What does the future hold for Sporting Kansas City? | OneFootball

By MLSsoccer staff

Sporting Kansas City: What follows the Peter Vermes era?

After mutually parting ways with legendary manager Peter Vermes, Sporting Kansas City are in uncharted territory.

Vermes wasn't just a club legend and the longest-tenured manager in MLS. He also oversaw the organization's rise to a Western Conference power, influencing countless decisions on and off the field.

But after a prolonged downturn in results, club brass are charting the course for a new era.

"You cannot talk about Kansas City or Major League Soccer without pointing to that success story," Andrew Wiebe said on This is MLS. "Because it trickled down to a myriad of other clubs who visited the stadium, who visited the facilities, who looked at the sporting patterns that Kansas City and Peter Vermes put in place and said, ‘We want to emulate that.’ But in the end, it just stopped clicking the last few years.

"They have not done this before. Peter was the sun in the universe. Sporting Kansas City has to create a new sporting universe."

Although filling Vermes' shoes won't be easy, Taylor Twellman sees an infrastructure and fanbase that will make the vacancy highly attractive for prospective candidates.

"I would be shocked if their phone is not ringing off the hook," Twellman said. "Because I think the $100 million training facility, the academy, the stadium – the ability to redo, change certain things for Sporting Kansas City – there’s going to be a lot of managers that want that job."

While they commence the hunt for their new manager, longtime assistant coach Kerry Zavagnin takes over on an interim basis. In the meantime, Maurice Edu cautioned that the club is entering a period of pronounced uncertainty.

"I think the fans are a group that you need to speak to in this conversation as well, because sometimes you get that new manager bounce and you get results straight away," Edu said. "But for a firing like this, where Peter Vermes meant so much to everything about this organization, I think fans definitely have to temper their expectations because this is not just a quick re-instate someone else and the grass is greener type-scenario.

"...The easiest part sometimes in these scenarios is firing the manager. The hardest part is finding the replacement."