barca 10/11: the review

Some scattered thoughts on the season just gone, which like a good adventure movie had its highs and lows before the uplifting, happy ending.

the boardroom and the locker room

For all the talk of a steady transition, the election of Sandro Rosell bought about a revolution in the board room at the beginning of this season. While football affairs at the club continue to be held in the grip of Cruyffistas, the Rosell regime has shown a remarkable determination to dissociate itself from its predecessor in other areas.

I say remarkable, but of course it's not surprising that Rosell would repudiate his old friend turned enemy Joan Laporta at every opportunity. What has struck me is the extent to which the club has become a tool to further the vendetta between the two men, a trend clearly demonstrated by the extraordinary lawsuit filed by the club against Laporta for alleged financial mismanagement during the latter's presidency. However you feel about Laporta and Rosell, it is more than arguable that the legal dispute has had a divisive effect upon the entorno and general fanbase.

Rosell's big policy changes have proven no less divisive. I understand that many fans support the move to restrict membership. I've also heard that opposition to the shirt sponsorship deal isn't quite as staunch as it might seem amongst the online fanbase. Be that as it may, I remain opposed to both policies, and having spilled copious amounts of ink explaining my opposition (on shirt sponsorship and on membership) I won't go on again.

Given the above, the reader is entitled to take what I say next with a grain of salt. The only thing I can say is that I try to evaluate each aspect of Rosell's performance independently, with as much objectivity as I can muster. Right after the Osasuna travel fiasco (remember that?) an article appeared in El Pais questioning the public role Sandro Rosell had played that day and in the immediate aftermath. Namely, almost none, and nothing was forthcoming until Guardiola none-too-subtly called for more institutional support during his explosive post-match press conference.

If I have one major complaint about Rosell's work as the public face of Barca as an institution, it's that at crucial times this season, he did not step into the limelight and say what needed to be said. (The Busquets saga, for example.) There's no doubt that Guardiola is a brilliant spokesman for the club. But that's not his job.

horse race: extreme edition

As all involved with Barca are no doubt keenly aware, the chief enemy of a team operating at optimal capacity is complacency. Therefore, we have Real Madrid to thank for these past three years. Their Herculean efforts to topple Guardiola's team have pushed the latter to the limit and allowed them to show their true measure of resilience under enormous pressure.

In 09/10 these efforts mainly manifested themselves in Galactico-style spending. Pellegrini's team did almost everything right, only to fall agonisingly short. It was inevitable then that Florentino Perez would turn to the only coaching Galactico in world football.

The coming of Mourinho heralded a return to the most paranoid days of the Real-Barca rivalry after a few years of relative calm. Barca players will tell you that being questioned and provoked was an added motivation, and maybe they're right. Certainly, the level of unity bred by a siege mentality can be a powerful weapon, as most top class managers well know.

However, I don't think you'd find many Cules who truly enjoyed the Clasico series near the end of the season. Four games in 20 days was never going to bring out the best in all involved given how toxic the atmosphere had become.

clasico madness

Having said that, there were some unforgettable, wonderful moments amongst all the muck, too. Like Leo Messi's wondergoal, the one uplifting moment in a game best left on the cutting room floor, the kind of dazzling, did-you-just-see-that-how-the-hell move action replay was invented for. And of course there was that astonishing, brilliant, and deeply satisfying 5-0 victory.

It was Mourinho's first Clasico on the Madrid bench. Many expected it to be close, scrappy, an attritional battle. What happened instead was a slaughter. As Jonathan Wilson quite aptly said:

This was an indelible night, one that, whatever happens in the rest of the season, will echo through football history.

The manita has a special place in Barca's history - especially Barca's history against Real Madrid - but I dare anyone to think of a 5-0 to top this one in terms of performance. Just like Johan Cruyff's team winning 0-5 at the Bernabeu and the Dream Team's own 5-0 at the Camp Nou, it will be looked back upon as an era-defining game, one that underlined this Barca's particular brand of dominance.

At the same time, as the great Cesar Luis Menotti pointed out, the trauma of the 5-0 defeat dictated Madrid's tactics for the 4 later Clasicos. Some have argued that the improvement yielded in results vindicates Mourinho's aggression. That however unpalatable, his team's aggression on the pitch and campaign off it succeeded in breaking down Barca's game.

But here's the thing. Leaving morality aside, the main problem with that theory is that it didn't work. The 1-1 draw effectively cost Real the league, and for all the fire and brimstone of the Champions League Clasicos Barca were the ones left standing at the end. The only time Mourinho's tactics arguably worked was the Copa del Rey final, and even then it was very, very close.

Given Real's resources and Barca's sloppy run of form from April to the beginning of May, a more adventurous approach from Mourinho might well have yielded better results. That was certainly what this particular Cule was worried about, given Barca's injury problems in defence and shaky form up front at the time.

Anyway. Enough about that. It's over, and we all have to live with the results. (I have more to say on the ugly side of those games, but that's another post.)

to endure and to enjoy

This was not always the most sparkling of seasons but it was the hardest; before Christmas they had been graceful, smooth and precise, after Christmas they showed the competitive spirit that is too often overlooked. They had spent the year being constantly attacked and had withstood some of the bitterest and wildest of accusations. - Sid Lowe

As usual, Sid Lowe nails it. This was always going to be a challenging season. The coaching staff were worried about the physical and mental effects of a squad coming off a World Cup (many of them having played in the final) and two seasons of great success. The omens weren't good. Two of the greatest Barca teams of the past (the Dream Team post-94, and Rijkaard's team post-2006) had crashed and burned in post-World Cup years.

There were moments of doubt, times when alarmist critics alleged that Guardiola's team had come to the end of its cycle. The fitness and injury problems caused by hectic schedules appeared right on cue. While Barca were very lucky indeed with no major injuries sidelining crucial attacking players such as Messi, Alves, Iniesta, Villa, and Pedro, persistent injuries across the defence led to a season of uncertainty at the back. Not that showed in the number of goals conceded, and the remaining mainstays of the defence deserve great credit for that.

Furthermore, the two players who represent the brain and heart of this team both had a season blighted by injury. The loss of Puyol, who only played 28 games (as opposed to the previous 6 seasons, in which he never played less than 45) was huge - he was missing for every single game Barca lost during the season. On the other hand, Xavi's persistent achilles problems didn't stop him from racking up another 50-game season, but his absences were keenly felt, and the need to secure the midfield succession must feel ever more pressing to the technical staff.

And then, as Dr Lowe pointed out, there was the exhausting media war, fought on two levels. The first being Mourinho's own increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories about everything from the fixture list to Barca's opposition not trying hard enough to biased refereeing to, well, UNICEF; and the second being the far more insidious and frankly appalling allegations aired by Cadena Cope accusing Barca and Valencia of doping. Allegations which the radio station - under the threat of multiple lawsuits - claim to have received from a Real Madrid director. While the Barca-supporting media no doubt relished slinging mud right back, everything the players and the managing staff have said indicates that they found the attempts to taint their achievements exhausting, irritating and sometimes downright enraging.

But all of the above pales into insignificance when compared to the moment Eric Abidal was told he had liver cancer. The effect on the locker room was devastating. Without Abidal's remarkable spirit, which drove him to reassure and comfort his team mates when he was the one facing surgery, it would have been even worse. His amazing recovery is the greatest prize of this season, more than any trophy.

standout performers

Leo Messi: the greatest compliment I can pay Messi is that he improves by leaps and bounds every season, even though the season before might have made such an idea seem impossible. His greatest competition in the current generation is his own shadow, and if such an idea doesn't rob him of motivation (and it hasn't so far) we're in for something miraculous in the seasons to come.

Xavi: even carrying a chronic injury, he's still the best midfielder in the business. The level of control he exerts over a game only seems to grow each year. If I may steal a Dani Alves-ism, the rest of us live in the present. Xavi can see the future.

Eric Abidal: I need to make one thing very clear first. Abidal's place on this list has nothing to do with his illness. Even given his absence for six weeks, his committed and composed performances at centerback and leftback for the rest of the season has earned him a place. It's not easy to fit into the Barca system as a defender, especially a non-homegrown one, but he does it with aplomb.

Gerard Pique: a controversial selection, I know. Allow me to explain. Pique's performances this season have divided Cules into two camps. While I acknowledge that he has made some mistakes, he has also been the glue holding a constantly changing Barca defence together. I dare anyone else to go through a season with so many different partners at centerback, some of whom were never meant for the position and whose deficiencies he had to cover for, and come out having accomplished as much as he did.

Still finds time to make important contributions in attack, and despite all the tabloid attention, I happen to think he takes up his role as a representative of the club in the right spirit.

Victor Valdes: this coming season will be Valdes' 10th as Barcelona's number 1. Time sure flies, doesn't it? It took many years for the average Cule to go from barely tolerating the hot-headed, erratic kid to embracing the brilliant shot-stopper with feet so good he could play striker. These days, it seems hardly credible that the Camp Nou crowd used to boo Valdes for making the occasional howler. After all, he's the man we count on to do everything right, especially when the rest of the team are doing everything wrong. And that's what he does, every season.

Runner-ups: Pedro, Mascherano, Iniesta, Alves

in and out

Given the transfer business conducted so far, I strongly suspect that my transfer wishlist doesn't look a thing like the one drawn up by Andoni Zubizarreta and Pep Guardiola. For one, mine didn't have another winger on it. However, Alexis Sanchez looks like a great prospect, and if he can relieve some of the burden on Messi and come in when the likes of Pedro and Villa are off-colour, he'll be a successful signing.

As for the other name on Guardiola's wishlist, I will endeavour to be very brief. While I am very fond of him, I am not convinced that Barca need Fabregas. The funds required to buy him would be much better spent on other areas of more urgent need. (The defence, for example.) Furthermore, given Thiago's rapid development, it is highly possible that he is indeed ready to step up whenever Xavi's chronic injury problems force him to miss games.

Others have argued against signings in defence on a similar basis. While it would be nice to see more La Masia-produced defenders in the first team, I haven't seen enough of the current crop of prospects to feel safe relying on them as backup for Puyol's creaking knees. Having said that, the versatility of the defenders in the squad right now is reassuring, as is what I've seen of Fontas.

A very fond goodbye and good luck is due to first team departees Bojan Krkic, Jeffren Suarez, and Gabriel Milito. The three leave under very different circumstances. Bojan is essentially on loan, out to prove himself and perhaps await a glorious return in a post-Guardiola era. While still very promising, Jeffren has run out of opportunities due to his persistent injury problems, and is now a little too old to be a mere promising prospect at Barca. Gabi Milito is no longer a first team regular after suffering a string of horrific injuries, which robbed him of his pace. All three have played their part in the successes of the past three seasons.

(On a completely different note, in case you forgot, Alexander Hleb is still here.)

the triumph of pep guardiola

"Guardiola has put a target on me, in classic fascist style." - Eduardo Inda, editor of Marca [a little background]

This past season has seen the advert of unprecedented attacks by the Madrid media upon all aspects of Pep Guardiola's character. Inda may have accused Guardiola of fascist activity, but at least he didn't point the finger of blame at Pep for inciting violence against journalists, like a certain Madrid-based TV station (Telemadrid, as mentioned here). It seems that diplomacy and careful humility was no longer enough to forestall negative attention, the extremity and ferociousness of which will have come as no surprise to a man used to the complexities of the Barca-Real rivalry and not above hitting back when pushed.

Guardiola conducted himself with habital care this season despite the change in circumstances, at least until late April. His response to Mourinho came at the riskiest time possible, and without the backing of the club, who had urged him to keep silent. Even Barca fans wondered if he had finally snapped under continuous provocation. In fact, it had been nothing of the sort. The entire 'rant' - including the Catalan nationalism tinged, Lluis Llach quoting bits not mentioned in English press coverage - had been planned.

He is not a man who enjoys confrontation, but in the absence of another voice at the club, he is also not one to shrink responsibility. Anyone who remembers Guardiola as the club captain who screeched up into a ref's face and accused him of playing with the emotions of an entire country (Catalunya, of course) should have realized that there was steel hidden underneath the velvet gloss of civility and respect.

“Allow me to have faith in my players. They have achieved too much in a short space of time for me not to have faith in them.” - Pep Guardiola [Arsenal 2-1 Barca, post-match press conference]

The difficulties encountered this past season took their toll on Guardiola's health. He often looked exhausted, stressed, much older than his 40 years, and was hospitalized for a herniated disc. Players have since admitted that Pep's insistence on attending training and games while he really shold have been resting in bed was an additional motivating factor during a crucial stretch featuring games against teams such as Valencia and Arsenal. In the greater scheme of things, it may be a minor detail, but Guardiola has built his success on mastering minor details.

Compared to the thin, tired figure of earlier, the Guardiola we saw talking effusively in the post-match press conference at Wembley seemed a man rejuvenated. Having come through a season in which he had been up against a domestic rival of unprecedented strength and finished it with a game in which his vision had played out almost perfectly, it is the fond wish of this particular Cule that the experience has refueled him. He has often stated that he will walk away when his passion for the job fades. Hopefully that day is still far away.

the ultimate grace note

Make no mistake, this has been one more extraordinary season in an era Cules will be talking about for years to come. When we come to reminisce about the highlights, it'll be hard to go past the day of the Champions League final. Wembley was a blessed day, a day where everything went right.

Most important, it had this: on 17 March, Eric Abidal had a tumour removed from his liver. Barely two months later, he was lifting Big Ears as captain in the royal box at new Wembley, having played the entire 90+ minutes of a thrilling final.

Allow me to quote at length from Abidal's recent interview in GQ Italia (which you should read in full, because it really is wonderful):

An hour before the game against Manchester United started, he didn’t know yet he was going to play.

'Guardiola showed us the last videos, gave some last-minute advice, read out loud the players’ shortlist. No one looked surprised. No one but me, obviously.

I sought Puyol out, I walked up to him and asked “Why aren’t you playing? Did you know he was going to leave you out?”

He looked me in the eyes and said “I’m not important right now. You are what matters; don’t worry about me.”

Do you have any idea what a fucking badass we have as captain? Do you? Champions League final, they tell him he’ll be warming the bench, and he’s the one comforting me! This is Barcelona.

And of course I didn’t know I would be the one to lift the cup, everything happened in a blur, I could hardly grasp what was going on. Do you have any idea...? I had cancer, I had surgery, I played the CL final, and I lifted the cup, all in the span of three months. What more could I ask?'

What more could any of us ask for?

'if we are remembered in 10, 15 years time...'

From Wembley to Wembley Barcelona has undergone an extraordinary process of maturing...There is no better defence of an idea than victories, but there is no better victory than the fact that the stability of a club does not depend exclusively on a final result, but on a route map. That is the greatness of this Barça, which, make no mistake, will also be the principles that will enable them to vaccinate themselves in defeat. - El Pais

Personally speaking, it has been a privilege to experience this past season as a Barca fan. Whatever the future holds, I'm convinced that we'll look back on this team with pride and gratitude.

Bring on the next season.

squaring the circle: from the 'Dream Team' to the 'Pep Team'

I'm not a big fan of forced narratives in sport. Often they require material facts to be ignored and result in faulty conclusions. This is possibly an oddity for a Cule - after all, Barcelona have built their identity on a strong sense of narrative, casting themselves in the same role in every story. All the more reason to be skeptical, I'd argue.

Having said all that, sometimes the stars align, and the narrative is absolutely irresistible. Unsurprisingly, they did so under the leadership of Guardiola, a man with a perfect sense of his place in the story, determined to write his own fairytale.

I've gone on about Guardiola as a creation of Barca before, so I won't do it again. The crucial point for the purposes of the story before us is his place as the most important connection between the 'Dream Team' of Cruyff and the Barca of today, a story nineteen years in the making, and one of such perfect symmetry that you wouldn't believe it if I made it up.

the steps of old Wembley and a jersey in green

As Zubizarreta recalls, Barça's so-called Dream Team (whose label was surely seized last night) were loosening up the day before the 1992 final when he heard his most gregarious colleague, the striker Julio Salinas, chatting to the most studious, the midfielder Pep Guardiola. "They were arguing about how many steps there were up to the trophy gantry, 31? Or 32? Or maybe 33?" remembered Zubizarreta. "I walked past and said to them, 'Why don't we just go and win the cup and then we'll find out more quickly'." - Ian Hawkey, the Sunday Times

Win the cup? It was easier said than done. Barca's history up until 1992 had been marked by its painful failures to capture Europe's most glittering prize, failures that had inspired a narrative of pessimism and victimisation, a sense that something was bound to go wrong. The words of legendary goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta reflected the hopes Cules had placed in Johan Cruyff's team.

We all know what happened that night. As Guardiola has been at pains to point out the past week, Barca's sense of its own identity changed with that victory, and with it the club's history shifted course towards an era of unprecedented success.

Zubizarreta's own Barca career was ended by the game that destroyed the Dream Team: their hubris and exhaustion-inspired 4-0 defeat to AC Milan in the 1994 Champions League final. But his connection with Barca could not be severed so easily, and his figure loomed large over all attempts by Barca to replace him in the subsequent years, at least until a scruffy kid named Victor Valdes came along.

Valdes had often cited Zubi as one of his childhood idols. As the years wore on, he grew into the jersey of his finest predecessor. In Rome and Abu Dhabi, at the site of the greatest recent triumphs of Pep's team, Zubi had been a member of the press, transformed at the moment of victory into a fan again, with tears streaming down his face.

At new Wembley, Zubi sat in the stands as Barca's sporting director while his heir defended Barca's goal with distinction. After the game, he was seen being given Valdes' shirt - the same green as he had sported all those years ago.

"I see the space and pass. That's what I do."

Despite appearances, the comparison between Guardiola and Xavi isn't as easy to make. Positionally, Xavi has developed into a very different player, Guardiola would say a better one, with a greater range of passing. But the similarities in their roles in the Barca teams of the 90s and the 00-10s respectively extend beyond an affinity for dictating play to their function as the club's chief ideologue and evangelist.

Both men put their own unique spin on the job. Guardiola interpreted his role as the Catalan heart of Cruyff's Dream Team broadly, applying himself to the political and sporting aspects with equal gusto from a very young age. Xavi is less political, but he is even more of a fundamentalist when it comes to Cruyffismo, even more of an ideologue of football.

Just as Guardiola had been an extension of Cruyff on the pitch, so Xavi is now an extension of Guardiola, implementing the ideas of the manager through his prodigious speed of thought and the magic in his boots. But it hasn't always been so easy.

The transition between the two, which began a few years before Guardiola left Barca as a player, was not smooth. Xavi's first few seasons in Van Gaal's team were spent being buffeted around by the vicious politics of the club, which reached deep into the first team. One side faulted him for being Guardiola's replacement, and the other for not being not enough of one. Even after Pep departed, it wasn't until the arrival of Frank Rijkaard that Xavi finally freed himself from the shadows.

Ironically, it was Guardiola's return which precipitated Xavi's final elevation into the sort of status Guardiola himself had held in his heyday: chief spokesman, dressing room heavyweight, and the mind behind everything Barca do on the pitch.

'the first great player to come out of the Barcelona system with the Cruyff philosophy wired into his boots'



More importantly, Guardiola had the Cruyff philsophy wired into his brain. As a curious, studious young man, he was also interested in other ways of thinking about football. Therefore, it is possible overstate the similarities between the Dream Team of nineteen years ago and Pep's team of today. The latter is far more vigorously systematic, both in attack and in defence, leading to a more complete domination of gameplay. Nevertheless, they are still intrinsically linked. Pep's team has modified and built on a core idea, installed by Cruyff at all levels from the Under-11s to the first team.

The agenda of the club is dominated now by the manager's persona, just as it was then. Pep has traded Cruyff's maverick streak for a touch more tact, but the cult of personality around him now is almost as strong as the one around Cruyff, and his less abrasive manner has helped him stay on generally better terms with players and with the media. All the same, having witnessed Cruyff's own fall, he knows it can't last, and this awareness has made him cautious.

Guardiola will walk away on his own terms rather than let his work be destroyed or his name be besmirched. Cules have lived with this knowledge ever since his appointment, with or without the one year contract extensions. We can only hope he can keep the magic going a little longer and build a dynasty to surpass what came before.

Dream teams don't come along very often. Barca are fortunate enough to have had two worthy of the name in its modern history. When Cruyff, Alexanko, Zubizarreta, Koeman and Guardiola climbed the 39 steps of old Wembley, they set in motion the series of events which led to Guardiola leading his team up the 107 steps of new Wembley nineteen years later. With Barca's victory, the circle was closed. Whatever Pep's team achieve next, they do on new territory. I for one can't wait.

how to die with your boots on: Pep Guardiola's very bad year

"I remember when I received [Guardiola's] call and...I pick up and tease him a bit, but notice in his voice a serious tone. And then he says: 'I need a lawyer.'" - Manel Estiarte, translated by Total Barca

In the glittering, storybook career of Pep Guardiola, one bleak episode stands out from amongst the triumphs. I am referring to the competitive ban and suspended prison sentence he received due to two positive tests for the banned substance nandrolone. Years later, even this unhappy event became part of the Guardiola mythology, an illustration of his legendary obstinacy. But it wasn't always like that.

"I've been in front of the press many times but this is the first time that I've convened a press conference. After a meeting with President Gaspart, who can't be here today due to travel, I decided I have to announce something."

"I came to Barcelona without a penny and I'm leaving as a father, I'm proud of having grown up here but on balance I want to leave to get to know a new league, another culture, new friends and new rivals."

Pep Guardiola announced his departure from FC Barcelona at an explosive press conference on 11 April 2001. He had chosen not to renew his contract, thus ending a 17-year association with Barca. The club captain and figurehead, loved, respected - some would say feared by members of the club hierarchy who did not like the extent of his power - appeared alone. He had been diminished by a series of devastating injuries and equally devastating departures of key allies from what had been a great team.

In an emotional announcement, he informed the more than 100 journalists present of his intention to walk away, insisting that he had no particular destination in mind. Some were convinced that he was jumping before he could be pushed, a casualty of the the vicious power struggle at a dysfunctional Barca.



Five months later, to the surprise of many, Guardiola turned up at Brescia, in northern Italy. He spoke decent Italian at his first press conference and appeared excited by this new adventure, keen to leave his unseemingly departure from Barca behind.

Guardiola's new team mates included the great Roberto Baggio, with whom he formed a warm friendship, as well as a young Luca Toni, who still has great things to say about him. His manager was one of the great old figures of Italian football, Carlo Mazzone, who Guardiola eventually came to call his Italian father.


[Eight years later, at his most glorious hour yet, Guardiola remembered Mazzone. Facing the Italian press after the final whistle in Rome, he dedicated the victory to Mazzone, as well as the recently retired Paolo Maldini.]

The future looked bright. Then came the failed drug test.

"Thank you for being here. My name is Pep Guardiola Sala. I'm a football player. A machine says that I have taken nandrolone. Next to this machine there is a man who says it's not true."

Manel Estiarte, the man Guardiola refers to as his 'guardian angel', current Barca team liaison and retired waterpolo great, had been based in Italy for most of his professional playing career and knew the country far better than his old friend, who called him for advice in his time of need.

And Guardiola was definitely in need. He had tested postive for the banned substance nandrolone after a league match against Piacenza on October 21, becoming yet another entry in the rash of nandrolone positives returned by prominent players in Italy during and after the turn of the century.

In Spain, the news was greeted with incredulity. Old friends and rivals rushed to his defence, Real Madrid captain Fernando Hierro stating: "I believe in his innocence and his honesty as a sportsman." Former team mate Miguel Angel Nadal said that he would hold his hand in the fire to vouch for Pep's innocence.

Similar statements came from Mazzone and his new team mates. Nevertheless, the positive test led to Guardiola's suspension by the disciplinary commission of the Italian league.

A second positive test in November confirmed his sentence - a four month suspension from football and a fine of 50,000 Euros. Guardiola despaired and even thought of leaving football, but his path was always clear. It wasn't for him to protest his innocence, serve the ban and then get on with his life. As he told Estiarte, he was willing to spend every last Euro proving his innocence.

"If I am guilty, the punishment should have been four years. If I am innocent, as I will prove someday, then I didn't deserve a single day."

In May 2005, a Brescia court examined Guardiola's appeal. Far from exonerating him, the court affirmed his sporting sentence, added a seven month suspended jail term and fined him an additional 2,000 Euros under new anti-doping legislation.

But this outcome did not deter Guardiola. Over the next six years, as his career took him to Rome, the Middle East, Mexico, and back to Spain, he never stopped putting time and resources into the legal battle, vowing to take the case up to the highest levels of European justice if necessary. The ban may have been ancient history by then, but Guardiola would not rest until he had cleared the blot on his name.

In the meantime, his old friend Manel Estiarte had informed him of changes made by the World Anti-Doping Agency to their regulatory guidelines. New scientific findings had proven that some athletes' bodies naturally generated a certain amount of nandrolone, as Guardiola's legal team had maintained all along.

23 October 2007. The Brescia Court of Appeal clears Guardiola of all charges.* Pep tells the press that he feels liberated, as if a weight had been taken off him. He talks about his happiness in an interview with El Pais, while recognising that his relative wealth had enabled him to carry on an expensive legal process where other wrongly convicted people might have had to give in because of lack of funds.

Even out of the ranks of professional sportspeople with ample resources, Guardiola's persistence is remarkable. The announcement of his innocence came as he was embarking on his coaching career with Barcelona B, six years after the first positive drug test and a year after he retired from the game as a player.

That's the kind of person he is - a man obstinate enough to match his famously intractable mentor Johan Cruyff. This bloody-minded-ness has, I would argue, served him well in his current high pressure post, and will continue to mark his decision-making in the future.



[*The Italian National Olympic Committee attempted to reopen the case in 2009, but their appeal was rejected by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal.]


(On a different note, I now contribute regularly to Barcelona Football Blog, and recently wrote a piece on - topically enough - youth transfers for In Bed With Maradona.)

If Pep Guardiola didn't exist, we'd have to invent him

In a way, that's exactly what Barca have done. As ball boy, trainee, player, captain and now coach, they've shaped the skinny kid from a small town into the charming, well-spoken man in a sharp suit he is today.

In recent years, everyone from players, club management, Catalan politicians, entertainers of all stripes and Jose Mourinho have called him the perfect manager for Barca. And he is. 99 percent of the time, he reflects the way Barca and Barcelonistas would like to be perceived. (And the remaining 1 percent - well, the post of Barca manager is enough to drive anyone a little dotty.)

As Simon Kuper pointed out in one of his ever-perceptive FT.com columns:

The key point about Guardiola is that he has been identified with Barcelona almost from birth. He comes from a Catalan village and has spent most of his life in the square kilometre of the Nou Camp. As Jimmy Burns writes in Barça: A People's Passion , locals still remember Guardiola as a skinny 15-year-old ballboy illegally running on to the pitch and hugging a player during a European semi-final in 1986. They remember him as a skinny playmaker, standing on the balcony of the Generalitat building in 1992, holding aloft the European Cup, and saying in Catalan, " Ja la teniu aquí " ("Here you have it"). The phrase gave many in the crowd goosebumps, because it deliberately echoed the legendary " Ja soc aquí " ("Here I am") of Josep Tarradellas, the Catalan president, when he returned from French exile after General Franco died.

In other words, Guardiola, a reader of Catalan poetry, is such a perfect Catalan hero that he is practically a character from a 19th-century poem himself.

The story goes that when Guardiola was scouted for La Masia one of the coaches, having witnessed his less-than-impressive speed, tackling and dribbling ability commented that the only outwardly remarkable thing about the boy was that he had a very large head for such a skinny, frail-looking body. And that's precisely the point - it was what went on inside that big head that was so valuable, even as a young player.

Johan Cruyff is said to have once compared Guardiola's speed on the pitch to his grandmother (unfavourably, if you're wondering). Nevertheless, he too saw something in the young Guardiola that pointed to the capacity for tactical intelligence and evolution necessary to become the midfield fulcrum of the team he was building. Years later, it was Cruyff's endorsement once again that proved crucial in (now ex-) president Joan Laporta's unexpected - some would say reckless - decision to appoint Guardiola as first team manager at a time when Barca desperately needed direction.

Off the pitch, Guardiola has an equal reputation for intelligence and introspection. As the late, great Sir Bobby Robson once wrote:

"He knew the game and knew how to conduct himself. Some footballers wouldn't stand for anything. They can't see beyond themselves. You'd have no chance of engaging them in any kind of sensible debate, but Pep had class. He had bearing."

This reputation as a sensitive intellectual makes his many touchline antics - up to and including the red card inducing ones - all the more amusing. Guardiola can come across as somewhat long-suffering and infuriatingly non-committal, especially when placed next to his old associate Jose Mourinho, but it would be a grave mistake to regard him as the blandly polite angel to Mourinho's entertainingly incendiary devil.

While it is true that Guardiola's default setting seems to be Diplomatic (and he seems to feel that it would be unseemingly to complain outright about perceived injustices), he is also not one to shrink from a little controversy - witness the incident preceding the away match against Dynamo Kiev last season, when he spoke frankly about his prominent use of Catalan in press conferences in response to a question from an Ukrainian journalist - or from using the aftementioned press conferences as a bully pulpit, against his own club president if need be. He is admired partly because his actions embody the signature Catalan concept of seny (wisdom/sensibleness). In some ways he and Mourinho are more similar than they are different. One is simply more of a showman than the other.

Pete Jenson writes that Jose and Pep went for canapes together after the recent FIFA World Player Gala. I wonder if the over-the-top, almost cartoonish devotion they inspire from their players came up as a subject for discussion. The Mourinho Effect is well known. His players - Drogba being the chief example, but there are many - tend to look upon him as an almost omnipotent figure. Tributes to Guardiola from his players run along curiously similar lines. My favourites, though, don't speak to omnipotence so much as persuasiveness:

"He's a passionate perfectionist. So if he believes something is white and you think it is black, you will end up believing that it is white." - Xavi

If Pep told me to throw myself off the 3rd tier of Camp Nou, I’d think ‘there must be something good down there'. - Dani Alves

This bond with his players suggests that behind the demanding disciplinarian lies a brother/father figure to whom the players can relate, in some cases very closely. Again, is this starting to sound familiar? All of the above was dramatically illustrated in that comical episode during the latest Clasico, when Cristiano Ronaldo sparked a 23-man brawl by pushing Guardiola in the chest under extreme provocation. Well, a little provocation, but with the backdrop of everything else that was happening Ronaldo's annoyance was understandable. And you can't deny that seeing mild little Andres Iniesta lose his rag is hilarious.

Reading about or watching Mourinho's antics, one often gets the feeling that we're watching mythology being created - there's a certain unreality about the media character of Jose Mourinho, genius manager. Equally, I'd argue the same applies to Guardiola, the man they called 'the myth' (as in too good to be true). If he's a myth, he's an engrossing one, dreamed up and produced by Barcelona. Long may his reign continue.



[Written on the occasion of Pep Guardiola's 40th birthday.]

barca 09/10: the review

Some incredibly disorganised thoughts about the past season:

horse race

I think Guardiola is absolutely correct when he says that Barca would not have reached the highs they hit this season without being pushed so hard by Real. In fact, Perez's spending spree was probably the most effective form of motivation money could buy for the Barca players, who'd won every single trophy they competed for by the end of 2009.

Winning the league this season was particularly satisfying for this Cule because I was so fearful at the beginning of the season that Real's spending (and hitting upon a good coach, seemingly by accident) would take them past Barca, who could never live up to the glories of the season just gone and would falter under the strain of trying. Once again, I'm eating my words and loving every bite. It certainly wasn't easy, and in patches I thought Real were the more likely champions, but in the end Barca's consistency (both collective and individual) and defensive solidarity won out.

elections

I've never hidden my dislike for Joan Laporta. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner the man stops speaking for the club, the better. However, to give the guy his due, he definitely left Barca in much better shape than he found it in, institutionally, financially, and on the sporting front. (Not difficult, given how the Gaspart era ended, but Barca have had very good years under Laporta.)

For now, the trend of me disliking the president looks set to continue, as Sandro Rosell is currently the presumed front-runner. My dislike of Rosell began long before this election season and has its roots in some of the proposals he put forward as vice president during Laporta's first term. It was cemented by his recent comments on the question of membership. On this issue, I highly recommend Ramzi's post, which lays it out better than I could. I'll just say that to limit membership goes against everything I believe Barca should stand for.

signings

How you can recognise a geeky Barca fanatic: when they're more excited by the kids graduating from the youth system than they are by big name signings. This has been me for the past 3 or 4 seasons. I'll just quickly mention a few names I'm looking forward to seeing more of next season: midfielders Jonathan Dos Santos and Thiago Alcantara (both born of Brazilian parents, but Jono plays for Mexico and Thiago plays for Spain at youth level), as well as defenders Marc Muniesa and Martin Montoya (both Spanish).

Moving on to signings, of course Villa is a fantastic striker who will score tons of goals, but he's 28. I can't help feeling Barca brought him a season later than they should have. Still, more than glad to have such a reliable goalscorer who will fit easily into the Barca system.

As for the midfield, if Yaya Toure leaves it will be a very sad day indeed, but I do understand his desire for more playing time. He'll need to be replaced, and my preference is for someone versatile like Keita who can play as a central or defensive midfielder. Lord knows who that will end up being at this point.

Ideally, I would also like one more defender. Alves, Puyol, Pique, Milito, Abidal and Maxwell are all fine, but from there things get a little dicey, and that's not good enough.

standout performers

Leo Messi: 47 goals and 14 assists in 53 appearances. The (ridiculous) stats say it all. Except they don't. He makes everybody else play better, not only because of the passes and runs he makes, but because he attracts defenders like few other players on the planet. Rightly so, because - and it's been this way since 06-07, really - when nobody else has anything, and the game looks like petering out, he's the one who makes it happen.

Xavi: As Guardiola said, best midfielder in the history of Barca. Insanely consistent, absolutely tireless, and the best passer of the ball in Europe.

Puyol: At the beginning of the season, people thought his career was over. Please. A tremendous competitor with the work ethic of a true pro and the physical conditioning of a man ten years younger. He'll be around for a while yet.

Pique: Has good enough feet to play striker, can pass like a midfield general, and somehow keeps up with CRon in full flight when in defence. I don't get him. Whip-smart, too, underneath the bluster.

Pedro: I had no idea he could play like that. Fortunately, I'm in some pretty good company there, as nobody but Guardiola seemed to have any clue. Pedro Rodriguez was about to be shipped out when Guardiola came on the scene at what was then Barca B 3 years ago. And now he's scored 23 goals for Barca in his first full season. Could maybe use a little more composure at times when being harried, but that's just a nitpick. Good with both feet, tactically disciplined, tracks back like his life depends on it, no ego to speak of. What else can you ask for?

guardiola's bias

Guardiola's pro-La Masia agenda is obvious. I think he might even admit it if you bought it up. As much as I approve of the idea of a team mostly made up of youth team grads, I was initially very skeptical of the practicalities involved. Well, surprise surprise, I was wrong and he was right. Players like Sergio Busquets and Pedro Rodriguez made the step up seamlessly, and of course Guardiola was lucky enough to inherit the likes of Xavi, Puyol and Messi. Would a team with 8 home-grown starters be possible without the tremendous luck of inheriting such a golden generation of players? Probably not. But equally, the explosive development of Pedro and Busquets would not have been possible without Guardiola's championing.

(Hey, look at that, all the standouts I named above are La Masia grads. Hm.)

a longer view

I hadn't actually thought about this until El Pais reminded me - Barca have won 10 league titles in the past two decades (1990-94, 97-99, 04-06, 08-10) to Real's 6 (94/95, 96/97, 00/01, 02/03, 06-08). Barca only have 20 league titles in total. I think if any statistic illustrates the way Johan Cruyff the coach (and the 'Godfather'/mentor) changed Barca for the better, it's probably that one. Cruyff's an infuriating man at times, but he deserves every accolade for his vision and achievements.

narrative, what narrative?

The trend is much-discussed in political coverage, but it's equally prevalent in football. I'm speaking of our need to make sense of the big stories of the day by playing them into some kind of morality play context, as if somehow the fine margins of an offside decisions or whether the ball hits the post or goes inside the net has to come together to mean something bigger.

Speaking as a Cule, I couldn't blame fans of teams who've played big games against Barca in the past, say, 5 years if they got frustrated with being painted as the antagonist in Football As Art: the Musical. It's nonsense. I find it infuriating when Brazil get treated that way in the press, and I find it just as difficult to swallow when it's a team I support being given the idealized treatment.

Did it really mean something deep and profound when Barca advanced over Chelsea in last season's Champions League semi-final when they did it via a last-ditch goal and amidst so many contentious refereeing decisions? It certainly advanced the smaller narrative of Barca and Chelsea's grievances against each other, piling up from each of their explosive meetings in Europe, but beyond that, you'd have to ignore a lot of key facts to paint it as some kind of moral victory. It was a victory, sure, and one that easily made my week (okay, month), but let's not give it a gloss it doesn't deserve.

I'll give you the final - the victory over Manchester United probably could be taken as a vindication of Barca's commitment to its style, especially given the absence of key players, and of course it capped off Barca's treble. If you want to derive some meaning from that, feel free. It makes sense.

Like Guardiola pointed out in his (scrupulously gracious, no matter what quotes you've seen taken out of context) pre-match press conference for Barca-Inter, no matter what happened in that game, the Barca of the Six Cups had written their name into the club's history already. One game couldn't change that, for better or for worse. If we're talking narratives, I'll commit to that one.

But please, Arsenal aren't just a collection of too-young ingénues (more on age in a later post). Inter are not the Devil. Nor were Chelsea last season. Real, on the other hand...

I'm just kidding. But we'll have to wait until the end of the season too see how that narrative of sustained development versus sudden lavish investment plays out.


ETA: Almost forgot. You can follow me on Twitter @blackwhitengrey if you're that way inclined. Be warned: I tweet a lot of amusing Guardiola quotes.

pep guardiola and the importance of winning, part 2

“We came to the home of the league leaders who’d won all 15 games here so far this season. I give a lot of value to winning this one – it’s an honour to come here and win. They’ve got 77 points and that’s incredible." - Pep Guardiola on the result

Shots: 16 v 8
Shots on goal: 7 v 4

Usually when I see stats like these, I tend to expect Barca to be the bigger number. Unless it's a difficult away fixture, it's usually a safe assumption to make. In this case, Real being a very difficult away fixture indeed, Barca had less shots, only shaded possession (58%) by their standards and didn't even hit 85% passing accuracy (shocking, I know).

Perhaps, then, the Real players and their coach are entitled to feel a little hard done by. Maybe Arbeloa is right to say that Barca were lucky.

I'm going to pause here for a flashback. Back in Frank Rijkaard's first season as Barca manager, he packed the midfield for his first Clasico (at Camp Nou), lost, and got labelled a coward by the Catalan press. Rijkaard faced it all with his usual good grace and resiliency, even stating outright that he'd make the same tactical decision again regardless of the name-calling.

We laugh now about that infamous quote from scholar of football Tim Lovejoy in which he accused Barca of only knowing how to play one way, but there's a certain truth to it if you look at it the right way. I think there's a certain pride and intimidation factor in never compromising one's style no matter what the circumstances, or at least in having that reputation, and occasionally Barca can be guilty of being too intoxicated by that idea.

When I say that, I obviously don't mean Pep Guardiola's team. Guardiola has shown both a willingness to experiment and to hold his hand up and admit failure when it doesn't work out (for an example of the latter, see his apology after Barca's loss to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey this season). He bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic to add another dimension to Barca's play. He's happy to flood the midfield or play no strikers or start two leftbacks and three centerbacks (as he did against Athletic Bilbao), and he's not afraid of gambling in the big games.

Which brings us back to the Clasico, and Puyol at rightback with Alves as the right winger. Not only a gamble but a decidedly conservative move, which combined with Pellegrini's tinkering resulted in the opening twenty minutes playing out like a chess match, La Gazzetta dello Sport likening it to a classic Serie A encounter. Whether or not it worked - Alves definitely struggled as a winger, resulting in him being switched back at half-time - the fact that Guardiola felt like he could and should try it speaks volumes.

During the slow decline of Rijkaard's team, one of the often-heard laments was that Barca was set up in such a way that they could only win by playing well. Some of the Clasico match reports I've been reading have praised this Barca for winning by not playing particularly well, but by being composed and clever.

Nothing wrong with that. If you said that to Pep Guardiola's face, he'd probably take it as a compliment.

"We’ve got good players. I try and make sure that they all run and that they help each other, but there aren’t many secrets – I work hard, work long hours and I’ve got good players. They know that if they don’t run, I’ll let them know and since they don’t like that, they work all the harder." - Guardiola on the secrets of his success

On a different note, do my eyes deceive me or is Cristiano Ronaldo actually getting criticised in the Madrid press this morning? Really surprised to see that.

pep guardiola and the importance of winning

All the compliments lavished upon this current Barca side for their playing style are entertaining to read, but at a certain point this particular Cule becomes somewhat uncomfortable.

Take Paul Hayward's recent piece in the Guardian: Barcelona must attempt to create a dynasty not just a passing delight [read the Run of Play's excellent dissection of the broader ideas if you haven't already].

Leaving aside the shocking news that Guardiola's Barca apparently isn't already part of a dynasty that can be traced back to the Cruyff Dream Team, as I'd always assumed, let's talk about beauty versus efficiency in the Barcelona context. More specifically, in the context of Guardiola's vision.

Sure, Pep Guardiola believes in a certain way of playing, and he believes in the work of La Masia. That's why his team is constructed like it is.

Above all, though, he believes that his way is the most effective. Guardiola has long been an opponent of the Barca that 'cries and wins nothing', the lingering inferiority and persecution complex that did pre-Cruyff Barca such harm in the past. His focus is very much on success at every level, whether it be social or sporting.

It's an easy mistake to make, falling for the cliche that says a commitment to entertainment means neglecting everything else, but as Sid Lowe pointed out in one of the best Guardiola profiles I've read:

The mistake many made was concluding that a commitment to creative possession football inherently means turning your back on hard work and discipline, on pragmatism and competitiveness; that the aesthetic is by definition incompatible with the effective. Guardiola is every bit as meticulous as, say, Rafa Benítez; every bit as much of a control freak; every bit as pragmatic. And he is every bit as determined to win. As the eulogies poured forth for the way Barcelona were now playing, he kept repeating the same message: "It will be meaningless if we win nothing." He meant it.

Sure, he believes that Barca have an obligation to play football that's worth watching, because of the people who pay their hard-earned money to see it. But that's only partly why Barca are set up to play quick-passing, possession football. The other reason is that it works. Under Cruyff, Van Gaal, Rijkaard and now Guardiola, it has bought Barca the kind of success that is unprecedented in its history over the past twenty years. With the youth system set up to produce the players who thrive playing in this way (defenders like Gerard Pique, midfielders like Guardiola, forwards like Pedro Rodriguez) it all just makes sense.

What Guardiola has bought that his predecessors perhaps didn't is the kind of mentality a Jose Mourinho or Alex Ferguson would install into their teams, helped by his own intensity and drive. They were mostly lost in the shuffle of the pre-match press about Walcott, but I thought Guardiola's comments before the second leg of the quarterfinal were instructive:

"We have to be proud of what we did in the first leg but it's not enough. Now we have to win."

"All that matters is that we have to get to the semi-finals. If not, people in London will say 'Barcelona came here and played well, but we beat them and went through to the semi-finals and they went home'."

The mistake some make is to assume that this kind of mentality would be incompatible with a free-flowing, expressive playing style. It isn't.


(I could talk about Leo Messi, but what else is there to say? Even those of us who were privileged enough to watch him play Capello's Juventus off the park at the age of 18 can only marvel.)

Barca news round-up: transfers and all that

Negotiations with Manchester United over (Barca youth academy grad) Gerard Pique are said to be almost complete. The player has passed a medical in Barcelona and if all goes well the signing should be announced soon. [I am very pleased by this signing. Decent price, good player coming home, everybody's happy. Think of it this way: we're paying ManU for the experience he's gotten during these years away; experience he probably wouldn't have had if he had stayed.]

Seydou Keita of Sevilla has also passed his medical and completed personal negotiations with the club. Because Barca are going to pay his 14 million euro buy-out clause, Sevilla should not be a problem, since they gave him permission to go and have the medical. [Sevilla drive a hard bargain, as always. Great player, pleased to have him, especially given our needs in midfield.]

Thierry Henry reveals that he has spoken to Pep Guardiola and been told that he is wanted for next season. [Needless to say, I am very pleased by this.]

There are murmurs in the press that the board are unhappy with Messi's decision to go to the Olympics, which has been considered a 'lack of commitment'. [I'm sorry, but the board can go screw themselves. To accuse Messi of a lack of commitment to the cause would be laughable at best. Besides, he's under 23 years old, so they have no legal leg to stand on. So what are they going to do, sell him?

There's a good editorial in El Mundo Deportivo (and I don't use those words too often) on the subject.

Additionally, I would argue that showing a lack of commitment to one's national team would actually be a bad sign, of a player lacking in motivation and desire for glory - see Ronaldinho and Copa America.

Having said that, I do hope he gets in some pre-season time with Barca, since he'll have to get used to playing with quite a few newcomers.]

Edmilson gives a farewell press conference, bowing out gracefully in his usual frank style with a few thought-provoking comments and even a few tears. He's off to Villarreal. I wish him luck with his future endeavours. The official site has a look back at Edmilson's four seasons at the club.

Ronaldinho, on the other hand, has gone on vacation. So we might not even get a farewell press conference from him, let alone a farewell game, which would be a massive pity given his place in the history of the club.


[Next up, end of season awards, and a requiem for R-E-M.]

the future is bright

As things have gone from bad to worse recently, Barcelona fans have increasingly focused our hopes on young players coming out of the club's much praised youth system. In fact, most of the best and most consistent performers in the past two seasons have been new cantera graduates - Messi, Iniesta and Bojan in addition to those who have been stalwarts for a while like Xavi and Puyol.

Unfortunately, Barcelona's reserve side, Barca B (who will be changing their name back to Barca Athletic as of next season) were relegated from the Third Division (or Second B, as they call it in Spain) at the end of last season. They were directionless, unmotivated, and relying on a few star names (mainly Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic) to carry them through - is this starting to sound familiar to anyone?

Fortunately, the board bought back playing legend Pep Guardiola to coach the B team in June of last year. Since then, he's done a great job restoring discipline, morale and a sense of identity to a squad with no ideas, no direction who had been stripped of their brightest stars.

They've now won their group of the league and go into the promotion play-offs in a very favourable position for the semis as they'll be facing a team who finished fourth in their group and they'll have the second leg at home.

Congratulations to them.

And well done to Pep for this achievement (make no mistake, getting Barca B back in shape was a mission, no matter which division they were playing in). El Pais has a brilliant article on his coaching methods, hinting at what his approach to the first team will be like next season. It's well worth reading even through the muddle of Google Translate.

the kids are alright (and scarily talented)

There were 7 Barca players in the Spain squad that just won the European U17 title, beating France 4-0 in the final. (It would have been 8 or 9, but a couple of them got injured before the tournament - it seems the injury curse even affects the youth teams.)

They were: Alejandro 'Alex' Sánchez (GK), Carles Planas, Martín Montoya (DF), Oriol Romeu, Adriá Carmona, Thiago Alcántara (MF), Rubén Rochina (FW)

Montoya is a very promising fullback, which is nice as we haven't produced one in a while. Ruben the striker's not bad either - although he is, in the way that young players tend to be, a bit of a lone ranger. The big star amongst that group though is Thiago, who is the son of former Brazilian international Mazinho. He's a creative midfielder who has been compared in style to Deco.

(Ruben also deserves a special mention for scoring a brace for the Juvenil A team to win their Clasico against Real right after coming back from the tournament.)

And I haven't even mentioned Gai Assulin, the Israeli who has already made his debut with the national team at the age of 16, and who has made quite a splash in the B side this past season already.

At a time when the first team's reliance on the youth system is greater than ever, despite the increasing spending on big names, it's reassuring that we've got so much to look forward to.


(I am slowly and painfully writing my tribute to Frank Rijkaard, as well as an ode to the tridente (R-E-M) which was the most feared forward line in Europe for approximately one glorious year.)

Rijkaard and Guardiola: links round-up

I was going to write a long post about recent events at Barca, but then I read Phil Ball's latest column and agreed with pretty much everything he said, so I'm just going to link to it. I will be writing a tribute to 'Frankie' later - how could I not? - but for now, here's a collection of some of the interesting fall-out and commentary surrounding the change of staff.

• Phil Ball's brilliant column: Barca hit rock-bottom (I am especially in agreement with his conclusion)
• the official website looks back at Rijkaard's time at the club
• El Pais has a wonderful tribute that even Google Translate can't ruin
  
• Xavi admits to a sense of guilt about Rijkaard's dismissal and has only good things to say about him
• Rijkaard's first press conference after the news, where he says that 'it has been an honour'
  
• And his final post-match press conference at the Camp Nou, conducted with characteristic dignity and grace, which ends with him walking out to applause from the assembled journalists
• The contents of a farewell letter he wrote to the fans, published in the match day magazine given out before the Mallorca game
• Guardiola hails his achievements in these past five years
• Messi, a consistent supporter of Frankie's - "I am very grateful to Rijkaard"

[I have been incredibly busy with uni this year, hence the lack of updates. My apologies. But I just couldn't ignore this.]

A few quick notes on Rangers v Barcelona, and Guardiola is innocent!

• Dare I say it - this was our best away performance so far this season. I was happy with what I saw, bar the last few minutes.
• That handball was a penalty. Not complaining, but in some ways this game reminded me of Arsenal's games against CSKA Moscow last season: one side dominated completely, had a lot of shots and yet were unable to score (although Arsenal were even more unlucky). Fair enough, sometimes that happens, and we can't whine when we don't take our chances. A point is not a bad result for Barca in Scotland, where we are traditionally very bad.
  
• Carles Puyol was just incredible at rightback, especially in the first half. I'd forgotten how good he was at getting forward. Immense performance from the captain. I'm so glad he's back. The entire defence did well, in fact.
• Rangers may not play the kind of football I like to watch, but they're excellent at what they do, and may they go far in this competition.
• Lord have mercy and save me from the idiocy of Tommy Smyth.
  

Smyth: it's a strange game to give Gudjohnsen his first start of the season.
Derek Rae: [has to remind him that maybe, just maybe, the reason for Gudjohnsen getting a start is Barca's current injury crisis in midfield]

Smyth: Barcelona haven't created many chances.
[Barcelona have just had 12 shots in the first half.]

If I were a fan of Scottish football, I'd also find his patronising tone offensive. Oh, look, they can play an offside trap. Well, Tommy, Rangers beat Lyon 3-0 away - I think they know how to play football pretty well.

It's enough to make one really miss Ray Hudson.


In other Barca news, Pep Guardiola has finally been cleared of his 2001 doping charge. Good for him. I always believed he was innocent, and not just because I like him so much.

Now, can we have some fit players please?


Edit:

Television pictures showed that a Ronaldinho effort came off the hand of Alan Hutton but the incident was missed by referee Konrad Plautz.

But, even though a spot-kick could have made all the difference to the final outcome, Rijkaard refused to criticise the Austrian official.

"I don't think you don't win because of one decision," he pointed out. "You don't win because sometimes you make the wrong decisions instead of making a goal. But that's football, it's the wonderful world of football. I think it was a good game, it's just a shame that there weren't any goals to see on the pitch."

Ah, Frankie. Never stop being so awesome.

Barca news round-up

It's not been a vintage season, but there is one thing Barca have achieved that we didn't in the glorious 05-06 season, and that's maintain an unbeaten record at home in the league. It's the four months we went without winning away that let us down.

Club president Joan Laporta sent out a forceful statement that things will change at the club next season in a press conference, although he insisted that Rijkaard, Ronaldinho and Eto'o would be staying put.

In the same press conference, the club's stated transfer targets are said to be "A left back, a centre back, one or two midfielders and one or two forwards". Sounds good to me, although I'd prioritize the midfielders, which we desperately need.

Also mentioned: Barca C is going to be folded, given Barca B's relegation.

Speaking of Barca B, guess who's been tasked with guiding them back up to the third division? One of my favourite players of all time and former Barca idol Pep Guardiola has signed a two-year contract to coach the team, bringing him back to the youth set up which made him as a player. I definitely approve, and hope that he proves to be a success.

From Guardiola to one of his successors, both on the pitch and as a leader of the squad. Xavi Hernandez spoke frankly about the season in a recent press conference, in which he laid the blame squarely on the players for not being up to the job, backed Frank Rijkaard to continue, and insisted that the squad was a great one which was very capable of winning more titles. Also, this:

Xavi is already looking to the future and is determined to win more silverware next season: “You always get another chance in football. We can’t allow ourselves another year like this one”.

Given that Xavi is the squad member who has been in the first team the longest and therefore experienced most of Barca's last long dry spell, his words carry some weight. He knows what it was like in the bad old days. Let's not do that again.

Technical secretary Txiki Begiristain also spoke about the changes in store for next season, strongly hinting that discipline would be tightened up in all respects, including speaking to the media and training. Three guesses which two players those concerns were directed at, and the first two don't count.

There's been a flurry of teams all over Europe unveiling their shirts for next season. If you're impatient to see Barca's, the designs for the home and away shirts have been leaked already. Looks genuine enough to me. I definitely approve of the home shirt. Not too sure about that shade of blue on the away one yet, although I like the collar. Having blue on both the home and away shirts probably means another season of getting out the third kit a lot on away trips. As long as it isn't the same unpleasant shade of brown as the last time we had blue on both home and away jerseys, I'll be fine.

Yes, another Asian tour. I thought we'd been over this enough times this season with the players complaining about how much pre-season tours screw up their physical preparations for the season? Ah well, at least it's a short one. Before that, Barca have broken with tradition and chosen to conduct their pre-season training in Scotland instead of Denmark. They'll play Dundee United and Hearts while they're there.

Barca news and press round-up

Barca have no games for 2 weeks. I'm actually pleased about this as it gives me a chance to catch up on blogging. There are about 3 unfinished articles and a couple of match reports coming up. But first, a news round-up.

internationals

10 members of the squad are off on international duty. Details:

Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol (Spain) - the usual suspects head off for vital Euro 08 qualifiers. Puyol is suspended for the Denmark clash in the Bernabeu, which is followed by playing Iceland in Mallorca.
Gudjohnsen (Iceland) - speaking of which, captain Eidur has also been called up for the aftementioned game.
Ronaldinho (Brazil) - Ronnie will head off to Gothenburg to play Chile and then to Stockholm to play Ghana as part of Brazil's friendlies schedule.
Marquez (Mexico) - captain Rafa will be involved in pre-Copa America friendlies against Paraguay and Ecuador back in Monterrey and Oakland respectively.
Gio Van Bronckhorst (Holland) - as a senior member of the Dutch squad, Gio will probably end up playing both Euro qualifiers against Romania and Slovenia respectively.
Zambrotta (Italy) - Zambrotta returns to the Italian squad for the Euro qualifier against Scotland.
Thuram (France) - the veteran defender has been called up for an Euro qualifier against the mighty Lithuania and a friendly against co-host nation Austria.
Eto'o (Cameroon) - Sammy finally makes his return to the Cameroonian NT for an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia in Yaonde.

injury news

Deco has had an operation on his finger following the injury he sustained in a challenge against Recreativo. For what it's worth, club doctors say that he will be able to resume playing with 'special protection' in 3 weeks time - which is rather convenient. He'll have to miss Portugal's qualifiers in the next two weeks, and the visit of Depor, but he was booked for the aftementioned challenge and would have been suspended anyway. So it all works out. Hopefully he will return on time against Zaragoza, as his form was much improved in his last outing.

transfer news

The only credible transfer news lately has been about who's not going anywhere. Belletti renewed his contract, finally putting those AC Milan rumours to rest. The new one-year extension will take him through to 2009. Jorquera also recently agreed improved terms and will be available to give reliable if unspectacular performances in Spanish Cup games until 2008.
Zambrotta has come out and denied that he wants to go back to Italy - apparently after settling in, he's finally beginning to enjoy himself in Spain. I'm very pleased about this, as Zambro is my favourite (non-Argentinean) full-back (not just in Barca, but in European football) and I would very much like him to continue playing for us.

Rijkaard has also spoken out on the constant speculation linking him with a move to AC Milan. He feels that he 'owes a debt' to the club for putting their faith in him and basically in his own roundabout way said that he would not leave unless results compelled him to, or if the club didn't want him anymore. He's a polarising figure amongst Barca fans, but personally I would rather have him than anybody else, even with all his tactical flaws. Hotheaded he may have been as a player, but his behaviour as coach has been impeccable and many times by his words and actions he has made me proud to support Barca.

news story of the day

Most football fans could probably name a favourite retired/former player from their club off the top of their head. Barca fans have a lot of choice - Maradona, Cruyff, Rivaldo, Suarez and so on, not to mention members of the Dream Team.

My personal favourite happens to be someone who achieved nothing at senior international level and retired after years in the wilderness after being tainted by a ban for allegedly taking illegal substances. That doesn't sound too great, especially considering some of the other options, but he was and continues to be hugely respected in Spain, even amongst Madridistas. They say that he was the only Barca player the Bernabeu never booed. He is the reason Barca's youth academy has become a mass production line for a certain type of midfielder. Ask Fran Merida, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta or even Xabi Alonso who they idolize, why they became the players they are today; ask Xavi who he measures himself by; and they'll give you his name.

He was known as that rare species, an articulate and intelligent footballer whose soft-spoken elegance led to years of ignorant innuendo about his sexual orientation. He was a passionate advocate for the Catalan team and its occasional captain. He gave up law school for football.

I am of course talking about the inimitable 'Pep' Guardiola.

Guardiola's understanding of football is total and intuitive, but he is also capable of explaining the concepts with clarity in simple terms. One day, he is going to make a fantastic coach.

When he speaks, people listen. And he chose to speak in defence of Ronaldinho:

“He’s got a right to imperfection and also needs to be judged by his performances over a period of time, not with a game-by-game judgement from critics. He may have dipped a little from what he was doing before, but it’s inhuman to expect any football player to be on the top of his form, beating personal records and carrying a team on his shoulders the whole time. Nobody in the history of football has maintained that standard all the time."

He also said that he wanted Rijkaard to stay, defended the recent use of 3-4-3, and praised the 'extraordinary class' of Messi while urging people not to pressure him on the goalscoring front.

and a light-hearted note to end on...

I've been wondering where Edmilson has disappeared off to in the last few weeks. He wasn't picked for Brazil and he hasn't played for Barca for a while. I hope he's doing alright. Poor guy's not had the best of luck at Barca, injury-wise.

UEFA magazine had a rather amusing and endearing story about the Brazilian, which I'll quote in full here:

Footballers and their cars, eh? Or 'rides' as some of these whipper-snappers will have it. All flash, and no doubt with the latest mod-cons like go-faster stripes and CD players. Thank God for FC Barcelona defender Edmílson to restore some motoring sanity, professing his love for that most honest of jalopies, the humble tractor. "If I wasn't a footballer I would have become a long-distance truck driver," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph. "Even today, when I go back to my father's farm, I love to drive his tractors." Practical, reliable and sturdy. And tractors are not bad either! (Thank you very much, and good night.)