Who should be Barça's next coach after Lucho?

[JamDav1982]

How about trying to get Maurizio Pochettini? After 3 years of amazing progress with the Tottenham Hotspurs, this Argentinian coach may be ready to take the next step and come to Barcelona. In his active career he played as CB, so he may be able to improve the defensive qualities of Barça. His emphasis on teamwork and focus on young, home-grown players should be desirable qualities. Another good thing is his abilty to speak both Spanish and English.
He may be reluctant to leave his current job, but Messi and Mascherano should be able to convince him.

Pochetino doesnt want the job.

He would have been my first choice though.

 

[Altomonte]

You are right that Pochettino's history with Espanyol makes it more difficult, but isn't it time to put such emotions behind? Are feelings still running so high that he would be afraid to be called a 'traitor' by Espanyol fans?
I recall a personal Barcelona experience, a party with friends of my daughter who support Espanyol. They really resented the recent Clasico win by Barça. But after a few glasses of Cava they calmed down and started talking in admiring language about Messi's magic.
But the rivalry is running deep and I understand why Pochettino may be afraid to return to Barcelona and coach the 'wrong club', although he was born in Argentina.

 

[JamDav1982]

You are right that Pochettino's history with Espanyol makes it more difficult, but isn't it time to put such emotions behind? Are feelings still running so high that he would be afraid to be called a 'traitor' by Espanyol fans?
I recall a personal Barcelona experience, a party with friends of my daughter who support Espanyol. They really resented the recent Clasico win by Barça. But after a few glasses of Cava they calmed down and started talking in admiring language about Messi's magic.
But the rivalry is running deep and I understand why Pochettino may be afraid to return to Barcelona and coach the 'wrong club', although he was born in Argentina.

I dont even believe Pochettino when he points to being an Espanyol fans as to why he wouldnt take the job.

He has a good thing going at Spurs and to win the league or silverware with them is making history and a bigger scalp than anything would be given credit for at Barca.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Xavi as player-manager. Solve 2 problems with one stroke.

 

[El Flaco]

Pochettino himself said that it's impossible for him to become our coach out of respect for Espanyol.

Starts at 9:45 minute mark.

 

[JamDav1982]

Dont think anyone disputes he has said that. It is what is being discussed.

 

[khaled_a_d]

We were total minnow-killers that season. It's hard to claim that our success in 12/13 was anything more than carried momentum from the Guardiola era and Messi's goalscoring prime. Mou's RM imploded pretty badly and we still lost to them in the league, CDR, and the Supercup. We were shite against a very poor AC Milan side in the first leg and, though our comeback was spectacular, our opponents were nothing special. After that we barely scraped by PSG, and then got catastrophically humiliated by Bayern. Our performances in big games that season were ridiculously underwhelming.

Of course, Tito's illness certainly played a part in that. We can't really gauge how much of a difference it made though as even prior to that our tactics were the same/stale and we had no big game success in the first half of 12/13 either in the sample space of matches we played. The team clearly had a worse 2nd half of the season due to the circumstances, but I'd say we were headed towards getting thoroughly exposed either way. I doubt we would've taken a 7-0 level of punishment, but I'm pretty confident that the 12/13 team was not in a position to truly challenge for all trophies and I think we'd have gotten eliminated by Bayern in the CL and RM in the CDR even if Tito wasn't forced to leave for treatment. Memories like Song at CB, Thiago getting benched for an injured Xavi, 2nd half Cesc, and Pedro/Alexis being mostly shite help paint the reality of what 12/13 was. We often destroyed smaller teams but didn't compete well against bigger challenges. It is a fact that we won the league with a record number of points but that is among the only good things I can say about that season as a whole.

I'm really skeptical about the Unzue experiment. It could turn out alright but speaking for myself and likely many others, I'm going in with 0 expectations or optimism.

1- Carrying momentum from a successful coach is one of the things that the board want,and rightfully so. I don't get that as a bad thing
2-In 2012/2013 we had an awful bad squad,the team reinforcement was awful to say at least,yet as you said we won the league with a record number of points,the 1st half of the season we played one of our best football ever and afterwards we had Tito's situation. You can't by any mean underestimate it's effect. Coach who isn't their while having an assistant who is suited more for the assistant job than taking over was just disastrous.
3-You can always argue it is difficult to withdraw conclusion from such situation but the claim that he was bad is way too subjective to make an argument about it.
Just remember Tito asked for a CB,midway through summer he backed from it (probably under pressure) and said it will be a midfielder. He had zero control over the signings. We ended up playing Bayern with no defenders at all,same as 1st classico. He had to deal with incompetent Alexis (people were making Bendtner type of videos for him that season) ,coming from injury old Villa and Tello in front to be with Messi and Pedro. the only decent line we had with midfield. Team was just bad man
This was just incomplete experiment with a lot of different circumstances tbh. One season sample size, one coach sample size. different board, ill coach.
It isn't like Tito experiment are the reason they want to hire Unzue (if that is true)

Dont think anyone disputes he has said that. It is what is being discussed.

Even if he begged for the job, guy is Asspanyol legend and we shouldn't by any mean hire him tbh. He shouldn't be in the discussion. We aren't that desperate.

Umm... Barca board? There's a guy called Jorge Sampaoli. I don't see how they could see the Unzue experiment as a better idea.
Really, Sampaoli's the obvious choice here. I don't get why we're completely ignoring him.

Sampaoli isn't by any mean an obvious choice,he has only 1 season in Europe and he has been ending it badly. Even at the start if the season there were a lot of criticism that his way of coaching isn't gonna work in long season and he is proving it right. Guy just lost 3rd place in Liga, lost from inferior team in CL. The way he is finishing the season doesn't make him an obvious for anything. May be even it should make Sevilla hesitant to renew him so early.

 

[JamDav1982]

'Asspanyol' has to be the most cringe worthy term going....

Wouldnt bother me if he is legend there or not anyway. If he was to be deemed the best man for the job then it should make no difference whatsoever.

 

[khaled_a_d]

This club relies a lot on their identity for their marketing and hiring Pochettino will be the opposite of that. It will be a field day for the media and fans and it would cost the board dearly if he failed,more than any other coach.

 

[DonAK]

'Espanyol' 'Madrid agent' if he fails lol

 

[JamDav1982]

This club relies a lot on their identity for their marketing and hiring Pochettino will be the opposite of that. It will be a field day for the media and fans and it would cost the board dearly if he failed,more than any other coach.

The hiring of Pochettino would not affect anything other than results on the pitch the media etc would get over it quickly.

If anything it makes Barca look worse that they are so close minded to reject anyone that has worked with a rival.

 

[DonAK]

The hiring of Pochettino would not affect anything other than results on the pitch the media etc would get over it quickly.

If anything it makes Barca look worse that they are so close minded to reject anyone that has worked with a rival.

I think it's more likely to be the other way around. I know that you can never say never, but the guy is a hardcore Perico, and will eventually have offers from other teams such as Real Madrid too.

 

[khaled_a_d]

The hiring of Pochettino would not affect anything other than results on the pitch the media etc would get over it quickly.

If anything it makes Barca look worse that they are so close minded to reject anyone that has worked with a rival.

I really don't see by any mean that second sentence come to reality,there is too many coaches out there and the club would never be looked closed minded by their fans for not hiring him.And I don't think the fans in the city as the most open minded either. I think it is just the total opposite.
And media will never get over it, media always find something to bitch about even in most successful times and the board will be presenting a golden opportunity for them to do it if they hired him. This is just will be suicidal from the board. Only way to do it if they are desperate and think he is savior which both doesn't apply in our situation.

 

[JamDav1982]

I really don't see by any mean that second sentence come to reality,there is too many coaches out there and the club would never be looked closed minded by their fans for not hiring him.And I don't think the fans in the city as the most open minded either. I think it is just the total opposite.
And media will never get over it, media always find something to bitch about even in most successful times and the board will be presenting a golden opportunity for them to do it if they hired him. This is just will be suicidal from the board. Only way to do it if they are desperate and think he is savior which both doesn't apply in our situation.

Totally disagree and if he was best man for job none of that matters and football has a short memory for those type of things.

The only ones that would be pissed off in that situation would be the Espanyol fans.

If someone like Pep was willing to go to Real I would think them fucking insane for turning him down. Their fans and press would revel in it and it would damage Barca more than anyone else.

Pochettino would just be that on a much smaller scale.

 

[serghei]

He's a good manager, that's all. Plenty of other good managers out there. It's not like his results at Tottenham are ground breaking.