Galaxy President Chris Klein is "keenly aware of the need to strengthen the team's local footprint in the face of regional competition" from Mexico and MLS expansion club LAFC, so Galaxy coach Curt Onalfo has been given the "task of integrating the youth system into what's left of the holdovers from the designated player era," according to Graham Parker of ESPN FC. Former Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, who left late last year to coach the USMNT, seemed "determined to go out doubling down on the principle that you can't win anything with kids" in MLS. The "trouble was that what on paper looked like the most stacked roster in MLS history at the start" of '16 "ended the season as a creaking mass of awkwardly overlapping veterans, cancelling each other out." The Galaxy "ushered in the age of the designated player" when David Beckham signed with the club in '07, but by the end of '16 they looked "stuck in it." Other teams like the Red Bulls had "veered away from star power to drawing on homegrown talent, yet the Galaxy appeared to be a paradox in that regard." The club had one of the "best catchment areas in the country for youth talent, and an academy system that was the envy of the league." But Arena, who also served as GM, "seemed unconvinced that the product was ready for prime time," even as teams like the Red Bulls and Dallas FC "threatened to redefine the paradigm of MLS best practice" (ESPNFC.us, 3/20).
