FC BARCELONA, WHAT´ S GOING ON? (This article is available in English and Español)

It seems incredible, but it is clear that the Spanish football teams do not learn from their mistakes, and every year they repeat the same mistakes and one example is FC Barcelona, since after a pathetic second half of the 2006-07 season, the Catalan club did not take good decisions and for example it decided to sign a player like Thierry Henry, who is a elegant player, but he slopes down and he suffers a chronic backache and he has personal problems-a divorce-. But the most important mistake was the Ronaldinho´s permanence in the squad, since, as all the experts said-including the former FC Barcelona´s vice-president,Sandro Rosell,- FC Barcelona had to profit from the Champions League´s title and earn a lot of money with the stars of the team in order to buy new ambitious players.

If there is an important difference between the Italian and the Spanish football, besides the Italian innate competitiveness reflected in its national team, is the treatment of the football as a business, specially knowing the exact moment in order to sell a football´s star, according the market´situation and the player´s wishes.Thus, the seals of emblematic players, like teams Christian “Bobo” Vieri or Andriy Shevchenko, were not understood by the Spanish clubs, used to keep the star until the end-until the relation between the club and the player is very difficult or until the player is insulted by the supporters-. We have many examples along FC Barcelona´s history, as Ronaldo or Rivaldo, but of course Barça is not the only Spanish team with this “great virtue” and for example we can find similar cases in its main rival, Real Madrid or in Deportivo La Coruña ( Djalminha or Diego Tristan´s cases).

FC Barcelona is committing these mistakes this season, having a permissive plan with the players, who are playing horrible, without a clear style, without a leather and without the classical FC Barcelona´s “passing game” .The players do not feel like to play and to win titles, because they only want to collect the salary each month and to go to parties every day and it does not matter the feeling of the supporters of this club-although we should remember that this institution is more than a club in Barcelona-. Of course the main guilty is the president of the club, Joan Laporta, with a permissive attitude

But it is very easy to criticize and speak without exposing solutions, and that is what we are going to do here. We want to do an apolitical and neutral “Barcelonism”´s exercise, proposing actions that the Club should follow in order to straighten out the situation. First, go directly to the problem.¿ When will Mr. Laporta go home? ¿When will your dear friend, Johan Cruyff, stop to command in Barça? We think that FC Barcelona will be a normal club when these 2 men abandon completely the institution, having the power somebody with important experienced in business´s world, as for example the FC Barcelonañ´s vice-president, Marc Ingla, who has made a great job in the FC Barcelona ´s marketing´department, knowing to surround with excellent professionals

Second, Txiqui Beguiristain (the sport director): If he will continue in FC Barcelona for the press conferences during the half times of the games, it is ok, but he can not have more functions in Barça. So he must be sacked as Football´s Director, cause his work is horrible. It is not necessary to be a former football´s player to be a Football´s Director (an example is Osasuna Pamplona with the excellent Juan Jose Lorenzo),simply a club needs a good professional, an expert of the football´s market and with will to work. So, FC Barcelona must change completely this area in order to have an organization and structure in accordance with its dimension, because at this moment FC Barcelona seems an amateur team in this department, losing good players and singing “stars” in decline.¿Is it difficult to apply the Sevilla FC´s model?

Players: FC Barcelona should dismiss many players, cause many of them are not motivated. So, it is clear that Ronaldinho has completed his cycle with Barça and that Deco is not happy in Barcelona if FC Barcelona has not a competitive squad and coach. But on the other hand, maybe it would be good to give another opportunity to Thierry Henry in order to recoup his transaction and to see if he can recover his Arsenal´s level, playing as a “9” and not as a winger. Moreover, FC Barcelona needs a good replacement for Yaya Toure, because this season when the African was injured, Barça has felt the effects of his absence. Besides, if FC Barcelona wants to play with winger, it must sign specific players for this position, cause neither Ronaldinho, neither Messi, neither Bojan, neither Henry, neither Giovanni,neither Iniesta,neither Etoo´o are winger and they play in a low level in this position.Finally, if Zambrotta will play as the same horrible level, he can come back to Italy urgently and it would be great that FC Barcelona sell Giovanni, cause it can be a big problem in the squad.

Finally, we must emphasize that Frank Rijkaard has already completed his cycle, and he must go home, because the squad needs a new guide, with a strong mentality and with an only idea in his mind, to win and to crush the rivals as Manchester United or Real Madrid do.
Cheers,
J&F