There was this article that was already posted under Ruud reveals his life in L.A. but I want to bring up the point that I have been trying to make all along and I suspected that even last season that the head coach/ manager has hardly, if any input on player transactions! In the article Ruud acknowledged that he had no idea who the two players that the FO signed and loaned out to the Portland Timbers: .....So the questions here are: just who made this trade? Did Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit know anything about it? . . . “ It appears that Gullit is not totally in the loop on the transaction front. Last week he was asked about the acquisition of defenders Scott Bolkan and Vardan Adzemian and their subsequent loan to the Portland Timbers. Gullit looked blank. He had never heard of either player. Small wonder . . . that the dark storm clouds of rumour about coming upheaval and change continue to gather on the horizon.” Brian Doogan-timesonline.co.uk And he barely had any knowledge about Joe, except footage from a tape. Also, since we have so many injuries, if you get the chance to stumble upon a chance meeting with manager Gullit, you might get to play in a reserve game! Love to hear all your thoughts GALAMANIACS!!! Who is really running the CLUB???? Coach Gullit, in your eyes you might not think you have the team playing "sexy" football, but you got the team headed to the right direction.
Probably Director of Soccer Paul Bravo and/or General Manager Alexi Lalas. Here in American sports, the "manager" usually has at least one superior when it comes to the acquiring of players, usually the GM, a Vice President of Player Personel, or some other title, like Bravo's. Coaches (like Ruud) are almost always in the mix on player moves, but they're no the ones running the show entirely. Remember, the Galaxy are an American sports team, so it's likely that it would be run closer to an NFL or NBA team as opposed to an EPL team. Many of our newer fans will save themselves some confusion if they realize that fact.
The thread would have a more accurate title if it stated that "Coach Gullit had hardly any say in the PLAYER TRANSACTION THAT SIGNED TWO PLAYERS AND LOANED THEM TO PORTLAND!". I don't pretend to know the extent of his involvement in player transactions in general, but the fact that he didn't know about this transaction doesn't mean that he doesn't make decisions on others.
I agree. I would bet that those players were selected entirely by Portland and we signed them and loaned them as part of an agreement that brought in Wicks and Jordan. There was nothing for Gullit to be involved in.
Great points everybody, are side deals written in the agreement?? or is it you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours? It's confusing, this whole player transaction thing, sometimes the coach does, sometimes they do. WE don't have enough players for a reserve game, using two office people, no injured reserve list to get more players. I hope there's progress in this department.
True. However, the net result is that we sacrifice two roster spots, and don't have room for anyone else even though we only have 26 players. And the number of front office employees we had to field in the reserve game happens to be... two. Why couldn't we have just paid Portland cash equivalent to their salaries?
I sort of like that fact that Ruud is concentrating on, you know, coaching the team. And Bravo is concentrating on finding better talent for the team. Maybe it has nothing to do with it, but Ruud seems to be making very astute sub/starter decisions that is making an impact on the games. So maybe it's a good thing to let him concentrate on maximizing what we get out of the players we DO have. And let Bravo work on finding the players we'd LIKE to have. For instance, in the Joey Franchino move, I'm sure Ruud talked with Bravo about needing a better enforcer in the middle of the field. Bravo did the leg work, while Ruud continued to work with what we had, and came back with Franchino - who was available and could be acquired at the right price. Ruud looked at some video of Franchino, probably also getting input from Bravo and asst. coach Cobi Jones (doing exactly what we hoped he'd be doing - advising Ruud on MLS issues) and said yes. Bravo went to Lalas, Lalas made the deal, and Ruud had him on the bench for the game. Then made what ended up being a great decision to insert him into the game at halftime. So, I'd say, things are doing well on this front...
I personally would not want Ruud to be signing players. He doesn't know the pool of talent that we can draw from. If you want to know who Ruud would bring in, see Babayaro, Celestine.
No need for ALL CAPS, especially in thread titles. Which structure is better, EPL or MLS, is a pointless and quixotic, yet exhaustingly well-trod, conversation better suited for other boards. We got what we got -- it's improved greatly in 13 years and it will improve more 13 years from now. But even then we'll still be kids on the football block. Do you really think Ruud Gullit knows jack about any of the players mentioned? He barely knows who Steve Cronin is. At this point in time, I actually don't want him spending his time scouting players; I want him imparting his legendary knowledge, discipline and football mindset on the players he has. Bravo and Cobi and Co. know the U.S. system, the available players and the limitations thereof. Did I mention the all caps?
This is one area I will have to agree to disagree on. I think that we have no idea if the Portland kids or the Franchino acquisition are par for the course, unrelated, apples and oranges, whatever. We're all guessing and I don't like that. When Sigi was the head coach we knew he was the man in charge of player personnel decisions, with the exception of the Hernandez deal which we all know was league orchestrated. After that we know that Doug Hamilton took a more active role during Sampson's reign of terror. By the time Yallop got here we had no idea who was doing what. That's not leadership, and that's a recipe for disaster. We need an Alex Ferguson type leader with a clear vision for the entire club: senior roster, reserves, and youth set-up. What is the Galaxy way? What is our club philosophy? Who is the director of the club? Parcells had it right. He needed to be able to bring in his type of players. They had to fit his system. With the Raiders, its Al Davis. With the Lakers, it used to be Jerry West. Guys who had a vision for success and a plan to implement the vision. Bravo scouting, Gullit coaching and Lalas tap dancing/marketing doesn't sound like a plan. It sounds more like an uneasy truce. Who is who's direct report? Where does the buck stop. Who has the ultimate say? If we are going to be a superclub, who is the architect and when are you going to share that blueprint with me, the season ticket holding consumer. I don't want to see anther STH pep rally/autograph session. Let's have a meeting with a org chart, and a business plan. Until then just fooking shut up and win. Titles will convince me that your plan is sound.
I don't disagree with the philosophy of the above post. In fact I agree pretty strongly with it. But -- to reiterate my earlier post somewhat -- that's just not practical at the moment. Gullit just got here. He's still figuring out the single entity structure, the limitations of the player pool, the gap in technical and tactical proficiency, the other teams in the league, the potential and limitations of his own players, etc. I do want there to be a unifying vision, and I would imagine he's certainly capable of it. But he definitely needs lots of help at this point on administration and infrastructure and the roster.
but we're not guessing. as i said in another thread. last season we were guessing, so paul bravo was promoted to director of soccer and we were told he's in charge of all first team/youth development matters; scouting, signing, etc... it's bravo's name on the press releases, it's bravo who wrote the article about how he interacts with the coaching staff. either this is all an elaborate masquerade designed to... well i don't really know what benefit it serves. or the front office is shooting straight with us and we know exactly what roles the big three serve (lalas, gullit, bravo)
yeah, but there was also a quote that said Ruud went to the draft combine and picked the players he wanted and then left to go back to Holland. So that suggests Ruud is the one making the choices. If I were guessing (and I am) Bravo and Cobi present options to Ruud but then Ruud makes the decisions (the Portland thing is completely different). I believe this because a) the quote I just mentioned, b) because Bravo and Cobi and Lalas would be likely to defer to Ruud's judgement given his resume, and c) because the picks have been, for the most part, excellent. Here is my scenario around Franchino. Remember Franchino had an "incident" that apparently was the final straw for the Revs and they made him available on very short notice. Bravo or Lalas or Ruud found out about this defensive players sudden availability. Ruud asks Cobi and/or Bravo what they think of this guy. They say hes got some issues but is pretty good. Someone is aware that there is tape of him available, they all sit down and watch the tape and Ruud says hell yeah, he looks like he might be just what we need. Obviously I'm just guessing about all this but the fact that Ruud had Franchino come in a day early and put him in right away tells us that Ruud was definitely very high on the guy. So I'm guessing he had a pretty big say on bringing him in.
I agree with both of you previous posters. Gullit doesn't know his a$$ from third base right now as far as the players, the league and the local soccer culture and we need him to rely on Bravo, Lalas and Jones, and I'll concede that we have been told early and often this season that Bravo is making all of the player personnel decisions although there is some debate as to how much conversation ahead of time there is with the others. For instance who makes the salary cap decisions? Who decides on senior vs. dev contracts? What about loans? Again, an org chart would be nice. And if this is the system, I hate it! I know its what we have to work with right now, but hell I want more! Perhaps what we need is a Beckenbauer/Platini type who all three guys report to. Its not like AEG doesn't have the means to go get that guy either.
definitely room for clarification, according to original press release it seems to fall under bravo's jurisdiction. on the current staff info it's a bit more vague. http://la.galaxy.mlsnet.com/news/te...ent_id=113493&vkey=pr_lag&fext=.jsp&team=t106 http://web.mlsnet.com/t106/load.jsp?section=about&content=coaches
I'm agreeing with all you guys I would love to have a "Galaxy Way" (the Milky Way? ) of doing things but the truth is, if there is a Galaxy way it's driven by Tim Liewicke and we know what that means. I'll settle for our decentralized system since right now there's no one to hand the reigns to. Imagine if Ruud had to make a decision about Scott Bolkan. He's going to say that Bolkan looks like crap. Why? Because most players in MLS look like crap to Gullitt. But in our reality Bolkan is what you get in the late rounds of the draft and is probably worth taking a chance on given what you can get for a $13,000 per year dev roster spot. There's really no point in having Ruud make these decisions; he doesn't understand the context. I wish Ruud was more of a "details person" and I hope he develops a better understanding of MLS over time - which I think he will - but for now, I'm not really worried about who is making these decisions (as long as it's not Alexi)