Following Wednesday’s morning training session, Jonathan dos Santos raised a few eyebrows when he defiantly declared his brother would not be leaving Los Angeles.

(As you are probably aware, the LA Galaxy are one over the limit with four Designated Players on their roster, and Giovani dos Santos has been favored all winter to be the odd man out)

Jonathan dos Santos in regards to Gio and the four DP situation: “Gio stays. Gio stays. The team needs him, he’s a good player. Not all teams have a player with the quality of Giovani and we need him this year and he’s going to stay. No doubts.” #LAGalaxy — Delmy Barillas (@DelmyBarillas) January 30, 2019

Taken at face value Jona’s words might not seem all that convincing, but the club has quietly been hinting at this outcome for weeks. Manager Guillermo Barros Schelotto has said on multiple occasions the DP logjam is not a problem, adding on Wednesday the issue could be solved in the coming days. The El Tri attacker has slowly been integrated back onto the club’s social media platforms as well.

The transfer market is all but a dead end. Multiple Liga MX teams have no interest in paying Gio’s salary and the European window has just closed, leaving the organization with the options of buying out the elder dos Santos or restructuring either Jonathan dos Santos or Romain Alessandrini’s contract.

You never know what could happen, but if the organization has the option of re-signing Alessandrini and locking down the French winger for years to come vs. essentially throwing away millions of dollars, you have to imagine Gio likely sticks around for the final year of his contract.

Update: Dennis te Kloese confirmed Tuesday the club are actively seeking to pad down one of their DP salaries with TAM funds. One of Romain Alessadrini or the elder dos Santos will have to take a pay cut.