As Billy mentioned, the main skill here was ensuring that these transfers were an inevitability before they started.
You see Chelsea and United throwing bids around , getting rejected then moving on ultimately meaning they're now in panic mode.
Hearing that Kompany was on the phone to De Bruyne, Yaya in the press about Pogba and Sterling talking to Hart is very Barca like in terms of how they prep their deals.
Another small thing I've noticed that might be coincidence but almost certainly isn't, is that we constantly have a phrase that pops up in all of our new signing interviews -
There's no excuses here, everything is in place for you.
That is said in almost the exact same wording in every new signing interview. It gets drilled into them from the start and adds an attraction to signing for the club. I think this is what he is telling players - come here and you only have yourself to blame if you don't succeed which for an athlete is a dream come true.
I have higher expectations of Txiki than most because I know how good he is. He has had an extremely good window , landing some of footballs hottest players when these deals seemed extremely complicated from the outside. He earnt his crust there. I think to really reinforce that this man isn't just a good DoF but the best in the world , he needs to address our center midfield in some way. Knowing how good he is, I have no doubt this is in his mind too.
The pair of Soriano and Txiki were great appointments for us, and whilst I have faith in Soriano, I have true belief in Txiki and his talents. Just looking at his transformation of Barca and how many people owed their careers to him there is enough but the things that push me over the edge is the fact that after he resigned, almost every major club in world football were chasing him. And if you read books or interviews about the man then the only description you'll ever come across from both teammates and opponents are terms like revolutionary, visionary and exceptionally gifted football mind. I read a quote from a Real Madrid board member in a book about Mourinho that said that when Txiki left Barca they went from unstoppable to exceptionally good, the idea that they had lost a pivitol asset that and without him they became beatable. Quite possibly Madrid bluster but also an acknowledgement from a great rival about his importance in the transformation.
Another thing to consider us that with Txiki here we are looking at Pep been a real possibility, without him no chance. Can't think of many DoFs that a manager the quality of Pep are actually a major attraction to work under.
I recall in about 2009 I put a post up on here in argument to Billy or Dave that what City really needed was a squad building man at the top who knew what he was doing over the long term, and used Txiki as an example. His job here us exactly what we need, somebody who understands how to land the very top players, somebody who can build a top quality squad to rival the best not in one year but over several years. I think this guy us that guy and think that whatever success we do have in the CL will be partially attributable to his ability to get deals done
