Barcelona’s defeat by Valencia on Sunday had a touch of deja vu about it and would surely have reminded Louis van Gaal of his disastrous second spell at the Nou Camp.
Ivan Rakitic’s own goal and a Santi Mina strike secured three points for the visitors as Barcelona’s recent meltdown showed no signs of coming to an end.
It was the first time Barcelona had suffered three consecutive La Liga defeats since 2003, over 13 years ago when they were not the dominant European giants we’ve witnessed over the last decade.
And guess who was in charge of the Spanish heavyweights back then? Yes, the current under-fire Manchester United manager.
Van Gaal won two La Liga titles and the UEFA Super Cup in his first stint at Barcelona and returned to the club at the beginning of the 2002-03 season with high expectations.
But it proved to be a return to forget for the Dutchman and despite leading the club to a then record-equalling 10 successive Champions League wins, their league form dramatically declined.
During that ill-fated campaign, Barca lost three matches on the bounce in a season where they ultimately finished sixth-place, securing UEFA Cup football.
Van Gaal was in the dugout for two of those matches, which came against Valencia and Celta Vigo, before he left the club by mutual consent prior to their third defeat against at Atletico Madrid.
So when Barca suffered yet another shock defeat to the hands of Valencia at the weekend, it would have brought back memories the United boss would have hoped were long gone.
The former Ajax boss was strongly criticised for signing the likes of Robert Enke, Gaizka Mendieta and Juan Roman Riquelme, who all failed to light up the Nou Camp, and his treatment of Rivaldo.
Brazil legend Rivaldo fell out with the the Dutchman during his first spell in Spain and was sold to Italian giants AC Milan where he won the Champions League that season.
Though Barca weren’t the team they are now, Van Gaal still had a star-studded group of players to choose from, with some notable names playing their part in the team’s poor run of form.
The first of the three straight defeats in 2003 came against Sunday’s victors Valencia, who were managed by Rafa Benitez at the time.
Legendary players including Marc Overmars, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Patrick Kluivert all featured in the 4-2 loss and came up against the likes of John Carew and Vicente.
Pablo Aimar, Carew, Fabio Aurelio and Francisco Rufete were on target for the winners while striker Kluivert and Thiago Motta, now playing for Paris Saint-Germain, scored for Barca.
The following match, the Spanish giants suffered a 2-0 defeat at Celta Vigo; a match which proved to be Van Gaal’s final one as the club’s manager.
Jesuli and Sylvinho, who went on to play for Barca two seasons later, scored the all-important goals as Van Gaal’s second spell at the La Liga side ended in defeat.
They suffered their third successive league defeat in embarrassing fashion, losing 3-0 against Atletico Madrid in their first match without the Dutchman.
A striker who goes by the name Fernando Torres opened the scoring for the hosts before Emerson and Jose Garcia Calvo made sure of the points.
But the Spanish side can take heart from the way they bounced back from the three defeats. With Radomir Antic at the helm, they lost only three of their remaining 18 games of the season.
And Luis Enrique will be hoping his team can find their fighting spirit to perform in the final five matches of the season to retain their league crown.
COMMENTS