Apprentice Guardiola: Rijkaard, You're Fired!

As the fate of FC Barcelona rests in the hands of Pep Guardiola, the young apprentice from the youth team, La Liga Review ponders the lessons that need to be learned by a Barcelona board that claims to be willing to accept responsibility for having failed, yet forces the individual who they let down the most, Frank Rijkaard, to pay the price with his job.

Mea Culpa said Laporta.

And then he sacked Frank Rijkaard.

In fact, it's a bit like that moment in the BBC series The Apprentice when some egoistical, arrogant, entrepreneurial wannabe says ' I'm willing to put my hands up and take the blame' ; then, when they realise that the axe is about to fall and they are being blamed, begins flailing around blaming everyone else within pointing distance as they desperately try and avoid the chop.

It was, and always has been, Frank Rijkaard's job to manage and coach the players he has at his disposal: to get the best out of them and to cajole them in to working as an effective unit.

When Barcelona won two back to back league titles and the Champions league, the side were without doubt the best that European football had seen for some time.

When things started to go wrong, the warning signs were loud and clear and coming from several quarters within the dressing room - and the message was always the same: there were too many egos who had become complacent, who were no longer working for the team and - crucially - had lost that hunger for success.

Eto'o said 'there are players in this dressing room who don’t even train', Edmilson talked of 'black sheep', Giuly - after he left - said that the 'players had become complacent and no longer worked for each other. Xavi Hernandez told me, in an interview, that 'there are players here who thought that they just had to cross that white line and that we would keep winning. There are players here who would die for this club, but there are some who aren't prepared to fight for the cause'.

It was, and never had been, Frank's job to ship those players out, that was the job of the hugely inexperienced sporting director and the board. The only football man on the board (Sandro Rosell), and the brains behind that wonderful team of 2006 had left the club.

The board and president, however, were enjoying their five minutes in the sunshine, they had formed alliances with players in the team who had brought them so much success; they were eternally grateful to these players and it was party time in Barcelona. Sure, they were no longer as successful, but in the eyes of the star struck fans on the board, it was a temporary dip in form.

As a result, when Rijkaard needed those players removed and new blood brought in, the board failed him. Ronaldinho was not sold, Deco was not sold. Then, when lean and hungry players needed to be brought in , more egos were thrown in to the mix by a board that forgot the fundamental principles that had brought them so much glory.

The board, and the sporting director, failed Frank Rijkaard. The coach had to continue working with a dressing room that was no longer working.

In the final analysis, last night, Laporta admitted that the reasons that the team had failed were primarily because he and his board had not acted sooner, they had not listen to the cacophony of advice that there were egos that needed getting rid of - and fast. A blind eye had been turned to the tales of player's lifestyles that were only Athletic when the sun went down.

This does not mean that La Liga Review backs the ridiculous motion of censure that is being instigated against Laporta at this very moment - undoubtedly by the same sector of support that tried to oust Laporta the week after winning the Champions League.

The Laporta regime performed miracles in turning the club around from the dire situation it had been floundering in under Joan Gaspart. The average Barcelona fan has an incredibly short memory, and what has been achieved by the current regime at the club should not be forgotten: but nor should Frank Rijkaard's achievements.

And now it's the turn of the Apprentice, the prodigal son, Pep Guardiola's turn to suffer the slings and arrows of an outrageously fickle footballing fortune. It’s a big step up for 'the Boy from Santpedor' who started out chasing stray footballs as a ball boy at the Camp Nou, and now finds himself chasing stray footballers from the various nocturnal haunts of the Catalan capital.

It remains to be seen whether or not his lack of experience is a handicap to success, but one thing is certain: the club will not succeed unless those responsible for the failings of the last two seasons are willing to accept responsibility and learn from their mistakes.

Guardiola's choice of number two is absolutely vital. Judging by Henk Ten Cate's ferocious demeanour as he looked on, appalled, at the 4-1 hammering at the Bernabeu from the safety of the Sky sports studios in London, Its probably safest for the players that he does not return to the club where he so ably assisted Rijkaard: they'd still be wiping the blood off the dressing room walls well after the start of next season.

And just as important is the role of the board and sporting director. Guardiola needs to be given players who are as lean and hungry as the emerging talents who joined the club back in 2004, and he needs the ability to remove those same talents when they become bloated and complacent.

Comments

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Rijkaard should go for the Chelsea job. Its available Rijkaard. Go and grab it. Barcelona should have gone for Murinho instead of Gaurdiola.