Potentially huge to not have to use our one "buyout" per season if he was just happy to mutually terminate.
I mean, we were a playoff-caliber team in the back half of the season and our defense is gonna be better. But we aren't going to win anything without the midfield and forward upgrades that we know we need. I suppose the question now is can we find those players before the season starts or do we have to try to stay in the playoff hunt until the summer break when we can pick up players in the better transfer window. If the reports are true and Nascimento coming back is just a 6-month loan, that tells me what we have some plans in place perhaps for the summer window, so we are keeping him here to fill in the gap until that time.
IF his ACL does finally get repaired & rehabilitated correctly his speed should be unaffected. After returning it will take him a few months to get his peak conditioning and confidence back but after that he will hopefully be back to 100%.
NASCI LOAN RENEWAL: Loan deal is not finalized, but progressing.Reports of various details could be wrong/right or might not make it into the deal altogether.#LAGalaxy #MLS— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) January 12, 2026 REPORTS ON ZANKA: Not much information on this yet. No docs signed but if I was guessing, it seems something is headed in that direction. Wouldn't doubt the reports, just not official yet. #LAGalaxy #MLS— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) January 12, 2026
The reality is that we are currently worse than we were late last season at midfield because Fagundez is gone. He had 7 goals (good for 4th on the team) and 2 assists last season and played the third most minutes of any field player. Not a world beater by any means, but right now we are worse off without him. Maybe Reus is healthy and players like Sanabria and Wynder have taken a step forward, making Fagundez less critical. Or maybe the plan is to play Haak at DM and that will stabilize the midfield for everyone. Either way, right now we don't even have the bodies to suggest we will match last season at midfield.
Good point, I forgot we lost him. If Reus can stay health (big if) and Sanabria and especially Wynder can continue their upward trajectory, then maybe we can cover for his loss. But those are big ifs.
I suppose we don’t know how Haak might impact the center of midfield but, yeah, we need an upgrade this preseason.
We need the young guys - Cuevas, Wynder, Miller, Lepley, Parente - to step up. The young guys were key to our much improved finish last season. Hopefully they will make us a playoff team this season. But to really be good we need a killer forward and a killer AM.
Question - if Puig is declared out for the season and his salary is taken off our cap, does he get paid for the season?
Yes, although it's possible our share of it is defrayed by insurance. That's the kicker to the Season Ending Injury List. If Kuntz really goes out and replaces him with equal value and they don't have insurance for Puig's salary (and even if they do it's unlikely to cover everything), ownership is massively increasing their salary costs, even though it doesn't change the salary budget. Of all the ownership groups, AEG is more likely than most to do it, but even they have limits.
I believe all the Galaxy receives is the cap relief and ability to replace him with another DP player with the same cap hit, no extra funds or allocation money is given. So the onus is on ownership to give their blessing on the extra spending to bring in a marquee DP player or simply a player(s) who fit into the cap space and that's it. They are on the hook for Riqui's salary, whether they have insurance on that or not I don't know.
In case anyone was wondering, all three goalkeepers are present and accounted for pic.twitter.com/0PSJ0DTzhJ— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) January 13, 2026 There are some faces I'm not sure I recognize in the photos/videos on Instagram, but that may be because they are moving and its not very clear. Probably a few VCFC or Academy players training with them too.
Yes, as others have already said - we get a full DP slot and the full salary cap space - but we don't get any financial help - so unless some kind of insurance policy covers anything, AEG has to still pay Riqui's full salary plus whatever they pay for his replacement in salary and any transfer fee. So part of this attempt to get another DP requires AEG to be willing to pay for it. So getting someone with some name recognition that puts butts in seats might be a requirement for this one - to help defray this extra cost. But I'm just speculating on that.
I don’t understand why AEG (Beckerman) doesn’t just pony up a few extra mil to make us as good as we can be. Cost-wise the Galaxy are a pimple on AEG’s ass and the positive publicity generated by a “flagship” MLS team is probably worth the chump change. For context, AEG generates $1.9 billion annually.
I think that management has done pretty well considering. It's obviously going to be a rough start to the year, but I still think we are better than the second half of last year (the defensive additions outweigh the Fagundez loss - btw, has anyone picked him up yet? If not, he might be willing to sign for the money we save on Zanka). Going into the summer window, we should (might?) have money for a DP forward, a TAM midfielder and a U-22 midfielder/forward.
Not signing an attacking midfielder before the season starts is a huge gamble for Kuntz and Vanney. I'll say it again, if the team starts poorly, Vanney is gone. Last year was so bad, pitchforks are already standing by the front door.
Here's what google says: Diego Fagúndez's contract situation with the LA Galaxy is in flux as of late 2025; while his previous deal included an option for 2026, the club declined it, but they are in discussions to potentially re-sign him for the 2026 season, meaning he is currently a free agent after the 2025 MLS season but may return to the Galaxy.
That was what they said in the year-end roster decision press release. Since then, we've only heard CoG said he thinks it is doubtful, especially given the amount we have spent, between trade consideration and salary, for Glesnes, basically matched Fagundez' 2025 compensation. That was before Puig got hurt, though. Puig's injury, however, might make Diego's return less likely if we are using a DP slot to sign an AM.
The one thing we know for sure is the the FO didn't know anything about Riqui not being able to go and that caught them unaware and I'm sure they are scrambling on figuring out what to do.
Here's the latest photos from training camp. Unlike other teams, the Galaxy haven't been all that forthcoming about the players who are there. At least based on the photos, it feels like the same few players are being shown. Only new player to feature today was Parente, although you can see Gino Vivi in the background of the first photo of Paintsil.