Saturday, September 1, 2007

Alexi answers

What's funny is that I talked to Alexi Lalas and Frank Yallop as well, but at different times than Luis. A crowd of reporters, including Luis, was around Lalas while I talked to Frank by myself. Then they all switched over to Frank, and I went to talk to Alexi. I'm sure they repeated themselves in some respects, but here's some of what I got from Alexi.

"I have and continue to have great faith in Frank Yallop. We’re pretty simple and direct in how we deal with each other. I understand the realities of this world that he’s been thrust into and the challenges that this season has brought. This is the Galaxy now. This is what this world is about. We need people that can function and thrive in this environment. That’s our new reality."

"I continue to assess. I’m working every day to improve what we all recognize is a team that has failed to live up to expectations. As far as I’m concerned, we’re not going to make any changes right now."

"Stopped it? I want to be very clear- I’m certainly irritated with the ultimate schedule that came out, but the schedule was not why we find ourselves in this position. But it sure didn’t help. When we formulated this schedule, you have 13 people who are all looking for the most ideal situation – even though nobody ever gets it. Having said that, it’s rare that any one team ever gets this many challenges thrown their way. Next year, because of the fact that David will be here from the start, we can look to rectify the situation and get a much more balanced schedule going."

"It depends – do I think it was a mistake? As the president and general manager of the Galaxy, would I have liked to see the schedule different than what it was? Yeah. But if I put myself in the shoes of other people – and this is a collective – this is single-entity – our ownership believes in making sure that everybody is taken care of and moving everybody together. I understand to a certain extent why decisions were made, so agreeing or disagreeing doesn’t change some of the realities of our sport."

"I think that as we go forward, there are certainly things that we’ve learned over the past couple of months. But if New York signs Diego Maradona in his prime, you’re damn right - even if he’s not coming for half the year, I want him here at the Home Depot Center. I want to benefit from other people’s vision and other people’s willingness to risk."

4 comments:

mbar said...

Lalas is such garbage. The crap that spews out of his mouth makes me want to rip my ears off.

We should be an organization where results matter, not just jersies sold.

By any reasonable measure, Lalas has been a failure wherever he's been in a management position.

This clown has to go.

Anonymous said...

Get rid of him. He is a terrible manager. He mishandled the schedule, he mishandled the roster, and he basically has not creative answers to solving this. He was an average center back who is over his head and does not know how to manage or build a professional soccer team.

The thing that really bothers me is the way he talks out of the side of his mouth. He takes no responsibility for his action and he has made inept roster and personnel decisions. Unprofessional.

Anonymous said...

No offense meant to the personnel present on the team (they try the best as they can to the best of their ability). But he has basically destroyed any chemistry on this team by his mercurial personnel moves. I respect Joe Klein but look what was given up to get him? I think Joe Cannon is great, but you already have a dependable goalkeeper in Hartman. I think he shoots from the hip and basically is paying the price for being an inexperienced, amateur soccer manager.

OZ said...

Maybe I can translate:

"The management wanted to make a quick killing with the Beckham circus so they loaded up the schedule. It's a 5 year deal but who knows how long Beckham will last and we want our money at the front end. As a company man I have to toe the line. We traded youth for experience because we needed to win now, the only problem is I don't have a lot of experience or ability in judging talent or personnel moves. "