“For a long chunk of my career, when it looked like I was the successor to Pep 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. I hated all the debate about me and Guardiola, and Van Gaal(Barça’s coach at the time) wasn’t particularly tactful to put an 18-year-old-kid through it. What eventually made the difference is that I’m stubborn as a mule. I thought about going to United(Manchester), but I dug my heels in. I said to myself ‘I need to prove myself here’. -Xavi Hernandez. [from Graham Hunter’s new book Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team In the World.]