Pep Guardiola and the myth of focusing on cantera instead of cartera 

At the bottom of the centre-circle in their own half, Xavi Hernandez eludes an on-rushing Karim Benzema and plays a simple ball to his nearest team-mate. The ball is received by Sergio Busquets who then releases it to Lionel Messi with his first touch.

Messi, then, finds Xavi at the tip of centre-circle in Madrid’s half, who, in turn, passes it back to Messi and rushes forward between Ricardo Carvalho and Marcelo. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi, now himself at the tip of the circle in Madrid’s half, caresses the ball to Andres Iniesta on his left.

This is the point where time virtually stops for the number 8 as he spotted Xavi in between Marcelo and Carvalho and executes the most perfectly-paced through-ball you will ever see. If the pass was even a centimeter-per-second slower, Marcelo would have intercepted it. If it was even microscopically quicker, it would have evaded Xavi.

The ball prevaricates the last-ditch sliding tackle from Marcelo, but not completely as it clips the Brazilian and then finds its way towards Xavi’s heel.

It then hits the maestro’s heel and takes the aerial route to fall kindly in front of him; all he had to do was lob it over Iker Casillas – and he did. 1-0 for Barcelona, 5-0 at the end of the day. That move leading to the goal was like a tapestry of star-full abstract, woven by the very Gods at the peak of their creative powers.

This was Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona – a team that, according to many, revolutionised the game like never before. And it was filled with academy players.

Cantera v/s cartera

The Galacticos

One of the most common phrases you will hear in football is that Barcelona focuses on the Cantera while their arch-rivals, Real Madrid, channel their attention on the cartera. Cantera, when translated into English, means academy, while cartera translates to purse.

So you could understand what the essence here is. This belief was at its peak when Barcelona were conquering the Universe under Pep Guardiola and the Blancos were struggling to keep up even after spending over €250 million in summer window of 2009.

Meanwhile, Guardiola became the model professional – the reference point for other managers to follow. He used the core of Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi – the four that combined for the aforementioned goal – to form the best team in the world and made a signing here and there to adorn the bride with more jewellery.

However, ‘a signing here and here’ is actually what the perception of the people was as Guardiola, like another manager, needed financial muscle to win – and that is something this window has confirmed.

Pep Guardiola is no merlin

Ibrahimovic is the most expensive Guardiola signing

Even in Barcelona, this was quite evident, but less talked of because of the nebulous fog of misconceptions that shrouds it. In his time at the Camp Nou, the former Barcelona player signed 15 players in four summer transfer windows.

€338.5 million. That’s the amount of money he spent in those four windows, which is roughly €84.63 million per summer. But everyone tends to overlook that because most of his successes came through his academy players instead.

At Bayern Munich, the target for Guardiola was always to win the Champions League while continuing their domination in the Bundesliga. The latter was quite easy as Bayern not only had the best team in the country but also were the strongest in terms of finances.

In his three summer transfer windows with the Bavarians, Guardiola spent €201 million – an average of €67 million-per-season – and yet failed to win the most coveted European trophy club football has to ever.

And then he took over the cash-rich but much-depleted Manchester City side. It goes without saying that out of the three teams that Guardiola has managed, Manchester City provided the most challenging task for the Spaniard.

Barcelona already had some of the finest players when he came in and he further fine-tuned the squad with expensive signings. Bayern, domestically at least, was his easiest job. They also had one of the most competitive squads in the world that had only recently completed a treble-winning campaign before Guardiola took over.

Manchester City, however, was always going to be his toughest challenge given that he had to complete against 3-4 clubs with a squad not as cohesive as his previous two. And in his first season, he stuttered, finishing third behind Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs. He often looked like an old man who had no idea what this generation of kids were up to.

Guardiola admitted that his current team are 10 years behind both Real Madrid and Barcelona. As a result, he chose the quickest way to close the gap: exercise the cartera.

Guardiola needs the cartera

Pep Guardiola has spent close to half a billion at Man City

He has already spent €240.5 million this summer alone and is likely make more signings before the window slams shut. In the last window, he spent €213 million on transfers – Gabriel Jesus might have joined in January, but he was purchased in the summer – taking the total to a staggering €453.5 million in two seasons.

This brings us to the conclusion that Pep Guardiola also needs the cartera to succeed – and there is nothing wrong with that. The former Bayern manager openly admitted that it is unlikely that the youth team players would get much of a chance this season.

The reason for this, according to the manager himself, is that the youngsters at the club don’t have the right platform to succeed in.

“The only problem the managers have in the first teams with the second [reserve] teams is that the league they [the reserve teams] compete in it doesn’t count, so the gap between the first team and second team, when they compete, is so big,” Guardiola said.

“They play between each other with small ages and no spectators. They [the young players] will come to the United States on our pre-season tour so we are going to see how they are. They are 16, 17 or 18. The quality is there, but maybe not in the next year.

“Next season most of them will be training with us and we are going to see how they are. The second teams in Spain, at Barcelona or Real Madrid, play in front of 40,000 people and every weekend in the second league. In Italy or Germany they are so tough, so demanding, they are playing with guys who are 28, 29 or 30 and that is the best way to improve, not training with the first team sometimes.”

And he does have a point. However, it will be bizarre of Guardiola to use this as a reason forever and continue denying the City youngsters a chance, especially when the likes of Marcus Rashford have done so well when given the chance.

There is no denying that the Catalan is among the wisest mind in the game and is a genius in every regard, but even he needs to wield the purse and wave pound notes at other clubs in a bid to strengthen his team.

And he defended his approach, saying: "I could not imagine years ago, even two or three years ago, paying £100m or £120m for one player, now it has happened and will happen more.

"It's a lot. I would like to pay less for the club, for everybody but the market is the market. Manchester City didn't invest in full backs in the last six-seven years. We decided we had to make the squad younger and we tried to keep the best full backs.

"All the clubs spend a lot of money, not just us. You will see until the 31st (of August), the amount of transfers coming, so we will see 70, 80, 90, 100 (million) - more than that. Maybe one day it will stop."

Maybe he is right, maybe one day it will stop. But right now, he needs certain types of players to carry out the kind of football that he prefers – you can’t expect a round peg to fit in a square hole.

Sometimes, you just can’t win with the Cantera alone, you need the Cantera to save the day.