Xavi Retires

[Cicero]

Retired in 2015 for me, but now officially retired. 

Arguably the greatest orchestrating midfielder the world has seen. 

“Xavi changed football. He helped us to build, or to see, a new player profile that ended up running through all levels of the national team. He killed off the myth of physicality being above all else and opened people’s eyes to the qualities of small, technical players, proving that you can attack and also defend with the ball. There are lots of players who win things, but few who lay down concepts, ideas, who change the way we think, and Xavi did that.” – Julen Lopetegui

 

 

[Carnivore Chris]

I reckon he'd make the perfect manager for Barcelona in the near future personally. He knows exactly what is required.

[Inverted]

I think it's to everyone's benefit if we just ignore the stain of the last 4 years of his career. 

That being said, I look forward to seeing if he gets into management. 

[ScoRoss]

Seems to have found a lot of success in his first job in management too, and going up against a few familiar names in the Qatar Stars League.

[Spike]

Ah imagine the Catalan nationalist working for a country like Qatar. Fuck off Xavi

[Devil-Dick Willie]

22 hours ago, Spike said:

Ah imagine the Catalan nationalist working for a country like Qatar. Fuck off Xavi

Imagine getting sucked off by hipsters for a decade when Iniesta was better all along. 

[Spike]

10 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Imagine getting sucked off by hipsters for a decade when Iniesta was better all along. 

It's not as bad as the ass licking Pirlo got for the latter half of his career, when up until then no one really cared.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Just now, Spike said:

It's not as bad as the ass licking Pirlo got for the latter half of his career, when up until then no one really cared.

I always thought he was a great player, but yeah, when Milan dumped him wasn't it? All of a sudden he was god at Juventus when he'd always been great. 

[Spike]

1 minute ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

I always thought he was a great player, but yeah, when Milan dumped him wasn't it? All of a sudden he was god at Juventus when he'd always been great. 

yeah milan dumped him, he grew a beard, and every redditor jumped on his dick

[Carnivore Chris]

11 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Imagine getting sucked off by hipsters for a decade when Iniesta was better all along. 

Different types of midfielders to be honest, but what is for sure is that those 2, along with Messi had the 3 most intelligent footballing brains of their generation.

 

 

 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

34 minutes ago, Carnivore Chris said:

Different types of midfielders to be honest, but what is for sure is that those 2, along with Messi had the 3 most intelligent footballing brains of their generation.

 

 

 

Agreed. But I always found Xavi to be a bit dull. There was a point where both spain and Barca started overdoing the possession stuff, to their detriment, around 2013. 80 passes per game isn't so flash when only 3 were progressive, 8 went forward and the score was 1-1. Cunt could retain the ball in a jumping castle true, and was intelligent and composed. I'd have taken a 

         Busquets
Fabregas      Iniesta

Midfield over Xavi all day long

[Devil]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Agreed. But I always found Xavi to be a bit dull. There was a point where both spain and Barca started overdoing the possession stuff, to their detriment, around 2013. 80 passes per game isn't so flash when only 3 were progressive, 8 went forward and the score was 1-1. Cunt could retain the ball in a jumping castle true, and was intelligent and composed. I'd have taken a 

         Busquets
Fabregas      Iniesta

Midfield over Xavi all day long

Fabregas over Xavi!

Not a chance I'm having that mate, great player in his day but Xavi was like the ring master for his show of entertainers. 

Without him that midfield would never have been so controlling. 

[Cicero]

Giving Xavi the role he was given was primarily the reason we saw Spain/Barcelona dominate the past decade. People will praise Pep but it was Aragones that did it first. 

[Batard]

24 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Giving Xavi the role he was given was primarily the reason we saw Spain/Barcelona dominate the past decade. People will praise Pep but it was Aragones that did it first. 

You say that, but it goes even further back than that. In 1998 van Gaal had him playing that deep pivot between midfield and defence and lest we forget how instrumental he was in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was absolute class and the seeds for success were pretty much planted 9 years before Spain began to tear it up. 

[Cicero]

1 minute ago, Batard said:

You say that, but it goes even further back than that. In 1998 van Gaal had him playing that deep pivot between midfield and defence and lest we forget how instrumental he was in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was absolute class and the seeds for success were pretty much planted 9 years before Spain began to tear it up. 

True. Think it was Enrique and then Deco before him until Xavi was really given that role. 

[JoshBRFC+]

If I had to choose it would be Iniesta over Xavi. For me Iniesta is the best midfielder of my my lifetime. Better than anyone... including Pirlo, Kaka, Xavi, Gerrard, Lampard, Zidane. Etc etc 

But together they formed the greatest midfield duo of all time. And as a Trio with Messi they formed the greatest Trio of all time.
 

Fuck I’m getting nostalgic..... man I miss that team at it’s peak. 
 

Anyway Xavi will be a great manager you always knew he had it in him. Inevitable he will become the Barcelona manager.

[ScoRoss]

I like to think I was a 'football hipster' when on holiday in Barcelona in 2004, aged 14 and got my dad to buy me a top with Xavi 6 on the back.

He was not too pleased when it was the same price, no matter what the printing was and would have got better value getting Ronaldinho 10 on it instead.