Josko Gvardiol

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

Does anyone question Txiki ‘s incredibly powerful position? Genuine question. ONE man entirely responsible for so much? Is this the same at every top club?
How did he get the post? is he regarded as the best at what he does - it seems our owners must think so. Is he the Adrian Newy of football?
Hired as a negotiator only I assume. So the board and Pep tell him what they want and it’s his sole job to sort it out. Problem is, he doesn’t seem to me to have the success at that that I’d like to see.
i haven’t seen anyone questioning him here, is it a no go zone for chat/opinion by mere supporters because he’s untouchable?
what does anyone think?

There’s a lot in there, but I guess the best place to start is to say Txiki is not entirely responsible for buying players. That responsibility rightly doesn’t sit with one man, so you can relax on that point.

He’s the Sporting Director - a very common role at most top clubs across Europe if you care to have a look, and he got the role as he was incredibly successful performing the same role at Barca. He was responsible for identifying Pep as the successor to Rijkaard when he was nothing more than a B Team Manager with one season’s experience, and when many on the Barca board wanted a big name replacement.

He also identified (alongside the scouting team) and secured (alongside the commercial Exec team) the non-Masia players who made up the spine of Pep’s historic Barca team.

At City, he performs the same role - responsible for working with our scouting team and Pep to identify key roles in the squad that need strengthening, and the players we need to acquire to fill those roles. Crucially, he doesn’t do this on his own. Look up Omar Berrada if you want to see someone who is very hands on in this process at City.

There are videos of the conversations which go on around this process at City from our recent fly on the wall documentaries if you want to see it happening for yourself.

Crucially Txiki is the Sporting Director - not the Commercial Director. So he identifies the players we need, and sells the Club to them - but he is not solely responsible for negotiating the Financial package with either the player or the selling club.

Clearly none of us know exactly where one role ends and the other begins in this process, but it’s fair to assume from the footage out there (both from City and his time at Barca) and how similar roles work in other organisations that Soriano and Berrada are more involved on this side of the process than Txiki.

So really if you want to lay the blame for the drawn out negotiation process at anyone’s door, you’re probably better building a voodoo doll of Soriano to stick your pins in than Txiki.

He and Pep will tell the board the players they feel will fit for specific gaps in the squad, and it’s up to the commercial leadership to secure the right package for the Club.

And finally - if you haven’t seen anyone criticising Txiki in here, then you’re clearly not reading any of the threads in the Transfer Forum. Which is difficult to believe given how often you post in here.

Txiki bashing is a favourite pass time of the uninformed on this forum, so I can’t help but feel this bit of your post is disingenuous.

 

[Sir peace frog]

Good teams do business early. It’s an empirical fact and it does help the manager if his players arrive early and play a few friendly games too.

City are late and the transfer market is shrinking for elite ballers who are the only ones who could improve our team.
But City deserves my patience because I don’t know what going on behind the scenes and we just won the fucking treble and history suggest our board do a smart job and Guardiola makes up for a lot of their shortcomings.

But we are late this window. We may have a slow start and maybe -maybe we won’t win the league this season. But after the treble season I will survive just fine.

we won the treble as you rightly say,so in that definition we are a "good team" you also say "good teams" do their transfer business early,which we haven't, are you suggesting we are no longer a good team :)

 

[burning blue soul]

I don't think the club fully appreciate the tension and inevitable spats on this forum when they dally about in signing a player.
We are running out of things to discuss, and in the absence of constructive discussion of progress, we are just slagging each other off.
So, come on, City!!!! Get that big Croatian chap signed so we can go bicker about something else!

P.s. This is the last comment I will make on this subject so don't bother responding you lot! ;)

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Probably get pelters but Ive always thought Txiki is a clown who Pep works miracles for. Literally left entire positions without a single senior player for whole entire seasons with a limitless budget. He's not a scout either so don't know why he gets the credit for our back up targets working out, its a good job as this fucker can't sign anyone without a release clause.

 

[mancboy]

I don't think the club fully appreciate the tension and inevitable spats on this forum when they dally about in signing a player.
We are running out of things to discuss, and in the absence of constructive discussion of progress, we are just slagging each other off.
So, come on, City!!!! Get that big Croatian chap signed so we can go bicker about something else!

P.s. This is the last comment I will make on this subject so don't bother responding you lot! ;)

even if we sign him, there'll still be arguments about how much he cost, the colour of his mask, the time of his flight and god knows what else and then it will move onto the winger we have or havent got or who we are supposedly after and then it will be something else after that

 

[mancboy]

Probably get pelters but Ive always thought Txiki is a clown who Pep works miracles for. Literally left entire positions without a single senior player for whole entire seasons with a limitless budget. He's not a scout either so don't know why he gets the credit for our back up targets working out, its a good job as this fucker can't sign anyone without a release clause.

yet in all likelihood pep wouldnt have been here or stayed as long as he has without him, so if he is a clown then he's peps clown

 

[Great Kompany]

we won the treble as you rightly say,so in that definition we are a "good team" you also say "good teams" do their transfer business early,which we haven't, are you suggesting we are no longer a good team :)

Yeah we are a great team!
Haven’t we already established this fact :D

 

[Sir peace frog]

There’s a lot in there, but I guess the best place to start is to say Txiki is not entirely responsible for buying players. That responsibility rightly doesn’t sit with one man, so you can relax on that point.

He’s the Sporting Director - a very common role at most top clubs across Europe if you care to have a look, and he got the role as he was incredibly successful performing the same role at Barca. He was responsible for identifying Pep as the successor to Rijkaard when he was nothing more than a B Team Manager with one season’s experience, and when many on the Barca board wanted a big name replacement.

He also identified (alongside the scouting team) and secured (alongside the commercial Exec team) the non-Masia players who made up the spine of Pep’s historic Barca team.

At City, he performs the same role - responsible for working with our scouting team and Pep to identify key roles in the squad that need strengthening, and the players we need to acquire to fill those roles. Crucially, he doesn’t do this on his own. Look up Omar Berrada if you want to see someone who is very hands on in this process at City.

There are videos of the conversations which go on around this process at City from our recent fly on the wall documentaries if you want to see it happening for yourself.

Crucially Txiki is the Sporting Director - not the Commercial Director. So he identifies the players we need, and sells the Club to them - but he is not solely responsible for negotiating the Financial package with either the player or the selling club.

Clearly none of us know exactly where one role ends and the other begins in this process, but it’s fair to assume from the footage out there (both from City and his time at Barca) and how similar roles work in other organisations that Soriano and Berrada are more involved on this side of the process than Txiki.

So really if you want to lay the blame for the drawn out negotiation process at anyone’s door, you’re probably better building a voodoo doll of Soriano to stick your pins in than Txiki.

He and Pep will tell the board the players they feel will fit for specific gaps in the squad, and it’s up to the commercial leadership to secure the right package for the Club.

And finally - if you haven’t seen anyone criticising Txiki in here, then you’re clearly not reading any of the threads in the Transfer Forum. Which is difficult to believe given how often you post in here.

Txiki bashing is a favourite pass time of the uninformed on this forum, so I can’t help but feel this bit of your post is disingenuous.

excellent post.

sorry to shout:

I WISH EVERY FUCKER CLAIMING TXIKI IS SHIT WOULD REALISE WHO NEGOTIATES FOR INCOMING PLAYERS RATHER THAN GOING ON ABOUT TXIKI AND HOW HE CAN ONLY DO A RELEASE CLAUSE.

thank you, and again, sorry for shouting.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

yet in all likelihood pep wouldnt have been here or stayed as long as he has without him, so if he is a clown then he's peps clown

Well if he's keeping Pep here then his position is obviously warranted. I just don't get why we pretend he's some sort of transfer guru.

 

[mosssideblue]

Probably get pelters but Ive always thought Txiki is a clown who Pep works miracles for. Literally left entire positions without a single senior player for whole entire seasons with a limitless budget. He's not a scout either so don't know why he gets the credit for our back up targets working out, its a good job as this fucker can't sign anyone without a release clause.