Damaged Barça hire damaged Hansi Flick.

 

With Xavi’s tenure as Barça coming to an unfortunate end, President Joan Laporta already made his choice on who should be Xavi’s successor, by hiring Hansi Flick. It was a marriage of convenience between the club and manager; A damaged club hiring a damaged Hansi Flick.

It was the worst kept secret that Laporta was looking to hire a German manager to run our beloved Blaugrana. Laporta just missed out on Hansi Flick in 2021 before hiring Xavi to manage Barça. Lady luck shined on Laporta when Hansi Flick was now available to take the job following Germany’s disastrous performance at the 2022 World Cup and subsequent matches. Flick’s stock was absolutely at an all-time low and Barça was in need of a manager to get them back among the elite clubs in Europe.

This is not uncommon ground for FC Barcelona. Barça has a storied history of willing to gamble on managers whose philosophies align with the club's philosophy, even if their previous experiences were not always successful. One notable example is Frank Rijkaard, who took over as FC Barcelona's manager in the summer of 2003. Before joining Barça, Rijkaard had been let go at Sparta Rotterdam after they were relegated in his lone season there in 2002. Even though his managerial career consisted of being the Netherlands national team manager from 1998 to 2000 along with his only stint at club level with Sparta Rotterdam, he guided Barça to resurgence. The Blaugrana won two La Liga titles and their second UEFA Champions League in 2006.

The man who guided Barça’s Dream Team, Johan Cruyff, to their first Champions League crown also came to the club with a somewhat damaged reputation as a manager. Although Ajax won two Dutch cups and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup during the mid to late 80s, Cruyff was unable to steer Ajax Amsterdam to a Dutch league title and subsequently resigned in January 1988 as Ajax struggled. A few months later, Barça hired the football legend and the rest, as they say, is history. Cruyff’s arrival ushered in a successful era for the Blaugrana where he implemented his groundbreaking "Total Football" philosophy at Barcelona, which revolutionized the club's style of play and laid the groundwork for its future success.

                         

Luis Enrique is another prime example of a manager whose managerial career before Barcelona was not spectacular and somewhat damaged. He lasted one season coaching Roma without winning any major trophies. However, after taking over as Barcelona manager in 2014, Luis Enrique led the club to an unprecedented treble in his first season, capturing La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League, and amassed a total of nine trophies in his three seasons at the club.

                          

However, not all damaged managers have been successful after taking the reins at Barcelona. One noteworthy example would be Louis van Gaal. When van Gaal was first hired by the club in 1997, he was considered one of the top managers in the world following his accomplishments with Ajax. His first stint as Barça manager saw the club win consecutive league titles but failed in Europe. However, when he was hired by Barça again in 2002, it was fresh from his unsuccessful stint as the Netherlands manager who failed to qualify for the World Cup. The second era of van Gaal with the Blaugrana lasted a few months before he was fired due to the club’s woeful league position. Then there is Quique Setién, who joined Barcelona midway through the 2019-2020 season without much of a successful reputation. He had been hired after leaving Real Betis where they regressed from 6th to 10th in the league standings, and he tried his best to showcase his commitment to the Blaugrana's possession-based style of football. However, Setién only lasted a few months without winning any major silverware and will forever be remembered as the manager in charge during that 8-2 defeat to Hansi Flick’s Bayern Munich side in the 2020 Champions League Quarter-Finals.

                          

Barça has a history of hiring managers based on their potential to align with the club's footballing philosophy and their ability to meet the high expectations of both the club and its fans. Hansi Flick’s hiring is a slight deviation from Barça’s DNA, where the hope is he will mutate that DNA with the German football DNA to create a new successful formula for success. Hopefully his hiring will usher in a new successful era for the Blaugrana, and thereby end years of frustration in Europe while also navigating the club to more success in domestic competitions. 

What’s Barça’s Next Step?

Barça will end this season trophyless and there’s still uncertainty about where this club is heading. Is there an actual long-term plan or just more last-minute decisions? Some clarity would be nice so fans can be ready for either success or more agony for the near future.

FC Barcelona’s 2023-2024 season has been a disappointment. What began as a season full of hope and promise is now ending with doubt and dissatisfaction about the club and its direction. Barça and Xavi winning La Liga last season was a remarkable achievement and many felt that the club was heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, the club took one step forward by finally advancing to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League, but it also took a few steps back as they suffered domestically. Madrid won the league title while defeating the Blaugrana in both league games and the Blaugrana failed to win either the Copa del Rey or the Supercopa. Perhaps Barça made the mistake of thinking that success would repeat itself and maybe underestimated how much better Madrid and other La Liga clubs would be this season.

FC Barcelona is a club in need of stability and a long-term plan, yet this club still appears to be operating on a day-to-day basis. Xavi was supposed to leave, and now he’s staying to manage the team again before he leaves when his contract expires next season.  Will players listen to him when they know he is leaving? How can the club plan for the future when they will be transitioning from Xavi to another manager? Do you sign the players that Xavi wants or save that money for the future manager? Do you also get rid of players Xavi doesn’t want, like Vitor Roque, or does President Joan Laporta let the next manager make those decisions?

Laporta has to inform the Blaugrana faithful of his plans going forward. Does he already have Xavi’s replacement in mind, or will it be a last-minute decision? Can this club sign players and get them registered in time while they juggle the financial requirements of La Liga? The financial situation of this club would scare off anyone interested in coaching this team. With the emergence of Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, perhaps there should be more faith in the youth and not waste money on expensive signings. For example, Ferran Torres cost Barça €55 million while Ferran Jugtla was sold for €5 million. Ferran Torres has scored 25 goals at his time with the club while the latter has scored 26 goals in Belgium. Was it worth it?

Furthermore, we have seen different directors and advisors leave the club during the second era of Laporta. This doesn’t paint a good picture of stability. Until the Super League becomes a reality, the focus should be on a proper structure and not dreams of a financial windfall from a nonexistent league. It’s time for the club to adopt a clear plan going forward and not continue in this path of uncertainty.

 

Barça’s First Test of the Season .

 

Barça is off to a great start to their season. Following their surprising goalless draw at home to Rayo Vallecano, the Blaugrana have been on a five-game winning streak with impressive wins on the road against Real Sociedad and Sevilla. Today, they kick off their second group stage match of their Champions League group stage, where they face their rivals for the trophy, Bayern Munich. Today will show us if Barça are back where they belong or still have work to do.

Barça are flying under Xavi. 4 wins and a draw to kick off their new league campaign and top of their Champions League group stage, on goal differential, after one match day while playing entertaining football (15 goals in La Liga and 5 goals in Europe) while conceding only one goal in each competition. It’s true that Real Sociedad and Sevilla are off to a poor start, but those grounds are usually a tough trip for the Blaugrana. Nonetheless, Xavi’s boys went there and got impressive victories there.

The Blaugrana are flying high with the new additions of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Koundé, Andreas Christensen, Héctor Bellerín, and Marcos Alonso. However, today Barça get their first true test of the season when they face Bayern Munich. The German side has been a thorn in Barcelona’s side for the past few seasons. Yesterday, Xavi said Allianz Arena wasn’t a house of horror for the Blaugrana. However, their record on Bayern Munich’s turf is horrendous with four losses and two draws on their last six trips with the aggregate score of 14-4 for the home side.

Today is the first true test for Xavi and the players. A loss would not be devastating since this is still a work in progress and it’s still early into the season. However, a win would give the team a bounce in their step and validation for FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta for all the risky financial measures to allow the club to become a powerhouse again. Roma wasn’t built in a day but today could pave the road for the club to become a powerful empire again.

Barça Lost in Transition.

Barça’s transition from the last regime to the new regime under Laporta is off to a horrendous start. Poor performances and results in La Liga and in the Champions league along with the loss of Messi has not made the Blaugrana faithful happy. Things were supposed to improve but instead, things are getting worse with no optimism on the horizon as long as Ronald Koeman remains.

Barça’s elections were supposed to usher in a new era under President Laporta. What we didn’t expect was for Barça to hang on to Koeman and lose Messi. Back in November, I wrote that

Elections can’t come soon enough. The longer Koeman stays in charge, the more hopeless this season feels for the fans, and for the players. A fresh start is needed with a new board and a new manager because the results are not there to save Koeman. Koeman was presented as the solution, but he’s become part of the problem.

Almost a year later, and Koeman continues to be part of the problem. Koeman has an abysmal record in big games while subjecting us to horrible football. Laporta should have fired Koeman during the summer but he did not because firing Koeman would result in Barça having to pay him €12 million. Nonetheless, this is the same club that haven’t paid Koeman’s predecessors Quique Setién and Ernesto Valverde after they were fired. Because money is tight, Laporta stuck with Koeman and informed the fans “Ronald Koeman will continue as Barca coach. We feel he deserves a certain amount of confidence for many reasons.”

Well, nothing has happened that reinforces that confidence or justifies holding on to Koeman as a manager. Barça have been awful in La Liga and the Champions League under Koeman. Last month, Koeman said “Thanks to me, this club has a future.” Well, if he meant an uncertain future, then he has done a marvelous job.

After Laporta won the Barça presidential elections, he promised us things will be different. “Before, if we lost, nothing happened, but with me there are going to be consequences.” Well, the consequences thus far have been that we lost Messi and replaced him with Memphis Depay, Kun Aguero, and Luuk “more dangerous than Neymar inside the box” de Jong. Well, things sure are not different, things are worse and we have yet to see any consequences; just videos from Laporta asking for support from us.

The transition from the rotting decaying Rosell/Bartomeu era to the Laporta era is one mired in confusion and frustration. Are Barça afraid of firing Koeman because of money? That didn’t stop them with Valverde and Setién, so let Koeman get in line and sue. Eventually Barça will be financially settled and can afford to settle those cases out of court. It sure beats hanging on to Koeman and risk early elimination from the Champions League and make it harder for his successor, Xavi or Francisco Javier García Pimienta (whose firing from Barça B is still a puzzling decision) or anyone else, to help this club finish in La Liga’s top four and qualify for the Champions League. There has been enough damage done under Koeman and this transition will never launch if he stays in charge.

Barça’s Difficult Cleanup Underway.

 

Barça’s upcoming season is just around the corner, and the first under new president Joan Laporta with a full summer under his belt. However, anyone thinking that Laporta will bring a quick fix is sadly mistaken. Many, including Laporta, are now fully coming to grips of the dire condition this club is in financially, and that it is in need of a lengthy major cleanup.

Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past few years, it should come as no surprise that Barça is a financial mess. The club is drowning in debt thanks to many bad financial decisions by the previous regime, which is affecting how the club can prepare for the new season. La Liga’s President, Javier Tebas has warned the club that they will not be able to register Messi and the new signings unless they get under their salary cap. This requires shedding a lot of dead weight and bad contracts.

Unfortunately, not every player is on board when it comes to accepting a reduced salary and the pandemic is making is tougher to offload the deadwood. Laporta faced the same situation when he first became president of Barça back in 2003, and it took him a whole season before all the players deemed surplus were gone. This time around, the players he is trying to offload are ridiculously high earners, and some of them are also injury prone. Good luck finding any takers, or suckers, for players such as Umtiti, Coutinho, Griezmann and Pjanic in today’s football world.

Laporta’s first important challenge is cleaning up this toxic mess. He was successful the first time when he had the likes of Ferran Soriano by his side to steady the ship. We shall see if Laporta has surrounded himself with a proper crew to perform this difficult cleanup. However, don’t kid yourself into thinking that this will be a quick fix because this cleanup will take time, and unfortunately, time is not a luxury the fans have.

Barça begins the Quique Setién era.

Well, it finally happened. FC Barcelona fired Ernesto Valverde on Monday and brough in Quique Setién as the club’s newest manager. Things had to change and Barça finally decided to become proactive by being reactive and firing Valverde following their loss to Atletico Madrid in the revamped Spanish Super Cup. Valverde’s era was bittersweet with some success but the disappointments will haunt him forever. Quique Setién now is the man to lead the charge and it won’t be easy.

We really were spoilt under the presidency of Joan Laporta. During his reign, the Blaugrana only had two managers, Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola. Since then, the Blaugrana have had five different managers. Elections are not that far away so we shall see if Quique Setién will still be the manager by then. For the time being, he has a tough task of rejuvenating a team that has slept walk this season.

Time will tell if Quique Setién was the right hire or not. Valverde came highly rated by many and in the end, many were glad to see him leave. He is already facing one difficult task of finding out what is the best formation and lineup for this team. The absence of Luis Suárez, out with an injury, and Carles Aleñá, out on loan, leaves him somewhat shorthanded. The first area of concern is whether the board will support Quique Setién or work against him. Will they bring him the players he wants or will they sign players they want without his input or approval?

With Suárez out, it’s time for Griezmann to shine but will others also step up? The team has regressed defensively and Setién will not only have to address that issue, but also improve their mental confidence which has become an issue when things don’t go their way. Hopefully Setién will also entrust La Masia and give more minutes to Barça B players such as Riqui Puig with the first team. It’s foolish to expect a quick turn around under Setién but it does feel good to feel optimistic about Barca again.