PEP WON’T BE BACKING DOWN

Guardiola will ensure a political undertone if he tears Arsenal to ribbons

WHEN Pep Guardiola strides out at Wembley today with a yellow ribbon in support of jailed Catalan activists Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez it will not be the first time he has fused the old stadium with political symbolism.

For Wembley is a second home for Guardiola, the scene of his most significant triumphs in 1992 and 2011. Those years represent two iconic Champions League victories recorded by Barcelona in which Guardiola (below, wearing his ribbon) played leading roles.

So while it may be the slightly less-exalted Carabao Cup in dispute today against Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal and while Guardiola will be well aware that his last visit to Wembley to face the Gunners, in last season’s FA Cup semi-final, did not end well, it is hard to escape the feeling that the national stadium and the Spaniard go together. Destiny demands that his first trophy of the new era in his football life is won there.

‘Anyone who loves football has a special feeling for this legendary stadium and Pep as much as anyone,’ says his friend Evarist Murtra, the Barca director who helped persuade the board to make Guardiola head coach in 2008. ‘It’s a cathedral in the country where the sport was invented.’

And Guardiola’s first encounter with Wembley was triumphant and politically symbolic in his mind. When Johan Cruyff’s team reached the 1992 European Cup final against Sampdoria with a 21-year-old Guardiola as the pivotal midfielder, it was the culmination of a long and painful quest for the Catalan club.

Having watched Real Madrid win six European Cups since the competition’s inception in 1956, they had never managed a single victory despite their status as European heavyweights.

‘A great Barca team lost the 1961 final [against Benfica] in a match in which they were the better team,’ said Murtra. ‘Two defensive errors and bad luck hitting the post stopped them winning. Then, in 1986 [under Terry Venables], they lost a second final against a much weaker rival in Steaua Bucharest, which felt even worse as the final was in Seville.’

So when Ronald Koeman’s free-kick in extra time broke the deadlock against Sampdoria at Wembley and Barca hung on to win in 1992, it felt like a quest had finally been completed and a burden lifted.

‘Winning the first European Cup was a huge event for Barcelona,’ said Murtra. But Guardiola took the symbolism a step further. On their return to Barcelona the club displayed the European Cup from the balconies of the Generalitat, the autonomous Catalan government, accompanied by chants of ‘Long Live Barca! Long Live Catalonia!’ from then Catalan president Jordi Pujol. But the most-overt political act came from Guardiola. ‘Citizens of Catalonia, here you have it,’ he shouted to the crowds below.

It was a deliberate echo of an even more famous moment when Josep Tarradellas, the Catalan president exiled during the years of General Franco’s dictatorship, finally returned to his home city in 1977 and appeared on that same balcony to declare: ‘Citizens of Catalonia, here I am!’

‘Pep clearly used this phrase of Tarredellas to draw a link between the restoration of the selfgovernment lost in the Spanish Civil War and bringing home the European Cup,’ said Murtra.

Indeed, it was almost as if winning the European Cup symbolised the end of a sporting exile from football’s top table which finally meant Catalonia was finding its feet in the world. ‘And it coincided with Barcelona hosting the 1992 Olympics,’ said Murtra. Guardiola’s Wembley story did not end there. In 2011, his Barca team delivered what many consider to be one of the most complete performances in football to out-play Manchester United and beat them 3-1. Asked whether he had simply been unfortunate to be on the end of one of the great team performances of alltime, Alex Ferguson said: ‘I think that’s obvious.’

Murtra said: ‘Pep’s Barca played many, many great games. But Wembley 2011 was the most important because of the venue and because it was a Champions League final. The team only conceded five fouls. And they didn’t concede a corner. Many of my acquaintances consider that they have never seen better football than this match. And they have seen many legendary teams in their time.’

Guardiola does not have to quite hit those heights today to win the Carabao Cup. A first trophy for City will be enough. ‘The first trophy at a club for any trainer is always very important,’ said Murtra. ‘And it will be very important for Pep, given that many doubted he could adapt to this league [in England].’

Now, thanks to an FA charge, it may not only be significant as the first trophy Guardiola wins in England. It may also be remembered for his political defiance and become a further projection of Catalan identity.