Xavi: Man Utd offer was tempting for me

Cold_Boy

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Barcelona midfielder Xavi admits he almost signed for Manchester United earlier in his career.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to take Xavi away from Barca as he struggled to find space in the first team.

"There was a long time when I genuinely thought about accepting United's offer and moving to Manchester," Xavi told the London Evening Standard.

"I needed a change of scenery and things were not going well for me at Barcelona. I have always felt a real attachment to English football and Manchester United would be my club in England.

"The truth was that for a long chunk of my career, when it looked like I was the successor to Pep Guardiola in midfield, I was made to feel like an outsider, a bad guy for taking over from the legendary captain.

"We are not good at handling change here. The new guy is sometimes looked at like the bad guy. What made the difference is that I'm as stubborn as a mule. I thought about going to United but I dug my heels in.

"I was obstinate and I said to myself 'I need to prove myself here'."
 

cesc's_mullet

Get a haircut Hippy!
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Don't you just hate it when these 'so close but yet so far' transfer stories come to light?
 

devilish

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I guess we went on to sign Djemba Djemba instead

:joking:
 

Jonno

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Why ruin my morning like this? :wenger::wenger:

But seriously, what a player. I remember back in the day when he was just a squad player that got the occasional game.
 

sajeev

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i think this was around the end of the 2006-07 season when there were sustained rumours that he could be joining us
 

davisjw

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Damn could of stories... Time to mess about with FIFA and see what it would of been like to have him on the squad!
 

MarkC

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Nice to hear that he rates us above all the other English teams obviously likes our style of play. You just wonder though whether if he had signed for us we would be talking about him as the same player we see now.
 

Lynk

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My favourite non United player. Just a class person and player.
 

Marcosdeto

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i read that interview, the complete one, he said that the reason he didn't come here was that his only request was to come along with a player called "Leo Messi", but the Manchester United authorities decided against it, when they red Cal?'s posts
 

Van Piorsing

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feck it.

We didn't had Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo, Bramble, Zidane and others and we coped with that shit, pretty good.

;)
 

Suedesi

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marcosdeto said:
i read that interview, the complete one, he said that the reason he didn't come here was that his only request was to come along with a player called "Leo Messi", but the Manchester United authorities decided against it, when they red Cal?'s posts
Click to expand...
:lol::lol::lol:
 

Lynk

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Barcelona midfielder Xavi admits he almost signed for Manchester United earlier in his career.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to take Xavi away from Barca as he struggled to find space in the first team.

"There was a long time when I genuinely thought about accepting United's offer and moving to Manchester," Xavi told the London Evening Standard.

"I needed a change of scenery and things were not going well for me at Barcelona. I have always felt a real attachment to English football and Manchester United would be my club in England.

"The truth was that for a long chunk of my career, when it looked like I was the successor to Pep Guardiola in midfield, I was made to feel like an outsider, a bad guy for taking over from the legendary captain.

"We are not good at handling change here. The new guy is sometimes looked at like the bad guy. What made the difference is that I'm as stubborn as a mule. I thought about going to United but I dug my heels in.

"I was obstinate and I said to myself 'I need to prove myself here'."
Click to expand...
England really is the birthplace, the heart and soul of football. If Barcelona had Liverpool's fans, or Arsenal's, or United's, we'd have won 20 Champions Leagues, hahaha! OK, so that's an exaggeration but I've never seen anything like it. We won 3-1 at Liverpool once and we were both applauded off the pitch. In England, footballers are respected more, the game is more noble, there's less cheating. Every Spaniard who goes loves it – and comes back a better player. If I had ever left it would have been to England.
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Looking back, I loved John Barnes and Chris Waddle was buenísimo. [Open-mouthed, eyes gleaming] Le Tissier! Although their style was different I liked Roy Keane and Paul Ince together, too. That United team was great – my English team. If I'd gone anywhere, it would have been there.
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I've always really liked Manchester United. I made my European debut for Barcelona at Old Trafford.

It was in the Champions League group stage of 1998/99 and ours was the Group of Death. The game was level at 2-2 when our coach Louis van Gaal told me to warm up.

While I was warming up, United scored from a David Beckham free-kick to make it 3-2. The noise from the crowd after he scored... wow, it was so intense!

Imagine what it was like for me to hear that... I was 18 at the time, still getting the metro to training and playing for Barça B in front of only 1,000 fans. Then I was at Old Trafford, with 50,000 crazy Englishmen screaming in my ear!

I assumed that van Gaal wasn't going to make the change when Beckham scored, but he insisted. I went on and we won a penalty. Nicky Butt handled the ball and was sent off. Luis Enrique scored it to make it 3-3.

We pushed for a winner against 10 of them, but were happy with 3-3. What an introduction to football - what a noise. Old Trafford remains my favourite stadium in Europe.

The Barcelona midfielder was talking to FourFourTwo magazine.
Click to expand...


Some man, legend of the game.
 

Ubik

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God dammit.

Don't suppose he feels like a change of scenery now he's proved himself..? Please?
 

Lynk

Obsessed with discrediting Danny Welbeck
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I've always really liked Manchester United. I made my European debut for Barcelona at Old Trafford.

It was in the Champions League group stage of 1998/99 and ours was the Group of Death. The game was level at 2-2 when our coach Louis van Gaal told me to warm up.

While I was warming up, United scored from a David Beckham free-kick to make it 3-2. The noise from the crowd after he scored... wow, it was so intense!

Imagine what it was like for me to hear that... I was 18 at the time, still getting the metro to training and playing for Barça B in front of only 1,000 fans. Then I was at Old Trafford, with 50,000 crazy Englishmen screaming in my ear!

I assumed that van Gaal wasn't going to make the change when Beckham scored, but he insisted. I went on and we won a penalty. Nicky Butt handled the ball and was sent off. Luis Enrique scored it to make it 3-3.



;)
 

Lynk

Obsessed with discrediting Danny Welbeck
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"It's 3-3! Just as it was at Old Trafford in september!"


Oh lawd, that season.
 
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