The 1980s were drawing to a close and U2, the most successful rock band of the decade, looked to be a spent force. Their latest album, Rattle And Hum, had polarised opinion. The general consensus was the group had run out of ideas.
“We have to go away and dream it all up again,” Bono famously said at a concert in Dublin on December 30, 1989. It was the end of an era.
As Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta watched Atletico Madrid and bitter rivals Real Madrid fight for the Uefa Champions League on Saturday, it is tempting to think they were thinking something along those lines.
Last Sunday Barcelona surrendered the Primera Liga to Atletico at Camp Nou and, for the third season running, were nowhere to be seen when the continent’s top prize was contested.
Barca’s golden age, the age of tiki taka, is seemingly over. If it is, then Messi and his teammates should be thanked for flirting with football perfection like no other team.
Yet there is a distinct whiff of schadenfreude surrounding their slow demise.
It is no surprise. The modern football fan is not the most empathetic of creatures. Witness the season-long wallowing in the misfortunes of David Moyes and Manchester United, or the widespread celebration of Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip against Chelsea.
It is part of the intertribal banter, sometimes vitriol, that has always existed in football.
Far more puzzling is the haste with which Barcelona’s entire football philosophy has been discredited. Tiki taka has been “found out”, critics claim ungenerously – six years suddenly invalidated.
Football ideology is one thing, but successful teams come in cycles. Barcelona have simply reached the natural end of a glorious one.
Managerial changes, injuries, collective loss of form and old age have all contributed. But the Barcelona of 2008-2014 should be always revered as one of football's greatest, most innovative teams.
Historically, club and international teams that revolutionised football have been fetishised by experts and fans. Even in failure.
Hungary’s stunning loss to West Germany in the 1954 World Cup final has hardly diminished the legacy of Ferenc Puskas, Nandor Hidegkuti and Sandor Kocsis. In fact, history has only embellished the legend of the “Mighty Magyars”.
At the start of the 1970s, the Dutch, led by Rinus Michels on the sideline and Johann Cruyff on the pitch, redefined the modern game with “Total Football”. Ajax won three European Cups, but the Netherlands’ defeat to West Germany in the 1974 World Cup final signalled the end of those parallel cycles.
There was nothing intrinsically wrong, or unsustainable, with Total Football – as shown by the Netherlands’ spiritual brothers Denmark in 1986 – it just relied on the right, gifted players playing the right tactics at the right time.
Then there is Brazil at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, who are often rated the greatest team to have not won the competition. A team that shone brightly but all too fleetingly.
These teams are mythologised as much for their heroic failures as their successes.
You can forgive this trophy -laden Barcelona for feeling somewhat unloved by comparison.
But even the greatest teams of the past 50 years have had long-term success punctuated by ending cycles, typically of three or four years.
Bob Paisley’s unprecedented success in nine years as Liverpool manager notably came with two teams, while Manchester United’s era of obscene success under Sir Alex Ferguson was achieved with three great teams, demarcated by barely noticeable lean periods (comparatively speaking).
The AC Milans of Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello of the 1980s and 1990s – the team mostly compared to modern Barcelona – are rightly fabled for their pressing game and entertaining football.
Yet the golden era of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard everyone remembers lasted roughly between 1989-1992. The team that annihilated Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final was part of the next cycle.
Then there is the Brazil tam of 1970, perhaps the most adored football side of all. Pele, Rivelino, Carlos Alberto, Tostao and Jairzinho. A blur of yellow and blue that elevated football to art on the way to winning the World Cup in Mexico.
Within three years that golden team’s natural cycle had ended and few associate it with the Brazil that contested the 1974 World Cup, a cynical embarrassment to the previous generation.
So why only grudging respect for Barcelona, who never deviated from their principles?
Perhaps it is a 21st century phenomenon. Modern football’s obsession with contextualising success and failure within a never-ending narrative. One day a genius, the next day a fraud.
Boring, self-indulgent and a parody of itself. Barcelona’s football, like U2’s music all those years ago, has been savaged by a cynical and impatient public.
Yet when the Irish band returned in 1991, it was with their masterpiece album, Achtung, Baby.
The challenge for new Barcelona manager Luis Enrique and his players is clear. They must go away and dream it all up again.
akhaled@thenational.ae
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
Company%20Profile
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now