We are less than a month away from LAFC's season opener, yet the team opened training camp this week with just 16 players under contract.
“You only need 11,” said one team executive.
Although that is true, general manager John Thorrington said Thursday that he is making progress in filling the 14 vacancies on the roster in the same manner.
“no one [more] “I better get the full list now,” he said. “I hope it does. But there are reasons for that. It is not because we are not working.”
These reasons include the shortest offseason in the club's history, after the 2023 season, which was the most difficult in the league's history, Thorrington said. Los Angeles played 53 games last year, reaching the CONCACAF Champions League and MLS Cup finals. No other American League team this century has played in both Finals in the same season.
That left Thorington with just six weeks to rebuild a squad that lost 18 players – including five starters from the MLS final – to free agency, loans, transfers or expiring contracts. Among those who will not return are defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Diego Palacios, goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and John McCarthy, midfielder Kellen Acosta and striker Stipe Buick, who was loaned on Thursday to Spanish club Real Valladolid.
Striker Denis Bwanga, the league's top scorer in 2023, returns after some uncertainty. The club is still in talks with captain Carlos Vela and hopes to re-sign him as a free agent. In addition, Los Angeles added World Cup champion goalkeeper Hugo Lloris last month and received center back Eddy Segura, who missed the past season and a half after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Thorrington said he was still waiting for Lloris and Bouanga to arrive from Europe but expected both players to be in camp by the end of the month. Other than that, he added, there is nothing to announce.
Until now.
“The heavy lifting has been done, the announcements will come,” he added. “From the outside, people can't see what's around the corner. I can, and our employees can. And we're really excited.”
Thorrington said the team needs a left-back to replace Palacios, wants to add some depth in midfield, and is “in advanced discussions with some experienced players up front as well.”
However, placing them all under the salary cap could derail those plans. MLS roster rules, which include a $5.7 million salary cap, are designed to make it difficult for teams to succeed over multiple seasons. However, Los Angeles, which has played in the last two MLS Cup Finals, is the winningest team in the Western Conference since its 2018 expansion season.
That has left Thorrington in a constant state of rebuilding, but this winter, he said, has been the hardest.
LAFC general manager John Thorrington looks on the field during a game at BMO Stadium in 2020.
(Los Angeles)
“Our off-season work has been concentrated in a much shorter period than we are used to,” he said. It was absolutely non-stop. We are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to negotiating with free agents because the value of our players has increased due to their success here. Salary cap management has become incredibly tight.
Thorrington said he also had to figure out who was going before he knew who to bring. He had hoped to retain Crepeau, for example, but the salary the free agent was asking for didn't fit the cap. Crepeau signed with Portland instead. The same goes for Acosta, the 2022 World Cup player who has reportedly attracted interest from Chicago, Colorado and Sporting Kansas City.
“You have to make moves, leave, create space to bring people in. And when you do that right before Christmas, it delays things a little bit,” he said. “But having said that, we have a core here that we're really excited about. And we have some additions that we'll be in a position to announce very soon.”
Thorrington admitted that improving over the last two seasons will be a challenge. LAFC won the Supporters' Shield (most points total) and the MLS Cup in 2022, then played in three Cup finals last season, losing to Tigres on penalties in the Campeones Cup in September along with the Champions League and MLS Cup title matches. for football. Although the team failed to lift the trophy in 2023, the general manager said the season was equally successful.
“Is it true that we did not achieve our ultimate goal? Absolutely. Are we disappointed about that? Absolutely,” he said. “But we would be remiss to classify the year as disappointing.
“We did things that no team had ever done before. If you think back to what our players went through, just coming back to the final by repeating as Western Conference champions, there's a lot to be proud of.”
