Txiki Begiristain | Has left the club after 13 years (pg50)

Gorbachev said:
If he hadn't decided to leave on his own accord, I think the club would be sacking him right now.

At least 50% of the reason we are where we are now as a squad and overall development of the team since the treble is because of him.
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It’s since before the treble.

We won the treble because we had almost no injuries at all. We kicked Cancelo out of the squad and Foden had an injury in the January (caused by Cancelo in training) and Foden had his appendix out in the February. We suffered no more injuries that season. It was incredible how we managed to have an injury record like that, never seen anything like it.

But, even then we had a really small squad and we would have looked short if there were a few injuries in a few positions. After Cancelo left, the only full back we had was Walker, we managed to overcome that with the form of Akanji and Aké (two centre halves) playing exceptionally well at full back.

Like previous seasons, when Agüero got injured in 2020-21 and we sold our other striker halfway through the season (Torres) and played with no real striker - Jesus had decided he didn’t want to be a striker anymore despite the fact he could have been the main man for us there with Kun out. He did mainly play as the 9 but when he mustn’t have fancied it, we played either Foden or Sterling proper 9 or false 9 (neither suited the proper 9 really).

At the end of the season we got rid of Agüero and didn’t sign anyone. We played a full season with the fill-in 9 or false 9s with Foden, Jesus and Sterling… Grealish even played there once. All because of our total lack of squad depth in the striker department.

We managed to win the league in all of those seasons but it wasn’t because we had a well rounded squad with strength in depth in every position. We bought two strikers the next Summer and won the treble! How much did having no proper depth up front hold us back from winning the CL in those previous seasons?

We now have no decent right backs, no defensive midfielders at all with Rodri out and we’re back to having one striker in the squad.
 
To be fair, he helped build an incredible side and look what we had. However, I always felt we weren't ruthless enough - we almost started to get embarrassed and apologetic in the transfer market when we could have gone for the jugular.
I know, I know, spending rules - but even allowing for that - the windows post Istanbul have been woeful.

To cut some slack - this 115 situation - squad looks like it's been deliberately allowed to fade. Perhaps that's the plan - and then the charges out of the way and new stand squad rebuild. Best we can hope for now.
 
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Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
Indeed. Bernado another.

Selling Alvarez and not replacing him was a criminal decision.

Txiki thought the job was done when he signed Haaland. He was clearly very wrong!
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100M for KDB , I would be telling Kev we will give you a 25m payoff , go and sign for them.

That's what ruthless clubs would do.
 
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu
Walker - great servant but old father time.....
The current kids including Lewis - decent but won't ever be elite level
Gundo - very sad to watch this
Johnny - sad to say - but completely unreliable
Doku - the butterfly flaps it's wings moment for me.
And me - before someone else says it.
 
I want to change the net spend trophy we have now to 3 serious players in January. RB, DM, and a striker. no point waiting til the summer unless we want to risk even playing CL next season.and then some more in the summer to continue the rebuild Txili and co neglected for some time now for whatever reason.
is it hard to sign in January? it is, but we need to do it because we were so comfortable when we could have signed in the summer.
 
GaudinoMotors said:
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu
Walker - great servant but old father time.....
The current kids including Lewis - decent but won't ever be elite level
Gundo - very sad to watch this
Johnny - sad to say - but completely unreliable
Doku - the butterfly flaps it's wings moment for me.
And me - before someone else says it.
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I actually think Gundogan would be okay as long as he was the player coming on for 30 minutes to see out the game; the role he probably expected when he returned. Doku is another that I think we can accommodate in the squad (we need more not less), but we shouldn’t be playing a front four of him Savinho/Foden/Haaland: too little control. However, if we have doubts over his maintaining fitness or are unconvinced he can play with rotation, then we might need to rethink.
 
Just parking the questions marks against him I was reminded the other night watching the Hammers play some good stuff of another little spanner thrown into the works of Paquetta being investigated yet almost 2 seasons later there he is pulling the strings.
Always thought the timing of that was fishy and derailed us and that led directly to us signing Nunes.
 
M23 Citizen said:
It’s since before the treble.

We won the treble because we had almost no injuries at all. We kicked Cancelo out of the squad and Foden had an injury in the January (caused by Cancelo in training) and Foden had his appendix out in the February. We suffered no more injuries that season. It was incredible how we managed to have an injury record like that, never seen anything like it.

But, even then we had a really small squad and we would have looked short if there were a few injuries in a few positions. After Cancelo left, the only full back we had was Walker, we managed to overcome that with the form of Akanji and Aké (two centre halves) playing exceptionally well at full back.

Like previous seasons, when Agüero got injured in 2020-21 and we sold our other striker halfway through the season (Torres) and played with no real striker - Jesus had decided he didn’t want to be a striker anymore despite the fact he could have been the main man for us there with Kun out. He did mainly play as the 9 but when he mustn’t have fancied it, we played either Foden or Sterling proper 9 or false 9 (neither suited the proper 9 really).

At the end of the season we got rid of Agüero and didn’t sign anyone. We played a full season with the fill-in 9 or false 9s with Foden, Jesus and Sterling… Grealish even played there once. All because of our total lack of squad depth in the striker department.

We managed to win the league in all of those seasons but it wasn’t because we had a well rounded squad with strength in depth in every position. We bought two strikers the next Summer and won the treble! How much did having no proper depth up front hold us back from winning the CL in those previous seasons?

We now have no decent right backs, no defensive midfielders at all with Rodri out and we’re back to having one striker in the squad.
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I actually think Pep made Txiki look better than he was.
 
Right time for him to go. His record buying from South America and Europe is good. His problems came with his dealings when signing players playing in this country. Started strong with Sterling, Stones, Walker and Mahrez.. but what on earth convinced him to sign Grealish, Ake, Phillips and Nunes for almost £250mil is beyond me.
 
Shazza458 said:
Biggest thing we did wrong was not build the squad from a position of strength post treble.
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And yet we won the 4th title

Not buying in the window just gone is up for debate , we might not be spending for good reason , with all the legal stuff for example

Honestly txiki has built us into the worlds best team but lets slag him off
 
Shazza458 said:
Biggest thing we did wrong was not build the squad from a position of strength post treble.
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Although I agree this is an issue, part of me thinks the charges made it harder to bring in top quality players who may have been concerned about the outcome.
 
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HelloCity said:
Although I agree this is an issue, part of my thinks the charges made it harder to bring in top quality players who may have been concerned about the outcome.
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Players and the club as well, I would believe.

Even if all involved believe the evidence is ironclad, they still have to plan for the risk of an adverse finding. It would be irresponsible for City to not set financial targets that would keep the club on sound financial footing if sanctions were given.
 
BLUEisville said:
Players and the club as well, I would believe.

Even if all involved believe the evidence is ironclad, they still have to plan for the risk of an adverse finding. It would be irresponsible for City to not set financial targets that would keep the club on sound financial footing if sanctions were given.
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True, but what then if our sanction isn’t a fine but is a transfer ban?

Imagine if we have a two year transfer ban with the squad we’ve got now.
 
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