Joan Laporta

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
This would be great, but doubtful he'll really bring Nagelsmann. Also, in that case wouldn't it be better if we'd bring Ralf Rangnick as a SD rather than Overmars.




From how I understand Oriol Domenech he said two of those are well known SDs. Overmars and Zorc both fit that criteria. So I guess the Catalan candidate is not as well known. Wouldn't make sense to say that if he means Puyol.

Unless as a "well known" he means former Barca players.

IIRC due to Covid Zorc has agreed to work until 2022 for BVB. Initially, he wanted to leave at the end of current season. Therefore, the German SD indeed might be Ralf Rangnick or the contractual situation of Zorc might have put Overmars in pole position for the job. No matter how you put it, all of them are far more qualified and experienced for the job than Jordi Cruyff.

I wouldn't mind if it was Rangnick and not Zorc. It is impressive what he did with Salzburg and Leipzig. His introduced football might not be 1-1 Barca-style, but this man has such a great network and is skillwise the best director/manager Germany has to offer. On the other hand, Zorc might be an advantage when it comes to signing Haaland.
 
Last edited:

Andresito

Senior Member
Staff member
What's up with all this high profile SD talk?
Before it was Beckham and Pogba, now it's Zorc and Overmars.
They're being spoken of in the same way, like they're some sort of genius saviours.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a competent SD.
But exactly how much freedom is an outsider going to get at Barcelona?
These guys that are being mentioned have only had success at one club, even Monchi hasn't had success with more than one club.

There's a big risk of a clash of interests if someone like Xavi becomes coach. One party will have to change his ways of what he's used to and give in to the other.

And I'm still waiting for Braida's scouting reports on Pogba.
 

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
I am not that keen on Xavi. Coaching in Qatar means nothing and we would be wise to keep Koeman if he continues to improve the team with these youngsters.
 

George_Costanza

Active member
I am not that keen on Xavi. Coaching in Qatar means nothing and we would be wise to keep Koeman if he continues to improve the team with these youngsters.

It doesn't matter which team he is managing, Some high profile managers who managed in that region when their leagues were amature went on to win the World Cup. Also, I don't think Segunda league is better than Qatari league.
 

Horatio

You're welcome
It doesn't matter which team he is managing, Some high profile managers who managed in that region when their leagues were amature went on to win the World Cup. Also, I don't think Segunda league is better than Qatari league.

You don't think its easier for a coach to ease into first division spanish football by moving up from second division than flying over from Qatar?
 

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
IIRC due to Covid Zorc has agreed to work until 2022 for BVB. Initially, he wanted to leave at the end of current season. Therefore, the German SD indeed might be Ralf Rangnick or the contractual situation of Zorc might have put Overmars in pole position for the job. No matter how you put it, all of them are far more qualified and experienced for the job than Jordi Cruyff.

I wouldn't mind if it was Rangnick and not Zorc. It is impressive what he did with Salzburg and Leipzig. His introduced football might not be 1-1 Barca-style, but this man has such a great network and is skillwise the best director/manager Germany has to offer. On the other hand, Zorc might be an advantage when it comes to signing Haaland.

Yeah, Rangnick over Zorc any day of the week. I don't know what Zorc has, if anything to boast about or bring to the table.
 

George_Costanza

Active member
You don't think its easier for a coach to ease into first division spanish football by moving up from second division than flying over from Qatar?

Not really, do you think Pep coaching his team in Tercera Division (Third Division) made it easier for him to manage the first team?! Besides, Xavi was the one who lead the team when Tito was sick. Pep never had extensive leadership as a player like Xavi did because he was mostly managed by strong managers.
 

Messi983

Senior Member
IIRC due to Covid Zorc has agreed to work until 2022 for BVB. Initially, he wanted to leave at the end of current season. Therefore, the German SD indeed might be Ralf Rangnick or the contractual situation of Zorc might have put Overmars in pole position for the job. No matter how you put it, all of them are far more qualified and experienced for the job than Jordi Cruyff.

I wouldn't mind if it was Rangnick and not Zorc. It is impressive what he did with Salzburg and Leipzig. His introduced football might not be 1-1 Barca-style, but this man has such a great network and is skillwise the best director/manager Germany has to offer. On the other hand, Zorc might be an advantage when it comes to signing Haaland.

Didn't know that about Zorc but makes sense in current situation. OTOH he's been in Dortmund for 40 years so he might want a new challenge and if he'd really have an offer from Barca and want to join us I don't think they wouldn't let him go a year earlier.

Agreed about Rangnick. I'm not sure if he's totally given up on coaching though. He had a pre-contract with Milan for months to become their new coach and SD with a full decision making power. They've later canceled that agreement and renewed Pioli when he had some good results after re-start of the last season. So would Rangnick be ok with only being a SD or will he look to find a similar role in another club where he'd have more power? Maybe in the EPL where managers usually already have much more influence on building the team even if clubs do have SDs in theory/on paper.

I wouldn't mind either Zorc or Rangnick (as long as he's a SD exclusively obviously and he could work with Koeman or whoever our coach will be) but still think Overmars is the most likely option among them.


There's a big risk of a clash of interests if someone like Xavi becomes coach. One party will have to change his ways of what he's used to and give in to the other.

Potential clash of interests always exists within the club structure we have.

SD and coach won't always agree on everything but they should be able to work together. In the end I'd side more with a coach because he's the one who will have to use the players brought to the club so if possible give him at least some of the players he wants but if they are unavailable for financial or other reasons then they should make a compromise about who we should bring instead.

But it's important we always have prepared alternatives which we didn't seem to have over the past few years. And this should change. We can't afford to spend a whole transfer window chasing one player and then either over pay for him or not buy anyone else if we can't get our primary target.

Here is how Monchi does things:

Only after intensive scouting of the relevant players the start to get the coach involved in April. Monchi clarifies that the trainer orders a list of profiles that, in his expert opinion, he needs to improve the team. Based on the desired profiles, the scouting department selects suitable players who meet the coach?s expectations. From initially more than 500 players (during the gross scouting) a list of approx. 6-8 players per position is created, which is presented to the coach with the help of videos.

https://www.createfootball.com/en/2...-wizard-scouting-squad-planning-at-fc-sevilla

So it really shouldn't be too hard for our SD to also give a list of available players at the position of need to the coach and let him select who he prefers from that list. If we can't get his primary target then move down the list to the next one.

Xavi is not stupid. He'll understand we can't get him every player he'll want. And those SDs who all have a pretty good track record (if we'll get one of them) have also worked with different coaches who all had their own ideas and needed to adapt to them over the years.

No person has ever had a full power over transfers here, mostly because no coach or SD has ever stayed long enough. And Xavi shouldn't expect to be that guy from day one either. Now if he'd turn into our Ferguson and stay for a decade or more (which would be great as it would mean he's successfull but OTOH is almost impossible for anyone to keep up with every day pressure at Barca for so long) then he'd surely earn the right to overrule our future SDs.

But to get even close to that point he'll be dependant on our next SD to bring him players he'll need to finish the rebuild we've just started and then hopefully make a competitive and dominant team again. Without that he won't survive long and after spending almost his entire life at the club I think Xavi knows that.
 

FCBarca

Mike the Knife
Not really, do you think Pep coaching his team in Tercera Division (Third Division) made it easier for him to manage the first team?! Besides, Xavi was the one who lead the team when Tito was sick. Pep never had extensive leadership as a player like Xavi did because he was mostly managed by strong managers.

At the time Pep was actually coaching the B team in the 4th division. If nothing else, we quickly learned an impressive resume is no substitute for knowing what to do. The closest thing to Pep, as a coach, especially for Barca, is Xavi
 

serghei

Senior Member
Didn't know that about Zorc but makes sense in current situation. OTOH he's been in Dortmund for 40 years so he might want a new challenge and if he'd really have an offer from Barca and want to join us I don't think they wouldn't let him go a year earlier.

Agreed about Rangnick. I'm not sure if he's totally given up on coaching though. He had a pre-contract with Milan for months to become their new coach and SD with a full decision making power. They've later canceled that agreement and renewed Pioli when he had some good results after re-start of the last season. So would Rangnick be ok with only being a SD or will he look to find a similar role in another club where he'd have more power? Maybe in the EPL where managers usually already have much more influence on building the team even if clubs do have SDs in theory/on paper.

I wouldn't mind either Zorc or Rangnick (as long as he's a SD exclusively obviously and he could work with Koeman or whoever our coach will be) but still think Overmars is the most likely option among them.




Potential clash of interests always exists within the club structure we have.

SD and coach won't always agree on everything but they should be able to work together. In the end I'd side more with a coach because he's the one who will have to use the players brought to the club so if possible give him at least some of the players he wants but if they are unavailable for financial or other reasons then they should make a compromise about who we should bring instead.

But it's important we always have prepared alternatives which we didn't seem to have over the past few years. And this should change. We can't afford to spend a whole transfer window chasing one player and then either over pay for him or not buy anyone else if we can't get our primary target.

Here is how Monchi does things:

Only after intensive scouting of the relevant players the start to get the coach involved in April. Monchi clarifies that the trainer orders a list of profiles that, in his expert opinion, he needs to improve the team. Based on the desired profiles, the scouting department selects suitable players who meet the coach?s expectations. From initially more than 500 players (during the gross scouting) a list of approx. 6-8 players per position is created, which is presented to the coach with the help of videos.

https://www.createfootball.com/en/2...-wizard-scouting-squad-planning-at-fc-sevilla

So it really shouldn't be too hard for our SD to also give a list of available players at the position of need to the coach and let him select who he prefers from that list. If we can't get his primary target then move down the list to the next one.

Xavi is not stupid. He'll understand we can't get him every player he'll want. And those SDs who all have a pretty good track record (if we'll get one of them) have also worked with different coaches who all had their own ideas and needed to adapt to them over the years.

No person has ever had a full power over transfers here, mostly because no coach or SD has ever stayed long enough. And Xavi shouldn't expect to be that guy from day one either. Now if he'd turn into our Ferguson and stay for a decade or more (which would be great as it would mean he's successfull but OTOH is almost impossible for anyone to keep up with every day pressure at Barca for so long) then he'd surely earn the right to overrule our future SDs.

But to get even close to that point he'll be dependant on our next SD to bring him players he'll need to finish the rebuild we've just started and then hopefully make a competitive and dominant team again. Without that he won't survive long and after spending almost his entire life at the club I think Xavi knows that.

Top post. Especially the bolded part.
 

vegitot

Senior Member
At the time Pep was actually coaching the B team in the 4th division. If nothing else, we quickly learned an impressive resume is no substitute for knowing what to do. The closest thing to Pep, as a coach, especially for Barca, is Xavi

Pep had Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Etoo, Henry...in his arsenal. What will Xavi have???
 

Joan

Well-known member
Saw Laporta would present his economic plan on January 13th. Interesting to see whether he comes up with something more specific than Font.
 

Home of Barca Fans

Top