Although named "The Barcelona Legacy" this book should be read as "The Cryuff Legacy". To be blunt before the arrival of Cryuff-the most influential person in football also one of the best ever to play the game-Barcelona, though a big name, didn’t have a legacy or to put it more aptly any style.

After the arrival of Cruyff-the manager Barcelona's fortunes changed in the trophy count but what makes Cryuff and his input such an elevated status in the game is how his ideology shaped the modern game by his greatest acolyte Pep Guardiola and the charsimatic but result oriented Jose Mourinho.

This is basically a amulgamation of 4 bios-Cryuff/Van Gaal/Pep/Mourinho.So we see how Cryuff views the game and how it influnenced his philosophy,how Van Gaal's differs from Cryuff(spolier-not much),How Pep is way more flexible then he was givem credit for and what really sets Jose of today to that of 2010.

Wilson tried to be as much objective as possible but still it can't gloss over the fact that Jose mourinho is a control freak with a machieavilan mindset.while his force of personality made him successful in Porto/Inter/Chelsea,at Madrid and United his underdog strategy was simply unfeasible.

What this book lacked is the Klopp Revolution but that would betray the premise of the book so that omission though eye catching is logical and also i am glad that wilson pointed out how political it is to manage both Madrid and Barca.In English dominated media this fact is not amplified enough.

A great read for those who wants to know about the evolution of Total Football to Juege de Posicion through the prism of Cryuff/VanGaal/Pep and despite his baptism in Total Football how Jose veered to the Dark Side(for the football aesthetics among us).


A very good read.
4/5 rating from me