Txiki: "The Barca model is beyond discussion"

Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain gave an interview to the club's official magazine. Some excerpts.





Pep Guardiola as a team manager. What's the secret?
Everything in Pep is order and planning. What we've done is great. He works hard and works a lot. He plans every training session, analyses tactics, is immersed in football all the time.

There's no such thing as "Pep the manager" and then another Pep who's not associated with football. He's got the board and the ball in his mind all the time. He loves his job because he loves football.

When did you realise that Pep would fit in soon?
As soon as he came. Pep is a man of football, and footballers know him. But they're professionals too and, above all, they're men. If the team accepted the new standards and method, it was because they saw the amount and the kind of work before them. A manager is a football project's mirror. Working a lot and working hard is his key to success. Being obsessed with details is another key.

You know what they say: The manager with the best players is the one who wins...
The fact that they say this doesn't mean it's true. Of course you need a good team if you want to win. As good as possible. But having the dream team on your side is no guarantee of success. What you need to win –especially to win once and again– is a model, a concept of football.

And in this, the club is proud to have turned our way of understanding football into a well-established model. Barça is associated with a focused style of play, and our model is beyond discussion. Putting pressure on our rivals, snatching balls in their area, never speculating: this is what makes us unique. This is our trademark, and we've consolidated it with two different managers and a relatively short time.

Finally, what characteristics could we associate with Txiki Begiristain?
There's one that has a lot to do with my job. I keep my head cool. I always know what we have to do. Wise or unwise, you have to trust the people you've chosen. I believe this is what you have to do and to do it, you have to resist pressure from outside. Barça's Technical Secretary can't change his mind based on a game's results. You have to keep cool rather than get carried away by results or fear of failure.

read more excerpts here


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The Scapegoat in Failure, The Forgotten Man in Success - Txiki Begiristain
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