Spanish Debate: Guardiola's Uphill Struggle

While all is quiet on the Barcelona managerial front at present, few can have forgotten that Pep Guardiola is said to be the heir-apparent for the hotseat. At the very least, it's expected that the former midfielder will take on the assistant's role, but the number one spot is by no means out of the question.

Some members of the board are apparently so serious about the 37-year-old's prospects that they have called upon him to submit a report indicating the main changes he'd make as boss, and this he has done. As Goal.com reported earlier in the week, the major alterations would be related to the following:

1) The professionalism of the team
2) The conduct of the medical services
3) With the preparation for the team's physical style of play.

None of these three things are exactly earth-shattering, but some would argue that they are absolutely vital. But it's worth examining each in turn and discussing whether or not they're significant enough to make a difference.

Triumvirate

The first point is a no-brainer. Barcelona, despite their status as one of the biggest and richest sporting organisations in the world, do not have professionalism at all levels of the club. While the youth and commercial aspects of the club are great, the first team, in many ways, leaves something to be desired.

Guardiola has no doubt looked up from the lowly ranks of the 'B' team at some of the rampant primadonna-ism that goes on and thought to himself, "That's not right." He'd be correct. Too many players - a small minority, but even that is too many - have become seaprated from the squad at large in every sense.

Training is the obvious example. Ronaldinho has apparently spent the best part of the year sauntering in and out as he pleases - slight exaggeration, maybe, but you get the point - while a couple of other players are said to have followed suit. No doubt a new boss, one with a blank slate of reputation to work with, would seek to turn that around instantly.

What's more, Guardiola is apparently eager to build a real team spirit not just on the training pitch, but off it, too. Perhaps learning from his time in Italy with Brescia and Roma, he is said to be a supporter of communal meals, communal travel, and spending the best part of a working day together as a squad. It's not quite "the team that drinks together, wins together," but it's certainly more about forging a group ethos than it is 25 individual personalities.

As for the medical services, his plan is a good deal more detailed than "make it work better," although that must have been the first thing he jotted down and underlined three times. It's clear that this, like training, needs some work, and as such Guardiola would like to see a directorship created solely for this area, and no doubt the doctors given more free reign to diagnose and treat effectively, rather than play politics and cover up matters that the club may want to keep hushed up.

On a similar note, Guardiola sees physical preparation as vital. This ties in greatly with the above two - hard, yet balanced physical preparation, coupled with care not to overexert certain squad members in first-team games, can prevent injury later in the season, with Lionel Messi said to be a victim of a lack of foresight this year. But it also has other ramifications. Guardiola is said to advocate a reduction in the commercial touring of summer - while it may be a money-spinner for the club to jet around the world for exhibition matches, it can cost them on the pitch.

Again, then, it's clear that Guardiola has some fine ideas. But it's not quite as simple as all that.

Same Old, Same Old

But while these ideas are all well and good on the surface, I can't help but feel a nagging sense of doubt. For one thing, they're all a bit too squeaky-clean - a bit desperate. This sort of thing should be obvious for almost any boss at the top level, and the idea that it needs to be pointed out to a room full of directors, many of whom are already aware of the fact, seems very strange.

That, however, is not so much down to Guardiola. He clearly feels that it is needed to state the obvious, to go back to basics, to get some bloody work done. If nobody at the club is willing to drum that into the players' heads at the moment, then he will be the one to remind them.

Yet it's all been done before. If you think last summer to the "Ten Commandments" of president Joan Laporta, it was all about professionalism, teamwork, bootstraps and gumption back then. Exactly where has it got the club? Well, barring the prospect of Champions League success, it's got them to the exact same place as last year: a season of disappointment and regret.

It could be, though, that Guardiola's changes would come off the back of an actual, serious devotion towards changing the club's ethos. The clear-out is likely to begin at the player level, and maybe even continued above. Thus even if Pep doesn't take the manager's job, it's likely that he'll be involved somewhere along the line, not only with his own ideas, but a new group to impress them upon. As such, his three points may be less something to strive for, and more a genuine symbol of intent. That's something that Barça have lacked for too long.

And if it takes a reserve team boss to step up and say what needs to be said, then he deserves encouragement from those around him.


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