Blue Notes: Vermes on Being on the Hot Seat; Plus Sporting KC Sign a 21-Year-Old Winger

After the disaster against the Portland Timbers on Saturday, the talk of Peter Vermes being on the hot seat has... heated up. Sporting Kansas City are last in Major League Soccer on points per game and it’s been a very tough season, to say the least. Going into Tuesday’s press conference it felt like a question needed to be asked about the #FireVermes “movement.”

Now, it’s not the first time people have made their desires known. Even when things are pretty dang good, there are people wanting the coach, front office and seemingly most players fired. I even had a Seattle Sounders fan reach out and say there are a “crazy pants” minority who want Brian Schmetzer fired and they were the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions League and that literally just happened.

However, this feels different. Loud enough that it can’t be ignored. The comments on this very site, comments that are for the most part very rational, have grown to include more and more #VermesOut posts. Even from people who have defended PV in the past. I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d be the first to ask since I rarely get the first question, but I was. Below is my question and Peter’s response.

The Blue Testament: “Obviously when teams have rough games like the one you guys experienced this weekend fans and pundits will sometimes call for coaching and front office changes. Do you hear that sort of talk and how do you tune out the noise and stay focused on the task at hand?

Vermes: So um... I’ve been here now, I think this is going to be my 14th year coaching the team. I think that length of time doesn’t mean anything, what I do think is your results and what you’ve done, I think those speak for themselves. As far as what people want, that’s great that they have those opinions, they can have those. For me, I don’t really... I mean, you bringing it up to me... I don’t know about it. Nobody's asked me. You’re the first one that’s brought that to my attention.”

“I focus on my job and try to do my job everyday. I’ve been in this job a long time and I know the ups and downs of it. And I only know one thing. I have to continue to try and do the best job that I can and so do the staff and the players.”

The responses to my Tweet were all over the place, but this was my favorite:

I think if you listen to the audio, my voice sounds less confident than usual. But as far as Peter not knowing, I’m not sure how to take it. Of course he isn’t on Twitter, or Reddit, Facebook or, sadly, The Blue Testament. The internet (not this site of course) can be a toxic place and if I had any level of fame, I wouldn’t want to see the horrible things people write about me.

That said, Peter is no dummy. While his job may not be in imminent danger because of his track record, when teams are near the bottom of the league and having seasons like Kansas City are having, you can’t be oblivious that people are unhappy. More so than the regular amount of unhappiness the general population and in particular sports fans carry.

I’ll be interested to see this situation evolves based on the play of the team in the coming days, weeks and months.

Sporting KC Sign Julian Vazquez

On Tuesday, as was alluded to in our weekly injury update, SKC made a signing. 21-year-old winger Julian Vazquez is coming up on a short-term loan to the first team. It’s a new mechanism in place that allows MLS teams to acquire players on loan from their MLS NEXT Pro affiliate.

A club may sign a player, age 25 or younger during the league season, from its affiliate (MLS NEXT Pro / USL) to a maximum of four Short-Term Agreements (up to four-day contracts) each season (maximum of 16 days).

An individual player may be included on up to four MLS league season match rosters each season, however, that player may appear in no more than two MLS league season matches. An individual player may appear in any number of non-league games during the terms of his four Short-Term Agreements.

A club may roster up to four players on Short-Term Agreements per MLS league season match, so long as they are Homegrown Players or Players earning less than or equal to the MLS Senior Minimum Salary ($84,000) with the affiliate. This number will be reduced to one player per MLS league season match after Roster Freeze (inclusive of MLS Cup Playoffs). Additional players may also be signed to Short-Term Agreements for MLS league season games but only in cases of Extreme Hardship.

International Player limits still apply to Short-Term Agreements, excluding callups for cases of Extreme Hardship.

Vazquez has started every game for SKC II this season and performed well. He has two goals and three assists, primarily lining up on the left wing. He is a product of the Real Salt Lake Academy and joined Sporting KC II this season. He previously signed as a RSL Homegrown back in 2018. He mostly played for their then USL Championship side, the Real Monarchs but spent the last two seasons with the USL’s Las Vegas Lights. He’s also appeared for the Mexican U18s and U20s.

Quick Links

• Kortne Ford spoke with the media today as well. I recommend listening as there is some good insight on his prior injury, which was minor but the procedure led to future procedures and nearly two years missed.
• Reactions as Sporting KC are thrashed by the Timbers
• If you’ve missed the offseason, this is a nice analytics based preview of the Kansas City Current
• Messi to Inter Miami isn’t happening quite yet.
• Sporting KC fall to last in the Power Rankings
• Transfermarkt does an interesting piece on the rising value of MLS players. Snuck in the middle is that Daniel Salloi and Alan Pulido are still two of the highest valued players, which is intriguing considering 2022 so far.

TBT Stories

It was a busy day on Tuesday, so in case you missed it, we’ve got a lot on The Blue Testament you should check out:

• The Intracacies and Complications of a “Quick” Rebuild
• Shades of Blue: Where do we go from here?
• The 2022 Sporting KC Salaries are out!
• Another poor Injury Update for SKC and Subsequent Lineup Predictions