The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, California

The Los Angeles Galaxy believe new head coach Ruud Gullit is the ideal man to resurrect their playing fortunes despite his mediocre record as a manager.

Widely regarded as one of the most gifted players in the game's history, Dutchman Gullit won his only trophy as a manager with Chelsea 10 years ago when they lifted the FA Cup.

"I would take in a minute the results he got at Chelsea in his first year and accept that next year (in LA) as success," Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of the entertainment conglomerate that owns the Galaxy, told reporters on Friday.

"His problem as a coach was not results, it was probably more the burnout," he added of Gullit who has been appointed on a three-year contract with the Galaxy after previous spells as manager of Chelsea, Newcastle United and Feyenoord.

He guided English Premier League club Chelsea to the 1997 FA Cup final, with the west London side capturing their first major trophy for 26 years, before being sacked the following year.

Gullit then took over from former Scotland international Kenny Dalglish as manager of Newcastle in August 1998 but resigned 12 months later after a dismal start to the season.

He took charge of Feyenoord in 2004, helping them finish fourth in the Dutch first division, before resigning in May 2005.

"I think Ruud is a different guy today," Leiweke said after Gullit's formal introduction as Galaxy coach at the team's home stadium.

"I think he has learned a lot in life, he has settled down, he is a family guy and I think he will have a better experience here because he is more mature and is certainly more at peace with himself."

The 45-year-old Gullit, European Footballer of the Year in 1987, faces an uphill task in taking over a Major League Soccer team that has failed to reach the playoffs for the last two seasons.

"We don't like losing and I don't like people pointing fingers at our organisation so the last few weeks haven't been good," Leiweke said, referring also to Yallop's decision to quit the club on Sunday.

"I believe you wake up every day and you press yourself and you test yourself and you try to make yourself the best that you can be.

"And that's what the Galaxy is going to be. Ruud is going to make us bigger, he's going to create even more demand and expectation from our standpoint, and I like that.

"He has a credibility, a voice and a presence that we need in the locker room. He is going to give us some opportunities we normally wouldn't get.

"He's been in the three-ring circus his whole life. He has lived in that spotlight and he loves that spotlight. The spotlight has come back to singe him a couple of times and I think that's what he has to learn here, not to burn out."