The Barcelona Inheritance

The Evolution of Winning Soccer Tactics from Cruyff to Guardiola

By: Jonathan Wilson

Narrated by: Charlie Anson

From Cruyff's "Total Football" to the epic rivalry between Guardiola and Mourinho, a gripping chronicle of the rise and fall of Barcelona's dominance in world soccer.

Barcelona's style of play—pressing and possessing—is the single biggest influence on modern soccer. In The Barcelona Inheritance, Jonathan Wilson reveals how and why this came to pass, offering a deep analysis of the evolution of soccer tactics and style.

In the late 1990s, Johan Cruyff's Dream Team was disintegrating and the revolutionary manager had departed, but his style gave birth to a new generation of thinkers, including Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho. Today, their teams are first and second in the Premier League, marking the latest installment in a rivalry that can be traced back 25 years.

The Barcelona Inheritance is a book about the tactics, the personalities, the friendships, and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling-out that continue to shape the game today.

©2018 Jonathan Wilson (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Wilson offers broad historical perspective to bolster his claim that 'For a long time the best Dutch football has been played in Spain.' As with his remarkable history of soccer tactics, Inverting the Pyramid (2013), this latest will appeal primarily to wonky fans who see the game behind the game—but for them, it's a winner."—Booklist

the greatest football book of all time

You learn so much from this book and deeply understand the importance of Johan Cruyff in football his philosophy his impact and his importance. As it goes deeply into specifics of what made him so great as well as the ripple effect of the impact he made on the sport

Excellent for Barça fans!

Being a Barça fan myself, the book was easy to enjoy for the detailed accounts of games under management by Cruyff, Guardiola, Martino, Enrique, and Valverde. It was also fascinating to learn the deeper nature of anti-Cruyff “pragmatic” play from Mourinho and how he’d made that work to limited degree. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to learn how Cruyff and possesion/positional play changed the game forever!

For the serious soccer geek.

Jonathan Wilson does a very thorough analysis in an engaging fashion over the tie in between Barcelona/Cruyff/Guardiola and Mourinho, and studies of the Dutch system that came from Ajax to Barcelona and came to fruition via Cruyff the player and then Cruyff the coach. I found the book very engaging.

Loved it

Being a soccer coach and huge fan of Ajax and Dutch football and its intrinsic links to Barcelona football club , this was a must listen book for me .
This didnt let me down and is well worth reading and listening to .

Amazing as always

Jonathan is one of the best. Great book to understand the reach of Cruyff's philosophy

another great book by Wilson

well written, well thought through. the synopsis of how different players, managers adopted what they learned through their time at barca and ajax is welcomed. good for any modern coach to think about. adapt to your situation or forever keep your chosen prinicples, that's a good question.

Diehard Barca Fans Only

This book is well written and goes in great detail. However, unless you are Barca fan, you may be disappointed as the level of information shared goes beyond a cursory passive fan perspective.

Atrapante y didactico

Creo que es el audolibro que mas rapido escuche. Va muy a fondo sobre las distintas etapas de los tecnicos mas influyentes de los ultimos treinta años, que, de alguna manera u otra, se vieron influenciados por el Barça de Cruyff. Muy recomendable.

must read for football lovers

geeky, consize and chewable for Monday morning managers.

the Mourinho chapters had their over the top soap opera feel to it , but it goes with the subject matter so yeah the cheap thrills are all in here .

Fantastic

A great listen to the coaching growth and philosophy of the Barcelona coach. A must read.