Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography (17 page)

The gift of opportunity – you either have it or you don’t. And Guardiola’s appointment had it. It had been a hard few years for the Catalans. The debate over
the new Catalan Constitution, that demanded more independence from central government, exposed the lack of enthusiasm the rest of the country had in understanding the Catalans’ need to
differentiate themselves from the rest of Spain. Rijkaard’s Barcelona was suffering an unstoppable decline into decadence, the dressing room lacking discipline and team spirit. The star of
the team, Ronaldinho, had lost his status as the most exciting player on the planet. The president, Joan Laporta, facing a motion of censure, had only just survived in office. Catalan self-esteem
was at its lowest ebb for decades.

At that point Pep Guardiola was appointed first team coach of FC Barcelona.

Pep lacked the complete support of the Barcelona fanbase. Some of those who did back him felt that his status would at least make the wins sweeter and the defeats easier to swallow; after all,
never before had a ball boy from the Camp Nou progressed through the youth ranks, captained the first team and then returned to the club as coach. Pep understood the Barcelona mentality perfectly
and he knew what was being taught at La Masía. As well as a symbol of the club and a son of the Cruyff school of thought, he represented a way of understanding football as an educative
process. On many levels, it was a match made in heaven.

On the day of his official presentation as coach of Barcelona, Guardiola made it very clear that he knew what he had to do and, with his parents looking on, he outlined his project.

However, in the minds of the many onlookers – even his supporters – was the nagging doubt that, after just twelve months in charge of a reserve side, his
extremely limited experience as a coach was inadequate preparation for the colossal task ahead; and there were many who suspected that his appointment by Laporta was little more than a cynical ploy
to boost the president’s popularity and an attempt to exploit the club’s prodigal son as a shield against the growing criticism of his tenure. There were also those who questioned
whether Pep, as much as they had adored him as a player, was simply too fragile, too sensitive and lacking in the strength of character required.

Pep was aware of the doubts, but he never asked for a honeymoon period, patience or time to make mistakes: it was clear to him that he had to hit the ground running and get off to a winning
start. Guardiola knew as well as anybody the expectations that come with the territory at a big club, where winning is an obligation, defeat always the fault of the coach.

‘I feel strong,’ announced Pep. ‘I’m ready to overcome this challenge and believe me: if I didn’t feel that, I wouldn’t be here. It will be a tough journey,
but I will persevere. The team will run, in case you are worried about that. I will forgive them if they don’t grasp it at first – but I will not forgive them for not trying. Absolutely
not.

‘I am the leader, they follow me and we will achieve. They should follow me.

‘I know that we have to start work quickly and intensively, whoever wants to be with us from the start will be welcomed. And the rest, we will win them over in the future.’

Tito Vilanova, his former La Masía stable mate and assistant with the B team, would be his right-hand man with the first team, too: ‘At the start of the season he told me, not as
advice, because he isn’t the type of person to give advice, that we should do what we believe we should do. We have to apply our own idea, we’ll see if we win or lose, but we’ll
do it our way.

‘There is not a single trainer, nor player, that can guarantee success at the start of a season,’ Guardiola wrote a decade ago. ‘Nor are there magic formulae. If there were,
this game of football would be as
easy as going to the “solutions shop” and buying them all. And in our house, because it is strong, we would pay whatever the cost
for Barça to be unbeatable. But, clearly, as that is impossible, each club searches for the way to reach their initial objectives, and applying a dose of common sense should be enough.
Therefore, it is about knowing what you want and what type of players you need to reach your goal. Because Barça is such a big team, it is in a position to have both things: it can choose
the way it plays and what type of players it wants.’

To begin with, this meant two significant things: continuing and persisting with the model of play and getting rid of Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto’o.

Armchair fans might think that managing a team of superstars, with the best players in the world at your disposal, is about as straightforward as picking the biggest names in a video game. But
managing the egos and personalities in a dressing room at the Camp Nou, under the spotlight of the world’s media, with the weight of expectation of an entire nation upon your shoulders must
be overwhelming for a thirty-seven-year-old in his first job managing a first team. And that thirty-seven-year-old was about to sever his ties with three of the greatest footballers to have played
for the club in recent times.

‘We’re thinking about the squad without them,’ Pep announced during his presentation, flanked by the club president, Joan Laporta, and sporting director, Txiki Beguiristain.
‘That’s the way I think after analysing questions of performance in the time they have been with the team, and also less tangible questions. It is for the good of the team.

‘If they stay in the end, I will give everything so that they join us at the right level.’

It was a revelation. Pep’s common-sense approach, his communication skills and the feeling of authenticity you got from his talks, was just the tonic for a club that had, once again,
demonstrated its ability to hit the self-destruct button when all seemed to be going so well. Pep Guardiola’s press conference conveyed a message of stability, integrity, commitment and
responsibility. In the end, Pep
won most of the doubters over with a clever ploy, a few well-chosen words and a single bold decision.

Txiki Beguiristain agreed with Guardiola and the decision was agreed with Rijkaard. Pep had been informed of squad movements from the moment he was chosen as a replacement for
the Dutch coach. Ronnie had been given one last chance the previous summer – and he’d blown it.

Having decided to get rid of Ronaldinho, Pep now had to tell the Brazilian face to face.

When Guardiola and Ronaldinho met, the conversation was short and swift. Guardiola told him that it wasn’t an easy decision to make as he believed there was still an extraordinary player
under the puppy fat. But he also felt that his recuperation was not possible at Barcelona, that he would have to return to form somewhere else. Ronaldinho offered no resistance and accepted
Pep’s suggestion. Within weeks, he was transferred to AC Milan for €21 million, Barça having rejected offers in the region of €70 million the season before. At around the
same time, Deco was transferred to Chelsea for €10 million – despite the fact that José Mourinho, who had coached him at Porto, wanted to link up with him at Inter Milan.

Pep possessed genuine self-belief when it came to his capacity to get the message across to his players. Barça had finished the league eighteen points behind Madrid the previous season
and, at times like that, sportsmen typically need somebody to show them the way, point out to them how to correct mistakes. He cleansed the dressing room of players who were uncommitted and
oblivious of the club’s core values: prioritising good football and hard work ahead of individual talent. Before they met for pre-season, Pep received messages from key players in the squad
backing his bravery; the squad’s leaders were effectively opening the door to the dressing room for him.

Iniesta, for one, could not wait to work with his all-time hero. ‘When I was fourteen, I competed in a Nike club competition, which we won, and Pep presented me with the trophy. His
brother
had told him about me and when he gave me the trophy he said, “Congratulations, I hope to see you in the first team, but wait until I’ve left!” He was
my idol, an example. He represents the values and feelings of Barcelona. Attacking football, respect for team-mates, respect for the fans. And now he was going to be my coach!

‘I remember when he greeted us on the first day in the dressing room. He shook my hand and it was something really special because he was a reference for me. I was immediately struck by
the confidence he had and that he transmitted to us, he was convinced that everything would go well, he had a lot of faith.’ The admiration was mutual. Pep often remembers a conversation he
had with Xavi, while they were both watching Iniesta play when he stepped up to the first team. ‘Look at that guy. He is going to force us both into retirement!’

In Pep’s first summer in charge, Barcelona signed Dani Alvés, Cáceres, Piqué, Keita and Hleb, injecting new blood into the team.

With Deco and Ronaldinho gone, Eto’o’s situation took a significant twist. Seeing that his two main antagonists had left the club, he rejected all offers and made a pledge of
commitment to his new coach. With the Brazilians out of the way, he saw his big opportunity to be the standard-bearer of the team. The leader. Eto’o had always considered that he wasn’t
getting the recognition or credit he was due and stepping out of Ronaldinho’s shadow to take centre stage was one of his obsessions.

The striker exerted a fair amount of influence over Abidal, Henry and Touré, who had the potential to help him flourish, and now – with Messi still developing – Eto’o
might finally get to play the leading role he craved. In the dressing room there were certain characteristics of his that would need to be tolerated – the same things that had convinced
Guardiola to get rid of him in fact – but he had now been handed a golden opportunity and pre-season would determine his future.

It feels strange to think back to a time when Messi had yet to consolidate himself as the key player in the team, but at that moment, despite his obvious talent, it was felt that handing the
baton of responsibility from Ronaldinho to a twenty-one-year-old
still nicknamed ‘the flea’ was too much too soon. As Pep said at his unveiling: ‘We
can’t allow Messi to carry the weight of the team, I don’t think it would be good for him or the club.’ In the wake of Deco’s and Ronaldinho’s departure, Guardiola
wanted to hand the lion’s share of the responsibility over to players who had come up through the ranks, from the youth teams, who had become the standard-bearers of the values of the
institution: Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta. Messi, who had previously been at risk of being led astray by the Brazilian group and was going to be fostered into the axis of the team, fitted that same
profile.

By giving the power and captaincy to the home-grown players, Pep had, almost seamlessly, even before pre-season had begun, overseen a transition and sent out a clear signal of intent, mapping
the way forward for years to come. He also achieved something essential that hadn’t been seen at Barcelona for a long time: the club was now in the hands of those who understood it and truly
cared for it. It also meant that Guardiola was giving the home-grown players and the academy set-up a boost: a vote of confidence. He’d worked and even played with many of them, others he was
friends with. Now they had to repay his trust and faith in them through their performances, hard work and their commitment.

Johan Cruyff was among the first to endorse the new coach’s policies: ‘Guardiola knows what Barcelona is all about, you need twenty eyes. Guardiola can control these things because
he has been through them. I can see that he is capable of doing it because he has made a great deal of decisions in a short space of time.’

When he was Barça’s captain under Louis Van Gaal, Guardiola once said, ‘We always have to respect the guidelines set by the coaches – but it is brilliant for a team that
a player can get involved and take on a role on the pitch.’ Van Gaal refused to allow the players a free rein to take the initiative and he was unable to rectify things that were going wrong
as they were happening. Guardiola believed in handing greater responsibility to the footballers, trusting that their intuition could help solve a great amount of their problems. As a coach, Pep
remained true to this idea and was determined to let his charges take the initiative.

Pep also promoted Pedro from the B team to the first team. He needed him for his style of play, a winger who ran into space but who understood the need to give his all at
all times, both in training and during matches. Pedro’s parents, as Pep often reminds people, had a petrol station in Tenerife and they could rarely see their son play because they
didn’t have a television in the shop. At the beginning of the summer, Pedro was preparing to go out on loan, but a player who had his feet planted firmly on the ground suited Pep’s
vision perfectly.

Pedro was moved to the first team alongside Sergio Busquets, another footballer who had shown in the B team the previous season that he had intelligence, focus and a fundamental understanding of
his role as a central midfielder. For Pep, it also helped that he didn’t have a ridiculous haircut or tattoos – and the new first team coach believed that ‘Busi’ would at
some point prove to have the character to continue in Xavi’s and Puyol’s footsteps as captain of the team.