MLS
Bruce Arena compares Lionel Messi arrival to experience with David Beckham
The former LA Galaxy manager believes that Messi is joining a better team than Beckham came into in 2007.
Former LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena knows better than most that it can take some time for an international superstar to settle in MLS.
Arena is currently head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution, but he is best known for his eight-year stint in charge of LA Galaxy. When he joined the Galaxy he took over a struggling side that included former Manchester United and Real Madrid star David Beckham.
Lionel Messi has agreed a deal to join Inter Miami this summer, taking his generational talents to a team that is rock bottom of the Eastern Conference and with very little chance of making the playoffs this season.
Given Messi’s enormous talent, and not inconsequential salary, some will be expecting him to make an instant impact on Miami’s fortunes. However Bruce Arena believes that Beckham’s mixed start to life in MLS might be a more accurate prediction.
Speaking to reporters recently, Arena explained that it can take some time for superstars to find success in MLS: “I had Beckham, but I came into LA after Beckham had had a tough first year and a half.”
“Beckham came in mid-year and it was a mess, you know. These things aren’t easy.”
The Galaxy spent big to bring Beckham to Los Angeles but the team that he joined was unable to compete with the best in MLS. In both of his first two seasons with the team they failed to reach the playoffs.
“I came into LA in July or August in 2008 and we just hung in there for the remainder of the year,” Arena explained.
“Then we brought in 19 new players the next year and made it to the MLS Cup final. And then we got a bit better, and all of that,” he added, referring to the two Supporters Shields and two MLS Cups that Arena won during Beckham’s time at the club.
Messi will join a better team than Beckham found
Much has been made of Miami’s lowly position in the league. Just six months after celebrating a World Cup triumph, and just weeks after lifting Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, Messi has signed for a team that is without a head coach and has lost 12 of their first 17 games this season.
But Arena is convinced that Miami now have a better team than Beckham found in Los Angeles 12 years ago.
“It’s challenging and it’s not going to be easy for them, but Miami have a better roster now than I had in LA coming in in 2008 so they’re going to be fine,” he claimed.
“Messi’s going to win games,” Arena told reporters after his New England Revolution team beat Miami 3-1 last weekend. “It’s good for the team, it’s good for Miami and it’s great for the league.
“We don’t have to play them again, except maybe the playoffs,” he joked. “So I hope he has a big impact on the field. He’ll have a great impact off the field, we know that.”