Then there’s the matter of the wider generational shift in Kansas City. The core of the squad that won an MLS Cup, thrived in the Open Cup and even made noise in Concacaf Champions League has aged. According to Transfermarkt, Sporting have fielded seven of the 10 oldest starting lineups in MLS so far this season, and mobility has been an issue in key areas of the pitch.
A carefully-built long-term academy-driven player development project has drawn plaudits, but isn’t yet producing reliable contributors on the scale of comparable counterparts like FC Dallas and the Philadelphia Union. As aggressively as SKC have scouted both regionally and nationally, turning up talents like USMNT midfielder Gianluca Busio (sold last summer to Italy’s Venezia) and now-Charlotte FC fullback Jaylin Lindsey, their homegrown pipeline still hasn’t reached the desired level of consistency, and Vermes cites the realities imposed by MLS’s system of homegrown catchment territories.
“No. No, I don’t,” he said when asked if believes that undertaking is on track. “Infrastructure, staff and all the things that go around it are great. Where the difference is, is that we just don’t have a fertile [homegrown] territory. And so the fact that we’re really landlocked by first, our territory, and then we’re unable to go into the most fertile territories, which are the East and West coasts, pretty much. It doesn’t allow us to get to a larger pool of players.
“I’m a big believer that it needs to change. If it was up to me, I would say just open up the territories completely, and let everybody fend for themselves, like most everybody does around the rest of the world.”
It’s an idea shared by several other development-centered clubs. Despite sustained difficulties in reaching wider agreement on adjustments to the regulations, Vermes remains hopeful of change.
“It’s probably half the teams in the league would say, ‘hey, let’s open everything up.’ And another half would say, ‘I don’t want anybody to come into my area, because I got all these kids now,’” he said.
“There’s a plethora of kids in those East and West coasts,” contended Vermes. “There’s more than enough for everybody to participate. And I think the objective is [to] get the best kids in MLS academies, and let’s go from there. And I am here to say that I don’t necessarily think that we’re doing that all over the place.”
