Jonathan Wilson - The Barcelona Legacy: Guardiola, Mourinho and the Fight for Footballs Soul

Previous Books by Jonathan Wilson

Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football

Sunderland: A Club Transformed

The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches

Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You

The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper

The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in Ten Matches

Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

The Anatomy of Manchester United: A History in Ten Matches

Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

JONATHAN WILSON

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Few great men get the end they deserve. For football managers as for so many others, professional lives tend to conclude in failure. Johan Cruyffs dismissal by Barcelona was grimly acrimonious as he was escorted from the training ground following a season of turmoil in which Barcelona had finished third amid an ongoing civil war between coach and president. Cruyff was 49 but he never managed again: his coaching career comprised just 11 years and two clubs. But managers are not judged on their final seasons; they are defined by their legacy. By the time Cruyff died 20 years later, his ideas had shaped the game more profoundly than those of perhaps any other thinker in history. At least two major clubs played to an overtly Cruyffian philosophy, while his influence was felt far more widely. Yet when he was sacked after eight years in the Barcelona job, nobody was surprised and many, perhaps even most, fans seemed to consider it the correct decision.

On 18 May 1996, the day before the final home league game of the season against Celta Vigo, Cruyff was visited at the training ground by Joan Gaspart, the vice president of Barcelona. Everybody knew what the conversation would be about: the end had been inevitable for at least a week, and probably a long time before that.

The problems, in truth, had begun in Athens two years earlier, when Barcelona had lost 4-0 to Fabio Capellos AC Milan in the final of the Champions League. After four seasons that had brought four Spanish titles as well as Baras first European Cup, that was the end of the Dream Team. Perhaps it was a natural conclusion all teams, even the very best, have a lifespan but Cruyff ensured his first great team was finished.

On the bus from the stadium back to the hotel, Cruyff told a number of players they would be sold. He undertook a radical rebuilding and the churn that had characterised his first seasons in charge began again. The goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, the playmaker Michael Laudrup, the attacking midfielder Ion Andoni Goikoetxea and the centre-forward Julio Salinas didnt play another minute for the club. Romrio was sold in the January. Eusebio Sacristn, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Txiki Begiristain all went the following summer. By then, Bara were no longer champions, having finished fourth, nine points behind Real Madrid.

The new signings Gic Popescu, Robert Prosinecki and Gheorghe Hagi struggled to settle. The 1995-96 season brought a series of disappointments. On 10 April, Bara lost to Atltico in the Copa del Rey final. Six days later, Bayern Munich won 2-1 at the Camp Nou to complete a 4-3 aggregate win in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup. There were persistent rumours that Cruyff was to be ousted for the former England manager Bobby Robson, but he kept working; a couple of weeks before the end of the season, he persuaded the midfielder Luis Enrique to leave Madrid for Bara.

By mid-May, though, Cruyffs exit was all but certain. On the 15th, Diario Sport, under the headline The board opens another front against Cruyff, reported that Josep Llus Nez, the club president, thought the clubs injury problems were the result of Cruyffs training methods. The board, the piece went on, planned to restructure the weekly schedule, having players work with a fitness coach before training with Cruyff, something that would have represented a drastic diminution of his influence. Cruyffs unease was evident. Johan Cruyff is starting to get tired, said a report in Mundo Deportivo. The Dutchman had intended to respond to the attitude of the board when the season ended but he is losing his patience. He faced the media yesterday, focused, serious, but biting his tongue. Four or five answers were enough to work out that Johan is in an unsettled state, tense, angry even.

Cruyff, meanwhile, accused the board of sleeping when it came to transfers, furious that Zinedine Zidane was leaving Bordeaux, not for Bara but for Juventus. Hes going to Italy, no? Cruyff asked. I had him signed in January.

That night, Barcelona had to complete the final 82 minutes of their third-last league game of the season, against Espanyol, after an abandonment because of torrential rain the previous Saturday. Tonight they are playing the derby in Sarri, wrote the columnist Josep Casanovas, but until the start of the game the attention will be focused on the match which Cruyff and Nez are playing as if they were cat and dog. Its an absurd and damaging war for the club, a very unedifying spectacle that leaves the players aghast and the fans furious.

A 1-1 draw in a spiky game that ended with red cards for Lus Figo and Guillermo Amor ended whatever hope Bara had of closing the gap on Atltico at the top of the table. The following day came the confirmation of what everybody had expected. He will be sacked, read the headline in Diario Sport. The marriage between Nez and Cruyff seemed like it was going to be for life, the article beneath read. However, bad results in Europe signified the end of an idyllic love story. Fans agreed that it was time for radical action with 83.6 per cent of those polled by the newspaper saying they believed the relationship between Cruyff and Nez was broken and 79 per cent saying it had affected the performance of the team. Many clearly felt Cruyff was to blame, with only 21.4 per cent saying he was in the right and 60 per cent believing neither party was.

FIN, read the headline on the front page of Mundo Deportivo. The film is reaching its end, said an editorial. The last episode is being written and the scriptwriters took away the uncertainty yesterday, although they provided a dramatic turn of events. Nez has axed Cruyff. The coach will not continue at Barcelona and now they are working out who should replace him