Txiki Begiristain

[MadchesterCity]

Intelligence, style and substance - cut from similar cloth to Pep tbh. It's a well known fact that Pep would never have ended up coach at Barcelona, if not City, were it not for another member from Cruyff's dream team. Txiki isn't merely there to sign players but steer the vision of the club from a specific sporting perspective. He knows exactly what he wants and how to get it, being a former teammate of Pep's makes it the perfect & peerless partnership in world football

Even when he was first hired forcing youth coaches at City to provide him detailed reports on every training session to check for content & value to align with the overall vision for the club he was entrusted with before even Pep arrived. The depth at every position that fans are enjoying, credit all goes to Txiki.

Then there's the stealthy & quiet approach to how he conducts transfer business - rarely speaks a word to the media but closes business with great efficiency and knows when to back off when a deal looks poor. Pep gets a lot of credit but the reality is that Txiki is the one who acts on scouting reports. What you read from player recruits, their families and opposing clubs is the charm & soft spoken and professional way in which he approaches transfers. There's no hard sell and no pushing, he sells them on the project and puts them at ease. It's why most of his City transfers have gone almost under the radar

You want to celebrate City's success in this era, look no further than the Basque man

I like you xxx

 

[cjn]

Not really. They’re spot on in many respects.

As we got underway in the 2014-15 season it was clear we needed new full backs on both sides. All four (Kolarov Clichy Zabaleta and Sagna) were past their prime and were not playing well. We won nowt that season, finishing a distant second in the league playing much worse football than the year before but we didn’t address the problem after that season. We were even worse in the league the season after, all four full backs struggled (we did win the League Cup) but we didn’t address the issue then neither.

Pep came in and we still hadn’t addressed the full back issue for his arrival with the same four still struggling.

It was then the following Summer when we finally addressed the three year or six Transfer Window long issue.

Nobody is saying he’s not done a good job overall or that he’s pulled off some fantastic signings. But he’s certainly made mistakes or not addressed glaring issues at times. And in those times people are going to point them out, just like we are with positivity when the fantastic signings are made.

Agree 100%. Txiki has done a very good job overall, but pretending he hasn’t made mistakes is silly. The squad at the end of Pellegrini’s rein and into Pep’s first year was...rough around the edges. Turning over four fullbacks in one summer wasn’t some masterstroke, it was the result of mismanagement.

Credit where credit’s due, he’s build an amazing squad. But we can say that on the merits, not with revisionist history.

 

[Fuzzy80]

Txiki record of transfers has always been a bit of a mixed bag, both at Barca and at City.

That said I’m a fan and think it is unrealistic for all to be a success.

What I like is we have a well thought out process and a system in place. We seem pro-active and not reactive, we also seem to look at the non-football aspects as well.

The success says more than I can.

The aspect people don’t appreciate is also wage bill etc. Whilst paying some of the best wages this is earned for our top players and not simply given by joining.

 

[citytilllidie]

I watched a documentary on Barca, and they showed a piece at the time that Pep was coaching their reserves and doing well.
They were looking to move him upstairs into the office / management type of role, but Txiki argued with the president that Pep wouldn't like that role and would prefer to still work with the players.
Then after a string of poor results, the head coach role was being discussed, as would happen probably twice a year over there. Txiki went out on a limb and was the flagbearer in getting Pep appointed (Mourinho was the other coach), the rest is history.

So, Khaldoon signing Txiki and Ferran Soriano, for us was the masterstroke.
They are obviously well known in the major football circles in Europe, so helped getting us up to the right platform discussing player transfers etc.
In his role, and as this thread testifies, he's there to be shot at if a transfer goes awry.
But as everyone knows, there is an element of risk with every transfer. Some players thrive in a new environment / culture, but a lot don't work out and that is the same for every club.
A couple of things I like about him are that, if a player strings us along and then does the dirty, he has a reputation for not forgetting it, and people know that.
He's also not afraid to walk away from a deal if the thinks he's getting done over.

But his greatest signing was Pep Guardiola, and without Txiki, we wouldn't have Pep.
Pep has gone on record to say that he owes everything to Txiki, because he gave him his chance at Barca.
So, I think Pep coming to City was some payback for Txiki's faith and something we should always be grateful for.

 

[Ladybarn Blue .]

I watched a documentary on Barca, and they showed a piece at the time that Pep was coaching their reserves and doing well.
They were looking to move him upstairs into the office / management type of role, but Txiki argued with the president that Pep wouldn't like that role and would prefer to still work with the players.
Then after a string of poor results, the head coach role was being discussed, as would happen probably twice a year over there. Txiki went out on a limb and was the flagbearer in getting Pep appointed (Mourinho was the other coach), the rest is history.

So, Khaldoon signing Txiki and Ferran Soriano, for us was the masterstroke.
They are obviously well known in the major football circles in Europe, so helped getting us up to the right platform discussing player transfers etc.
In his role, and as this thread testifies, he's there to be shot at if a transfer goes awry.
But as everyone knows, there is an element of risk with every transfer. Some players thrive in a new environment / culture, but a lot don't work out and that is the same for every club.
A couple of things I like about him are that, if a player strings us along and then does the dirty, he has a reputation for not forgetting it, and people know that.
He's also not afraid to walk away from a deal if the thinks he's getting done over.

But his greatest signing was Pep Guardiola, and without Txiki, we wouldn't have Pep.
Pep has gone on record to say that he owes everything to Txiki, because he gave him his chance at Barca.
So, I think Pep coming to City was some payback for Txiki's faith and something we should always be grateful for.

Plus 1 .

 

[Cobwebcat]

I think City have done a great job in general in the transfer market.

I also think we can do better. For example Rodri was highlighted as a bargain when at Villarreal by more than one analytical company. Statsbomb particularly were saying what a great fit he would be for us. I hope we will learn to identify these guys at an earlier stage and save ourselves millions (43 million in his case)

This is an area where Liverpool are class leaders. City and Spurs aren’t far behind but we are behind. Just sometimes we think a player is too expensive like Van Dyke or pay over the odds for a Mangala. It’s great that we now have the reputation we will not be ripped off but we could identify some of our targets at an earlier stage like we did with Gabriel.

We are really good but not quite the best yet. United are by far the worst with little analytics behind any purchase but even they must learn one day.

 

[OB1]

I think City have done a great job in general in the transfer market.

I also think we can do better. For example Rodri was highlighted as a bargain when at Villarreal by more than one analytical company. Statsbomb particularly were saying what a great fit he would be for us. I hope we will learn to identify these guys at an earlier stage and save ourselves millions (43 million in his case)

This is an area where Liverpool are class leaders. City and Spurs aren’t far behind but we are behind. Just sometimes we think a player is too expensive like Van Dyke or pay over the odds for a Mangala. It’s great that we now have the reputation we will not be ripped off but we could identify some of our targets at an earlier stage like we did with Gabriel.

We are really good but not quite the best yet. United are by far the worst with little analytics behind any purchase but even they must learn one day.

Every club and therefore every DoF makes mistakes; one of the problems of football forums is mistakes get blown out of proportion.

I'm a huge believer in continuous improvement and always think there's room to do better but whilst you say "We are really good but not quite the best yet" regarding our recruitment methods, I will reiterate my opinion that we have managed to put together the best squad in the history of the English game. So heaven help the rest if we get better at recruitment.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Hope he doesn't fellow Pep to his next job : (

Bro it’s the other way around as you have witnessed .

 

[blueparrot]

When you look at the squad thats been built and how it will look in 2 seasons.
Ederson, Laporte, Stones, Mendy, Angelino, Zinchenko, Rodri, Bernardo, Foden, Sane, Sterling, Jesus, plus players like Doyle, Garcia, Harwood Belis. Add a couple of signings and other academy products. While still having KDB .
That is a squad that will all be coming to a peak together. I wonder if Pep would want to walk away from what he has built but either way Txiki would deserve huge credit for building that squad while carrying on winning things while building.

 

[Cobwebcat]

Every club and therefore every DoF makes mistakes; one of the problems of football forums is mistakes get blown out of proportion.

I'm a huge believer in continuous improvement and always think there's room to do better but whilst you say "We are really good but not quite the best yet" regarding our recruitment methods, I will reiterate my opinion that we have managed to put together the best squad in the history of the English game. So heaven help the rest if we get better at recruitment.

We are good at identifying great players but not so great at identifying them earlier and therefore cheaper that’s where we can get better. It’s only since Pep arrived that we have realised that buying younger players with huge potential to learn is the way forward. We will leave United to buy the stars that don’t fit into whatever their system is meant to be.

Liverpool also got recruitment wrong in the early days of the takeover but they’re really good now. It’s rare, United aside, that clubs make huge errors now so we need to be the best at all the details from analytics to a throw in coach (seriously)