ASN’s New England correspondent L. E. Eisenmenger spoke with new LA Galaxy coach and general manager Bruce Arena when his new team visited Gillette Stadium Aug. 30.

ASN: How important is the longevity of a coaching staff to the success of a club?

Arena: I think it’s one of the keys to success in this league. I think there’s a lot of ownership groups that haven’t figured that out. I remember Stevie Nicol had a losing record here and he was supported. I think that’s important and if you look around the league, the better franchises have coaching staffs that have been around awhile and they also have a core group of players that have been around a while.

ASN: The heavy tournament schedule is clearly taking a toll on teams like the Revolution. What are some of the adjustments MLS could make to accommodate players and keep the tournaments meaningful?

Arena: Well, they can’t do anything with the CONCACAF Champions League because that’s based around, if I’m not mistaken, fixture dates, international fixture dates. SuperLiga is a tournament they’ve created and, therefore, I think they need to find more likely, accommodating dates for the teams to be able to continue to do that. It’s been a fabulous time, however, it brings about a congestion in the fixture schedule, and it’s also difficult for teams with the rosters that we have, which are somewhat limited in terms of the 18 man senior rosters.

ASN: How could the schedule be modified?

Arena: I think within the league schedule. I mean, there’s two ways of doing it – you start a little earlier and end a little later, and eventually you go to a coordinated schedule like the rest of the world. But that can only happen when MLS has teams that have their own stadiums. And obviously, there’s a bit of a weather issue here – you can’t play the schedule everyone around the world plays because the months of January and February, in particular, would be difficult for some cities and maybe even later for say, Toronto and Montreal. There’s a lot of issues that go into altering the regular season schedule somewhat.

ASN: What are the possible benefits to affiliations between foreign and MLS clubs?

Arena: I don’t see a whole lot of advantages to that to be honest with you. You could say maybe there’s the ability to loan players, but the rosters are somewhat limited for that. There are some marketing advantages for sure, but I don’t think there are a whole lot of technical advantages in doing it.

ASN: How important is the export of foreign academies to the development of youth soccer in this country?

Arena: I think what they’re doing is looking at a country that has a million or more young players that are not affiliated with professional clubs like they are elsewhere in the world, so it’s not so much the academy thing as they’re stepping in here and scouting and acquiring players. I don’t think their academy programs are that thorough, although you’ve seen some of them. What the rest of the world is doing, in particular European clubs, is they’re getting in the United States and they’re scouting our youth talent and trying to grab them early just like everybody else . . . I think the U.S, with the academy programs that U.S. Soccer set up, is beginning to go that direction, and also the MLS clubs are beginning theirs’. We’re still a country that has a short tradition, heritage, in this game and it’s going to take us some time to catch up with the rest of the world in a lot of areas in the game, but we’re making progress.

ASN: Right now there’s no compensation rate for a club picking up young players, as there is overseas, structured by UEFA.

Arena: There isn’t right now because they’re not affiliated with professional clubs. Landon Donovan, for example – he went over early and there was no compensation to a club in the United States.

ASN: Do you think a formalized compensation rate in the U.S. would help develop academies?

Arena: Well, yeah. One thing it will certainly do – it will help clubs to get better. For sure, yes..I’m sure that’s part of the strategy.