Rumor: Omar Gonzalez to Stoke City?

The solution was "don't sign Gerrard."

 

Should have been obvious at the time, and certainly obvious now.

 

Without that power, their best solution would be to sell Zardes. He's redundant with all their attackers, young and old, and he has to have some market. Reading's offer was 2 million euros? So they get a chunk of approx. 1.5 million, salary cap relief, and clear spots for their prospects and defensive-oriented players? Win-win-win in my book.

They could really use if not need Omar in central defense, plus they'd be selling low with how down of a season Omar had, as reflected by interest coming from LigaMX. That's quite the drop in transfer options for him. From the BL/EPL to MX. From his perspective, it's a bad fit for him too, regardless of his ethnicity. He has suspect ball skills and from what I know he's very Americanized. Landon spoke better Spanish.

 

I posted this on the Galaxy forums but I'll post it here for posterity:

It's a false dichotomy. I've seen the "you can only keep one of Zardes or Omar" idea floated around quite a bit (especially by the kids on reddit) and it's just false. I don't know where it came from, possibly from the idea that selling Zardes was the quickest way to obtain a good amount of GAM, but now that the new TAM rules have come about, selling Zardes literally doesn't impact anything about Omar nor does Omar leaving do anything for Zardes because Zardes' salary is completely off budget as of his current contract and if he signs a new contract, his salary will be at the very least heavily subsidized by the HG budget. The two players come from two entirely different pools of money (TAM and HG budget, both of which just saw significant increases). Hell, Dan Gargan has more to do with Omar staying than Zardes does at this point.

 

I think it impacts you if you want to pick up an extra player on low-level DP money and buy down his salary or stay under the cap, i.e.: Oriol Rosell. It's also been inkled about Ibrahimovic joining midseason.

In addition, I listed other reasons as to why the Galaxy should sell Zardes, like the attacking prospects they need to finally allow to play (Villarreal, Lassiter, Jamieson, etc.), to balance offense and defense more, and they'll probably lose him for a lot less otherwise in the future.

Taking your fan hat off, and just accessing the knowledge you have from being in that position, what do you think happens with Lletget this offseason? There seems to be some mystery about the actual contract he signed and I don't have a good feel on what's happening with him. I've went on record as thinking he was LA's best player before the DP's arrived to force him deeper, and if you moved him closer to goal (CAM best option) he'd be prime Dempsey-level. 6 goals in his first 8 starts as an actual attacking wing. That's no joke.

 

Omar was really poor last season. So poor that Galaxy people called Leonardo their best defenseman.

 

How much is Gonzalez making at Galaxy and is he really that important to them from a marketing perspective?

 

Is that actually true? I'm not aware of the technicalities involved with a second homegrown contract, but if you know, please share.

 

I don't completely agree. He was really good early on and really poor late in the season. Guess what? Matt Besler was really poor late in the 2014 season. Pretty much the same result a season later with Gonzalez and LAG. Previous champion goes out early partly because their star defender was struggling late in the season. Could've been fatigue with Omar, might've been carrying an injury. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been pretty excellent in recent years, besides when he had a knee injury about two years ago and the last six months where he might've also been injured or dealing with fatigue. I think Omar will be able to rebound very well, which is exactly what Besler did. For now, I'd demote Omar with the NT, but if he gets back to playing well, he's among the very best defenders in the league and an option to start at CB for the NT.

 

To your first paragraph, selling Zardes allows you flexibility in other areas but not specifically with Omar. The only point I was making was that it's not "you can keep only one of Omar or Zardes". No way Ibra (or anyone) comes mid-season. We have 3 DPs already, none of whom are likely to be sold in the next six months. End of 2016, we'll have one open spot (Gerrard) and perhaps another depending on if Keane retires.

As to whether the Galaxy should sell Zardes, this thread really isn't for that but unless we have specific player to use the allocation money on, I'd rather keep him. His contract doesn't count against the cap so we basically get a free starter that's off-budget. The extra $600k or so in allocation money is nice but doesn't do anything unless we have something to spend it on. Plus he's the only starter on the roster with any speed whatsoever.

Lletget in this off-season? Nothing. He's under contract through 2016. I think he's a good player with a bright future but I don't rate him as highly as you seem to or, at least, I am waiting until he has more than a half season of first team play under his belt. He started off in amazing form (then again, the whole team was in amazing offensive form) but certainly wasn't out playing anyone when the team hit the skids at the end of the season and had a few poor games. I agree central is probably his best position but given the personnel we have and the giant albatross that is Gerrard, he'll be playing on the wing this season.

Basically there is a pot of money that MLS teams can use to subsidize HG salaries (whether it's first contract or not is irrelevant). Anything you spend above that HG budget goes against your cap. Note that all HG players that are subsidized by the HG budget are on the supplemental roster (slots 21-28). That's the short version.

Next season he should be on $1.4m. He's not unimportant from a marketing perspective but no longer being a US regular drops his cache. Obviously the 3 DPs are on top and Zardes is number 4. His salary outpaces his marketing worth by quite a margin.

 

Unless he is bored. In Besler's case that was physical, he is happy at SKC and seemingly wants to retire there. Not sure about Omar.

 

If Ibra wants to come to the league, especially if it's to the Galaxy, I'm sure the league will then adjust the rules accordingly. They've done it multiple times already recently. Adding another DP has already been bandied about. I wish they'd just stop the charade already and eradicate the salary cap so spending is more even, depth improves, and there's not such a catering to a few players at the expense of the team. But they seem obstinate and want to further go down this road of convenient exceptions. There's your avenue to Ibra.

Well, you pretty much gotta move one or the other (Zardes or Lletget), IMO, to make way for the academy attacking prospects and get more defensive. Especially with Galaxy fans like yourself incorrectly assessing Lletget's game, ignoring that he sacrificed his production for the team by moving back to a regular LW spot, halfway around the field from what's ideal for him, which directly coincided with his drop off (but he adjusted somewhat end of season), I think it should be him. He is your best player with a functional system and dynamic. He was proving that before having to accommodate the DP's. Only way I think it's in the best interest of himself and the team for him to stay is if the owners can accept the sunk cost and move Gerrard to the bench, allowing Lletget to play that position, and opening up a spot for one of the academy players knocking on the door. Otherwise, he's only on a 1-year contract, and the drop off to the position he'll be forced to play is substantial, so might as well move him to a team who can use him more, and get a DM or RB in exchange.

 

Chill dude. Lletget's played 1500 minutes of pro football in his career.

 

So is this going to happen or not?

 

I won't, because he's been a pro for quite a while now but never got a shot at West Ham due to Allardyce's hyper-conservatism, the DP rule is messing with the effectiveness of promising players like him and Poku in NYCFC, and if it happens again this year maybe he doesn't get integrated into the national team where I think he can be an engine too and it has major implications on the type of opportunity he gets in Europe when he's a free agent. Maybe you want that as an LA Galaxy fan, for him to be artificially hidden until you can lock him up long-term. But as a U.S. national team fan, general football fan, and all around swell guy; I'd really find that to be a shame.

 

He was poor towards the end of the season but was quite good till the end of summer

 

Selling Omar at this point would be gross mismanagement by LAG. Selling when a players' value is closer to an all-time low is simply poor business.

But Gerrard was poor business too, as was the Magee decision. As to Omar himself, he is what he is at this point. He's not staying or moving for development purposes. If he wants a new experience, go. If not, stay. In LA, he'll never get benched no matter how poor his form at times as MLS doesn't allow much depth. He has no competition. With some of his recent form if he went to Liga MX, he very well could end up on the bench.

 

Um, no, not really.

 

BREAKING: The #LAGalaxy have transferred Omar Gonzalez to @Tuzos: https://t.co/KmFPUJNV7Q pic.twitter.com/lIucYKvkAI

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) December 22, 2015

Omar Gonzalez to Pachuca. @bungadiri