Why have high profile signings not worked out well for Barcelona in modern times?

La Masia – the legendary football academy of FC Barcelona

26th November 2012 was a historic date in the long and storied history of the great Futbol Club Barcelona. On that date, Tito Vilanova sent in Martin Montoya to replace an injured Dani Alves in the 14th minute in a league match against Levante. Why is that date, that moment, so historic? Montoya’s introduction meant that all eleven players on the pitch wearing the hallowed red and blue, had all graduated from Barcelona’s very own youth academy – La Masia

The origins of La Masia

That incredible moment had its genesis in an inspired idea accepted by the then club president Josep Nunez. The year was 1978 and the proponent of the idea was Dutch footballing legend Johann Cruyff, who in his last year as a player at the club, felt it was imperative that a footballing academy be established, much on the lines of his own alma-mater, the famous Ajax Academy.

Thus an old farmhouse (built sometime in the early 1700’s) named La Masia de Can Planes became the hub of all youth development activities the club engaged in.

The academy was given an injection of life, ten years later, with the return of its mastermind, Cruyff, to Catalonia, this time as manager. The famous “Dream Team” the great man assembled over the years included the likes of Hristo Stoichkov, Romario, Micheal Laudrup and Ronald Koeman. But, he had also included graduates from the academy in that star-studded line-up. Players such as Jose Mari Bakero, Txiki Begiristian, Guillermo Amor and a certain midfield tyro named Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola.

Johann Cruyff (L) in deep conversation with Josep Guardiola

The influence Cruyff had on the Catalan club was profound, as they embraced the version of total football that he put forward – a style you and I know today as tiki-taka. This style of play would slowly become a way of life for the grand old club, permeating into the deepest recesses of its culture and becoming the all-encompassing philosophy that would lead Barcelona to conquer the footballing world.

It was this philosophy however that would spell the end of the days when a big-money superstar would come in and capture the imagination of the Camp Nou crowd. For soon tiki taka would be taken to new heights of perfection, and dare I say, fanaticism, by one of La Masia’s favourite sons – Josep Guardiola.

The rise of Josep Guardiola

When Guardiola took over in 2008, the club was ruled by the charismatic genius of Ronaldinho around whom his predecessor, Frank Rijkaard, had built the team – a team that bristled with attacking menace in the forms of Samuel Eto’o, Ludovic Giuly, Deco and a certain rising young talent named Lionel Messi.

Guardiola soon imposed his style, the style of the academy from which he had graduated, demanding constant off-the ball running when in possession and aggressive, high intensity pressing when not. For this to work, he had to bring the focus back from the individual to the collective.

Where Cruyff, Bobby Robson, Rijkaard and others before him had allowed individuality to flourish alongside a rather flexible style of playing, Guardiola’s vision had very little space for such indulgence. This saw the purging of Ronaldinho and Deco – two players Guardiola felt didn’t have the necessary work ethic to make his strategy work and soon the selflessness demanded of his forwards soon saw the alienation of Samuel Eto’o (who left to join Inter and Jose Mourinho where, ironically, his best performances would come sacrificing himself on the right wing).

While history will remember the Guardiola -era side as one of the greatest club sides on the planet, and deservedly so, an oft forgotten side to the tale is how so many big name, and very often big money, superstars would arrive at the club, only to fade away at best or fail spectacularly at worst - Barcelona spent nearly 342 million Euros during those four years and not many would make as much of a mark at the club as they (and the club) would have expected (them) to.

While a few like Dani Alves and former La Masia graduate Gerard Pique fit in perfectly, many failed due to their inability or unwillingness to work within the strict confines of the philosophy that ruled Barcelona with an iron fist. Barca’s insistence on having ball playing defenders saw the likes of the highly rated Dmytro Chygrynskiy come and go without so much as making a mark on that impeccable Camp Nou surface (his more traditional centre back values of power, strength and aerial presence couldn’t make up for a lack of ability to pass the ball around in the deep, apparently)

Guardiola’s faith in the midfield trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets (who can blame him for that though – those three were/ are incredible) saw many a midfielder including former academy graduate Francesc Fabregas, Aleksandar Hleb, Javier Mascherano and Yaya Toure struggle to establish themselves as first-choice players in their favoured positions.

Their demand of selflessness and positional discipline from the forwards meant that they would never witness the best of what the likes of Keirrison, Alexis Sanchez, to an extent David Villa and most certainly Zlatan Ibrahimovic had to offer.

**The domination of Tiki Taka and the La Masia graduates**

The case of Ibrahimovic probably illustrates the point better than anyone else’s. Any team requires a spark of individual genius, a creative focal point around which the attack revolves. When that genius is supplied by one of the greatest players the world has seen, everyone else, no matter how good has to curb their instincts and play second-fiddle.

And that’s what Guardiola wanted Ibrahimovic to do, play second fiddle -a sort of a plan B, an impact player to throw on when things weren’t going according to plan, or a player to come in and change the system a bit, make it unpredictable on occasion.

Guardiola arguing with Ibrahimovic (R) in training

As anyone with even the faintest grasp of human psychology and the nature of the temperamental Swede would have worked out, this arrangement ended in disaster – Ibrahimovic almost coming to blows with his coach over the treatment meted to him. After all (and this is paraphrasing the immortal words of Zlatan himself), you don’t buy a Ferrari and attempt to drive it like a Fiat.

Other strikers, like Alexis Sanchez and David Villa, too had to sacrifice their goal scoring instincts for the greater good of the team, and in subjugation to the majesty of Lionel Messi. Now, many of you may think I am raving mad at this point. Wasn’t Villa an integral part of this side for almost the entire duration of the Guardiola era?

He most certainly was – but he was almost always played in a position that wasn’t his own, seemingly appreciated more for his work ethic than for his supernatural goal-poaching talents. The fact that he only scored 33 times for Barca in three years, as against 108 in five for Valencia lay as testament to that fact.

Where Messi’s shadow encompassed the attacking third of the pitch, the genius of Xavi and Iniesta saw the pair of creative midfielders bought from Arsenal - Aleksandar Hleb (who had been given the freedom of the park when with the Gunners) and Francesc Fabregas ( who had been the creative hub and driving force of Arsene Wenger’s side) marginalized.

While Hleb’s direct style was fundamentally at odds with the more passive, patient philosophy of his new club, Fabregas was quite simply not required to create anything in midfield – his seniors were there to do that –and hence he was played out of position or simply as a replacement for when the big boys needed a rest.

Further back, Yaya Toure never showed his real potential till Manchester City unleashed the beast within (and he soon became the potent attacking force we now know him as) as there simply was no room for him, nor any need for his driving runs. Javier Mascherano, arguably the best defensive midfielder on the planet still plays at Barca, alebeit as a make-shift centre back and not in the position where he is most comfortable simply because Busquets is better suited to the system.

Luis Enrique and the superstars of today

Guardiola’s successors, Tito Vilanova and Gerardo Martino, continued with the philosophy (Alex Song, a high profile example) and yet the superstars still don’t stop showing up at the gates of Camp Nou. Last year, Brazilian sensation Neymar arrived for a fee reported to be in excess of 57 million Euros and this year has seen the arrival of the ridiculously talented Luis Suarez for a club record 81 million Euros.

Along with him other high profile names including Croation midfield dynamo Ivan Rakitic, (proper) centre backs Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen and talented goalkeepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo have also arrived with that same sense of great promise that in recent times seems to be so fatally misplaced.

Luis Suarez will be hoping to live up to his billing when he eventually sets foot on the Camp Nou turf

With age having caught up with that wily old maestro Xavi, Rakitic may well fit in seamlessly into the midfield and with Victor Valdes having left the club, ter Stegen and Bravo have just each other to compete with for a starting berth.

It is in attack though where a potential headache awaits. While Suarez’s willingness to play his heart out on any pitch he sets foot on and Neymar’s incredible ability to single-handedly transform games are undoubted, it will take a manager of the utmost skill to manage to work out an attacking system that gets the best out of Messi, Suarez and Neymar – all three of whom work best when the whole team is seemingly built around them and their God-like abilities.

Add to this the need to ensure the team stays true to the philosophy of tiki-taka and the task borders on the impossible.

But if anyone can do it, it’d be Luis Enrique- a Barca legend who played his heart out for the Catalans and started his managerial career by taking charge of Barcelona B (the second team that fields all their La Masia graduates), he might as well be a re-incarnation of Pep Guardiola, if it weren’t for one, pretty big, difference.

Before he ever put on a Blaugrana jersey, he had already acquired a cult following at another club; a club whose historic, pure white shirt he had worn with distinction over 150 times over five years. His in-depth understanding of the best and worst of Real Madrid’s galactico style and Barcelona’s tiki-taka style and his non-fanatic approach to tiki-taka may just be what the doctor (in charge of ensuring the success of new signings) ordered.

Neymar’s first year was disrupted by injury and the natural requirement of time to adjust to a higher level of football competion (all due respect to the Brazilian domestic league). He still managed 12 goals in 29 appearances and appears, to all the world, to be linking well with Messi. Suarez will be coming into the team after serving a four month ban for that heinous biting incident and will be looking forward to rebuild his image and reputation.

The Uruguayan’s natural tendency to run till he drops dead out on the pitch will be an advantage to Enrique as that selflessness is often missing in Neymar and Messi (recently, at least). It’ll be intriguing to see if the three South American superstars – Barca’s answer to Madrid’s Galacticos - can work together as well on the field as they appear capable of doing on paper.

Barcelona’s recent abysmal record with big name signings may just end this season. The watching world will certainly be hoping so.