L.A. Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas wasn’t fired Monday, writes Nick Green, but there’s a long week ahead. In the midst of a form slump, reports of locker room tension, and with Lalas reportedly not exactly bonding with Coach Ruud Gullit, it is surely just a matter of time before the team’s owner, AEG head Phil Anschutz, takes measures to arrest a potential third successive slide out of playoff contention.
Lalas “pretty much confirmed that some choice words are being thrown about as players and coaches try to hash out the encroaching morass that threatens to envelop the team,” writes Green. Lalas admitted that his relationship with Gullit is “professional” (a euphemism for “we speak when necessary,” points out Green), and that the pair have disagreements.
Yet he maintained there was nothing wrong with a politically contentious atmosphere in a soccer club. “I want strong personalities in the locker room,” Lalas said. “I want people who have opinions. I don’t want a bunch of robots. And I don’t want players that have no passion and don’t care. Some of the best players or some of the best teams I’ve ever been involved with, if [you were] on the inside you would see some of the knock-down, drag-out stuff, it would scare you to death.” That, according to Lalas, is “how successful teams are made. I never would want to squash that.” Except that success under Lalas’ reign has yet to be achieved.