Txiki Begiristain

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

Genuinely curious, what is Txiki’s unique approach?

I hear he normally goes about this on the phone, if I remember correctly, it goes like this:

Spoiler: Txiki's master tactics from an article on The Sun

Txiki : Hello, am I speaking to [insert transfer target name here] .

Transfer target: Yes this is ****** speaking.

Txiki: Ok, great well, hold on someone wants to speak to you.

Txiki runs off to meet Pep.

Txiki: Hey pep, I've finally gotten him on the line (Txiki gives the phone to Pep), so ermmmmm... talk to him.

After 5 minutes of talking with Pep, the target agrees to join us.

I think we would all agree that this is quite a unique approach!

 

[FCBarca]

Absolutely and I love this approach, I miss it tbh

 

[schfc6]

I’m assuming as we’ve triggered two release clauses we’ve paid nothing in agent fees?

We do seem reluctant to deal with agents, for me, this is a great thing.
Convincing a player that we’re best for him is much easier than convincing an agent we’re best for his client.

 

[bluemoon32]

I’m assuming as we’ve triggered two release clauses we’ve paid nothing in agent fees?

We do seem reluctant to deal with agents, for me, this is a great thing.
Convincing a player that we’re best for him is much easier than convincing an agent we’re best for his client.

An agent would still have been involved regarding salary etc

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Intelligence, style and substance - cut from similar cloth to Pep tbh. It's a well known fact that Pep would never have ended up coach at Barcelona, if not City, were it not for another member from Cruyff's dream team. Txiki isn't merely there to sign players but steer the vision of the club from a specific sporting perspective. He knows exactly what he wants and how to get it, being a former teammate of Pep's makes it the perfect & peerless partnership in world football

Even when he was first hired forcing youth coaches at City to provide him detailed reports on every training session to check for content & value to align with the overall vision for the club he was entrusted with before even Pep arrived. The depth at every position that fans are enjoying, credit all goes to Txiki.

Then there's the stealthy & quiet approach to how he conducts transfer business - rarely speaks a word to the media but closes business with great efficiency and knows when to back off when a deal looks poor. Pep gets a lot of credit but the reality is that Txiki is the one who acts on scouting reports. What you read from player recruits, their families and opposing clubs is the charm & soft spoken and professional way in which he approaches transfers. There's no hard sell and no pushing, he sells them on the project and puts them at ease. It's why most of his City transfers have gone almost under the radar

You want to celebrate City's success in this era, look no further than the Basque man

Great post. What he has done consistently in my opinion is keep the club away from bidding wars. You can look right back to pretty much all of his signings and we were the only show in town. He obviously does a deal with a player in private on the understanding that the player won't tout himself to anyone else. Then the player/agent sits back and City are just negotiating with one club about a player who has already decided to join. This keeps the fee and wages down, and doesn't have a "knock-on" across the whole squad, and allows City to plan. I'm sure that's why we walked away from deals like Sanchez.

But apart from that the man radiates intelligence, class and decency. It's no wonder he does deals - he's a heavy hitter. He clearly works on handshakes and trust, too, and is a man of his word.

When I hear that Man United are considering Ferdinand as D of F my soul sings. He has none of those qualities whatsoever. He's exactly NOT the kind of man you want closing £100m transactions because he's not bright enough.

 

[cleavers]

When I hear that Man United are considering Ferdinand as D of F my soul sings. He has none of those qualities whatsoever. He's exactly NOT the kind of man you want closing £100m transactions because he's not bright enough.

I beg to differ, he's exactly the kind of man that you want at united, it'll be comdey gold.

 

[KCblue]

Well done to Txiki and all the team. Berrada, Soriano, Khladoon, Pep, etc we truly are lucky to have the best in the business running our club. The long-term vision they've instilled in how the club is run will make sure that even if/when these lads move on we will be in great position to promote from within or hire the top talent available. They've made us the best run club in England, if not the world.

 

[domalino]

I’m assuming as we’ve triggered two release clauses we’ve paid nothing in agent fees?

We do seem reluctant to deal with agents, for me, this is a great thing.
Convincing a player that we’re best for him is much easier than convincing an agent we’re best for his client.

We still pay the agents for negotiating the contract between club and player.

This is how people like Raiola are triple/quadruple dipping when they make a transfer happen.

The buying club pays them for facilitating the transfer and then again as part of the contract negotiations. Often the selling club pays them for representing them during the transfer, and then they take home 10-15% of the players income as well.

 

[Woody135]

I beg to differ, he's exactly the kind of man that you want at united, it'll be comdey gold.

Even GNev on his glorious massive united rant at the end of the season nearly said Rio’s name on air as a terrible appointment. But woody cant help himself, got to love him

 

[asahartford1]

Scanning the first 50 pages of this thread, it is difficult to believe this fella has delivered a manager who is a genius, and a football team who are breaking all records.