Too little, too late

Graham Hunter told Revista that Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona exit was about four months overdue.

Graham Hunter says Frank Rijkaard's exit has come four months too late and Barcelona should have appointed Jose Mourinho in January. Rijkaard's five-year spell in charge at the Camp Nou came to an end after a difficult season where Barcelona finished a distant third behind Real Madrid in the title race and failed to pick up any silverware. Despite leading the club to two league titles and the Champions League during his spell in charge, it is felt Rijkaard lost authority over the dressing room earlier this season and that had a huge impact on results. Revista's Spanish-based journalist Hunter says he has a huge admiration for the Dutchman, but feels the decision to replace him with Pep Guardiola has come far too late. "I won't miss him," Hunter admitted on the final Revista of the season. "The first 24 months of football that we saw under Frank Rijkaard was not just the best that I've seen in all the years I've been living in Barcelona, but some of the best I've ever seen in my life. "I'll miss some of the things he did, but I won't miss seeing a good man, a clever football man and a brilliant footballer being tortured and burned out by the job and making mistakes. "My heart was heavy in January when I was asked what Barcelona should do and I said they should sack him. "It was time to move on, there was still time to win trophies this season and they should have appointed Jose Mourinho in January - I think that fact has been borne out. "The reason I won't miss him is because I've seen a Frank Rijkaard who, for the last six months, couldn't wait to get out of the door."

Lessons

Barca President Joan Laporta admitted in a recent interview that he has made mistakes this season, including allowing Ronaldinho to fall out with the rest of the squad and failing to sack the coach sooner. But Hunter is worried the club have not learned from their failings and fears inexperience at the top level could be a continuing problem. Hunter continued: "Laporta admitted they made mistakes - but the general consensus is that is only useful if you've learned your lessons. What everybody felt is that he avoided key issues. "If you now accept that Ronaldinho let himself go, if you now say that you made a mistake by not moving Rijkaard out when he lost authority over the dressing room - then why did you allow that to happen? How are you going to correct that in the future? "One of the things he didn't come to grips with is this transition from Rijkaard to Guardiola. "We have a club here where Laporta, his two vice presidents and his football director are in charge, but none of them had been in football before 2003. "Rijkaard had only ever managed one club dressing room and now they're giving power to Guardiola who only had eight months in charge of the B team. "It's a very green, very young footballing club and they don't seem to have the experience to realise what went wrong or how to correct it."