The Barcelona Legacy: Guardiola Mourinho and the Fight For Football's Soul

About this book

Wilsons historical study gives fans a keen thrilling insight into the philosophy of the game The New Yorker Manchester 2018: Pep Guardiola and Jos Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles traded insults and crossed a continent but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago. Barcelona late-nineties: Johan Cruyffs Dream Team is disintegrating and the revolutionary manager has departed but what will come next will transform the future of football. Cruyffs style has changed the game and given birth to a generation of thinkers: men like Ronald Koeman Luis Enrique Laurent Blanc Frank de Boer Louis van Gaal and Cruyffs club captain Pep Guardiola and a young translator Jos Mourinho. The Barcelona Legacy is a book in part about tactics about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history about their friendships and rivalries and in one case an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game today.