Thursday, October 30, 2008

Galaxy and AC Milan Issue Joint Statement [UPDATED]

An agreement has been reached between the LA Galaxy and AC Milan for the loan of Galaxy midfielder David Beckham effective in January 2009.

David Beckham remains under contract to the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer and will return to the club for training and the start of the 2009 MLS season.

AC Milan and the LA Galaxy have additionally agreed to a technical partnership that will provide great benefit to both clubs.

Terms of the agreement will remain confidential.

Shortly after this statement was made public, Bruce Arena spoke to a collection of local and national media members via a conference call. Here is what he had to say...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds optimistic on the surface. But, I really do hope that this mutual agreement between LA Galaxy and AC Milan will indeed help BOTH clubs. I hope that David is able to get the true fitness, practice, and environment that he's looking for in order to prepare him for more national team call-ups and action. My guess on our end, the USMNT will definitely want Landon to stay fit, conditioned, and ready as well. I just hope that Bruce, Dave, and Paul are able to set-up and carry through plenty of training & pre-season matches for our LA Galaxy team before the season starts. I know that Columbus Crew and San Jose were able to set-up and play plenty of pre-season matches before 2008 MLS season began. In all honesty, a LOT of hard work, practices, training, and scrimmages have got to be carried through for this LA Galaxy team to get their mentality, their organization, and their beliefs towards winning matches.

Anonymous said...

I have read quotes from Arena about this loan, and they are all contradicting what he initially said. Now he is apparently happy and content and backs David's decision. This is weird, I just hope that Arena is not giving in and becoming a puppet to AEG. And if this is the case, this team will be no better than they were with Lalas.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for providing us with the "updated" audio teleconference w/ Bruce. For LA Galaxy's sake - I really hope there truly is more understanding and accomodation to get quality players into the LA Galaxy by seriously adjusting either the salary cap or the "Designated Player Rule" against the salary cap. Bruce and Dave need the assurance and flexibility that more salary room will provide. I also hope that Bruce & Dave are very serious about changing the mentality of our players, to expect and demand a whole lot more, while helping & teaching & instructing them to play stronger, harder, and better. There is no question that the LA Galaxy need more cohesion, trust, accountability, learning, practice, and lots of training. If our LA Galaxy is able to build a stronger team for coming years while keeping David, Landon, Eddie, Bryan, Sean, Julian, Brandon, Chris, Edson, and Mikey... then, we will become a stronger, more willing, more resilient team for it.

Anonymous said...

I like to see David use some of his influence to place some of Galaxy youngsters in these big clubs for extensive training as well. That's a great way to AFFECT the team positively.

Androo said...

Becks worst decision in his career was to quit European football and join LA Galaxy. No offence to MLS fans but the football played there is a far cry from the EPL, LA Liga or the Italian SA. Even Donovan is targeting a permanent Euro move to Bundesliga champs Bayern Munich.

January can't come soon enough.

Anonymous said...

It sound like Bruce is just playing it cool so that the season ticket holders renew their tickets.
He says that this will benifit the club but cant tell anyone in what way it will benefit them.
If AC Milan wants Spice Boy let them have him. He looks uniterested at the Galaxy and is only looking for cheap caps. His is loosing his appeal around the league after only half a season this season the road attendence at giant stadium was obviously a lot lower than last year. Maybe it would be way better if the Galaxy sold Beckham. They could use the money to rebuild an actual soccer team instead of a novelty act.