Xavi Hernández

[DonAK]

@serghei

If we by some miracle manage to sign Zubimendi or Kimmich along with Nico Williams and Olmo or Bernardo Silva, what can we expect from Barca under Xavi then?

 

[serghei]

Compete for the league vs Madrid and CL quarterfinals is the target. But the squad needs to stay as it is and the signings need to be added over the existing players for competition.

 

[Windhook]

According to who?

For a whole decade we had a single Sergi Roberto as a prospect out of the academy. That's not how the best academy in the world works.

 

[mc_lovin]

For a whole decade we had a single Sergi Roberto as a prospect out of the academy. That's not how the best academy in the world works.

It's a lottery. You can have the best academy and produce nothing. It improves your chances, but you are still playing roulette.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Compete for the league vs Madrid and CL quarterfinals is the target. But the squad needs to stay as it is and the signings need to be added over the existing players for competition.

Good expectations for ll

in cl it depends who is our opponent, if it's City in R16 then ofc an exit doesnt hurt as much as a cl path like this season where you have to reach at least the final

 

[Respekt_III]

According to who?

For a whole decade we had a single Sergi Roberto as a prospect out of the academy. That's not how the best academy in the world works.

Figured it was a widely held belief in footballing circles, we've had some of our best players from there over the years past and some of our better players are from there now - i do believe that even rated academies do go through cycles. regardless its more about the point that we have leveraged our academy to be able to compete.

 

[serghei]

For a whole decade we had a single Sergi Roberto as a prospect out of the academy. That's not how the best academy in the world works.

The academy is fine, but the way the club jumps at every raw kid that plays a few matches and hypes him up to high heavens is toxic. This would not happen if we could chase the top players. It's a by-product of the financial mess.

 

[DonAK]

I'd count Thiago too who was probably a better player/prospect that most academies have produced over the last 10 years.

 

[Windhook]

The academy is fine, but the way the club jumps at every raw kid that plays a few matches and hypes him up to high heavens is toxic.

The academy is fine when the club involves its own product. Barto's financial Titanic was a curse and a blessing at the same time.

 

[Respekt_III]

The academy is fine when it involves its own product. Barto's financial Titanic was a curse and a blessing at the same time.

He's the reason we are in this mess his name still triggers me.

 

[Windhook]

He's the reason we are in this mess his name still triggers me.

Read some things years ago, dunno if true, Pep wanted more La Masia players integrated and Rosell wanted more Nike brand players. Could be complete BS. Neymar was one for shizzle.

 

[jamrock]

That's the issue though.

Nobody says this La Liga season has been good or that Girona should finish ahead of us or anything of the sort.

The issue is that a bad season is not enough to lose confidence in a manager considering all that Xavi did so far. You have to put things into a larger context if you care to judge things well.

There are multiple factors that hurt us this season. Complacency, not playing our home games at home, poor individual form of some players, key injuries with a thin squad that could not cover them properly. Not replacing Busi, or even Dembele last summer. And so on.

More than half of the people here either don't realize this, or they don't want to.

I'm aware of the context in la Liga and I think many of them are legitimate.

I wasn't for us firing him, but I do believe having said that he would leave, he shouldn't have walked it back, those situations never end well.

But I do understand why the club wanted to keep him, to pay him out and spend money on a new coach, when every dollar needs to go towards the squad isn't optimal.

I hope I'm proven wrong and we address the issues with our defense next season

 

[Respekt_III]

Read some things years ago, dunno if true, Pep wanted more La Masia players integrated and Rosell wanted more Nike brand players. Could be complete BS. Neymar was one for shizzle.

I think it may have some truth to it. We've always had some superstars in the team so it's not surprising that's the direction they wanted to take it especially with most football fans being for shiny superstar players. I think the issue is more so how they went about it and the disastrous way they implemented it. I don't think they were too eager or cared much about the coaching teams input when selecting/acquiring those players.

 

[DonAK]

Pep tried hijacking our Neymar signing when he was hired by Bayern so he probably wanted him or at least was positive to him being signed.

What Pep really hated was Rosell basically kicking everyone from the former regime out and disrespecting Cruyff.

 

[Windhook]

What Pep really hated was Rosell basically kicking everyone from the former regime out and disrespecting Cruyff.

So true. Rosell was on vendetta mode on Laporta, he got blinded and dissed anything related to Barca history.