[dashiel]

in responding to a post in another thread i ended up looking up some info about octavio zambrano's sacking and found a decidedly ugly pattern. as you know i've been placing the blame solely at aeg's feet for sometime now going back to sigi's dismissal... well it started before then. here's some history and choice quotes:

october 1998 - aeg purchases the team.
april 23, 1999 - after zambrano gets off to a 2-3 start (actually an 0-1-4 start as all but one result came from the abomination that was the shoot-out) he is sacked with sigi schmid being appointed within days.

Team President Tim Leiweke said the coaching change was not as abrupt as it might have appeared. He said Zambrano was put on notice almost as soon as owner Philip F. Anschutz, who also owns the MLS champion Chicago Fire and the Colorado Rapids, assumed control of the Galaxy in October.

“We knew during the off-season that there was some tension,” Leiweke said. “The players wanted to be coached. They wanted a coach who would make changes and figure out during halftime of a game what strategies needed to be made.”

Management told Zambrano to improve communication with players, Leiweke said. Though General Manager Sergio del Prado gave the coach a vote of confidence as recently as Saturday, Leiweke said, “It became pretty obvious to us in the last week that [communication] was still an issue.”

source: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/23/sports/sp-30373

so you put a guy on notice after the best regular mls season in history, records from then still stand today? no team has even come close to the dominating play we created in 1998.


2000 - after getting to mls cup final, but losing again to d.c. united tim leiweke steps in again to improve our team's revenue stream and hopefully on-field performance. so ten games in to the season, or roughly one-third of the matches played we trade away three starters again one-third of the starting outfield team for hernandez

"We have received a world-class player and in turn had to part with some young talent," said Galaxy president Tim Leiweke. "But this has been a passion of ours and a process that we helped create. We strongly believe that Luis will be a major factor in allowing the Galaxy to once again compete for the MLS championship this year and for many years to come."

source: http://www.soccertimes.com/mls/2000/may16.htm

the first example of many more to come of the galaxy trading away our future to either make loads of money on shirt sales or make a stop gap solution. we fail to make the cup final.

2002-2004 - aeg brings in doug hamilton, a corporate stooge to tow the party line. he's main claim to fame: pissing off supporters in florida and running the franchise in to the ground. with a company man in charge we don't hear much from tim himself, but the anecdotal evidence is damning.

anyone who was at the dreary 0-0 draw with columbus in '04 saw the investors touring the stadium with alexi lalas and tim leiweke. i don't recall if hamilton was with the group or not. monday morning sigi gets the sack.

Several minor arguments were seen this past Saturday at the Home Depot Center during the team's 0-0 draw among the Galaxy, but Hamilton denied neither the team nor fans that were disappointed in the past with Schmid helped quicken the coaching decision.

"This is not a knee-jerk reaction," said Hamilton." We think that a change today.gives us the best chance of getting a MLS title. (But) I don't think Sigi lost the team."

sound familiar?


i need to do more searching, but it's dinner time so i'll wait, but i seem to recall the hiring of steve sampson being a tim leiweke decision as well. more to come here.


2005 - hamilton and sampson work a trade for central attacking midfielder and carlos ruiz teammate pando ramierez. we all hope pando can be the creative spark missing since cien retired. days before the season starts ruiz is traded to dallas for the allocation that brings donovan to la. i need to find the quotes, but donovan was all tim's doing.

and just for kicks here's a great little article showing what a dick, micromanaging asshole tim is. i can see why ruud told him to ******** off.

Tim Leiweke, chief executive of AEG, the group that owns the Galaxy, revealed the depth of the group's unhappiness with the performance of the club when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

"Unfortunately, you can't fire 22 players," he said, adding that the club is "dysfunctional".

"I think they're all responsible," Leiweke said of the players. "What I told them this morning was, 'Now no one has any excuses'. I eliminated all excuses."

There has been speculation that Beckham, signed by the Galaxy last summer in a move which smashed all previous MLS records, wields enormous influence not only on the field but in the running of the club, but Leiweke insisted any suggestion he was involved in the latest decisions were wrong.

"Ruud was their guy, so Ruud resigning and us accepting that obviously is not a great day for them," Leiweke said of the Beckham camp. "So those who claim there was influence, this was my decision solely.

"I don't think David knew about this decision until the team meeting. I saw him right before I went in the locker room and I don't even think he knew what I was about to do."

that doesn't even make sense... beckham doesn't hold any undue influence, but ruud was his pick? ******** you tim. i hope you fall asshole first on a samurai sword dipped in hot sauce, vinegar, infected with ecoli and that brain eating amoeba - well that would be a waste i suppose as a brain eating amoeba would have little affect on you, you douchebag.

http://www.ireland.com/sport/Galaxy_...irnewssport365

[Elninho]

This is truly ugly. I had no idea this went all the way back to Zambrano's dismissal.

Lieweke's hired some good coaches, but then proceeded to bind and gag them the moment they walked in the door, and fired them as soon as (or before) they managed to regain control and get the team on the right path. Isn't it funny how each Galaxy coach before Yallop was fired almost right after accomplishing something?

Regardless of what you think of the specific coaches in question (I know I disliked Sampson, for example):

Zambrano - fired immediately after winning Supporters' Shield
Schmid - fired with team in first place
Sampson - fired one season after winning MLS Cup

[mbar]

Post of the year: This one (#1 above)

Poster of the year: Dashiel

[shirteesdotnet]

Originally Posted by dashiel

in responding to a post in another thread i ended up looking up some info about octavio zambrano's sacking and found a decidedly ugly pattern....

Thanks for all the effort on this post Dash... Excellent work. We were such a good team back then... Hartman being at the top of his game (and again he i does) and I remember being shocked signing Luis Hernandez. I think we gave up Mathis and a couple others to get him too. I never liked the deal.

Anyways, Im trying to look forward from this point on, not to dwell so much in the past, but knowing the past does help. All is not lost... we are a win or two from first place. We can be right back in it again if we want to. Itsd up to the players now. Will this be a repeat of last season? Will we make the playoffs, which was our goal for this season, or will we take it all the way??

[srosenbery]

Originally Posted by mbar

Post of the year: This one (#1 above)

Poster of the year: Dashiel

Dashiel,

Though I have no reason to doubt your info, Don't you think you take it a little too far with personal attacks on someone. You may not like the job he does but you are very well spoken and don't need to resort to that. A explination of your position, which most of us would agree with, and stating your great research would be enough.

Lets not make this personal.

[shirteesdotnet]

Originally Posted by srosenbery

Dashiel,

Though I have no reason to doubt your info, Don't you think you take it a little too far with personal attacks on someone. You may not like the job he does but you are very well spoken and don't need to resort to that. A explination of your position, which most of us would agree with, and stating your great research would be enough.

Lets not make this personal.

I give Dashiel a pass. Everyone has a little TJ in them. Let face it though, Tim would like to get rid of all the players too if he could.

[mbar]

Originally Posted by srosenbery

Dashiel,

Though I have no reason to doubt your info, Don't you think you take it a little too far with personal attacks on someone. You may not like the job he does but you are very well spoken and don't need to resort to that. A explination of your position, which most of us would agree with, and stating your great research would be enough.

Lets not make this personal.

I don't know, perhaps it shouldn't mean so much to me but my passion for the Los Angeles Galaxy is very personal. And seeing a pretty damning assessment of the crap that has gone on in the organization for as long as AEG has been involved is sure to get the blood boiling. So I can understand a few choice words being thrown about.

And worse yet, for me personally, my second favorite sports team is the Los Angeles Kings. Guess who's been steering that organization into the crapper for years too? The same mr. Lieweke.

I know you didn't mean to quote my post, but since I heartily agree with Dashiel I'll step up to defend him.

[kgzero]

Good post dashiel - repped.

[rokstedy]

Tim Lieweke is the Anti-Christ!

[Chupacabra]

I think someone has been drinking too much AEG conspiracy-flavored Kool-Aid, mixed, of course, with several gallons of stale, bitter San Jose spring water.