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.
