Txiki Begiristain

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)
We already identify and pursue players a lot sooner than most. Majority of our frontline targets are well short of their peak and to take them any earlier would be a huge risk.
There’s a lot to be said for targeting outstanding youngsters at second tier clubs than even younger ones at third tier clubs who are surrounded by mediocrity.
 
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.

Yep and it was clear when Sorriano & Txiki were first hired, it was merely a countdown until Pep's arrival - only surprise was the pitstop in Munchen
 
Txiki's first team signings since joining us:

Fernandinho
Negredo
Jovetic
Navas
Demichelis
*also brought in Brahim for less than 500k this summer, so a nice profit made on him

Mangala
Bony
Fernando
Caballero
Sagna
Lampard

De Bruyne
Sterlng
Otamendi
Delph

Gundogan
Stones
Sane
Jesus
Nolito
Bravo
*Zinchenko seemed to be a part of the loan army, but undisputed first teamer now at a steal of 1.2m

Bernardo
Ederson
Walker
Mendy
Danilo
Laporte

Angelino
Rodri

Plus some money made and lost on young players, sales with a large profit percentage on the likes of Brahim, Sancho, Matondo, Iheanacho, Unal, Rulli, etc.

He's gotten very few wrong, that's for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nmc
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.

Identifying potential stars is easy with our scouting system. Work permits is an issue for non EU players.

There is also the risk and reward element to it. We could buy a player earlier and develop him, but he would need games to do that and that risks the levels of success we have as a club.

We tend to buy players who are just about ready to nail down a first team spot, but usually can be given the first season as a rotation squad player to learn how we play.

If we did that with a raw 20 year old from a "lesser" league, then we are at the mercy of that player becoming what the scouting system thought he would become.

We could potentially do that with 1 player a season, but the more players like that we have, the less likely we win trophies.
 
FFS txiki will you sort yourself out,i'm sick of reading posts like this ;)

We will never win a straight shootout with Utd unless the player wants the move aswell. We have our structure and stick too it where as Utd they will smash there transfer record and wage record to get the player . No do far we have done well with the Fred and Sanchez deals but the law of averages says sooner or later we will get it wrong and one will slip throughout fingers . Until we really make a statement in the transfer market with the elite players I think we will always be behind the likes of Barca and Real Madrid juve and maybe Bayern in terms of being at the very top table .

Spot on. Whilst we finished the season strongly. I wanted the tweaks where necessary and the bold signing if feasible. The window is good with rodri and Angelinino, but an experienced cb along with Cancelo would make it an excellent window.
At the moment the window is being rationalised by talk of wage structures etc. It's strange and very Arsenal like.
 
Txiki's first team signings since joining us:

Fernandinho
Negredo
Jovetic
Navas
Demichelis
*also brought in Brahim for less than 500k this summer, so a nice profit made on him

Mangala
Bony
Fernando
Caballero
Sagna
Lampard

De Bruyne
Sterlng
Otamendi
Delph

Gundogan
Stones
Sane
Jesus
Nolito
Bravo
*Zinchenko seemed to be a part of the loan army, but undisputed first teamer now at a steal of 1.2m

Bernardo
Ederson
Walker
Mendy
Danilo
Laporte

Angelino
Rodri

Plus some money made and lost on young players, sales with a large profit percentage on the likes of Brahim, Sancho, Matondo, Iheanacho, Unal, Rulli, etc.

He's gotten very few wrong, that's for sure.

Looking at that, it's really only the Mangala year where he let it slip. All the rest of them have been fairly good in aggregate.
 
He's not the one chosing the players though guys. The manager has the sign off on everything.Txiki is the one helping to get the deals done, contract extensions, future planning, etc.

In those respects, he is really shining.
 
Txiki's first team signings since joining us:

Fernandinho
Negredo
Jovetic
Navas
Demichelis
*also brought in Brahim for less than 500k this summer, so a nice profit made on him

Mangala
Bony
Fernando
Caballero
Sagna
Lampard

De Bruyne
Sterlng
Otamendi
Delph

Gundogan
Stones
Sane
Jesus
Nolito
Bravo
*Zinchenko seemed to be a part of the loan army, but undisputed first teamer now at a steal of 1.2m

Bernardo
Ederson
Walker
Mendy
Danilo
Laporte

Angelino
Rodri

Plus some money made and lost on young players, sales with a large profit percentage on the likes of Brahim, Sancho, Matondo, Iheanacho, Unal, Rulli, etc.

He's gotten very few wrong, that's for sure.

Slur Alec got about 30% successful hit rate with the rags. Txixi well above that.
 
Bumping this thread. Liverpool have their fullback situation sorted for years and have spent like £8m in total on them, whereas we still face an uphill battle. This has been Txiki’s achilles heel since Chygrynsky.

Liverpool have 3/4 worldclass players in their back 4, we have 1.

Big summer needed, and no fucking about because ”we have our valuation that we are not willing to budge from” please
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.