Bayern humiliation confirms that Barcelona are not the greatest club team of all time
There has been a growing consensus over
the last few years that the current Barca are the best in history but
Carlo Garganese disagrees following Wednesday's thumping
COMMENTBy Carlo Garganese
"Barcelona are the greatest team of all time."
Marcello
Lippi, Sir Alex Ferguson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ronald Koeman are just
a handful of the prestigious names to proclaim that the current
Barcelona are the best we have ever seen.
Many of the
superlatives that have been showered on the four-time European champions
over the last few years are richly deserved. There is no doubt that the
Blaugrana have been among the finest in history, inspired by
the incomparable Lionel Messi and two iconic midfielders in Xavi and
Andres Iniesta, but some of the flattery is short-sighted and ignores
the past. An ignorance that is worth highlighting following Barcelona's
second successive Champions League semi-final exit, to Bayern Munich on
Wednesday, a crushing 7-0 aggregate defeat which probably signals the
end of the Catalans' period of dominance.
Comparing teams from
different eras is always a thankless task. Football has altered and
evolved immeasurably in the last few decades. Modifications such as the
backpass and offside rule have created more attacking football, whereas
the introduction of synthetic footballs, stricter referees and the
multi-ball system have spawned a completely different environment.
Improvements
in technology, training and medicine (as well as the destruction of
blood bags!) mean that footballers will continue to get faster, fitter
and stronger, but that doesn't mean today's players are better. It just
makes them more suitable to their surroundings.
THE GREATEST EVER
European Cup wins by golden generations |
 |
| R.Madrid '56-60 |
 |
| Ajax '71-73 |
|
| Bayern '74-76 |
|
| Liverpool '77-81 |
|
| Milan '89-94 |
|
| Benfica '61-68 |
|
| Inter '64-65 |
|
| Milan '03-07 |
|
| Barca '08-13 |
|
The definition of greatness is open to debate. Is it all
about success? Argentina's 1986 World Cup winning coach Carlos Bilardo,
who was notorious for his win at all costs ideology, remarked: "Football
is played to win. You have to be first. Second is no good, second is a
failure."
If this is true, then the current Barcelona cannot be
considered the greatest club team of all time. At least on a continental
level. Taking the appointment of Pep Guardiola as coach in 2008 as the
starting point of this Barca cycle, the
Blaugrana have since won two Champions Leagues in five seasons, reaching the semi-final in the other three campaigns.
Barcelona
failed to defend a European Cup crown like the last team to do so in
1990, the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi. If we prolong that
Rossoneri
generation to include the first spell of Sacchi's successor, Fabio
Capello, then Milan actually captured three European Cups in five years,
and made the final five times between 1989 and 1995. Far more
impressive numbers than today's Barcelona.
Alfredo Di Stefano's
Real Madrid lifted the first five European Cups, Johan Cruyff inspired
Ajax to three successive trophies in the 1970s before Franz Beckenbauer
immediately did the same for Bayern Munich. Eusebio's Benfica progressed
to five showpieces in eight years (winning two) in the 1960s, Helenio
Herrera's Inter retained their title in 1965, while Bob Paisley's
Liverpool won the European Cup on three occasions between 1977 and 1981.
All these teams achieved more in Europe's elite competition than the
current Barcelona. As did, arguably, Carlo Ancelotti's AC Milan, who
reached three finals in five seasons in the mid-noughties – claiming
two. Were we to expand this discussion to South America, one could also
consider Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup protagonists from
the 1960s like the Santos of Pele and Penarol of Alberto Spencer.
Of
course, domestic success is relevant too, but with the exception of the
Sacchi and Ancelotti Milan sides, all of the above generations
dominated their local leagues – just as Barcelona have in capturing
every La Liga title bar one since 2008-09.
Arsene Wenger would
argue that greatness should be measured aesthetically. "The teams that
remain in history are the ones that had style in their play, not just
the ones that won trophies," the Arsenal manager stressed in 2003. Some
of the most beautiful outfits failed gloriously – Hungary 1954,
Netherlands 1974 and Brazil 1982 are three international examples – yet
their legacies are legendary.
There is a split in opinion over
just how entertaining Barca have been – detractors considering them
incomplete and occasionally sterile - but what isn’t in doubt is that no
team has ever monopolised possession like Xavi, Messi & Co. The
collective brand of one-touch
tiki-taka passing is completely
unique and their pressing high up the pitch equally revolutionary. This
prompted Sacchi to concede that Guardiola’s Barcelona had marked
football’s first tactical development since his Milan retained the
European Cup in 1990.
"Football is played to win. You have to be first. Second is no good, second is a failure"
- Carlos Bilardo
|
 |
But does this development make Barcelona the greatest club
team of all-time? Not in this writer's view. There have been tactical
innovations throughout history – from the W-M to the 4-2-4 to the 3-5-2 –
and only last week former Italy star Gianluca Vialli proclaimed that
Champions League finalists Bayern Munich and Dortmund were taking
football into a new era where fitness and pressing supersedes possession
and passing. Has the antidote to Barcelona's ground-breaking bane
already been found?
What certainly must be taken into account is
the strength of competition during any given period of dominance. Real
Madrid’s five successive titles were attained when the European Cup was a
fledgling tournament and some European leagues were still
semi-professional or regional, including Germany's. But the eras of
Benfica, Inter, Ajax, Bayern, Liverpool and the two Milans were all at
least comparable to the current age - certainly in terms of competition -
with the latter two undoubtedly stronger.
Dominance | Barca never retained the Champions League like Sacchi's Milan did
Barcelona's
epoch would see European football monopolised by just a handful of
rich, elite clubs. There have been few rivals for Barca both
domestically and on the continent, and we currently live in an age where
defences and defenders are at their weakest for half a century. Would
Messi have scored 73 goals in one season back in 1989-90? No chance.
With
the exception of Benfica, Ancelotti's Milan and perhaps Madrid, every
other protagonist referenced dominated when their domestic league was
not only the best in Europe, but also fiercely competitive. Just
qualifying for the European Cup was a huge achievement with only the
league winner granted access, even if the tournament itself was less
gruelling than the current format.
Ultimately, Barcelona have not
done enough to be ranked above the likes of Sacchi's Milan and Cruyff's
Ajax. Up to 10 sides were more successful at the highest level of club
competition, despite the current era being far from super-competitive.
Barcelona's beauty and legacy are insufficient. The Spaniards needed to
retain the Champions League at the very least and ideally win three or
four finals in total to close the argument.
This is unlikely to happen now following their humiliating loss to Bayern. With
Carles
Puyol and Xavi hitting their mid-thirties, Victor Valdes leaving and
stars like Dani Alves and David Villa past their peak, we have surely
already seen the best of this Barcelona golden generation. ------------------------ goal.com
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