Txiki Begiristain

Bournemouth Blue said:
Pep does his best, but I think there is a problem with recruitment. Surely, with our record, we should have foreseen Aguero’s demise and recruited a World-class striker before he left, Harry Kane might have been an option but if his boss said no we should have secured someone in case. It might cost us this season, it is possible we end up without a trophy, and Pep might use it as an excuse to walk. It is obvious that if we don’t win Premier League and Champions League it is because we don’t have natural goal poachers.
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Don’t think of City or football in general as being about one season or the next season or a nice continuation that is always consistent, because it isn’t. Nor are players always available, attainable, affordable, or aching to come to us right at the time we need somebody.

Everything we have done and will do is about the long term sustainability of allowing us to be a club that challenges for titles over a long period of time. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always have the complete team.

Two seasons ago it was all about how we didn’t replace Kompany, but now nobody remembers that discussion nor that season. When we replace Kun this Summer, nobody will remember these discussions and nobody will remember this season (if we don’t win it).

Fair enough, at one point we kept four 30+ year old full backs all at the same time for arguably two seasons too long and along with other reasons (like going from having two different lots of four excellent strikers in previous title winning teams to having Kun Bony and Iheanacho) we slipped from finishing 1st 2nd and 1st in three seasons, to 3rd and 4th (very almost 5th) in the seasons after. And Pep walked in to a squad that needed a lot of work and ‘only’ finished 3rd himself in his first season.

But that isn’t the situation we’re in now. We are literally missing one piece of the jigsaw and are playing players out of position to work a way of making up for it. Our team and squad doesn’t need a lot of work. But just because it needs work doesn’t mean we could just click our fingers last Summer and magically find Kun’s replacement. Kane was too expensive at his age and threat of injuries, we felt that opening valuation of £150m (fuck knows what Spurs would have got out of us in the end had we entered properly into negotiations) was too high and backed out. And there wasn’t really anyone else. Messi has scored 3 goals in France. CRonaldo bar three games has been abysmal for United. Lukaku has been average for Chelsea. And none of them are about the long term.
 
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Didsbury Dave said:
You can't judge Txiki on the transfers he "missed out on" because you don't know why we "missed out" or whether we even did.

He can only be judged on the transfers in and out along with the squad retention and in my mind he's only got one wrong in the Pep era - Mendy. Every single other high profile signing has been a massive success and we have a brilliant, settled, balanced, lean, motivated and happy squad.

He's one of the unsung heroes of this glory era and in many ways is Pep's right hand man. And he has obviously played a big part in Pep's recruitment and retention too, which elevates him even further. I suspect now he would probably be considered to be the number one Director of Football in the world and if he ever left could literally get any job in the world.
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I would say he has done more than most in the way he has shaped the footballing side of the club.

Dictating the way we play across all our teams, that alone has been an incredible success.

Recruitment on the whole outstanding and the wheeler dealing of players that have not got anywhere near our first team has been an incredible achievement, the money generated to invest in the first team and avoid FFP.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Don’t think of City or football in general as being about one season or the next season or a nice continuation that is always consistent, because it isn’t. Nor are players always available, attainable, or aching to come to us right at the time we need somebody.

Everything we have done and will do is about the long term sustainability of allowing us to be a club that challenges for titles over a long period of time. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always have the complete team.

Two seasons ago it was all about how we didn’t replace Kompany, but now nobody remembers that discussion nor that season. When we replace Kun this Summer, nobody will remember these discussions and nobody will remember this season (if we don’t win it).

Fair enough, at one point we kept four 30+ year old full backs all at the same time for arguably two seasons too long and (along with other reasons like going from having two different lots of four excellent strikers in previous title winning teams to having Kun Bony and Iheanacho) we slipped from finishing 1st 2nd and 1st in three seasons, to 3rd and 4th (very almost 5th) in the seasons after. And Pep walked in to a squad that needed a lot of work and ‘only’ finished 3rd himself in his first season.

But this isn’t the situation we’re in now. We are literally missing one piece of the jigsaw and are playing players out of position to work a way of making up for it. Our team and squad doesn’t need a lot of work. But just because it needs work doesn’t mean we could just click our fingers last Summer and magically find Kun’s replacement. Kane was too expensive at his age and threat of injuries, we felt that valuation was too high and backed out. And there wasn’t really anyone else. Messi has scored 3 goals in France. CRonaldo bar three games has been abysmal for United. Lukaku has been average for Chelsea. And none of them are about the long term.
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I don’t believe that it was impossible to plug a gap that was becoming evident a couple of seasons ago. I love Gabby but he has never looked like an Aguero replacement that was capable of 20+ per season. Liverpool picked up Jota with minimum fuss. We could have done similar at minimal risk. Even Pep is now admitting he needs a striker. I hope we land Haaland but wish we had augmented before now.
remember the days we could make a choice of Kun, Edin, Tevez or Ballotelli :-). I’m not suggesting we return to the days of 4, but 2 would be nice next season.
 
The examples of money being frittered away without thought are littered throughout football. Look at the hundreds of millions spent by the rags or Everton. It is definitely time that we all come together and show a little bit of respect and love for the incredible people we have running the club.

They may not get everything right, but from a footballing perspective there is not a better run club on the planet. Regardless of what one or two disaffected 'characters' on the internet think.
 
So Pep says he's here because of Txiki but some on BM says he needs to go because we didn't land a striker?
Like most I was frustrated last summer, but our plans are long term not short.
Fergie put it all on winning one last title, and look at how that's played out since.
As @BillyShears said look at Everton. We may have money but we still have to stick to the rules and Txiki knows that.
We have to get the right player, not just a goal scorer. It goes deeper than that.
I was speaking to a Chelsea fan last week and he reckons the players are avoiding giving Lukaku the ball. Says Havertz looks an infinitely better fit as a 9.
They bought what they THOUGHT they needed. Now that's potentially a big error £££££.
Kane would have been perfect, as we saw in the game at the Etihad. So a striker has to come in this summer and Txiki will be on it, whether it be Haaland, Jonathan David, Kane ...
 
GaudinoMotors said:
Nobody is saying we are badly run or comparing us to Everton. Could we (and every organisation for that matter) do better? Yes or at least it can be debated surely.
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To be fair to him, we couldn't do much better. What exactly are we expecting? We win the league most years and normally added to that are a couple of other trophies each year. Only he CL is missing id say but there are no guarantees at all on that one ever. Unless we expect to win everything each year then im not sure what we expect / think can be improved. We are probably the best / most consistent team in history over a 5 year period and Txiki has played a huge part in setting that up.
 
GaudinoMotors said:
Nobody is saying we are badly run or comparing us to Everton. Could we (and every organisation for that matter) do better? Yes or at least it can be debated surely.
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There's nothing to debate in this particular regard. We're the best run club in the country and have the trophies, success, and squad to prove it. I appreciate that you can always do things better, and be better. Nothing wrong with striving for consistent excellence. But there's no debate to be had on the subject.
 
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