer fee has been listed at $6 million and his 2024 salary was $3.6 million. That is not insignificant.

But why did it take so long?

Even when Sporting KC were good, ownership may have been holding them back. Vermes has told the story a few times about having a Designated Player striker lined up in the summer of 2018. The team had a center forward of either Khiry Shelton (who had his best scoring season) or Diego Rubio from week to week. And despite not spending significantly, they were in first place.

Peter had a big-time player ready to come to the team. Fee agreed to. Personal terms worked out. But ownership said no. Saying something to the effect of, ‘We’re in first place, why would we do that?’ Vermes’ team had overperformed, and for that they were punished.

That season ended just short of an MLS Cup appearance. In a playoff format long ago abandoned, teams played home and away. Sporting KC went on the road and got a 0-0 draw against the Portland Timbers. Then, back at home a Sebastian Blanco golazo undid their season. Away goals meant the 1-1 game would eliminate SKC, so they pushed numbers up the field to try to win and gave up goals they otherwise would have likely defended, losing 2-3.

That close to an MLS Cup appearance. It’s hard to imagine a talented striker couldn’t have changed things.

Even that failure wasn’t enough, as ownership watched an abysmal 2019 season unfold before they finally injected money to get Pulido and Kinda. Then COVID hit and their star players, who had been dazzling through two games, didn’t play as soccer shut down.

Since that season, no transfer fee has been spent that would make a player a Designated Player (DP). That was five seasons ago! And it’s not like they haven’t tried. On a recent episode of Shades of Blue, KCSJ managing editor Thad Bell alluded to a story of a DP attacking midfielder being signed last offseason that I can concur I’ve heard as well. Fee agreed to. Personal terms reached. But ownership again said no.

This Idea Isn’t New

If you are thinking to yourself, “I’ve heard this before,” you aren’t wrong. We did a For the Glory KC podcast on this over the summer. The Shades of Blue guys did the same thing. Drew and Cody on Home and Away went deep on the subject a few weeks ago (ownership conversation starts at 45:50).

However, not everyone has hours to listen to podcasts.

Because those ideas are only getting to the most hardcore of fans, you can’t go anywhere on the internet without seeing “Fire Vermes” or #VermesOut. Underneath nearly every story that is written, whether it be in the comments, in reply to the Tweet or post on another social media site, someone is saying it. Sometimes many people. Ad nauseam. It feels like a new post is started daily on Reddit about firing Vermes. Any time the team announces anything, it’s followed with something about him being fired.

And it’s your right to say it. Heck, this story listed reasons why you may still want to have him fired!

However, this cannot be said more clearly, PETER VERMES IS NOT GETTING FIRED! Ownership told the KC Star as much in June. It seems clear to me that was an admission of their failures as an ownership group. They were asking Vermes to win soccer matches with chicken wire, duct tape and band aids holding the team together. When they’ve given him resources even relatively close to other teams in the league, he’s outperformed many of those clubs.

Not to mention, Vermes just completed the first year of a five-year extension. If they fired him now, they’d pay him four years for nothing. The same ownership group that hasn’t wanted to spend on players, isn’t going to pay two coaches at the same time.

Two Critical Quotes

After the second loss to LAFC, there was a lot of talk about mentality. When he was asked what needs to change, Vermes said, “Mentality. Mentality. The mentality has to change within the group.” As Thad Bell said on this very site, perhaps it’s a change in mentality from ownership that is needed. A change in philosophy around spending. You have to spend to win, a concept that came up again recently.

“We haven’t invested in players in a long time,” said Vermes in his last pre-match presser of the season.

Peter Vermes used the word "rebuild" when talking about the offseason. Something he almost never does.

Questions by @TheBackpost pic.twitter.com/cJb6Tq4f0v

— KC Soccer Journal (@KCSoccerJournal) October 22, 2024

All indications are that will be remedied this offseason. But don’t expect a change overnight. It’s pretty clear the entire team won’t be turned around in one offseason. That’s why Vermes is getting three more transfer windows along with his new Sporting Director, Mike Burns, to get things fixed.

Sporting KC’s Roster Overhaul May Not Come this Offseason

The Gavin Wilkinson Factor

Another place that ownership lost the trust of the fans was in the hiring of Gavin Wilkinson. It’s possible this was Vermes, but the way he was reluctant to talk about it from day one makes it feel like it was, at least partially, forced upon him. That’s simply my opinion.

At least the team did the right thing and moved on quickly from this mistake after eight days. But how far back did this set the team on fixing the roster and the spending? Burns wasn’t hired for months, and the summer transfer window came and went with only the slightest of whimpers.

Ownership spending doesn’t fix this mistake, but it’s a small step back on a long journey to re-earn the trust of many.

In Defense of Ownership

While it’s frustrating how things have gone for Sporting KC in the last few seasons, this ownership group deserves a ton of credit. One can never forget they saved this team from being relocated. They built a soccer specific stadium that became a model for many teams who built stadiums after them. And Sporting KC have been a massive success since the rebrand from the Kansas City Wizards.

They have built up a bunch of capital and good will. The last few years they’ve spent a bunch of that. Injecting money into the team will hopefully go a long way to fixing problems they’ve arguably brought upon themselves. If they do that, and Sporting KC still aren’t successful, we’ll see how ownership handles that going forward.

What is clear, is Peter Vermes is going to get a chance to fix it, whether you believe it’s his fault, ownership or something else.