Topic: Comolli and Bruckner leave by mutual consent

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

Van Gaal should be your best choice, he was behind the great Ajax side of the 90's remember and almost led Bayern to a treble in his 1st season there. Begiristain doesn't really have that great of a track record honestly.. Zlatan, Caceres, Chygrynskiy, Keirrison, Hleb et al comes to mind.

Cruyff won't come.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/johan-cruyff-set-to-implement-technical-revolution-at-ajax-7636825.html

The same Begiristain who took take of Barcelona when they were in a similar position like us now, the same Begiristain who signed Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Deco, Sylvinho, Larrson, Edmilson, Alves, Yaya Toure, Belleti, Keita, Villa & Pique (on top of my head) for a bargain (and by a bargain, I mean they costed the club less than what is reflective of their abilities).

The same Begiristain who oversaw Barca winning two CLs.

The same Begiristain who signed Frank Rijkaard and then took the gamble on Pep Guardiola.

The same Begiristain who at his time, Barcelona began introducing lots of youngsters from La Masia into the first team squad like Messi, Iniesta, Pedro and Busquets to name a few.

Yes, let's not sign him, he's shit at spotting talents and paying for them, shit at signing the right coaches for the club and shit at developing an academy.

[SportBilly]

No, really never heard of him, he was that good?

Absolutely mate. If I remember correctly he was voted European Player of the Century in 1999 and only lost out on the World Player of the Century award to Pele

[Mouth]

Absolutely mate. If I remember correctly he was voted European Player of the Century in 1999 and only lost out on the World Player of the Century award to Pele

Who is Pele?

[SportBilly]

Who is Pele?

Lol

[Filter]

Van Gaal should be your best choice, he was behind the great Ajax side of the 90's remember and almost led Bayern to a treble in his 1st season there. Begiristain doesn't really have that great of a track record honestly.. Zlatan, Caceres, Chygrynskiy, Keirrison, Hleb et al comes to mind.

Cruyff won't come.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/johan-cruyff-set-to-implement-technical-revolution-at-ajax-7636825.html

Van Gaal doesnt really have a good track record as a DoF though, almost a non existent one. And I'd say he's almost certain to clash in that role. Being a good manager is something else than a DoF. And drama follows him to every big club.

[Mouth]

Lol

here fishy fishy

Oh the things one does to amuse oneself late at night, should just have a tug

[SportBilly]

here fishy fishy

Oh the things one does to amuse oneself late at night, should just have a tug

It was a nice try, I'll give you that much

EDIT: Even nicer given our respective avatars. How bizarre is that?

[ziggyy]

The same Begiristain who took take of Barcelona when they were in a similar position like us now, the same Begiristain who signed Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Deco, Sylvinho, Larrson, Edmilson, Alves, Yaya Toure, Belleti, Keita, Villa & Pique (on top of my head) for a bargain (and by a bargain, I mean they costed the club less than what is reflective of their abilities).

The same Begiristain who oversaw Barca winning two CLs.

The same Begiristain who signed Frank Rijkaard and then took the gamble on Pep Guardiola.

The same Begiristain who at his time, Barcelona began introducing lots of youngsters from La Masia into the first team squad like Messi, Iniesta, Pedro and Busquets to name a few.

Yes, let's not sign him, he's shit at spotting talents and paying for them, shit at signing the right coaches for the club and shit at developing an academy.

Does his wife speaks english?

[Mouth]

It was a nice try, I'll give you that much

EDIT: Even nicer given our respective avatars. How bizarre is that?

We shall play this a game out until death

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

The same Begiristain who took take of Barcelona when they were in a similar position like us now, the same Begiristain who signed Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Deco, Sylvinho, Larrson, Edmilson, Alves, Yaya Toure, Belleti, Keita, Villa & Pique (on top of my head) for a bargain (and by a bargain, I mean they costed the club less than what is reflective of their abilities).

The same Begiristain who oversaw Barca winning two CLs.

The same Begiristain who signed Frank Rijkaard and then took the gamble on Pep Guardiola.

The same Begiristain who at his time, Barcelona began introducing lots of youngsters from La Masia into the first team squad like Messi, Iniesta, Pedro and Busquets to name a few.

Yes, let's not sign him, he's shit at spotting talents and paying for them, shit at signing the right coaches for the club and shit at developing an academy.

You make it sound like neither Cruyff, nor Laporta or Rijkaard and Guardiola had anything to do with their success. I always rated the man, but have my doubts on his transfer policy, you brought other factors in to play. Are you aware that Barca are in a lot of debt due to their transfer policy over the years, care to refute that?

[Juan Loco]

Van Gaal should be your best choice, he was behind the great Ajax side of the 90's remember and almost led Bayern to a treble in his 1st season there. Begiristain doesn't really have that great of a track record honestly.. Zlatan, Caceres, Chygrynskiy, Keirrison, Hleb et al comes to mind.

I love Van Gaal. He was my first choice when Rafa left, but his stock at the time was at it's highest for 15 odd years. Those achievements came as a coach though, not a director of football. I don't think he has DOF experience. He was a technical director (we have one of those) and he left that, I think, because of disagreements (mind you, I think Van Gaal leaves everywhere due to disagreements).

Van Gaal strikes me very much as a training ground manager as well. I always get the sense that he spends a lot of time drilling his players tactically, which you would assume would still remain Kenny Dalglish (and Steve Clarke's) role even if Van Gaal was brought in as DOF.

Both he and Cruijff () seem really strange candidates because neither come close to filling to mandate that Comolli had.

Bergiristan on the otherhand had almost exactly the same sort of role at Barcelona, but was far more successful. And it is worth noting, that I think all of those signings you mentioned were Guardiola's choices. I think a comparison of his signings pre-Guardiola and post-Guardiola was interesting. Under Rijkaard you've got the obvious Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o signings, but also more left-field ones like Davids, Larsson and Gudjohnson who I thought did a really good job there considering the minimum fuss they were brought in with.

If we're simply replacing Comolli then he would seem a far more obvious candidate than either Cruyff or Van Gaal. I'd argue actually, for the sake of RAWK, that whilst he may not be keen on the position and it may do more damage that good, that Rafa Benitez is more qualified to do Comolli's job than either Cruyff or Van Gaal. After all, in Rafa's final season at the club he virtually took on that job, as well as first team coach.

If we're not looking to replace Comolli directly then there is more scope for seeing how Van Gaal could work, potentially. But that would in no way address who sorts out the contracts, the wages, the scouting etc. Neither Kenny or Van Gaal seem set out for that responsibility, and if you're giving it to Kenny you risk the exact same thing that happened with Rafa - he'll be spread too thin, trying to cover too many bases. ... Or to put it in Benítian "If you have a small blanket and try and cover your feet your head will be cold. If you try and cover your head you'll be left with cold feet."

[Sissoko78]

your option ii) mis-states the nature of the 'baseball outsiders' in Moneyball. They were all baseball obsessives who wanted to define and analyse the statistics and metrics in baseball. Are there any equivalents in football with that level of analysis?  And as I argued in the Moneyball thread - I don't even think that anyone has worked out the equivalent metrics in football.

Actually mate I haven't mis-stated anything.  You've misinterpreted.

Look at what I've written.  A football outsider need not be a fan who is an amateur statto who has already developed their theory and model.  All I have contemplated in ii) is hiring someone who doesn't have a work history in the football industry and is econometrically willing and able. 

If you want to argue there doesn't appear to be a ready pool of sabermetricians to dip into in football as there was in baseball, I agree with you.
But any microeconomist/econometrician worth their salt from academia, government or private industry should be able to go in and get some modelling results quickly.  You can always think of more research questions, but it wouldn't take long to get some preliminaries, especially as Comolli has presumably got some guys who have already readied the data and done at least some work.

Re your observation that it isn't clear that anyone has worked out the equivalent metrics in football, you are right - that's exactly why it would be especially valuable to work it out yourself and not publicise your success. 

The problem Billy Beane ran into was the sabermetricians - they were publicising their highly valuable alternative ideas on valuing players.   This meant that once Beane exploited these ideas, at least some other people in baseball started to pay attention and copy some of his methods.  This meant the market effectiveness of these ideas eroded over time, as the market adapted and adopted new information about what value really meant.

In football, even if you knew Liverpool successfully made use of econometrics, you wouldn't know the premises of their transfer pricing models.  Over time, you might be able to infer what their model must be by reverse engineering it, or hiring away their key staff.  But I would guess these models will provide more value for longer in football than the counterparts in baseball precisely because the ideas aren't already in common circulation.

[Filter]

The same Begiristain who took take of Barcelona when they were in a similar position like us now, the same Begiristain who signed Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Deco, Sylvinho, Larrson, Edmilson, Alves, Yaya Toure, Belleti, Keita, Villa & Pique (on top of my head) for a bargain (and by a bargain, I mean they costed the club less than what is reflective of their abilities).

The same Begiristain who oversaw Barca winning two CLs.

The same Begiristain who signed Frank Rijkaard and then took the gamble on Pep Guardiola.

The same Begiristain who at his time, Barcelona began introducing lots of youngsters from La Masia into the first team squad like Messi, Iniesta, Pedro and Busquets to name a few.

Yes, let's not sign him, he's shit at spotting talents and paying for them, shit at signing the right coaches for the club and shit at developing an academy.

I agree with alot of what you said, but Cruijff was responsible for the appointments of Rijkaard and Guardiola, he advised Laporta to take them. Cruijff was also involved as an advisor with the youth academy during Laporta's and Begiristain's reign.  Cruyff is the one most responsible for shaping Barcelona's current youth academy in the 90's when he was manager there, and later in the 2000's as advisor. In fact, Cruijff was also the one who advised Laporta to appoint Begiristain, and other former players for other positions who played under Cruijff at Barcelona. Iniesta made his debut before Begiristain's appointment by the way.

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

Bergiristan on the otherhand had almost exactly the same sort of role at Barcelona

Don't get me wrong, I loved his partnership with Rijkaard. I was merely pointing out that he's not as flawless as some people on here think he is.

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

You make it sound like neither Cruyff, nor Laporta or Rijkaard and Guardiola had anything to do with their success. I judged him on his transfer policy, you brought other factors in to play. Are you aware that Barca are in a lot of debt due to their transfer policy over the years, care to refute that?

Barca were in a lot of debt even before Txiki was hired, yup all of those you mentioned had a hand in success but ultimately the man behind most of that success was Txiki and he was never given any credit for it.

You make it sound as if Txiki was behind the Ibra/Eto'o swap when it was Pep who wanted to get rid of Eto'o and bring Zlatan that badly, you make it sound as if Txiki had no hand in bringing Rijkaard and taking a risk on him and then taking a far bigger risk on Pep and that it was all down to Cruyff and Laporta when it isn't.

Laporta's Barcelona legacy wouldn't have been that great if it weren't for Txiki.

Regarding Van Gaal, who you said is our best bet, you seem to forget that he hasn't got a good track record as a DOF, he always collided with lots of people in the dressing room, has bad publicity regarding him and it won't surprise me if he forces himself into the job at sometime in the future. He's not someone you want to work with quite frankly and despite him being an excellent manager, I wouldn't want him near the Anfield dugout for his character if nothing else.

[Sissoko78]

Sorry, had a couple of jars.

The point is that "moneyball" has nothing to do with football, or with Liverpool FC.
Which is not to say that the club doesn't or shouldn't use statistics. They should. But "statistics" and "moneyball" are not the same thing, however much people on here think that they are.

So people talking about Comolli and a "moneyball approach" are, on the hole, talking out their bum-bums.

Mate I doubt you even understand what Moneyball thinking is. 

Moneyball should have plenty to do with Liverpool and football, albeit it isn't as straightforward to apply as in baseball. 

Just because football is a more dynamic game compared to a relatively static sport like baseball doesn't mean moneyball isn't relevant to football.

[ziggyy]

This article would have probably been circulated around here earlier this month but it hits the nail on the head with the buy British policy again.  We tried it once during the owl's time and we tried it again with Kenny/Comolli.   I really hope the next person learns from these silly mistakes....  look at the top 4 teams, a good mix of quality local players and talented overseas players...


"Certainly, Liverpool's purchases last summer were the worst since Gerard Houllier brought in Salif Diao, El-Hadji Diouf and Bruno Cheyrou to Liverpool, even if honourable mention must be made for the summer Benitez signed Alberto Aquilani.

Under Dalglish and Damien Comolli, Liverpool adopted a Buy British policy, based around the idea that players from the Premier League would settle quickly. If by settling, you mean revealing their inherent mediocrity, then it is Mission Accomplished. By every other measurement, the policy has failed.

The Director of Football Comolli is being set up as a scapegoat. At Tottenham Hotspur, he continued a Buy British policy which was in place when he arrived. Nobody can say for sure when this policy was abandoned but there may have been a subtle revision round about the time Tottenham entered the relegation zone. Some were happy with Liverpool going down this road."

For the full article and a good read, you can head on to here:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/rafas-ghost-haunts-anfield-succession-of-trial-and-error-3067627.html

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

I agree with alot of what you said, but Cruijff was responsible for the appointments of Rijkaard and Guardiola, he advised Laporta to take them. Cruijff was also involved as an advisor with the youth academy during Laporta's and Begiristain's reign.  Cruyff is the one most responsible for shaping Barcelona's current youth academy in the 90's when he was manager there, and later in the 2000's as advisor. In fact, Cruijff was also the one who advised Laporta to appoint Begiristain, and other former players for other positions who played under Cruijff at Barcelona. Iniesta made his debut before Begiristain's appointment by the way.

credit to royhendo

[ziggyy]

Mate I doubt you even understand what Moneyball thinking is. 

Moneyball should have plenty to do with Liverpool and football, albeit it isn't as straightforward to apply as in baseball. 

Just because football is a more dynamic game compared to a relatively static sport like baseball doesn't mean moneyball isn't relevant to football.

It's good to use stats in football but how it was used this time was wrong...

In baseball, it's more or less an individual against another individual, you have batting averages, catch averages and all that crap. it's still a one-man thing, if you get what i mean.

Whereas in football, downing may have good crossing/assist stats (and a good youtube video...) but how you cannot quantify how he gels with other players.  And that's the little problem we have right now, players with good stats but not forming up well in a team. 

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

Barca were in a lot of debt even before Txiki was hired, yup all of those you mentioned had a hand in success but ultimately the man behind most of that success was Txiki and he was never given any credit for it.

You make it sound as if Txiki was behind the Ibra/Eto'o swap when it was Pep who wanted to get rid of Eto'o and bring Zlatan that badly, you make it sound as if Txiki had no hand in bringing Rijkaard and taking a risk on him and then taking a far bigger risk on Pep and that it was all down to Cruyff and Laporta when it isn't.

Excuse me for mistaking the DOF of being in control of transfers..

What relationship does Txiki have with Rijkaard that Cruyff didn't have? Why would Txiki be the one that would come up with appointing a former Ajax player and a Dutchman and not Cruyff?

Why did Txiki left when Laporta was out, but did Guardiola stay?

[kcbworth]

credit to royhendo

Brilliant! Thanks!

On a side note, that Pep fella sounds pretty amazing

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

Excuse me for mistaking the DOF of being in control of transfers..

What relationship does Txiki have with Rijkaard that Cruyff didn't have? Why would Txiki be the one that would come up with appointing a former Ajax player and a Dutchman and not Cruyff?

Why did Txiki left when Laporta was out, but did Guardiola stay?

Because Rossell wanted his own staff, it is something common that when a new president comes, he comes in with his new DOF. It has always happened before.

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

credit to royhendo

"The other names were Laurent Blanc, Michael Laudrup, Arsene Wenger and Ernesto Valverde and again they emanated from Txiki."

Reading those pages made it even more obvious that Cruyff was the one that was behind Guardiola being appointed considering he's the one Laporta turns to for advice and Txiki just followed.

[Filter]

That's nice, but long before that Cruijff  already wanted Guardiola to one day manage the first team. That's Cruijff's thing, he's done it Ajax now too. Getting all former players back involved with the club. The only thing there is that Begiristain's looked to appoint him sooner than expected perhaps, but even then Cruijff also thought he was already ready.

[Crimson_Tank]

As I am on holiday I just heard this.... wow.

[kcbworth]

Brilliant! Thanks!

On a side note, that Pep fella sounds pretty amazing

Found a textualised version of the book here http://uploadkon.ir/uploads/91520a16c6c7dfbfb669724502fc8272.pdf if you want to copy out passages etc

[Brian Blessed]

Is there a reason we aren't looking at Leonardorinho for DoF?

[harleydanger]

You make it sound like neither Cruyff, nor Laporta or Rijkaard and Guardiola had anything to do with their success. I always rated the man, but have my doubts on his transfer policy, you brought other factors in to play. Are you aware that Barca are in a lot of debt due to their transfer policy over the years, care to refute that?

There's no doubt Begiristain and Cryuff are the two men responsible for where Barca is today. Barca are reaping the rewards for gambling on putting the entire club in two men's hands, doing everything they said to the letter, and doing it for twenty years. It could of gone the other way had Cryuff and Begiristain turned out to not be the right men, with the right ideas, at the right time, which was quite possible.

The main thing to draw from the Barca model is have your entire club, from u/8's through to seniors playing in one style, do it over 20 years then, and that is where Ajax stop, have your reserves playing in the championship, add millions in transfer fees, hold your nerve when things look to be going pear shaped and then, maybe, reap the rewards.

Barca could do it because they were fan owned, I don't think Liverpool would have the same luxury, after 20 years of under performance, with owners in need of immediate success. We might, just might, bite the bullet, pick a horse like Kenny and stick with him no matter what, I just don't think our fan base or owners have the nerve to do that over the next 5 years considering we just sacked our DoF after two windows of limited, immediate success.

[kcbworth]

"The other names were Laurent Blanc, Michael Laudrup, Arsene Wenger and Ernesto Valverde and again they emanated from Txiki."

Reading those pages made it even more obvious that Cruyff was the one that was behind Guardiola being appointed considering he's the one Laporta turns to for advice and Txiki just followed.

Interesting interpretation. This passage makes me think very differently

Txiki Begiristain, director of football since 2003, would provean exceptional guidefor Ingla – a football fan whose expertise lay in marketing and entrepreneurship. Begiristain played nearly 500 games for Barça during the glorious Cruy regimeand is an alert, modern and communicative football brain. Begiristain had realised from around October 2007 that placing faith in Rijkaard for a second season after the 2006 Champions League victory in Paris was a brutal error. He’d begun working on ideas even before Laporta summoned him to demand a managerial beauty parade. This is where simple hard work and diligence paid off. Begiristain and the admirable José Ramón Alexanco, the man who lifted the European Cup for Barcelona in 1992 and then the head of Barça’s Fútbol base had madea habit of attending the B team’s matches.

They were entranced.

Even though Barça B werethen in thethird division, Guardiola ensured that every future opponent was filmed so hecould study them on his DVD screen with all 20 players, excluding the two goalkeepers, in vision all the time. In the words of an interviewee for this book, who’d rather remain a source than be named, “he worked, from the first minute, as if he were training the Champions League winners rather than a third division side. It was as if he was a vastly experienced coach who was going to be facing Milan, Arsenal
or Bayern Munich every week

[Bobinhood]

are you talking about Dasovic?

No. Some guy named Mike something whose involved with the Robbie tournament and seems to flitter about the edges of Amateur Sport in Ontario. He gets on the train at Guildwood, if that helps you any. And if that aint a locked in Source, i dont know what is.

[harleydanger]

I'm wondering why Buckner was sacked, couldn't of been performance related. Was he briefing on the side or something?

Strange

[Desert Dweller]

Is he still watching Lille Toulouse? No wonder he got the ass.

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

Interesting interpretation. This passage makes me think very differently

Txiki came with a list of candidates and it was Cruyff ultimately who convinced Laporta to sign Guardiola. You did see the highlighted part of my quote right?

[AsianRed]

No. Some guy named Mike something whose involved with the Robbie tournament and seems to flitter about the edges of Amateur Sport in Ontario. He gets on the train at Guildwood, if that helps you any. And if that aint a locked in Source, i dont know what is.

i know dasovic so I'll ask him what he's heard as he is close to Winter and De Boer as he's u20 canadian coach currently. He's a good guy as well.

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

Txiki came with a list of candidates and it was Cruyff ultimately who convinced Laporta to sign Guardiola. You did see the highlighted part of my quote right?

And he wanted to sign Pep, which agreed with Cruyff's opinion. It wasn't Cruyff who came out and said let's sign this Guardiola fella.

[Bobinhood]

I'm wondering why Buckner was sacked, couldn't of been performance related. Was he briefing on the side or something?

Strange

He missed out on the fact that Comelli was a Vampire during his original physical. Boston just never came to terms with it. 

[Filter]

Interesting interpretation. This passage makes me think very differently

Cruijff was an advisor, not the technical director. The question is, would Laporta have appointed Guardiola if Cruijff advised against it? Why do you think Laporta asked Cruijff to help Guardiola? Would Laporta have appointed Guardiola if Cruijff hadn't ensured he was ready? I don't think so. Doesn't say Begiristain didn't have that vision, and that he wasn't a great DoF. I think he'd be great for us. But he doesn't come close to Cruijff's influence on that club over the last 3 decades though.

There's no doubt Begiristain and Cryuff are the two men responsible for where Barca is today. Barca are reaping the rewards for gambling on putting the entire club in two men's hands, doing everything they said to the letter, and doing it for twenty years. It could of gone the other way had Cryuff and Begiristain turned out to not be the right men, with the right ideas, at the right time, which was quite possible.

The main thing to draw from the Barca model is have your entire club, from u/8's through to seniors playing in one style, do it over 20 years then, and that is where Ajax stop, have your reserves playing in the championship, add millions in transfer fees, hold your nerve when things look to be going pear shaped and then, maybe, reap the rewards.

Barca could do it because they were fan owned, I don't think Liverpool would have the same luxury, after 20 years of under performance, with owners in need of immediate success. We might, just might, bite the bullet, pick a horse like Kenny and stick with him no matter what, I just don't think our fan base or owners have the nerve to do that over the next 5 years considering we just sacked our DoF after two windows of limited, immediate success.

The only gamble was when Cruijff convinced Barcelona to start a youth academy in 1979. After that it wasn't exactly a gamble anymore, they just continued to build on that once they started to gain succes with it in the 1990's.

[Saul Goodman]

There's no doubt Begiristain and Cryuff are the two men responsible for where Barca is today. Barca are reaping the rewards for gambling on putting the entire club in two men's hands, doing everything they said to the letter, and doing it for twenty years. It could of gone the other way had Cryuff and Begiristain turned out to not be the right men, with the right ideas, at the right time, which was quite possible.

The main thing to draw from the Barca model is have your entire club, from u/8's through to seniors playing in one style, do it over 20 years then, and that is where Ajax stop, have your reserves playing in the championship, add millions in transfer fees, hold your nerve when things look to be going pear shaped and then, maybe, reap the rewards.

Barca could do it because they were fan owned, I don't think Liverpool would have the same luxury, after 20 years of under performance, with owners in need of immediate success. We might, just might, bite the bullet, pick a horse like Kenny and stick with him no matter what, I just don't think our fan base or owners have the nerve to do that over the next 5 years considering we just sacked our DoF after two windows of limited, immediate success.

That's the thing though we had built the foundations to follow this model. Rafa had a blueprint, an ideology, a vision for the future.

This is Segura explaining in detail how the Academy at the club works.

http://www.aliverpoolthing.com/2011/07/pep-segura-explains-strategy-behind.html

Everything is focused on understanding the system, how it opertates on a tactical level and what is required of each player in the system. Every match they play is in this system, everything they're coached is with this system in mind, individual training is given based on the needs of this system. The theory is it should lead to players coming up through the age groups like at Barcelona embedded in philosophy of how the first team plays. Problem is our first team plays nothing like the Academy.

The below is an interview with one of the guys who understands La Masia in great detail.

http://www.blueprintforfootball.com/2012/04/inside-footballs-talent-factory.html

Q :One way of clubs have tried to copy Barca is by hiring their youth coaches: Luis Enrique in Rome, Josep Colmer in Qatar, Rodolfo Borrell at Liverpool. Do you see this as a problem?

Ans : I think they are very different attempts from one another. Perhaps the most interesting one is that of Liverpool, where there are two former Barca coaches in Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell, who lead the Academy and reserves. However they do so with a style of play and training model that is adapted to their realities and needs. It is a very interesting experience to observe.

Rafa took the Barcelona blueprint adapted it with his own ideas and our needs to form a youth system which plays the same way throughout the age groups and applied this to his preferred model of playing 4-2-3-1. This is still how we play at all youth levels throughout the club.

The current reserve side will have been the first to really have been touched on a significant level by that vision. It should have led to a similar situation like the one below eventually only based around our system and needs.

Barcelona have managed to do what they have because they developed a philosophy and weaved it into every aspect of how their football club is run: scouting, training, recruiting of players, everything is driven by a common vision.

It should have been in my eyes the start of something special for the club. It still may be in terms of producing good youth players but the vision in which the club was suppose to be all pulling in the same direction for a common goal with each section working towards the same overarching football ethos seems to have been lost.

[Bobinhood]

i know dasovic so I'll ask him what he's heard as he is close to Winter and De Boer as he's u20 canadian coach currently. He's a good guy as well.

Yeah, i liked him when he covered for preki there after preki got fired.. Seemed a stand up guy, never ripped anyone when he surely could have.

[d gorgeous one haz spoken]

And he wanted to sign Pep, which agreed with Cruyff's opinion. It wasn't Cruyff who came out and said let's sign this Guardiola fella.

He also wanted them to sign Wenger and others if we go by that book. I can only say to the latter part of your response that Cruyff was always close to Guardiola so you don't know this..

Cruyff is mentor and friend as well as Guardiola's first manager. The democratic nature of Barcelona means that Laporta's second term as president will soon end, but Cruyff remains a key individual and ensures continuity.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1267325/Pep-Guardiola-boy-born-lead-Barcelona-depth-look-Nou-Camp-sensation.html#ixzz1rsdnGX1l