Xavi Hernández

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El Flaco

El Flaco

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Quotes from Xavi in his interview with ESPN

On Van Gaal

"[He is a] good person, very good trainer. He has a very strong character, but he's calm in the Premier League because there's less pressure. He's much calmer than when he was at Barca or Bayern Munich."
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"He's honest, methodical and a real perfectionist. He's very demanding, he's strict and he wants to achieve the highest levels possible."
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"After two days of training under him, I thought, 'Who is this idiot?' After a week, I thought, 'He's right.' He'll always be in my heart, Louis van Gaal."
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"[Van Gaal and Valdes] are two strong characters, but it's a difficult situation for Victor. Let's hope he finds a solution soon. I'm sad for him. He's a great professional, a good person. He's training, he's working hard. He'll return to football. It's better for Victor to be playing football."
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About José Mourinho for being only known as a translator at Barca

"Rubbish. He was the assistant coach, someone who understood the philosophy of Barca and who shared many of the same characteristics of Van Gaal. He was very respected by the players. He trained us sometimes alone at Barca B and he was excellent. I'm surprised that he became known for another type of football, more defensive, because he wasn't like that with us."
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On Johan Cruyff and why the Dutch's the profound influence in Xavi's life according by the latter himself


"[Cruyff] said to me: 'Look Xavi, when you stop playing, you're going to realise that the closest thing you can do to still feel like a footballer is to be a coach. You don't want to be in the office, you want to be by the grass.' Cruyff added, 'When I stopped, I didn't know where I was, I was lost. When I was managed, I realised that was the place I wanted to be.'"
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Source
 
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El Flaco

El Flaco

Active member
Quotes from Xavi in an another interview with ESPN

About England's national team

"England have really improved. They have [Raheem] Sterling, [Ross] Barkley, [Jack] Wilshere, who has had bad luck with injury," said Xavi. "Young players, very talented. England are like the Spain of old. They have players; they don't have the confidence, the belief, to win tournaments. When they break this barrier, like we did, they can win. There's a lot of pressure on them because they haven't won."
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"With Spain, there's not the same pressure. They play with tranquility, England don't. It's a bitch when your country expects you to win and you don't. I've been there. I was in the World Cup in 2002 and 2006, when we were a team which reached quarterfinals. I heard the radio, the television and read the newspapers. The criticism was awful. England are like that now. They need to change their chip."
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Xavi refutes the consensus that the technical level of English footballers isn't as that of Spanish players.

"It is, don't you think?" I've seen some superb footballers. [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain, [Theo] Walcott, Sterling -- he can make the difference for [Manchester] City. [Wayne] Rooney is the leader, a great player, a great player. The top level."
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About Wayne Rooney

"A little, but [Rooney] scored an important goal (against CSKA Moscow). He'll be back. Footballers go through stages when things don't go well, it might be a few months, look at [Andres] Iniesta last season. People were critical of him; they said he wasn't the same player. What happened in the Champions League final, the biggest game? He was fantastic. But if you score an important goal then your confidence can soar. Confidence is the greatest variable in life, not just in football."
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About the English Fans and why their menality are different compared to the Spanish fans.

"I'd always respected the English fans. It's like a religion in England, where the fans follow the team to every away game. In England, they roar the team from the first minute. I admire that. The atmosphere is different, the mentality different to the Latin one. The English respect the footballer. It's a respected profession. In Spain, it's not respected. The people say: 'You live too well, you earn too much money, you don't work'. That's not true."
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"Juan Mata told me a story last year. He said that when Manchester United finished seventh (in 2013-14), the fans applauded the team at the end of the season. Seventh! If that happened to us in Barcelona, they'd want to kill us in our cars!"
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The comparison between Premier League and La Liga.

"The Premier has better organisation, better marketing and better kick-offs for games in Asia. It's more popular there. The Premier is more equal too, with more chance of a surprise than in Spain. People say the (unequal) television money distribution in Spain is a problem, yet all the clubs signed up for that. The club presidents signed the contracts."
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A

arjunanand1

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ManusXavi said:
Sleep outside the shop lol. You'll get the front row then
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Haha if only it were that simple. I'm hoping that not a lot of people show up since this is happening in the afternoon on a working day. Adidas has a contest too to meet him and so on, I've even registered for that!
 
ManusXavi

ManusXavi

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arjunanand1 said:
Haha if only it were that simple. I'm hoping that not a lot of people show up since this is happening in the afternoon on a working day. Adidas has a contest too to meet him and so on, I've even registered for that!
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Are you able to get off work on short notice?
 
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