These first few days of July marks a new era for Catalan side, FC Barcelona. Sandro Rosell has taken over democratically from the 30th of June as a result of its club elections making way at the expense of Joan Laporta who served for two terms, eight years in total.
Honorary club president, the great and legendary Dutchman, Johan Cruyff has revealed the changeover will not be easy along with a few other events these past weeks.
Alongside the World Cup being played in South Africa. Firstly, that Brazil under Dunga is not attacking-minded and will not win the World Cup. Also, on Chile he says they have taken over the label of 'entertainers', as Holland were in the 1970's.
Below is an extract from Barça football magazine to coincide with football and identity, how important it is:
It was the number 14 of the Oranje and under Michels was Barça's 9 in La Liga of 73/74. He returned to invent the Dream Team and become champion of Europe on the 20th of May 1992. They were the years we decided to win without saying sorry, even if it was in the last second of the last minute of the championship. The flying Dutchman, the coach of Wembley talks about football because he talks about Barça.
Barça has its own style of play?
Yes. That identifies the greatest of teams. In the case of Barcelona, this seal is inseparable in the liking of technique and the risk of playing attacking football. To achieve it, a determined type of player is needed because not everybody fits in. Football players are what the people want to see and that the public may dream of with a concrete style of football.
The sign when one is great is when, from the outside, one identifies easily with the football proposed?
That is a way of explaining it. In fact, this seal does not come from nothing. It isn't an attribute made only in a day or coming from the day before. The seal functions when the whole world recognises it, when everybody attaches it to your name. The reference comes from the permanent decision for a certain type of football. It can nearly be referred to as a brand. It is like when you go to a supermarket. There is always a brand that you like more and you buy it and others you leave in the shelves.
What has conditioned this azulgrana seal in the practice of football?
The obsession to finding the effective combination between beautiful play (jogo bonito) and results. Everything is worked around this.
Is it possible to find that balance, between beautiful football and results?
They are two ideas that go hand-in-hand. The result always comes at the end of the season. The game play and the joy - that are more sustained-, come from August to June. One thing cannot be understood without another but be careful, it is not precise that each season one wins three, or four titles at that. No, because it just cannot be.
If there is football and precisely no results, what needs to be done?
In this situation, for example, there has to be a measure of the admiration into how good football awakens amongst younger players and knowing that it is a good investment. It is an engine that generates adhesions. Football has to convince the mass of aficionados and titles need to fall through because if not, an era cannot be marked.
This question intuited a more direct Cruyff, with less shades.
It is important that things are explained this way or else people will say "Cruyff said that results are not important", and we would have already rolled. It is clear that they are decisive. One cannot always play to service fantasies and that others win. However if the only objective is a title, we are not going well either.
The people of the Camp Nou will never accept a long season of bad football to then later say, "well, we won a title!" That is why it is so complicated to find a balance to protecting the football brand. It is also true that it is complication what drives you to admiration. We need to work hard to be admired.
What other clubs have their own brand?
Ajax, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, in Germany Bayern Munich.... they all have their own way to play. These football expositions and setups coincide with the character or the mentality with each of the places.
Is there a link between football and cultural elements?
Yes and I suppose that that does not surprise. It is very easy to find the differences between English and Italian football and exactly the same with German, Spanish or Dutch football. Each setup coincides with the character of its people. Normally the public is whom orders because they impose the game play you need to do.
Within a same country there can also be great differences between two teams. In Holland, if you look at the football in two of the most important cities like Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and I am not referring to today but rather in the last fifty years, one finds completely different setups.
The difference is too huge because the difference in the vibe, the atmosphere and the way the cities lay themselves out are also very huge. It is played differently because the people, the public are different.
How are we? How are the fans of Barça?
Very demanding. The people always want that the team is done well. That is radically different to what occurs say, for example on the pitch in Liverpool. Over there whom has control over the player is the atmosphere, the ambiance and the crowd.
In Barcelona, this does not occur, and for example, in Ajax of Amsterdam neither. In the Camp Nou it is the team that has to create enthusiasm and motivate its crowd. It is opposite case to what occurs elsewhere.
Does a Barça player feel and notice it? Does he suffer?
For Barça it is very, but very difficult to overcome this factor. In the matches one plays badly - something inevitable - the crowd would have to enter the match and assume an active role. Normally that does not happen.
Can this way of being be modified?
No, in the measure that we are talking about cultural factors. Look at the public, in its members that fill up the stands at the Camp Nou. Look at the way people dress. In Barcelona, people dress up well to go to the matches. In Liverpool on the other hand, everybody wears a red jersey and everybody is near the team. This is not a minor detail. They are cultures and they need to be accepted, above all, it is necessary to adapt.
Not everybody is sufficiently flexible.
Agreed, however what cannot be done is to be change the whole public. It would be like changing a club entirely. When I was here, those who signed realised that the club signed what the people, its fans wanted. I am not talking about a name, no. I am talking about a way of playing. Like it or not, you play for the crowd.
The stadium is reaching its 50th anniversary, what is the Camp Nou like?
For a player from abroad it is impressive. We used to use this emotional factor many times. We used to use it to our favour. Think about coming out of the corridors, underground onto the pitch with the lights shining is impacting. It is one of the advantages of playing here. At the same though, it is also a luxury and if you have not managed to correctly put your emotions to it, it may play against you as it may stimulate the opposition. It is luxury to perform in a theatre so important which such force, with such strength.
And for the players of Barça?
The stadium can get to their nerves. Especially for those who belong here, because they know what it represents for Barcelona and Catalunya. It is a weight. Taking it on board is difficult. There are many cases of people who simply have not been able to accept it nor known to carry it. They do not end up understanding it, and it doesn't sink in. For this reason there are many who fail.
Talking about the year '73. Your debut in La Liga was against a fighting Granada side. 4-0 to start off with. Did pressure not affect Cruyff?
Ajax was champion of Europe and played the best club football in the world. Therefore I arrived here with that seal and that admiration. I knew what it was to perform in big atmospheres under huge crowds. That motivated me.
And on the bench was Rinus Michels.
That was fortunate. Two years it had been since Michels worked here and already had things well paved. The only thing missing were the pieces in the puzzle. In that team, there were players that were able to take the crowd into delirium and like I was saying before, assure a result. It was a Barca that was made to do these things.
Still to this very day, goalkeeper Sadurní remembers what was known as la Filarmónica.
Yes, yes from the outside that was how we were seen. The crowd saw and felt it like that. This is the difference with other teams. We gained that plus factor of respect.
Cruyff returned to Barça in '88 to sit on the managerial bench.
I returned as manager. I knew things would go well if I took advantage of all the previous gained experience.
Barça signed Koeman and Stoichkov. In the Bulgarian's case, what did you see? The guarantee of a goalscorer or the daring of a brave man?
Completely lonely, without nobody else by his side. Hristo was able to face up to pressure. That is why people identified themselves with him. When he did a sprint or fought for a ball, the crowd roared. It is an understanding with those up in the stands that must always be searched for.
Later Laudrup also arrived, who was refined, more educated if one prefers. The key was that everybody had their role and that by quality, everyone connected with the style, taste and demand of the fans.
Saying this does not leave a good impression but, the stamping on a referee, which is a censured act, was it the announcement to a change in character? Was it the warning sign waiting to occur in the number of Ligas won by running, sprinting?
Look, I understand the reflection. If the studying or acknowledgment of Catalunya's past or the reality of Catalunya as a collective, one would realise that many times it has been impotent, above all under external pressures. Under this note, a player arrived with such bravery and with a direct, face-to-face approach. This character finally made us decide amongst ourselves for ourselves.
You arrive and learn how to be here, its culture and its mysteries. Do you identify yourself with them? Seems logical.
It is. And these elements, this history, these conditions as a coach, when you are a coach one still carries with more strength. Now talking strictly on football as a platform for everything, there is a moment in which one finds a very strong component and it is when deciding what to buy, what football player needs to be brought to play here.
It is when you find yourself deciding how he will find us. You decide on the details, the conditions on the exposition of Barça to the world. I mean, how we demonstrate ourselves and how we are seen. The football showcase says a lot, and looking back it can be said that in our case it did not fare bad after all.
Can one triumph at Barça without understanding it?
Hombre, it is very difficult! As a matter of fact, if it is for a year or two, still. A couple of seasons does not fall short of little time and to play, knowing everything is not needed. However, if you want to be many years or if you want to end up coaching then, yes. When you are the coach, you represent the club around the world and you need to know what you represent. If you do not know you may commit a colossal mistake.
With Cruyff the first European Cup was won. Without knowing what Barça is, would you have succeeded?
There is one thing common amongst all sports. You maybe very good yet that is not enough if you do not reach and demonstrate your potential one day where winning makes it visible. Therefore, it was necessary to win the first and I was completely conscious of it. From then on, there could be many more but the first one is always like a wall. It is a high and you have it in front of you. You need to jump over it, you need to better it, surpass it.
When you have done it once, you can then jump the walls you wish and the way you want to. The moment you win the first one, that certain level of mental inferiority disappears because you have won. Are there people who have more? No need to worry. When you can win your second, you shall.
Now after a year from Paris. When you won the Liga of '74, people stopped you on the street and instead of congratulating you, they gave you thanks. Do we lack patience today?
Football has changed. The quality possessed today strengthens expectations, and when you already know what winning means, you want to win more. There is also the issue of the media. During press conferences everybody speaks and, if we are clear, there are those who talk or don't know much or don't know anything.
It is like talking for the sake of talking that never ends and this is where the problem eradicates, generating an unpleasant living between the people, the members and frequently, people believe such things it is a given that people work hard, focusing on their issues and priorities and doesn't have a need to know what is true or not.
In addition, television programs tend to attract large audiences and in order to maintain that, there is a need to have determined components. To understand us, there is a constant search for any drama or dilemma. It is like if they were at a bar yet that to the club causes damage.
The crowd at the Camp Nou, has more patience than the surroundings, the circle?
Yes but that crowd, that public always reacts around that circle. Whilst they talk, you are winning, all is easy. However, repeating things by force according to whatever, in the end seems to be the truth. If you fall, things complicate and generate unnecessary fear. Imaginate the energy one dedicates to surpass unnecessary situations. By all means, to play here you need to be strong to overcome them.
Translation into English done by myself, Daniel Campos.
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