I think we can all agree that his talent on the field is something we want, but as a person, do we really want him back? He clearly does not want to be here. He has brought in his "team of lawyers" to try and keep him at Milan. I think he believes a successful stint with AC Milan is his only opportunity to make the England squad for World Cup 2010, and he is probably right. So, given the fact that he is doing everything in his power, utilizing his wealth, limitless resources, and fame to stay at AC Milan, do you really want a player to return from loan who will be angry with MLS, angry with the Galaxy, angry at Bruce Arena, angry at AEG, and just flat out dissapointed. He is clearly a person who believes in county over club. If he believed that coming back would secure him a spot on England's squad for 2010, then he would not even think of staying at AC Milan. Agree or not???? I say let him be. The league is not going to fold. The league will continue to grow. We will import more talent. The next CBA can not be worse than the present one. Players will be paid more. We are going to get more soccer specific stadiums. We will survive and prosper because we are too passionate to let the Galaxy fail or the league fail. It is my opinion that he should not return, and frankly, we don't need him back. Opinions Please.
i think if Milan is willing to cough up the dough: 15mil... then yeah. i'd say let him go. i'd miss him as a player and it's a shame our team has been as bad as it has been these last two years. it would have been nice to see more, but that's the way the ball bounces sometimes. so if we can score some big cash, then take it and move on.
You are a ruthless Beckham basher. But I'm not far behind you. He has burnt his bridges with us. Screw him. We need to secure a deal which gives us 90% of his jersey sales or something like that. Bye Becks. It was fun. Luckily all of the chicks that you inspired to go to Galaxy games w/ me were more inspired by ACB than they were by you.
I think $15 million is far too low. This is David Effing Beckham. Anything less than $25 million would be an insult to him, might even harm his perceived value and keep him off the English National Team. I think we owe it to Mr. Beckham to demand at least $30 million.
really? and you know this how? that's right you don't. it's flimsy supposition based on newspaper reports and typical player comments. robbie keane/rafa benitez were claiming up until monday morning that keane was staying at liverpool and was very important to their plans. yesterday afternoon keane was thrilled to be back at spurs that liverpool hadn't been a good move and benitez was claiming he never wanted keane and he'd been a failure. all this idle, speculation is mind numbing. if he comes back great - he's a fantastic player who will make the galaxy a better. if he doesn't that's fine too, we'll free up $450,000 in salary cap space and knowing aeg we'll have some marquee player lined up and inserted in to the line-up. the only thing worth noting is if beckham wants to stay i'd rather he say it now so we have the opportunity to sign a replacement/balance the squad. but even then, if he doesn't come back we've got klein who can - and should - play right-mid. so it's not like we'll have this gaping hole in our line-up. as for his transfer fee - let's be honest milan is going to have to offer up a hell of a lot of money. aeg will make more than milan can probably offer. aeg has no urgency to sell the player. if it's clear he wants to leave at the end of the '09 season it would do aeg just as well to keep the revenue and let him leave on a free in november.
Excellent post with excellent points. While I have bashed Beckham's defense (his last game against Lazio was the best I have seen him play defense and it was certainly acceptable btw), he remains a potent offensive force. My concern is where are the Galaxy going to get a replacement for Beckham? The transfer window (is essentially closed for EU players until June) so I don't see how they can get anyone close to Beckham until at least the halfway point of the season. All these people who want the Galaxy to let Beckham and LD go seem to have interests other than the Galaxy whether its the USMNT or some other club.
Repped. Exactly. Beckham's time in LA has been an absolute catastrophe. We've been terrible, the team has gone through three coaches. We've cycled through endless line-ups. We've sucked. I've thought about ditching the team too. Beckham has one dream, and that's to make South African in 2010. He'll do whatever it takes to get him there. He's got more money than God. Also, for all you knuckleheads, tattoo this backwards on your heads THIS IS WHAT GROWN-UP TEAMS DEAL WITH ALL THE FRIGGIN' TIME You think we've got troubles? Go talk to some Newcastle Fans.
I think we would be an incredible team with a motivated Beckham and Donovan and an improved lineup that I think Arena is putting together. However, I love the Galaxy and both of those players do not want to play for us. Enough said. Get what you can, move on and start thinking of what's best for the organization even if it takes a couple of years to get there. I think by selling those two players the G's could have 500K from each transfer to apply to new players. It's time to move on.
did you state the same thing in that "Beckham should stay in Milan , so does Donovan" thread already? yeah, your opinion has been heard. Satisfied?
i personally am tired of him. the way he's treated his passionate, disturbingly strange 'love' for Milan is reason enough for me to want him to stay there. the guy is like an 8 year-old girl at a Hannah Montana concert. the honeymoon won't last forever. wait until he starts making some mistakes or slide tackles players because he can't keep up and gets a red card. if they sit out ronaldinho, they will definitely have no problem sitting out beckham. i don't even think we need him. i mean, the galaxy will have no problem finishing the season 2nd to last with or without him. i will have just as much fun at games this season without him being there. the best thing beckham did for the mls is get the Galaxy nicer jerseys.
Funny post! I just hope that whatever happens to Becks, and somewhat with Donovan, happens soon. It is too much of a distraction. Man, now the LAG's forum is dedicated to "Beckham watch '09". I wish that we can get on with our team. If doesn't want to be here than he and Milan need to work out some sort of deal. If not, stop telling the press, Milan and Becks, how much they want to stay together -- although AEG should also do the same too by ceasing to tell us how much he 'wants' to be here. It's just too much and is now, or has been, a joke. Whatever happens will be. But all I know is if he does decide -- more like forced -- to come back, it won't be the same for him or the fans (real fans and not the layperson who shows up to games to snap up a picture of the man, and at the same instance, rationalize about how soccer players would be better off as NFL kickers). The new car smell definitely smells like crap now. Just my crappy pennies. Have a good one all.
There is a column on yahoo sports that is claiming that his legal team is on there way to get him out of his contract http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news;_y...w7YF?slug=ro-galaxy020309&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Lol he sent his legal team here? Wow, now i hope he comes back just so a sell out crowd of 27,000 can boo him when his name is announced in the starting line up. See ya later Spice Boy Piece of Crap
message in a bottle I dont want david beckham back. What I do want is the Los Angeles Galaxy organization to act like it is at least a true soccer club in the least respect of the word. Find new talent from across the world, develop and teach it's current crop how to be great professionals, cultivate a sense of pride about the team with the fans and in the community. Stop acting like a 14 year old girl with a thousand dollars and absolutely no sense. Stop treating your hardcore fans like a 44 year old wife with 3 kids you say you love... only to go off in pursuit of fake fans and one-timers. Stop measuring your success by the money in your wallet and instead by the achievements of your actions. I want the Galaxy instead of looking for players like beckham, find players like cienfuegos. find me the player for new decade that wants to be here. wear the colors, bring the pride that has been missing for so many years now back to this club.... a player or players who care more about the crest over their hearts than the letters running across their shoulders. I want players like Sean Franklin & Brandon McDonald to be the next Cobi Jones... and Tyrone Marshall. So some day when they are great professionals and that next generation comes up... we can look back and say I hope player X is the next Sean Franklin and player y is the next Brandon McDonald. Remeber as Galaxy fans... and ultimately sports fans. Our greatest games will always be played on the soccer field and never in a boardroom. The cup is our's this year if we want it.
All of you get off your high ********ing horses. You're making me sick. We had players that bled the colors - his name was Pete Vagenas. If Cienfuegos had been playing on the 2006-2009 Galaxy, he would have been begging for a transfer to Chivas USA. Beckham was terribly injured, then driven into the ground, then injured again. He then was treated to the Alexi and Ruud show. If I've got 2-3 years left in my career, I'm damn sure not gonna want to spend it near those guys. Is Milan acting like a 14 year old? No, they're running a business just like us. Stop pissing all over yourselves and get a life. It was a nice idea, it didn't work out. Hopefully we'll make the playoffs next season.
Seriously. Good point. Everyone always says they want players that bleed the colors, and yet Pete got nothing but hate from most the fans. This is the MLS, we cannot have a team of 25 year old superstars that bleed LAG's colors. We'll have some older players for depth, some young and promising but not amazing players, and our best players will probably wish they were playing in another league or be over the hill. That's just how it is for now.
Ok, Calexico. It may have been " a nice idea, it didn't work out", but people do have the right to be pissed over how and why it did not work out. First. I doubt very much Cienfuegos would have been wanting to change to Chivas USA. Everything he has said and done is consistent with being a fighter for what he loves, and I do believe he loves the Galaxy. He would have fought with Alexi or Ruud, but he would have fought for the team and not to run from the team. Second, Beckham was terribly injured when playing for Real Madrid, after already having signed for the Galaxy. If anybody was jobbed by that, to have their greatest signee come in broken in shipping, it was Galaxy and MLS, not David. Third, the Galaxy did make a bad mistake in not simply saying "Ok, you ********ed up, so please get the damn healthy and let's start you playing right, at least". But that second injury was in no way the Galaxy's fault, and Beckham had been bleating as to how he looked forward to playing teams like Pachuca [from the beginning, this slighting of the MLS opposition was in sharp contrast with the claims he had made as to why he was here to begin with]. He was as rash with his health as much as the Galaxy, and their blunder was also his blunder. Third, the Galaxy did make a huge mistake in not trying--or not having the brains to succeed at trying-- to develop the strongest possible team around their new star, one that would let there be at least enough success to sustain hopes of "superclub" and a "superclub" schedule. But then they did understand their mistake, and they brought in Ruud because Beckham's team told them to bring in Ruud. Gullit was DBs choice, and DBs team being give control of the reigns. Understandably enough, this is when Beckham shines brightest in MLS. But then Ruud turns out to be a gutless "fling by night, leave by day" wonder and runs away leaving his new responsibilities in the trash before ever really trying. Gee, hard to see how Beckham could see a kindred spirit in Ruud . And it was after his Ruud betrayed the cause that DB promptly started to betray the cause. To describe his performance and attitude afterwards as "mailing it in" is to insult the post office. To put it mildly, it was obvious to those of us watching from afar, and then seeing him play on the pitch before us, that he was bouncing from petulance to self pity to frustration with all around him. There was no sense of caring for the team [ever, really, except for a while under Ruud], of a desire to set things right and achieve triumph in this new venture, of any capacity for reflection over how his own actions and choices were contributing to the muck up, no critical honesty. And what better example of this than hiding from your own manager the plan to leave the team on a loan deal to Milan, after having gotten Capello to work with him on a move to that city and to put pressure on MLS by dropping broad hints to the media that DB would be best served back in Europia? DB, the man and his team, blindsided MLS literally coming and going, and his entrance and his exit were f&ckEn lame. Yes, folks have every right to be pissed. The best thing MLS could do is restore some clarity and self respect and let him bugger off to Milan with the absolute understanding that he is persona non grata in this league, and that when things muck up in Milan, as they absolutely will, from injury, from age, from his own moments of wrongheadedness on the field, that he is stuck there and that is what he will live with. The worst thing MLS could do is let him keep a lifeline here, so he returns again, one day, having left everything for other sides, and arrives again broken and distempered, but now with no vast reservoir of goodwill on this side of the ocean to forgive and to understand.
I blame the salary cap. LA with Beckham and Donovan was already a strong team, it was everyone else that was suspect, shame.
Everything this guy does is for himself, if he can make a few million bucks he will do it, he does not care about us, the real fans as long as he gets his way, good riddance to him and to his sickly looking wife.
Ugh. I won't defend Beckham, and will lose alot of respect for him if he breaks his word and/or contract. But I'm tired of people saying he's doing it for the money. Money has not been and will never be his motivation. If he wanted money, he would stay in LA. Nowhere in Europe will he earn as much money as he can playing for us. It's as simple as that. He may be selfish, and crave top level football and england caps, but he's not out for money on this one. And leave his wife out of it man.
Your screen name is perfect for your post. They guy could literally heat his house by burning cash for the rest of his life and he wouldn't skip a beat. It's not the money. Again, I'm telling you - he wants to be on the 2010 WC team in South Africa. He will jettison everything else to be there.