Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
I am not surprised that Luis Enrique has announced that he is going to leave Barcelona at the end of the season. He has done a great job at a team who play a different way to the way he played, and he is still doing a great job.
He has nothing to prove, but rumours of his departure have been building and the atmosphere around the club has not been helpful. When Barca lost 4-0 in Paris last month, the rumours increased.
They did not come from Luis Enrique; he is not the type to use the media in that way. But Barca is a club where people talk to journalists and information leaks out. No matter how much Enrique tried to protect himself from the media by keeping his distance, the strain of being the manager of Barcelona gets to everyone eventually.
Look at all the Barcelona managers since Johan Cruyff lost his job in 1996. Though several won the Primera Liga, and three have won the European Cup, none have lasted more than five years. The managerial fuse is short at Camp Nou. Pep Guardiola was a young man full of energy and even he had to step back and take some time out.
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Enrique is from the same generation and shares many similarities. He and Guardiola played at Barca together, but while Guardiola was a clear No 4, Enrique was known as a player who scored, tackled and never stopped running.
Guardiola and Enrique worked together under Louis van Gaal, Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho. Separately, they successfully coached Barca’s B team and were immediately successful when they took control of the first team, both winning the treble of league, Copa del Rey and Uefa Champions League in their first season.
“The treble”. Those two words alone will make them managerial legends, yet while Enrique has nothing to prove, his job is a very tough one.
Life is not easy for a manager. Your players get the credit when you win; the coach gets the criticism when they lose. The pressure can start with only a few bad results, like the one Barca had against Paris Saint-Germain. The demands are relentless. If you are tired or having a bad day the media jumps on it.
Wednesday’s announcement that he is stepping down when his contract expires this summer takes the pressure off him and his team. The rumours will stop. We know he is going, that he has made his decision and that he will be replaced. The cloud of speculation has been blown away.
The fans who have been divided over him in recent weeks – and some have even jeered him because they have set the bar so ridiculously high – will not want to boo a manager who won the treble and then the double. The mood will shift towards allowing him to go out on a high. The team will want to beat PSG 5-0 in Wednesday’s last-16 return leg for Enrique. They will want to win a third successful title for Enrique. They are in a great position after Real Madrid were held on Wednesday by Las Palmas.
If he had said he would stay, the doubts would linger. An early defeat next season would have raised the pressure. There is little patience at a club like Barcelona, a club facing big decisions.
If Barcelona are not at a crossroads, they soon will be. Their famous Masia youth system has stopped producing the level of players it once did. Lionel Messi is still the best player in the world and can be for a few more years, but he enters his fourth decade in June. What if he also decides to try something different?
Luis Suarez, the best No 9 in the world, turned 30 in January. Gerard Pique turned 30 a month ago. Andres Iniesta is 33 in May. Xavi left in 2014. Victor Valdes plays in England.
This great Barca team, maybe the best team the world has ever seen, is changing. They might win the league again this year, they might even win the Champions League again. But they are undoubtedly moving towards the end of their cycle of success and they face further complications. They must pay hundreds of millions of euros to redevelop Camp Nou. They also face more competition from rival countries than ever before, especially England. Barca have usually bought one huge signing every season or two. It is about more than money to them, they think that every player wants to come and live and play in their beautiful city.
Enrique said he needed to rest. Rest his mind, but he his unlikely to rest his body. When he stopped playing, he ran marathons and travelled by himself to watch football games. That is what keeps his head clear and keeps him focused.
Maybe he needs to fall back in love with football again. He should come back, because he is an excellent coach. Even before he took the Barcelona job, he did well at Celta Vigo, giving the big clubs a fright. But it is impossible for Celta to win the league. When he decides to return, he will be in demand by the biggest clubs in the world.
I would like to see him at another club to see his style, not the club’s style, because at Barcelona a manager has to adapt to the way they play, the famous 4-3-3.
He can go anywhere. He is still young, intelligent and with a great name. But first he has to get to the end of this season, then he can take a well deserved rest.
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