I really want Kaka or Lampard to be in a Galaxy kit next season. I would without a doubt get their jersey. I expect 2 or 3 of our DPs will be gone come January. I would like one big signing then a good american signing. If we could get Brek Shea, Herculez Gomez, Beasley or maybe that Landon Donovan fella, I'd be happy.
While all excellent points, I think you forget that for some of these players, regardless of what country of their origin or trade, the allure of silverware can be a tempting one. Most of the Serie A guys who aren't in a top-level team like Juve, Napoli or either Milanese side (though AC has fallen quite far these days due to finances and political scandal), have little to no chance of winning anything to mark their seasons and careers, the only realistic possibilities being a run at the Coppa Italia or for the mid-table teams, a chance at the Europa League and the Super Cup after that. As we've seen with Robbie Keane, players like him can gain the extra needed motivation to really try in MLS if they can sniff a trophy in the near future. These are seasoned professionals who have played at a high level for a long time yet have won little to nothing to show for it; they would probably seize the chance to win domestic and international titles, and we all know that only the Galaxy can achieve such high feats. Should an American/Canadian 4th DP spot become MLS law, I would say that Herc, Beasley, or hell even Jose Torres would be an awesome addition. It would be win-win: The team would either get an experienced veteran or an exciting young player in his prime. Two of them would obviously have crossover appeal to the huge Latino market - though who knows? Maybe Beasley has brushed up on his Spanish. Do it Garber & Bruce!
I haven't really thought about this much, but regarding the 4th American DP thing...what about the Canadian teams (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver)? They could hypothetically sign an American DP, but would the new rule give an unfair advantage to US-based teams? I mean...would DP-caliber American players really want to move to Canada to play?
I'd rather go to LA or NY. Or if I'm a DP-caliber player, I'd go to Europe, especially considering how bad the Canadian teams have been in recent years.
DP's have to be gate attractions to justify the kind of money they get. What domestic players (not already under contract to Euro or Mex clubs) would be gate attractions? I'm not saying there are not good domestic players...but realistically would they draw the fans?
Only players who aren't coming back anytime soon. Dempsey would be a gate attraction at this point. Not sure about Michael Bradley or Tim Howard. Those are the only potential ones that I can think of at this point. Maybe Jozy eventually if his career ever really takes off.
Cannavaro, Vieri, Di Canio, Zola, Di Matteo, Ravanelli, Balotelli, Cudicini, Gattuso.... just a few off the top of my head, that have had a reasonable measure of success away from home. EDIT: Vialli
Us Middlesbrough fans remember Maccarone fondly as well.....that was a pretty awesome year and UEFA Cup run.
Good domestic players opting to play in MLS rather than Europe would add to the the quality of the league. Attendance would increase if more domestic players were called up to the USMNT.
Winning also increases the revenue at the gate. I think it would be great if the MLS could not only bring back guys like Herc with a 4th domestic DP exemption, but I'd like to see players like Josh Gatt and Mix Diskerud have proper insensitive to make a name for themselves in the US and MLS, with eyes towards moving back to one of the top leagues in Europe.
I would like to believe that. I'm just not confident it's true. The league has a history of some teams with good performance on the field still not drawing flies. I am relatively sure that consistently bad performances will drive fans away eventually (I am looking at you, New England) but I am not at all sure the converse is true. I'd love to see more top rated domestic players in the league. But I'm already going anyway - you need to think about whether a DP player draws people who otherwise aren't going. I just don't see it. How many soccer fans in LA were NOT attracted by our winning record but were attracted by the glitz of our DP's?
Just wanted to point out that Herc didn't leave because of money issues, he left because his stock had diminished in MLS and he felt the Mexican league was a reboot for his career. If you recall he was coming off the bench at Colorado. I think coaches started using him as a midfielder which he clearly is not, so that is why he seemed to regress as a player.
http://www.lagalaxy.com/blog/beat/2...link-galaxy-luis-fabiano-sao-paulo-youngsters This is just stating that we might also be going in on Luis Fabiano. But, the noteworthy part of this article, if true, is that we are looking again to bring some Sao Paulo youngsters in on loan. I posted about this earlier but I hope we are able to start a little pipeline from them because it will usually bring us 3-4 cheap, good players. As our scouting gets better, we can start to turn some of those guys into the next Juninho's and hopefully in the future convince them to stay here. I harp on this all the time but we need to establish ourselves as one of this hemisphere's "gateways to Europe," so to speak, so that we can try and get better and better players from South America. Not all of the players will be able to go to Europe and might just stay with the Galaxy and become the next Galaxy legend.
Probably means nothing...but Birchall retweeted this a few days ago: "I hope @LAGalaxy signs @chrisbirchall7" And he changed his profile picture to one that has a Galaxy backdrop...again, probably means nothing. But if we can't make better moves, I'd be fine with him returning.
I agree. You can only get so much attendance with a winning team of nobodies. That's just how this league is right now. Hopefully it will change, but winning is not an automatic attendance raiser. You can lose people if you consistently suck, but we still rely heavily on casual soccer fans to fill stadiums and they want names they know.
I have always liked Birchall. I am not sure he's an everyday starter, but I have no problem with him as a bench player and a guy who can provide some experience in Cup games and CCL. I would like to see him back at a reasonable salary.
Are you being serious or kidding? I can't tell. There's a few problems with this. First, Seattle isn't a team of nobodies. They brought in Kasey Keller and Freddie Ljundberg, and now Eddie Johnson. Montero has been a bona fide star at times. Second, they haven't won anything real so you can't say they are bringing in fans by winning the MLS Cup. They've had a terrible playoff records. Third, those people up there are just flat out CRAZY. They are clearly an outlier unrelated to any other team in terms of attendance. I don't think you can make any generalizations about the league based on their attendance. It's just not the same ball game elsewhere for whatever reason.