Soon, the radical change at Barcelona will take place. If not all the fans, at least the Majority will give Laporta a standing Ovation for being the most successful president in the clubs history. He may not even need it, as the records tell the whole story. No doubt that Pep and Frank, the two coaches of Laporta era will be hailed as the geniuses of the decade. They might not need it though, as the records tell the whole story. The board of Directors members can always say:”we were there”. But the only person who may end up under the unfairness guillotine will be: Txiki Begiristain.
There are many reasons for that. First there is his unromantic experience with the Popular Sandro Rosell. There is also the idea that perfection is possible in building a squad. All the players we get must be Ronaldinhos. Then there are the fantasy expectations of the fans who want each and every big name in the game to join the team free of charge without destabilizing the club policy to count on youth. Analyze that!
In my opinion, if there is a person to get the credit for rebuilding Barcelona squad, it has to be the sport director. He is the common factor in all the changing environments. He was there with and after Rosell, he was there before and after Frank/Pep and he was there before and after all the changes that took place on the managerial level with board members quitting and new ones taking place. Between 2003 and 2010 the club achieved enough titles to fill Oprah Winfrey closets. So there is no roam to doubt the quality of the team Txiki contributed in reforming. The most illusional belief is that we overspent on amateurs. Numbers talk like no philosopher, let’s see the spendings per year and how it turned to be:
Did Txiki appointment damaged Rosell quality to bring big names?
When Laporta and Rosell started their first election campaign (Txiki was not an executive back then), The big name they promised to bring was David Beckham. Rosell –who was on the driving seat in that transfer process- claimed that he is 80% certain that Beckham will play for Barcelona.It ended up that 20%>80%. Not only that, but the football model ended up playing for Madrid. There has to be a plan B, and sadly they had no other choice but to sign Ronaldinho after winning the elections and hiring Txiki as a sports director. Make no mistake, signing Ronaldinho was a board achievement more than having anything to do with Txiki. But it had to do with Perez more than anything else. If Perez would have failed to get the English guy, Barcelona wouldn’t have been the club it turned to be.
Rosell-Txiki Era
The first two years, 2003-2005 Rosell (vice-president of sports) and Txiki (The sports director) shared the responsibility of the buying decisions. There were big achievements on that level, but there were also a Ricardo Quaresma € 6.350.000 (2003-2004), and Maxi López € 6.500.000 (2004-2005).
Txiki Era
2005-2006
Santiago Ezquerro for free from Athletic Bilbao €0 he was a very decent player at Bilbao. Ended up being a squad player with his contribution being limited in some rare appearances. He failed to compete with Ronaldinho for a starting role!
Mark van Bommel PSV Eindhoven € 0 . We sold him one year later for 6000.000 to Bayern. He made a decent contribution during his one year spell at Barcelona. Especially when we had injury crises in the holding midfielder position.
All in all two squad players earning us 6 Millions transfer return in 12 months. Again, we are dealing with the ecconomic factor here. The quality of the squad with its starters and depth is proved by the number of titles won.
All in all two squad players earning us 6 Millions transfer return in 12 months. Again, we are dealing with the ecconomic factor here. The quality of the squad with its starters and depth is proved by the number of titles won.
2006-2007
Lilian Thuram Juventus € 5.000.000
Gianluca Zambrotta Juventus € 14.000.000
Eidur Gudjohnsen bought from Chelsea for € 12.000.000
Lilian Thuram: we bought him as one of the best Center backs at that time. He made some decent contribution without being a starting option. For the price paid he served every Euro creating sufficient quality and experienced depth.
Gianluca Zambrotta was labeled then as the best Right/left fullback in the world. He didn’t meet the expectations basically because we had two offense oriented fullbacks on the two flanks, which exposed his major weakness: Defensive cover. We sold him to Milan when he got a bit older for € 8.500.000. All in all, for 5.500.000 (the difference between buying and selling) he was a notable upgrade offense wise for the right fullback position.
Eidur Gudjohnsen bought to cover Larsson departure. We didn’t really have better options to seek back then, and he was a surprising signing. He was an assists machine at Chelsea. People can say whatever they want about his less-sexy football style, but he was an extremely professional player who was there whenever the coaches needed him (Pep convinced him to stay when he started his coaching adventure at Barcelona). An example of dedicated squad player that we still feel the space he left after his departure (lack of depth), and it will keep being the case till the new youth midfielders step up their game a bit more.
May not be the most impressive transfer period, as the players bought didn’t meet the expectations. But no one can argue that all the buyings were based on reasonable logic.
2007-2008
Thierry Henry € 24.000.000
Gabriel Milito € 20.000.000
Éric Abidal € 15.000.000
Yaya Touré € 12.000.000
José Manuel Pinto € 500.000
I don’t think there will be any doubt on Henry, Yaya, and Abidal contribution on the club success. Pinto performance in CDR last season made the price we paid worth. Gabriel Milito was the second option after Chivu salary demands blew his transfer to Barcelona and later Madrid. He had a commanding presence in defense till he got injured. Now he is doing his comeback. The highest transfer was Henry, but compare it to that’s of Daren Bent move to Totenhamm for around 19 M that season, who ended up scoring 8 goals in 35 appearances. If you evaluate the current market value of all the players, it will be more than just an even bargain. I believe 2007-2008 was a very successful year for Txiki, regarding transfer operations.
2008-2009
Henrique € 8.000.000 .
Gerard Piqué € 5.000.000
Dani Alves € 34.250.000
Martín Cáceres € 16.500.000
Aliaksandr Hleb € 15.000.000
Seydou Keita € 14.000.000
One of the most contreversial transfer periods during Txiki era. But strangely it was a good period as well. First lets sort out the numbers right. Did we waste lot of money in this period?
We bought Henrique for 8000.000 and earned back 400000 from Bayern Leverkusen after one year loan. The most pessimistic prediction is that we can sell him now for at least 4000.000. Let’s be more pessimists and say that we will lose 4000000 in this one. Noting that I believe Henrique would have been a great squad defender. He can play almost anywhere in defense creating the depth we need. But we will admit defeat and say: 4000000 loss.
We bought Caceres for 16.500.000. And Caceres is not “No body”. He was one of the best discoveries of 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and he is an automatic starter for Uruguay's senior team, one of the best teams in South America. He can also play everywhere in defense. May be, that’s the reason why Juventus buying option in his loan contract includes 11000,000 Euros plus 1 million euro variables. That’s a loss of around 5000.000 Euros if Juventus activated this condition. If not, then we need to wait and see.
Aliaksandr Hleb we bought for a very reasonable price. I believe he could have done better, but shits happen. Basically he was Pep signing. And more or less, we can get back the money we paid for him. We already secured 2000000 from Stuttgart for the loan deal and at least we can expect 10 millions more. I want to be very harsh on Txiki and say, we lost 5 millions in this deal.
Alves: Worth every Euro. Period.
Pique: We bought for 5 million facing no competition for his signature, even though Manchester tried to make a late attempt to renew his contract. How much does he worth now? Is it safe to say 25 millions? More? Let’s not be greedy.
Keita: we bought for 14 millions (we paid his buying out clause as Sevilla were not willing to let him go for anything less). How much does he worth now? Will anyone at Barcelona switch him for the 30 millions Xabi Alonso? I wouldn’t.
Put the losses –harshly-predicted in one hand, and the earnings in the other and do your calculations. We brought quality and generated profit (assits value). Noting that it was the year where we won everything. So no one can complain that Txiki damaged the quality of the squad.
2009-2010
Zlatan Ibrahimovic € 48.000.000 Plus Samuel Eto'o
Maxwell € 4.500.000
Keirrison € 14.000.000
Chegrnskiy € 25.000.000
It’s too early to evaluate this year as we need to wait and see how things will turn to be. Maxwell in my opinion was a steal for that amount of money. Ask any Inter Milan fan about it. Keirrison can bring you back the amount you paid (between initial price and variables) if the club decided to sell him now. I don’t understand how people already label him as a failure. When Puyol was kicking his way in football the board took a decision to loan him out to Malaga. If he wouldn’t have refused, we wouldn’t have had this great captain in our disposal. Alves was not exactly the best fullback in the world the first year he signed for Sevilla. I can keep pointing out names forever. There was obviously no room for both Bojan and Keirrison in the squad this season. Too early to tell how things will end up, but this guy does not lack quality.
Chegrnskiy was simply Pep project. Txiki was clearly against this transfer especially after the wealthy owner of Shakhtar made it clear that he is not inneed for money nor he is interested in offloading his player. Only 25 M was the answer, Txiki refused, Pep insisted, Laporta took his coach side and the sale went through. Regardless how far the player will prove his price, no one can accuse Txiki for not being reasonable in his opinion.
Ibrahimovic Case
We move to the most notable transfer: Ibra. First, let’s not start the same endless debate: Ibra Vs Eto’o. Especially that it has nothing to do with this topic. Pep wanted a new striker. You can agree with him or say he was wrong. That’s a Pep thing. Txiki in return had to meet his coach demands. He didn’t commit a foul doing so. Did we overpay to get Ibra?
There were two options: Ibra, and Villa. Based on Pep demands since the first day he was hired as a coach, it’s easy to tell who his first option was. But let’s put this aside and discuss the financial side of the process. The negotiations started with Inter almost before the end of last season, then there was that meeting between Moratti and Laporta. Nothing certain popped out.
Then the negotiations to get Villa took the lead. There were numerous attempts that ended up to one conclusion: Nothing less than 55 M. Take it or leave it! That was Valencia final words.
That was the exact moment when Laporta and Txiki took their plane to Milan, finishing a deal of 46 M plus Eto’o for Ibra. But wasn’t that deal more expensive than the 55M demanded by Valencia? Not really!
Here we evaluate the two options:
Option One: Villa:
Buying Villa for 55 Millions solve one side of the problem. We got our new striker. But there is another more complicated side: Offloading Eto’o. I know…I know…Why not keeping them both? In short, Pep didn’t want to, and I agree on that. So it’s not a Txiki thing. People can blow Eto’o market value as far as they want. But there is one clear fact: We didn’t get ANY offer. Manchester City was rumored as a buying option, but Eto’o refused even to discuss the Idea. All the big teams had their own key strikers already. Milan were the only big team with no big name leading their offense, but they made it clear that they got their man (Ronaldinho) and that they can’t afford getting Eto’o. Our negotiation situation would have been even weaker if we do not offload Eto’o before signing a new striker. We will be more in need to sell him, and the potential buyers will know that. The most likely situation: Eto’o staying while the other clubs waiting few months before negotiating with him to get him for free. This means that we will have a striker we do not need and whom we will have to pay 10 M for him in the following year. In the year of world cup, I can imagine Eto’o impact on the dressing room if he doesn’t play on regular basis. We can’t even play him less than his contract dictates as well (there is a minimum number of games condition in the last contract he signed for the club). In brief: Chaos!
Option Two: Ibra:
The moment Villa price popped over 55 M, Ibra (Even for 55 + Eto’o) became a more appreciated option. Regardless of all the chaos mentioned above, Buying Villa for 55 M means that we may end up paying 10 additional millions for Eto’o as an annual salary or even more to terminate his contract (even after moving to Inter, he is demanding 3 M, so Imagine the worst scenario). While Buying Ibra saves the millions we had to pay for Eto'o and it solve the two faces of the problem coin in the same glance: Buying a new striker and offloading the unneeded one (according to Pep).
Was it a great deal for Inter? Yes. But who said that there is nothing called a win-win deal in business. This one was a perfect demonstration.
To evaluate Txiki performance as a Sport director, we need to balance Spending Vs results. Or maybe it’s a better idea to have a look how Barcelona transfers were before Tikxi:
*Point out the ones who left an impact that match their price.
One year earlier 2002-2003, the transfer activities were a bit slow (the financial and managerial crises might have something to do with it), we signed:
Robert Enke € 0
Sergi Atlético Madrid€ 0
Juan Román Riquelme Boca Juniors€ 10.000.000
Loaned Mendieta for 1500.000.
Robert Enke € 0
Sergi Atlético Madrid€ 0
Juan Román Riquelme Boca Juniors€ 10.000.000
Loaned Mendieta for 1500.000.
But make no mistake, in 2001-2002 we were wild enough to sign (92.100.000):
Fábio Rochemback € 9.000.000
Patrik Andersson € 8.000.000
Javier Saviola River Plate € 35.900.000
Geovanni Cruzeiro € 21.000.000
Philipe Christanval Monaco € 17.000.000
Roberto BonanoRiver Plate€ 1.200.000
One year earlier 2000-2001 we were not less forward and this is the list of our great hunts (99.500.000):
Marc OvermarsArsenal€ 40.000.000
Richard DutruelCelta de Vigo€ 4.000.000
GérardValencia€ 24.000.000
AlfonsoReal Betis€ 16.500.000
Emmanuel Petit Arsenal € 15.000.000
The further you go, the more you can understand why the club dived deep in debt, and performance.We needed a new generation of administrators and a shrewd sports director to put the train back on track. Barcelona now is the best team in the world. you won't achieve that having just an ordinary executive engineering your squad.
N.B. For more info about transfer history of the club I recommend this link.
N.B. For more info about transfer history of the club I recommend this link.
Anonymous Said,
A reference. Great read!
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 9:57 AM
Romyan Said,
Sure we wouldn't be there with only an ordinary sport director . In general, I think you are right . Txiki did an excellent job but he is treated unfairly.
I'm interested to know the net stats of buying/selling during last 7 years. You discussed only what we've bought, but you didn't mention the players whom have been sold. I think that way it would be more evident how far is the cost-effect ratio of the transfers.
The most important reason why people hate Txiki is that they want a perfect squad, and that's impossible. The other problem, Ronaldinho is Rosell's signing, Eto and Ibra are Laporta's ! And they ignore Yaya, Abidal, Van Bommel, and .. Keita !
However, I think you were overprotecting Txiki. Zambrotta was no more than a regular player , I would agree if you have said he was an upgrade (but not notable) regarding offence/defence balance, but how it comes that he was an upgrade over Belleti? No way.
And regarding Gudjonson, you said it .. instead of Larsson, we had to buy a "striker" especially that season Eto was injured too often . However , I will give the credit to Txiki, since he chose Forlan but Gudjonson was Frank's choice. If Frank would have agreed, our striker problem would not have existed !
Thanks for your great article, keep the good work.
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Ramzi Said,
"I'm interested to know the net stats of buying/selling during last 7 years."
In the link I posted at the end of the article, you have all the details. Its true that analyzing the sales is important as well. But here I was more focused on the signings and the spendings on them as this is the major thing used against the man (and the article is still too long, so imagine with everything covered). But sure we can go more in depth about it. And still it won't be against him, as he did good selling deals. The bought/sold samples I mentioned in the article are examples.
- I dont think Txiki was far from the signing of any player. Regardless of who wanted him, the sport director was responsible of engeneering the contracts, which is vital in the buying process, then in keeping the players satisfied afterward.
- What I said regarding Zambrotta is: For 5.500.000 he was a notable upgrade. Keep in mind that he didnt replace Belletti, he competed with him. In that matter we had better options on the right back than before.
Welcome onboard again :)
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 1:17 PM
rayaa Said,
wow that's brilliant Ramzi
i'll be back for sure
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 5:52 PM
Random Juve Fan Said,
If Juventus decide to buy Caceres they will try and negotiate the price, I will be very surprised if they pay over 10 million euros for Caceres. If Barca fans are complaining about Txiki i'm sure all Juve fans would swap him in a heartbeat for Alessio Secco, the worst "transfer guru" ever.
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 10:15 PM
Adal Said,
Great stuff, Ramzi.
I think Txiki is doing a great job. And also his staffs and coaching team together done a great job in transfer. There are so many people involved in the process of transfer that it's just absurd to only put praise/criticism to only the director. Someone will always criticize the price of some player. But do anyone think he actually can get a better price if he sits in Txiki's seat? Probably not.
Posted on January 22, 2010 at 1:26 AM
Romyan Said,
Sorry I haven't notice that link at the end . Great link, actually I was surprised because I thought the gap between buying/selling isn't that deep.
Maybe Txiki was not that good in selling in his first 2 years . It was a disaster ! Look how many players went out for free ! I won't say we should get 150.000.000 for those 16 players , but if he had sold 10 of them for 2.000.000 then we would have got 20.000.000 !
I know the board wanted to decrease the salaries, but they had to get some money not only preventing loss but also making some profit.
Anyhow .. Lets put it the right way .. He wasn't perfect , but overall, he did very good job , I doubt if there is any better team in Europe regarding transfers in the last 7 years .. And more important , no team was more successful than Barcelona , and this is the most important point
Posted on January 22, 2010 at 2:58 AM
Romyan Said,
Total = € 280.010.000
Average per year = € 40.000.000
I can't expect less spending to build up the best squad in the world.
Posted on January 22, 2010 at 3:18 AM
Adal Said,
The first two years they were just trying to get rid of players who get paid too much to lower the club's debt. BBC has a documentary about the first season of Laporta presidency that you can find on youtube. It will give you some insides about the club.
I think at that point it was profitable move even the player went free, and necessary too to help the club's finance.
As I wrote on TotalBarca, there are lots of stuff going on behind every transfer. Just blindly look at the price and player is just not fair. They are smart people who are great negotiators. Every deal had a purpose and it was reached with best intention under the circumstances. Whether or not a player turned out to be good is just like buying a lottery. You never know if you win. For our cases, I'm glad that we got a much better luck with the lotteries we bought after all those trophies won.
A friend who worked in football transfer once said something about Ibra's case. His transfer was more or less decided/discussed in January, and prices were much lower. If it were not for Madrid's CR transfer fee that broke the market and pushed up the price for all other transfer fees, we probably never had a discussion about Ibra's case at all.
Posted on January 22, 2010 at 6:15 AM
Chaplot Said,
awesome read...ramzi.... you are the reference point for all barca fans..
Posted on January 22, 2010 at 12:07 PM
barca96 Said,
wow..
very good article.
thanks!!!
Posted on January 23, 2010 at 12:12 AM
Hoa from Norway. Said,
This is one of the best of Barca i ever read.
Thank you so much guys. Keep doing like this.
Posted on March 25, 2010 at 9:19 AM
Trance Said,
Nice read but I have to say the whole Ibra deal has favored Inter so far much more than it did Barca. 45 million + let's say 30 at least for Eto'o = 75 million which Ibra is not worth. But yeah offloading Eto'o was Pep's main concern and this transfer solved it.
Altho if Inter make the final of CL and then go on to win it, Ibra will be head-banging himself against a wall. He clearly wanted CL glory and that was almost the sole reason he agreed to move on from Inter. Oh, how sweet irony can be.
Posted on April 28, 2010 at 3:33 AM
Anonymous Said,
OK, so now Inter are through to the CL final having gotten rid of Ibra and gotten Eto'o plus 50m which Sneijder, Lucio and Milito cost them. I certainly think Eto'o is the one who is having the last laugh and not Ibra. It was all pretty predictable IMO that this would be the outcome. Inter was vastly strengthened by the the deal and we were weakened.
Posted on May 4, 2010 at 2:52 PM