LONDON --
At the Olympiastadion on Saturday night, one manager will take to his technical area knowing that, whatever happens, he has restored his reputation. Massimiliano Allegrii's appointment as Juventus manager might have been opposed by many, but he has won Serie A and Coppa Italia, transformed the club into a European force again and made them, if not better than they were under Antonio Conte, at least more adaptable. The other will take his seat on the bench with nobody quite sure what he does.
Luis Enrique is a coach who lives in the shadows -- through no great desire of his own. To an extent his reputation remains dominated by what he did as a player. Enrique won La Liga and Copa del Rey at Real Madrid before moving to Barca where he not only won two leagues and two cups, and a Cup Winners' Cup, but also became the icon of the side. But he is also dominated by the fact that this is still largely the team Josep Guardiola built -- six of the outfielders likely to start on Saturday also started the 2011 final -- and by the fact that nobody is sure to what extent he selects the team.
It is remarkable to think now, with the league and cup double completed and Barca on the brink of a fourth Champions League triumph in nine years, that just five months ago Barca seemed ready to implode. Enrique had declared "hunting season" open in November after Barcelona's first ever home defeat to Celta Vigo and when they lost 1-0 at home to Real Sociedad in the first game back after the winter break, crisis appeared only a step away.
Enrique had left Lionel Messi out of that game. Messi had been on the bench for his first game back after spending Christmas in Argentina in both of the two previous seasons, but this time it was perceived as evidence of a rift between player and coach. Rumors of a breakdown in their relationship were only fuelled when Messi then skipped a training session with what he claimed to be gastroenteritis, which Xavi had unhelpfully revealed the previous week was the excuse usually given when a player had other reasons not to train. Defender Jeremy Mathieu later admitted that Messi and Enrique had clashed.
Off the pitch, Barcelona's image had been sullied by a transfer ban imposed because of irregularities in how they had signed Under-16 players and for on-going allegations over the purchase of Neymar. Club legend Andoni Zubizarreta was dismissed as director of football and his assistant, Carles Puyol, the former captain, soon followed. Enrique admitted his position had been "weakened" and with a poll suggesting 68% of fans wanted him gone, it was widely thought he would rapidly be out of a job.
But then Barca started winning, and winning validates everything: Even the fact that their president and former president are facing criminal proceedings over the Neymar deal has been forgotten. In the game after the defeat by Real Sociedad, they won a hard-fought game against Atletico that, as much as anything, appeared to persuade the players that there was some fight left in them, that the decline from the peak of 2011 was not inevitable. Since the Real Sociedad game, Barca have won 30 of 34 games played. Enrique is one game from repeating Guardiola's feat of winning a treble in his first season.
Yet is it his doing? Luis Suarez let slip that the switch that got the front three performing so well -- moving him to the center with Lionel Messi on the right -- was something that happened almost organically during a game, the Argentinian eventually telling him to stay where he was after drifting into the middle.
But to suggest Enrique is nothing more than a figurehead, somebody who is wise enough to know when to shut up and let the players get on with it -- although that is in itself a skill -- would be misleading. His management of Xavi's decline could hardly have gone better -- although he found Xavi a far more biddable soul than he himself had been when Frank Rijkaard eased him out of the side in 2003-04. He has overseen the transition to a more varied style: after all, he is not steeped in Barca's traditions as Guardiola was; he came through not at La Masia but at Sporting Gijon's academy.
His policy of rotation early in the season was unpopular, but Barca now -- consistent as their first team has become -- look far fresher than their rivals. Fitness in general has improved and, again, that is Enrique's doing. He is somebody who has run a marathon in under three hours and who has competed in various endurance events -- the Marathon de Sables, 127 miles through the Pyrenees known as Bonecrusher; a 10-hour Ironman triathlon in Frankfurt. A glance at Messi's increasingly prominent cheekbones shows the impact he has had. Barca are fitter, better at set-pieces and stronger defensively than at any point in the past decade.
Doubts remain about whether Enrique will stay on, although the club now want him to stay. If he does go now, he will leave an uncertain legacy. But whether it was him or the players or a happy combination of both, he has overseen the evolution and reinvigoration of Guardiola's great side, made them more versatile and cast off the sense of drift to become again an exciting and formidable force.
