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May 25th 2012 will be the final day of the Pep Guardiola
era in Barcelona after he announced he would be leaving at the end of the
season. Part of me wants to be mad a Guardiola. First, it feels like a
premature decision as the Pep Guardiola cycle had at least one or two more
seasons to offer great football. And
second, the team has proven to be repellent to entitlement, which is the common
demise of winning teams.
But I cannot be mad at Guardiola; in fact, I think no fan has the
right to be. This is a coach that gave everything he had to offer to the team
and felt he could no longer do so. He knows he has enough credit at Camp Nou to
have just a decent season but he chose to step away. I respect that.
Guardiola will be remembered by common fans for the titles he won in
his four years tenure at Barcelona. But those of us who have a keen eye for the
game, and those of us that have seen the team before his arrival will
appreciate more than that. Guardiola changed not only the mentality of the team
but also the idiosyncrasy of the Barcelona fans. The new Barcelona fan is
humble and yet elitist. We cannot settle for the 1-0 movie where we score and
defend the result. Instead, we demand a 3-0 ballet where we dominate the game
from beginning to end. We can no longer drink the 2-0 beer where we win by 2
counter attacks. We demand the champagne that is the 2-0 victory with a 70%
possession.
The Barca fans are no longer scared of big matches. We salivate at
the very thought of them. Back in the day, a victory over Real Madrid at the
Bernabeu was almost more important than winning La Liga because they were
almost utopian. However, Guardiola proved that you have to be brave at these
matches. Brave and respectful. This is a coach that never underestimated a
single team and in the time of victory never made fun of their defeated rivals.
Looking at his legacy at Camp Nou one has to understand that there
is nothing original about Pep Guardiola style in Barcelona. However, that is precisely
the point. He consolidated a philosophy that has been present for years. He grabbed
the legacy of Cruyff, Rexach, and Rijkaard and took it to the next level. He
took a beautiful idea and made it the club’s s identity at last. We now have a
consolidated model and it is the responsibility of the president, the
directors, and Tito Villanova (Barcelona’s new coach) to keep this model, run with it and make it evolve.
Pep’s team will be remembered as the best football team of all
times, I have no doubt about it. Some teams may win a lot of titles like Inter Milan
did 2 years ago. Some teams may play very well like Athletic Bilbao does; and
some teams may have some epic results like Bayern Munich has this season. But
the combination of all these is something we will not see in a long time. Add
to that the consistency his team had and that’s almost impossible to replicate
what Pep did.
So long Pep Guardiola and thank you for the best four years of our
Barca life.
