Ruud Gullit and the Los Angeles Galaxy might have looked like a perfect match in some ways -- an architect of "sexy" soccer, combining with the USA's foremost soccer talent in Landon Donovan and the global game's brightest star in David Beckham, all coming together for a club with sights set on becoming Major League Soccer's glamour club.
But to drill a little deeper, it really was a partnership that faced long odds of survival all along.
Gullit resigned on Monday, announced Galaxy ownership group AEG. He departs along with GM Alexi Lalas, who will leave the club early, with just a few months remaining on his contract.
While Lalas certainly had some say in personnel matters, Gullit was the man tasked with getting the Galaxy back into the MLS Cup Playoffs following a two-year absence. If the playoffs started today, the Galaxy would once again be reduced to spectators.
Generally speaking, U.S. coaches -- or coaches who have been around enough to understand the ways of MLS -- have been proven the safest selections for Major League Soccer. Dominic Kinnear, a former U.S. international who has spent most of his life here, is hording up MLS Cup trophies, the most recent two tucked away securely in the Dynamo case.
Before that, it was Steve Sampson, as American as Starbucks or The Simpsons, claiming league glory for the Galaxy back in 2006. Before that, it was Peter Nowak, who had been in MLS since 1998 as a player or coach.
It's not that Gullit didn't have a good soccer mind. In fact, quite the contrary. Which is why he couldn't always deal with the MLS complexities and culture, a culture that necessarily tilts the balance toward marketing when it comes to matters of scheduling, budgetary concerns, etc. For instance, MLS is keen on installing Thursdays as a "destination night," the better to build a national TV audience. And it seems like a good idea.
It is, that is, unless you're a manager who is accustomed to prepping a team with a consistent, dependable, repeating routine. Here, matches fall all throughout the week. And travel, which can eat up entire days over such a huge country, only complicates the task.
It all added up to consistent inconsistency, which Gullit found troubling. He couldn't put a tactical stamp on matches because he found that matchdays unfolded so unpredictably.
Gullit was asked in May if he sometimes found it difficult to scout MLS matches and to plot solutions for his team accordingly. He raised his arms in the classic, universal "What do you do?" pose. Teams vary wildly in form from week to week, he said. Players fall in and out of form faster than school girls fall in and out of puppy love.
How can he prepare for certain tendencies in opponents when tendencies, at least as he knew in the European game, don't really exist in MLS?
And then there is the classic salary cap conundrum -- an elusive concept for foreign managers, who simply have not dealt previously with such trivialities. Sure, when he managed Feyenoord in the Netherlands he had a general salary budget. But it was essentially a guideline, wholly different than a hard cap. There and previously at managerial stops in England, generally speaking, if a player wasn't working out, Gullit could simply go get another one.
But that's not the way in MLS, where salary caps and other player acquisition mechanisms are set to keep the playing field, if not completely level, then pretty close to it. Major League Soccer will never be an EPL, a Serie A or La Liga, where two, three or four teams bully the competition and perennially dominate the hardware. There will be no Chelsea, Man United, AC Milan, Barcelona or Real Madrid here.
Baseball might work that way in this country (Hello, Yankees. What's up, Red Sox?), but this obviously isn't baseball.
Here, there will be D.C. Uniteds, New Englands or Houstons, teams that get the mix right for a while, steadily, diligently, maximizing the acquisition resources available.
As it was, the Galaxy got caught shorthanded outside their three DP-salaried figures. The remainder of the roster, selected by Gullit, Lalas and technical director Paul Bravo, couldn't provide enough support for Donovan, David Beckham and Carlos Ruiz -- although bargain striker Edson Buddle certainly did his part.
So the Galaxy slumped in July and August, spiraling into a seven-game winless streak. Gullit's team certainly was entertaining, rocking the MLS house with a league-high 38 goals. But that 40 goals allowed -- also a league-high -- was a killer. It was the primary reason behind an underwhelming 6-8-5 record.
So what's the way forward? It starts with the humble acquiescence that you just can't wish it so in MLS. You can't demand that it happen.
You have to work for it. You assign a chain of command, plot a course, and then stick with it doggedly.
It starts with hiring the right people, who hire the right people under them, and so on. And you have to understand that it might not happen right away.
Look at the current standard bearers of MLS consistency, Houston and New England. Who would know now that neither manager, Kinnear at Houston nor Steve Nicol at New England, had a winning record in his first full season in charge.
It's true. Look it up.
But management stuck with their selections -- then watched as it paid off handsomely. And that patience is the key, because Major League Soccer is such a different cat in the big cage of global sports. Any manager deserves a chance to get the players he wants; it just takes a while to get there in MLS.
So that's the first step. As for who is out there, the Galaxy might be best served fishing out the best choices who already know MLS. What about Paul Mariner, the faithful assistant to Nicol at New England? Or John Spencer, ever at Kinnear's right hand? Chicago interviewed Spencer in the winter but couldn't come to terms.
There's the highly respected Robin Fraser, now an assistant at Real Salt Lake. Red Bulls assistant Richie Williams will probably be a head coach in MLS someday -- why not right now in L.A.?
Peter Nowak (remember, he's got one MLS title already) will soon be done with Olympic duty. He just moved to southern California from Florida. His three-year MLS record was 42-27-25, a dandy mark in a parity-draped league.
Colin Clarke (41-39-20) had a winning mark when he left Dallas, and he's had big success with Puerto Rico in the USL as he has continued to grow as a manager.
And, of course, there's one-time D.C. United and U.S. national team manager Bruce Arena, most recently with the New York Red Bulls, who has a 77-51-10 career record in MLS, a couple of MLS Cups, and also the worldliness that comes with coaching in a pair of World Cups.
This misguided notion that Beckham somehow needs a pedigreed manager just doesn't wash. Beckham has been nothing but respectful of teammates and managers. He's given no indication of being a high-maintenance type. Indeed, he's been a terrific captain, and there's every reason to believe he will defer to the tactics and choices of whoever accepts the managerial reins.
The new guy will have a substantial task ahead, climbing up among the top three in the West; as the East looks stronger and has a chance at claiming five playoff spots, the West could be left with just three.
Then again, in a league where teams are quite close in terms of competition, little things can make a big difference.
Chicago certainly turned things around late last summer. It can be done.
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