Despite having recently been the first team in history to achieve two Champions League-winning trebles, not everything is rosy in the Camp Nou gardens.
Upcoming Presidential elections — called earlier than scheduled due to the mess left in the wake of Neymar’s transfer from Santos and the subsequent legal wranglings over the unpaid tax bill — usually bring fresh hope of new faces and someone who can invigorate the club and its many Cules. This time, despite the attempts of fan groups to run in the elections, the 77 million Euros required as a deposit for all candidates to run for the Barça Presidency has proved prohibitive. The club’s members have a choice to vote for one of four final candidates. All four have worked for the club in the past.
Previous President Josep Bartameu is standing for election, having previously been appointed as President after Sandro Rosell’s resignation due to the Neymar affair. Former President Joan Laporte, former board member Toni Freixa and Agusti Benedito, former member of Barça’s sporting and social commission, are all in the running. One big factor that is a staple of any Presidential race is the promise of big transfer budgets and big transfer signings. This is an oft used key strategy to get the backing of the public.
Famously, Joan Laporte used this in 2003 to become elected as President. He promised the Barça fans the signing of David Beckham. Beckham’s time at Manchester United was coming to an end following a public falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson. Barcelona, or more importantly Laporte, had approached United and reached an agreement to sign Beckham at the end of that season.
Once announced that Barcelona had reached an agreement in principle with United — subject to Laporte’s election as President — Laporte overtook the favourite, Luis Bassat, and won the election. His electioneering worked perfectly as he knew that privately the player wanted a transfer to Real Madrid, and that Beckham himself had not agreed to move to Barça, with Laporte only having struck an agreement with Manchester United.
Beckham moved to Real Madrid, Laporte was able to blame the player for the deal falling apart by using Beckham’s refusal to negotiate with Barça, and subsequently Laporte went about signing Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho from Paris Saint Germain instead.
The Stagnation of La Masia
However, this time due to the transfer ban given to them by FIFA for illegally signing under aged players to their academy, rather than promising the next great ‘galacticos’ the focus should be on who is going to do the most to restore the failing Barcelona youth system.
It almost sounds bizarre to describe La Masia as a failing process, but since the beginning of the Pep Guardiola reign with the Barça B team in 2007, the promotion of youngsters to the first team and their holding down regular starting spots has severely decreased.
In Laporte’s first reign in charge he appointed José Ramón Alexanko to be the Director of Youth Football. The focus was placed onto player development instead of results. This approach allowed Barcelona to revisit some of Johan Cruyff’s principles of youth development. The key ones (amongst many) were skill-based training and the belief in playing one style of football through all age groups all the way from the Juvenil B squad to the First Team.
These two practices meant that the development path of future stars such as Gerard Pique, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodriguez and Sergio Busquets was paved in such a way as to make the graduation and transition into the First Team environment a bit more comfortable and allowed them to adapt quickly.
In Pep Guardiola’s one season at Barça B, he used a system of ‘role players’, essentially older players aged between 21 and 26, to fit in alongside the youth team players to protect them and show the experienced side of playing real life professional football. These ‘role players’ were not likely to make the grade for the Barcelona senior side but were good enough to play for Barça B and were there to perform a function and put themselves into the shop window for other league clubs to pick them up for their own first teams, albeit in the Segunda, Spain’s second division.
By the time Guardiola was in charge the likes of Pique, Messi, Victor Valdes and Andres Iniesta were already in the senior set up. He did still promote Pedro and Busquets to the first team and left another crop of talent such as Martin Montoya, Sergi Roberto, Jonathan Dos Santos, Thiago Alcantara and Marc Bartra a framework in which to develop.
Once in the first team Guardiola and latterly Tito Vilanova regularly used La Masia’s canteranos (youth players) in the First Team squad. This was at times either in cup games or the odd La Liga match in order to give rest to senior pro’s and to give the younger talent exposure to First Team action. Since Guardiola’s and Tito’s departures — this also falling in line with Laporte’s replacement as President by Sandro Rosell in 2010 — there has been very little to shout about from Barcelona’s much vaunted academy.
Alexanko’s departure soon after the new President’s arrival led to the appointment of Rosell’s own man, Eusebio Sacristan, to Head of Youth Development. Under Eusebio, there was a far greater emphasis on winning over style, with the ‘role player’ system favoured by Alexanko retained, but with the role players becoming the key players. This philosophy of winning and using the older players instead of integrating the best of the youth talent has stunted progression of potential La Masia graduates.
Under Rosell there have been big transfers such as Neymar Jr, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Javier Mascherano, Ivan Rakitic, Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen, all of whom have arguably held back local talent that otherwise may have thrived. Christian Tello, Isaac Cuenca, Gerard Deulofeu and Bojan Krkic have all left to develop their careers elsewhere, whilst the next generation of players who won the inaugural 2013-14 UEFA Youth League such as Munir El Haddadi, Sandro Ramirez, Grimaldo, Sergi Samper and Jean-Marie Dongou, are as far away from the prospect of First Team action than ever before.
Eusebio was sacked in February 2015 when results for Barça B deteriorated. They were relegated to the fourth tier of Spanish football and the immediate future is not looking good. The youth players will now be playing on poor quality regional pitches against journeyman professionals. The best of the talent available will be gone — Alan Halilovic and Munir are likely to step up to become squad players for Luis Enrique — and those left will find it a severe challenge to develop their character and playing style in these conditions.
The hope is of a Laporte election win so that some pride and focus can be restored to the La Masia project and can kick-start the production line once again. Josep Bartomeu is the present favourite for election, and only having been in the job for six months following Rosell’s resignation there is some hope that with an official mandate as President he may also shake up the Cantera.
Interesting times lay ahead, with the world’s footballing public again in love with the Catalan club’s style and grace at first team level. For this Barcelona-La Masia ideal to continue they need to make sure they get back to doing what got them there in the first place.
