Hans Backe and New York are on the brink of disaster. (Getty Images)

It has been a while since I last updated my coaching hot seat post. In fact I don’t believe I’ve updated it since Carlos de los Cobos was about to be let go in the Windy city earlier this summer.

There really shouldn’t be too many surprising names on this list below. Some are on it due to the league passing them by in terms of how things are structured now. Others are on here because their owners don’t put enough behind them to help them out. And then there are those that had such high expectations placed upon them at the start of the season.

1. Hans Backe (New York Red Bulls) – In New York, the coaching carousel goes and goes. Backe is really the first coach in a long while to last more than a year with this club and it seems as though two years may be all he will get if this club doesn’t start winning. His offense is fine but he hasn’t been able to put together a solid enough defense over the last year and a half to really make things worthwhile. If things don’t change in a hurry with this club they could somehow miss the playoff this season. It’s hard to believe that this club, with so much promise and talent, could miss the playoffs. Remember when Backe was talking about how important things like the Supporter’s Shield were at the start of the year? Seems like a distance memory now.

2. Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes) – This falls into a two prong kind of thing for me. For one, he and GM John Doyle probably need to go if this club fails to reach the playoffs this year. And two, this club needs a restart in a bad way. Yallop hasn’t had true success in this league since 2003, when times were drastically different and the competition was very thin. The club barely reached the playoffs last year and had it not been for a shocking win in New York and a crazy goal-scoring run by Chris Wondolowski, the team likely wouldn’t have had any hype going into this season. Injuries have played a part of this season for the Quakes for sure but at some point its also coming down to coaching. The club didn’t make any splash going into the season and waited until their season looked to be on the brink of a collapse before they made a move this summer. They’re still in the hunt for the playoffs but just barely. Things need to change regardless though in San Jose.

3. Steve Nicol (New England Revolution) – One of those where the league has passed him by a bit and his owners fail to pour any money into this club to help him out. I think we’re seeing more and more how important it was for Nicol to have Paul Mariner by his side too. Since Mariner left a couple years ago the Revs have been in nothing but a declining position. I bring it up because I see some of the moves Toronto is making right now and they clearly have Mariner’s finger prints on them.

But back to Nicol, he’s a great coach here. Don’t get me wrong, the talent has been there with this club over the years but in a way Nicol has run out of gambles and crazy moves that somehow worked a few years ago that don’t come close now. The Revs need to go on a ridiculous run to reach the playoffs this season and judging the way things have gone this year, it just isn’t going to happen.

4. Peter Vermes (Sporting Kansas City) – Before KC fans go crazy, hear me out. Vermes did a good job getting his club from a ridiculous road trip to start the season to a place where they could reach the playoffs. Key word there is could. With so many home games left and the club tying many of their first home games against fairly weak sides, it takes a little bit of the excitement out of KC opening that beautiful stadium. I still believe this club is going in a solid direction but I’m not sure Vermes is the right person to lead the charge. I’ve said for a couple months that something is just lacking with this club and its a reason why they aren’t blowing people away with that offense that should be scoring goals by the buckets.

Other not far away:

Frank Klopas (Chicago Fire) – He’s an interim coach, I know, but at some point he’s gotta hand over the keys to this club to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Dominic Kinnear (Houston Dynamo) – The Orange are lucky to be in the Eastern Conference right now, that much is true.

Peter Vermes. (Brian Stevens for WVHooligan.com)

Time for a serious talk. I’m not a fan of having to read about things like this or even talk about it as folks who drive drunk and get caught need to face the music about how serious of an offense that really is. Well one of the guys we talk about on here in Major League Soccer apparently recently got caught for that offense. The Kansas City Star reported last last night that Kansas City Wizards coach Peter Vermes was charged with a DUI on August 24.

He was released after posting a $750 bail that night according to the article. He will have a date in court later this year in November.

The club, the league and Vermes have yet to comment on the DUI charge.

I’d have to think that the league will have to come down on Vermes for this in some form of punishment. Its only fair to I believe as like I mentioned above this is a pretty serious offense. For a team that is starting to come together at the right time like the Wizards are it will be very interesting to see what happens to the club once this news really starts to spread and catch on. I’m sure the club will back their coach and do whatever it is necessary to keep the mojo going.

As for Vermes he needs to own up to this and apologize right away to get this behind him. No need to drag this on for a little while and hurt his club (not to mention his family). People make mistakes but owning up to them in a timely manner does help.

What form of punishment do you think Vermes should get for this from the league? Should the league and Wizards stay out of it?

Anyways we are a month into the season now with most clubs having four games under their belts (only one has two – Columbus). My list below is not just players but coaches, GMs, stadiums, fans…pretty much anything I felt was relevant here.

Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff will be called to lead in 2010 for KC. (WVH Photo Correspondent Brian Stevens)

We’re continuing on today with our look at each Major League Soccer club’s pre-season outlook of what players they have on board and where they need to go next before the new season kicks off. So far we’ve covered nearly half of the league with Chicago, Colorado, Chivas, Columbus, DC, Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia all already looked at here.

Today we go to the middle of the country to take a look at the Kansas City Wizards and what coach/technical director Peter Vermes is doing with his club.

The Wizards had a shaky season in 2009 but they hope a few changes around their roster will be enough to stay with the top of the pack in an already tough eastern conference.

So let’s see what the Wizards have done with their winter and where they need to go from here.

Keepers:

Who they have: Jimmy Nielsen, Eric Kronberg, and Boris Pardo.

Notes: Gone are the days of Kevin Hartman and now come the time for Nielsen. A lot of folks in KC probably aren’t too happy to see Hartman be let go so easily here but as I mentioned last week it was a change I think the club needed to make this winter. Look I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Hartman but sometimes change is necessary and this was just a move I think they needed to make. I’m also not saying Nielsen will be any better but Hartman wasn’t exactly putting KC over the top.

I know the club currently has a couple other trialist in camp right now so it will be interesting to see who pushes to be Nielsen’s backup this year.

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Defense:

Who they have: Jimmy Conrad, Chance Myers, Michael Harrington, Matt Besler, Lance Watson, Aaron Hohlbein, Jonathan Leathers, Pablo Escobar, Olukorede Aiyegbusi, and Nick Cardenas.

Notes: Collectively on paper they should be a better group then what we’ve seen over the last couple years. I may be putting too much of a premium on Conrad here, he’s a great leader out there but maybe he just isn’t able to get the rest of these guys up to his level and the group suffers for it. I honestly don’t know because again on paper they look like they should be good with guys like Besler (very underrated player) and Harrington (another solid player) but last year they were up there in goals against with 42.

I think though with Vermes coaching this bunch full time we’ll see some improvement in this bunch this year. I honestly have no idea what Escobar will bring to the table but if we base anything off past moves from South America from this club the expectations shouldn’t be placed too high for him (remember Carlos Marinelli or Eloy Colombano?). Hopefully he turns out better for them.

Big question for me though is will Myers finally become the number one pick that KC had hoped for two years ago? I still don’t know who got the better end of that deal between San Jose and the Wizards. Right now its starting to be a push more than anything as neither have seen a big impact from the players involved. Nick Garcia was traded last year to Toronto and Myers really never grew as a player in year two.

Still this group is fairly young so hopefully things are going to be looking up for them as some of these young guys finally hit their stride here.

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Midfield:

Who they have: Santiago Hirsig, Roger Espinoza, Jack Jewsbery, Kurt Morsink, Davy Arnaud, Kevin Souter, Graham Zusi, Stéphane Auvray, and Marco Fuzetti.

Notes: I like Espinoza, Jewsbery and Arnaud but the rest I’m a bit torn with as I think they have potential with guys like Zusi and newcomer Auvray. Still my worry is where will the offense be generated from this within this bunch? They honestly cannot expect Arnaud to carry the load this season. I know to a lesser extent Claudio Lopez is more of an offensive midfielder than a striker these days but that won’t cut it.

Another area I worry about is wing play for this bunch. One area they got burned in a lot of games last year was on the wings, especially on their short home field. If I’m Vermes I’d be finding talent to go on the wings as well as a true playmaker in the middle.

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Forwards:

Who they have: Claudio Lopez, Josh Wolff, Teal Bunbury, Zoltan, Kei Kamara, and Michael Kraus.

Notes: This was an area that Vermes had to concentrate over the winter months on and I think with drafting Bunbury and the new contract to Kamara he has done a pretty good job with here. The big thing will be whether or not Bunbury makes an impact in year one or not. Some reports from the training camps suggest he isn’t done all that well so far with KC but I think given the right amount of time he’ll be fine.

Kamara is said to be doing very well in KC right now and honestly I think he likes being there which is a good thing for both sides. He’s got a chance this year to really step things up and be a solid scorer for the Wizards.

The big thing will be getting Wolff involved a lot more this year. We saw last year that when used properly up top Wolff can be a very productive goal scorer for the Wizards. I think Vermes knows how to use Wolff right and with Lopez too. That’s a good thing because they need another 10+ goal year from Wolff and eight to 10 assists from Lopez to be in contention in the east. As long as those two hit those numbers and Kamara and Bunbury combine for another 10 or 14 goals they will be much better offensively than from a year ago.

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Overall:

Going into a new year Kansas City is a club I like but honestly don’t love just yet. Defensively I worry about them on the wings and in the center part of the midfield. I’m also still concerned about who will be generating the offense in the midfield this year. Offensively I do believe they’ll be much better than from a year ago as long as the guys up top are given the right space to be productive.

Conrad has to step up a bit more in the back to lead this young group and if he does I think the club will improve in the standings. They’re schedule won’t be as tight in the summer with SuperLiga and we shouldn’t expect to see many international call-ups for players on their roster except for maybe Conrad and Espinoza. I actually see Espinoza getting more international time than Conrad this year anyways.

I think Vermes needs another move or two in the midfield and they’ll be fine. I’ll be curious to see how they perform early on as they typically start well but fade in the summer.

In a way its a make or break year for Vermes. He’s built this club as a TD and now must lead them as the full-time coach. I don’t know if he’ll be under any sort of hot seat yet if they don’t do well this year but you gotta believe fans won’t be happy if they are near the bottom again in the standings in 2010.

Kevin Hartman is looking for a new home. (Getty Images)

Kevin Hartman’s time in Kansas City looks to be over. The Kansas City Star this morning has quotes from Peter Vermes that suggest the Wizards are looking to move on saying that Hartman is no longer in the teams plans.

It does appear the club did offer Hartman a new contract so they will retain his player rights for two years unless the new CBA has any sort of free agency in it. If that happens it will allow Hartman to move freely in MLS, if it doesn’t however a team will once again have to work out a deal with the Wizards to get his rights.

From this news it appears the signing of Danish goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen are indeed true. From the report Nielsen is on the books for one year with the Wizards.

So where could Hartman end up in MLS? A couple places come to mind right away include New York. I could see him take on a backup role in places like New England, San Jose, Chivas, or even LA for a year and then catch on with an expansion team in 2011 when Portland and Vancouver join the mix. We could easily see Hartman go to USSF Div II like Steve Ralston did, I can’t imagine too many clubs in that league passing on Hartman here, especially AC St. Louis since they are still building a team from scratch.

I had a feeling going into this winter that we’d see a change in goal for Kansas City. The Wizards were looking for a change to shake some things up and this is one that I expected to happen. Hartman is still a quality keeper so let’s not make this out to be something that it isn’t where Hartman is done and worthless here. No, he’s still got a few years left in the tank. But the Wizards needed to retool in some way to get into the playoffs this year. Sadly enough for those who like Hartman this was something that probably needed to happen.

Peter Vermes is now the head coach of the Kansas City Wizards. (Getty Images)

I guess Peter Vermes liked coaching enough after all. Today the Kansas City Wizards are set to remove the interim tag from Vermes title and name him their full time head coach.

The Wizards will formally announce Vermes as the club’s head coach at a press conference later today at the Wizards Swope Park Training Complex. No word yet if Vermes will keep his other position as the team’s technical director.

The Wizards posted a 3-6-3 record under Vermes, but did close out the year going 3-3-3 in their final nine matches.

Seeing Kansas City lock up their coaching issues should put some pressure on Toronto, DC and New York to do the same in a matter of time. New York may take the longest of the three as they are still trying to figure out some other things before they hire a new coach.

I do like that KC decided to make this move before the expansion draft but still I don’t know if Vermes is the right guy for the job. He’s been with this club for three years now as their TD and to be honest we haven’t seen this club progress all that much with him as TD. He needs to act quickly in getting some fresh talent to this roster to get things going in the right direction.

I don’t have a fancy name for any of this yet but feel free to come up with one if you’d like.

Reuter’s Soccer Blog Interview with The Don

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First of all I didn’t even realize Reuter’s had their own soccer blog. Secondly, this is a pretty decent interview with MLS commissioner Don Garber. Of course they go over the usual stuff of how the league is trying to attract those causal fans that attended all those games this summer and what not. Then the usual expansion news. Nothing really new of note there but from the quotes it sounds like Montreal is a sure bet while Miami or somewhere down in the south isn’t too far off if things present themselves correctly for the league.

Vermes Introduced as Interim Coach in KC

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It is never easy to fire a guy in the middle of the season and improve from it. Chicago nearly did it a couple years ago when they booted Dave Sarachan and replaced him with Juan Carlos Osorio. I just don’t see that sort of thing happening in KC this year. Good on KC to at least keep the interim hire in-house a bit with Vermes. Who can KC go after for the full time gig though is the main question. Honestly it may be time to go after someone like Paul Merinar from New England or John Spensor in Houston. No doubt their names will be thrown out in the next couple of months like they always are this time of year.

Cooper’s Dad Blasts MLS

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What can you say, its a dad protecting his son in some ways and calling out what he sees that is wrong. I can’t blame him in the least bit for feeling this way. Kenny Cooper senior helps represent his son and I know a year ago he wanted this move for Kenny.

“I still have difficulty understanding in this league, as I expressed to the commissioner in Toronto last July, I can’t understand when you have young American players who can play anywhere in the world and they’re somewhat punished because they’re Americans,” he says. “As someone who’s been in the league and the country as a coach, and the system for 38 years, I think that this league at times would rather reward a proven failure than unlimited potential.”

A lot of folks still worry about this that the league is letting go of quality young Americans for over priced and over the hill foreign players. The league does need to find a better way to keep young home grown talent, that’s for sure. I’m sure it will be something addressed down the road but in the meantime we will continue to lose quality players from the league like Cooper. I think the biggest hit will come when/if Landon Donovan heads back to Europe for good. Garber sees Donovan as the poster child for American players in the league (as he should) and losing him would be killer to the league’s image.

From PDL to EPL

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This is a story I should have discussed a while back but missed when family was in town I suppose. Wake Forest product Cody Arnoux signed a one year deal with EPL side Everton. The one-year deal is basically a trail with the reserve squad but still even that isn’t bad at all.

Arnoux was an NCAA All-American last season and was projected to be a top pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft if he had finished his final season at Wake Forest and declared for the MLS draft. Instead he went the Marcus Tracy route to Europe, bypassed MLS for a European contract.

Another guy that would have been a big deal in MLS. Hell two guys if you count Tracy. Things gotta change here.

Ideas for Portland

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The Nation writer Dave Zirin lays out financial dealings in Portland for Timbers owner Merritt Paulson to rebuild PGE Park for entrance into MLS. He offers up alternatives to the current deal. I guess this is more of things to come from the Rose City. Folks not quite for what’s going on presenting their opinions and what not.

More on Montreal Expansion

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I’m probably a day late on this article but oh well, basically it is more of the same from our friends to the north on the Montreal expansion. From what some are saying we could know something regarding a team for either the 2011 or 2012 season by the end of the summer. Honestly, I expect an announcement around MLS Cup time.

According to SBI, Vermes has now turned down a head coaching position with next year’s expansion club, Seattle Sounders FC.

According to sources, Seattle has already reached out to three different coaching candidates, including Vermes and at least one current MLS head coach. Current Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer had been believed to be the front-runner for the Sounders FC position when the club was formed, but it has become clear that Henderson is looking for a head coach with MLS experience. Schmetzer was recently identified as a candidate for the job by Seattle general manager Adrian Hanauer.

From what I’ve heard up in Seattle, Schmetzer seems the most likely candidate to take the position. He is familiar with everything Seattle and having Chris Henderson (a former MLS player) as the club’s technical director will help him out in the MLS aspect of the job. But don’t be shocked to see them go after Sigi Schmid here either in the off season.

But why is Vermes not moving away from Kansas City at the moment? He’s helped build this club to where it is at today. They went from a veteran lead club to a very young club through the draft over the last couple season and probably even into next year with the amount of picks they will have again in the draft. Some also believe he is eager to take a position with thew new Philadephia club in 2010 (he’s from that area originally).

I like Vermes, but for some reason I just don’t see him as a head coach in this league though I am willing to hold out my judgment until that day comes. He seems fit to figure things out in the front office with being a technical director or a general manager. Sure his moves with the Wizards haven’t been great yet but that club is still moving in a positive direction. Anytime you have a heavy flavor of youth on a club there is always going to be growing pains.

Was this the right move for Vermes? What’s better a club with tons of youth in KC or building an expansion club? Some like the expansion challenge and others don’t.