The 26-year-old Griffin, an MLS veteran who played for Portland of the USL First Division last year, trained with the Galaxy at the end of last season and played the final 10 minutes of their friendly against the Oceania All-Stars in New Zealand. Whoopie Link:http://cbs2.com/sports/los.angeles.galaxy.2.902543.html
Leonard was a Dave Strachan boy in Chicago, so he comes in as a known quantity. He is versatile and provides backup and insurance. But don't expect much more than that. Just think about the number of times the last couple of years LAG has suffered from a lack of depth.
Galaxy Ohhh... Leonard Griffin. Yeah, never let it be said there is a lack of talent in MLS. So Bruce (General Manager Now) Arena just spent some of AEG's money. Leonard Griffin Steve Cronin Jovan Kirovski All I know is GM is thinking about a 25% U.S. employee plant layoffs in the next 12 months. All three of these guys above aren't even qualified to put that special "feet" paper on the floor of new cars coming off the assembly line, let alone play anything matching the description of decent soccer.
Re: Galaxy The "feet" paper comment made my day. TJ, you are unique. Did you mean Donovan Ricketts instead of Steve Cronin?
I can't wait to see what kind of cheap CONCACAF imports Paul Bravo will deliver next. He was outstanding in bringing in useless and expensive ballast.
Re: Galaxy The feet paper metaphor got me to literally laugh out loud too. And no, he is correct, we just re-signed Cronin and Kirovski as well as added Griffin. http://www.thelagalaxy.blogspot.com/
i have been reading up on Leo and have been impressed with stuff i have seen.. Has anyone got any footage of him that i can see??
just so i'm ready for the season, now that lalas is gone and we're still making awful personnel decisions are we shifting blame to bravo or arena? i just want to prep my scapegoat tactics.
Personally, I think this is a good addition. He can play defensive midfield, left back and center back. He's not great and (hopefully) he won't be a starter but we need cheap versatile depth and he is that. I think it also reflects the new roster rules. Rather than draft someone for the dev roster, it's now better to get someone cheap from the USL to go on the senior roster. Given that he can play left back, it does suggest that one of Jazic or Randolph could be going.
As to Cronin, we just re-signed him to a new deal last year. Somehow I think this new new deal is not as good.
Yeah, this is a signing for depth. Instead of bringing in a rookie off the bench like we had to last year, we'll have an experienced player who knows the MLS game and what his role will be, and he won't be making a big fat six-figure salary either, I would guess. So now we have some depth, but we still don't have those key new starters that we need to have a competitive starting-XI. Keeping my fingers crossed.......
I wonder what the final salary numbers for Kiro and Cronin will be. Cronin signed a new $100k+ contract last season. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he took a pay cut in order to remain the long term goalkeeper in LA Galaxy's plans. Kiro was on a stupid contract last year. (relative to his worth) It expired so I assume he agreed to play for much less. I'm guessing $100k.
So we are paying Cronin a salary of the real GK. Lighting pole would be a cheaper and more reliable alternative though.
I'm going with Arena cause I'm prejudiced against him, and also cause I'm crediting Bravo with Sean Franklin, whether he was responsible for drafting him or not. Who said Big Soccer posters have to be fair?
I don't think Bravo was responsible for Franklin. Bravo doesn't possess mental ability to select good players, it's his congenital defect.
Unfortunately Lighting Pole was just signed by RSL, although I believe Traffic Cone and Old Sweatshirt are still available.
at the seaon ticket holder event bruce said, now, all player decisions are made by him only (exclude Becks and Donovan) Bravo was and sadly still is our scout... I thought it was Gullit who for some reasons, saw Franklins potentional/class and wanted him desperatley ?
I will be blaming or praising Arena. As for Bravo, I wonder what his role is now. I do recall him taking a very active role in the Dominguez aquisition which certainly didn't pan out. Hopefully Bravo and Arena can have a good working relationship on GM matters so Arena is stretched too thin while also being our head coach. I do believe that his partnership with Sarachan for coaching duties is a sold one.
Actually some credit to Bravo: It was him that first spotted Sean Franklin's potential throughout college - both he and Sean have said as such (if you don't believe me, just watch the 2007 Superdraft coverage when Sean Franklin got picked up by LA). Erase what you don't need?