Txiki Begiristain

[hilts]

What he's done is build an incredible scouting network, and many players he's got are very, very good.

Jesus, Sane, Sterling, Gundogan, Fern (only now is showing problems).

I'd even argue value for money players like Navas and Sagna where an alright investment at the time but have served their purpose, you can't get exclusively the best in the world every window.

He has also gone incredible well considering the restrictions we had placed upon us by utterly corrupt entities out to get us - he navigated us whilst we had one arm tied behind our back.

But, he has made some very high profile expensive errors, especially in defense and whats notable is these same mistakes he made at Barcelona. He also can be blamed for not dealing with our very noticeable full back situation.

Genuinely I think his big issue is buying defenders, and he without doubt needs help in that area, hopefully from Pep getting final say. Otherwise I think he's actually done a very good job in difficult circumstances.

In fairness fella incredible scouting and the players you mention don't tally, I could have picked most of those and I only watch city games and the odd champions league match. Turning on the telly and spending top dollar on german footballer of the year, best young English talent,Brazilian International etc etc is not a scouting mastermind class.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Yet they all leave us and go on to be great defenders. Yes, we overpay for them. But the issue hasn't been Txixi, it's the coaching they've received until this year.

Who's gone in to be a great defender? I don't even know who Nastasić plays for, Savić has been poor every time I've seen him play for Atléti (worst player by a long way in the CL final last season, well out of his depth), Mangala? Kolo? Lescott? Dave Watson?

 

[Cobra]

Savic wouldn’t be a regular in a Simeone team if he wasn’t a good defender. And Nastasic is at Schalke now – Pellegrini’s treatment of him was bizarre, it’s like he personally blamed him for the Chelsea fuck up and decided never to play him again.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Failure on the pitch only highlights failures higher up and the trail ends with Txiki . His failure in legacy planning is at best shit. Teams that build on success get that right and he has not.

 

[lancs blue]

It is difficult to defend both Pep and Txiki. Either Txiki left Pep with a poor squad or Pep is not making the most of it.

Well, as far as the FB positions go that one's fairly easy to pick, there's been complete inertia regarding any long-term replacement in those positions since Txiki was appointed.

CB is trickier, as I posted elsewhere we've signed a new CB virtually every summer since the takeover with very mixed results, covering all managers and DoFs in that period. Maybe it's just a very difficult position to get right? Also Kompany's injuries haven't helped stability or settling-in for the Txiki signings.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

It is difficult to defend both Pep and Txiki. Either Txiki left Pep with a poor squad or Pep is not making the most of it.

Pep can't be blamed, yet. All the big clubs have good fullbacks, even Spurs and Chelsea do. We could of got some full backs last summer but then we'd probably be short in attacking options. Let's see how we are after this summer.

 

[Blue Smarties]

Who's gone in to be a great defender? I don't even know who Nastasić plays for, Savić has been poor every time I've seen him play for Atléti (worst player by a long way in the CL final last season, well out of his depth), Mangala? Kolo? Lescott? Dave Watson?

Nastasic plays for Schalke. In your ignorance, you might recognise them as that random German club we plucked Sané from.

 

[masterwig]

For so long we'e failed to add to/replace the core of 2012 with players of that calibre and consistency.

Hart, Kompany, Toure, Silva, Aguero.

It isn't for want of trying but very few signings have stepped up to that level. They've either failed or been fringe or decoration players. Fernandinho is probably the only one who I'd put in that category and he signed in 2013!.

Does anyone believe Bravo, Stones, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Jesus are the answers? I hope so and some have big futures with us but it's taken 5 years.

In the meantime the rest of the team has undoubtedly gone backwards. The full backs are old. We've never successfully replaced Barry and De Jong (Rodwell, Garcia, Fernando, Delph). Dzeko hasn't been replaced. Okay Negredo briefly did a job but other than the failure of Bony have we even tried to replace him? We've got through loads of centre backs trying to either find a partner for Kompany or a replacement. One area you can argue we have improved is in 2012 Johnson was our only winger and Sane and Sterling are superior with Navas as the other option.

I might get shot down for this but frankly we've wasted a lot of time and money and not improved the team in 5 years.

 

[Happy Feet]

For what we spunked on Mangala and Bravo we could have got two young decent full backs. We gave Trippier away for practically fuck all and he is head and shoulders above the ones we are left with. Unbeleivable Jeff !!!!!

 

[Cobra]

For what we spunked on Mangala and Bravo we could have got two young decent full backs. We gave Trippier away for practically fuck all and he is head and shoulders above the ones we are left with. Unbeleivable Jeff !!!!!

To be fair Trippier left when we had Zabaleta and Richards both in their prime.