Have at thee, varlets: Beckham wants to leave MLS

doubtful. his ego won't let him play for a non-big 4 team and none of them will want him.

 

Bingo.

MLS tried to play big-boy games, setting an artificial deadline. But this just shows how small-time the league still is. "I, DON GARBER, hereby set a deadline!!!" In the soccer world, Garber is gum on the bottom of Silvio Berlusconi's shoe.

Until the transfer window is officially closed, this is not a dead deal.

What would be worse than losing Beckham so quickly and publicly? Having him come back after all this. Fans booing him lustily, local media coverage in MLS towns switching from the "Beckham is here! no matter what, bring him to the postgame press conference so we can ask him about the state of American soccer and he can chose his canned answers carefully!" to "Beckham is here! Drag his ass to the press conference so we can harang him for ripping the league!"

(Will Beckham's handlers, who dictate many things to the Galaxy, ALLOW him to speak with the media if it is toxic?)

Local columnists will gleefully write about how quickly the David Beckham Traveling Party became The David Beckham Death (of Soccer) March. The soccer press will bend over backward to try to find a way to gloss over the fact that MLS' biggest draw, after spending the latter part of 2008 playing with body language that said "get me the hell out of here!" now has clearly said he wants out.

MLS has a legitimate SuperClub that really wants Beckham. Unless something changes at an insane level, Beckham will opt out this fall if he stays. They will not have any leverage during the summer transfer window.

AC Milan has been through challenging transfers before. Garber - especially after the loss of Ivan Gazidis - is in over his head here.

 

The MLS has a superclub? I can't really agree that the Galaxy are a superclub anymore. The argument could have been made three years ago when they were always near the top of the west and had won the CONCACAF champions cup, US Open Cup, etc. But since then they have slid to a Leeds type level of incompetence.

Ine the opening yers of the league DC United were clearly the cream of the crop, then LA came into dominance, now that lies with either New England or Houston.

 

He was referring to AC Milan.

 

Reading his post again...I now feel stupid. Carry on.

 

I was referring to AC Milan, but I didn't word it so well, especially considering Lalas' proclamations that the galaxy were such a club, even as he ran them into the ground.

At this point, I wouldn't say LA is inept as much as they forgot to build a defense. They looked to win a lot of 5-4 games.

Now Lalas as a GM . . . the evidence is clear that he has no clue.

 

Beckham hurt a hammie today in the Milan derby.

 

Don garber, go change your pants.

 

He also isn't really good with Ronaldinho. I watched most of the time that Becks was in the game and he was basically an afterthought. Ronaldinho was very active and he basically never played the ball wide, instead looking to link up with the forwards. Becks had almost no touches in the run of play.

 

And, surprise of surprises... Bruce Arena admits it was a silly, made-up deadline that didn't actually mean anything.

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=goal_arena_softens_on&prov=goal&type=lgns

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-beckham-milan-galaxy3-2009mar03,0,6510100.story

A solution is reached. The Galaxy get him back . . . in late July. He'll miss 17 of 30 MLS games.

So after Beckham opts out this fall - and he will opt out - his grand stint with the Galaxy will say that he sold a lot of jerseys, sold a lot of tickets . . . and missed exactly half the games for which he was under contract.

 

I have to say, this makes no sense to me at all.

How would this be worth multimillions to the Galaxy, and why would Milan suddenly be willing to pay so much more for Beckham? So, the loan is extended. I'll assume a fee is involved there. So how does this turn into a windfall for the Galaxy?

It looks like a reasonable compromise - Milan gets the player, the Galaxy saves face - but I don't get the finances.