by Sean Robinson

For those who missed it.

Intro here.

Part 1 here.

Any MLS fan, or Liga MX fan at this point, has been a little baffled by the LA Galaxy offseason moves. Moving borderline stars Juninho and Omar Gonzales to Liga MX and trading their draft pick to sign a batch of veterans the most notable of which is Mike McGee. McGee however, is not a remedy to their defensive issues and just provides more firepower to what is probably already the most impressive attack in the league. This partnered with the heavy rumors of Ashley Cole and Joleon Lescott, two aged English defenders, which would have to make their starting line up the oldest in MLS. Not to mention Ashley Cole has had some not so nice words about MLS in the past. I just can’t seeing that being a successful group when you look at what was successful this year.

But what does this mean for LAFC, if the neighbors aren’t doing well isn’t that good for them? Well, maybe, but if you look at the large markets in the MLS you start to see a pattern of big spending on aged foreign superstars. The trend started (to my knowledge anyway) when David Beckham chose to come to the aforementioned Galaxy in exchange for a chance to own his own MLS team(a bit of revisionist history but the idea was thrown around at the time). Then came Thierry Henry, the East coast version of Beckham who statistically was probably more effective. Since then we have seen Kaka, Drogba, Lampard, Pirlo, David Villa and other aging talents come to our shores. But with the exception of Beckham none have won an MLS cup, and he was partnered with Landon Donovan who is the best MLS player of all time (not sure if this is a debate, he is basically MLS Michael Jordan right?). It just doesn’t seem that the aged superstar is the best thing to build your team around. Many of these players have lost the ability to compete at the highest level. They are probably more skilled than anyone else on their rosters and able to produce moments of brilliance that others can’t. But these players are in many cases accepting that the MLS means retirement from their national teams and from ever playing at that level of soccer again. And even though they may have all their talents still available they lose some of that mental edge the moment they make that decision. One of the most discussed threads on LAFC reddit is what big signings will come with the kickoff season in 2018, and I am scared that this ownership group will have access to talent that will overshadow the LAFC brand and possibly hurt it.

There are ways to use those designated player slots that are much more effective than an aged superstar. Look at how Portland (whom Penn admires, so this is a plus) has invested mainly in younger South American players instead of older European ones. This also promotes growth at the club players are inspired to reach the heights of their careers instead of make one last run. We don’t know what the culture of LAFC will be, maybe they will perfectly invest in youth development and supplement their squad with blossoming players who weren’t previously given a chance.

Salary does not mean success in this new MLS or any North American professional sport for that matter. In this age where the Sloan Conference is more important to success than the all star games teams need to realize sooner than later how to spend their dollars and what to spend them on. Players 5-15 on rosters have become as important as 1-5. The Galaxy may be off the deep end. Looking at the standings for this year, the team with the lowest payroll finished in first place. The champions were a median 10th out of twenty teams in payroll. And in a year where the top five teams in payroll outspent the rest of the league the average finish for those teams was in the bottom half. The MLS will become smarter and dollars spent will more accurately represent success in the future. But for now LAFC should stay flexible and invest in youth and facilities that do not count against the cap in a big way.

LAFC will have huge expectations to compete immediately. Just look at what new boys NYCFC and Orlando City were put through this year, huge expenditures and pathetic results. I hope that this ownership group doesn’t buy into the hype of the big money moves. But instead builds a club, piece by piece adding on to their skeleton of a wiki page. The fans will be here for the long haul. Penn says that there will be soccer people to do the soccer things, I hope they also have dedicated cap analysts for the truly unique thing that is the MLS salary cap and league rules.

Next time on My LAFC Problem: The Complex and Confusing MLS Salary Cap and League Rules.