FOR THE BEST part of a decade, Europe has watched on with envy as the Barcelona youth system has consistently churned out talent of the highest order.
Lionel Messi is the pint-sized concentration of the regular product.
He is the best player in the world, an exaggeration of the quality which is regularly produced. But all around him are players of unbelievable talent and technique.
So much, in fact, that many of them have replicated their club successes to push Spain to the top of the world.
Much is made of the conveyor belt constantly on the move from the door of La Masia to the first teams of (if not Barcelona FC itself) La Liga. The philosophy has been well-documented; the Catalan club insist upon every age-grade playing in the same style the team coached by Pep Guardiola and Frank Rijkard.
The rondo is king. The simple (to organise, not to play) circled game of instant passing and closing of space. This is the foundation of every team that dons the Blaugrana and, since 2007, the all-conquering Spanish team.
Is this an eclipse-like event to be admired from afar? Or is this a template?
Is the Barcelona way something which can be lifted wholesale and replicated from Cobh to the Creggan or merely the maturing of an extraordinary set of circumstances which put Messi into the same team as Anders Iniesta and Xavi.
In his book, Barca: the making of the greatest team in the world, Graham Hunter has taken a trowel to the roots of the success in Spain’s north-east.
“I think it is (transferrable),”maybe not absolutely identically,” Hunter tells TheScore.ie, “because there are slightly different footballing conditions from England to Germany and Italy to Spain.
Stephen Pond/EMPICS Sport
“Each cultural brand has some differences, but the core values of how to train young players – to get on the ball, where to pass it; where to move with and without the ball, how to press, show intelligence and be mentally brave – these types of things are guiding criteria for this great era at Barcelona and these things are wholly transferable.”
The secret in the sauce, claims Hunter, is not merely in the coaching or even the scouting, but in the identification of suitable scouts and coaches who will staunchly adhere to the teachings passed down by Johann Cruyff.
“When Cruyff came in 1988 the place was in a total mess,” says the Scot. “At the top level they played long ball football, they wanted to be very direct and they were very aggressive. He came and completely revamped the style. But the key thing he did was he looked at the structure and the way the youth system was planned and executed and he said: ‘this is nonsensical the way you do this so many different ways’.”
“During the years after Cruyff was sacked in 1996 the top team blew like a weather vane…. But what never once changed in the 12, 13 levels underneath the first team was the style of footballer that the club strove to produce.”
Hunter’s point is that; once this foundation is laid and sustained, it will continue to benefit to the top of the pyramid, even if the head coach’s ideology does not fall into line with the teachings of Cruyff. It is that man, who has made this possible. Thanks to his vision and utter intransigence to stray from it, FC Barcelona are now a club imprinted with the DNA of Cruyff, perhaps to a level even his son Jordi could not claim.
If these values are put into practice just anywhere – even in the shadow of Camp Nou – they will fail, fizzle out and quickly be forgotten about if you don’t have a consistently blinkered and single-minded approach to make it work. Hunter says:
“What you need is a cultural shift in most clubs. You need a well-structured, well run youth system and then you need patience – if a club wants to mimic it you need a whole lot of cojones, but you also need the vision and intelligence to understand the concept and how to scout.”
Spain’s style is dictated by Barcelona and it is working extremely well for them. Whether that club’s teaching is the one true faith is up for debate, whether it is effective most certainly is not.
There are ways of playing attractive football which looks nothing like the La Liga runners up or the reigning world and European champions. Perhaps, if you implement and ingrain any methodology or unity of purpose into any group, then can be every bit as effective as the unplayable Spaniards.
Variety is the spice of life.
