When Greg Vanney came back to the Galaxy as its manager in 2021, he had a three-year plan to return MLS’s marquee team to prominence. Or maybe it was a five-year plan. Either way, those plans have changed.
Because in those three seasons, the most recent of which ended Saturday in a 4-1 loss to FC Dallas, Vanney’s team has lost more games than it has won and missed the postseason twice. It is regressing more than progressing, matching a franchise high with 67 goals allowed this year while its eight wins equaled the fewest in a non-COVID season and its 1.06 points per game was second-worst all-time.
The Galaxy ended the season winless in its last six and with just one victory since August; it hasn’t gone beyond the first round of the playoffs since 2014.
And that makes this winter — much like the six that have proceeded it — an important one.
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Important because 17 of the 32 players on the roster — including designated players Javier “Chicharito” Hernández and Douglas Costa — are either out of contract or entering their option year. Important because the Galaxy’s payroll of more than $25 million in guaranteed compensation ranked among the three highest in MLS for a sixth straight season, yet that spending bought the team just two playoff wins in those half-dozen seasons.
The team got started on its offseason makeover Monday, announcing that Costa, a 33-year-old Brazilian winger, will not return, opening up a designated player spot.
“This is important because we’ve got to show real progress next season,” Vanney said of the winter ahead. “We need to put ourselves back into the discussion about being a capable championship-winning franchise.”
Of course that’s what Vanney, who played on the Galaxy’s first championship-winning team in 1998, said when he returned three years ago. And despite what’s transpired in the interim, he’s still confident he’s the guy best suited to turn the team around.
“Yeah, for sure,” said Vanney, who is under contract for next season. “There’s nothing more that hurts me than the team losing and the team not performing. If there’s a point when I thought I wasn’t the…