We have spent the last two weeks anxiously twiddling our thumbs waiting for the official announcement of two transfers from Greece, and little did we know that another transaction was brewing that was going to subvert them both from right here in MLS.  Sporting Kansas City became the very first club to use the league’s new cash for trades system, acquiring Center Forward Dejan Joveljic from the LA Galaxy for $4M and signing him to a new Designated Player contract that will keep him in Kansas City for at least the next 3 years.  This move came as somewhat of a shock to SKC fans as it went from a somewhat throwaway comment by Tom Bogert on Thursday’s Soccerwise episode to a done deal Saturday evening.  There is a lot to like about Joveljic and the concept of SKC locking up a DP#9 for the foreseeable future, but it does raise questions about William Agada’s standing with the team and his future in KC.

We did get more good news just 36 hours later as the reported transfers of Manu Garcia and Shapi Suleymanov from Aris Thessaloniki in Greece were officially announced on Monday morning.  Sporting KC has now both a DP 9&10 signed, laying out reportedly around $9M to do so, as well as adding more attacking depth with Suleymanov.  While there is still opportunity to improve the roster further, and some reasonable questions as to how quickly these changes will yield positive results, it is certainly safe to say that SKC is making moves to try to move forward from a fairly dour 2024 season.

With the addition of Garcia, we can finally start to look at how the midfield may operate in 2025 including the depth chart and likely roles within the tactical structure.  Midfield control was area of significant concern in 2024, and while the addition of Garcia will certainly help raise the level of the midfield in general, there is still some discussion about how to employ these players effectively to both enable positive chance creation while eliminating opponents’ opportunities for attacking transition events.  We’ll discuss what we expect this midfield to look like and how Peter Vermes and Co may go about addressing what should be a significant area of focus this season.

Finally, we will take a quick look at my favorite MLS release of the year, the updated roster rules.  Now, I promise not to spend 20 minutes talking about how to manipulate the rules to maximize the amount of GAM you can receive or what this new 31st slot on the roster means.  But we will cover a couple items of note that are of consequence to Sporting KC.