Helenio Herrera, a.k.a. “Know your Barca history”

By: Kevin | July 23rd, 2009

Helenio Herrera. Coached Barca from 1958-1960. Why is he important? Because the parallels with Pep Guardiola are uncanny. He came in, and took charge of a side that wasn’t achieving, like Guardiola. And….well….the Guardiola parallels are in bold.

He replaced Dolmingo Balmanya, who was fired essentially for not winning the league, in the face of the onslaught of the all whites. Guardiola replaced Frank Rijkaard, fired for two seasons of futility.

He used psychology to motivate his charges, and got the players believing they could win, and to believe in each other and work together. Guardiola also uses motivational techniques. Recall that Henrique, on his blog, wrote of never having before experienced a more close-knit team.

He upgraded (for that time) the thinking about the medicos, and training, working them hard and making sure that everyone was fit for the full 90 minutes. Guardiola has brought in an upgraded medical staff, and is very much into preventive maintenance and diet as part of an athlete’s regimen.

He changed the thinking about wingers, and brought the fullbacks forward on the attack. Guardiola ensured that the likes of Henry and Iniesta also worked as ball-winners, and thought always about having the ball, for the simple reason that if you have the ball, the other side can’t beat you.

He also worked very well with the cantera, filling first-team slots with those players for lesser competitions. Guardiola was the coach of the B side, and has brought up many a player from there. Busquets is now first team. He also used Pedro! Muniesa, Botia, VicSan and Jeffren, to name a few, and will stock the roster with them for the London friendlies.

In 1959, he grabbed the triplete of Spanish Cup (then), league and UEFA Cup. We know what Guardiola did, right.

Herrera kicked to the curb Ladislao Kubala, one of the all-time Barca greats, said Herrera because Kubala was inconsistent, great one day and merely average the next. Some laid it at the feet of Kubala’s fondness for the grape and the damsels. Kubala was accused of missing training sessions without excuse, or feigned injury, etc. Herrera’s decision sundered public opinion, as well as views inside the boardroom. But he got results. Guardiola/Eto’o. Say no more.

Herrera’s coaching career was short, from 1958-1960 the first go-round. As soon as he didn’t have the same level of success, he was dumped, in part because of his relationship with a strong-willed president, Francesc Miro-Sans. Herrera was brought back in the early 1980s, but couldn’t replicate that same magic. Guardiola hasn’t suffered this same fate yet, but Laporta is certainly strong-willed, and closely linked to Guardiola.

Uncanny, right? I admit to being floored by the parallels. But here’s hoping that some don’t come true, that the team doesn’t achieve decreasing levels of success. Forca Barca!

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Category: Barcelona, Thoughts

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Jnice

Foolish comments, mickey. You seem a bit bitter. Sorry
mjk

classy... especially the final insult: you really don't appreciate gipsies in italy, do you? other than that, yes, our main hopes for the season rely on maxwell. that's our secret weapon. maxwell. defenders will be focusing so much on ibrahimovic and messi that... oh well, yeah, maxwell...
mickey

helennio was not barcelona's best coach ever. If there was ever a team he should have been associated with it was inter. I mean the guy succeeded where so many other of our coaches (including mourinho) he turned us into a european powerhouse. La grande inter was one of the strongest teams in history and in my opinion would have beaten your barcelona team of today. Besides we arent really strengthening you, i was laughing my balls off when i heard you guys signed maxwell. Are you kidding you think that its bad that we lose maxwell. HELL NO!!! Every time he gave up the goal the other team would score against us. And ibra will never be as good of a player as he was when he played with us. So if barcelona do so happen to visit san siro in the CL this or next year i am sure the san siro faithful will give him a warm reception (major sarcasm alert). ORA TUTTA QUANTA LA CURVA CANTERA PER TE ZLATAN SEI UNO ZINGARO ZLATAN SEI UNO ZINGARO!!!
Maximus

Oh I referring to Kubala just in case I seemed a tad vague.
Kxevin

Indeed, Cesc Pistol. He's very funny. I'm a big LLL fan but yes, he does fly off at the gob, doesn't he? :D
Cesc Pistol

You guys read Stannard at 442 as well?

Funny guy but many a time will say very stupid things (all other reporters do as well but stil...)
Kxevin

Time again for Tim Stannard's annual rant about what nitwits the Liga powers that be are. And who knew that the EE gets 60 percent of TV revenues to our 25 percent? Seems like with the ascendancy of Messi and our lads, that's about due for a change.

http://www.football365.com/spa...
Kxevin

The unfortunate thing about a club such as ours is that the constant pressure, the constant drive to excel, makes it difficult to legends to retire with the club. It just doesn't seem to have the ability to allow that tailing off of performance. I just can't see us ever having a Maldini, a player who plays his full career with the club and retires from the game with a rousing send-off.

Of course, Maldini was the rare player who could compete at the highest level right up to the end. Though Sylvinho isn't a legend, he might be as close as a star player comes to going out on top. But even he still has some years of useful service left, just not at the level required to maintain a spot on the roster.

--In other "news" (note skepticism) Sport is saying that Hleb might now be the complication in the Ibra/Eto'o deal. Not sure why he's talking to Sport Bild (probably because he can't talk to any of the Spanish/Catalan papers), but he made a statement yesterday that his goal is to "stay and be useful to the team."

How 'bout that, if at all true? This from a player who was moaning about lack of playing time, and Guardiola not trusting him, etc, etc, and never should have left Arsenal, and I want out.

On the other hand, recall the "press reports" that said Hleb and his agent were waiting and ready to negotiate with Inter, right.

It's why all this stuff, until you see quotes from someone officially attached to the operation, should be consumed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

I would say at this point, that it would be impossible for Hleb to mess up the deal. But, Ibra and his agent are still talking to us, so we'll see how that transpires. My guess is that Eto'o's contract won't be dissolved until we reach full accord with Ibrahimovic.

And if need be, we stuff Hleb in a sack, and DHL his ass over to Mourinho with a note, "Do not open until August 31." :D
mjk

well, some they let leave, some just left on their own. this has changed in recent years, and it feels nice to have unzué, txiki, luis enrique or guardiola himself still attached to the club. but the image of schuster giving the finger to the cameras after losing the european cup in '86 and his joining the ee is one (among many) that still haunts me (like the sport cover in which figo reassured us that he wasn't leaving just 48 hours before his dressing in white for the first time) :P
JC

Apart from Luis Enrique, none of the Barca Legends have ever retired at Barca. Puyol, Xavi might, but I somehow feel that they too will be kicked out along with Iniesta and Messi one day. Barca has a history of letting big players leave.
chi flat irons

I often wonder how some of the other ‘Barca Legends’ exited and its weird to see that he didn’t retire with the club.
mjk

they used to call him "the magician" (which could be an early 1960's paralell to pep being "el puto amo"). and he was some kind of a cruyff avant la lettre, with famous sayings like "one plays better with ten guys on the pitch than with eleven". he actually won the league again in 1960, and also the uefa cup (fairs cup at the moment) but the kubala polemic forced him to leave (for so many years barça was a wolf to barça myths). with inter he went on to winning two european cups and three italian championships.
Jnice

Nope, Johonna. That's where the similarities end. :)
Soto

Nice bit of Barcelona history. Thanks Kevin. (I think the next step in my Barca fanaticism is learning more of its history.)
Maximus

I often wonder how some of the other 'Barca Legends' exited and its weird to see that he didn't retire with the club.

Well not really weird because strikers don't tend to retire at top clubs unless they play at a club willing to sacrifice on the pitch performance for loyalty (Del Piero, Raul, Totti, Giggs etc). The legends can sometimes provide a unique spark but consistency is hardly their game.
Johonna

So wait, does this mean Pep will come to Inter next?
Kxevin

True, BA, but his view of catenaccio wasn't quite the locked-down defensive variant that has such a bad name today. Hence the attacking fullbacks, a la Alves and Abidal (when he decides to go forward).

It got corrupted while in Italy (in the hands of Herrera), to be sure. But he was coaching Inter, then, so his mind wasn't quite right. :D

The EE revenue information is staggering. Just staggering. Wonder where we are on that scale?
BA

oh, and to further impart a point i made in the last thread:

"Jose Maria Gay Saludas, a professor of accounting at the University of Barcelona, has estimated that Real Madrid's total labour costs for next season, including wages and amortisation, will rise to around 300 million euros.
That would be the equivalent of about two thirds of revenues, assuming the club manages to increase its earnings to 450 million euros."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot...
BA

Herrera, interestingly, also gained much of his success by promoting the exact opposite playing style as Guardiola, being one of the primary crafters of the catenaccio system.