Lillo looking back at 2003 election campaign

In an interview with Catalan newspaper El Periódico, Almería manager Juan Manuel Lillo talked about the elections campaign of 2003 when he was, together with current Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, part of the candidacy of Lluís Bassat:

"Pep called me and invited me to work with him. I never ask him what something is about. I don't even think about it. I go wherever needed. And when he proposed me to become the coach of Barça, what was there to think about! I also knew Lluís, so everything was very simple.

It is true that we focused all our attention on what we would do when we would win the elections, so that we didn't do anything to actually win. We were only thinking about and for Barça. That's Pep, more culé than the flag pole at the Camp Nou.

We didn't mention a single name, not regarding transfers, or coaches, or anything. We wanted that if people voted for us, it would be because of an idea, a project. We did not want the elections to be a catwalk of transfers. We maintained that policy, knowing it could play against us.

In the end, you think that if that was what the member decided, it just was not the right time for us to enter the club. Besides, all the people that were part of the candidacy - Lluís, Roca, Alemany, Pep - had very busy lives so that that the next day they just went on with what they were doing. Which is the proof of the integrity of all of them."

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Lillo would have been coach under Bassat

Speaking to Spanish newspaper Público, Almería manager Juan Manuel Lillo (picture, on the left) confirmed that he would have become the new manager of Barcelona if Lluís Bassat would have won the presidential elections in 2003.


You would have been the coach of Barça with Guardiola acting as sports director and Lluís Bassat as president. Your name was nevertheless kept hidden. Why was that?
For reasons of consistency, because the message that was trasmitted by both the candidate and Pep himself was based on not giving any names. We felt bad about others doing that, and we wanted people to accept the candidacy of Lluís Bassat because of the ideas and because of who was going to be strategically leading the club, not through putting out names. Over time they accused us of being naive, but it was an act of consistency.

Back then you were in Italy for a few weeks to prepare the candidacy with Pep. He was then already thinking about becoming a coach or not yet?
He then still didn't have the coaching degree and he was still a player, but his love for Barça and how he wanted his Barça to be was already clear to him. At that time he looked at it from a management point of view with a coach who could transmit his ideas. What we then discussed could come close to what Barça is now. Pep lived with intensity what Bassat proposed him, he liked it, but without thinking further than that.

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