Xavi Hernández

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Windhook

Windhook

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One thing I used to find disrespectful (I admire as I age) about Real Madrid was the treatment of outgoing iconic people. Del Bosque, Raul, Cassilas, even Cristiano Ronaldo. No fanfare, even Zidane, IMO Madrid's greatest player, retired quietly if I remember correctly. The Materazzi headbutt, red card and poof! He disappeared for a decade. Sergio Ramos also. I expect the same treatment on Modric and Kroos when their time come. Thank you for the service, good luck and goodbye.

Meanwhile at Barca we are not far removed from the moment of Messi's tears during that press conference. Stuck in the moment (lovely U2 song on Michael Hutchence:confused:). No player or manager should be bigger than the club and we are doing the opposite. Recently Luis Suarez brought up, once again, his bitterness on being kicked out of Barca like a dirty dog. What's the deal with former Barca players and why they keep bitching about it years after. Umtiti had said something in the same line. Are FC Barcelona the greatest club in the world that every kid dreams about? Captain Tsubasa stuff. On the other side you'd hardly find a Real Madrid player who will disrespect the club. I assume they know very well who's running the club - not Zidane, not Ronaldo, but Florentino.:papaperez:

Xavi is attempting to move the cart forward, but his poor CV is not convincing many. The club itself is stuck in the past. I just noticed writing these lines that we currently don't have a player on the squad wearing no.10 jersey. The shadow of Messi is hanging over the club (the reason we got rid of Ansu Fati:lol:) and I'm afraid this could turn into a Napoli type of nostalgia. Lewa was brought to the club, to excite fans, claiming he was a better footballer than Messi in 2020. What we are witnessing is steady decline in Lewa like he went to MLS to retire or something. Probably missing Thomas Muller. I'd say Xavi's tactics will be more efficient with Imhotep II on the bench, Ferran instead. Regardless the kid misses scoring a lot, cannot but notice Ferran has some magic - the ball always finds him in key positions to score.:quemiras:
 
T

Temptation

Well-known member
Just hire big Sam and play 442 dammit!


The Greatest England Manager of all time with a 100% win record.


Kevin Nolan and Ivan Campo taking the first flight to Barcelona as we speak.
 
delancey

delancey

Senior Member
ajnotkeith said:
4-3-3 also fucked us last season and we were behind in the league and knocked out of CL groups using it, then we switched to the 4 box midfield.

Which was equally as ineffective in Europe but much much better in Liga and clearly had much more control over games.

One thing to note though is we still had Dembele at that point who would fill in the creative flaws in the team. We still haven't replaced him.
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I’m glad we haven’t reverted back to the 4-4-2, as our games were terribly boring last season (despite the wins). A few exceptions here and there. I’d rather us lose while “trying” to play beautiful football than win playing defensively with one of the most expensive wage bills in La Liga. That’s just not cool at Barca.

But yeah, I doubt the decision to play 4-3-3 is Xavi’s preference. And poor Laporta is stuck with Xavi until season end. To add to the misery, Xavi has a contract until 2025, so if we let Xavi go, Xavi and his team will demand a pay off. That’s the problem with hiring friends and family. When things go sour, axing Xavi will be criticized by the entire Catalan family. :lol:
 
CatalinR10

CatalinR10

Senior Member
Somehow at first I felt kinda bad for him after the last game since Ferran and Rapinha missed golden chances to win the game but in the same time he wanted those players in the first place.

So it's over for you boyo !
 
Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
khaled_a_d said:
Laporta tried to get those elite options in summer of 2021, non wanted to join. It was heavily reported back then he wanted to bring a German coach like Flick or Nagelsmann but both felt they have better opportunity elsewhere.
He made a mistake of undermining Koeman, but Koeman list the dressing room and the fans mid-season and had to be fired.

It wasn't like there was any elite coach in summer 2022 either, at the end he had to deal with the reality.

As for now, I don't see many top managers being suddenly available in summer either, unless one consider De Zerbi a world class coach which is a huge stretch.
The biggest name we could get later but not now are Michel (Girona) and Alguacil from Sociedad. Both who are very good coaches and are arguably better than De Zerbi but won't convince most fans either anyway.
Flick is available now and likely in summer, though I would be worried of a coach who only build a name for himself in Covid year, same for Conte

Anyhow, I doubt Laporta will fire Xavi mid-season.
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Playing with words (like what is WC and what is not) won't do. It's the same trick Xavi apologists try, to come to the laughable conclusions that only Pep was a better option than Xavi :lol:
No, mate, there are more than enough coaches out there who have shown work to give enough promise that they can make Barca great again both in terms of football and results.

ETH, De Zerbi and Pochetino were elite options for summer 2022, but Laporta didn't want to wait. He acted against the long-term interests of the club to satisfy personal fantasies.
Even Postecoglou, who we were not very familiar with, was an elite compared to Xavi option.
But for that you need a proper recruitment department, not made up by buddies and friends

Then the story about Flick and Nagelsman is not 100% correct.
He acted VERY VERY late, when both had new jobs sealed (German and Bayern respectively)
Given that he was the favorite for the presidential elections, he should have started talks much earlier.

For the coming summer De Zerbi would def. leave Brighton for Barca. Then, anyone of the EPL cream, like ETH Poch etc, that their club is stupid to fire, can become an option.
Then, outside EPL, top options in: Arne Slot, Marcelo Gallardo. Michel even.
The only top options I would NOT go for are the ones whose football doesn't fit (Conte, Inzaghi, Tuchel to an extent)
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
Poch is not a realistic option in 2022, especially given the project just having lost Messi and being tasked with shitcanning Busi, Pique, Alba and the amigos.

It would be like Madrid hiring Simeone and having him lead the project that is transitioning out from their legends.
 
KingLeo10

KingLeo10

Senior Member
Porque said:
Poch is not a realistic option in 2022, especially given the project just having lost Messi and being tasked with shitcanning Busi, Pique, Alba and the amigos.

It would be like Madrid hiring Simeone and having him lead the project that is transitioning out from their legends.
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Why am I surprised you rate Poch :lol:
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
KingLeo10 said:
Why am I surprised you rate Poch :lol:
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what-huh.gif
 
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