Speaking in an interview with ‘El Mundo’, Barça legend Johan Cruyff didn’t beat around the bush concerning what he believes the club should do to get back on track. The best thing for Barça would be for Guardiola to come back. He’s a wonderful coach and there’s no one better. If Joan Laporta became president again, I’d tell him that the best thing he could do is sign Pep and, as an intelligent person, I’m sure he would”.
Cruyff was scathing in his criticism of the current regime: “People who don’t know what they’re doing are making the decisions. The coach isn’t calling the shots and footballing considerations aren’t taking precedence. Instead, people who want to take advantage of football to do business are calling the shots”.
As for Leo Messi, the Dutchman noted that “Not so long ago everyone said that Messi was the best in the world and now, after being knocked out of the Champions League, people are questioning his value. Barcelona have a structural problem. The president wants to be the coach and manager”.
Cruyff was firm in his backing for Laporta: “When Laporta was president, he let the people who knew football get on with it – first Txiki and Rijkaard and then Pep. Anyone can make mistakes, but they knew football and made their decisions based on that, while Laporta stuck to being the president and protecting them. That’s why it worked. There were ups and downs, but generally speaking it was a fantastic period, both because of the trophies they won and because of the football Barça played”.
