Doesn’t he just look chuffed? Absolutely stoked? Brimming with primordial glee? Okay perhaps not but that’s our Winston for ya. He’s never been the most emotionally forthcoming, to be fair. But a week after his proposed move to Nashville SC fell apart under curious circumstances he’s instead agreed terms with another MLS club, joining Sporting Kansas City.

Some may have conflicted feelings about this one. Generally speaking, when Premier League players make the move to the MLS it means something pretty obvious about the direction that their careers are heading in. Very occasionally you get a Zlatan Ibrahimovic who shows up for a couple years in MLS and then still returns to top flight footy in Europe... but as always with that dude, Zlatan is the exception to the rule. When fellas like James Musa and Kyle Adams step up to MLS it’s a beautiful thing for the Flying Kiwis stocks but Winston Reid going from West Ham to Sporting Kansas City is a swing in the opposite direction. Sorry ‘bout it to all you MLS hipsters out there but let’s be honest.

Yet this is a more complicated situation than it may appear because Winston Reid has only joined SKC on loan. It’s a temporary measure made necessary by the vast quantities of currency still owed to him by West Ham United. Back in the day, his WHU contract was running down and he pretty much refused to sign a new one... until Sam Allardyce was sacked and then he agreed to a six year deal basically straight away. Six bloody years, dude. Even at the time that seemed wildly excessive. Reid hasn’t played for West Ham since busting his knee (and being simultaneously concussed) in a game against Swansea back in March 2018... almost two full years ago and guess what? Two years of injury enforced absence later and he’s not even halfway through that contract. It doesn’t expire until the end of the 2022-23 season and considering he’ll be on pretty decent coin there... he’s got no reason to be pushing for a permanent departure.

However he does need the game time and West Ham clearly aren’t gonna offer it to him. They’re in the midst of a relegation battle and simply don’t have the wiggle room to give him the run of games he’ll need to get up to scratch, every point matters right now for the Hammers. The only way he was gonna get any footy was for the reserves and then maybe when the All Whites play again next month. Not really what he needs. Hence the MLS, which is building towards their new season at the moment, became an option. Sporting Kansas City and DC United were mentioned as possibilities before Nashville SC emerged as the frontrunner. Except that Nashville backed out in those aforementioned curious circumstances. There had been talk that he was flying over for a medical, then there was talk that there was never a medical or even a formalised offer... whatever the case was the deal fell through and SKC were able to slide on into his DMs in their place.

Sporting KC didn’t have anything much to say in their transfer announcement. A whole bunch of wikipedia rewrites about his career journey but they didn’t have a single quote from anybody involved and they didn’t even clarify exactly how long he’s there on loan for... which is kinda a massive part of this. The talk from England suggests he’s there until the end of the season and that presumably means the end of the English season... which would be in line with what people were saying about the Nashville thing. That one was meant to be a six-month loan deal (again, based on reports).

The thing about a six-month deal is that it’s very much weighted towards What Winston Wants. The MLS runs year on year so leaving in July means leaving midway through the American campaign... conveniently in time for him to slide on back into West Ham’s preseason and push his claim for a place in the club’s rotation of defenders for next season - be that in the Premier League or the Championship. The latter is likely to come with a pay cut unfortunately... hence it’s also in Winnie’s best interests to chill elsewhere as he gets back to match fitness and not risk getting his cobwebs all over their relegation battle just in case. Not that he really has a choice in the matter.

But yeah that just proves where Winston’s headspace is at. This isn’t a retirement home for him, it’s a temporary stay until he can get his West Ham career back on track. Whether or not West Ham feel that way is another matter of course and it’d be an odd course of events for them to embrace him back after what’ll be two and a half years out of the first team but then this is an odd situation all around. Unique circumstances call for a unique solution. Chances are if West Ham had their way they’d flip him on a permanent tomorrow just to clear up the wage bill but Reidy’s agent might lose his union card (lol, player agent unions, there’s a laugh) if he allows that to happen with three more years at a rumoured £70k per week remaining on his contract. As such, the Hammers might need to run down the clock before that’s an option and the language at the end of their press statement, highlighting the need for “valuable game time”, seems to suggest a future for him in London.

WHUFC.com: “Reid, West Ham United's second longest-serving player behind skipper Mark Noble, has not played a competitive first team game since March 2018 due to a serious knee injury and will now look to gain valuable game time in Kansas City. West Ham wishes Winston the best of luck during his loan spell in the MLS.”

Sporting Kansas City are coming off a horrid season last time out, winning just ten games out of 34 saw them finish second to last in the Western Conference so a bit of defensive steel and top level experience won’t go astray for them, even if it does only prove to be for the first half of the season. SKC are generally better than that. They won the US Open Cup as recently as 2017 with a squad that featured none other than James Musa on the bench that day, while they lifted the MLS Cup in 2000 and 2013. The year before last they were first in the Western Conference... only to be knocked out over two legs in the Conference Finals by a Portland Timbers side that featured a certain Bill Tuiloma. Mate, you don’t have to go far to find kiwi connections in the MLS these days, that’s for sure.

Speaking of which, this now brings the number of New Zealanders in Major League Soccer for 2020 up to eight, with Bill Tuiloma (Portland Timbers), Michael Boxall, Noah Billingsley, James Musa (all Minnesota United), Deklan Wynne (Colorado Rapids), Kyle Adams (Houston Dynamo), and Elliot Collier (Chicago Fire) the other comrades laying low in the United States of America’s top tier of saaahccurr.

Sporting KC aren’t dummies in this, by the way. A loan deal likely means they’re not paying much of Winston’s salary which also means it shouldn’t be too hard for them to get out of the deal if they’re not liking what they’re seeing. It’s pretty low risk from their point of view even if Winnie does require an international roster spot. It sorta has to be low risk or else it wouldn’t have happened. The only party really having to compromise here is West Ham and that’s what they get for giving out a six year contract to a guy who was always pretty injury prone. Although it’s quite shocking to realise that Winston Reid is only 31 years old. Doesn’t turn 32 until July. Things haven’t gone the way anyone wanted the last two years but he’s got time still on his side and this is his chance to get the train back on the tracks.

Support the footy yarns on TNC by getting in on that sweet Patreon action, good on ya

Also whack an ad whenever you read something decent to say cheers

Keep cool but care