Soccer -Galaxy's latest travails

Long periods of inactivity followed by short burst of frantic action. Not quite, but somewhere within the ballpark when describes my posting habits to this blog. It makes me really respect folks like Bob Mould (late of one my fave 80's punk rock bands, Husker Du), who as far as I know, posts every day! Anyways, on to what prompted me to share my thoughts in cyberspace for folks to pay attention to or ignore at their leisure.
It would appear as if the Ruud Gullit experiment @ LA Galaxyland is over, with the Dutchman jumping ship before he was pushed. The first serious sign that things were amiss was when the LA Times celebrity home sales column let slip that Gullit has sold his recently purchased home in Southern California. Add in the rumor that the "golden child," Landon Donovan had not reacted well to Gullit's old-school European style coaching methods: which includes pointing out a player's faults (particularly a star as way of "speaking" to the entire group) in practice, in front of the entire team, usually in a loud tone (perhaps it "inspired" a bad flashback to Donovan's experience at Bayer Leverkusen). Gullit also cited "family issues," which usually means the wife and kids are quite homesick. Add in Gullit's frustrations with the unique conditions of coaching in MLS: no unlimited player acquisition budget, media obligations, and the uneven quality of players available, plus the expectations coming from the AEG executive suite (that's a whole other matter), and it is not surprising this has come to pass.
Included in the corporate bloodletting was the long overdue handing of a pink slip to Galaxy President and General Manager, Alexi Lalas. Lalas had been thrust into the role well before he was ready due to the untimely death of his predecessor, Doug Hamilton (the "plan" had been for red haired one to learn at Hamilton's side for several more years). It should also be noted that Lalas' prior two executive tenures at AEG teams: San Jose and New York, had not been roaring successes, though there are mitigating factors in both situations. In San Jose, the handwriting was on the wall for the team to move, while in New York, that franchise's curse afflicted Lalas as well. With the Galaxy, it had appeared as if Lalas' celebrity factor protection had finally worn off with the suits at AEG.
The most egregious "villains" in this sordid soap opera lies with the suits at AEG, with the lead villain being AEG's Los Angeles head honcho, Tim Leiwieke. During their ownership tenure, AEG have managed to preside over the slow on-field decline of the main product, the soccer, in a manner that long suffering Los Angeles Kings fans are all too familiar with. Simply put, AEG would be well advised to follow the example of another MLS owner who also owns another sports team, Robert Kraft. Kraft hires people who know the sports side, let's them get on with the job, and worries about the business side. Judging from past actions of Leiwieke & Co., that seems highly unlikely. What is curious to see is who will take the poisoned chalice that is the Los Angeles Galaxy head coach position.