When Indian financier Ahsan Ali Syed in January got control of an 80 per cent stake in Spanish Primera club Real Racing Club de Santander, he vowed he would financially lift them to a Spanish top team. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t, or so the saying goes.

Ahsan Ali Syed, 37, grew up in Hyderabad, India, and shuttles between Zurich and Bahrain, where he lives with his family and manages his financial consultancy company Western Gulf Advisory. Last year Mr Ali was the frontrunner to buy Premier League team Blackburn Rovers for £300 million. That deal fell over and the club was eventually bought by Indian poultry giant Venkys. During negotiations, Mr Ali came under intense scrutiny from British media. The BBC alleged he had left a string of unpaid debts from his time living in Britain between 2001 and 2005. He is also accused of financial scams throughout Australia and Malaysia. He is alleged to have promised to make sizeable loans to struggling companies, taken large fees for setting the loans up and then never released the funds.

Blackburn Rovers decided against doing business with Mr Ali while Racing Santander signed the deal with him, after having had Deloitte and Credit Suisse carry out checks on Mr Ali and his company. So far the only signing Racing Santander have secured has been Giovani Dos Santos, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. Coach Miguel Angel Portugal was sacked after Mr Ali took over the club in January. He was replaced by Marcelino García Toral but he quit last week, as he was made the new coach of Sevilla.
Players salaries have been delayed for three months or more but the Cantabrian side’s president and staff are still hoping for Ahsan Ali Syed to the deliver on his promises.

Barcelona’s dismantling of Manchester United in the Champions League final was the crown of what has been thirty years in the making at Camp Nou. The 5-0 El Clásico trashing of Real Madrid earlier in the season and the manner they beat United gave them the third Champions League victory in six seasons and the fifth La Liga title in last seven seasons. Their dominance on the European stage is similar to what we saw from Real Madrid in the late 1950s/early 60s, Ajax in the early 1970s, Bayern Munich in the mid 70s, Liverpool in the late 70s/early 80s and AC Milan in the early 90s.

There are many historical links leading to the total football played by the Barcelona of today, most of them have a common link in Johan Cruyff. The system of “total football” was invented by Rinus Michels, who coached Ajax through their most successful period and with Cruyff as the greatest prodigy. Michels left Ajax for Barcelona, with Cruyff soon following as a player. In 1974 they led Barcelona to their first La Liga title in 14 years, before Michels moved on to lead the Netherlands to the 1974 World Cup. Cruyff was crowned as European footballer of the year for the third time. At the time he was a player at Barcelona, Cruyff convinced Barcelona president Josep Núñez that they needed a youth system similar to the one he came through at Ajax. The birth of La Masia came in 1979, the year after Cruyff left, the complex used by the Barcelona youth system.

In 1988 Johan Cruyff returned to Barcelona as a manager. He had already enjoyed managerial success with Ajax, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, and further developed the playing tactics first implemented by Rinus Michels. Some of his Ajax players went on to enjoy further success with teams like AC Milan (Rijkaards and Van Basten) and Arsenal (Bergkamp). With his old Barca team mate Carles Rexach as assistant coach Cruyff pushed on with his football philosophy. He brought in foreign stars who suited the style of play, with Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Romário while pouring resources into La Masia. The first product of the youth system making it through to the first team was Guillermo Amor. He was to go on to win 17 titles with Barcelona, more than any other player in the club’s history.

When Cruyff brought another La Masia graduate in to the first team squad, a 19 year old Joseph Guardiola, he instructed Ronald Koeman to take him under his wing and make sure he understood everything about the Dutch style of play. In 1992 Guardiola and Albert Ferrer (also from La Masia) won Barcelona’s first European Cup final, at Wembley stadium, with Koeman as man of the match.

After Cruyff left players like Victor Valdés, Oleguer Presas, Carles Puyol, Albert Joquera, Xavi Hernandez and Andrés Iniesta were still coming through the youth system, whiles the likes of Cesc Fabregas was poached away from the club. In 2008 Guardiola was promoted from Barcelona B coach to manage the first team. Guardiola was passionately involved with the youth system and Barcelona B and had since his playing days been looked up to by the players. Under his leadership the club started making maximum advantage of the incredible resource at hand. The club have 15 scouts throughout Catalonia, another 15 throughout the rest of Spain and a further 10 scouts around the world.

Guardiola has successfully continued Cruyff’s Dutch total football, which Cruyff married up with the Spanish tiki-taka one-touch play. In practise superb one-touch players like Messi and Iniesta have Xavi keeping the ball constantly moving. The likes of Busquets drops back to cover when full backs or centre halfs move forward. In the 2011 Champions League final Xavi completed 148 passes, a record high in this season’s competition, where only sevey of them were misplaced. Xavi is the conductor of today’s champions, like Laudrup was for Barcelona’s dream team of the 1990s. The current Barcelona team are a level above any other European top team, as conceded by Alex Ferguson after the Wembley defeat. Two thirds of the team won the European Championship and the World Cup for Spain. In addition they have the likes of Brazilian full-back Dani Alves and Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi. Guardiola will continue at least for another season and thus far it’s difficult to see anyone catching up with them. After all, this success did not come overnight.

UPDATE: 23 June 2011
After a battle to get the Turkish FA to accept Guus Hiddink breaking his contract, Chelsea instead pursued and successfully appointed Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas to take over at Stamford Bridge.

Carlo Ancelotti was sacked as Chelsea manager shortly after the 0-1 loss to Everton.
Sources within the Chelsea ranks reveal they’re going after Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Hiddink is currently coach of the Turkish national team, a position he has held since last August.
Hiddink was caretaker manager of Chelsea the last three months of the 2008-09 season. In that period he lifted the FA Cup trophy with the club, before Carlo Ancelotti was appointed new manager. Hiddink was at the same time also coach for the Russian national team. He has also coached the national sides of Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands.

Guus Hiddink enjoyed his greatest success as manager of Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven in the late 1980s and during a later spell between 2002-2006. Hiddink is a friend of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich but whether they will succeed in making Hiddink break his contract with Turkey is still to be seen.

On May 15th Ledley King was back at centre back for Tottenham, helping the team to a first win away at Liverpool since 1993. King had not played since October 16th when he got injured in an away win at Fulham. Still after a seven months break he seemed to slot effortlessly back into the team. A commanding performance from King, his centre back partner Michael Dawson, full backs Younes Kaboul and the young Danny Rose kept Liverpool’s Suarez, Carroll, Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez subdued.

Ledley King is Tottenham’s longest serving player. He joined the club as a seventeen year old in 1997. His debut came in a 2-3 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in May 1999. He started out as a midfielder and established himself as a regular after a 2-1 win against Liverpool in November 2000. The 2001/02 season saw King moving to the centre back position, after Sol Campbell moved to Arsenal. By the end of the season he was called up for England and regarded as one of the country’s best young centre backs.
In the 2003/04 season Glenn Hoddle was sacked as Tottenham manager and the new management moved King back into midfield. He was still called up as centre back for England. The following season he was in his preferred role as centre back again and had an outstanding season for Tottenham. They conceded only 41 goals in the Premier League and King played the full 90 minutes of every match. In January 2005 he was appointed as Spurs’ captain.

In the 2005/06 season a young Michael Dawson paired up with King in the Spurs central defense. They were both hugely impressive before King broke his metatarsal (foot) towards the end of the season. That was unfortunately the beginning of King’s long standing injury problems. He then injured his knee in pre-season before braking his metatarsal again. His appearances on the field became very sporadical but he captained his side to win the League Cup final in 2008. One of only ten appearances that season. King’s knee troubles had become chronic and unrepairable. Since then King doesn’t train with his team mates but works out in the gym. After each match his knee blows up like a balloon and has to be managed for him to have any chance to get ready the following week. Still King kept coming back into the team, delivering top performances every time. However his injuries made it difficult for him getting picked for his national side.
Several outstanding performances during the 2009/10 season saw him picked for England’s provisional World Cup squad. He scored in a friendly against Mexico on May 24th and was eventually picked for the World Cup in South Africa. He played the first 45 minutes in England’s opening match against USA, before pulling out with a groin injury. This was his last appearance in an England shirt.

King keeps managing his chronic knee injury and started out well in Tottenham’s 2010/11 campaign. That was until the groin injury kept him out from October until his come back at Anfield yesterday.
King’s injury troubles have seen Robbie Keane and later Michael Dawson as Spurs skipper every time he has been absent. His outstanding ability has kept him in the squad and it makes you wonder what might have been, without all the injuries. King is perhaps the most outstanding centre back the Premier League has seen. An interesting fact is also the fair play reputation he has. In his entire career King has only got 8 yellow cards. He has still got one more year in his contract with Spurs. It looks like that will be honoured and we still have some more outstanding performances coming.

Danny Rose is a left winger who plays for English side Tottenham and England’s U-21 team.
Rose arrived at Tottenham in July 2007, from Leeds United’s youth academy. He worked hard in the Spurs academy and reserves and had brief loan spells at Watford and Peterborough. In January 2010 Rose made his debut for Tottenham’s senior team in a 2-2 draw against Leeds in the FA Cup. Three months later he made his Premier League debut in a 2-1 win against Arsenal. Danny Rose made his name on everyone’s lips by scoring on a spectacular volley, a goal voted Goal of the Season by Sky Sports viewers.
Rose started the 2010/11 season on loan to Bristol City but returned to Tottenham in January. In May he was back in Premier League action, replacing the injured Benoit Assou-Ekotto at left back. Rose had a strong performance against Blackpool on May 7th and was praised by manager Harry Redknapp. He followed up with another good match in th 0-1 defeat to Manchester City on May 10th. On May 15th he was again part of a brilliant Spurs defense when they beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield.

Rose has played for England at U-17 and U-19 levels before being included in the U-21 in June 2009. He has been a regular in their qualifiers for the 2011 European Championship and scored his first goal in a 1-0 win against Portugal. The UEFA U-21 European Championship finals will be hosted by Denmark in June 2011.