The former Red Devils winger feels an imminent decision needs to be made when it comes to the future of a coach who is falling behind his rivals

Manchester United need to make a decision on Jose Mourinho’s future in “the next couple of weeks”, says Lee Sharpe, with the club running the risk of missing out on a top-four finish.

A turbulent opening to the 2018-19 campaign, which has seen the Red Devils make their worst start through seven games to a Premier League season, has the 13-time champions sat 10th in the table.

Inconsistent showings on the field and mounting talk of unrest off it, with Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba continuing to dominate the headlines, has led to calls for change.

Sharpe feels something needs to be done to turn the tide and lift morale at Old Trafford, with an alarming slump suggesting that the current regime has lost control.

The former United winger told talkSPORT: “You can’t have performances and results like they are getting.

“If you’re out of that top four it’s so massive for these clubs these days that you just can’t afford to let it happen.

“If they don’t do anything this week and the results keep going the way they have been going, then a change has to be made sooner rather than later.

“Their performances, although they have won a couple, they haven’t been that great going forward and they haven’t looked that impressive.

“When you look at the likes of City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, all their rivals are playing quick, high-tempo football and scoring goals, but United are just struggling over the line with results.

“With the Derby result in the week and this one now [against West Ham], plus the thing with Pogba going on, it just heaps pressure on the manager.

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“It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”

Sharpe believes part of the problem facing the Red Devils is that Mourinho has refused to change his ways since taking the reins and has now fallen behind a number of coaching rivals when it comes to his outdated philosophy of football.

The ex-England international added: “The thing with Mourinho is his football has always been on the defensive side.

“When he was at Chelsea he was very defensive and he liked to play two holding midfielders, and it was good in the era that he was successful at Chelsea.

“But now [Pep] Guardiola and [Jurgen] Klopp have come in and shown that high-tempo, high-pressing, quick-passing and quick-moving football is more successful, and I think Mourinho is struggling with his creativeness.

“He’s got some unbelievable forward-thinking, attacking players in his team and he doesn’t seem to get the best out of them.

“They’re not creating enough chances, they’re not scoring enough goals and they’re giving too many goals away – that’s never going to win you anything.

“Alexis Sanchez was unbelievable at Arsenal, Marcus Rashford has been fantastic but only plays bit parts of games and comes in and out. Anthony Martial is the same, he’ll play a couple of games and then get left out for a couple and that makes it really hard to get any consistency going.

“He’s not getting the best out of his players, there’s a lack of confidence in the squad and there’s an upset in there because of the Pogba situation.

“It’s just a bit messy and unsavoury at the moment.”

One is as quiet as a summer breeze; the other as full of ego and testosterone as a Donald Trump rally.

One has the physique of an accountant; the other the size and strength of a tight end.

Yet for all that distinguishes LAFC’s Carlos Vela from the Galaxy’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there is one big thing they have in common: Both are the captains and leaders of cross-town rivals that will meet in Thursday’s much-anticipated MLS Western Conference semifinal at Banc of California Stadium.

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“Obviously they’re both world-class players,” LAFC defender Steven Beitashour said. “And you’ve seen what they’ve done this season. They’re a major part to both their teams’ successes.”

Together they combined for 64 goals — Vela with a league-record 34 and Ibrahimovic with a franchise-best 30. LAFC was the only team to score more than 64 goals this season.

Never before has an MLS game, much less a playoff game, featured two 30-goal scorers.

They made their U.S. debuts just weeks apart last season and while the record books show Vela has had the best season in MLS history, Ibrahimovic has arguably been the most dominant player ever. And they’ve gone about it in different ways — Vela with the skill and deception of a magician and Ibrahimovic with the strength and irrepressibility of a rampaging rhino – that reflect both their own personalities and the teams for which they play.

“Every day Carlos comes in here he’s got a smile, he’s got an easy way with his teammates,” LAFC coach Bob Bradley said Wednesday. “He’s encouraging with his teammates.”

From the team’s first practice, Bradley pushed Vela not to be content with simply being the best player on his team or in his league but to be the best player possible. Vela struggled with that last year but began this season by quietly saying his goal was to become the league’s MVP.

“Every year I start with the same mentality: to try to score a lot of goals, win every game, try to be the best,” he said this summer. “This time everything is going in the good way. I’m doing the things I dreamed of.”

To win the award, he knew his team would have to win games and it has, going 21-4-9 to finish the regular season with a league-record 72 points. Vela deserves credit for that too, setting a tone in the locker room by eschewing perks like first-class upgrades on team flights in favor of a middle seat in the last row where he can play cards with his teammates.

LAFC reflects that mind-set on the field with an unselfish, if unrelenting, playing style in which Vela is as likely to set up a teammate for a goal -– his 15 assists tied for third in the league -– as he is to score himself.

“There’s no bias between any players,” Beitashour said. “I don’t care if you’re Carlos or you’re a rookie. Everybody is treated with high expectation. And that’s how you get something this special.”

If Vela had to be coaxed into believing in himself, that wasn’t a problem for Ibrahimovic, who has compared himself to God, pledged to break every MLS record and christened himself the best player in league history.

He might be right on that last one.

“You should enjoy him,” Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath said after Sunday’s playoff loss to the Galaxy (16-15-3). “It’s a bit like Frank Sinatra. He’ll be dead before we know how good he is.”

Ibrahimovic, 38, is doing his best to make that happen before giving St. Peter the pleasure of shaking his hand. He is a Ferrari in a league full of Fiats, he said earlier this year, and he is not content to share. When the ball comes into the attacking third, if Ibrahimovic doesn’t get it, he often gestures wildly and angrily at the teammate who ignored him.

As a result, Ibrahimovic -– who always flies in first class — has scored more than half his team’s goals and taken more shots on target than the next five Galaxy players combined. A loss Thursday could mark his last game in MLS, however, while a win would take him a step closer to his first MLS Cup.

But regardless of the outcome, Ibrahimovic said the game won’t determine which team, which player or which style is better.

“Please, do not offend me,” he said this summer after being compared to Vela. “I need to prove nothing. To compare him with me, that was the biggest mistake.”

There’s nothing to which the game can be compared because there’s never been anything like it in Los Angeles.

Not in soccer.

Some of the sport’s most historic moments in this country have taken place in this region, from World Cup finals to the openings of two soccer-specific stadiums to the introduction of David Beckham to a new audience.

The anticipated second-round MLS playoff showdown between LAFC and the Galaxy will lack the grandeur of those previous events. But it’s precisely the absence of any trappings that demonstrate the degree to which the teams have become part of the local culture.

There’s no hyperbole, no misleading hype, no Freddy Adu.

Just a soccer game on Thursday at Banc of California Stadium.

The team that compiled the best regular-season record in the league’s 24-year history is opening its postseason against a crosstown rival it has never beaten.

That’s it.

Imagine that: In a country in which the sport was never supposed to catch on, soccer is finally in the business of selling soccer.

And it’s working.

After the Galaxy won in Minnesota on Sunday to secure a date with top-seeded LAFC, the cheapest tickets for the second-round match at Banc of California Stadium were selling on the secondary market for almost $200. That was more than the asking price for the least expensive tickets to the season-opening game between the Lakers and Clippers on Tuesday.

To accommodate the 300-plus reporters covering the game, LAFC will have risers in its press box and provide overflow seating on its concourses.

“The fact that now we can play this big game in this incredible stadium against the rival from Los Angeles, I think that’s fantastic,” LAFC coach Bob Bradley said.

From the time Bradley agreed to be LAFC’s first coach, he has emphasized developing an offensive style of play, as well as a connection with the fans. The team has succeeded on both fronts.

As an expansion team last year, LAFC was in third place in the Western Conference standings while finishing second in the entire league in scoring.

Bradley’s team did even better this season, establishing a single-season record for points and goal differential. With forward Carlos Vela scoring a league-record 34 goals, LAFC matched the single-season goal record of 85 set by the Galaxy in 1998.

The atmosphere at Banc of California Stadium is one of the most festive in MLS.

“We’re playing a great team on their field,” Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos said in Spanish.

As much success as LAFC has enjoyed in its first two seasons, it has never defeated the Galaxy.

The Galaxy missed the playoffs in 2017 and 2018. The team was once considered MLS royalty, but the league was a different place then. When the Galaxy won the first of its five MLS Cups in 2002, there were only 10 teams and the majority of them were owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group. The Galaxy was the league’s crown jewel and AEG treated it as such.

Even as AEG gradually divested itself of its other franchises, the Galaxy remained a top team into this decade, with the team paying top dollar for the likes of Beckham, Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan.

The latest signing in that tradition was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. No player has influenced the LAFC-Galaxy rivalry more than the Swedish striker, who has scored eight times in five games against LAFC. The Galaxy is 2-0-3 in those contests.

Ibrahimovic scored a hat trick in a 3-2 victory for the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in July. He scored twice in a 3-3 draw at Banc of California Stadium in late August.

Ibrahimovic finished the regular season with 30 goals, second only to Vela. The Galaxy was eighth in the Western Conference standings.

“I’m pretty sure they are afraid of us,” Galaxy midfielder Romain Alessandrini told The Times’ Kevin Baxter following his team’s first-round win in Minnesota.

LAFC midfielder Lee Nguyen scoffed when relayed Alessandrini’s words.

“We’re the best team in MLS right now,” Nguyen said. “We ain’t afraid of nobody.”

Bradley has described the match as a clash of styles, ideas and cultures.

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“Our football is to try to take control of games, try to win the ball back, try to control as much of the game as possible,” Bradley said. “So we’re going to try again.”

The opponents are expected to take a more conservative approach.

“The Galaxy is more direct than us,” LAFC midfielder Eduard Atuesta said. “They look for mistakes. They are a little opportunistic with dangerous players in front.”

However the game unfolds, there should be goals. The teams have combined for 24 goals in their five games against each other.

“The game will be distinct from the regular season,” Galaxy coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “It’s 90 minutes that determine each team’s future. There will be more concerns and more caution, but with the quality of players on the field, it will be a game with a lot of goals.”

As the teams’ platforms have elevated, the consequences have grown. When LAFC was upset by Real Salt Lake in the first round of the playoffs last year, the loss barely registered in Los Angeles. The public will be less forgiving of such a misstep this time. Win the MLS Cup and LAFC could cement its place as the greatest team in league history. Lose to the Galaxy and Bradley’s team could instead be known as soccer’s version of the Dodgers.

HOUSTON — 

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, in a reversal from his deputy’s recent comments on the league’s perception of opioid abuse among players, said baseball is not sheltered from the opioid epidemic sweeping the United States and the league is working with the MLBPA on an agreement to add opioid testing for next season.

“We understand that our workforce is a microcosm of society,” Manfred said before Game 2 of the World Series at Minute Maid Park. “There’s a societal problem. It’s not a good bet that we don’t have some level of issue and we’re working hard with them to find a way to be able to address it in a positive way through an agreement with the players’ association.”

Toxicology tests revealed Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs had fentanyl and oxycodone in his system when he died in July. MLB doesn’t test players for opioids and other “drugs of abuse” without just cause. The only substances every player is tested for in MLB’s current joint drug agreement are the ones deemed performance enhancing.

Earlier this month, deputy commissioner Dan Halem told The Times that the league does not believe it faces an opioid problem. Players can take short-term doses from surgeons after operations, but team doctors are not allowed to prescribe or give out opioids. The league relies on team employees to report behavior that could supply just cause for testing.

“Controlled substances are difficult to regulate in a team environment, so we decided not to use them,” Halem said. “In terms of illicit use of opioids, we haven’t heard that much.”

Days later, it was revealed that Eric Kay, an Angels media relations employee for 24 years, told federal investigators that he supplied Skaggs with oxycodone and both abused it for years. Kay also reportedly told investigators five names of Angels players he believes used opioids while with the Angels. Kay claimed to have told two other team officials.

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said conversations with the league on the matter are “positive” and “ongoing.” He added “nothing is off the table.”

“We have players who have been affected by it in their own families,” Clark said. “Being a microcosm of society, whether the players know of another player, they may know of someone in the family that’s struggling with it. So it still hits close to home from that standpoint.”

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SAN DIEGO — 

The thwacks emanating from the prolific punches being thrown on the bags at the House of Boxing gym echoed throughout the room, and sounded as if they reverberated all the way down to the border 20 miles away.

The blast from the powder keg-like eruptions signaled that Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez was back in town preparing for his biannual bout, looking bigger, literally, and hoping to prove better than ever.

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Alvarez, a natural middleweight, will step up two divisions and challenge Sergey Kovalev for the World Boxing Organization light heavyweight title on Nov. 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as he looks to further cement his legacy and win a championship in a fourth weight class. The fight will stream on DAZN, the OTT platform that signed the sport’s biggest power broker to an unprecedented 10-fight, $365-million deal last year.

“For me, my legacy is very important. History is the only thing that’s going to remain in boxing,” said Alvarez, who’s owned a home in San Diego and trained in Sorrento Mesa since 2014. “It’s one of the most motivating fights thus far in my career. Kovalev is very experienced and he’s the strongest fighter I will face. He’s had a good, long career. He’s going to use his height and range to try to beat me.”

Shortly after his round table session with reporters, Alvarez strapped on his hand wraps, laced up his gloves and went on to show the assembled media how he’ll look walking into the ring 15 pounds heavier than his last fight against Daniel Jacobs, a unanimous decision win in May.

The 29-year-old fighter, who hails from Guadalajara, finds himself in an unfamiliar situation, bulking up and eating liberally just to make weight against the 36 year-old Russian, who will have a four-inch height advantage and two-inch reach advantage come fight night. Ten days before the match, Alvarez is already walking around at 179 pounds.

“I’ve been eating well, lifting more weights because I normally don’t lift weights when I’m losing weight,” said Alvarez. “I’ve been eating how I normally do, of course staying healthy, but adding more rice, protein and carbohydrates. I’m entering this zone of comfort, but we’re ready for this.”

Boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter has won championships at 154, 160 and 168 pounds, but he’s unsure how long he will campaign at 175. He’s hoping Kovalev can provide the Litmus test for how to shape his career moving forward.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stay at that weight because it’s a lot,” said Alvarez. “But then again, we don’t know. We’re going to see in the fight how my body reacts.”

Alvarez has made some tweaks to his training as his frame evolves. To alleviate stress from the surgery that was required to remove a cyst from right knee last year, and to introduce additional rest, Alvarez has been running less and swimming more, even frequenting local gym chains just to dip in the pool.

“I don’t like swimming too much. I’m not a good swimmer, but it’s part of the routine and I have to do it. I’m getting used to it,” said Alvarez. “We’re training very hard. We’re ready.”

Alvarez has even recently taken a serious liking to golf, using his proximity to some of the best courses in the country to play at Pebble Beach and the Del Mar Country Club in between the monotony of a camp preparing for a big fight.

“I used to think different of golf, but I really like it a lot,” said Alvarez. “It takes me out of my training routine. It’s different. It distracts my mind and makes me feel good.”

On Wednesday, Alvarez was in a good mood overall, singing along to the live Mariachi band that was playing in the background, making special song requests, shadow boxing with his 66-year-old mentor Jose “Chepo” Reynoso, exercising his improving English and winking for the cameras whenever the photo op was right.

During one instance, there was a lull in the room as everyone who was gathered marveled at the sheer ferocity and viciousness of each Alvarez punch that was landing on the pads held by trainer Eddy Reynoso, Chepo’s son. Alvarez then paused and joked that it was too quiet, breaking the tension with a quip in Spanish.

Nearby stood Carlos Barragan, the full-time proprietor of House of Boxing, which has hosted Alvarez’s media gatherings for the last five years.

“He brings a good light to our community. He’s helped motivate the local kids in the sport,” said Barragan, who’s even built a gym for Alvarez at his house back when he was in construction. “Canelo and his team are really good supporters by donating all kinds of equipment. I get to see the human side of him, and he’s a quality, upstanding guy.”

Barragan, who’s spearheaded the career of local fighter Antonio Orozco, even helped supply Alvarez sparring partners for this fight by introducing him to Ben Alvarez, a Chilean cruiserweight from Canada.

Alvarez, who has no relation to the fighter, weighs 200 pounds and sports an amateur record of 37-11 and was thankful for sparring 20 rounds with his namesake.

“It was a great opportunity to learn from the best fighter in the world. He showed me there are levels to this sport,” said Ben Alvarez. “People think that since he’s moving up two weight classes, he will lose power, but let me tell you, the power is there. He’s very sneaky, yet calm. Kovalev better be ready.”

Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) is past his prime at the age of 36 but he’s the owner of 11 title defenses at light heavyweight since 2013. He also happens to hold the cards as the most marketable name in the weight class that Alvarez is venturing into. Kovalev has one of the sport’s best jabs, but has gone 4-3 in has last seven fights, including two losses to Andre Ward and a knockout loss to Eleider Alvarez last year.

Kovalev has since switched trainers to Hall of Famer Buddy McGirt, and enjoyed a resurrection of sorts going 2-0 in 2019. He avenged his loss to Eleider Alvarez to reclaim the WBO title that will be on the line next Saturday, but again looked suspect to the body — long documented as his weakest attribute — in a knockout win against Anthony Yarde. Kovalev was controlling that fight yet almost let it slip away after his susceptible midsection almost succumbed to Yarde’s core attack, prompting a concerned McGirt to almost stop the action in between rounds.

“Our strategy is to go for the body, but they’re not going to let us go there, so that’s the challenge,” said Alvarez. “I will attack him and see what happens. Nothing has ever intimated me.”

Alvarez, who makes paydirt attacking the body better than anyone in recent memory, plans on following through on the obvious blueprint. He may be picking a fight at the right time with Kovalev, who has faded of late, but the test will still be a real one for his shot at history.

“It’s going to be one of the most important fights for me and my career,” he said. “This title is very important, and it’ll determine how we approach the future. 2020 will be another year of challenges for me.”

ATLANTA — 

Wembley Stadium in London is familiar turf for Jalen Ramsey.

The loquacious cornerback had two interceptions in three International Series games there while playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he will make his fourth appearance when the Rams play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

Ramsey made four tackles in a Jaguars victory over the Indianapolis Colts in 2016, intercepted a pass in a rout of the Baltimore Ravens in 2017 and also intercepted a pass in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last season.

“I’ve been able to play well over there,” he said Wednesday. “Hopefully, I can again come Sunday.”

Fans at International Series games typically attend games in jerseys of their favorite teams and players regardless of which teams are playing.

Has Ramsey cultivated a following?

“I would say so, but I don’t know if them Rams [No.] 20 jerseys dropped yet,” he said. “So I don’t expect to see many of those out there.

Perhaps some Jaguars jerseys?

“I hope not,” he said, chuckling, “but hey, they love football over there. They come support and … they wear every team out there, their favorite player, whoever.” Ramsey, who turns 25 on Thursday, has been on the move since last week, when the Rams traded two first-round draft picks and a fourth-round pick to the Jaguars for the two-time Pro Bowl selection.

Ramsey traveled from Jacksonville to Southern California for three days of practice before boarding a team flight for Atlanta last Friday. He made an impact in the Rams’ 37-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, and will be on his way to London on Thursday after practice.

“I’m good,” he said when asked about the whirlwind travel. “It’s just a part of the process.”

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A mother who allegedly stormed into an Orange County middle school classroom to confront students she claimed were bullying her daughter has been charged with a misdemeanor, authorities said.

Christian Chylyn Prince-Tinsley, 33, of Mission Viejo was charged this week with one count of interference with the good order and administration of a school classroom with the intent to disrupt, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The charge comes several months after the May 14 incident, in which authorities said Prince-Tinsley walked into her daughter’s class at Niguel Hills Middle School without warning and without checking in at the school’s front office and asked the teacher to pass out a stack of tickets that read “Free ass-kicking. Must be 18 or older to redeem.”

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Then she told the students to leave her daughter alone, or their family members might get hurt, authorities said.

“If you all bully my daughter, if you look at her the wrong way, if you breathe the wrong way, send your mom to me,” the mother can be heard saying in a cellphone video that was recorded by a student and aired by KCBS-TV Channel 2. “Sisters, aunts, anybody over 18, I’ll [mess] them all up. Do you understand me?”

After the teacher called the school office for help, Prince-Tinsley was escorted off the campus by the assistant principal, according to prosecutors.

“This incident was way more than an attempt to address accusations of bullying,” said Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer. “This was a deliberate act intended to terrorize a room full of young children in the very space where they are supposed to be safe.”

Ryan Burris, spokesman for the Capistrano Unified School District, told The Times in May that the woman had complained to the district about her daughter’s bullying a week before the incident. An investigation deemed her claims unsubstantiated, he said.

“It seemed to come to an acceptable conclusion,” Burris said.

But for the mother, that did not appear to be the case. The woman told a campus administrator the day she was escorted out of the classroom that the bullying had continued after the investigation and had extended to social media.

Burris said in May that the additional claims would be investigated. The Times could not reach Burris on Wednesday morning for comment.

Prince-Tinsley told KCBS-TV Channel 2 in May that she didn’t regret her actions, despite the potential for legal repercussions.

“Sometimes if you’ve done everything you can do the way you’re supposed to do it and it doesn’t get resolved, then sometimes you have to decide if you’re willing to go a step forward and deal with the consequences,” she said. “I was prepared for that, because my daughter is No. 1.”

If convicted, Prince-Tinsley faces a maximum of one year in jail. She is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 6.

When Los Angeles leaders gave the green light for Crossroads Hollywood — a new development with a hotel, shops and more than 900 units of housing — they got the real estate developer to make an unusual pledge.

Tenants whose buildings would be torn down to make way for the soaring towers in Hollywood would have a chance to return and live in the new buildings. And they would pay no more than they would have if their existing apartments, which fall under city rules that limit rent hikes, were still standing.

L.A. leaders approved the $1-billion development over the vehement objections of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sued the city over the project. In the meantime, scores of tenants still living at the apartment buildings started negotiating over their “right to return.”

Now, with a deadline looming, many tenants say that Harridge Development Group is offering them a deal they do not want to accept. Among the conditions that worry them: They must agree not to make any “derogatory, critical, diminuitive, deprecating, or discrediting comments” about the building owner — or even about the deal itself.

“I want to come back,” said Daniel Hernandez, a restaurant manager who has lived in the apartment complex along Selma and Las Palmas avenues for roughly a decade.

But being able to speak up, Hernandez said, “is one of our rights. That’s the Constitution!”

Such “right to return” agreements with tenants remain rare, but some L.A. developers have dangled the offer to ease concerns at City Hall about tear-downs driving out poor tenants as new buildings replace older, rent-stabilized apartments.

Harridge representative Kyndra Casper said that they were honoring their commitment, which was a “voluntary offer” made at the request of City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell. The idea they were “somehow attempting to unduly burden the tenants in taking advantage of this offer” was “simply untrue,” she said.

“If tenants intend to return to the project, we are simply asking them to not do anything that could jeopardize or impede our progress,” Casper said.

At a Wednesday meeting at a Hollywood church, Hernandez and other members of the Crossroads Tenants Assn. listened as attorney Amanda Seward urged them not to sign the return agreement. The tenants, Seward argued, do not have to be “silenced” to exercise their right to come back, since it was enshrined in the city conditions for the new project.

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In an email, Seward said that the Crossroads deal is a test of whether the “right of return” offered by city leaders is a genuine effort to address the displacement of longtime renters — or “a simple gimmick that allows the developers to go forward with little chance that the displaced will realistically return.”

Under the city conditions for the new development, Harridge has to get written approval for its “first right of refusal plan” from the office of Councilman O’Farrell, who represents the Hollywood area. O’Farrell spokesman Tony Arranaga said that their office had approved that plan, calling the chance to return “a unique opportunity.”

The councilman “is concerned about the loss of rent-stabilized units, which is why he ensured that current residents were given the first right of refusal to return to a new unit” once the development is built, Arranaga said.

Arranaga added that under the deal, some tenants who qualify for affordable units set aside in the building for “very low-income” households might even end up with lower rents, in the future, than they would have had if their apartments had remained standing. The project includes more than 100 units of affordable housing — more than the 82 rent-stabilized units being torn down.

In light of that, Arranaga said, “we’re curious why anyone would want to disparage the project and pose a potential roadblock to build affordable housing.”

Seward said the displaced tenants had been trying to negotiate better terms, including more money to relocate than was legally required, so that poorer residents would be more likely to remain in the city during construction and ultimately return.

But Seward said that as they neared a deal, Harridge cut off negotiations over the terms, saying that it was contingent on the AIDS Healthcare Foundation litigation being dropped, even though “they knew the tenants had nothing to do with that lawsuit.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation attorney Liza Brereton said that the foundation had discussed dropping its suit if the tenants were “given a meaningful right of return option,” among other protections. The group lost its lawsuit over the project in July, then filed a new lawsuit in August accusing the city of breaking the law when it approved several projects in Hollywood, including the Crossroads project.

Casper said that tenants had only been offered “additional considerations” beyond the basic right to return because the foundation had suggested it would drop the suit if they did. Negotiations between the owner, developer and tenant ultimately broke down over multiple issues, Casper said, including tenants wanting to be able to “sell their right of return to unrelated parties.”

Darrin Wilstead, executive director of the Crossroads Tenants Assn., said they had not pushed for such a provision, although they had asked at one point about relinquishing the right of return for more relocation money. Seward said that the deal that was ultimately handed to tenants lacked benefits they had fought for and included “ridiculously draconian provisions.”

“They’re looking for a way to weasel out,” Wilstead said.

In a letter to an O’Farrell aide, Seward laid out a dozen concerns with the agreement. For instance, she said she was concerned that the deal could be terminated if the landlord is “instituting an unlawful detainer action.” That language, she argued, could mean tenants lose their rights to return if the landlord tries to evict them, even if the owner doesn’t ultimately succeed in court.

Casper disagreed, saying that the clause simply clarifies that the landlord can evict tenants for lease violations, just like any other landlord, and that merely initiating the eviction process would not eliminate the right to return.

The tenants were told that they have until Friday to return the disputed agreement. Hernandez was anxious about what lies ahead as he returned home from the tenant meeting. He hasn’t started searching for another apartment, he said.

“Nothing is affordable in L.A. compared to this,” Hernandez said.

Strong offshore winds and extremely dry conditions will result in widespread critical fire weather conditions throughout California on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Strong surface high pressure in the Great Basin will promote strong northeasterly Santa Ana winds.

Critical conditions, with sustained northeasterly winds of 20 mph and above and relative humidity of 10% to 20%, will occur across the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, including portions of eastern Ventura County to southern Riverside County, the National Weather Service said. Winds could gust to more than 30 mph locally with the lowest humidities from early to midmorning into early afternoon.

Widespread elevated to locally critical conditions will also occur in Northern California, especially in the northern Sacramento Valley and adjacent western slopes of the northern Sierra and western slopes of the northern Coast Ranges.

Southern California population centers listed at critical risk include Santa Ana, Anaheim, Riverside, San Bernardino and Oxnard. Population centers at extreme risk include Ontario, Fontana, Santa Clarita, Rancho Cucamonga and Pomona.

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The Colorado River Valley will get northerly winds of 15 to 25 mph with low humidity.

“One Piece: Stampede,” the 14th feature in this popular franchise, was created to mark the 20th anniversary of the animated television series based on Eiichiro Oda’s record-breaking manga “One Piece.” The film scored a big hit in Japan earlier this year, and American otaku have eagerly awaited it.

The sinister Buena Festa invites all buccaneers to a Pirate Festival, with a chance to acquire a fabulously valuable relic belonging to Gol D. Roger, King of the Pirates. Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates attend along with numerous friends and foes from earlier installments in the series, including Buggy the Clown and Luffy’s rebel brother Sabo.

Lurking in a cavern beneath the festivities is Bullet, a former member of Roger’s crew who hopes to establish himself as the strongest pirate — and the new king. He insists that people can and should only rely on themselves — which is anathema to Luffy, who values friendship over everything. Bullet has the power to absorb and transmute things surrounding him, and when he morphs into a gargantuan monster, Luffy and his chums must defeat him.

The minimal plot is little more than an excuse to launch an all-out slugfest that includes explosions, fist fights, earthquakes and naval bombardments. Director Takashi Otsuka blasts the screen with colorful special effects and crowd scenes that the smaller budgets of the TV series don’t allow. The nonstop mayhem will delight “One Piece” fans, but the uninitiated may find the film exhausting.

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