This was not something the Mayan calendar predicted but the news that Tito Vilanova’s cancer has returned has a fateful element to it.
Cancer has a terrible unpredictability about it. It is likely that Tito, under medical advice, would have taken on the job of Barca manager, knowing that he was on borrowed on time, keeping the big enemy at a sufficient distance not just to live but to create.
We will never know how the sheer stress of succeeding Pep Guardiola and putting up with the pressure of keeping Barca as the best and most successful team in the world, may have played havoc with his remission, instead of acting as a distraction and speeding his recovery.
But it looks as if Tito has been cut down like a tree in full leaf at the highest point of his professional career, having taken Barca to new heights with a successful first half of the season crowned by a magical win over Atletico Madrid. And he succeeded as one of the most understated managers Barca and La Liga have seen for a long time-his thoughtful, quietly determined, and courageous tactics winning more hearts and souls, and matches, that any amount of provocative role-play by Jose Mourinho.
If the truth be told, and I have reported it before, Tito hasn’t looked healthy this season- his pale, drawn face, and intense eyes giving the Barca touchline a stoic, suffering air about it, that, by contrast, has made most goals scored by that team seem so much more a cause for celebration, as if Tito had connected his lifeblood to his players.
There is an element of tragic irony in the news about Tito facing up again to a possible end game, just hours after fans had celebrated the contractual renewal of Messi, Pujol, and Xavi, three players that between them have contributed massively to Barca’s identity as a team and a club, now seemingly guaranteeing its future. This week has served to remind Barca fans more acutely than ever that football does not substitute for life; it mirrors it, with its ups and downs proving uncomfortably steep at times.
The sense of lifeblood running through the Barca of today as a sporting institution, one that has taken it from Cruyff, via Guardiola, to Vilanova, makes it likely that if Tito cannot continue, his replacement will come most naturally from within the club not from outside it. It will be a controversial appointment nonetheless.
For all the early speculation of popular household names like Barca veterans Luis Enrique, Eusebio Sacristan, and Jordi Roua, none of them can claim to have had brilliant careers as managers in their own right. Which leaves Pep Guardiola, a great player and a great coach but who quit as Barca’s manager just six months ago, exhausted after four successful and highly intense years at the helm, and who will need some persuading to go back, not least because of the tempting challenge of moulding another club in Barca’s image.
I always felt that Tito’s appointment was flawed. If a healthy Pep felt the pressure was too much, then surely a weakened Tito was a big risk.
Seems that the shadow of cancer has reared its ugly head again at Nou Camp…..
God forbid that Pep comes to the Premier and “moulds a team in Barca’s image”. The glorious pulsating football of the Premier would be throttled to death if teams aimed to achieve 70%+ possession. We don’t want sterile possession football. Much more fun a battling cup game like last night were Chelsea put 5 past a never-say-die Leeds!
The ongoing onslaughts on any blog of mine related to Barca by a Chelsea FC fanatic who signs as ‘Captain Terry’ have varied in accuracy and taste over time, but the latest has overstepped the boundaries of decency with its cynicism.
Confronted by the tragic news of Tito Vilanova’s resurgent cancer, ‘Captain Terry’ struggles to share in expressions of sympathy that have poured out from the football world in recent days, led , among others, by Real Madrid. Finding it impossible to say anything meaningful, let alone heart-felt, his comment ends with an inappropriate, not to say insulting, attack on Pep Guardiola and the prospect of him coming to the Premier League.
If nothing else, the comment sums up the extent to which Chelsea FC has lost its moral compass, not least in continuing to place so much faith in the integrity and leadership of player whose name the commentator USES as an alias.
By contrast FC Barcelona these last few days has once again shown a great sense of human solidarity and faith in its rallying round Vilanova, a belief that that the team and the spirit that drives it will prevail as Tito conducts his own battle with the enemy.
As the excellent James Lawton writes in today Independent newspaper, as far as Chelsea FC and their fans are concerned – Terry “is beyond a whiff of censure in what has become his personal fortress.” And this is in spite of the forceful criticism of Terry published by Lord Ousley after the Chelsea icon was found guilty of racist abuse.
“Clearly, he has become more than a still valuable player and exceptionally motivated leader,” adds Lawton “He has become a badge of defiance, a point of identity, at a club which has long believed that is sufficiently rich and successful that it can operate entirely on its own terms.”
For his courageous column, Lawton is crucified by Chelsea fans, with some demanding his resignation. That should come as no more surprise to Lawton as it does to me.
I must defend the honor of my alter persona, Captain Terry.
3 simple comments were made, and as many columns have already appeared about Tito’s illness, I didn’t think I necessary to add anything. So I fail to see where I overstepped the boundaries of decency & cynicism!
The hysteria it has generated in you surprises, and interests me.
Accusing Chelsea of loosing its moral compass is laughable, especially coming from a supporter of a club whose sponsor is a notorious regime. Barça for the last 2 years has been grateful accepting revenue from an outrageous regime whose stance of human rights, gender, gays, etc. is appalling.
Again you twist facts to suit your stance. Terry was found NOT guilty by an English law court, but found “guilty” by a self appointed committee, who in 98.5% of the cases they review, the accused party is found guilty! In other words, a kangaroo court.
Lets try and get the balance, which is more morally dubious?: 150 million euros accepted from an extreme right wing regime or a man who in the heat of the moment swore and may or may not have used the “b” word once?! Come on, try and get your values in line.
So you, like most Cule fans jealous of the incredible achievements of Chelsea during the last 10 years and in particular dumping Barça out of the Champions the very season Pep was leaving, you go for them, drawing attention away from the massive debts of Barça (500 million), embezzlement of funds by a previous President, funding from right wing regimes, etc.
So my advice Mr Burns, is get your club into line and then you can start commenting on others as so wonderfully expressed in John 8:7: Let he who is without sin, throw the first stone….