No More Sexiness In LA
Filed under: Alexi Lalas, LA Galaxy, Los Angeles, Resignations, Ruud Gullit
AEG Chief Executive Officer Tim Leiweke and the LA Galaxy have accepted the resignation of Head Coach Ruud Gullit, with Cobi Jones stepping up as Interim Head Coach effective immediately ahead of Thursday night’s SuperClasico.
General Manager Alexi Lalas was also fired in the shuffle, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the season. Tom Payne, the teams Assistant GM will take over Lalas’ duties for now, with Director of Player Personnel Paul Bravo assisting Payne.
With Gullit throwing his LA crib up on the market just at the end of last month and Darth Leiweke making a throwdown appearance in the Galaxy locker room last week, was this really any surprise?
Gullit said in the Galaxy’s Press Release, “In truth, it has proved a lot more difficult than I anticipated for my family to settle in the area and the club has been very supportive and understanding of my decision. I would like to thank the players and the fans for their fantastic support and I wish the LA Galaxy much success in the future. I would now like to spend some time with my family before considering any other position in football.”
As for Lalas, Leiweke said, “With Ruud moving on, we believe that this is the right time to make more sweeping changes throughout the organization. Our commitment continues to be focused on not only winning the MLS Cup this and every season but to build a club capable of competing at the international level. This decision is the right one for the organization, the right one for the players and the right one for our fans. We thank Alexi for the tremendous hard work and dedication he brought to his job each and every day.”
Wonder what Vegas has for odds on The Bruce for Head Coach or GM? I’m thinking the latter might be in the cards…
This is not necessarily a surprise, but I am still disappointed. I believe that this team played much better football since Gullit became coach, and as a season-ticket-holding fan, I was ready to wait for the success to arrive out of the apparent improvements. Our offense was strong, we just needed time for Gullit to pull together a stronger defense. I certainly do not understand the GM vs. coach dynamics, so I have no idea who is at fault, but I still would have like to see Gullit coach a full season, if not a few. I still believe that bringing in foreign coaches, who may not know the “MLS way” is in the best interest of the league. The “MLS way” may work for winning MLS cups, but as we saw with Barcelona vs. New York, the MLS has a long way to go to achieve the quality of play you find in Europe. And wouldn’t that be great: to regularly watch beautiful football?
A man can dream . . .
Man, it’s crazy over there. I bet there is more shuffling to come too. No one in the West is that great now - wonder why this is happening exactly now?
I think Xavier’s comments after he was waived, along with AEG’s ultimatum, Gullit truly lost a locker room that wasn’t very talented and well put-together.
As ex pat New Yorker, living in LA, presently in Haarlem, where Ruud made his start, it is hard to believe that he did not even last one season as manager. European / Dutch football is orange, bleu, y rojo, MLS football is an entirely different color… (beige). Remember Gullit’s comments on MLS players coming out of college… My Dutch amigos loved Ruud as a player, but said from the beginning that he couldn’t cut it as a manager… Look at Feyenoord, Newcastle, and Chelsea as examples…If you can find “Brilliant Orange” by David Winner, read it… and then you will know. Sexy football yes, but in America… no…Ruud, come back to Haarlem, we need you….
rhybread, if that’s true, I would rather give up some of the grumbling players and keep a coach like Gullit. Of course, that’s just a hypothetical now. Now I can just hope that things settle down in the locker room so that we can start playing some good football. I wonder if they already have a replacement coach in mind?
Shit football team, and a shit coach! Ruud was an amazing player……….Has done nothing special since he stopped playing.