Former L.A. Galaxy General Manager Alexi Lalas spoke publicly for the first time Thursday since being fired in August, saying that the team lacked on-field leadership, and that David Beckham’s camp had shown a lack of respect for the club by not informing it in advance about his loan-move negotiations with AC Milan.
Co-hosting ESPN’s coverage of the Fire-Revs playoff game, Lalas said he accepted that his sacking was justified, and praised new Coach Bruce Arena because “he’s got a plan, he’s organized, and I think that he will be good for the organization.” But Arena’s first task was to find some leadership “to fill a void that exists. He needs to go out and find … some guys that don’t care about saying the truth, don’t care about hurting people’s feelings, and aren’t afraid that they’re going to lose their job for doing so. I think that he needs to make one of those guys captain.”
No one player should be bigger than the club, he said, and “if I regret anything, it’s that I recognized that early on, and I probably didn’t do enough in order to correct that situation.” Arena would have “his work cut out for him” dealing with Beckham, and Lalas said he was “a little disappointed with the way that it all came down with him [Beckham] and his folks” when it came to informing the Galaxy about his impending loan move to Milan. “But sometimes,” he added, “the tail wags the dog.”
Lalas also said that Landon Donovan should go to Europe because “he’s a great player. And guess what? The Galaxy can survive without Landon Donovan.” However, he wondered whether the league’s evaluation of the player “and what the rest of the world thinks he costs might be two different things. So just because he wants to go doesn’t mean he will be allowed to go.”