It’s no secret that the current FC Barcelona board is not highly popular among the FC Barcelona fans at this moment. Out of all the directors and members of this administration, Zubizarreta stands out as one of the most disliked figureheads at this club. Zubizaretta’s tenure as Sporting Director at this club will go down as one who has been ridiculed on social media for his inept handling of his position. The thought he will remain with this club till 2016 is stomach-turning for some and one can only hope he does resign soon.
Zubizarreta, or Zubi, is a legendary Barça goalkeeper who was in goal when Barça captured their first ever Champions League title in 1992. Sadly, he was also in goal for the 1994 Champions League Final when Barça were embarrassed 4-0 by Milan. That was his final match for the Blaugrana, in which he committed a comical error that killed any chance of Barça making a comeback. Since that gaffe, Zubi has been more known for his mistakes for Spain, World Cup 1998, and for his mistakes as Barça’s Sporting Director.
Zubizarreta inherited the position of Sporting Director from the outgoing Txiki Begiristain following the 2010 Barça elections. Simply put, Zubi inherited a diamond mine with Pep in charge and the team were on top of the world as one, if not, one of the best teams in the world. Prior to becoming Barça’s Sporting Director, Zubi had the similar position with Athletic Bilbao. Of course, the requirement of Basque only players handcuffed Zubi in his ability to wheel and deal. Sadly, his ability to wheel and deal with Barça leaves much to desire whereas Txiki has enjoyed some success in a similar position with Manchester City since joining them in 2012. Meanwhile, Zubi’s diamond mine has become full of coal.
Zubi’s disheveled appearance (put a tie on!) makes one wonder if he is a director at the club or a Western Humanities professor on a sabbatical. His failure to dress for the part does not come close to his failure in performing his duties. In the past, whenever there was a Barça transfer rumor, the running gag has been that Zubi is taking a nap and missed out on finalizing the deal. The man falls asleep once on a plane and it comes back to haunt him. Of course, images of him falling asleep at the Amsterdam airport while the plane was delayed just gave us more fodder to enjoy. His way of handling the media leave much to desire. Just recently, he was asked about the upcoming clash against PSG, and he replied he has not watched much of the French league this season. One of those “insert foot in mouth” moments from a man who has experience hoofing the ball down the pitch.
Nevertheless, the overall performance of Zubi as Sporting Director has been a big failure. Under his watch, FC Barcelona have seen the likes of Sergi and Oscar Garcia leave the club as coaches in the youth setup and coach elsewhere while Eusebio is still underwhelming at Barça B. Some would say most players under Eusebio have regressed and not improved, with unfavorable lineups and tactics. Speaking of the youth, the FIFA transfer ban occurred because Barça did not follow the rules in signing these some young players. Again, this was under Zubi’s watch.
Nonetheless, Zubi offered to be the fall guy and resign following the transfer ban. The club disagreed, which would prove to be a grand mistake by the club. Zubi had shown he is not up for the job thanks to his numerous mistakes when it comes to signing and watching over players. Under his watch, the young starlet, Thiago, did not play enough minutes to trigger the big buy-out clause and Bayern swooped in for his signature at a fraction of his buy-out clause. Meanwhile, the club failed to sign the likes of Ozil, Isco, Kroos, and most recently young player Asensio while opting instead to sign Cesc and Alex Song.
Barça’s fall from the best club in the world in 2011 to their current status of good enough to be in the top eight of Europe is not surprising. Mistakes have been made since Guardiola left the club and allowed it to be run by the board and Zubi. A perfect example of gross negligence by the club was the recent comments by Bojan Krkic Sr., who had worked for the club as a scout, in which he indicated that the club could have signed Thibaut Courtois and Raphael Varane in the past. However, the club opted to allow those players to be signed by Chelsea and Real Madrid instead. There is nothing like watching good talent slip through Zubi’s fingers to the opposition.
This past summer was going to be one of the biggest summers in club history. Barça knew they were facing a transfer ban and had to splash the cash to strengthen the team. One would think that they would do their best to have a strong team for now and for the future in case the transfer ban was upheld. Although Barça signed Claudio Bravo, ter Stegen, Rakitic and Luis Suarez, it was a surprise that the club ended up signing Mathieu, Vermaelen and Douglas as defensive reinforcements. For the past few seasons, Zubi neglected to sign proper defenders so it was not that big of a surprise to see these players signed after all.
Mathieu is a good signing for depth reasons but Vermaelen and Douglas are a different story. During the summer, the club was trying to offload Dani Alves but his suitors balked at his wage demands. Signing Douglas did not make sense seeing as he was not highly rated in Brazil and Montoya seemed to be the right back of the future. Fast forward to today, and it is rumored Dani Alves will not be given a new deal and thus will leave the club at the end of the season while Montoya will be heading off to another team in the winter transfer window because of lack minutes that no one knows for sure why. The idea that Douglas, who has failed to impress in his few outings, is the only bona fide right back for next season is another example of Zubi not doing his job.
The fiasco that is the Vermaelen transfer should be enough to give Zubi his marching orders. I was never a fan of the Vermaelen signing due to his history of injuries. We only got to see Vermaelen in one friendly with Barça B against Indonesia’s U19 team back in September. He was indisposed the rest of the time as he trained individually because of physical discomfort before succumbing to surgery this month that will rule him out for four to six months. What makes this infuriating is the alleged knowledge by Zubi that Vermaelen was not fit to be signed. There were reports during Vermaelen’s medical examination that club doctors informed the club that Vermaelen needed to be operated on. However, Zubi decided to ignore medical advice and finalize the transfer anyways for a player who will not be counted on this season.
All I want for Christmas is for the current FC Barcelona board to resign and bring forward early elections. Zubi being fired now would be a Christmas stocking stuffer for me. However, this board and Zubi will remain with the club for 2016, which is like finding coal inside your Christmas stockings. It is the equivalent of getting socks as a Christmas gift and unfortunately, that is what we are left with thanks to this inept board.
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