I realize I'm likely in the minority here, but I'd take Jones back at a lower salary in a heartbeat. I usually agree with him when he speaks out, especially about the league itself (bizarre comment about fans notwithstanding) and at least to me, he was an obvious choice for captain during last season's shitshow - players like JJ, Romain and Cole took the suckitude personally. Personally I'd love to play alongside players like that and do not see it as a cancer at all. I realize the difference in opinion exists here. He's not the player he was, but like Cole, keeping him at a lower salary enables Sigi to go out and focus on areas where we 100% must improve to be competitive again. Or, you know, we can watch Joao Pedro jog around for 90 minutes and not give a shit, because he's young and quiet and seems nice.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/12/01/reports-la-galaxy-open-moving-forward-gyasi-zardes While I don't blame them, I think Gyasi gets a bad rap at times. Hes proven to be very useful. I'll miss him if he goes.
I understand what his reasoning probably was, but the result is that we ended up dead last in MLS with a poorer record than both DC United and the woeful Rapids, teams with much poorer rosters. Maybe that happens regardless, but to me it makes no sense that a midfield of Jones, Jona, Boateng and Alessandrini should be so consistently underwhelming both in chance creation and in protecting the backline. Jones still consistently roamed out of position or took himself out the play completely while playing for Sigi.
Yep, Jones took the suckitude so personally he threw a tantrum and got himself ejected from a match while wearing the captain's armband. Caring about losing is not cancerous; being a cancer is.
1. Jones is oldddd, if we re-built and let go of AJ, Gordon, Leo, Jeff L. etc, there is no way in hell I want to now keep someone like Jones. Time to move on. It does drive me nuts that someone who was with the Galaxy for less than 6 months was given the Captain's arm band. It speaks volumes about why the G's lacked heart all year, and this will not be quickly fixed. Hard to admire/fight for the person next to you when they haven't been around long enough to know Bruce Arena. Klein and Vagenas traded away the heart and soul of the team by getting rid of so many vets at once. They should both be fired, they should have known better. 2. With coaching, Onalfo had the advantage of starting the season, when guys still believed this was a Bruce team that was built to win. By the time Sigi got there, belief in the team was gone. Hard for any coach to restore confidence mid-season. I predict a .500 season next year. Sigi will find many pieces, this is a multiyear re-build. *But it's MLS so we may get hot in the playoffs.
Well, we do have other data points to look at. Like the years Sigi's clubs won MLS cups, for example. How many of those did Onolfo have again. And if you think Curt was an unknown you must have been ignorant of his record as a head coach with two other clubs. He was exactly what most of us expected him to be based upon his illustrious record, As to the team doing better early in the year, there are some obvious reasons. Healthy players with something to play for v. Late in the year. A banged up roster with a team in the crapper. Let's review Sigi 2018 and see if he upgrades the performance from 2017.
You keep saying that he's a cancer. Is there any evidence to support that? Because all I see is teammates and coaches praising his work ethic and leadership on the field, regardless of whether or not they like him off of it (and there's zero inclination that anyone of his teammates dislike him personally). The red in Atlanta was stupid and he should handle his frustrations better but I have to ask if you're holding JVD (another great leader and teammate IMO) and his multiple ejections as captain this year to the same standard - not to mention his bailing on the team in the middle of the year. Could be all a moot point anyway as Jones may or may not be back next year but this doesn't make sense to me. Bottom line for me is that the dude benefits the team; I understand you have a different opinion.- I get that you (and many others here) personally never liked him but that's no reason to continuously push a flawed or even straight up false narrative.
Apparently a few MLS clubs are in for Eric Lichaj, so I hope we are one of those teams. Although I doubt Eric leaves. He has been in England for a long time now, and has a family there.
Actually, there are lots of indications that he isn't well-liked and that the Galaxy isn't the first team where that's been the case. Specifically there were rumors from people that have more access than me that he clashed big with Van Damme. I don't have any concrete evidence because I'm not in LA's locker room and most pro athletes don't air their dirty laundry in the press. Well, except for Jermaine Jones, that is, who has criticized his teammates publicly, even sharing a private conversation he had with Jordan Morris. He also thinks you're a shitty fan, by the way. I don't personally dislike Jones. In general, I tend to take comments from pro athletes make with a grain of salt, especially guys like Jones who are very opinionated and outspoken by nature. Cole was a legendary bad guy and had specifically anti-MLS comments before arriving, but he's been a consummate pro here. While MLS has few such personalities (regrettably, in fact) in the spectrum of pro sports, Jones is not that beyond the pale. I don't know the guy, but it's easy for me to imagine the reaction he gets from his team is very much like this board -- there are probably some guys that love him and some that can't ********ing stand him. To me, at this age, he's not worth that kind of headache. Dissing the fanbase is just icing on a big slice of shit cake that makes it easier for me to part with him.
https://www.metro.us/sports/ashley-cole-looking-return-to-la-galaxy#.WiVcAV_xdV0.twitter Cole confirming himself he's negotiating a new contract with us. He seems motivated. I think he's coming back.
Hearing that Jao Pedro is getting some interest from a couple MLS teams as a trade candidate.— Kristian Dyer (@KristianRDyer) December 4, 2017 Good news. Joao Pedro is a TAM player (and he does count as an international) who doesn't look to have the qualities to succeed in MLS, and we already have Jona and Seba (and maybe Baggio) at his position. That said he's still young and skilled, I'll be curious to see him in a better team than the 2017 Galaxy.
I agree. I'd like to see him on a better team than the 2017 Galaxy, as long as it's not the 2018 Galaxy.
Good to see we are trying to clean house. Will still take a miracle to field a good team in 2018 but at least we are starting the process.
Unless the trade is right, I am tempted to keep Pedro. He didn't work with Jones for obvious reasons, and then got hurt. I think Pedro can still turn into a good player, but if we get someone who can fill an immediate need, then yes we should do it.
Pedro is a skilled player - he just struggles with the pace and physicality of MLS. He's not very athletic and I don't see him as much of a fighter. He seems to be looking for a comfortable game and unwilling to mix it up enough to win the 50/50 balls our defensive mids should be winning. For these reasons it's hard for me to see him being a starter on any MLS Cup contender. (Not that we are anywhere close to that.)
I wonder who we are looking to get in return if Pedro and Zardes are on the block. Biggest question Sigi has to answer this offseason is how to get the most out of Gio. From there you can construct a team.
I think we should forget about building around Gio. Just go for the best players in each position and start building for a post-Gio era. Also Gio is best when all the other players around him are doing the hard work and he can just hang around and do his thing in the final third. So we need those ball busters (like Alessandrini and to a lesser extent, Boateng) all over the field. Getting a skilled, fast forward to keep defenses honest would help a lot as well. Seattle want to dump Morris? (haha, right?)
Go on... There's no likely about it. Okay... I guess Don Garber did determine his club by playing "Spin the Bottle" or something... He played a major role in it being a shitshow, on and off the field. He publicly undermined our actual captain and reigning MVP. In the process of doing so, he complained about the guy wandering out of position, showing jarring ignorance about his own negligent attitude toward positional discipline. Romain and Cole played their arses off in spite of it all. Jones, per his MO, was a sore loser and his aforementioned whining (his comments about JVD were something like two or three games in IIRC?) clearly did nothing for morale. Players like what? He wasn't a motivator. He didn't elect to take Joao Pedro under his wing. He didn't discipline himself in terms of positioning and movement. Then bitched about the existing captain for that very same thing. In a post match interview. Undermining him. Undermining the locker room. This wasn't some locker room general, extolling home-truths to weakminded teammates that couldn't take it. This was an opinionated, tactless, whiney prima donna, with a track record of acting out when he doesn't get his way. Don't forget that the reason he played his international soccer in a USA shirt, was as a bratty reaction to his perception that he wasn't in Jogi Loew's plans. That mirror's his Galaxy tenure perfectly. Instead of doing what it took to overcome the challenge before him, he chose to blame the situation on anyone but himself and took the easy option. It would have been nice if, you know, our seasoned veteran who was partnering Joao Pedro, had given the kid the benefit of his experience and worked with him, the way Gregg Berhalter and Tony Sanneh worked with Omar, AJ and Franklin. But no. It was all about Jermaine and what he wanted to do to make himself look good. Of course, he failed in his efforts, because he just looked like a headless chicken, contributing to our void of a midfield, but I'm sure in his mind he was God's gift to Los Angeles, covering every blade of grass to rescue this inept little MLS outpost.
If we could turn the Pedro and Zardes cap space plus a generous helping of TAM into a 15-goal per season number 9, I'm all in....
I disagree, I think we doubled down with Gio by bringing his brother in. If we are clearing space and building again I would rather not buy duplicate players like last season. I do agree tho that Gio will fall in line if the rest of the team is going well but I would do all we can to make that happen since we are starting over.
So we've dropped Smith, Turner, Turnley, Diallo and Van Anholt. Cole is out of contract. Rogers has retired. Do we have any actual outside backs in either G1 or G2?
Better yet get the $5.5MM DP striker to play at a minimum like a $2MM DP striker and you could keep Pedro and Zardes.