The Special Ones (manager talk)
- Thread starter Dummy Hoy
- Start date
I’m not shocked by this at all. He’s indicated within the last week or so that he would step down if the team was not reaching their goals. Back to back losses eliminated them from the Copa del Rey and for all intents and purposes La Liga. Barcelona is a mess and I’m not sure who deserves the blame. They’ve mortgaged their future to bring in players who just are not performing. I don’t know how much say Xavi had in those decisions.
What I do know is that Barca have not looked good in a long time and that Xavi would be the first to admit that he’s unhappy with the performances. The pressures at the club are immense though. He won La Liga last season and was criticized for the way the team played (too many 1-0 wins, record breaking defense). It’s not good enough to win, Barca have to look good doing it. This season they have attacked more but have conceded quite a lot of goals- Rafa’s “short blanket” theory in practice. Barcelona is too big of a club to have a short blanket though. Barcelona under Pep was arguably the greatest team ever, but even he only lasted four seasons. At the end, he was emotionally breaking down.
Unspoken here is the pressure of being a Catalan manager of the de facto Catalan national team. At least Pep had a team loaded with Catalans- Pique, Puyol, Valdés, Busi, Cesc, Xavi himself etc. Politically speaking, the issue of Catalan independence is dormant now compared to a decade ago (it’s noticeable how few senyeras fly on the balconies of the city now), but Catalan identity and Barca’s connection to it is still strong. That’s the pressure that was breaking Pep and broke Xavi. Xavi leads a team loaded with non-Catalans with the exception of Serge Roberto and young Lamine Yamal and a couple of young debutants this season (I’ll let Zoso correct me here if I’m missing someone) so he is shouldering even more of the pressure than Pep did. It’s too much for one man to handle, even in the best times like the Pep years.
What I do know is that Barca have not looked good in a long time and that Xavi would be the first to admit that he’s unhappy with the performances. The pressures at the club are immense though. He won La Liga last season and was criticized for the way the team played (too many 1-0 wins, record breaking defense). It’s not good enough to win, Barca have to look good doing it. This season they have attacked more but have conceded quite a lot of goals- Rafa’s “short blanket” theory in practice. Barcelona is too big of a club to have a short blanket though. Barcelona under Pep was arguably the greatest team ever, but even he only lasted four seasons. At the end, he was emotionally breaking down.
Unspoken here is the pressure of being a Catalan manager of the de facto Catalan national team. At least Pep had a team loaded with Catalans- Pique, Puyol, Valdés, Busi, Cesc, Xavi himself etc. Politically speaking, the issue of Catalan independence is dormant now compared to a decade ago (it’s noticeable how few senyeras fly on the balconies of the city now), but Catalan identity and Barca’s connection to it is still strong. That’s the pressure that was breaking Pep and broke Xavi. Xavi leads a team loaded with non-Catalans with the exception of Serge Roberto and young Lamine Yamal and a couple of young debutants this season (I’ll let Zoso correct me here if I’m missing someone) so he is shouldering even more of the pressure than Pep did. It’s too much for one man to handle, even in the best times like the Pep years.
I mean, that feels just about right, doesn’t it? With Klopp stepping down, Liverpool have had four managers of note that everyone can list. Barca are fifth in terms of Champions League titles with 5 and seem more likely to move up the list than down it (sixth is Ajax with 4 then Man U and Inter with 3). Tito Vilanova was well positioned for a great run too but cancer cut his managerial career short. Rijkaard probably deserves to be on the list because he lasted five(ish) seasons, won the Champions League and a couple of La Ligas when it wasn’t just 2.5 teams with a chance, the team was entertaining with Ronaldinho leading the way, and some young Argentine lad getting his first games.
Among Theo Epstein’s tasks with FSG: helping Liverpool replace Jurgen Klopp - The Athletic
Who is the football version of Terry Francona? I guess Darwin Nunez's time at Liverpool will be short. Is TAA the Nomar of Liverpool?
Who is the football version of Terry Francona? I guess Darwin Nunez's time at Liverpool will be short. Is TAA the Nomar of Liverpool?
looking like Roy Hodgson might be getting the sack. It was covered on Talksport this morning by Alex Crook, their chief football correspondent. Now the BBC running with it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68303964
Edit: Some nice and perceptive words from Kevin Day.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68303964
Let's see how this plays out.
Edit: Some nice and perceptive words from Kevin Day.
The Special One has a check to write for tax evasion: https://www.football-espana.net/2024/02/13/ex-real-madrid-boss-jose-mourinho-hit-with-e1-5m-fine-by-spanish-authorities
I would blame it 100% on Jorge Mendes (Ronaldo also had issues); but Messi was never one of his clients and had to get dragged thru the mud too. Feels like a perfect storm of having shady agents and happily ignorant clients on one side and the Spanish IRS on the other.
Any correlation to falling ill today?
https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1758175040292442207?s=20
A bit suspicious. Did they tell him he was gone and still had to run training and manage the next game? Stress related?
FYI, this Hodgson story is one I'd ordinarily be chatting about in here. I'm posting only to let youze know that I'm giving up social media for Lent, so you will be forced to spend (now 39) days and nights wandering in the proverbial desert, ie perusing SoSH without the benefit of my boisterous always on-point and ITK commentary. See you after Easter.
This day will live forever in infamy: Hodgson and Jacque Vaughn sacked at the same time
https://x.com/CPFC/status/1759603918403682414?s=20
https://x.com/CPFC/status/1759603918403682414?s=20
Sunderland have had enough of Beale. Only lasted 12 games.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68340952
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68337554
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68340952
I also read that Mowbray has stepped down from Brmingham due to health reasons.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68337554
Speaking of Newcastle, Dan Ashworth is already off to Man Utd. Didn't want to continue building Tyneside I guess
Tuchel now slated to finish the season and then depart Bayern:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68301718
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68301718
Tuchel is worse than Mourinho in terms of developing bad relationships and leaving clubs quickly. He has now been at four big clubs since Mainz and his longest stint was 2.5 seasons at PSG.
I have absolutely zero reason to believe this outside of my gut, but it feels like announcing Tuchel's departure in this manner means Bayern have the inside track on Xabi.
The Klopp announcement made sense to me. Try to squeeze that extra one or two percent out of the players to send him out on top. Xavi is a club legend so I get that it allows for better planning. I’m very surprised Bayern kept Tuchel. They’ve been playing poor lately.
I’m already annoyed that the Liverpool-sphere are all in on Xabi & will throw a full on tantrum if he’s not the next manager. It’ll be Jude redux.
My guess is that they couldn't find an interim manager who would do a better job and just wanted to end speculation about him getting sacked.
As for Xabi Alonso, who knows...I think I would still bet on Liverpool over Bayern just due to the oddity and hard feelings involved in switching within the Bundesliga after the season Leverkusen are having. But I wouldn't completely rule out staying at Leverkusen another year and waiting for Real Madrid. Although they just extended Carlo until 2026, I don't necessarily see Florentino as being committed to him that long. Real Madrid is clearly the best of the three choices in terms of giving you a platform to win the CL for a 2-3 year span.
That's exactly what it was. Hansi Flick was really the only interim option and apparently he's not interested in only managing until the summer, and there are some like Uli Hoeneß who aren't convinced of Flick anyways.
I don't see there being any way that Xabi stays at Leverkusen. Apparently he has a release clause in his Leverkusen contract that is valid for Bayern, Liverpool, and Real Madrid. That's not the sort of thing you do if you don't plan on taking one of those jobs if it becomes available.
I think Bayern has the inside track here. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has apparently been staying in touch with Xabi since 2017, and Bayern just appointed Max Eberl to their board. Eberl had a deal with Xabi to manage Gladbach when he was there, so there's history between the two of them as well.
I also think that the success he had with Leverkusen makes it even likelier he would want to stay in the Bundesliga for familiarity. As well, I'd rather take over for a guy who was pretty much a trainwreck as opposed to being the guy who has to take over for a legend.
That's what Xavi himself said. The better Barca blog I read said this puts this magnifying glass back on Laporta and mgmt.
I didn't consider this, and now I'm already annoyed by it too, thanks.
The one shout for Liverpool (I think) over the other 2 is the amount of control they'll give him and the relative sanity of the owners. They let Kloppo build a project, that's not happening in Munchen or Madrid.
Assuming Mbappe goes, I'd also say that Madrid probably has the best squad. I think Madrid is the most important to him (being Spanish) but that doesn't mean other factors won't take him elsewhere. Bayern usually has the easiest path to winning the domestic league, but maybe Madrid is entering a period of sustained domestic league success, while Bayern's taking a step back on that front. Both are going to be favorites for UCL every year. Liverpool presents a much more crowded top of the table domestically, where even qualifying for UCL isn't a given.
You bring up a good point that I hadn't considered. As somebody who is obviously familiar with FSG's frugality, I thought there was no way they would win a bidding war with Bayern for Xabi. I still do think that. But I didn't consider that their hands off approach would give Xabi freedom that there's no way he'd have with Bayern's meddlesome board.
That's also a good point about the UCL. He'd have a much more likely path to UCL qualification with Bayern or Real.
I don't see Bayern taking too much of a step back domestically. They're still in second place, and that's with just about everything going poorly. If they happened to get Xabi from Leverkusen, then I would be pretty certain that Bayern would return to the top of the table next season.
David Moyes says he has been offered new West Ham contract but reveals why he hasn't signed it | talkSPORT
Moyes has a contract offer to return!
Moyes has a contract offer to return!
An educated guess - Moyes might be holding out for more formal authority vis a vis technical director Tim Steiden.
Rumor has it that Steiden and Moyes were at odds during the winter window - the former wanting to replace attacking players with like transfers while Moyes was after defensive recruits. Plus there’s rumblings that Liverpool have checked in on Steiden’s interest.
May well be that ownership want to keep both, but each of the guys want to clarity/enhance/formalize their authority. And Steiden might be trying to play up Liverpool interest to combat Moyes’ efforts.