LA Galaxy give Sigi Schmid full control of player personnel in front office shuffle

Curt Onalfo was fired as LA Galaxy head coach on July 27, with the organization bringing in veteran Sigi Schmid to fill the role. He looked like a stopgap, meant as the best possible short-term hire to help the team into the playoffs. Three months later, the Galaxy’s plans look much different.

Schmid didn’t guide the Galaxy to the postseason. The team actually picked up worse results under his guidance, finishing with 10 points in 14 matches under Schmid and falling into last place. But Galaxy ownership apparently saw enough improvement in other ways to hand him the keys to the franchise: Schmid now has full control of player personnel.

The Galaxy announced on Monday that Pete Vagenas, general manager and vice president of soccer operations, would be stripped of the former title while retaining the latter and remaining with the team. His player personnel responsibilities would be transferred to Schmid, who now has the task of rebuilding a bad team in a market where there’s extremely tough competition for eyeballs.

While Schmid has never been a GM, he has some experience in making personnel decisions. While club president Adrian Hanauer had GM responsibilities with the Seattle Sounders up until 2015, he leaned on Schmid to make more player personnel decisions than most GMs leave to their coaches. Schmid is also widely credited with making the decision to cut most of the Columbus Crew roster in 2006 and 2007, leading to the construction of a team that won a Supporters’ Shield-MLS Cup double in 2008.

But giving more control to Schmid at the moment seems like a risky move. While he’s undoubtedly an American coaching legend, having won multiple trophies at three different teams since 2000, his record has been poor recently.

Schmid and the Galaxy might make the argument that the downturn in his record coincides with a loss of control of personnel decisions. His Sounders experienced a downturn after Garth Lagerwey was appointed as GM, and he had to work with the team built by Vagenas and Bruce Arena in LA. There’s evidence that Schmid needs “his guys” to be successful, even if he has a team talented enough to win MLS Cup, as the 2016 Sounders were.

Another LA team with some slick branding, a more centrally located stadium, and Mexican star Carlos Vela is on the way for 2018. As Atlanta United showed this season, it’s not impossible to build an expansion team that can play pretty soccer and compete for MLS Cup in its inaugural campaign.

LAFC will be competing for money and eyeballs with the Galaxy, now run by Schmid, who has a reputation for setting up teams that are defensively sound and pragmatic.

The Galaxy’s ownership is apparently unconcerned with winning a style points battle with its new noisy neighbors. Schmid’s retention as head coach and hiring as GM says that the Galaxy would like to play its hand as safely as possible against LAFC. Results on the field will need to be excellent for that decision to be a defensible one by this time next year.