Fire Everyone!

Maybe Brian Kleiban.

 

It all starts with a new GM. He (or she) should then rebuild our FO and find us a new head coach. As I said in another thread we need either a brilliant coach like Tata or at least a younger, massively ambitious coach who would work 24/7 to build a winner like the NYRB have done in recent years.

 

Do you trust Klein to apoint the next GM?

 

Hell no. I meant new President. Then new GM or GM/Coach. Klein has been a colossal failure.

 

You are probably right. I just wonder how many of the Galaxy's problems can be attributed to AEG and Dan Beckerman. I got the impression when Tim Leiwicke was in charge that the product on the field (and the marketing hype) was more important than the budget (and that's an uninformed impression). It wasn't until Dan took over that I started hearing references to living with our budget and making a profit.

 

It's been said in more than one place that AEG (Beckerman) weren't happy seeing the "millions of dollars on the bench" (referring to Gerrard and Keane) at the end of the 2016 season. No one wants to say "cutbacks" or "budget", but it sure feels like Beckerman has given the Galaxy FO a directive to "spend smarter" is a way Klein might spin it. Oh, I guess they also wanted to see some payoff from the investment in the academy and G2; fast-tracking the G2 players to the first team achieved both objectives. Klein got a new contract after the worst season in history because he saved money, which is what his boss asked him to do.

Which means we're probably not going to eat Gio's and/or Jona's salaries anytime soon; I can't see Klein wanting to have that conversation with Beckerman. Not only does that also mean we're probably not getting a sexy and trendsetting (expensive) GM or coach...it means we're probably also not going to fire Sigi regardless of how the rest of the season goes, because paying two coaches in 2019 is probably also not a conversation Klein wants to have with Beckerman. Could be a long ride.

 

Sigi's contract is up at the end of the year. Actually both Sigi and Onalfo will be off the books in 2019.

As far DP's, all three are up at the end of 2019. Zlatan and Skjelvik contracts are also up after 2019. I believe the only large contracts that are up at the end of this season are Ciani and Cole.

It might be hard to bring in a quality/high in demand coach knowing that their roster will be locked in until after the 2019 season.

However I could also see Beckerman letting Klein go (if he cares about more than just attendance) because the Galaxy have spent more money this season on player payroll then they ever have, and we're not getting the results to show for it.

 

I'm OK if we move Sigi to GM to revamp the scouting process (and we agree to not fire his son as part of the incentive). If we keep him as coach for 2019, he's going to be treating that as a "win now" season and we'll end up not winning now but also not building for the future. We need to hire a new coach and give him an explicit mandate to rebuild in 2019 and then win in 2020.

Here are the current players I can see as starters in 2020.

----------Kamara------X-----------------
Lletget--------------------------------X
------------------X----------X--------------
TheDuck--------X--------HA---------X
------------------------X-------------------

That's how bad it is. Maybe Bingham is worth keeping, but maybe Hilliard-Arce doesn't make it.

Before 2020 we have three transfer windows to fill those slots plus find backups. We need to be thinking about how we use each of those windows.

 

I agree with your thinking here, though I'm not sure I want Sigi as a GM after seeing who he brought in this season. That being said, a dynamic foreign coach without MLS experience would definitely benefit from someone like him advising. I do worry that a foreign coach will just rely heavily on foreign players instead of developing American (specifically Southern California kids) players, so I want whoever we bring in to have experience bringing young local talent into the fold and I want the development of young players into our team be part of the job description. I'm really hoping someone from G2 gets a true shot in 2019 because do have some young talent and I really hate seeing mediocre foreign players get shots over our talented prospects.

I may be tarred and feathered for this, but I think we should target and in his prime blow 'em away level DP centerback. Goals per game has been increasing in MLS (which is a bad thing, by the way) and I'd like to see us move away from that trend. I don't know who, but considering defenders make less than attackers as a general rule, I think we might be able to lure a 28/29 year old guy with some very high level experience with a $5m-6m paycheck. I'm talking a can't miss kind of guy, though. No injury problems, years of NT experience with his national team, significant high level (either top or near the top teams) Bundesliga/EPL/equivalent experience. The kind of centerback you just know will be a rock for years to come. A leader; someone who buys into the system.

 

We are being out-performed by the expansion team in our own market, in several ways, to the detriment of our brand and the team's future. We probably could have hired Bob Bradley, FFS. With these results I question, again, that anyone in the Galaxy FO knows what they are doing.

 

The only difference between this year and last year is Zlatan. The FO and Sigi absolutely failed to fix the defense - the one thing they knew they had to do. I believe our goals against is now even or close to last years, and as a team, our key players have no heart. They need to release Gio for no other reason than as a message that we are here to compete, that we play hard every minute of every game. Multiple blow out losses are unacceptable, what happened to the team that played against LAFC?

 

My impression is that Beckerman is a Galaxy fan (goes to games, used to go to games?) but at heart he's a much bigger hockey and boxing fan. Anyway more to the point he's first and foremost a financial accountant and we are only a sliver of AEG's balance sheet. So naturally the Galaxy are unlikely to be the main focus of his attention and energies. And while our team's failures are a bit embarrassing they probably won't jeopardize Beckerman's job as long as he continues making big money for AEG. So we probably should forget about looking to the AEG CEO for direct help.

That means our best hope is that Beckerman fires Klein and replaces him with someone who has the vision, ability and desire to rebuild the Galaxy organization from top to bottom. This person could be a soccer guy or a program builder. Either way he/she, unlike Klein, would restore the demand for excellence and the concept of accountability to this organization. We need to end the days where "phone it in" performances from execs, coaches, staff and players are somehow acceptable and without consequence. I don't see that happening as long as Klein is at the top. He needs to go. The sooner the better.

 

Ah, I thought Sigi was on through 2019 as well. I'm relieved to know that's not the case. I haven't been convinced by his talent evaluation, tactics or ability to motivate the team. I have no idea if Sigi even wants to be a GM, let alone if he'd be good at it. Yet I have a feeling we'll keep shopping in the pool of unemployed known quantities. Going after somebody like Jason Kreis would be as sexy as we get (which wouldn't be terrible, I guess).

Did the Galaxy actually spend more or did we just spread more Garberbucks around? I get the feeling we won't spend what it takes to bring in a really impressive GM and head coach.

 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if we kill all the golfers there going to lock us up and throw away the key...

 

The Galaxy only pay out of pocket for players the difference between DP's actual salaries and the salary cap amount for any given year, plus (starting this year) any of the up to $2.8mm in discretionary TAM. To the best of my knowledge, player salaries under the cap plus GAM and non-discretionary TAM are paid for by the league using that part of revenues the league takes from owners. As far as I know, the Galaxy pay for everything else, FO, Coaches, Academy, etc.

 

I'd just like to go on record as saying that LAFC had chances to win that game and we still dropped points largely due to a defensive foul-up.

I'm just glad that Latif Blessing didn't play longer because he was carving up our defence when he came on.

Yet this was still arguably our best defensive performance of the season. One that sparked hope, no less. That says it all.

 

I'm all for jokes but I can't sit back and let this post go unchecked. It's simply not right.

"Correct me if I’m wrong, but if we kill all the golfers they are going to lock us up and throw away the key..."

Shocking grammar.