Greg Vanney’s tenure with the LA Galaxy has never been under as much scrutiny and examination as it has now.
The 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Decision Day meant LA missed out on the playoffs for the fourth time in six years under Vanney. The performance of the game and the multiple moments where LA dropped points this year will haunt the team and fans when reflecting on the 2026 season.
The Galaxy wasn’t among the few teams that made head coaching changes right after the regular season ended. Vanney is the second-longest tenured coach in the league and him staying in his current role has caused a stir among fans and MLS media.
Now, let’s go through the three most likely scenarios to happen for the LA Galaxy ahead of the Sprint Season.
Scenario One: The Star Wars Ending
Keeping Vanney for another season to coach this team to a title is the best-case dream scenario, but the least likely. We’ve seen it before with Vanney’s LA Galaxy.
A New Hope can be summed up by a young hero who comes into the picture and gives hope that better days are ahead. That’s pretty much exactly what happened when Riqui Puig joined the LA Galaxy midway through the 2022 MLS season. However, The Empire Strikes Back sees our heroes scattered across the Galaxy as the Empire hunts them down and eventually captures them. The 2023 season can be summarized as that due to fan protests, low attendance, a summer transfer ban, and injuries across the team in just one season.
And then the 2024 season was exactly like Return of the Jedi.
Return of the Galaxy as the G’s won the title that season and brought a fanbase back to life. If you were at the trophy celebration the day after, that’s the closest you will get to experiencing the ending of Star Wars.
More so if the force ghost of Romain Alessandrini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who were fan favorites in the club’s lowest moments, appeared during that celebration. Now let’s go back to the present day.
This trilogy has kind of played out again, sort of, kind of? Not really? 2025 was the worst season in modern club history. 2026 saw some major changes in personnel and showed some hope toward the end of the season. 2027 has yet to be written.
Narratively, there is a scenario where something is building. I would sum up 2026 as the moment in movies right before the climax, where the heroes suffer a devastating defeat that makes victory seem impossible.
It’s setting up for them to win, but I don’t know the confidence level of recreating that in 2027 is at an all -time high. If the Galaxy stays with Vanney, they’re banking on another Return of the Jedi-type ending to the 2027 season.
You can be the judge if that’s possible. But as of now, this new trilogy of the Vanney era is shaping up to be like the Disney ones. The billion-dollar company couldn’t capture the magic of the original trilogy. I doubt AEG and LA can capture that magical run to its 2024 title in 2027 and beyond.
Scenario Two: “I Told You So”
In my opinion, this scenario is purgatory for both the fans and the club.
Vanney stays for the 2027 season, and the results continue to underdeliver. The club then parts ways with him after the sprint season ends.
It sounds like a reasonable compromise, but it’s bad for two reasons.
1. The sprint season becomes another lost year.
Time is the one resource the Galaxy can’t get back. If a coaching change is going to happen eventually, the sprint season is the best window to make it. A new coach could test tactical ideas and learn the roster and the league.
It’s like overcooking a steak. It was great at medium rare, and the front office knew exactly when to pull it off the grill. But every minute it stays on, it gets tougher and you can’t undo it.
A lame-duck year has other costs. A coach with an uncertain future loses some authority in the locker room and players who haven’t bought in can wait him out. The front office has to build a roster for a coach who may not be there for the next one.
It’s exactly what happened with Bob Bradley’s Toronto FC when Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi were underperforming a couple of years ago.
2. This is the easy option.
The safest decision for the people making the call is the one that doesn’t force them to make one. Keeping Vanney for one more year avoids the uncomfortable conversation, protects the club from criticism and debate for firing a championship-winning coach that his players admire and pushes the real decision back six months.
Everyone gets to say, “I told you so.”
Fans will say it, the media will say it, and the front office will say it because the decision will feel obvious. A decision that only becomes obvious after another failed season isn’t bold, just easy.
Scenario Three: Look at me, I’m the Captain Now
The LA Galaxy and Somali Pirates in the same column, who would’ve thought!
In this scenario, the LA Galaxy surprisingly moves on from Vanney before the start of 2027. It wasn’t immediate but eventually someone looked at the pros and cons list during the corporate meeting and said, "Let’s just move on before the new season starts.”
For the players, they would have the same shock as the crew in Captain Phillips.
What do you mean they got on the ship? We have a new coach?
Whichever coach leads the LA Galaxy in this scenario would have to work with Vanney's players, but would have the luxury of using the sprint season as a testing ground for implementing their tactical ideas.
The positive here is that the new coach has time to rebuild the roster, get a lay of the land before the calendar switch, and build for the future in their image. It’s fully committing to the rebuild and turning the page on the future of the club.
This scenario is the least likely to happen but one that could bear fruit because it affords a new coach time. The sprint season becomes less important, and it allows the Galaxy some breathing room for a rebuild.
This is the most shocking scenario because nobody is expecting Vanney to leave his position right now. But of all three of the scenarios I presented, this is the one that I feel fans want the most.