For the past few years it has been a topic of constant discussion for football pundits all over the world as to what is really behind the astonishing success of Barcelona Football Club? For building a team as extraordinary as Barcelona, many a things must fall into the rights places, some of which are an excellent squad, brilliant tacticians, huge fan base and a certain Lionel Messi. But one phenomenon, which is rather unnoticed, is the fact that Barcelona has shown a lot of faith on managers from their own system, promoting them to the first team after their stint with the B team.
Guardiola proved to be a perfect replacement for RijkaardWith Frank Rijkaard exiting in 2008 the top post was left vacant for Josep Guardiola to fill in his boots. Having played for the B team and then the senior team for 11 years, Guardiola knew the functioning of the team well enough. The icing on the cake was that Guardiola managed the B team for the 2007-08 season before taking the job. Under his guidance the team tasted immense success achieving promotion. Thus the board felt the need of promoting him to the first team and ultimately he replaced Rijkaard. With Guardiola taking charge, an era of invincibility thus began at Barcelona. Having seen the players very closely Guardiola immediately promoted the B side players Sergio Busquets, Pedro Rodriguez and Jeffren Suarez to the first team. He also brought in Pique from Manchester United who was a part of the youth team. Busquets and Rodriguez specially impressed with both of them making into the first team regularly. Pique also became on of their main man in defense and this team helped Guardiola clinch the famous treble of La Liga title, the Copa del Rey title and the Champions League title making him the youngest coach ever to do so.
Youngsters always a key in Barca set-upThe next season saw players like Thiago Alcantara being brought into the first team who then went on to score the winning goal against UD Almeria in April,2011. Johan Cruyff, under whom Guardiola played at Barcelona had a huge impact on his style of coaching and engaging Dani Alves with a defensive pivotal role with Xavi and Iniesta given the main midfield job, Guardiola achievements went sky high with Barcelona winning every competition they participated in 2009. Guardiola stunning run also continued in 2010-11 season with Barcelona winning the La Liga title, the Copa Del Rey title and then defeating Manchester United in the final of the UEFA Champions League. He was still gathering the spoils of building a team around youth players from the academy with whom he was already well acquainted. In his fourth season with the team he signed Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal, who was previously a product of La Masia. Fabregas commented during the transfer that the only reason he was returning to Nuo Camp was to work under their prolific coach whom he held in high regards. He also gave a break to Thiago Alcantara and Andreu Fontas into the first team. Fabregas became the pillar of strength for the Barcelona midfield and one of their main play-makers. In his fourth season for the club he managed to win the Copa Del Rey final although he faced some criticism for his tactics and squad selection. Thus he decided to step down from the job at the end of the season ending an era which witnessed him winning 14 titles for the club in a span of 4 seasons breaking all previous records.
With Guardiola now gone, the managerial job came to his long time assistant from his Barcelona B days Tito Vilanova. His first La Liga game in charge saw Barcelona win with a convincing 5-1 against Real Sociedad. From then on he has impressed much, taking Barcelona to the top of the table and they now stand at 18 points after 6 game weeks and remain 10 points clear of their arch rival Real Madrid. With the team reaping the harvests of the past youth academy players and the ex-assistant manager, the future definitely holds much promise for the team.
The model followed by Barcelona should be a lesson for other big teams like Chelsea and Liverpool who tend to spend big on their managers and go for big names. But what they seem to forget is that its only when a person can evolve his inner strength, can he flourish in an uninhibited manner.
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