Michael Johnson

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Los Angeles Football Club U18
12 Dec 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Michael Johnson

18 Edition

The Los Angeles Football Club Gazette

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Denis Bouanga in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Igor Jesus has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Los Angeles Football Club can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Los Angeles Football Club

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amin Boudri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Andrew Tarbell

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Boardroom

Wages eat 94% of everything Los Angeles Football Club earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

The dugout

Heung-Min Son has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

Market

Denis Bouanga linked with a move away

The name of Denis Bouanga keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Los Angeles Football Club say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Justin Dhillon has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Justin Dhillon has written the date down.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Heung-Min Son

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Heung-Min Son has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief