football test

Topic: Barcelona Elections 2010

Title: Marquez, Ibrahimovic, or Chegrnskiy? Part Two

By: Ramzi

As we mentioned in the first part, this election will be the outcome of little details. It’s a matter of how every candidate will play his cards. When we talk about elections’ cards, we mean creating cards and planning the right strategy to use them. Anything can help or damage, depending on who use/misuse/abuse it.

In that matter, was it important for Laporta campaign to make a big signing last summer to generate more votes in the following elections? Was it important to send a message to the voters that “We can also sign big players”? How far will Ibrahimovic signing serve the current board candidate?

One of the noisiest debates last summer was the tale of Eto’o, One of the best performers in the past decade for Barcelona. Should he go, or should he stay?

In general, Eto’o fans had a solid case to defend. Why fixing it if it aint broken? He proved his worth season after another game in game out. He knows the system and he ticks within. A guaranteed option that we must not consider a liability till he become one. Why taking the risk of importing a new striker who may do miracles or may flop while you can simply keep the one you have at home?

The other campaign was arguing that after all the years where Barcelona counted on Eto’o upfront; there is a need for something different. Something refreshing. Someone with new ideas, style and options. Eto’o delivered everything he has. We are grateful, but he will not offer anything better.

Eto’o out, Ibrahimovic in, and the season Kicks off. The rules are simple: If Ibra failed this season, the board can run but can’t hide. The opposing candidates –even those who wouldn’t have sign Eto’o in the first place- will start lecturing how naïve the current board is, Leading to cast doubts on the board members quality to make the right decisions. The big signing will backfire against the board candidate.

If Ibra does well, the current board campaign will start gloating about it. Another hard decision taken that lead to excellence, added to a series of decisions taken in the past few years –some against Rosell will- and proved vital for this team to succeed.

So far, nothing new, and nothing really big. In fact most readers doubt already that Ibra will have any impact in the following elections. But that’s where the hidden stitch hides.

If Ibra fails, Rosell and Co may or may not use that for their favor. But if Ibra does a brilliant work then –opposing the spontaneous logic- Rosell can take ibra success as a solid demonstration to prove that change is a need. He can even use Ibra nose as a logo for his campaign. Ibra may become Rosell prototype. The board candidates promoted the idea that the current model is clicking perfectly, so there is no need to change. But so was Eto’o. Changing an established option was risky when we offloaded Eto’o for Ibra. But it proved being the right thing to do (Again, assuming that Ibra did well). And if Pep “Feelings” played a role in this matter, then it will be easy to tempt the voters “feelings” to clone Pep. Will Sandro use this card? I don’t know. It’s his elections’ team who has to pick the winning cards for him. If they pick this one, it will turn to be a master strike, as it will undress the board candidates from their most tempting argument.

Ironically Ibra will become Sandro, and Laporta will discover too late that while bringing the Swede home he didn’t notice who was riding his shoulders.

Yet, we didn’t change Eto’o for just any striker available. We picked the most reliable option available. How far Sandro is an Ibrahimovic in that matter?

I used to be a committed fan for Sandro when he was still serving in the board. The guy is intelligent, he speaks many languages and he has a huge database of contacts. Then the clash of egos between him and Laporta came up to surface and from there on, I got less and less excited about the guy reasoning.

It’s true that he was involved in the radical U-turn the club made from declination to progress. But almost everything he opposed afterward proved being right and everything he did was passive. He wanted to sack Rijkaard after few months from hiring him. He wanted Scolari instead. He wanted Adriano instead of Eto’o. One of our worst problem before Laporta was changing coaches. It was as easy as changing socks. A sack per socks. Judging Sandro based on his reaction the moment this club got in a mess raise lot of concerns in that matter. We saw how stability brings success regardless if the option in hand is the best available in a specific moment or not. And this club history (and even the history of the rivals) shows how changing coaches not only cause more chaos than it fix, but also cause radical damage not only in the first team but down all the way through the youth teams as well.

Rosell had a good chance to win me over last summer (it’s not that he is not sleeping at night because I question his qualities). There was a big mess causing the Vote of no confidence campaign. I don’t want to go as far as accusing Sandro of being responsible about it. I will not say he was the inspiration leading to it. And I will not even accuse him that he supported it behind the scene. That campaign was against the club benefit in every way. If he would have announced that he has nothing to do with it and that he doesn’t support it. If he would have clarified that even though he doesn’t agree with the current board regarding the way they are running the club, he feels it’s the right thing for this board to finish their reign. If he argued that a failure in a year or even two is not a reason to turn the table. If he had done all that, we wouldn’t be talking about elections now. Sandro would have been the unique candidate. Not only he would have been crowned as a new president, but he would have protected his presidential period if things went wrong one year or two. No one will have the face to plan a no confidence campaign against him in that case. But he was in a hurry. The taste of revenge was still on his lips when he took positions last summer. And he ended up being the one who is only seeking to kick Laporta out from the backdoor and take power instead, regardless of the club interests. Because it didn’t work, we won everything possible the following year that turned to be the best in the club history. Instead of raising his chin high now saying that his position last summer when he put the club benefit over his personal interest played a major role in this success, he has to deal with the current board success as an election challenge. He failed again to prove being strategic, which is a must for the position he is seeking in this election.

So far, it’s impossible to know if Sandro will be a good president for Barca or not. That’s if we put all the hype aside. On the good side, he will be the most motivated man to beat Laporta success. That’s an important factor that will drive him to do his best. But can he take the right decisions to do so? I don’t know. I believe on the business side and mainly marketing side he will most probably do a better job. I even think the current board were not effective enough in that manner. It’s true that the club image enhanced big time, so as the fans database. But compared to the success the football team achieved during Laporta era I can safely say things could have been done better. Yet, on the sport level, if we take his history in consideration, whenever he had a different opinion to that’s of Laporta and his gang, he was on the wrong side.

His election program is yet to be known. So far he is –intelligently- getting advantage of the mess in the opposing campaign. Winning election points for free. Aside of that, he just countered some of the successful decisions made by the current board in an attempt to contain it so it doesn’t generate points for his opponents. For example, Txiki, supported by Laporta, made an adventurous decision hiring Pep. It proved being a genius decision (at least weighing it by its output). Sandro –who I can safely say wouldn’t have hired Pep in the first place- responded that he wants to give Pep the ultimate power if he got elected. I have my saying regarding the sports director position, but I wonder on what bases did Sandro leaned taking this decision – beside his old complains about Txiki. When Sandro was the Vice president of Barcelona he got involved in signing players based on board decisions, not coach decisions. Some of his supporters even claim that he single handed brought Ronaldinho. And it’s not that Pep already proved an exceptional quality picking the right players for the team. The only player he demanded last season was Hleb and we know how it went. This season it was Chegrnskiy who is yet to prove his worth.

We need to wait for a month or two till Sandro start revealing his plans. And I hope that he surprise us with something special. Regardless of the fact that Election promises and plans have nothing to do with what will actually happen after winning the elections, but at least it will give us a base to stand on when we monitor his performance as a president latter on. For having the best chance to win it, I hope he works well on his campaign as we need our elections to be based on programs, not on speeches. For being such a powerful guy and such an intelligent person, I hope he learned the lessons of the past while planning the future. I wish if he get elected that he succeed in outshining Laporta Success by achieving much more for this club. Isn’t that what we are all looking for?