Official: Ernesto Valverde sacked

Anything is better than being stuck in a dead end with Turdverde for another season. If you don't take risks, you don't drink champagne.

Firing Valverde to bring in Xavi is absolutely delightful. Get rid of Rakitic and Suarez one time too pls.

Xavi is one of the biggest a-holes I've seen especially with his "the barca way is the only way to play" nonsense so this is fitting

it's like if Arsenal appointed Henry lmao

Hapless_Hans wrote:it's like if Arsenal appointed Henry lmao

At least Henry has va va voom

Last season Al Sadd won the league having lost only one game all season. This season they are 4th having lost 4 games already. Xavi

I can see Xavi too getting mad at his players in training, having them get the ball off him, but in a very quiet, vindictive, and passive-aggressive way

What a bad decision. The guy has zero top coaching experience and only knows how to play one way...

...is what people said when Guardiola was appointed as the Barça coach too. Not that support this appointment when a proven coach like Pochettino is available.

If it was any other top club I'd have his failure rate at like 80%. Barca is different though. Historically, their most successful coaches didn't exactly have the most experience behind them. He also has top quality players to play the football he wants to play (from a technical perspective not so much an athletic one).

Also, Xavi is one of the most intelligent people in football. He's Barca through and through. Would I have hired him right now? Nope lol, but there aren't that many alternatives anyway.

He's a poet, so I expect him to be quite naive, especially with his lack of experience. I wouldn't be surprised if he fails because of that but Barca's different. The doubts are justified but I wouldn't write him off from now.

Casciavit wrote:If it was any other top club I'd have his failure rate at like 80%. Barca is different though. Historically, their most successful coaches didn't exactly have the most experience behind them. He also has top quality players to play the football he wants to play (from a technical perspective not so much an athletic one).

Also, Xavi is one of the most intelligent people in football. He's Barca through and through. Would I have hired him right now? Nope lol, but there aren't that many alternatives anyway.

He's a poet, so I expect him to be quite naive, especially with his lack of experience. I wouldn't be surprised if he fails because of that but Barca's different. The doubts are justified but I wouldn't write him off from now.

Neither is Barca different, nor is Xavi one of the most intelligent people in football, and least of all is he a 'poet' lmao.
He's a ex football player turned wannabe manager. He's never experienced football outside of the Barca bubble making him uniquely unqualified to be a successful manager. He's to Barca what Gary Neville is to Manchester United.

Who then? Allegri, a mastermind tactician. But never won the CL and doesnt play the Barca way. Guardiola? Only knows one way to play too, burned out potentially. Ten Hag? Yeah, no. Pochettino, maybe. But he said he would never consider Barca because of Espanyol past.

There, literally, is no one. It's time to gamble.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Casciavit wrote:If it was any other top club I'd have his failure rate at like 80%. Barca is different though. Historically, their most successful coaches didn't exactly have the most experience behind them. He also has top quality players to play the football he wants to play (from a technical perspective not so much an athletic one).

Also, Xavi is one of the most intelligent people in football. He's Barca through and through. Would I have hired him right now? Nope lol, but there aren't that many alternatives anyway.

He's a poet, so I expect him to be quite naive, especially with his lack of experience. I wouldn't be surprised if he fails because of that but Barca's different. The doubts are justified but I wouldn't write him off from now.

Neither is Barca different, nor is Xavi one of the most intelligent people in football, and least of all is he a 'poet' lmao.
He's a ex football player turned wannabe manager. He's never experienced football outside of the Barca bubble making him uniquely unqualified to be a successful manager. He's to Barca what Gary Neville is to Manchester United.

Yes it is. They have a playing style ingrained from their youth systems. Very few teams are like that. Bring in a coach who coaches that same style despite his lack of experience and he may not crash and burn as we saw with prior Barca coaches.

And yes he's very intelligent about football. Read his interviews nobody speaks in detail the way he does. He was the conductor of one of the GOAT teams. All his teammates and former coaches claimed he was destined to be a manager in the future. However, I'm supposed to ignore all of that and believe he isn't intelligent when it comes to football because Hans from Germany thinks so? GTFO. He knows more about football in his pinky than any of us on this forum do combined.

He absolutely is a poet. He's constantly talking about his idealized version of football and how he isn't a fan of deep blocks and counter-attacks and that's not how he views the game. Being a poet isn't a good thing mind you, but it's just another way of saying he's naive.

Yeah Xavi is a tool, and this potential appointment is a risk but there aren't many options available. I don't think it's going to go nearly as bad as some think.

Myesyats wrote:Who then? Allegri, a mastermind tactician. But never won the CL and doesnt play the Barca way. Guardiola? Only knows one way to play too, burned out potentially. Ten Hag? Yeah, no. Pochettino, maybe. But he said he would never consider Barca because of Espanyol past.

There, literally, is no one. It's time to gamble.

There is someone and his name is Ernesto Valverde

Valverde has already sucked the life out of this team. It's time to pump in some fresh blood and the sooner, the better. Even if it fails, change is needed.

Casciavit wrote:
Yes it is. They have a playing style ingrained from their youth systems. Very few teams are like that. Bring in a coach who coaches that same style despite his lack of experience and he may not crash and burn as we saw with prior Barca coaches.

That is true, you're right.
But I don't see the danger for Barca in him crashing and burning, anyway, but in him being thoroughly mediocre at actually managing yet keeping the job forever because DNA

Meh, Barca has a massive qualitative advantage anyway. Even if Xavi is a bad coach, their individual quality will bail him out 8/10 times.

The sign of a good coach is someone who is capable of implementing his game model, good at managing the dressing room, and adept at in-game tactical changes.

Is Xavi going to be good at all those things? I don't know and I can't say for sure. I just don't believe it's going to go as bad as some think.

Will Mbappe torch his team on the counterattack? I'd bet good money on that.

Will he be incapable of coaching a low block? Probably.

But then I remember he's going to bring back a style that these players grew up on and he has a superior team on paper. Unless he's really awful, I don't see it being doom and gloom TBH. This is Barca he's joining, not Everton.

You are an idiot if you believe Xavi is as clueless as Henry. With Henry you knew he would flop as he is pretty dim outside of the pitch. When he commented on games he tried to be funny and sounded like a random fan rather than analysing anything substantial. He explained Pep making him work hard as a winger like he just figured out a tactical master piece.

Xavi talks like Einstein about football compared to that.

Will still fail of course considering Barca don't have the quality anymore to play in the way that Xavi was used to. Maybe it will give us a good motivation bump at first though as everyone will respect him including Messi.

Also Xavi is generally very intelligent. Have you heard him talk English? Better than Pep already who is in England for 4 years. When he retired he could barely talk it.

Downplaying Xavi while hyping up likes of Arteta because he smelled Pep's butt for a few seasons on the bench.

IKR. Hans out there licking Arteta's bum like its candy. Gimme a break.

danyjr wrote:What a bad decision. The guy has zero top coaching experience and only knows how to play one way...

...is what people said when Guardiola was appointed as the Barça coach too. Not that support this appointment when a proven coach like Pochettino is available.

Poch said he won't take the Barca job because of his history with Espanyol.

Anyway, Xavi is fucking brilliant. It's a risky move but Xavi is a legend and I think he's worth trying

So Xavi has accepted Barca's proposal but only if he can take over in the summer and not now. Good decision by him

Rac talks about Pochettino
Do you think he could join really Barca ?
I 'd be surprised after his words

Pochettino will never coach Barca.

Since Gasset is available and said in the past 2 weeks that, if Laurent Blanc asked him to be his bench coach, he would say yes...  I'd look at Laurent Blanc.  

Gasset did a fantastic job at St Etienne... but had a feud with management (they're numpties).  Fallen apart since he left.  The guy is one of the better tacticians around.

If you want a manager that understands Barca, endeavors to have his team play like Barca BUT has pragmatism to him... Blanc is it.

He wasn't really a candidate while Gasset was out there being his own manager.  But with the duo back together, he's viable.

halamadrid2 wrote:So Xavi has accepted Barca's proposal but only if he can take over in the summer and not now. Good decision by him

Great decision. Means he can't fail in the months till summer so Barca definitely won't snatch ten Hag from us

So apparently Valverde has been told he is getting sacked

With both Xavi and Koeman saying no to taking over now who might Barca appoint. Maybe it'll be their own version of Solari trying to steady the ship but instead capsizing it