Oh to have been a fly on the wall at Barcelona, circa 1997-98. Not only because they won the Double, but can you imagine what some of those coaching meetings must have been like? Louis van Gaal as manager, Jose Mourinho as an assistant, Pep Guardiola as the veteran skipper and midfield general. This year's Champions' League, with each of the three men leading his side to the semi-finals is rather incestuous. Would love to ask each of the three men what they learned from the other two (provided I had a polygraph machine to cut through the inevitable BS).
Because Jose Mourinho's outsized personality dominates whichever club he's with, Inter's 3-1 win over Barcelona will be depicted as his personal triumph, taking a rag-tag team of cast-offs past one of the greatest sides in history. But, in fact, in terms of personnel, I'm not sure the gap between these two sides is quite as massive as some would have us believe.
Yes, Barca are clearly the better team and their fooball is, generally, better and more effective. Not coincidentally they have dominated La Liga whereas Inter are in serious danger of losing Serie A to a severely underresourced Roma (kudos to Claudio Ranieri incidentally). But look at the individuals and you see that Inter aren't that shabby.
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