Barcelonas winning philosophy makes them coaching incubator for top clubs

Baras ideas have been spread across Europe by former players who switched to the dugout, including

coaches of four Champions League quarter-finalists

Where are they now? In the dugout, thats where, and not just any dugout. Take a look at the picture above. It is nearly 19 years old now: 28 August 1996, the side that won the Spanish Super

Cup. You will recognise some of the faces, and among them are four of the eight coaches in the

Champions League quarter-finals: this week Pep Guardiolas Bayern Munich face Julen Lopeteguis Porto and Laurent Blancs Paris Saint-Germain take on Luis Enriques Barcelona. Their Barcelona, where they all played together.

If it is extraordinary enough that one team provides half the managers left in the competition, go

a little deeper. The starting XI that day ran: Lopetegui, Ferrer, Popescu, Abelardo, Blanc, Luis

Enrique, Sergi, Amor, Guardiola, Stoichkov, Pizzi. Only two of them have not become first-team

coaches: Guillermo Amor, who ran Barcelonas academy and is now technical director at Adelaide United, and Gica Popescu, sent to jail for three years for fraud. Now theres a Where Are They Now?.

There were 27 players in Barcelonas squad in the 1996-97 season. Popescu apart, only five others have not worked as coaches or technical directors and among them are Giovanni, who

scouts for Olympiakos, and Vtor Baa, an ambassador for Porto, plus the owner of the Fort

Lauderdale Strikers, Ronaldo, and another Ballon dOr winner, the Fifa presidential candidate Lus Figo.

Sergi Barjuan has just taken over at Almera, Juan Antonio Pizzi manages Len in Mexico

having coached Valencia last season and Chapi Ferrer began this year at Crdoba, while Albert

Celades is Spains Under-21 coach, Emmanuel Amunike coaches Nigerias Under-17s and Roberto Prosinecki manages Azerbaijan, to name but a few. Baras manager when they won the Super Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Cup Winners Cup was Sir Bobby Robson. Oh, and you might recognise his assistant, too: Jos Mourinho.

Surprised? Not at all. The best club in the world, surrounded by the best players, learning from the best coaches. Why should I be surprised? asks Hristo Stoichkov, who has coached Celta and Bulgaria.

Perhaps because others are. On Wednesday Luis Enrique faced his friend Sergi at the Camp Nou.

Asked afterwards if the pair looked like being coaches back then, he laughed: We looked like anything but coaches. But, Luis Enrique added, things change. They change for everyone and fate isnt entirely random. The length of the list invites the conclusion that Barcelona were conditioning them, forming managers even if they did not know it.

Luis Enrique, Sergi, Guardiola and Abelardo Fernndez were especially close, the gang of four.

Abelardo coaches Sporting Gijn. I got my badge at 27, 28. I wasnt thinking: Ill coach, it was more a just in case, he says. Later you think about coaching and your experiences at Barcelona and in my case Sporting contribute but I wouldnt necessarily have bet on those four, or any of us.

Abelardo continues: The only one out of the ordinary was Pep. Hed study videos carefully and showed an excessive interest in technical and tactical questions for a player.

Others also noticed something about Guardiola. Pep would participate, discuss, talk constantly, order, Amor says of the midfielder whom Bobby Robson would recall as always ready to speak his mind. You could tell with Pep, the reference point, agrees Stoichkov. scar Garca, a member of that Barcelona squad who later coached Brighton and Watford, says: Pep was the one.

The one, but not the only one. The players had already identified Mourinho as different as a tandem he and Bobby were among the best, Stoichkov says while he in turn identified Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Blanc as the players most interested in the games mechanisms, spending time studying his technical reports. Blanc said he and Mourinho had good discussions: Even then I was passionate about tactics.

They were all strong personalities, knowledgeable technically and tactically, says Abelardo. He describes Lopetegui as preparado; diligent, qualified, intelligent. Amor describes Blanc as a seor in every sense: well-mannered, intelligent, serious. Garca describes Luis Enrique as methodical, strict, with a real desire to win.

Others were emerging too. Theres no catch-all explanation, no single reason for so many coaches emerging from that team, still less reaching such a high level, but players were being

shaped by their environment, developing the personality, interest and knowledge to manage. The

desire to manage, too. It wasnt always positive, but bad times taught too: You learned to live with pressure, Garca says of a season that was a case study in the clubs self-destructive entorno, its political, social and media environment.

In some cases those shared experiences helped them become a certain type of manager, in style

and methodology. Barcelonas game is based on attacking, possession, winning. If you look at [those coaches], many have the same idea, Amor says.

When Zlatan Ibrahimovic dismissed Guardiola as a philosopher, it was an attack, but he does have a philosophy. Blanc may not always have practised what he preaches but during Euro 2012

he said: Watching Spain is a pleasure. Their philosophy is one I love and know; its Barcelonas philosophy. Lopetegui arrived at Porto via the Spanish national team youth structure, bringing a technical, possession game in a 4-3-3 formation. They wanted a specific way of playing, he says.

Curiously, of the four some might argue the least Bara is the one at Bara. Results have been superb but the debate is often ideological, focused on the style under Luis Enrique. Yet his

deviation has been exaggerated and he has been shaped by similar ideals, beginning at Barcelona

B while Guardiola was first-team coach and Amor academy director.

Here, Johan Cruyff, in charge from 1988 to the spring of 1996, is an important figure. Stoichkov

recalls: Id never tell a player: Do what I did. That was one of Johans lessons that really stayed with me. Its too much pressure. You can correct, help, guide, but dont say that, never, ever. But it was less about specific lessons, more about ideas encapsulated by Txiki Begiristain, who played for Barcelona until 1995. Every time Cruyff needed a solution, he attacked more.

That influenced their managerial style and philosophy; it also influenced their career path. It was

not just about making players coaches but about making players want to be coaches. Asked to

explain the proliferation, Amor says: Johan has a part to play, for sure. He says: Theres something basic, beyond results: the fact that we enjoyed it so much. The ideas carry you. When

you enjoy something its lovely, so you want to keep going when your playing career ends.

Garca, whose first coaching job was as Cruyffs assistant with the Catalan national team, has a similar view: You feel like teaching, passing on what you learned and enjoyed. Youre not conscious before, but maybe a process had started. Cruyffs way was different, about the why? Not just doing things, understanding them. Im proudest when my players say theyve learnt something; that satisfies more than titles.

Lopetegui insists: I want players to really understand the game, and Mourinho recalled a squad for whom it was not enough for the coach to be right, he had to demonstrate he was right.

There is a contradiction here which Abelardo quickly highlights: in 1996-97, Cruyff was not the

coach, Robson was. And while Stoichkov notes that Luis Enrique and Blanc were signed by the

Dutchman, they never played under him. Much of the culture remained, though, and Robson was

a different lesson, variety. Popular, he won them over by his personality and his management of

theirs. He did not just tell, he listened.

More than that, players admit that in 1996-97 there was a degree of auto-gestin, self-

management, which may even have helped develop coaches. Mourinho stepped forward,

Stoichkov describing him as the typical guy who likes to be on top of everything: I learnt a lot from him, he was different. And the players stepped forward too. We took on a lot of responsibility, Amor says.

Abelardo is not convinced while Stoichkov will not hear a word said against Robson, of whom

he is fond, but scar says: Maybe that autogestin is a factor. Without realising it, perhaps that forms leaders, people thinking about the game.

Stoichkov says: Pep, Luis Enrique, Laurent, Julen Im not surprised. They always had talent and personality plus good people around them. We were at the worlds best club and when you get used to winning you want to keep going.

Amor adds: Its lovely to see four team-mates, people youve been fortunate to play with, in the quarter-finals. Hopefully well see one of them win the final too.