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The lungs of the Dream Team and Rijkaard’s right hand man

Eusebio Sacristán is back at the club where he has already enjoyed two golden eras, first as a player under Johan Cruyff and later as an assistant coach to Frank Rijkaard.

The romance between Barça and Eusebio dates back to 1988, when Barça signed this young midfielder born in La Seca (Valladolid) from Atlético Madrid. His pleasant nature and humility quickly won over the Camp Nou, where Johan Cruyff made good use of his skill, regularity and versatility.

403 games and loads of titles
In his seven seasons in the Barça first team, Eusebio Sacristán played 403 games and scored 39 goals. His major successes with the Dream Team were four Ligas, one European Cup, one European Supercup, one Cup Winners Cup, one Copa de Rey and three Spanish Supercups. And it was he who was on the receiving end of the foul that would then be converted by Koeman to win the European final at Wembley.

Back as coach
Eusebio ended his playing career at Valladolid and then became a coach. He was an assistant to Frank Rijkaard for the five seasons the Dutchman was at the club (2003-2008). Yet more titles came: two more Ligas, another Champions League, this time in Paris, and two Spanish Supercups.

Manager of Celta and Barça TV presenter
When Rijkaard left, Eusebio went on to become head coach of Celta in 2009, where he stayed for a season and a half in the second division and made a name for himself by promoting several young players from the Galician outfit’s youth system. He then worked as a commentator on Barça TV. And now he back in active football as manager of the B team. 

 

 

Three years of the Guardiola era

 

 

This Friday is the third anniversary of Josep Guardiola’s presentation as first team manager. On June 17, 2008, a project began that has gone on to make history.

“I cannot promise titles, but I am sure the people will be proud of us”. Those were the words of a young coach of just 37 years, who had just taken Barça B up to Division 2B. He had achieved everything as a player, but was only just starting out as a professional coach. It was Josep Guardiola, but three years after pronouncing those words, he has achieved recognition as the architect of the best Barça team ever, and one of the best teams ever to grace the football world.

Sala París was the place where Guardiola told the press and fans about his ambitions. Despite his modesty, he said his desire was to build a winning club, and that he was convinced of his possibilities. “I feel strong and ready, if not, I wouldn’t be here. I have no fear and the challenge doesn’t frighten me. We know it won’t be easy, but I’ll persist”.

Guardiola said little about techniques or tactics, limiting himself to saying “the most important thing is to win and all styles are good for winning. I know what style I want and want to transmit. I’m a fan of attacking football because of the way I was trained and I believe a lot in talent in hard work.” He certainly managed to keep his word.

Guardiola promised no titles, just work, commitment and dedication. Neither did he ask for patience, because he knows Barcelona is a team where the players and coaches are judged on results. He didn’t need to. The team responded to perfection by winning a historic treble in his first year and going on to shine in the most brilliant period in club history.  

Agreement with Eusebio Sacristán to coach Barça B

 

 

 

 FC Barcelona has announced that it has reached an agreement with Eusebio Sacristán to coach Barça B. The agreement is for one season (2011-2012) with the option to one more.

Eusebio will sign his contract and then be presented as the new manager of Barça B over the coming days

 

Rosell keen to avoid

transfer talk

 

President Sandro Rosell has asked for discretion regarding possible new signings. Looking back at the season, he highlighted the 5-0 win over Madrid, the triumph at Wembley and the recovery of Abidal.

After making his institutional statement, Sandro Rosell turned to sporting issues. “It is an honour to be president of the club. Especially now, after the most titles ever in a year in club history.” Asked what he’ll remember most, Rosell said “the 5-0 win over Madrid that was seen around the world, the win at Wembley, because it was our fourth European Cup, and when Abidal played again at the Camp Nou”.

He also said that the hardest decision was that to sell Ibrahimovic. “It was very difficult, but I don’t doubt that it was a great decision.” As for self-criticism, he remarked that “the pending issue is probably improving communication. We’ll work on it. We have done a lot of things until now but perhaps we should have spent more time explaining them … I also made a big mistake by holding a charity sweepstake”.

Transfer talk
But the pressmen were hungry for information about potential new inclusions in the first teams. “It is not in our interest to talk too much about signings” he insisted, but despite calls for discretion, he could not prevent the name of Cesc Fabregas coming up yet again. “Who wouldn’t want to come to Barça? I suppose Cesc wants to, like most people, but I don’t what’ll happen. If he is interested, then we will act rationally. We aren’t going to go pushing the boat out too far.” In his opinion, the Arsenal midfielder is worth “less than 40 million.”

As for how much the club might spend on new players, Rosell said “the ideal thing would be too observe the business plan, which is to put aside 45 million a year plus sales. If that’s not enough to give the coaches what they want, we can advance some of the money budgeted for the following year”. He also insisted that the young players groomed at La Masia will only leave “on loan or with an option to repurchase”.

Austerity and competitiveness
He also spoke about the adjustments to the budget to be invested in other sports teams. “Their competitiveness will not be affected” he said. “Prices are only rising in football, in the elite, because of the influence of teams like Chelsea and Manchester City. There is deflation in other sports and we know that through good management we can build teams that are just as, if not more, competitive on a lower budget. Because our competitors will have to reduce their budgets even more”.

“We had a debt of 532 million and the fiscal year will close with one of 483. Reducing the debt by 50 million and still producing sporting excellence is not easy. We have shown that you can be austere and still be very competitive” he said with pride, and thanked his directors for helping to do that. “Our work will involve thinking about the club in general, and it is already in a better state than how we found it. And we will do that through decisions that the people won’t always understand”. 

 

 

Rosell: “We hope common sense will prevail

Speaking to the media today, the president of FC Barcelona explained that he had waited before responding to the many accusations this season due to “social and sporting responsibility”. 

After Sandro Rosell had read out the FC Barcelona institutional statement, he answered questions about the different accusations against the club over the season. He revealed that it was for reasons of social responsibility that he had not spoken about these things earlier.

Doing what’s right
He said that the Board had preferred not to interrupt the good performances by the different teams that were heading for so many titles. “Anything that wasn’t in the script could have affected what our teams were doing … Events have shown that we did the right thing. It was right to make this statement today”.

Relations with Real Madrid
Rosell hopes that none of the accusations against FC Barcelona this season will ever be repeated again, for that could lead to the severing of all relations with Real Madrid. He said that “there is nothing in life that can’t be sorted out” and that relations with the all-whites “will get closer and better. The Barça values include human quality and this always offers a second chance. And we want to give it a second chance”.

As for Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, Rosell does not think he was the main man behind what went on, but “got dragged into it … but he is still the leading figure at his club”.

Dignified behaviour
The Barça president said that from now on he expects what is famously known in Catalan as ‘seny’ to govern the way the institutions behave. He admitted that this has been an uncomfortable year, and that “we are sports people and in sport you can always win or lose but always within the boundaries of the field of play.” However “I had to explain what has happened … I hope it never happens again. And if it never happens again, we’ll have achieved our objective.”.

Standing by Guardiola
Asked for his reaction to the comments by Madrid manager José Mourinho about the doubts surrounding the way Barcelona had won certain titles, Rosell said “if a high executive or employee of Barça had done what Mourinho did, he would get a warning”. The president agreed with what Guardiola said before the Champions League first leg against Madrid and said it was something he would rather not talk about. “Everybody has their area of action and we are now speaking as an institution. At that time, Pep was speaking as one coach to another”.

Rosell also denied that he had failed to protect his first team coach properly. “Barça was always behind him. We have done more than we have spoken about, we did a lot”.  

Institutional statement by FC Barcelona

Below we reproduce in its entirety the institutional statement made by FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell before the press.

"FC Barcelona is coming to the end of what is already the best sports season in its history, thanks to the 15 titles won by our teams, with its methods being praised and admired around the world.

The football first team has won the league championship for the third year in a row and the fourth European Cup is now in the Museum. After overcoming all kinds of difficulties, Barça has been rewarded in wonderful fashion, in the form of titles and global recognition of its unique approach to football.

Despite the many provocations received, we decided to stay loyal to two convictions: that above all we had to protect the sporting interests of the team and that we had to comply with our social responsibilities as the representatives of almost 180,000 members. Our hearts wanted something else, but our honour and integrity led us to opt for prudence. We were provoked, but we stayed calm. And so did our members and fans. And I would like to thank you for such exemplary behaviour.

Now we are enjoying the fruits of that. Once again, football has put everybody in their place. The display at Wembley was the most powerful response to the attacks on FC Barcelona this season. Our team has come to be admired and recognised everywhere for its marvellous football and the values that represent and define our institution. And the values we represent include dignity and honour. Because there have situations that must not be repeated in the future.

I would like to speak in the name of all Barça fans that have felt assaulted or damaged by the serious accusations and slander that has been directed at our Club of late. Premeditated accusations with only one objective: to achieve off the pitch what could not be achieved on it. Accusations that certain media have manipulated without any sign of rigour or scruples.

Given all the above, in the name of FC Barcelona, I wish to express the following:

1. Clubs have a social responsibility that we must assume and respect above any rivalry. We are entrusted with many collective desires. We set an example for the behaviour of many millions of people, especially children. In our case, moreover, we are aware that we represent the feelings of a large number of a people. And we consider that this season Real Madrid has gone beyond all the limits of necessary sporting rivalry, with its totally unfounded accusations against our Club.

2. It wanted to justify our team’s extraordinary sporting performances with pathetic accusations against our doctors and players regarding the use of drugs. We defended ourselves, and went to court to deny the accusations made by Cadena COPE, who repeatedly gave the name of Real Madrid as the source and origin of the information. I can assure you that if anybody, in the name of FC Barcelona, had dared to make such an accusation, we would have acted firmly, denying this immediately and taking those responsible to court. We would have liked a similar response from Real Madrid, but sadly we never got one.

3. Comments by the protagonists have always served to enrich footballing debate. But this season a Real Madrid employee, its coach, also went beyond all the limits of necessary sporting rivalry. He even went as far as to say that our coach should feel ashamed of some of our victories. The press conference given by the Real Madrid coach after the first leg of the Champions League semi finals at the Bernabéu would certainly have made any sportsperson feel ashamed. He accused our Club of having won titles thanks to some kind of national and international conspiracy, implicating in this conspiracy the good name of Unicef and the football authorities. We obviously defended ourselves, by presenting a formal complaint to UEFA, who finally decided to exert their authority and penalise him.

4. Surprisingly, Real Madrid’s response to our legitimate right to defend our honour was a formal complaint against eight of our players, who they accused of unsportsmanlike and even racist behaviour to try to get them suspended for the return leg. We also defended ourselves and Real Madrid did not get their way, as UEFA twice rejected their accusations.

5. The rivalry will continue next season, but we cannot allow the limits of fair play to be passed again. Because football deserves fair competition and FC Barcelona will do all it can to protect it. If we can, we shall return to the corresponding courts and sporting authorities. However, nobody should expect us to go as far as certain behaviours. Our values, which we teach the youngsters at the Masia, and which we have defended and respected for decades, do not allow that.

6. Our social responsibility towards millions of football fans requires us to maintain certain standards. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona both have more than one hundred years of history, with a huge level of commitment to their members, fans and society, and are obliged to work together in certain affairs. However, if the limits of fair play are passed once again, we shall be obliged to end our institutional relations, something we have absolutely no desire to do. We do not want to do that, but we are not afraid of doing it if we have to.

7. A few days ago, the president of Real Madrid said he will not stop until they win “the tenth”. We hope he tries to do that on the field of play, in a sportsmanlike fashion and returning to the methods that, we feel, many Madrid fans prefer. The president of Real Madrid has the opportunity to revive our relations, both on and off the field. Football, which tends to give back what you give it, will be the major beneficiary.

By means of this institutional statement, FC Barcelona wishes to put an end to this lamentable episode, which we hope will never be repeated again, for the good of football, of sport and of all of us that love it."


Sandro Rosell i Feliu
President FC Barcelona