Currently in Arizona for preseason training, Manager Peter Vermes and Sporting Kansas City find themselves in an unfamiliar position.
They enter the 2020 campaign as the hunter rather than the hunted, having missed the postseason last year for the first time in nearly a decade.
With a new season just around the corner, Vermes sat down with The Kansas City Star's Sam McDowell for a highly revealing conversation about the lengths Sporting has gone to ensure that the club will bounce back in 2020. Among the topics covered:
- Vermes' offseason message to Sporting's ownership about investing in players
- What went wrong last year and how the club's veteran core plans to prevent a repeat of 2019
- The acclimation of striker Alan Pulido and other newcomers
- The rapid development of Sporting's Academy products
- Major League Soccer's new collective bargaining agreement
- The keys to MLS continuing to improve its product on and off the pitch
- The Kansas City Chiefs' run to the Super Bowl title
Listen to the full discussion between Vermes and McDowell below.