Is it right to play with substitutes as the Gijón vs the Barcelona? (Yahoo)

It seems that the football has always something new to bring. It became so rich as an industry of facts and hues that now there appeared a new element that may change the dynamic not only of the Spanish league, but of the others in which the protagonism of the powerful over the weak maybe the distance itself.

It concerns the decision of the coach of the Sporting of Gijón, Manolo Preciado, to play vs the powerful Barcelona of Josep Guardiola, for the fourth round of the league and in the Catalonian Camp Nou, with a team composed by several substitutes, having to disposition the first team players, only because upon discounting the defeat by the enormous difference between both teams, he preferred to centre in his next match, nothing less but the Valencia (another considered big, though of course, less than the redblue) in the Asturias stadium of El Molinón.

Namely, Preciado did nothing illegal but what enters into the dispute is whether his decision is legitimate because in that way it generates various deeds at the same time. The first is an absolute sincerity, in the deeds, that in the same league of thirty eight rounds there are two championships at the same time (and even it can be said three). One, among which there is disputed the Champion (that today, it would be almost reduced, by stars and budgets, the Real Madrid and the Barcelona, remaining some more to fight for reaching the European cups) and another, to avoid the descent.

Therefore, it is possible that in the analysis of the league transcourse, Preciado, concluded that it was useless to go looking for a point in a stadium almost impossible such as the Camp Nou, and so it was better to keep the first team players for more accessible matches, what gave place to a real earthquake furthermore that finally there was the Barcelona without their principal star, Lionel Messi, who had more inconveniences than supposed to win by the minimum difference.

And the earthquake, as it could not be otherwise, arrived as reply of the multimediatic Portuguese coach of the Real Madrid, José Mourinho, who declared from the Spanish capital that “the matches are gifts” to Barcelona and that in this way “we shall have to take off too many points to be able to win the league because our direct rival counts with more helpings”.

In spite of this declarations and to the claims of the media of Madrid, strongly confronted to those of Catalonia in what is already a classic in the Spanish league (and much more than this, a clearly sociological deed) the debate seems to continue and almost could be said that it just started.

For example, it was surprising that the coach of the Atlético Madrid, Quique Sánchez Flores, that managing one of the teams that appear as possible alternative to fight for the league, declared about what has been made by the Sporting Gijón vs the Barcelona that “there are players who wisely are not put when confronting Barcelona because the next match is vital, for instance, in teams that fight to avoid the descend. What Manolo Preciado did the other day was very intelligent”.

Of course the great verdict on what Preciado did will be known on the next 14 of November when Gijon will confront the other rival of importance of the league, the Real Madrid. Placing the first team players instead of the substitutes vs the whites could produce another scandal, though the match that accepts more comparisons is the one that in any event, the Asturians will play in 2011, in the second round, in the stadium of Santiago Bernabeu.

To all this, in a healthy way for the league’s context, and as it his usual posture since he reached the position of coach two seasons ago, Josep Guardiola responded that he wouldn’t speak about José Mourinho during the whole leage and he neither gives personal interviews and only speaks at press conferences.

Even so, the Catalonian media started to recall to the Madrilenians that for example in the same fourth last round, in the match Real Madrid-Espanyol, in the stadium Santiago Bernabeu, the referee Clos Gómez, the same of the last season of which Guardiola complained in an act (something not usual in a coach), he once again benefitted the locals with unjust expels with controversial judgment.

But besides these darts between Madrid and Barcelona, and even more between the Real Madrid and the Fútbol Club Barcelona, that seems it will be a constant in this league, there is left an interrogative sign on whether the behaviour of Manolo Preciado and Sporting Gijón will be copied by other teams and not only in Spain but in other countries where the difference between big clubs and the small ones is so strong.

It should be also studied whether the share in the television rights should not be equalled as not to generate this kind of situations, meanwhile the Real Madrid as the Barcelona owe fortunes. According to Sandro Rosell, new president of the Catalonian club, inherited a debt of Euros 438 millions, meanwhile the Real Madrid had lowered 82 millions of their deficit, whoever, they still owe 245 millions.

So, in view of this situation, perhaps Preciado’s decision to go with the substitutes in the Camp Nou is much more a denunciation than even he himself believes.