For the past five years, one football club has set the standard for all others to follow.
In a feat unlikely to be matched for a generation, Barcelona have won every club honour in sight, repeatedly, while the core of its team won the European Championships and World Cup at international level. Arguably four of the world's five best players appear in the Barcelona squad, they give more to charity than any other side, and in footballing terms they are feared twice as much as their nearest competitors. But still, there remains one goal yet to achieve.
For such a gifted group of players, the rare and intangible honour of footballing immortality is now within reach. And this season is the last step in establishing Barcelona circa 2010 as precisely that, immortal. Already the team of their generation, the new approach of this season will grant the title of the best club side ever. If everything goes to plan.
For the first league game of the season, coach Pep Guardiola set out a 3-4-3 formation, the like of which is almost never seen in the modern game. But its rarity is precisely why this is such a genius move.
Currently Barcelona's style is known as 'tiki-taka', essentially 'pass and move'. Now while this sounds very nice, future schools of football need more than a soundbyte. Barcelona need to establish a set up that is unlike any other, unique to themselves for others to imitate. This is why, beyond all of the footballing majesty that has come before, the new formation represents the piece of the puzzle that could complete Barcelona's everlasting stamp on history.
Becoming the purveyors of a unique footballing style is incredibly rare, and was last accomplished by Dutch 'total football' in the 1970s. Again, more than just a soundbyte, total football brought the 4-3-3 to worldwide attention, and this model, which incorporates a holding midfielder, has been the blueprint for many successful sides since that date. But while the majority of Premier League sides still view the concept of three forwards as risky and avant-garde, Barcelona could be about to re-write the rule book all over again.
Playing with just three at the back would be suicidal if any other team attempted it. But Barcelona are here to prove that it can be done. Success with such an attacking system would, most importantly, destroy all modern-day assumptions that the defence is the rock on which to build a top side. Many hugely influential schools of thought, such as the Italians, or any side coached by Jose Mourinho, have built the strongest, meanest defences possible, relying on physically dominating opponents at the back, safe in the knowledge that if you don't concede, you can't lose.
Putting the defence first is an approach that normally works, so is hard to criticise. Except that it isn't very entertaining. As successful as Mourinho has been in his career, he is a key target of critics who say that modern day football has become dull. It is what Mourinho stands for, as much as his powerful Real Madrid side, that Barcelona are battling against this season.
At the weekend, Guardiola's team played one recognised defender (a left-back) and won 5-0. The diamond midfield formation provided both the stability of a holding player and the fluidity to allow creative freedom for the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Andreas Iniesta. As the scoreline suggests, it was absolutely devastating. Normally a lineup like that only works on the Playstation, but turning fantasy to reality has been part of Barcelona's mission statement of late.
The main obstacle will, of course, be Madrid. Mourinho's side will take the title race to a very, very close finish if they are to be denied this season, and will be there or thereabouts in the Champions League also. But often in sport the true artisans (Federer, Ali, Senna) will rise to the very top and be remembered forever, and not a single side is like Barcelona. They are very, very close. Having beaten everyone else, they may as well start taking on ideologies now, and I for one wouldn't bet against them.
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