The Champions League draw is perfect for one man and one man alone: Luis Enrique.
– #QUIZ360: Friday – WIN Real Madrid 2014/15 jersey
– Guardiola to return to Barcelona in Champions League semis
– ALSO: Yorke & Fowler’s Champions League predictions
For the next three weeks, the whole football world will become consumed by an obsession with Pep this, Pep that, Pep the other.
It has already started. The fact that Barcelona are playing Bayern Munich is almost an afterthought. The fact that Lionel Messi can seek revenge for the World Cup Final is being almost completely overlooked.
The fact that brothers Rafinha and Thiago Alcantara will be facing each other in a Champions League semi-final is barely getting mentioned.
Luis Enrique “I always think after the draw of the bad luck for whoever has been drawn to play against Barcelona.”
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) April 24, 2015
Instead, this tie already is and will continue to be all about one thing and one thing only: Pep Guardiola. That is perfectly understandable.
During four wildly successful years in charge at the Nou Camp, Guardiola was responsible for creating one of the greatest
– quite possibly the very greatest – team the world has ever seen.
Under Guardiola, Barca were an absolute joy to behold. Their creativity, teamwork, precision and exuberance drew legions of admirers all over the world, mesmerised by the closest thing sport can ever provide to an artistic masterpiece worthy of comparison with the great masters.
What’s more, they won. A lot. This was a rare case of style and substance, as Guardiola amassed an outlandish total of 14 trophies in just four seasons, including three La Liga titles, two Champions League crowns and two FIFA Club World Cups.
The prospect, then, of the architect returning to take on his former team for the very first time, three years after his tearful departure, is undeniably captivating.
Guardiola going back to Barcelona is the thing every football fan wants to see and, in the build-up, the thing every media pundit wants to write about and talk about, and the thing every fan wants to read about and hear about.
This all means that Luis Enrique will be left in peace to quietly get on with his work, taking a background role while everybody else is busy focussing on Pep.
That’s just the way he wants it. Enrique does not like attention, does not seek the limelight and does not enjoy addressing the media. Rather than attempting to court public favour or engineer a particular personal profile, he expects people to take people as they find him. If they don’t like him, tough.
As well as allowing him to be left alone, the draw suits Enrique because he is – as much as a Barca manager could ever be – in a no- lose situation.
If Bayern win, it will be portrayed as Pep’s success rather than Enrique’s failure, minimising any potential fall-out from the tie. And once it’s all over, Enrique might just have sneaked almost unnoticed into a Champions League Final.
