The Alexi Lalas era of the Los Angeles Galaxy is officially at an end, as the club fired Lalas and his first and only coaching hire Ruud Gullit after a less than impressive 2008 in MLS. Former MLS and U.S. national team star Cobi Jones has been named interim head coach.
According to the press release, Lalas, who was named president and general manager of Galaxy in 2006, was "relieved of duties" while Gullit left "for personal reasons" (as in the entire team hated his personal guts).
"Both parties have agreed on mutually-agreeable terms to part company," said Timothy J. Leiweke, President & CEO AEG, investor/operators of the Galaxy. "It is an amicable arrangement and we appreciate and respect the issues that Ruud has highlighted with the club and are very grateful for all the hard work he has contributed while with the organization. Hopefully, he has laid the foundations for future success for the Los Angeles Galaxy."
The Galaxy hired Gullit just last November, but expectations for the 2008 season were extremely high. Los Angeles sits in the bottom half of the table with just 23 points in 19 matches. Grumbling was heard as early as a month ago out of the owner's box, as AEG billionaire Phil Anschutz was unhappy with the inconsistency of his club, given the high profile moves that they had made in the last year. Chief among those moves was of course the signing of Beckham, which Lalas had little to do with (Leiweke is the man credited with bringing in Golden Balls). Lalas was responsible, however, for the addition of Abel Xavier which proved to be a complete bust, and the addition of Gullitt as well, which might have been the final straw for him:
"With Ruud moving on, we believe that this is the right time to make more sweeping changes throughout the organization," said Leiweke. "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."
Gullit, meanwhile, had reportedly lost the locker room due to favoritism and a lack of communication. There were reports that Landon Donovan was considering a move to Europe in part because of the atmosphere under Gullit. For his part, Gullitt deflected attention away from the turmoil of the club by citing personal reasons for leaving:
"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."
According to the press release, Paul Bravo will continue as Director of Soccer, so the "sweeping changes" Leiweke spoke of were really just the sacking of Lalas and Gullitt.
0 comments:
Post a Comment