Victor Font

[Birdy]

This guy wanted to bring Pep back?
Well, looks like he got denied already, Peps not interested.

He made a general point about the talent he would like to remain at the club, and not reinforce competition by working elsewhere.
That kind of talent has to do with Cryuff's principles, and Pep is a paradigmatic example.

 

[BBZ8800]

BBZ making judgement on Pirlo after 7 games is pretty typical. About the same as people calling Koeman a fraud after same amount of time.

Y'all seriously need to ignoring these takes or the reactionary opinions on this board will continue to make everyone suffer.

It was more like: Pirlo was a GOAT midfielder and he is not on that level as a manager, related to debate about Xavi as a possible world class manager.

Also, even if Pirlo will improve, it will take years.
Xavi till now was quite meh in Saudi Arabia, so I am personally not interested in Barca being his place for learning.
Xavi and Messi are giving me the worst "coaching vibes".

About Xavi, I can't shake off a feeling that he is some kind of a dreamer who will want to play Cruijff's football 30 years later or a weaker version of Pep's football 12-15 years later when even Pep himself can't do too much with his style.

My opinion about people in general is that people don't change too much.
Pep is Pep, even 10 years later.
Dumbele is Dumbele forever.
Arthur doesn't have forward passes in his DNA and he can't change it.
Neymar is a showman, he can't play faster and more efficient except for a few Months.
Mou is Mou. A defensive coach who will never play beautiful Barca DNA type of football.

Now about Xavi:
He succeeded Pep as a player.
He played under Pep.
He was TikiTaka himself.
He often talked about nonsense like 80% of possession, how the grass was too long etc.

Sorry if I am giving premature estimations, but my wild estimation: that Xavi as a coach will be: a good old Cruijffista-Pepista, putting faith in La Masia, returning to a possession heavy football, going back to Barca DNA type of footballers (Arthur, Puig etc).

He reminds me of guys from our forum who still believe: nothing can beat Pep's football even in 2020, and if executed properly, no one can ever come close to it.

Lol.

 

[serghei]

You are too romantic.

Pirlo was an Italian Xavi as a player.
He looks like an awful coach for now.

Koeman was an absolute winner and a legend.
Today he is afraid to bench Messi.

I personally have extremely bad feeling about Xavi.
I am afraid that he will be a Setien junior.
Trying to play football which worked 30 or 15 years ago.

From Xavi you have never heard words pace, athleticism, fight, mental strength, evolution of football.

He always talked only about possession, height of grass and Puig.

Sounds like Setien vol 2.
But probably even worse.

He was not. But sure, being a great player doesn't mean you will be a great manager. Being a football manager is super tough.

 

[khaled_a_d]

I think rather than dismissing the approach of bringing back former players, it's important to select the right ones.

I don't think anyone dismissing it, SD are usually former players even in Bartou era.
Thing is you need someone who isn't selected solely based on his football talent on pitch, they need to be more comfortable doing business and know who to select.
Font seems fixated on certain names tbh, and only recently he started mentioning other names but it looks like more of a damage control at this point since Laporta seems ahead of him.
For the record, I think all of this names will work under whoever is getting voted, Xavi would have zero problems working for Laporta for example, he won't wait 6 years till he is out of the club to coach us.
It is just Font offers him more room for work, and that is why he supports him. Those folks aren't as idealistic as people think they are. Xavi is using Font as a mean, just like Font is doing. Nothing is wrong in that btw

 

[serghei]

I don't think anyone dismissing it, SD are usually former players even in Bartou era.
Thing is you need someone who isn't selected solely based on his football talent on pitch, they need to be more comfortable doing business and know who to select.
Font seems fixated on certain names tbh, and only recently he started mentioning other names but it looks like more of a damage control at this point since Laporta seems ahead of him.
For the record, I think all of this names will work under whoever is getting voted, Xavi would have zero problems working for Laporta for example, he won't wait 6 years till he is out of the club to coach us.
It is just Font offers him more room for work, and that is why he supports him. Those folks aren't as idealistic as people think they are. Xavi is using Font as a mean, just like Font is doing. Nothing is wrong in that btw

No doubt.

 

[Messi983]

Monchi is a king. Wherever he goes he'll have to be above the manager and have free reigns. I don't think many clubs are ready to accept that, let alone the biggest clubs which usually have high profile names as managers.
Wasn't he on his way to United once, but they got put off by his high demands of power?



Monchi's success with Sevilla might not be implementable at other clubs, especially bigger clubs.

- A successful transfer for Monchi is a player who is sold for more than he's bought.

- With Sevilla losing their best players they manage to be a great EL team year after year.
But they never manage to get past that barrier, not once have they been a dark horse in CL like Spurs/Ajax 18/19 for example. Does he really have an eye for players who regularly become world class, or just cheap players that are sufficient for tier 2 clubs like Sevilla?

- The players who turn out world class eventually, need patience and playing time. Things that can be offered at Sevilla, but maybe not so much at bigger clubs.

Valid points.

1. I would be willing to give him free hands on the market as long as he can co-work with whoever our coach will be (so he'd buy the players a coach will actually want and use so we'll avoid another Malcom case) and with whatever transfer budget the club will give him. I don't want the next president/board to be directly involved in transfers but they should obviously give their approval with big money signings. With finances probably being tight for a few more years at least I don't expect many of those though.

2. I think his goal is always to build a competitive team (for example he built the last EL winning team in one summer. IIRC only Navas and Banega were at the club before summer 2019 out of 11 starters in the Inter game). But if a player won't work out from a sporting perspective then every club would prefer to not have a big financial loss on him. And that's obviously much easier to do when you don't spend 100m on players, lol.

3. Barca wouldn't need to sell Alves, Raki,... in their prime years. I'm pretty sure Sevilla would challenge for La Liga title (not in the Pep/Mou era when both teams were clearly superior to other La Liga teams but more likely over the last 6-7 years) if they could keep their best players for more than 2-3 years and at the same time upgrade the team.

I'd say it's easier to have that one great season when everything goes in your favour in CL for teams like Ajax (a club with great scouting network and youth academy who are playing in "easier" league where they can develop those players) or Spurs (being a much richer club due to EPL money so they can keep their star players longterm) than for a team who also needs to concentrate on finishing 4th in La Liga (with three teams above them being clearly much more powerful financially) while regularly winning the EL.

4. Sure, but in a situation we're currently in I don't expect us to challenge for CL for a few more years at least (with RM and AM also not in much better conditions we could maybe win La Liga in the meantime though). We already have some younger players who will need time to develop so I don't see a problem to add a few more and let them grow together into what will hopefully be a core of our next competitive team. If they won't get enough playing time here they could also be loaned. And loaning 10-20m players on lower wages is a lot easier than doing the same with more expensive signings.

It's not like he needs to bring only 20 years old talents though, he could also find a few players in their prime years like Diego Carlos or Ocampos (I'm not saying we should buy them now from Sevilla when they are clearly more expensive but look for similar players in smaller clubs) for relatively cheap to help us short/midterm while we're waiting for the kids to develop or until we find better/younger options.

 

[Joan]

Joan is back !

Hola, Mag! How's it been?

Welcome back, man. Where have you been?

Good post, totally agree with you.

I mean, Bartomeu has brought back legends like Abidal, Puyol and VV in different roles and they didnt' exactly worked out. Just because they were great players doesn't mean they'll also be good coaches/SDs/whatever roles the club will give them.

Thanks, pal! I took a sabbatical, just like the forum's favorite Josep. Aah... it's been a while. Was sort of fed up after the night at Anfield, but also had no time to follow football closely anymore. Would lurk the forum here and there and would often find myself not knowing the newest flavors of the month. You don't really miss that much.

Cut your post short as I agree with the points made. I'm not against trusting our legends, but in my opinion, it's ridiculous to always try the same. And once you fail? Repeat it, might get lucky the next time.

Becomes a problem once the board comes under such influence.

I'm not saying Monchi is a solution, but he's a proven skilled executive. While the likes of Puyol and Xavi have done nothing as of now. Bring to the club knowledge, not mere reputation.

Rummenigge is a skilled excited but he was also an exceptional footballer who played 400+ games for Bayern Munich (2X European footballer of the year) and an intelligent person. Laporta trusting Cruyff was smart because he also was an exceptional footballer and an intelligent person.

Bartomeu added Abidal for clout and nothing more, I know Abidal was part of the successful Guardiola era but he wasn't the backbone to the success like Xavi, Puyol etc. Xavi was the metronome of successful teams and Puyol was the leader. If we are going to have former players as part of the club, I'd much rather it be the likes of the aforementioned than Abidal, Fernandez etc who were all just a footnote in Barcelona's history and could never understand it like the Xavi's, Puyols, Iniesta's etc can.

More or less, yeah. But Cruyff was not only a legendary player but a revolutionary manager. Who has done great things, not only with the first team but the club's infrastructure.

On the other hand, while the likes of Puyol or Xavi were brilliant players with skills in different departments: they're yet to show it applied anywhere but on the pitch. And Barca shouldn't be a learning spot.

Think legends should show innovation at smaller clubs before coming to Barca. That is, if we want to keep the reputation of one of the best. Hit or miss game can't take you too far in the long run.

 

[George_Costanza]

Joan you are alive!!! I thought you committed ritualistic suicides

 

[Mrgandalf]

BBZ making judgement on Pirlo after 7 games is pretty typical. About the same as people calling Koeman a fraud after same amount of time.

Y'all seriously need to ignoring these takes or the reactionary opinions on this board will continue to make everyone suffer.

Oh tell me sister.

 

[Messi983]

He'll bring Toni Nadal to the club if he wins.

What's next, turning Rafa from a hardcore madridista to cule?

 

[Luftstalag14]

He'll bring Toni Nadal to the club if he wins.

What's next, turning Rafa from a hardcore madridista to cule?

Toni Nadal is a Barca soci/member though.

 

[Birdy]

It was more like: Pirlo was a GOAT midfielder and he is not on that level as a manager, related to debate about Xavi as a possible world class manager.

Also, even if Pirlo will improve, it will take years.
Xavi till now was quite meh in Saudi Arabia, so I am personally not interested in Barca being his place for learning.
Xavi and Messi are giving me the worst "coaching vibes".

About Xavi, I can't shake off a feeling that he is some kind of a dreamer who will want to play Cruijff's football 30 years later or a weaker version of Pep's football 12-15 years later when even Pep himself can't do too much with his style.

My opinion about people in general is that people don't change too much.
Pep is Pep, even 10 years later.
Dumbele is Dumbele forever.
Arthur doesn't have forward passes in his DNA and he can't change it.
Neymar is a showman, he can't play faster and more efficient except for a few Months.
Mou is Mou. A defensive coach who will never play beautiful Barca DNA type of football.

Now about Xavi:
He succeeded Pep as a player.
He played under Pep.
He was TikiTaka himself.
He often talked about nonsense like 80% of possession, how the grass was too long etc.

Sorry if I am giving premature estimations, but my wild estimation: that Xavi as a coach will be: a good old Cruijffista-Pepista, putting faith in La Masia, returning to a possession heavy football, going back to Barca DNA type of footballers (Arthur, Puig etc).

He reminds me of guys from our forum who still believe: nothing can beat Pep's football even in 2020, and if executed properly, no one can ever come close to it.

Lol.

That Xavi is a Pepista-Cryuffista is beyond doubt.
The question is not about that.
The question is if he is/can be as good Pepista as Pep was a Cryuffista, if he can reinvent the Barca-DNA football for this era (for the era that he is going to take charge of the club as a manager). Pep's and Cryuff's principles are not dead, they just need constant reinventing and adaptation to work

Given Xavi's little experience, and what we see from Koeman currently, I would NOT trust him to take charge now.
We need a transitional phase, and Koeman has showed enough positives IMO to lead that transitional phase for at least until 2022, and build also at least one year more without Messi in the squad, and with all the old guard (Pique, Busi, Alba) removed from the line-up.

 

[soul24rage]

Font's answering some fans/members' question on Zoom

https://twitter.com/Bluegrenades/status/1326085994819579904

 

[messi2140]

Font's answering some fans/members' question on Zoom

https://twitter.com/Bluegrenades/status/1326085994819579904

You literally can't make this shit up. I open the link and the literally the first thing I see is this :

I know he has to answer the questions he gets , but it's still hilarious.

 

[messi2140]

And again everytime I listen to him or read bits of his interviews the guy just panders. He talks about reversing the financial problem Barca is in , but at the same time mentions how he wants to renew Messi's contract for the coming 2 to 3 years.