The High Price of Happiness

Pep Guardiola has always been a fan of rather short squads. He believes that smaller groups of players bond better than larger ones. He reasons that in a small squad everybody gets the chance to play and every player feel he’s important. There is merit in this philosophy. After all, this all comes down to one word: control. A smaller squad allows the coach to have better control. Happy players don’t go around the media revealing secrets that belong in the locker room. Happy players don’t complain their lack of participation in public.

But all of this makes sense when your squad is healthy. When you have your 19 players or so available every week. The moment you start to have multiple players injured, or even worse, players of the same position injured then this approach becomes highly risky. This is precisely the problem Barcelona faces this season.

Guardiola has Villa, Afellay, Fontas, Iniesta, and Pedro injured (the first three severely). On top of that, Keita is out for international duty with Mali. In total, there are only 14 members of the first squad available. Luckily Barcelona is not afraid of calling their junior divisions to the plate, and these kids have been fed the Barcelona style of playing from a very young age so they know how the team operates.

But, should this be the solution? Is it too much to ask to these kids? We don’t want another Bojan scenario to happen. He was the top scorer of all time in Barcelona junior divisions and he was called up to the first team when they needed him at the precarious age of 16. Sure, he answered the call and scored important goals. But I think it is safe to say that, in the long run, that move caused more damage to his career than benefits.

Youngsters need time to develop properly and not all of them can be Messi. Take Iniesta for example. He became part of the main squad in 2003 at almost 20 years of age. But it wasn’t until 2008 where he became a starter. Kids like Tello, Sergi Roberto, and Gerard Deulofeu need time and not too much pressure.

Guardiola clearly doesn’t want another case of Martin Caceres, Hleb or even Bojan. Players who grew frustrated due to their lack of playing time and ended in a bitter farewell from the club. Pep wants his team happy but happiness, unfortunately, can be very expensive at times.