Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography (48 page)

In Perarnau’s fascinating book
The Champions Path
, Laureano explains how he introduced the drills known as ‘
rondos
’ (a form of
piggy-in-the-middle, also known as Toros) that would encapsulate and instil the essence of a club philosophy still practised by the kids at La Masía endlessly, even today: ‘No one else
did it in Spain, it was the fruit of hours and hours of reflecting about football. I started with 3 against 2. I saw that way two of the three moved wide and there was always one free. I thought,
why not do 4 against 2? Or 9 against 3?’

The Barça of the 1970s had an English trainer, Vic Buckingham, who asked the president Agustí Montal to close the academy and invest the money in buying top-class players for the
first team. Thankfully, Montal refused, so Laureano Ruíz persisted with the idea of organising and establishing a unique style of play and a common methodology throughout the club.

When Johan Cruyff said, just after becoming manager of Barcelona in 1988, ‘This is what we are going to do: the ball will be the starting point, I want to dominate possession and I will
always go out to win, which means it forces my players to conquer the ball, to have it and not lose possession of it’, it sounded familiar to those at La Masía because they had heard
Laureano saying similar things twenty-six years earlier. Despite the fact that all big clubs are under pressure to win and prioritise the short-term goals over long-term gain, those ideas
didn’t fall on deaf ears.

Cruyff had become synonymous with ‘Total Football’, the playing style honed by Ajax coach Rinus Michels, who also went on to coach Johan at Barcelona. It is a system whereby a player
who moves out of his position is replaced by another, thus allowing the team to retain their intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no footballer is fixed in his intended outfield
role; anyone can move seamlessly between playing as an attacker, a midfielder and a defender all in the same game. As a player, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the
European press that he had chosen Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose
a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. And in 1974, just to seal the deal, Cruyff helped the club win La Liga for the first time
in fourteen years, defeating Real Madrid along the
way in an historic 5–0 victory at the Bernabéu that is still remembered as one of Barcelona’s best ever performances. Needless to say, he had enough credit and charisma to ensure
there was little resistance to his Total Football vision when he landed the job of manager in 1988.

‘The biggest problem was the Catalan character and when you try to do something new, they always have doubts: they prefer to wait and see how it goes,’ says Johan Cruyff who today
understands better than most the conservative and pessimistic mentality of the Catalans. He also knew that once they were convinced (by the team’s continuity and success) those same people
would also become the most loyal disciples of his ideas.

Cruyff introduced some passing drills into Barça’s ‘arterial’ system. And since then, the
rondos
have been not just a method but a symbol of the club’s
playing style: of dominating possession and never losing the ball. Cruyff blended several ideas and concepts and converted them into a philosophy – the seeds of which were planted throughout
a club in urgent need of a footballing identity. Until then, the first team of Barcelona had been comfortably living in a world of excuses and enemies, content with their role as victims when faced
with Real Madrid, an institution seen from Catalonia as the club of the Establishment.

Xavi Hernández describes the style in its purest form: ‘I pass the ball and move, or I pass the ball and stay where I am. I make myself available to help you; I look at you, I stop,
I keep my head up and look, and, above all, I open up the pitch. Whoever has the ball is running play. That comes from the school of Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola. This is Barça.’ Or,
as Pep Guardiola put it succinctly in a press conference after one of the impressive victories against Real Madrid: ‘I have the ball, I pass the ball; I have the ball, I pass the ball. We
have the ball, we pass the ball.’ T-shirts bearing that slogan can be seen in the streets of Barcelona.

Having the ball required technical ability, being able to control it quickly and place it well (the difference between a good and bad footballer, according to Cruyff, is how well you control the
ball and where you place it with your first touch, accommodating it for
yourself in the right direction or sending it accurately to your team-mate). It needed players who were
able to be in the best positions to receive the ball, capable of constantly assisting, of one-twos, of keeping their heads up, of looking for the next pass before receiving, of anticipating play.
But, more importantly, they had to be footballers capable of understanding the game. If they had a brain, Cruyff was able to explain to them not just how but why things were done. From the moment
the Dutch coach had an influence on the work and methods of the academy, there was a definitive change in the selection process of young players.

‘Why do we open up the field?’ Cruyff would explain. ‘Because if we have the ball and we are open, it is more difficult for the opponent to defend.’ Or: ‘People
criticised me because I played with three at the back, but those criticisms were really ridiculous: what we did was fill the zones on the field where the game required it. If the opponent played
with two up front, which was common then, and my team went out with four defenders, I had one too many, so I moved him forward towards the midfield.’ Or even: ‘There are people that say
it is very dangerous to have a corner against you. I think that the solution is not to give the corner away.’ Sublime common sense.

Cruyff demanded changes at the academy and La Masía began regularly producing the players he wanted as well as providing the kids with a sound education, dual ambitions of the Dutch coach
and the club. ‘The player who has come through La Masía has something different from the rest, it’s a plus that only comes from having competed in a Barcelona shirt from the time
you were a child,’ says Guardiola. He is talking not only about the understanding of the game and their ability, but about human qualities. The players who go through La Masía are
taught to behave with civility and humility. The theory being that, not only is it pleasant to be unassuming, but also if you are humble, you are capable of learning – and the capacity to
learn is the capacity to improve. If you aren’t capable of learning you won’t improve.

Since his arrival, Johan had tried and succeeded in convincing the club to train all the junior teams in the same way as the first eleven – and to favour talent over physique. Naturally,
there were remnants of
the traditional way of perceiving youth football and occasionally old habits persisted: ‘Little by little’ – said Cruyff –
‘we tried to change things. In the junior categories we wanted to mould the player. You must know what his strengths and weaknesses are, work on them and correct them. Depending on how you
progress, you could start your time at the club playing in one position and end up in another. The most important thing is being prepared to make the jump, understanding the game. Halfway through
this process that was transforming the club, Pep appeared before us.’ Cruyff called him up to the first team.

Pep, Xavi, Puyol and Messi: they all know there is a reputation to live up to, an extremely high standard of expectations to meet and an institution, a nation even, that they represent. And from
the moment they walk through those doors, even the very youngest players are constantly reminded of that. When they travel to another city, when they are taken for dinner, when they go for a walk
as a group, the kids are told to be respectful and have good manners every single day. Guardiola summed up those principles for the B team players when he delivered his introductory speech at the
Mini Estadi: ‘I like to win. I like to train, but above all, I want to teach people to compete representing universal values: values based on respect and education. Giving everything while
competing with dignity is a victory, whatever the scoreline suggests.’

Four wonderful years in which FC Barcelona has become a reference point for world football: 3 Liga titles, 2 Champions League, 2 Copa del Rey, 3 Spanish Super Cup, 2 European
Super Cup and 2 World Club Championships are testament to one of the greatest football teams of all time.

2008–9 Season: Liga, Copa and Champions League

2008–9 was the greatest season in Barcelona’s history. Guardiola’s team won the Copa, Liga and Champions League in an impeccable year full of celebrations and
memorable moments. It was the first treble of the twenty-first century in Europe. Highlights included the 2-6 scoreline against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, the 5,000th goal thanks to Leo
Messi and the unforgettable ‘Iniestazo’ goal at Stamford Bridge.

2009–10 Season: Liga, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, World Club Champions

The treble-winning season continued into the 2009–10 season, in which FC Barcelona lifted four more trophies: the Liga title, the Spanish and European Super Cups and the
first World Club Championship in history. The highlight was the team achieving ninety-nine points in the league.

2010–11 Season: Liga, Champions League and Spanish Super Cup

Barça overcame the adversities encountered that season and ended up lifting three trophies, earned through hard work and good play. The team became European Champions in
magnificent style and three-time Liga winners. Highlights were the second Ballon d’Or for Leo Messi and the 5-0 win over Mourinho’s Madrid in the Camp Nou.