David Beckham Edges Closer To Galaxy Exit

beckham isn't zidane. while a tremendously gifted player, he simply does not have the heroic presence and skill that zidane does. he can't come into a mediocre squad and pick them up on his shoulders and carry them to a victory like zidane did so many times. its unfortunate that beckham takes all the blame when it is really MLS who expected beckham to be something he wasn't.

Dunivant was here before. I think he has had a couple of CAPs for the USMNT too. He is a good player. Not exciting, in the sense that he isn't going to Europe or anything. But he is a solid player in the back. Frankly, though he might not have been my first choice, he is probably just the type of player we need. Arena seems to be assembling a group of quality MLS players that will form a solid core for a new team. It's promising.

I bummed he'll be gone but at the same time, being a die-hard LAG fan, it kinda no longer matters to me. I'm worried about this Dunivant character.... didn't he play, I mean stagger about for us at some point in the old days?

Guess I'd better do some research.

Thanks for all the comments above, it helped round out a really good search session on the Becks-exit thing.

I can't wait for opening day... in that lump in the throat, butterflies of oh-shirt-I-hope-we-don't-f-ing-lose-too-much-this-time... and of course I'll be screamin' my malted-bev lined throat raw for my boyz, Sean and Edson BUDd-llllllle. I'll have to wait for the half for my season-opener hoda too... I'd hate to hurl from anxiety too early.

I had the same concern about this deal closing out Donovan's opportunity, but frankly I'm not sure there is one. Klose started this weekend. Donovan was a late sub for Toni. I think there is room for Donovan as a sub on that squad, but they haven't really made any rumblings about wanting to keep him. Maybe they are just being quiet while the Beckham deal goes forward, but I think Landon will be coming back. We'll see.

The link is to an article that reports that the LA Times said it was a $10 million offer. If you go to the LA Times site though, the article actually says that the Galaxy WANT $10M. I think the original offer was more like $5M. Here's the Times story:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/...

Hopefully this won't drag out too much longer with MLS/Galaxy and Milan coming to an agreement. We need our Galaxy focused on pre-season and not on the Beckham Circus that we have all come to know :p

Aha, perhaps you are correct. But I read 6 million Euros, which would roughly be $10 million dollars, right?

Regardless, the Galaxy laughed at them. I'm sure Milan is low-balling them so they can negotiate upwards, but not too far up.

Actually, Re: the subtitle
I heard it was a 6 million dollar offer

What a relief. I thought I was being politically incorrect for a second...and on a blog like this!? close call.

Homphones are words that sound like other words, but are spelled differently. If you look at my first post you'll see that I wrote knew instead of new, our instead of are, and to instead of two. Yeah, homophones, I think I learned about them in 3rd grade.

Laurie, I agree about Donovan (thank GAWD...I was starting to think about sending you Zidane's new book and DVD if we didn't agree about something soon) that's been on my mind as well.

Plus I'm still not sure Milan isn't blowing smoke -- I don't know where, but they are awful chatty.

George, what's a homophone?

“At the moment, Milan is more important than money. I want to think about football before everything else. I said in a clear manner what I think, I want to stay at Milan because I’ve rediscovered myself as a football player,”

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/...

Okay, let's just sit back now and watch how it gets handled by the lawyers . . .

Wow, for some reason when I type I always spell homophones incorrectly. Sorry, I should check my writing BEFORE posting next time.

I'm done talking about Beckham; I'm ready to start talking about our team. Besides DB and LD, only 4 of our starters from last year will probably be starting this year (which is as it should be, because the rest of the starters were not MLS starting X1 quality). Those players are Sean Franklin, Chris Klein, Eddie Lewis, and Edson Buddle. I'm excited about some of our knew players like Kovalenko, Magee, Ricketts, Dunivant, and whichever defenders that our on trial we end up keeping. We could have a pretty decent team, although the players will need to do a lot of gelling, since it's basically a new team. However, If Beckham and Donovan do both leave, we will be lacking a creative player. I think the only positive thing that will come from those to leaving, besides the extra cap space, will be seeing Chris Klein wearing the captain's armband...

Also, since Klose is injured there is a good chance we will be seeing Donovan start on Sunday (on GolTV).

P.S. That Dan Loney piece is the funniest thing I've read in ages. Aside from everything on this blog, of course. Or at least everything that's not intended to be serious. :-)

My biggest disappointment in the whole Beckham fiasco is that I was counting on him being here one more year to ease the transition for Landon. Landon really deserves a shot in Germany, and losing both at once is going to be excruciating. Not to mention that AEG and MLS just may not agree to both, and Landon has less pull.

I'm really, really hoping that Klinsmann finds a spot for him. It's not a given, especially now that the Galaxy will probably play hardball for him.

Rats! Without mentioning names -- as promised -- I should have made no mention in previous post that anyone's life and family were threatened when singly blamed for club or league's failure. DO NOT GET ANY IDEAS.

I promised I wouldn't comment on Becks again, but as the teacher listed my name on the blackboard(!!), I'll reply here and not argue with differing opinions. I'll start with an additional good/bad for whom before answering yours Nathan:

For me, a football fan that lives in the States and hadn't watched MLS before: no change; I've done very well with the Beckham effect; I discovered our local club (not Becks'); we bought season tix last year and my family is very happy to be going to live matches again; we still prefer European matches on TV and nothing will ever replace our English club, but its nice to feel part of a local footy culture again, early in its development as it might be. None of that changes.

Your list:

Galaxy: beyond good, team needs balance, consistency and non-distorted expectations in order to grow, not dodgy promotional ploys or "high visibility" -- and that was before Beckham's arrival to my eyes, now they really need all that as well as his salary cap space to spend on a balanced team.

Milan: not bad during season of injuries and recent low morale; great, if just in training, for younger players.

MLS: A wash. I'm not bothered on one level as the situation was handled abominably by them from the beginning -- first in the interest of fans, then for the Galaxy players (including Beckham) and coaches, then in terms of publicity. On the other hand, in terms of hoping the league grows I've worked in marketing for a very long time and (obviously) don't have same sky is falling view as others. Visibility is already raised here and abroad, league has made a few buckets full of cash, best to get past mistakes and move on. In the end the league's image will grow only with the quality of its product on the fiels.

In the eyes of anyone who has followed sports, football and otherwise, this won't be the first time they've seen a league handle something poorly for profit or out of sheer ineptitude, or a player (or any other kind of person for that matter) fail to deliver on a promise -- for understandable or inexcusable reasons depending on your point of view in this case -- or to discover something doesn't work and/or change their mind when they do, or to have their circumstances change and ask out of a contract.

For Beckham: good outweighs bad. Psyched about possible NT action but also, I think, to find out that he can still play as he is, then too there's the "Milan Lab's" potential fountain of fitness. I'll repeat one thing I've said before -- it can't be underestimated what it would mean to Bekcham personally to even have a chance of playing a role for England in next World Cup. Recall that in his first WC he was singly blamed for England's failure -- complete threats to life and family -- and in the last two he was captain when they failed to reach the finals. The possibility of helping to make that right is most likely what trumped making things right with Galaxy fans. That would be the down side, although I know many here will take exception to this observation, Beckham doesn't like to let fans down and has done a great deal during his career to prove that before now. (Thank gawd I am safely out of the way of thrown objects).

For Posh and kids: my husband is worried about the kids changing schools so much ;) .

p.s. Am I the only person who thinks this still might not happen?

p.p.s. Nathan, I have an odd hours job, many teenagers to wait up for, and I type very fast (often faster than I think).

Thank you, joseph, for your keen insights and proper grammer. Just a quick question for you. If the Galaxy is a bad team - and a bad league - why did Beckham sign with them in the first place? Well done, indeed.

I think G. Jones highlighted how poorly skilled Galaxy and MLS management are compared to the big boys in Europe. It hurts to see our game's "leaders" being played for the boys that they are.

We just need to move on as quickly as possible and get as much money as we can from the transfer. We have a lot to learn. IF Galaxy's management and coaching staff learn the right lessons from this, it should be make the team stronger in the long run. But what do I know. I'm also a Kings fan.

I still want the US and England to play in South Africa.

If Klinsman can't sort out where to place Landy, then he may com back, and it might be Donovan's choice. He's not a winger, yet that's where he was subbed. Donovan couldn't have been to happy about how he looked last week, but it was not his fault at all. As long as Klose and Roberto are there, its gonna be tough for playing time, but Donovan more than proved himself in the friendlies. His value to other teams will decrease if he doesn't play, and he really deserves to be starting. I can't predict this one, but I'd put it now at 50/50, even though 2 weeks ago I figured it was 100% done.

I read a lot of commentary that the current press exposure is good for the MLS and Galaxy. We do seem like big players (we know better than that though). Grahame's article in the Times made a good point, we should be asking for Shevchenko.

As far as the onfield performance, I really thought the team always played better with Klein on the right mid. They were organized and didn't predictably resort to crosses into the box all the time, A lot of creativity went on in the midfield back then. Even Martino looked could occasionally with that midfield. As long as Klein returns to where he plays best, I won't be so worried about the onfield issues, in fact, I'm sure this simple change will improve things a lot. Klein and Lewis on either side? Sounds like a great season to me!!

Oh..and Nathan..I'm a classical musician...so...ha...yeah...I don't really have a job!!

well done becks milan is a great team, meanwhile l.a. galaxy sucks thats a bad team and a bad league.

David,

I agree with you, I don't think Beckham was a bust at all. I mentioned on another blog that his presence and that of Schelotto forced the d-mids to improve in this league or get punished severely for hacking down a player 20-30yds from goal. I wasn't nearly as familiar with this nuance of the game until these two, especially Beckham came.

For the Beckham investment, sure there were problems on the field last year, but Arena was well on his way to improving those issues this year. I think AEG was ready, willing and determined to throw more money and clout at the Beckham experiment to see it succeed. That was before Beckham turned on them. Tim Leiweke was one of the most influential owner representatives in the league -- now what happens to that influence? What happens to his willingness to try another bold experiment like the Beckham rule?

Unfortunately, I also don't think this is good news for Landon or the US National Team, which would have benefited with Landon being at Bayern Munich. If Beckham leaves, I'm inclined to believe that AEG and MLS won't let Landon go, or risk having the Galaxy come apart even more (at least for the first half of the season).

@John:

Option 1: Sell him outright: $20 million.

$20 million is likely not enough to compensate for his loss financially. I'm guessing north of $30 million, and you can't put a price on damaged credibility.

Option 2: Trade him for 1 or 2 current Milan players. (Perhaps one attacker and one defender - Borriello: 27, Ronaldinho: 28; Bonera: 27, Jankulovski: 31)

Are any of those players interested in coming here? Can't force them to come and I'd guess their interest level is going down given that Beckham is going the other way.

Option 3: Sell him for 5 million, get Milan involved in a future player transfer (of our selection) to the Galaxy.

What? Why would they do that? Give MLS an option to cherry-pick one of their players in the future? Milan is big time, it's not some small, provincial organization. Heck Silvio Berlusconi, the owner, is a billionaire and the current Prime Minister of Italy!

Option 4: Would Milan be willing to give up the rights to some of their youth players?

No.

Now what about Landycakes? I have heard nothing recently. Has Munich even tried to bid for him? Seems like he may be coming back.

Becks move.

For Galaxy: Good and bad. His departure leaves a lot of room to build. But it also removes one of the key factors drawing new spectators. The timing makes it look like the whole escapade was a bust. And he is still the best player on the team. But in the end the team will recover just fine.

For Becks: Good move. Playing at a high level again and getting international caps.

For MLS: Bad move. Makes it look like it was just a publicity stunt to begin with. Wait a minute....

For Milan: Good move if they don't spend too much. He'll sell jerseys and help them play well. He is motivated to play well, so what if it's not for the team but because he wants to play for England.

For Posh and kids: Is a move to a country where you don't speak the language ever good? I suspect that's the only thing that really made him hesitate in the first place.

Nick hits the nail on the head in saying that Beckham exposed the low salary cap and limited level of play. But I don't get the talk of Beckham being a bust by anyone who knows the slightest bit about it. On the surface level, he came, they sucked, so it's a bust. But if you followed this team at all, you know that they had the highest scoring offense in the league last year. You know they had record attendance and promotion. You know that there were moments more exciting than any we had seen before. Not until 2007 had I ever been excited about an ankle cam! It didn't work out. But you can't say Beckham was a bust.

Yeah, this media whirlwind is not winding down, it's just getting started. Over on ESPN's boards and SI's boards discussions of Beckham's move to Milan can easily hit over 250 posts, mostly with European cursing Americans and calling American Football and Baseball non-sports and casual American sports fans responding that soccer is a girl's sport in the U.S., while American Football is played by REAL men.

Sadly, while Nick Green's points are good for soccer fanatics and those familiar with the game in the US, he comes off as sounding like a small fish in a small pond bitching about his smallness.

Most soccer fans in the world will likely see Beckham's third failure not for struggling to make a Yugo into a Mercedes Benz (as a metaphor), but for going to MLS in the first place while he still had some juice in his legs.

Green writes that Beckham couldn't make his LA teammates better or appear better, but in all honesty, I was also sick to my stomach when yo-yos like Edson Buddle and Alan Gordon couldn't put away a perfectly good cross. Or other players had such mediocre tactical knowledge that they had no idea how to run off the ball to correctly anticipate Beckham's passes. These aren't really marks against Beckham, these are marks against the simple, unsophisticated players that were around him (minus Landon Donovan). Buddle may have had a good season last year, but I watched him play terribly in NY and he had no idea what to do with passes from Youri Djorkaeff or Amado Guevara either. I watched him shank a lot of sitters.

I think if Beckham goes, AEG will be forced to ratchet down season-ticket prices or suffer lots and lots of empty seats next year. Empty seats don't make any money. I have no idea what AEG plans to do with the Herbalife contract, but I can tell you that Herbalife is a publicly-traded company that has seen it's stock price decline 50% in the last year. I really don't think the executives there will be able to justify spending $4-5 million per season on that jersey sponsorship, in this economy, to their Board of Directors and stockholders without the Beckham name. Just keep in mind that LA sold 300,000 Beckham jerseys last year, I believe. I wouldn't be surprised if Herbalife has an escape clause in their contract in the event of Beckham leaving.

How exactly Beckham leaving would affect ESPN coverage and ESPN paying MLS for rights to games is something that we'll have to wait to see. But for sure, there will be an impact, because Beckham was the guy moving the needle on ratings (Blanco likely much less so).

I'm sure there will be other effects, like European players being less willing to come to MLS, or delaying coming to MLS until very late in their careers (i.e., "retirement league"). MLS owners who have not utilized the DP rule questioning whether any club should be spending that much money on a DP in this economic environment when such a large financial and reputational risk exists of the player weaseling out of his contract.

Finally, the reason I can write and comment in the middle of the day is because I'm a former investment banker turned hedge fund stock analyst who is now unemployed. I made lots of money for my firm last year but I didn't get paid any bonus and only got a pittance for severance. My laying off was not performance related. Know anyone who's hiring?

What a bust!!! Too bad. But perhaps we have some options with Milan's involvement?

Option 1: Sell him outright: 20 million.
Option 2: Trade him for 1 or 2 current Milan players. (Perhaps one attacker and one defender - Borriello: 27, Ronaldinho: 28; Bonera: 27, Jankulovski: 31)
Option 3: Sell him for 5 million, get Milan involved in a future player transfer (of our selection) to the Galaxy.
Option 3: Would Milan be willing to give up the rights to some of their youth players?

It is good to see your posts again, Nathan... However, I've already said all I wanted to say about this topic/drama/saga. I just want my LA Galaxy to put this nonsense behind them... and, turn the ailing ship around. And, my hope and many prayers are that the head-coach, coaches, trainers, and players all want the same thing, too. I believe what the LA Galaxy needs is to get as much compensation from this (if indeed David is let go & gets to stay at AC Milan). Then, use the funds to secure the services of solid, dependable, reliable, and earnest quality players in key/integral positions on the field. Once the locker-room, trainings, games, and players themselves get back to soccer-focused ways, the minds and hearts of good LA Galaxy supporters and fans will mend and come around. At least, I would like to believe so.
I say when the rest of the MLS teams starts enhancing, strengthening, promoting themselves in ways their respective locations/cities can - MLS will still maintain its identity and livelihood. But, to be seen, and accepted, and understood as viable opponents in the international playing-field; then, doing well in competitions with our southern neighbors is absolutely vital. We're not there yet. We will be; but, some fundamentals and essentials have to be laid. Youth Academies, Getting promising players into the several National team camps, continue to give trials & loan offers to many younger players from these southern countries in our USL & MLS leagues, Definitely demand more expertise & strength from coaches & league officials. To me, this is why I still believe that holding InterLiga & SuperLiga matches here on US MLS fields is still very important. It sets the seeds for current fans who live here in the US; gives them tangible competitions that they can be involved in and willingly want to be a part of. On the flip-side, the great many of us can see southern countries' structure, talents, and playing styles up-close.