CHAMPIONS IN REBUILD: PART ONE- FC BARCELONA
CHAMPIONS IN REBUILD
PART 1/4
FC BARCELONA
-Mitansh Kagalwala
-Editor: Samarth Purohit
THE PAST
FC Barcelona. A name
that became synonymous with the greatest players to ever step foot on the grass.
A club famous for playing beautiful, attractive football. A team that fought
together and played together; a team that even Sir Alex Ferguson once called
the greatest team. A club with a history full of revolutionaries, from Johann
Cruyff to Pep Guardiola, from Ronaldinho to Lionel Messi, from Luis Enrique to
Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets, from Ronald Koeman to Carles Puyol, from the Dream Team
to perhaps the greatest ever single generation a nation has ever seen. A club
that boasts 26 La Liga titles, 31 Copa Del Rey’s, 5 UEFA Champions Leagues, and
3 Fifa Club World Cups. A club that is more than a club, a club that is a
spirit. Mes Que Un Club.
FC Barcelona dominated
the latter half of the 2000’s and the first half of the 2010’s. Indeed, that team's success raised the bar so high, it even eclipsed Cruyff’s Dream Team from the 1990’s.
Built entirely from scratch, this super side was composed nearly of all La
Masia or Barca academy players. In an era when Real Madrid were spending huge
amounts to build their “Galactico” side, Barca turned to their famed academy, and it
did not disappoint. Victor Valdes, Pedro, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Xavi,
Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Carles Puyol, and, of course, Lionel Messi
himself, are all graduates of the famed academy, that resembles a conveyor belt
of young talent.
And the man to
assemble the squad was ready too. Pep Guardiola took over from Frank Rijkaard
in 2008, and completely revolutionized football. His tiki-taka style of play took
the world by storm, and all the ideas and plans he had tried out with the B
team worked excellently, culminating in a brilliant 6-2 win over archrivals
Real Madrid, Lionel Messi wreaking havoc as a false 9. That season, Barcelona
won the first ever sextuple, winning six trophies.
Pep eventually left in
2012, having added a second UCL title in 2011. He was succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who was head coach till July 2013, winning La
Liga. Gerardo Martino took over for the 13-14 season, but was replaced May 2014
by Luis Enrique, beginning the era for Barca’s next UCL winning side. The core
of the team remained the same, the midfield trio of Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets,
Messi, Alves, Alba, Pique all remained. But more than that, Barca added Ivan
Rakitic from Sevilla, and also Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr., thus assembling the greatest
attacking trio to probably ever exist: MSN.
Barca won the UCL in
2015. Ernesto Valverde replaced the Spaniard as head coach in 2017. Though he
won 2 La Liga titles in his spell in charge, Barca’s decline started during his
spell (through not much fault of his).
Barca's Famous Sextuple-Winning Team
THE FALL
It all started when Sandro
Rosell resigned as Barca president in 2014, amid the Neymar transfer
controversy. In truth it started before that, but this can be seen as the true
turning point. Josep Maria Bartomeu, vice president under Rosell, stepped up to
take the mantle before the next elections could occur. Following the 2015 UCL
win and treble, Bartemou won the elections in 2015.
A businessman by
nature, Bartomeu has been largely blamed for Barcelona’s downfall. Even the non-financial
reasons, such as an over-dependence on Messi, or a lack of identity and style,
have been attributed to him
Bartomeu has been accused
of several things leading to the Blaugrana’s downfall: horrible financial
mismanagement, sinking the club into billions of dollars in debt, bringing in
the wrong players, terribly overpaying the players, and Barcagate, for which he
was recently taken into custody. Lionel Messi even lost trust in the president
and demanded to leave his boyhood club after the 2-8 beating to Bayern Munich.
To make things worse,
La Masia wasn’t producing at its expected rate, and Barca were forced to
import. Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Arthur, Arda
Turan, Andre Gomes and Miralem Pjanic are all prime examples of players bought
for huge amounts and then never living up to expectations. Neymar also left in
2017, albeit for a huge 222 million euros, but that money was wasted.
Even after Bartomeu
resigned, and his successor Joan Laporta took over, his imprints are still on
the Blaugrana. Barca are in a horrible financial situation, crippled by the
Coronavirus pandemic, the wage cap, and undeserving, overpaid players who apparently
cannot be sold, have left Barcelona not even being able to register their
players. Lionel Messi was forced to leave with Barca unable to afford his
wages, even after several players taking wage cuts, and Messi himself taking a
50% wage cut.
Several humiliating
losses, especially in the Champions League, have added fuel to the fire. 0-3
against AS Roma and 0-4 against Liverpool, getting knocked out despite a first
leg advantage, followed the next season by the infamous 2-8 against Bayern
Munich. The days of the 6-2 and 5-0 in El Clasico are gone. The Blaugrana have
lost the last 4 (5 after 13th January, 2022) El Clasicos against their archrivals.
Infamous ex-president Josep Maria Bartemou
THE PRESENT, AND THE
FUTURE
Barca currently sit 6th
in La Liga, 1 point behind the top 4, and have been drawing against Napoli,
having been knocked out in the Champions League by a combination of Bayern Munich,
Benfica, injuries, and sub-par performances. Their squad looks bleak, with the
Blaugrana heavily relying on their youth products.
The future looks
bright for the Blaugrana, however. La Masia is finally alive again, and this
generation of Barca youngsters looks especially promising. Ansu Fati, Gavi,
Nico, Abde, Ilias, Balde and Oscar Mingueza are cementing their place in the
starting line-up, while Pedri and Ronald Araujo are already key players for the
Catalans. Further, Barca also recently signed Ferran Torres from City to add
much-needed firepower to their frontline. Fans will hope he, as well as Ousmane
Dembele and Frenkie De Jong will kick-on, and live up to their hype. Barca are
also linked with defensive talent across Europe to fill the holes in their
backline, including Manchester City's Aymeric Laporte, Juventus's Matthijs De Ligt, and Ajax's Noussair Mazraoui.
Barca’s biggest and
best signing of the season so far has been Mateu Alemany, Barca’s new director
of football. He has been key to Barca signing new players, their transfer and
contract negotiations and working a bit of his financial and sporting magic.
Former star Xavi is
also back at the helm, and the recent uptick in performances shows (hopefully!)
that the Spaniard is the right man to lead Barca into the next step of the
cycle. Dani Alves is another old guard back, proving he still has it at the age
of 38(!), finally solving Barca’s Dani Alves-shaped hole at right back, since
the Brazilian left the club. An able replacement, if we might say.
Injuries allowing,
Barca should be able to achieve top 4 in La Liga, being just a point away from
the UCL spots, despite their horrid start to the season, while they can
challenge for the Europa League, if they can get past Napoli. Nevertheless,
though the La Liga title looks out of reach for now, the future looks bright
for the Blaugrana. They might be down right now, but they will always fight back.
FC Barcelona's Future: The so-called Dream Teen
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