Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

[Bluemoonbaldboy]

After both title winning seasons the signings weren't up to the required standard as director of football that falls on Begiristain. But much like the Spanish model we are trying to re create its rarely the Director of football who takes the blame it's always the coach. If a head is to roll in the Summer it should be Txiki.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

After both title winning seasons the signings weren't up to the required standard as director of football that falls on Begiristain. But much like the Spanish model we are trying to re create its rarely the Director of football who takes the blame it's always the coach. If a head is to roll in the Summer it should be Txiki.

Txiki wasn't even employed in the summer of 2012.

 

[Balti]

Garry Cook please........ loved Cookie :)

This lot don't seem any better although they are probably more 'holistic'

 

[Ric]

After both title winning seasons the signings weren't up to the required standard as director of football that falls on Begiristain. But much like the Spanish model we are trying to re create its rarely the Director of football who takes the blame it's always the coach. If a head is to roll in the Summer it should be Txiki.

Txiki wasn't even employed in the summer of 2012.

A valid point, well made.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

The bottom line is Txiki has allowed a very good (not great) team to grow old.

Unless he can deliver Pep or Messi this Summer I have to question wtf is his role????????????????

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Bottom line is who has become a main stay of our first eleven from a huge deposit of cash since Txiki arrived ?
Fernandinho - yep, decent enough but not worth the outlay
Negredo - nope, he's back in Spain already
Jovetic - nope
Navas - nope
Demichelis - just about, but who's signing was he, seems a Pellers signing to me
Fernando - nope
Mangala - nope
Bony- nope
Sagna- nope
Lampard- nope
Hit and miss my blind brown eye

 

[jollylescott]

My biggest problem with Begiristain is the lack of 20-24 year old players City have signed since he took over. City need some youth not squad fillers like Bony and Fernando.

The issue there though is that if we buy 20-24 year old players then our youth players coming through will never be able to displace them. Bringing in 28-30 means that in 2-5 years when all of this talent we've bought from abroad or brought through our Academy is ready, they will be challenging people on the downswing rather than hitting the best form of their life.[/quote


So it looks like then that for the next 3 to 4 years then we will buying the expensive finished article in the hope that our EDS lads can step upto the plate for first team football in 4 years time, in the mean time Aguero will have got pissed off with the " Vision" Silva will be 34 and we will have a team filled with 30 something year olds.

We absolutely should be out there buying the best 20-24 year olds, at least we will get 7 or 8 seasons out of them and not 2-3 like Demi, Navas, Fernandinho etc.

Txiki is taking one big gamble if that's how he sees it all panning out, first and foremost we should have a first team squad that has some quality top drawer young players in it ,there should be an element of EDS players in the squad now if you want my opinion, play them in the domestics and give them a run out in games we are three or four in front.How these lads will progress when twats like Kolorov and Dzeko are given tasty new contracts God only knows.

We desperately need an injection of youth into the team. Sometimes having young hungry players eager to make an impact re-energises the older players. If anything our current ageing bunch look like they need some fresh faces on the pitch to kick them up the rear end.

In terms of Txiki's policy, I agree that we need to be out there buying younger players. I don't think it is necessarily an impediment to bringing through the EDS players if we have 21-25 year old players on the pitch. It's actually more of an impediment if we have a manager that isn't confident enough to give a young player a go.

In addition I agree with the above that we can't totally trust the EDS to provide a certain pipeline into the senior squad. I follow the juniors quite closely and there are some outstanding talents around 18-19 at the moment. That's not to say that all or any of them will make it. So I think it makes sense to cover ourselves by buying very talented younger players in that 21-25 age group.

I think Txiki needs to think about Lopes and Denayer for next season. They would both bring the freshness of youth. It seems that we are chasing Barkley as well. Another young player who if (and it's a big if) realises his potential could be a very good player. All three players would help bring down the age of the squad.

It will also require shifting quite a few players. It may mean losing money but let's face it, we don't want to be caught in a Sinclair situation where a player stays on the books forever because we want more money for them. If I were Txiki I think we will need to cut our losses to clear out some of the deadwood.

Personally I am not convinced that our big money signings are going to pay off (Mangala and Bony) but of courses they both need to be given more time to adapt. I find the signing of Bony to be strange. It was almost a panic buy when we went through the spell of injuries, when we actually played better when we had no strikers! I actually enjoyed watching our games with no strikers.

If I were Txiki I would have been panicking about our midfield rather than what was going on up front. We had to keep an ageing Frank Lampard because of our deficiencies in midfield. Yet we decided to splurge big money on a striker and left our midfield as thin as a sheet of ice? It just doesn't make sense.

Now I think Txiki has left himself with a mission impossible this summer. Trying to shift a lot of players, and trying to find suitable replacements, all with the likelihood of a managerial replacement. I just don't think that this has been planned out carefully and we are now seeing the consequences.

 

[RandomJ]

Bottom line is who has become a main stay of our first eleven from a huge deposit of cash since Txiki arrived ?
Fernandinho - yep, decent enough but not worth the outlay
Negredo - nope, he's back in Spain already
Jovetic - nope
Navas - nope
Demichelis - just about, but who's signing was he, seems a Pellers signing to me
Fernando - nope
Mangala - nope
Bony- nope
Sagna- nope
Lampard- nope
Hit and miss my blind brown eye

Yep and that is a LOT of money wasted on average squad players. With FFP every signing we make is vital and so far we've spunked it all on players who haven't improved the first XI. There's been 4 windows since Mancini left yet the majority of the time we're still playing with his players and that says it all. But maybe even more worrying is I look at the players he has failed to get us Isco, Hazard etc and I really do wonder is the man capable of attracting the very best players?

 

[sam663]

The bottom line is Txiki has allowed a very good (not great) team to grow old.

Unless he can deliver Pep or Messi this Summer I have to question wtf is his role????????????????

Some of the excuses that have been made to justify Txiki's shambolic record in transfer market are just laughable.

£22 million for dross Jovetic, £28 million for Bony who couldn't get into our starting eleven, £34 million for one season wonder Fernandinho, £15 million on Navas (remember the bullshit Txiki fed us when we signed him), £6 million plus add ons on Caballero and a half-arsed octopuss for £12 million.

You just cannot blame FFP for his failings in transfer window.

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Bottom line is who has become a main stay of our first eleven from a huge deposit of cash since Txiki arrived ?
Fernandinho - yep, decent enough but not worth the outlay
Negredo - nope, he's back in Spain already
Jovetic - nope
Navas - nope
Demichelis - just about, but who's signing was he, seems a Pellers signing to me
Fernando - nope
Mangala - nope
Bony- nope
Sagna- nope
Lampard- nope
Hit and miss my blind brown eye

Yep and that is a LOT of money wasted on average squad players. With FFP every signing we make is vital and so far we've spunked it all on players who haven't improved the first XI. There's been 4 windows since Mancini left yet the majority of the time we're still playing with his players and that says it all. But maybe even more worrying is I look at the players he has failed to get us Isco, Hazard etc and I really do wonder is the man capable of attracting the very best players?

It's fucking shambolic and some of them are making the shite deals like Santa Cruz and Adebayor from the days we were trying to muscle our way in look like bloody bargains....some are even border line Mathias Vouso fucking wank
That reminds me, I forgot Caballero..I wonder why. As for Txiki signing young talented players, not one player from youths near squad and we bought a young Argentian lad and loaned him to a team it was obvious he'd do fuck all but twaddle his thumbs at