FC Barcelona: Football Domination

FC Barcelona is a team with a very proud history in European football and they are an unbelievable team which is admired across the world. The team is recognised for their immense passing ability to their distinct scarlet and blue kit, to their impressive stadium, the Nou Camp.


The trophy cabinet at the stadium is one that is admired and is close to bursting. Teams around the world try to copy the FC Barcelona way of playing but if you ask me, and the majority of other football fans, there is only one team that can play the passing game to such a high standard week in week out.

The team are blessed in regards to every aspect of a football club. The Nou Camp is one of the most recognised stadiums in the world and when full to capacity the atmosphere is second to none. The players currently in the team have been recognised as some of the best of all time. Lionel Messi will potentially go down in history as the best player who has ever lived and he will only get better and better as he gets older. When Messi has the support from the likes of Iniesta and Xavi, who are recognised as two of the best passers in the game, the team are unstoppable. The team are also full of potential and quality at the back with the legend Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique and FC Barcelona are difficult to get goals against. The top youth facilities and youth recruitment have been responsible for the likes of Cesc Fabregas to the world stage and it is a system that will continue for many years to come to produce high quality players.

Some may think that this story is going to be easy, of course FC Barcelona are going to continue their domination of football across Europe people will say. However, the aim of this story is simply to improve my story writing with me going from first to third person depending on events. I want to delve into the club, how it operates and try and cover every aspect from the pitch to the board room.

Game Set-Up

The game is going to be a simple set up. All the top leagues of England (along with the Championship), France, Italy, Germany and all the leagues from Spain have been uploaded. I have allowed teams to make transfers in the first transfer window but I doubt any major signings in the football world to be taking place.

Good luck James I hope that you can keep this story very long term as it will be a test to stay on top If your Liverpool story is anything to go by, this will be exciting!

Gonna be playing Tiki-Taka?

I hope the success comes, would be great to see the young stars of Barcelona prosper soon too! Will definitely be following, good luck.

Good Luck!

Tito Vilanova: Thank you all for coming. I will make a brief statement and will take no questions. The past week has been one of the toughest in my career with the press speculation adding pressure to whole situation. I have spent a long time talking to the people closest to me, family, friends, players, staff and the chairman Mr Sandro Rosell and I have decided it is time for me to step down as the manager of FC Barcelona. It has been an absolute honour to have been chosen to take charge of this illustrious club but I don’t feel like I am the right man to take the club forward and to be the one to step into the shoes of Pep Guardiola who I succeeded. I wish the club every success for the future but my time here has come to an end. Thank you.

Sandro Rosell: Thank you all for attending. I will make a brief announcement as I am sure you have lots of questions that you are eager to get answers to. As you are aware, and the football world is aware, Tito Vilanova took the tough decision to step down as the manager of FC Barcelona last week. As a club we have decided to show respect to the former manager and look into the recommendations he made as to who may have the potential to continue to insuring work of Pep Guardiola. I would like to introduce James Gallagher to you today as the new manager of FC Barcelona and you may aim your questions to him now.

The Barcelona Football Daily: Welcome James to the Nou Camp. You are sit here as the manager of one of the most famous clubs in the world. Would you describe this as the dream job?

James Gallagher: Thank you. The manager’s job is one that all manager’s aspire to have at some point in their career and I have to thank Mr Rosell for giving me the opportunity to be responsible for such a magnificent club.

The Barcelona Football Daily: This club has a proud tradition and has been successful for many years as of late. How involved do you intend to be in the running of the club and do you think it would be foolish of you to make drastic changes?

James Gallagher: I have to start by agreeing that this is a proud club with an incredible history in terms of competition wins that have catapulted the club to being one of the most recognised teams in world football. I will agree further and state here and now that it would be daft for me to come in and change a thing. The foundations are still here from the Pep Guardiola era so why change something that was so successful?

The Spanish Football Express: How have the players reacted to your appointment, after all you are a relatively unknown manager with no experience in the big time?

James Gallagher: Of course they are going to have their doubts that I am the man to get them back to the top of Spanish football after the club’s failing to win the league title last season. I hope that I can instill some confidence in them in the coming weeks and I am sure that positive results will help in doing this.

The Spanish Football Daily: What kind of tactical approach are you planning on getting your players to adopt?

James Gallagher: There is no reason whatsoever to change anything in regards to tactics. The tactics and formations of the last few seasons have been a huge success as it allows the players to express themselves and that is what they do best. There will be no changes.

World Soccer Magazine: Do you plan on making any signings in this transfer window? Does one of the best teams in the world even need improving?

James Gallagher: I am going to be looking into the player market to see if there is anyone available to add depth to the squad. This doesn’t mean the current crop of players need to be worried as nobody will be leaving the club this season...

World Soccer Magazine: What about changes to your backroom staff?

James Gallagher: I will state again that nobody will be leaving the Nou Camp.

Sandro Rosell: We will have to bring this press conference to an end as I am sure you can understand that Mr Gallagher has a lot of work to do. Thank you for coming.

Before choosing my tactics for what I am hoping will be a success season I did a lot of research into what had been successful for other players of the game. Option 1 seems to be a popular choice with other players using it, which results in a lot of success for them, but also during my Liverpool FC save it was the formation that FC Barcelona adopted. The formation allows for the team to control possession and give the key players such as Lionel Messi the freedom to play his own game.

Option 2 appealed to me as it resembles how Pep Guardiola use to set up his side and we all know the success he had during his manager tenure. It will be interesting to see if it works out for me and I will not hesitate in removing it as one of the options if it doesn’t produce the results I know we are capable of.

Option 3 will only be used when we need to see out a tight lead, for example, if we are one goal ahead in a Champions League game that will take us into the next round with 5 minutes to go. It is going to be used to set up a strong defence to help us see out the game.

Pre-Season

Pre-season could have gone better but I can’t have many complaints as we were unbeaten and Messi got off to good scoring form with 5 goals in 3 games. The team had been introduced to a new formation so the game time allowed them to get use to that which I think they did as the matches went on.

This is going to be the first time that my side come up against Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid. My team will go into the game with the intention of putting an early stamp on which side is going to dominate the league and football this season. FC Barcelona are still going to be bitter due to the fact they lost the Spanish league title to Real Madrid last season and will be looking to make amends for this and to help kick start the season with a comfortable win over the two legs.

Spanish Cup Final First Leg

Team Line Ups

Congrats on your first piece of silverware, James More to come at the Nou Camp, I'm sure!

Well done on the cup and good luck with the rest of the story!

2013-01-20 15:27#78167 The FM Rookie : Congrats on your first piece of silverware, James More to come at the Nou Camp, I'm sure!

Why thank you. It was nice to get off to a good start so I am hoping it will be a spring board for the rest of the season.

2013-01-20 15:59#78168 manchesterblue97 : Well done on the cup and good luck with the rest of the story!

Thank you Manc.Thank you for reading so far.

Good luck mate, I was Barcelona and was doing pretty well and really enjoyed trying to stay on top of world football!! I wish you luck.