Article: Josep Guardiola’s greatest achievement: Barça B (Part 1/4)

This is the first part of four that I wrote for @Footballcantera about Josep Guardiolas first season coaching as he took over Barça B in 2007.

A couple of weeks ago it became clear that Europe’s most wanted coach, Josep Guardiola will coach Bayern Munich next season. Guardiola has had his share of fans as well as his critics. According to some he is the best coach in the world, to others he didn’t have to do anything at Barça to achieve success, his players did it for him. During his four years coaching FC Barcelona, Guardiola would win 14 trophies. Some say he never had to make hard decisions, he’d never been really challenged. It’s easy to win titles if you have the best team in the world at your disposal.

But what if you are in charge of a fourth division team lacking desire, a team without a soul, without a future. That’s how Barça B was described in 2007, the year Guardiola became their coach.

“What Pep did with Barça B is still of greater merit than what he did later with the first team” – It’s the words of Juanma Lillo former coach and considered as Guardiola’s mentor.

Juanma Lillo speaks the truth, however not many really know the story of what Pep did and what he achieved his first year coaching in charge of a fourth division team. Because even if Josep Guardiola would come to win fourteen trophies and become the most wanted coach in Europe, it’s a story that shows his talents coach. I will try to take you through it in a series of four parts.

– The begging for a ticking time bomb
– The letting go and building of a team
– The rules
– The success