High up in the Hollywood Hills, with its spectacular view over Sunset
Boulevard and near homes owned by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin
Timberlake and Paris Hilton, Ruud Gullit professes to be happy with his new
life. “Everything is good here, even though I’m a long way from home and I’m
missing my family and friends,” he says, his eyes hidden behind a pair of
designer shades. “The quality of life has nothing to do with all the stars
living here or the fancy boutiques and restaurants. It’s something more
simple: the nice weather, people not p*****-off all the time because it is
raining. They go to the beach in their flip-flops, it’s all very relaxed and
nobody has the slightest idea about who I am. People are not staring at me
all the time, I’m staring at other people and some of them are getting to
know me because of who I am and not what I am, which is a nice feeling,
believe me.”
The unease only creeps in when he sets off along Highway 101, transfers on to
Interstate 110 and reaches the Home Depot Center in Carson, home to LA
Galaxy. When the former Chelsea, Newcastle and Feyenoord manager became
Galaxy’s coach last November, he made no assumptions. Frank Yallop, his
tortured predecessor, who took up a similar role with San Jose Earthquakes
in the close season, described David Beckham’s arrival 10 months ago as
having “brought a whole new dimension to the club . . . but [the salary cap]
makes it much tougher when recruiting the rest of the roster”. How much
tougher? Only now is an incredulous Gullit finding out.
“I’m sure that when people think of LA Galaxy, the picture that comes to mind
is not of our staff making phone calls to friends on Friday to see if they
can play in a reserve game on Sunday, but, strange as it may seem, this is
the reality,” reveals Gullit, sitting in the sun near the VIP area of an
empty stadium. “Two weeks ago we had a game at home [against San Jose] and I
had two of my office staff from the commercial department playing, two
people whose job is to sit in the office all day doing their work. We needed
bodies and we didn’t have bodies, so we asked them to play, they wanted to
play and they just played. There are 26 players on our roster, five were out
injured. This left us with 21 players, but there is a rule [in Major League
Soccer (MLS)] that prevents reserve team players from playing for more than
120 minutes within the space of 48 hours. If they have played the day before
in the first team for 90 minutes [reserve games are usually scheduled for
the following day] you can do the maths.
“In the first reserve game of the season at Colorado I had a few players who
could play for only 70 minutes and another who only could play for half an
hour. So what did we do? We started with 10 men because we had to. You can
say that it’s only a reserve game, but you can’t operate like this because
the reserve game is important. Why? Because of the development of my injured
players and players who have to practise their rhythm because they haven’t
played for a long time.
“If I have a reserve game and come up two men short, what happens? We have to
call people from their job, maybe a carpenter, and they just come to play
with our reserve team. If we play in Toronto, we have to call people in
Toronto because no one will travel on their own all that way. Of course, we
laugh about it a little bit, but in the end it’s not a laughing matter and
it’s not good. We need to have a full squad that trains together. I haven’t
been able to build up a reserve team because I’m only two months here and
it’s not possible, so this is an example of the things I am trying to adapt
to. I’m not trying to change it yet, I’m trying to adapt to it, but in the
end I’ll say, ‘You need to do things in a certain way because otherwise it’s
not serious’. Really, it’s ridiculous.”
It is also symptomatic of the way in which the Galaxy hierarchy has chosen to
build a team around its two high-profile stars, Beckham and Landon Donovan,
the United States captain, whose annual salaries are $6.5m and $900,000
respectively. Their “designated player” status means that only a fraction of
Galaxy’s $2.18m annual wage bill goes directly into their pockets, but it is
disproportionate in comparison with the way in which other MLS teams conduct
their affairs.
The annual wage bill of their city rivals, Chivas USA, is distributed more
evenly, so there is greater depth in their squad. Gullit is discovering,
too, that the shallow pool of young, available American talent is squeezing
his options. Last weekend he was compelled to introduce in the second half
against Houston Dynamo a player, Joe Franchino, whom he had watched only on
videotape.
“Yes, Galaxy fans, the same Joe Franchino . . . who, along with former [New
England] Revolution teammate Gary Flood, was tossed out of a recent Boston
Red Sox-New York Yankees game at Fenway Park after fans complained of their
obnoxious behaviour,” Grahame Jones reported last week in the LA Times. “He
is also the same Joe Franchino slugged by then teammate [and current Fulham
striker] Clint Dempsey at training camp a few years back. He is also the
same Joe Franchino who played only 57 minutes of soccer last season because
of injuries. So the questions here are: just who made this trade? Did Galaxy
coach Ruud Gullit know anything about it? . . . “ It appears that Gullit is
not totally in the loop on the transaction front. Last week he was asked
about the acquisition of defenders Scott Bolkan and Vardan Adzemian and
their subsequent loan to the Portland Timbers. Gullit looked blank. He had
never heard of either player. Small wonder . . . that the dark storm clouds
of rumour about coming upheaval and change continue to gather on the
horizon.”
Gullit, the former Holland star who was named world player of the year in 1987
and 1989, is leaving the word “change” to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,
the Democratic Party’s US presidential candidates, while he intends to
“adapt” and play with what he has, “making the team as good as possible”. “I
can’t play sexy football with this team at the moment because we are not
ready for this,” he acknowledges. There exists a chasm in class between
Beckham, Donovan, injured Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz and even Abel
Xavier and the likes of 22-year-old midfield player Brandon McDonald, who
has broken into the team in recent weeks in his rookie season. His $12,900
salary is at the lowest level of MLS, but Gullit wants to bring through
players such as McDonald and another promising midfielder ,Josh Tudela, who
earns only $17,700 annually.
“There is a huge difference between the very good players and some of the
average players. The reason for this, I have found out, is that young
players are not being schooled in the way we do it in Europe,” Gullit
declares. “A good young player in Europe will start at youth team level at a
professional club and over the years he will build up his knowledge and
develop a natural affinity for the game along with a good tactical brain.
But here in the United States they play soccer in the schools and then
college and they are 20 or 21 years old and they are coming to me, having
been coached straight out of a book. None of these coaches has played at any
kind of high level. In fact, if you were a World Cup-winner, if you had all
of the medals but you didn’t have the universal qualifications to teach, you
could not get a coaching job at college level.
“This is a major limitation when these players come into the professional game
and it means that I have to go back to basics with them. They’re just rough
diamonds and they don’t have the tactical vision. Some of them will make it,
some will not, but all of the teams see the same young players because of
the draft system, so my challenge is to develop them into something more
than anybody else can achieve with them. That’s a tough challenge.”
The great experiment being championed by Beckham was sceptically received from
the start, and there are few signs yet of a conversion of the masses.
Gullit’s observation that “the Latinos know me, but Americans
don’t” may be preferable on a personal front, but it is ominously indicative
of a general mood of indifference about Beckham’s second season in MLS.
“There might be more talent in MLS these days, but there still isn’t a
single team in the league that can put 11 above-average players on the
field,” bemoans LA Times football writer Jones.
Beckham’s form has drawn further endorsement from England coach Fabio Capello,
along with the caveat that his physical fitness will determine how long he
is to remain involved with the national team. Gullit sees this as no
obstacle to his 32-year-old captain.
“In the game against Houston, David was excellent, he worked hard, he set an
example and he did everything I could ask of my captain,” Gullit says. “What
the players around him can see is their leader actually going out and doing
it and being vocal, which is a new thing for him, but it’s something that he
has in him. I couldn’t believe that people doubted him about his physical
condition before England’s game against France in Paris. You wouldn’t doubt
him if you saw him play against Houston. He’s now in even better condition
than he was when he played in Paris. I can understand why some people
doubted him because he’s playing in America and it’s a different league,
it’s not the same, but no other league is the same as the Premier League
anywhere around the world.
“I have no interest whatsoever in letting David go to the national team. If it
was down to me, I would want him to stop playing international football
because it’s so gruelling for him with all of the travel involved and it
affects us when he misses games, but he loves his country and that’s the
most beautiful thing, so why should he stop playing for England?
“For him, it’s not a matter of wanting to show himself to Capello. He loves
football so much, he wants to win. He’s a winner, a real pro. There is the
overall package, too, and that’s important to him, though I have nothing to
do with that. That’s his thing. But when he sees green grass, he becomes a
football player totally, a guy who is motivated and has passion. What more
can you ask for?”
In the dozen years since Gullit thrust himself into management at Chelsea, he
maintains that he has learnt much about football that he did not know –
and even more about life.
“If you win a trophy at Chelsea, the only guarantee is that you will get
sacked, this I know,” he announces, laughing. Nine months after he succeeded
Glenn Hoddle at Stamford Bridge, he led the club to an FA Cup final triumph
over Middlesbrough. Chelsea lay second in the Premier League the next season
when he was sacked. “The club has changed, of course, since my time there,
which I enjoyed immensely, and Chelsea will always be in my heart, but there
is big pressure now on Avram Grant,” Gullit insists. “He has done well in
the job and he has tried to be himself, but Jose Mourinho was such a strong
and charismatic character that anyone who followed him would be compared.
Grant is the opposite of Mourinho, but people need to give him a break.
“Chelsea still have a chance for everything, the Premier League and the
Champions League, but, although I am a Chelsea fan, the way that Manchester
United have played this year, they deserve to win the Premier League. I love
to see football played in a certain way and United have played some
excellent football this year. They are not predictable in the sense that you
don’t know who’s going to score or where it’s coming from. The players have
a quickness and awareness in midfield and up front which is incredible, and
Cristiano Ronaldo has been European player of the year, no question. He’s by
far the best player I’ve seen this season. He’s so quick, but it’s his
quickness combined with control which is so impressive about him because
this is no easy thing.”
It is light years away from the game in which Gullit has become involved for
an annual salary in the region of $2m. His wife, Estelle, and their
children, Maxim and Joelle, from whom he is separated by a 12-hour flight,
will move to LA in July when the current school term finishes. Gullit,
naturally, is looking forward to this. How long their stay will last is a
different matter, however, for sexy football is nowhere on the horizon at
the Home Depot Center. Just as well that Highway 101 back towards the
Hollywood Hills offers an alternative view.
Galaxy quest: Gullit’s road from Haarlem to LA
- The talented Dutchman was European Footballer of the Year in 1987 and World
Player of the Year in 1987 and 1989
- Essentially a midfi elder, he could play in a number of positions – a
versatility that saw him enjoy a successful playing career with Haarlem,
Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, AC Milan, Sampdoria and Chelsea
- Gullit won league titles with Feyenoord, PSV and Milan. He was also twice a
European Cup winner with Milan (1989, 1990). He won the Italian Super Cup,
European Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup and, as player-manager of Chelsea,
the FA Cup
- During the 1980s, together with striker Marco van Basten, the dreadlocked
Gullit epitomised everything fresh and exciting about Dutch football as
Holland were crowned champions at Euro 88. Gullit ended his international
career when he walked out of a Holland training camp in the build-up to the
1994 World Cup
- It was while working as a BBC pundit during Euro 96 in England that he
coined the term ‘sexy football’ to describe the kind of exciting and skilful
play that had fans glued to the TV
- In 1996 he began his managerial career at Chelsea, taking over as
player-manager following Glenn Hoddle’s appointment to the England job after
the European Championship. He led Chelsea to success in the 1997 FA Cup fi
nal, inset, with a 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough n Gullit became manager at
Newcastle in 1998-99, but suffered a torrid time. After promising to bring
‘sexy football’ to the northeast, he fell out with talismanic striker Alan
Shearer, and left the club after fi ve games of the 1999-2000 season
- Between managerial assignments, he had his own chat show on Dutch TV and
worked as a pundit in England and Holland
- Gullit, who has been married three times, did not return to management until
2004, spending a year at Feyenoord before quitting
- He was named manager of Los Angeles Galaxy in November 2007
Hopefully, Ruud and the Galaxy are smart enough to take an active part in training youth players from the Galaxy or other clubs to develop them into the types of players with the tactical brain Ruud is looking for. This is obviously a fix that will take 5 or more years, but 15 now = 20 in 5 years.
Davey, Detroit,
Galaxy isnt that bad, they destroyed Chivas USA 5-2 the other day. Donovan is on fire, with 8 goals in 5 games. He will likely win the golden boot if he keeps this up. The Galaxy's problem is a lack of good defense, their attack could quite possibly be the best in the league.
Alex, Los Angeles, California
I find it interesting that he was unable to have a say in several trades. Who was it actually making these trades? Sounds a bit similar to the situation that Yallop had to put up with last year. The head coach/manager is not really in control of that team.
Wayne Root, Concord,, United States
It's a shame this article doesn't emphasise that the MLS is full of talented players. Young talented players too. LA Galaxy is the freak of MLS and is a shoddily run organisation. They get decent crowds, and have 4 or 5 decent players, but they're not a good example of MLS. Ignore them!
Richard, Nottingham, England
From what I have read I expect that the salary cap will be raised significantly (probably doubledin the next player contract (which is up in 2 years)-this should enable the Galaxy and the other clubs in the league to buy better squad players and get the depth he needs to play the way he wants to.
Frank, Dove Canyon, CA/USA
Another development is that the MLS teams are setting up their own academies with first preference to sign any kids they develop themselves-which will encourage the players to bypass the colleges and go into a more professional environment.
The fixes to his issues are on the way-it will take time
Frank, Dove Canyon, CA/USA
I was skeptical about Gullit's ability or desire to mould this ragbag team into play-off contenders this year, but to his credit he has made a few switches to the line-up which are working well so far.
My article at www.hawksport.com discusses these and the weekend success over Chivas.
Ian Thomson, Houston, United States
great coach and great player
It's awesome to have him in LA
Ray, hills , USA
I think RUUD is awesome.
Jake, long Beach, United States