Analysis: Cruijff’s new job and the Barcelona manager debate

The return of Johan Cruijff (60) to Dutch top club Ajax Amsterdam as advisor has caused a lot of speculation on the influence this move will have on who will be the Barcelona manager next season.

The most heard comment is that Cruijff’s new job will distance him from the Catalan club and will therefore increase the chances of former Chelsea manager José Mourinho (45) to become the new Barcelona manager, since Cruijff won’t be there to veto him next summer.

I think the new twist indeed makes the arrival of Mourinho more probable but not because of the above mentioned reason. Cause if Cruijf really is influential in the Barcelona board, it doesn’t matter where he is or how much time he has. He will always be one phone call away and saying ‘no’ only takes a second.

The thing is that with Cruijff taking charge of his first love, it is almost certain that current Dutch national team coach Marco Van Basten (43) will become the new Ajax manager after Euro 2008. With Van Basten being seen as his biggest rival for the position, Mourinho is now clearly the front runner to replace current Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard at the end of the season.

Said all that, it should nevertheless be kept in mind that if Barcelona wins a major trophy this season, Rijkaard will just continue and start his sixth season as Barcelona manager later this year.

Transfer period analysis: Winter 2008 (2)

Out
Despite having played only 20 minutes in the first half of the season and despite the interest of Espanyol Barcelona and Real Valladolid and concrete offers from Athletic Bilbao and Deportivo La Coruña, Barcelona forward Santiago Ezquerro (31), whose contract expires in June, preferred to stay until the end of the season when he will be able to leave for free.

When Barcelona youth player Marc Crosas (20) was permanently promoted to the first team in December 2007, it was already made clear the player would be loaned out in January in order to give him more playing time. For a while it seemed he would go to Segunda División team Real Sociedad, but Crosas quite surprisingly ended up joining French champion Olympique Lyon.

Loaning out Crosas was the right choice cause his chances to play when staying in Barcelona would have been very limited. While it cannot be expected he'll be an absolute regular in Lyon, his stay there and the adapting to another country, another league and other team mates can only make him grow as a player and as a person.

Transfer period analysis: Winter 2008 (1)

In
The Barcelona board declared in December that they wouldn't sign anyone in the January transfer window. Because second goalkeeper Albert Jorquera got seriously injured playing for Catalunya in mid season, sports director Txiki Begiristain still had to enter the market. The sixth month solution was found in the Segunda División: Celta Vigo goalkeeper José Manuel Pinto (32) was signed on loan till the end of the season.

In my opinion Barcelona did a great job in solving this unexpected problem. They had to improvise but came up with what seems the perfect guy: Pinto has probably the class, he can play all competitions, he has experience in the Liga ànd the Champions League, he accepts his status as back up and he only costed 500 000 euro (with the possibility to get him for free in June).