Sergio Busquets - The Invention of the Decade

[SirBalon]

It was 2008 and Barça's president Joan Laporta was 2 years into his tenure when he had to let go of Frank Rijkaard as the head coach due to a depression that was set in and starting to cause dry rot... The route was looking more downwards than anything that subsequently occurred that summer and changed the course not only of the club but would also bolster and take the Spain national side onto a whole new era.

It is known that the first candidate for the hot seat at FC Barcelona was a well known coach to all who was doing a year's sabbatical after leaving Chelsea Football Club...  That man was Jose Mourinho who even created a 90 page dossier on what he would do where contacted by the club he subsequently handed it in himself at the offices.  What occurred after that nobody knows for sure (Laporta has always refused to comment) and there are various theories as to why Mourinho wasn't accepted...  But the man who took the helm was of course Josep Guardiola and the rest is modern football history.

Out of the door went fan favourites like Ronaldinho and Deco with various players from the Barcelona 'B' team and even lower, the 'C' squad playing in regional football coming in.  This particular piece is on a guy playing in that 'C' side.

Guardiola started his first team coaching career in a stuttering manner with a defeat away to Numancia.  Guardiola then made the big changes that mark the course of his early career by bringing in a young chap from that Barcelona 'C' side called Sergio Busquets, the son of a past second goalkeeper in the Cruyff's years.  That second game in La Liga was against Racing Santander and Busquets was given the all important role of anchoring the defence, robbing the ball from his adversaries and being the link and lynchpin in the tempo and mechanics of the team.   The then Racing coach José Ramón López Muñiz was interviewed by MARCA some months back and when he looked back at that game he said; "I have to admit that I didn't even know who he was.  I knew the Barça 'B' team and I didn't know him and asked my technical staff if they knew him.  They told me he was the son of Carles Busquets who was part of the Cruyff's Dream Team squad.  To be honest I couldn't believe what I'd seen that day because how can a guy playing in regional football come and dictate a first division game playing for one of the most important clubs on the planet."

Indeed... Such an impression was made that the new head coach of Spain, Vicente del Bosque called him up for the next national team meet up and Marcos Senna never played again for Spain after having been so important in Luis Aragonés' victory in the 2008 European Championships.

From regional football to playing for FC Barcelona, to playing for Spain, to winning 28 career club honours, to winning a World Cup and a European Championship with Spain.

Johan Cruyff said this; "This is what it's all about.  As a coach you have to find that special piece that without it nothing works.  Iniesta and Xavi desperately needed Sergio Busquets because it freed them to be artists."

Vicente del Bosque said this; "If I could choose to be any player in the world today, it wouldn't be Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.  I would choose to be Busquets because without him you are not going to win absolutely anything and curiously enough he doesn't make the headlines because people don't look in that direction for the reasons to success.  But I can assure you that without him you won't have succes, that's a guarantee!" 

"Busquets thinks about the collective to the detriment of his multitude of natural virtues. How can a coach not love a player like that? It's any coach's dream."

So the guy with no social media accounts to his name, the guy that never makes an untoward comment that makes the headlines, the man that never makes the FIFA or UEFA top 3 lists happens to be the chap that put the cogs in place for Josep Guardiola's career and helped his country go onto dominate world football for a considerable amount of time.

What would've happened had Mourinho been offered the job?

This isn't a jab at anyone but a celebration of being gifted a player that many never had even heard of other than on the muddy fields of regional Spanish football.

SERGIO BUSQUETS

 

[Spike]

He'd be playing for Espanyol  Girona/Man City.

[Cicero]

That actually is a great question. Where would Barca be had they appointed Mourinho vs Pep? Where would the likes of Busquets, Pedro, Pique, be? What about the progression of Messi, Iniesta, and Xavi? 

[Mel81x+]

 

"Mourinho is that you?"

[SirBalon]

 

[SirBalon]

This graph is easier to view and includes his international honours too.

[JoshBRFC+]

He was such an underrated player for so long.

He's been so important for the team over the years and you just saw how much of a better TEAM Barcelona were with Busquets instead of Toure.

[Spike]

16 minutes ago, JOSHBRFC said:

He was such an underrated player for so long.

He's been so important for the team over the years and you just saw how much of a better TEAM Barcelona were with Busquets instead of Toure.

Because every manager until Mancini thought Toure was a CDM/CB instead of offensive minded CM.

[Danny]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

Because every manager until Mancini thought Toure was a CDM/CB instead of offensive minded CM.

Maybe, probably also down to Toure not being good enough to play as an offensive minded CM at Barce as well.

Busquets is one of those players who even with all the raving over him, is still very underrated by a lot of football fans. Strange.

[Asura]

My most favourite player of this generation (excluding Messi, because no one can be his level)

[True Blue]

Can't stand the cunt, but his record for Barcelona speaks for itself.

[SirBalon]

All I know is that the day Busi calls it a day at Barça, they're gonna have the biggest problem of their modern history.  There are no Busquets around...  Not like him playing in that area and doing all the functions he does.  Even Spain will suffer massively although this young kid Rodri does look the business for the future.

Busquets being brought in from Barça's 'C' team into the first team is like Mourinho not going into the transfer market and bringing in a player that's fundamentally needed from Salford City FC and then that player goes on to be an important factor in all the success and.... You know the rest.

[Marc]

A great underrated player but he’ll also, maybe wrongly, always be remembered for some awful cheating. 

He will be appreciated more when he’s gone.

[SirBalon]

I've got to say that I don't know what Chris is upto...  Must be on one of his big ganja sessions! 

But this thread needs a serious @The Rebel CRS input aswell as our long lost Greco @Fusion who is Busi's blood brother. 

[RandoEFC+]

What is it with Barcelona and all of their good players having to have fancy names like this? 

The Invention of the Decade

The Matador of Catalonia

The Jewel of the Camp Nou 

Zzz still men at a football club like everyone else.

[SirBalon]

6 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

What is it with Barcelona and all of their good players having to have fancy names like this? 

The Invention of the Decade

The Matador of Catalonia

The Jewel of the Camp Nou 

Zzz still men at a football club like everyone else.

You forgot Carles "El Tiburón" Puyol 

[Cicero]

5 hours ago, SirBalon said:

All I know is that the day Busi calls it a day at Barça, they're gonna have the biggest problem of their modern history. t.

Call me crazy, but I reckon they'll have a bigger problem when Messi calls it a day...

[SirBalon]

4 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Call me crazy, but I reckon they'll have a bigger problem when Messi calls it a day...

That's a different scenario but teams win Champions Leagues and leagues without your Messis all the time. Goals and of the sort can be fixed as long as you've manufactured a seamless team.  But without a doubt Messi will be forever seen as the greatest thing in terms of footballer Barcelona have ever had.  He's taken over  the previous King of Barcelona, Kubala. 

[SirBalon]

Like 2 trebles or winning everything there is to win in one year. Let’s not get pedantic. 

[Danny]

Without turning this into a him vs him debate, very few players have won trebles, let alone two trebles. Even fewer have been absolutely key to winning both. To palm that off because they didn't win a single cup competition three times in a row is mental. As far as I'm aware, the only other player to win two trebles than Messi (and the Barce players involved in both) is Eto'o.

[Carnivore Chris]

As has been mentioned, among some he will be remembered for his shenanigans earlier in his career, specifically the moment against Inter in 2010. He brought it on himself, although it'd still be unfair to judge him on that as he has grown up a lot over the years and those days are long behind him.

All I will personally remember him for now is his footballing ability and importance to both his club and national team over a decade. I can't think of anyone else who I've seen who is in the same mould of player as Busquets and he's very unique in this regard.

It is always noticeable when he's not on the pitch and this was even evident yesterday against Real Sociedad when he started the game looking on from the bench. He's one of those players who you don't always notice, but believe me, he's there.

As for who will be missed more than who, they will all be missed equally when it comes down to it. Messi is a genius and arguably the greatest allround attacking player to have played the game, although football is a team game and that Barcelona side really showed what a team is about. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Busquets and Alves all had equal importance in their specific roles and will never be replaced for what they have done over a decade for the club. I would also mention Alba now as his importance has grown ten fold over the years and I would now regard him as being among the 4 most important players in the squad along with Busquets himself, Messi and Suarez. What I will say however is that without a man like Busquets, a team doesn't tick the same. You need a Busquets.

As for his international career, I can't believe the lack of credit he gets for the World CUp final in 2010 as he was arguably man of the match and had Sniejder, who was a monster at the time, in his back pocket. I also thought he was the player of the tournament in the Euro 2012 and was yet again overlooked.

To be honest, there isn't too much I can say about Busquets as you will hear me discussing him often. He's been one of my "favourite players" for years now.

[SirBalon]

29 minutes ago, The Rebel CRS said:

It is always noticeable when he's not on the pitch and this was even evident yesterday against Real Sociedad when he started the game looking on from the bench. He's one of those players who you don't always notice, but believe me, he's there.

They’ve made alot about this in today’s sports papers in Spain. Like Del Bosque said... Without Busquets Barça and Spain wouldn’t have done what they did.

Every successful team needs a Busquets type player only that Sergio is the greatest I’ve personally ever seen in that role. 

[Carnivore Chris]

What stands Busquets apart for a man of his role is that he not only does the dirty work and create spaces for other more "technical" players, but he is one himself. Very intelligent, eye for a pass, can sense what's going on around him and what to do next, is an organiser and very technical on the ball too. When you look at him you see a lanky, sort of gormless looking fella, but then you watch him play and he has that touch of brilliance that smaller players such as the Xavis and Iniestas have, albeit obviously having a different role in the side and being a different type of player.

I wouldn't say he was necessarily underrated anymore though as every football fan(who knows the sport) can acknowledge his brilliance now it appears. Even @StefBWFC is a big fan of Busquets nowadays(well atleast his ability) and when you consider his(Stef's) view on him 10 years ago and the fact he is very stubborn in his opinion(similar to me in that regard to be honest), that speaks volumes.

[SirBalon]

7 hours ago, The Rebel CRS said:

What stands Busquets apart for a man of his role is that he not only does the dirty work and create spaces for other more "technical" players, but he is one himself. Very intelligent, eye for a pass, can sense what's going on around him and what to do next, is an organiser and very technical on the ball too. When you look at him you see a lanky, sort of gormless looking fella, but then you watch him play and he has that touch of brilliance that smaller players such as the Xavis and Iniestas have, albeit obviously having a different role in the side and being a different type of player.

I wouldn't say he was necessarily underrated anymore though as every football fan(who knows the sport) can acknowledge his brilliance now it appears. Even @StefBWFC is a big fan of Busquets nowadays(well atleast his ability) and when you consider his(Stef's) view on him 10 years ago and the fact he is very stubborn in his opinion(similar to me in that regard to be honest), that speaks volumes.

Yeah, his technical ability for such a tall footballer is incredible.  If you look at that video I posted further up one can observe things that they probably didn’t take notice of before because when people watch Barcelona they’ve always waited in anticipation of your Xavi’s, Iniesta’s, Neymar’s, Messi’s etc... getting on the ball.

For me the fact Modrić is in this year’s awards lists isn’t a travesty because he’s deserved it but god only knows that if Modrić has deserved it then Busquets has been blatantly robbed. I know the reasons why though which are simple and they go back to what I wrote in the previous paragraph about the anticipation and the names of the players Barça have had over the years to focus on.

But I’ve always maintained that for me Busi is one of the most vital pieces in the machinery that without it nothing would’ve worked. Guardiola brought him in from regional football and the ‘C’ team while giving Yaya Touré an open avenue to depart because it was all obvious to Pep and it turns out rightly so. 

[Cicero]

Barca did spank Real 2-6 at the Bernabeu with Yaya as DM. 

However Reals midfield pair were Diarra and Gago...