The last ten years really have been sensational if you’re a Barcelona supporter with the Catalans exercising their dominance worldwide on multiple occasions. Three Champions League wins, two trebles... the list of accolades and the incessant desire of a once-in-a-lifetime crop of players is endless.
Though this is the era of Lionel Messi, who stands alone as arguably the greatest to have ever played the game, Barcelona are not a one-man team. So what have they had to do to drag themselves out of the doldrums and bring them to the pinnacle of world football?
Let’s take a look at five of the most positive changes.
#1 Putting a sponsor on the shirt
There won’t be too many Barcelona supporters that will necessarily agree that having the sponsor on the Blaugrana is a positive move. The Catalans were a team who, for 110 years resisted the filthy lucre on offer, for a chance to keep the shirt ‘clean.’
The club was lauded for their tie-up with Unicef, the first name ever to appear on Barcelona’s shirts but the tide turned when first Qatar Foundation, then Qatar Airways and, from 2017/18, Rakuten will have all seen their brand displayed.
What this conveniently bypasses, of course, is that the likes of Neymar, Luis Suarez and others would not have been able to be kept at the club without that revenue stream.
Between MSN alone, the trio command somewhere in the region of €75m per year in salary. That money doesn’t grow on trees. In order to keep Barcelona competitive and able to sign the best players, a shirt sponsor was a move that had to take place, like it or not.
#2 The appointment of Pep Guardiola
When all around expected to see Jose Mourinho appointed as the Barcelona coach in 2008, it was with mouths wide open that everyone received the news that former fan favourite Pep Guardiola, untried as a coach at the top level, would actually be handed the first-team reins.
Then-club president, Joan Laporta, and sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, were convinced by Guardiola’s philosophy of how to play the game and his willingness to embrace everything he had learned under Johan Cruyff.
Despite his opening two results being unexpected – bizarrely causing newspapers to call for his head – by the end of the season, it was clear that the club had made the right decision.
In four gloriously trophy-laden years, Pep took Barcelona to a whole different level. The best club side ever – by a distance.
#3 Selling Yaya Toure and promoting Sergio Busquets
One of the biggest single decisions to be made over the last 10 years was when Guardiola sold Yaya Toure. The Ivorian had been a colossus in central midfield for the Catalans and was as responsible for their first treble as anyone, scoring a stunning long-range effort in the 2009 Copa del Rey final.
However, waiting in the wings was a young Sergio Busquets. Sergio who? No one outside of La Masia had heard of the Spaniard, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone sat up and took notice of a player for whom the praise ‘simplicity is genius’ perfectly applies.
Much was made of Toure being ousted by a player who was ‘green’ at the top level but for all of the plaudits that the like of Messi, Neymar, Suarez and Iniesta at al garner, Busquets is the true master of this last decade for Barcelona.
A quiet genius, his omission from the side through injury or suspension is when he is noticed the most. A player’s player and one who former Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said he’d like to be reincarnated as. High praise indeed.
#4 Change in transfer policy
Finally, Barcelona seem to be getting in right in terms of transfer policy. Though it could be argued that a number of the new signings from last summer haven’t fitted in, that says more about the immediate impact that media and supporters expect from the new players, than it does about Barca’s work in securing them.
On the face of it, at this moment, only Samuel Umtiti has stepped up to the plate. Yet, Paco Alcacer is slowly finding his feet – hard enough when you’re only playing a game here or there. Lucas Digne and Denis Suarez haven’t been given the chance to impress and Andre Gomes has perhaps allowed his price tag to get the better of him.
However, all are only 22 and 23 years of age. Theoretically years away from their peak, and lest we forget that all bar Suarez are trying to adapt to a system that they won’t have played at their previous clubs. The demands of playing for Barcelona are unique.
The change in attitude in the transfer market, looking for what’s needed rather than what sells shirts, is a positive move, but probably one that won’t truly be appreciated until this time next year.
#5 Utilising different formations but retaining club philosophy
Barcelona. 4-3-3. Goes together like hand in glove, right?
Well, not necessarily. Even if we look back over Tata Martino’s disappointing reign as coach of the club, Gerard Pique was one of the first players to come out and praise the way in which the Argentine had introduced a long-ball element to Barca’s game. “To escape the shackles” as Pique put it at the time.
Luis Enrique, during his tenure, has gone one better and introduced a variety of tactical formations but without losing that ingredient that’s always necessary for the Catalans to operate at their maximum – possession and control of the ball.
Of those utilised over the course of the current season particularly, none has been more successful than the switch to 3-4-3. It gave Barca back the control in midfield - an area where they had begun to struggle in games – and it was precisely that switch against Paris Saint-Germain which saw one of the greatest comebacks in football history.
It has shown whoever succeeds Enrique next season that there is another way of winning, whilst still remaining true to Barca’s ideals.
