Txiki (1): "Guardiola is keeping his promise"

Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain gave an interview to Catalan newspaper El Periódico.





Things have changed quickly. At the beginning of the season there was criticism. Now everybody is praising the team. It's maybe exaggerated?
I think so, yes. The important thing is the way of playing, which was already good during the pre-season. We did well but people then said we didn't play against serious opponents. I think that even in the games were we lost points, against Numancia, Racing and Wisla, we played at a good level. The people talked about our lack of scoring. But this team has Eto'o, Henry, Messi and Bojan, so we have enough goalscorers. Maybe the midifelders or wingers could score more.

The players are constantly talking about the group spirit.
This is a group who can score in the last minute of a game. You always try that, but now it's working. I don't think that's only a matter of effectiveness or quality, but that's something that comes from within every player. They have this will to win and to believe they can do it. That's a big difference with the past.

The players are almost the same as last season.
It's a mental issue, it's about what is said in the dressingroom. There has been a big change, the change of the coach. And if the team believes in the new coach, in his ideas, in the end you have this whole new dynamics. And I think that has been the main change: the coach. And I saw from the beginning that the squad likes and accepts the plan of Guardiola.

So it's the coach's merit?
We're only starting. The difficult thing is to get this going. But I'm absolutely convinced that Guardiola will keep on working with the same spirit, which is to keep thinking about the group and not about the individuals. In fact, the people who knew Guardiola since he was a player, always had trust in his ability to talk and to convince. He's so involved that he's aware of everything that's going on.

That's why you chose him?
We liked his way of dealing with coaching. What we saw at Barcelona B, we actually wanted that for the first team too. He only had one year experience as coach but we saw how he's able to communicate with people, how he lives for the game, with an intensity that's impossible to match. It's a radical change...

He's doing like you had been expecting?
Guardiola is and will be a great coach. I hope he'll be here for a long time and that everyone around this club will remember how he's making the team play when things aren't going that well and we will need some patience. He announced it when he was presented: this team will run, this team will play, this team will work. He's keeping that promise. I know his ideas about the game and I know his qualities, and even with one year experience and having to perform in difficult circumstances, I'm confident about it.

But you also talked with Mourinho.
It's our obligation to be in contact with everybody and to have all possible information. You have a list of coaches who are fit for Barcelona, and little by little you start eliminating candidates until you choose one. Mourinho's name was one that, coincidentally or not, appeared in the media.


This was the first part of this interview. You can read the following parts in the coming days with Txiki talking -amongst other things - about the continuation of Samuel Eto'o and the situation of Thierry Henry.