KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Michael Harrington remains unsigned, but Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes has no desire to see his starting right back leave this winter.
Harrington is out of contract with Sporting after four years and 120 appearances in Kansas City, including starting 29 of 30 games in 2010 in which he contributed four assists and bounced back impressively from a disappointing 2009.
“We have had communication with his agent,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com. “We actually had a really good conversation before I went to Trinidad and Tobago. The ball is in their court at the moment.”
Kansas City continue to hold the MLS rights to the 24-year-old defender, who wasn’t eligible for Wednesday’s Re-Entry Draft based on age and contract status. With Harrington on the right flank and Roger Espinoza on the left, Vermes has a young duo of outside backs that he isn’t ready to see broken up.
“We have explained to them where we are at,” Vermes said. “The bottom line is we want to re-sign him. We have no interest in trading him, not to say he asked for that. We want him back here. Now it’s up to him to decide where he is on all that stuff.”
Vermes wasn’t willing to speculate as to Harrington’s plans, whether that be exploring options in Europe or other foreign leagues, but reiterated his hope that the player he drafted second overall in 2007 out of North Carolina will be back in 2011 and said negotiations will continue.
“I think Michael probably has a lot of different thoughts in his head,” Vermes said. “I don’t want to speak for him. We know we want to re-sign him.”
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