How Have Sporting KC’s Summer Transfer Signings done?

In the near future, Sporting Kansas City look set to announce the addition of two new attackers to the team in an attempt to help turn around what has been a disappointing 2022 MLS season. With the additions of Erik Thommy (deep dive) and William Agada (closer look) looking like they’re coming I started thinking about Kansas City’s usual business in the summer transfer window.

Normally, among Kansas City fans, the feeling has been that Peter Vermes doesn’t utilize the summer window to reinforce the roster for the current season. The feeling tends to be that the additions in the summer are usually to supplement the existing team or to build towards the next season. In 2022 though Kansas City find themselves in a position where they need to improve the roster in the summer to push to a better position this season.

With that in mind what I decided to do is take a look at how Sporting has added to their roster in the summer transfer window since Vermes has taken over the team. Since Vermes took over as full-time head coach ahead of the 2010 season, he has signed thirty-two players in the summer transfer window or ahead of the MLS roster freeze.

Of the thirty-two players signed there were some who were able to make an immediate contribution to the team, players like Luis Martins and Jorge Claros, but at the same time you have those whose contribution was focused on the future like Oriol Rosell, Tim Melia, or Jimmy Medranda. Then you had those who wouldn’t actually contribute to the play on the field like Michael Kafari and Scott Angevine.

So, who contributed the most of Vermes summer signings? In the end I’ll leave that to you, but to help you figure that out I’ll give you the stats for the players who signed with the club in the summer and how they contributed in that first season.

In league play, two players made ten appearances for Kansas City after being signed. Those two were Cristian Lobato in 2017 and Luis Martins in 2019. Lobato was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades for Kansas City, plugging in in a number of positions for Kansas City in 2017 to help the team out. Martins on the other hand became the left back that finally displaced Seth Sinovic at left back for Kansas City taking over the position and being able to hold onto it.

After those two, a trio of players made nine appearances for Kansas City after being acquired, Jeferson in 2011, Krisztian Nemeth in 2018 and Jose Mauri in 2021.

In all competitions it is actually Jorge Claros who leads the way in terms of games played, making twelve appearances for KC in 2014 after signing with the club. After Claros it is a tie with eleven for both Jeferson and Lobato, with Nemeth and Mauri behind them with ten each.

When it comes to starts in league play, it is again Martins who leads the way, starting nine of the ten games he played for Kansas City in 2019. Second on that list is a tie between the on loan Designated Player, Jeferson in 2011 and Mauri in 2021 who both started eight games.

In all competitions it is again Martins who leads the way with nine starts across all competitions. He’s followed by the trio of Jeferson, Claros, and Mauri with eight and then Lobato behind them with seven starts in all competitions.

In terms of minutes played, the most minutes played in league play since Vermes took over goes to Martins who played 829 minutes for Kansas City after being acquired in 2019. The next most was Mauri who played 606 minutes.

The part that may not fill a lot of Kansas City fans with hope is the goal scoring of players acquired in the summer transfer window. Of the thirty-two players that have been acquired by Kansas City under Vermes in the summer transfer window, only five players have scored goals in league play in that half a season, with a sixth player scoring in all competitions. Of those five players (six in all competitions), none scored more than a single goal for Kansas City between their signing and the end of the season. Same with assists where four players recorded an assist, but none more than one.

As I looked at the numbers, I did realize that just looking at the number of games played, started, minutes played wasn’t necessarily a fair comparison because players are signed at various times over the summer ahead of the transfer window closing and MLS’s roster freeze. So, what I did instead was look at when the players were signed and looked at the percentage of games/starts/minutes played for which they were available. This way it’s a fairer comparison for a player like Nemeth who was acquired in August and didn’t have the chance to play in as many games as Claros who was signed in early July.

When looking at the percentage of games played you have Martins leading the way having played 83 percent of the available league games from when he was acquired. Other players that played over half of the available games after they were acquired were Nemeth (75%), Lobato (62.5%), Jeferson (60%), Jordi Quintilla (57%) and Mauri (52.94%). When thinking about the number of players to play over fifty percent of games, it’s only six of the thirty-two players that have reached that mark, just nineteen percent of the players acquired in the summer transfer window were that involved.

Looking at the percentage of games started drops that number even further. In all league play only two players started over half the games they were available for after being acquired: Martins (75%) and Jeferson (53.33%). And when you get to the percentage of minutes played, it is even lower with only Martins playing more than half of the available minutes he was available for (76.76%).

In all competitions the numbers are fairly similar though some of the names change. Thanks to the CONCACAF Champions League in 2014, Claros played in over half the available games in all competitions, playing in almost 55% of the games that year after being brought in. He replaced Mauri on the list as Mauri only played 45% of the available games in all competitions. The other five over fifty percent at the same as they were in league play with the percentage changing a bit; Martins (83.33%), Nemeth (62.5%) Jeferson (61%), Lobato (55%), and Quintilla (52.94%). The games started and minutes played percentage, though, has just one player who started over half his available game and played half the available minutes, and that’s Martins (75% of starts, 76.76% of minutes played).

When you look at all these numbers, it’s clear that Kansas City under Peter Vermes hasn’t maybe used the summer transfer window to the extent that they could, to improve the team that year down the stretch. They’ve certainly brought in players who would contribute as years go by with the likes of Gianluca Busio, Oriol Rosell, Jimmy Medranda, Andreu Fontas, and others.

The thing to remember at the same time is that most of Sporting’s years under Vermes have involved the team being in a position of strength in the league. Vermes has regularly shown he prefers to utilize the primary transfer window to bring in players to allow them to integrate with the team. Fans in years past have wanted more activity in the summer window, to address it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the player that is near the top of all the different categories (Luis Martins) came in during a year when Kansas City was outside the race for the playoffs.

This year the expectation for the upcoming signings of Thommy and Agada would seem to be similar, that those two will be more involved over the final half of the MLS regular season and any potential games in other competitions. Overall, though, throughout Vermes’ tenure as manager of Sporting, their moves during the summer transfer window have regularly not been key contributors over the final stretch of the season.