Dutch honesty and Xavi as the third choice

I can understand why some people think this is rude, but I also think it is being blown up a bit. Managers are almost never the only target in a recruitment process, and Xavi would know that. The issue is more about presentation than substance.
 
Xavi is going to have to deal with people bringing this up every time results go badly now and that is the annoying part because it instantly creates this third choice narrative around him whether that is fair or not, and people will pretend they are just joking but you know exactly how football fans are, one bad draw and suddenly it is well they only got him because Pep and Slot turned them down, and then the player gets dragged through the mud for something that had nothing to do with him, which is why I think calling this honest is only half the story because it is also just sloppy communication and a bit unfair on the bloke who has taken the job, especially when he is standing there trying to start fresh and the whole room is basically laughing at the hierarchy instead
 
This is exactly the sort of thing that makes clubs look daft, not because the process is unusual but because someone decided to say the quiet part out loud in public like a total weapon and now everyone is pretending this was all very normal when it clearly sounded brutal to the person sat there taking the job
 
I actually think people are being harsh on the Dutch side here because every club has a pecking order and if Pep and Slot were not available then of course they move on, that is not a disgrace, that is just how football works, and Xavi is not some fragile academy kid who needs to be told he was the dream selection in a fairy tale, he is a grown man and a top level coach and probably understands the reality better than the online crowd does, so yes the wording was clumsy, yes it made for a funny headline, but the idea that this somehow ruins his appointment is nonsense and a bit precious imo
 
The substance here is fairly ordinary. A club identified several candidates, two were unavailable, and they moved down the list. The only reason this has become such a talking point is that the language was so direct that it made the process sound harsher than it probably was.
 
At first I laughed because it is such a ridiculous thing to say at a presentation, but the more I think about it the more I can see why some Dutch people probably do not even blink at it, because it is just a matter of fact statement and nothing more, and maybe the rest of us are the ones making it dramatic, but still, if I was Xavi I would have wanted one person in that room to maybe soften it a little because being told in public that Pep was first, Slot was second and you were third is rough no matter how you spin it, and now every poor result will have people making the same joke over and over again and that is the part that feels unfair and unnecessary
 
i cant lie i burst out laughing at this because it is so brutally matter of fact and then i felt a bit bad for xavi because he has to sit there and take it like yeah cheers lads i know i was not top of the list and now the whole internet is making the same joke
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top