Pep Guardiola, the greatest manager of all time, won 1 Champions League at Manchester City in 10 years despite all the resources. Didn’t win once at Bayern.
Sir Alex Ferguson won 2 CL in 22 years at Man United.
Only 4 managers have won the UCL for Barcelona in the 70-year competition history. Three of those managers had the greatest player of all time in the squad. The other one was great but, like almost every other CL winners, needed a huge amount of luck. He then got to another final two years later and lost 4-0 to an inferior team. But we still love him because he embodied what the club stood for.
Fell out with the club and was sacked, mostly because they got spoiled. 1 La Liga title in 14 years, then he came and won 4 La Liga in a row, won the club’s first ever CL, playing unique football. They got spoiled. “Tired of La Liga.” The club won zero La Liga in 13 years, he came as a player, and won their first Liga in 14 years. 14 years later, the club could only win one La Liga, until he came again as coach to win four in a row (the only time Barça won four in a row).
I’m echoing it, because something similar is happening now. The club has a philosophy that sadly isn’t built for these huge knockout competitions. These competitions can have one-off swings based on luck, refereeing, etc. We should always go for it, make little tweaks, but don’t damage the club’s philosophy for too much pragmatism. The club don’t even know how to be pragmatic so it’s even less likely we will win the CL playing that way. This is not 2009 anymore, you hardly can “control” a game just because you want to, against big teams with sophisticated aggressive pressing tactics. This is why most teams play the 4-2-3-1, to be more direct, rotational, and physical. Play your way, and win your way if possible.
And most importantly, if Barça don’t win the CL it shouldn’t be used to render the entire season a failure. It’s the manner of competitiveness from the team that matters. The CL is not our birthright. The team is still way more immature than other big teams. In terms of maturity we’re not even top 5, so this whole CL craze is baffling to me. Barça only has its football. It’s usually not enough. We just have to keep on supporting the team and hope that football will wins, whilst understanding that it doesn’t always win.
Burna Boy commented under my video congratulations him for presenting an Award at the Ballon D’or ceremony. Thank you for making Nigeria proud @burnaboy ❤️🦍