The Los Angeles Galaxy, making news in February. That’s a fairly neat trick, considering it 1) is soccer 2) in America and involves 3) Major League Soccer during 4) its preseason.

But there you are. Not only is the club playing in something called the Pan-Pacific Championship at the Home Depot Center this week (tonight and Saturday, to be exact) … it has these ongoing multi-continent dramas involving David Beckham and Landon Donovan.

The Galaxy is figuring out what to do about its two best players, and it seems to be halfway to a decision.

That Donovan seems to be coming home, in mid-March, seems pretty much a certainty now. AEG honcho Tim Leiweke last week said the Galaxy expected Donovan back, even with a sort of undercurrent out there that Donovan actually wanted to stay with Bayern Munich, now that he is playing semi-regularly for Juergen Klinsmann, a fan of his.

But if Donovan were thinking of staying with Germany’s top club, he probably had the notion erased Tuesday when Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the club’s chairman, basically said Bayern doesn’t need Donovan because it has enough forwards.

Maybe Bayern is dismissing Landon because it knows he’s about to be called back to California … or it just could reflect even-tempered, sober thinking, as well. The club does have a logjam at forward with Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni and Lukas Podolski (to be replaced next season by Ivica Olic).

What had to really be a zinger for Landon was Rummenigge saying the club’s fourth forward “should really be a young player with perspective.”

Wow. Seems like Landon was playing for the Under-19s just a minute ago, and now that he is turning 27 next month, he’s no longer considered young — in the global soccer perspective. Where star forwards seem to have a shelf life of about five years.

Then there is the much-higher profile case of David Beckham. And The Story That Refuses to Die.

A week ago, Leiweke said the time for negotiations was up, and that Beckham would be returning. Some of his verbiage on the matter was pretty strong, too. “We owe it to our fans” not to extend negotiations. “They’ve been reading all these stories and we lose credibility by the day. That’s not fair.”

Well, the words “credibility” and “Leiweke” in the same sentence are fairly jarring, and not to be taken seriously (just ask L.A. Kings fans), but still …

Now, it is clear negotiations over Beckham are ongoing — unless AC Milan is inventing conversations and, apparently, sending a top exec to Los Angeles this week to just chat about nothing.

Almost every aspect of this story, the last three weeks, has been about negotiating ploys and striking stances. The Galaxy professing its undying love for Becks and reminding everyone that he remains under their control … and Milan expressing its affection for the suddenly reinvigorated midfielder — but also encouraging Becks to make clear he wants to stay in Italy. As well as reminding him of what AC Milan and Serie A are — and what the Galaxy and MLS are not.

It is time for the Galaxy to pull the trigger, assuming AC Milan makes a better offer for him than its first — reported as in the $2-3 million range by media on this side of the Atlantic, but in the $6-7 million range by media Over There.

Beckham is a pretty piece to have with the club, but he is going to be 34 in May, and as I wrote on this blog earlier, whatever value the Galaxy can wring from the Beckham brand probably already has been paid out. Galaxy fans have seen him, MLS fans have seen him. He sold some tickets, moved a lot of jerseys, but the club still stinks. Becks didn’t play particularly well. He certainly didn’t turn it around by himself — the Galaxy missed the playoffs both of the seasons he played here. If he now wants to be gone, let him go, and cash AC Milan’s check for whatever it turns out to be — $8-9 million, if things go well.

Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy GM when Beckham was lured to Los Angeles, got some work as a halftime analyst for ESPN last week, during the U.S.-Mexico qualifier, and Lalas very neatly summed up how this ought to go down:

He said something along the lines of, “He doesn’t want to be in Los Angeles; let him go.”

The club/league (if anyone professes to really know how salaries are paid in MLS, please let us know) is paying him $6.5 million per season, and the Galaxy could round up all sorts of useful players for a fraction of that salary — and scale back the budget all around, balancing whatever a Becks-less club no longer gets in merchandising and ticket sales with the bulk of the money not paid to Becks.

Meanwhile, AC Milan seems to be enjoying the best of both Beckham worlds — his star power as well as what might be the final moments of his soccer skills. The club has lost only once in seven matches since he showed up, and Milan fans have taken to him — perhaps because he has scored two goals and set up two others. And now apparently wants him for all of next season, as well.

The best case for this club is to cash out on Becks, welcome Landon back (insisting in public that the club demanded he return), let coach Bruce Arena build around America’s greatest player and start working on getting back to championship form. That is the intelligent way forward.

Anyway, here we are, talking about the Galaxy. Again. In February.  Well played, Galaxians.

* Corrects spelling of Leiweke from Lieweke (thanks, commentor No. 1!).