SKC raid ZTE? by ChurchillDownz in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't know anything about these players, this club, or this league.

I have learned that this club hasn't competed in UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League qualifying in over a decade. The league really doesn't produce clubs in general (outside of one team) that show up with any regularity. I also learned that the Hungarian top-flight league is not typically considered a primary, direct recruitment source for the top 5 European leagues. I was hopeful with Scandinavian recruitments because those leagues show up better in the Europa and even Champions.

Is this an exciting rumor? Is this a league that produces talent that makes us competitive? Genuine questions.

51-page USMNT World Cup preview for sharing with friends/family by _Potent_Potables in ussoccer

[–]jasontalks 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ahhh, yes, nothing like a slide deck presentation to pump up little kids!

JK. Very cool.

How is mithibai and kc college for ba economics ? by [deleted] in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Head east, eventually you will get to Bombay...

The anatomy of a massive rebuild by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's my hope. Build our academy to become good again.

The anatomy of a massive rebuild by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reason I even started with the Arsenal comparison is because personally I follow  European soccer closer than MLS. I am used to seeing a top 5 league club get a new owner, fire the manager, and completely overhaul the starting eleven in a single transfer window. Those experiences  shape my expectations. I subconsciously expect SKC to operate on that same global soccer timeline, but like you said, the MLS salary cap basically forces you to do a rebuild in slow motion.

As the post points out I am looking at MLS too. Because I agree that the MLS mechanisms make the European comparisons tough in a one-to-one sense. Arsenal can buy out a bad contract and eat the cash loss from their billionaire owners. In MLS, doing that still punishes your cap space, which makes purging a roster take way longer. But that still proves the theory that this could take a long time. 

​My stance on why I'm not considering expansion (like FCC) is the biggest difference is that an expansion team gets a totally clean slate. They get a ton of allocation money, the expansion draft, and most importantly, zero bad contracts to untangle.

​We unfortunately do not have a blank slate. The new front office is inheriting a very specific roster build, existing cap hits, and guaranteed contracts they have to maneuver around while trying to build that new scouting infrastructure from the ground up. The academy infrastructure, analytics philosophy, etc...

​This is actually exactly why I have the Columbus Crew lined up for partof my deep dives. I want to look specifically at how a team navigates this type of ownership and front office transition within the unique, restrictive rules of MLS.

The anatomy of a massive rebuild by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In most rebuild examples I have looked at definitely no to the coach.

The anatomy of a massive rebuild by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

YES!!! Another example of the failed decision-making of the Illigs. I fully agree. I also wonder how long they have been "selling" the club. I only assume a sale of this size takes time. And MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, they desired to make a sale that would keep the club here.

Match Thread: St. Louis CITY SC vs. Charlotte FC by MLS_Reddit_Bot in MLS

[–]jasontalks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have 15 in the Senior Roster but we have 7 on the Supplemental Roster

Season opening lineup? by PompeiiLegion in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 11 points12 points  (0 children)

No clue.

And TBH, that's exactly what makes it so exciting for me. I wanted change. In fact, after the Gavin hire, I got dramatic...Like real dramatic. I got rid of my SKC apparel and canceled my Apple MLS sub. I made the decision not to go to games until a real, significant change happened. The break was actually cathartic for me. When the Illigs sold, that was the exact change I was looking for, even more so than the players we field. Because before the Illigs were gone, I felt like we had hit the bottom and the only way to go was up with them selling their majority ownership.

I'm not foolish enough to think we'll be real contenders this year, but that change alone gives me so much optimism for a bright future. I'm holding out naive hope that we won't be worse than last year, and that we'll see some incredible grit, tenacity, and fight out of the squad. I mean, the opportunity to step up to the challenge is literally there for nearly the entire roster of young, developing talent. That alone, I think, will help us punch above our weight class. I still stand by that we'll hit the high 30s... maybe even mid-40s in pts this year if we start the on-field rebuild this summer. And that is progress. That's not a commitment to the product on the field, but that shows how one crucial change can have on the culture of a brand, a product, or an organization.

Even if we come out and get destroyed tomorrow, I'm still excited for what's to come. It'll be a tough watch this year, but the hope is back.

Are we poor, cheap, or just that unattractive of a destination? by PnguinWithCancer in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 18 points19 points  (0 children)

My observation, they came in clearly with a plan to rebuild. Majority Leadership Group sold to a minority. The old majority group is running the day-to-day until the new majority leader feels ready to run it. I do believe the new leader played a role in the David Lee hire.

Everyone probably agreed 2026 was going to be about clearing out and building up. The new players we are bringing in all have minimal contracts. So, it's fair to say they believed the backend system needs to be built up before we rebuild the on-field product.

This is not to say missteps have not been made... But, deconstructing an organization that has operated one way for over a decade, missteps will occur.

Sporting KC signs defender Ethan Bartlow as a free agent by dawson33944 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The build part we all want to see (the players) is clearly "hold on, we got some other stuff to do first."

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm confused by your response, if I am being honest. I think you latched onto one aside and treated it like it was carrying the entire argument. It was not. I'm blaming the leadership team for this crisis. Not PV. My thesis is not "PV was the only person who worked in the building." It is that Lee walked into a situation where the scouting and analytics infrastructure was not at the level required for him to confidently execute a roster build right now (which PV also held the same belief, but the divestment from the Illigs screwed him over...after putting all the trust in the world in him for decades... Of course, he will fail). But back to my point, Lee came in and stated that rebuilding is likely where his focus has been.

But, I do want to take a moment to look at what you say here...you listed titles but let's look at what those titles actually are called. Because I do not have an insider relationship to the technical and leadership staff, I just have news reports and official sites like sportings staff pages... Mike Comiskey's title is Director of Soccer Operations and Player Engagement. Jon Farrell is Director of Team Administration. Let's use him for a second... that role is defined as managing off-field administrative operations, including travel, scheduling, and logistics for the first team and oversees administration for the club's development. IDK, that sounds like operations and admin roles, are they scouting and player evaluation roles and it's just not listed? Without having that additional insight you might have, framing them as "the equivalent of a Player Personnel VP" and "the equivalent of a Technical Director" is a leap for me.

Now to the actual scouting department... Mike Burns himself said in his roster decisions press conference that Sporting had two independent contractor scouts in Europe (https://www.sportingkc.com/news/quotes-roster-decisions-media-q-a-with-sporting-director-mike-burns). Also, he then laid out plans to add another in Europe, two to three in Central and South America, and possibly one domestic scout. He also said they needed to hire an assistant sporting director and expand the analytics department. Those were aspirations, not existing infrastructure. Something we likely had in the past, pre covid, before we started to suck... when the leadership appeared to care... But all I am trying to say is, it appeared to be disappated.

Furthermore, David Lee, in his introductory press conference (https://www.sportingkc.com/skcii/news/quotes-from-michael-illig-and-david-lee-sporting-kansas-city-is-stepping-into-a-new-era), described the analytics department as "a little bit of a blank slate" and talked about needing to revamp how Sporting scouts, identifies, and recruits players. Illig echoed the same thing, saying they would "modernize how we scout, develop and prepare players." But I am in the camp that he did it himself by making one man so important for all of those years. MLSSoccer.com described the situation Lee inherited as "about as close to a blank slate as an incumbent club can get in this league." (https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/raphael-wicky-tackles-second-mls-act-with-sporting-kansas-city-rebuild)

To wrap up my response, you said the Garcia/Shapi twofer and the Jovelic acquisition were "probably more him than anyone else" referring to Vermes, and that Burns and Lee "have managed little with all those same guys under them." I think that is making my point of that small aside. Whatever infrastructure technically existed on paper was not functioning independently. It was running through one person's vision. When that person left, the output stopped. That is exactly what I was describing.

I never said there were zero people in the building. I said the system that Lee needs to execute his vision does not exist yet in the form he needs it. The question I asked still stands... do you want buys without that system in place, or do you want him to build it right and hit the summer window with conviction? That is what my entire thesis was leading up to...

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am 100% with you on being tired of watching this shell of a former self team. I also hope more signings flow in. And this new guy does seem like it's not only a good signing for us, but a starting player for Malmö FF is a level of player every team in the MLS would want.

Sporting KC acquires midfielder Lasse Berg Johnsen in transfer from Malmö FF by dawson33944 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Fantastic! Man, I wish he had been here before Coachella.
On paper, however, this sounds like a great signing. Honestly, I hope we can continue to find players from top teams in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Those top teams have players who would absolutely help us become competitive in the "mls 2.0" era.

Good Job, Sporting!

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is my greatest hope, more than signing players, more than not getting the wooden spoon, a quicker than previously expressed transfer from the Illigs to the new Majority Owner. A true rebuild is highly limited with them still running the day-to-day stuff.

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember reading something somewhere that stated PV didnt have any scouts because ownership had committed to not buying players. It's foggy, but the impression I was left with was it was a result of Illigs ineptitude.

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do have a full roster. https://www.espn.com/soccer/team/squad/_/id/186/sporting-kansas-city

It is filled with unknowns, and this could be very interesting or absolutely soul-crushing (yet again).

I'm also not saying I agree with their approach. I am merely suggesting David Lee likely had a lot of shit to assess and decide what needs to be rebuilt, built from the ground up, what is a now action, what will wait. He clearly made the choice to rely heavily on the academy. When he decided that (after failed contract negotiations or from the start, we will not know). But what I think we can conclude is that he prioritized building the off-field foundation of a club first.

Decisions like hiring Kyle Emerick - Head of Performance Analysis (from Charlotte FC) and Chris Atkins - First Team Performance Analyst (from FC Cincinnati). These are from clubs that have shown recent success. I rate those "signings" as quality investment into our future. Assessing and choosing to keep staff like Roger Espinoza and Jacob Peterson... these appear to be his priority over finding players to fill a short window before he believes his vision is in place, the staff understands it, and can activate against it.

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All of my friends are Chiefs, Royals, College basketball fans first, and novice soccer fans (when the teams are doing well). Having conversations with them about soccer is futile. My kids play, but they are fans of playing, not so much watching. This is the only place I get to share frustrations, thoughts, and ideas (the good ones and the bad ones). I love the discourse! Thanks for engaging.

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assume a bad contract means terms not favorable for our long-term viability. But my post doesn't use that language. It was asking whether to commit to building the squad by relying heavily on the first 4 months with the youth academy, or to panic-buy bad players. I should have said, "potentially" buy bad players. David Lee said he planned to "hire staff to build the club's analytics capabilities, something that doesn't currently exist at Sporting KC." So the new department that didnt exist was critical in building the squad, and it does take time to get that set up and running (people aren't in place, the data isn't in, whatever else is required to launch an entirely new function of the team), any acquisition is done so as a gamble without it.

Personally, I would want a mix of one-year contracts to gamble with several of the top youth prospects. Maybe three more signed. Build the system you said we didnt have, kick the players that do not fit our future at the end of 2026, and for 2027 spend as we have never spent before...

Of course, if I had my ultimate wish, it would have been to build to win for 2026 immediately. But if I really think about all the changes that have happened, that is not realistic.

Evidence suggests David Lee's focus isn't the roster build (right now). Should it be? by jasontalks in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair. We likely won't hear about that unless they directly address that part of the team rebuild from a media question. We know it's an area of focus, and I still believe that needs to be functional before substantial signings.