From 4-1 To 6-2: A Tale Of Transformation And Transgression Of Two Clubs, One Spanish The Other Catalan

The 6-2 drubbing of Real Madrid on Saturday confirmed the disastrous season that 2008-2009 has been for the Blancos. From the failed wild Cristiano Ronaldo chase to the sacking of the coach who had comfortably led them to the title the previous season to the acrimonious resignation of the president due to allegations of vote-rigging to suffering yet another premature UEFA Champions League exit, it was a catastrophic season for the world's biggest club. And, to put it ridiculously, the icing on the cake was the clasico humiliation.

Just over a year ago the situation with FC Barcelona was not too different. They had just endured their second successive trophy-barren season. Their coach had been found out when it came to tactics and his reliability on his former assistant Henk Ten Cate became all too apparent. Their best player had been spending more time in the gym than in the club's training sessions, their best striker had been picking up fights and picking up injuries and their best young player was having another bout of muscular problems. And, to put it ridiculously (again), the icing on the cake was that pasillo, that guard of honour that every Blaugrana have had to live for a year. And of course, that 4-1 humiliation at the Bernabeu that made 2007-2008 all the more agonizing for Catalunya.

Since then, though, it's been a tale of transformation and redemption and transgression: transformation and redemption for Barcelona, transgression for Real Madrid. While Barcelona have looked deep inside themselves, have covered up the holes and taken some concrete measures and sustained discipline, Real Madrid have gone berserk, jumping from one branch of crisis to another.

The Catalan Club

Barcelona president Joan Laporta brought on a new coach who in turn brought on a new ‘regime’ and a new code of discipline. The departure of Frank Rijkaard was inevitable but there were one or two doubts on the appointment of former Barcelona player Josep Guardiola as the coach. After all, he didn't have any top level coaching pedigree while Jose Mourinho, the man Barcelona did contemplate of signing in the summer, had everything.

Everything except the panache of playing Barcelona-esque football and the identity of a Catalan. Which is why Laporta, in an effort to save his skin, signed Pep Guardiola. Guardiola is his own man and he started building his own team, bringing in a certain code of discipline and ethics very well adoped at La Masia. He got rid of last season’s black sheep Ronaldinho and Deco and almost of Samuel Eto’o, but couldn't get a suitable suitor for the Cameroonian.

Eto’o stayed, Seydou Keita came and so did Daniel Alves, Gerard Pique and Alexander Hleb, adding depth to a squad that had quality but lacked direction. A new fitness guide was implemented that has seen Eto’o and Messi stay fit. Results were erratic at the start of the season but soon they became stable and on came the poetic football with the same 4-3-3 formation that Rijkaard had used.

The results have been overwhelming, the scorelines bewildering and the football “orgasmic”. They are in the running for the Treble, all with a dose of modesty and the 'we have not won anything yet' humility.

The Spanish Club

And now we come to Real Madrid, a perfect lesson to all potential football managers and CEOs how not to manage a football club. Disgraced former president Ramon Calderon and his accomplice Predrag Mijatovic aided by the Royal Madrid serving media tried everything to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in the summer, in the process (perhaps justifiably) earning the honour of a "mob". They lost one of the truly classy players they had, Robinho, whose performance in the past three seasons might not have been as consistent as one would have expected of the Brazilian international but he was indispensable in their two title winning seasons. They did sign Rafael van der Vaart but it was more to save their faces than to add something to the squad.

This season should have been the season in which Real Madrid really asserted their superiority in Europe. Prior to this season they had not been able to thread into the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League for the past four years but this should have been the season to resurrect their status in Europe. And they failed and failed miserably, losing to Liverpool in both legs of their last 16 tie. To this add their results against Juventus in the group stage and you start wondering whether this Madrid squad is good enough to compete against the top teams.

Last season even with Madrid winning the league with ease, there was always a suspicion that it was because of Barcelona’s under par performance that Madrid seemed superior. This season those suspicions have strengthened as Real Madrid have stuttered while Barcelona have triumphed. Granted, the array of injuries to Real Madrid have been damaging, especially the injury to Ruud van Nistelrooy and the heart condition of Ruben de la Red, but even then it is hard to find any sympathy for Europe’s most elite club.

Under Bernd Schuster, they scored as many goals as they conceded and lost as many matches as they won and under Juande Ramos, they staved off the goals by playing cautious football heavily borrowed from a defensive approach, something the Bernabeu accepted but never fell in love with. Inconsistent form of Wesley Sneijder, substitute appearances for Rafael van der Vaart and unreliable performance of Guti stripped the Blancos of a world class playmaker. When you realize that their best player overall this season has been Iker Casillas (again!) and their best player in the second half of the season has been Lassana Diarra, a defensive midfielder, you notice the creativity- or the lack of it- in Madrid’s midfield.

The End….Or The Start?

And now this 6-2 humiliation. Madrid's 4-1 defeat of Barcelona on May 7, 2008 signaled the end of the old era and the birth of a new one at Camp Nou. Maybe, just maybe, Barcelona's 6-2 defeat of Madrid on May 2, 2009 would do something similar at the Bernabeu.

Subhankar Mondal  

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