football test

Soon, the radical change at Barcelona will take place. If not all the fans, at least the Majority will give Laporta a standing Ovation for being the most successful president in the clubs history. He may not even need it, as the records tell the whole story. No doubt that Pep and Frank, the two coaches of Laporta era will be hailed as the geniuses of the decade. They might not need it though, as the records tell the whole story. The board of Directors members can always say:”we were there”. But the only person who may end up under the unfairness guillotine will be: Txiki Begiristain.

There are many reasons for that. First there is his unromantic experience with the Popular Sandro Rosell. There is also the idea that perfection is possible in building a squad. All the players we get must be Ronaldinhos. Then there are the fantasy expectations of the fans who want each and every big name in the game to join the team free of charge without destabilizing the club policy to count on youth. Analyze that!

In my opinion, if there is a person to get the credit for rebuilding Barcelona squad, it has to be the sport director. He is the common factor in all the changing environments. He was there with and after Rosell, he was there before and after Frank/Pep and he was there before and after all the changes that took place on the managerial level with board members quitting and new ones taking place. Between 2003 and 2010 the club achieved enough titles to fill Oprah Winfrey closets. So there is no roam to doubt the quality of the team Txiki contributed in reforming. The most illusional belief is that we overspent on amateurs. Numbers talk like no philosopher, let’s see the spendings per year and how it turned to be:

When Laporta and Rosell started their first election campaign (Txiki was not an executive back then), The big name they promised to bring was David Beckham. Rosell –who was on the driving seat in that transfer process- claimed that he is 80% certain that Beckham will play for Barcelona.It ended up that 20%>80%. Not only that, but the football model ended up playing for Madrid. There has to be a plan B, and sadly they had no other choice but to sign Ronaldinho after winning the elections and hiring Txiki as a sports director. Make no mistake, signing Ronaldinho was a board achievement more than having anything to do with Txiki. But it had to do with Perez more than anything else. If Perez would have failed to get the English guy, Barcelona wouldn’t have been the club it turned to be.

The first two years, 2003-2005 Rosell (vice-president of sports) and Txiki (The sports director) shared the responsibility of the buying decisions. There were big achievements on that level, but there were also a Ricardo Quaresma € 6.350.000 (2003-2004), and Maxi López € 6.500.000 (2004-2005).

Santiago Ezquerro for free from Athletic Bilbao €0 he was a very decent player at Bilbao. Ended up being a squad player with his contribution being limited in some rare appearances. He failed to compete with Ronaldinho for a starting role!

Mark van Bommel PSV Eindhoven € 0 . We sold him one year later for 6000.000 to Bayern. He made a decent contribution during his one year spell at Barcelona. Especially when we had injury crises in the holding midfielder position.

All in all two squad players earning us 6 Millions transfer return in 12 months. Again, we are dealing with the ecconomic factor here. The quality of the squad with its starters and depth is proved by the number of titles won.

Lilian Thuram Juventus € 5.000.000

Gianluca Zambrotta Juventus € 14.000.000

Eidur Gudjohnsen bought from Chelsea for € 12.000.000

Lilian Thuram: we bought him as one of the best Center backs at that time. He made some decent contribution without being a starting option. For the price paid he served every Euro creating sufficient quality and experienced depth.

Gianluca Zambrotta was labeled then as the best Right/left fullback in the world. He didn’t meet the expectations basically because we had two offense oriented fullbacks on the two flanks, which exposed his major weakness: Defensive cover. We sold him to Milan when he got a bit older for € 8.500.000. All in all, for 5.500.000 (the difference between buying and selling) he was a notable upgrade offense wise for the right fullback position.

Eidur Gudjohnsen bought to cover Larsson departure. We didn’t really have better options to seek back then, and he was a surprising signing. He was an assists machine at Chelsea. People can say whatever they want about his less-sexy football style, but he was an extremely professional player who was there whenever the coaches needed him (Pep convinced him to stay when he started his coaching adventure at Barcelona). An example of dedicated squad player that we still feel the space he left after his departure (lack of depth), and it will keep being the case till the new youth midfielders step up their game a bit more.

May not be the most impressive transfer period, as the players bought didn’t meet the expectations. But no one can argue that all the buyings were based on reasonable logic.

Thierry Henry € 24.000.000

Gabriel Milito € 20.000.000

Éric Abidal € 15.000.000

Yaya Touré € 12.000.000

José Manuel Pinto € 500.000

I don’t think there will be any doubt on Henry, Yaya, and Abidal contribution on the club success. Pinto performance in CDR last season made the price we paid worth. Gabriel Milito was the second option after Chivu salary demands blew his transfer to Barcelona and later Madrid. He had a commanding presence in defense till he got injured. Now he is doing his comeback. The highest transfer was Henry, but compare it to that’s of Daren Bent move to Totenhamm for around 19 M that season, who ended up scoring 8 goals in 35 appearances. If you evaluate the current market value of all the players, it will be more than just an even bargain. I believe 2007-2008 was a very successful year for Txiki, regarding transfer operations.

Henrique € 8.000.000 .

Gerard Piqué € 5.000.000

Dani Alves € 34.250.000

Martín Cáceres € 16.500.000

Aliaksandr Hleb € 15.000.000

Seydou Keita € 14.000.000

One of the most contreversial transfer periods during Txiki era. But strangely it was a good period as well. First lets sort out the numbers right. Did we waste lot of money in this period?

We bought Henrique for 8000.000 and earned back 400000 from Bayern Leverkusen after one year loan. The most pessimistic prediction is that we can sell him now for at least 4000.000. Let’s be more pessimists and say that we will lose 4000000 in this one. Noting that I believe Henrique would have been a great squad defender. He can play almost anywhere in defense creating the depth we need. But we will admit defeat and say: 4000000 loss.

We bought Caceres for 16.500.000. And Caceres is not “No body”. He was one of the best discoveries of 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and he is an automatic starter for Uruguay's senior team, one of the best teams in South America. He can also play everywhere in defense. May be, that’s the reason why Juventus buying option in his loan contract includes 11000,000 Euros plus 1 million euro variables. That’s a loss of around 5000.000 Euros if Juventus activated this condition. If not, then we need to wait and see.

Aliaksandr Hleb we bought for a very reasonable price. I believe he could have done better, but shits happen. Basically he was Pep signing. And more or less, we can get back the money we paid for him. We already secured 2000000 from Stuttgart for the loan deal and at least we can expect 10 millions more. I want to be very harsh on Txiki and say, we lost 5 millions in this deal.

Alves: Worth every Euro. Period.

Pique: We bought for 5 million facing no competition for his signature, even though Manchester tried to make a late attempt to renew his contract. How much does he worth now? Is it safe to say 25 millions? More? Let’s not be greedy.

Keita: we bought for 14 millions (we paid his buying out clause as Sevilla were not willing to let him go for anything less). How much does he worth now? Will anyone at Barcelona switch him for the 30 millions Xabi Alonso? I wouldn’t.

Put the losses –harshly-predicted in one hand, and the earnings in the other and do your calculations. We brought quality and generated profit (assits value). Noting that it was the year where we won everything. So no one can complain that Txiki damaged the quality of the squad.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic € 48.000.000 Plus Samuel Eto'o

Maxwell € 4.500.000

Keirrison  € 14.000.000

Chegrnskiy € 25.000.000

It’s too early to evaluate this year as we need to wait and see how things will turn to be. Maxwell in my opinion was a steal for that amount of money. Ask any Inter Milan fan about it. Keirrison can bring you back the amount you paid (between initial price and variables) if the club decided to sell him now. I don’t understand how people already label him as a failure. When Puyol was kicking his way in football the board took a decision to loan him out to Malaga. If he wouldn’t have refused, we wouldn’t have had this great captain in our disposal. Alves was not exactly the best fullback in the world the first year he signed for Sevilla. I can keep pointing out names forever. There was obviously no room for both Bojan and Keirrison in the squad this season. Too early to tell how things will end up, but this guy does not lack quality.

Chegrnskiy was simply Pep project. Txiki was clearly against this transfer especially after the wealthy owner of Shakhtar made it clear that he is not inneed for money nor he is interested in offloading his player. Only 25 M was the answer, Txiki refused, Pep insisted, Laporta took his coach side and the sale went through. Regardless how far the player will prove his price, no one can accuse Txiki for not being reasonable in his opinion.

Ibrahimovic Case

We move to the most notable transfer: Ibra. First, let’s not start the same endless debate: Ibra Vs Eto’o. Especially that it has nothing to do with this topic. Pep wanted a new striker. You can agree with him or say he was wrong. That’s a Pep thing. Txiki in return had to meet his coach demands. He didn’t commit a foul doing so. Did we overpay to get Ibra?

There were two options: Ibra, and Villa. Based on Pep demands since the first day he was hired as a coach, it’s easy to tell who his first option was. But let’s put this aside and discuss the financial side of the process. The negotiations started with Inter almost before the end of last season, then there was that meeting between Moratti and Laporta. Nothing certain popped out.

Then the negotiations to get Villa took the lead. There were numerous attempts that ended up to one conclusion: Nothing less than 55 M. Take it or leave it! That was Valencia final words.

That was the exact moment when Laporta and Txiki took their plane to Milan, finishing a deal of 46 M plus Eto’o for Ibra. But wasn’t that deal more expensive than the 55M demanded by Valencia? Not really!

Here we evaluate the two options:

Option One: Villa:

Buying Villa for 55 Millions solve one side of the problem. We got our new striker. But there is another more complicated side: Offloading Eto’o. I know…I know…Why not keeping them both? In short, Pep didn’t want to, and I agree on that. So it’s not a Txiki thing. People can blow Eto’o market value as far as they want. But there is one clear fact: We didn’t get ANY offer. Manchester City was rumored as a buying option, but Eto’o refused even to discuss the Idea. All the big teams had their own key strikers already. Milan were the only big team with no big name leading their offense, but they made it clear that they got their man (Ronaldinho) and that they can’t afford getting Eto’o. Our negotiation situation would have been even weaker if we do not offload Eto’o before signing a new striker. We will be more in need to sell him, and the potential buyers will know that. The most likely situation: Eto’o staying while the other clubs waiting few months before negotiating with him to get him for free. This means that we will have a striker we do not need and whom we will have to pay 10 M for him in the following year. In the year of world cup, I can imagine Eto’o impact on the dressing room if he doesn’t play on regular basis. We can’t even play him less than his contract dictates as well (there is a minimum number of games condition in the last contract he signed for the club). In brief: Chaos!

Option Two: Ibra:

The moment Villa price popped over 55 M, Ibra (Even for 55 + Eto’o) became a more appreciated option. Regardless of all the chaos mentioned above, Buying Villa for 55 M means that we may end up paying 10 additional millions for Eto’o as an annual salary or even more to terminate his contract (even after moving to Inter, he is demanding 3 M, so Imagine the worst scenario). While Buying Ibra saves the millions we had to pay for Eto'o and it solve the two faces of the problem coin in the same glance: Buying a new striker and offloading the unneeded one (according to Pep).

Was it a great deal for Inter? Yes. But who said that there is nothing called a win-win deal in business. This one was a perfect demonstration.

To evaluate Txiki performance as a Sport director, we need to balance Spending Vs results. Or maybe it’s a better idea to have a look how Barcelona transfers were before Tikxi:

One year earlier 2002-2003, the transfer activities were a bit slow (the financial and managerial crises might have something to do with it), we signed:
Robert Enke € 0
Sergi Atlético Madrid€ 0
Juan Román Riquelme Boca Juniors€ 10.000.000
Loaned Mendieta for 1500.000.

But make no mistake, in 2001-2002 we were wild enough to sign (92.100.000):

Fábio Rochemback € 9.000.000

Patrik Andersson € 8.000.000

Javier Saviola River Plate € 35.900.000

Geovanni Cruzeiro € 21.000.000

Philipe Christanval Monaco € 17.000.000

Roberto BonanoRiver Plate€ 1.200.000

One year earlier 2000-2001 we were not less forward and this is the list of our great hunts (99.500.000):

Marc OvermarsArsenal€ 40.000.000

Richard DutruelCelta de Vigo€ 4.000.000

GérardValencia€ 24.000.000

AlfonsoReal Betis€ 16.500.000

Emmanuel Petit Arsenal € 15.000.000

The further you go, the more you can understand why the club dived deep in debt, and performance.We needed a new generation of administrators and a shrewd sports director to put the train back on track. Barcelona now is the best team in the world. you won't achieve that having just an ordinary executive engineering your squad.

N.B. For more info about transfer history of the club I recommend this link.

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?

Topic: Barcelona Elections 2010

Title: Marquez, Ibrahimovic, or Chegrnskiy? Part one

By: Ramzi

The following few months will announce a farewell. Laporta will no more be the president of this club. You can complain about his political obsession during his presidential period (or periods). You may not miss the concerning stress you felt every time you knew that he will have a speech or an interview, as he is not exactly the one who only say it right. But without any doubts, he stamped his name for being the most successful president in the history of this club. Some may envy him for being “Just an extremely lucky dude” who's presidential period concurred with one of the most successful cycles in this club history. Needless to say that I don’t agree on that, But to keep it short as it’s not our topic today, Laporta as a man destined to success is no different from any other successful leader. If you really believe that men* create history, then think again. That’s just one face of the truth coin. In fact, events create men who make history. It requires specific yeast of men who have the right sensors to seize the moment and make that first step forward. From there on, he just have to keep pulling the strings wisely and take the right decisions (tough ones most of the time) to extend his successful era as far as he can.

Elections are always tricky. Creating the right election campaign is one of the most complicated strategies to set. Any wrong step is irreversible. Moreover, trying to set an election campaign for a successful club is more delicate than planning a strategy to become the president of a club in Crises. To become a president of a club in crises it’s enough to claim you will do the opposite of whatever the present board did. That will guarantee you the emotionally terrified votes that represent the annoyed majority at any club facing crises. But what will your elections kit be when you seek to take over after Laporta Reign? That’s why this election will be a very interesting process to follow. The candidates could be classified in three main categories:

Marquez

The contract extension of Marquez raised lot of eyebrows. There is no doubt that Marquez is a quality defender. His attributes fit Barcelona football style like a glove. He is the defender who set offense throw initiating the first pass forward. He signed during the period of total reengineering and contributed successfully in rebalancing the mess Barcelona Backline suffered for years. He was there during all the glory moments during Laporta era, and he understands the club philosophy well. But still, how smart was it to continue with the same player who is not getting younger while there are a host of center defenders who can carry the flag –better? - for the present and the future of the team? Is there a sense of security in keeping the ones who proved being reliable rather than gambling with someone new? Is it just an extension motivated by the sense of gratitude toward a player who served the team during the ups and downs?

In fact that’s the same question that must be asked when a candidate considers himself as “The candidate of continuity”. In that matter, he is trying to label himself as being “The Secure tested option”. Or even “The one you owe too much to NOT elect” so you have no choice but to be fair and elect him or else you show no gratitude. Regardless of the quality of the guy, I won’t elect him if I will have to vote. First, because continuity in management is the norm regardless of who takeover. You have to expect it from anyone who will be the next president of Barcelona to continue from where the previous one ended. Fix the defects and build on the success. I don’t even understand why being loyal to Laporta and not letting him down in the moment of crises makes you a good presidential candidate. If last summer vote of no confidence fulfilled its objectives, Ferran Soriano and may be Marc Ingla would have been the best continuity candidates in the Laportism Campaign for the following elections only for proving loyalty after Sandro Rosell resignation in 2005. Now they are considered as the Bad guys.

If there was any possibility for Laporta to stay for another period, I would have been –against my natural instinct that demand change- very tempted to keep him in place. Who blames me? I like the club we have at the moment. But now that Laporta is leaving, I want to see a New president taking place, not a Laporta boy. In fact I don’t want Laporta to be any close to the board of directors neither in person nor through his ghosts and angels.

Being a current board member must not be an advantage or a disadvantage. I was one of those who are demanding a new president who is loyal to the same model that proved success during Laporta Era. But not to the extent that I’ve noticed so far. There are no clear projects. No clear Ideas or tempting programs. I started to doubt if those who are representing the continuity are actually aware of what they are going to continue. If so far they failed to unite under one candidate then at least one of the two candidates is not right (regarding continuity). If both candidates are seeking Laporta blesses then the continuity is not related to the model that’s independent of any individual, but the continuity of a brotherhood. Brotherhoods dictate commitments that I don’t want the new board of directors to bow under. Laporta's great era must not crown him as a godfather for the following board of directors.

They started their campaigns by reconciling their defeat. If they will not unite under one candidate them none of them will have a solid ground to seek support. And after the whole mess between the board members, if they agreed on one candidate, I will keep wondering if they united under the successful model they want to keep in place, or they had to unite against Rosell just to keep him out of space. And what’s next? Another clash after winning the elections?

So far this category of candidates is doomed to failure unless if something exceptional happens. Something like being the less worse? This will not be promising, or pleasant.

How about Ibra and Chegrnskiy? We leave that for another day.