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..
"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 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.

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