Follow the interview with Former FC Barcelona President: Joan Laporta (2003-2010), with Diaro ACB. By @barcacentre
Barça isn’t good now
“There is no project, there is no model, Bartomeu is about to break. And our only sports project is to go to the market to spend money that we don’t have, to insist on a forward projection that allows this.”
They forgot La Masia
“If you don’t plan on working for La Masia, then you aren’t doing serious work with the youth, the fundamental. Given necessary patience and chances, talent thrives. Besides just in Barça, guys from all over the world want to play for the club.”
Maradona, Koeman, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, ect., are expensive players. We still sign them.
“The best players pass through Barça, but for Barça to be financially viable and competitive in sport, a plan that requires knowledge, a genuine style, and a club model is needed.”
We also signed Arturo Vidal, another expensive player.
“Others are even more costly. We can’t keep ruining ourselves by needlessly spending with no good plan. Barça’s economic situation is delicate, and why all projects are on hold, like the remodeling of the Camp Nou.”
The night before winning the elections, Rosell scolded me at a restaurant: “Tell your friend that I am not going to stop until I put him in jail.”
Laporta: “I am not spiteful. I was at home when Rosell won the elections and I went to congratulate him.”
Laporta: “I put myself in his good graces, just as Joan Gaspart did for me, in the only good example of a transition between directors that this club has had. But the first thing Rosell did was file a lawsuit against me for €70 million.”
Joan Laporta: “People don’t do well when they do things out of resentment. I will never wish him any harm, and I’m glad Rosell is free from prison.”
If you return, where will you start?
“First for the players. The first team and La Masía. Then, television rights. They can be negotiated better. In the Premier League, the ones that charge less for English teams charge more than Barça and Madrid.”
What would be harder, not having Messi or Cruyff?
“Cruyff taught us everything and will always be our inspiration, in football and life, but we were students and we will know how to apply what he taught us. Messi, if not overused, still has four years left.”
Some say that it is Messi’s fault, that Bartomeu spends too much.
“The fault is not of the boss in charge but of those who don’t manage correctly. It’s enough to hide incompetence. Years ago we should have started working on the post-Messi era.”
“Cruyff, Rijkaard and Pep helped the good players to express their talent and they all succeeded after each other when the light of the geniuses from before began to go.”
You said that if there were only one coach left in the world and it was Mourinho, Barça would play without a coach?
“Mourinho is a great professional but he wasn’t what I need. I decided to trust Pep because I believe in life you have to be brave.”
“If you’re wrong, then you make the mistakes with your decisions and not with those of others. I also like to generate some excitement with surprises.”
Who will be your coach?
“Pep. It is not up to me to come back, although if I depended on what there is available at the club now I would never return, nor would he want to return. Nothing is written, but I have a feeling that Pep and I will work together again.”
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