Pep bows down as Manager of FC Barcelona

A career that was probably one of its kind and unparalleled in many ways has been that of Josef “Pep” Guardiola. With 13 out of the possible 19 trophies in 4 seasons, he has packed his trophy cabinet with all the prestigious titles that club football has to offer.

Being a former Spanish and FC Barcelona player himself, he took over as Manager of FC Barcelona in 2008 succeeding Frank Rijkaard and has since then achieved with the club things that all football managers in the world can only dream of achieving a span of 4 years.

In his first season as manager, Barcelona won the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. In doing so, Guardiola became the youngest UEFA Champions League-winning manager ever. The following season, Guardiola and Barcelona won the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup, bringing the manager's tally to the maximum of six trophies in six competitions in one year, thus completing the first ever sextuple.

The term ‘Beautiful Barca’ was coined due to the quality of the attacking, aesthetically-pleasing football that flowered at Barcelona under his tutelage this will forever define Pep Guardiola as one of the best in the world. What he has offered to all the fans and followers of the game is a visual treat, smooth, quick and fantastic football. But as is said, that all good things must come to an end, so has Pep Guardiola’s time at FC Barcelona.

On 27 April 2012, Guardiola announced he would quit as Barcelona manager on 30 June, 2012. He stated he was experiencing severe physical and mental stress, and he left the team's management to his second-in-charge and good friend Tito Vilanova.

The brilliance of the man is showcased in how he was able to keep a constant hunger within the team and at the same time get them to play with the beauty and fluency with which FC Barcelona has played over the last four years. When he took over in 2008, he has assured Lionel Messi that under his tutelage, Messi would score at least 3-4 goals every game. And how right he was! Messi has over the seasons become the best player not just in the La Liga but also all over the world.

Lionel Messi is just one such talent. There are a bunch of other players whose careers have been rejuvenated by this man. He has redefined the very meaning of playing beautiful football. There have been games in which FC Barcelona have lost, but they have lost as well in style. It’s very rare to see the losing team enjoy 70% and above ball possession. This has been the beauty of his game-play. No matter what the outcome of the game has been, his team has always enjoyed more than 70% of ball possession. He has redefined the term dominance.

Here’s a look at his overall achievement at FC Barcelona. 3 La Liga titles, 2008-09 , 09-10 , 10-11. Three Spanish Super Cups in 2009, 10 and 11. Two Champions League titles in, 2008-09 , 10-11.  Two FIFA Club World Cup in 2009 and 2011.  Two UEFA Super Cups in  2009 and 2011. One Copa del Rey title in 2008-09.

What will be interesting to watch now is where the Catalans giants will go from here. There’s no doubt that Pep has set about a culture in Barcelona that will only be taken forward by the Managers who will succeed him. But the question of everybody’s mind is, when this brilliant statistician returns to football and rest assured that he will, where he will be headed to? This is something that only Pep can answer.

Having said that, let us take a moment and pay tribute to Pep Guardiola, the man who redefined the face of Spanish football. Adiós Pep, que se perdió

What Led to the Sinking of the Titanic?

On April 15, 1912 at 2:20 a.m., a little less than three hours after crashing into an iceberg, the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, claiming the lives of over 1,500 people. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic left from Southampton, England on its maiden voyage to New York City and was one of the largest cruise liners of its time.

The mood was suitably somber on Tuesday, when a series of events were held there in honor of the ship’s anniversary. More than 650 descendants of those on board met for a ceremony at the exact same place where the Titanic set sail. Southampton was home to more than a third of the more than 1,500 people who died when the ship hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.

Despite all the aftermath and tragedy that this led to, there are several alternate theories and suggestions made by several theorists as to what was the real reason behind the sinking of this exquisite cruise liner. The accepted reason nonetheless, for the sinking of this massive ship which led to the death of nearly 1,500 people was that the ship struck an iceberg buckling the hull and allowing water to enter the ship’s first five watertight compartments resulting in the sinking of the ship in close to 3 hours. Hypotheses which have been suggested as the cause of the disaster include unsafe speed, an insurance scam, an ice-pack rather than an iceberg, and even a curse on the ship by the Unlucky Mummy.

So what was the real reason that lead to the sinking of ‘The Unsinkable Ship’?

One of the most complex and controversial theories has been put forward by Robin Gardiner in his book, ‘Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank?’ In it, Gardiner draws on several events and coincidences that occurred in the months, days, and hours leading up to the sinking of the Titanic, and concludes that the ship that sank was in fact Titanic's sister ship Olympic, disguised as Titanic, as an insurance scam.

According to him, Olympic was the older sister of Titanic, both built together but the former was launched in October 1910. Her exterior profile was nearly identical to Titanic, save for small detailing such as the promenade deck windows. These were not glazed in Olympic. In Titanic, the front half of the promenade deck was fitted with smaller glazed windows to protect passengers from spray.

On September 20, 1911, the Olympic was involved in a collision with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke near Southampton. The cruiser smashed its ram into the side of the Olympic, seriously damaging both ships. The inquiry found Hawke free of all blame. This set in motion Gardiner's theory.

White Star Line was allegedly not insured for the cost of fixing the damaged Olympic (which, according to Gardiner, had damaged the central turbine's mountings and the keel). The White Star's flagship would also be out of action during any repairs, and the Titanic's completion date would have to be delayed. All this would amount to a grave monetary loss for the company. Gardiner proposes that, to make sure at least one vessel would be earning money; Olympic was then converted to become the Titanic. Gardiner states that few parts of either ship bore the name, other than the easily removed lifeboats, bell, compass binnacle, and name badges. Thus, Gardiner believes the Titanic spent 25 years in service as the Olympic.

Gardiner uses as evidence the length of Titanic's sea trials. Olympic's trials in 1910 took two days, including several high speed runs, but Titanic's trials reportedly only lasted for one day, with no working over half-speed. Gardiner says this was because the patched-up hull could not take any long periods of high speed.

Gardiner suggests the plan was to dispose of the Olympic to collect insurance money. He supposes that the seacocks were to be opened at sea to slowly flood the ship. If numerous ships were stationed nearby to take off the passengers, the shortage of lifeboats would not matter as the ship would sink slowly and the boats could make several trips to the rescuers.

Gardiner maintains that on April 14, Officer Murdoch (who was not officially on duty yet) was on the bridge because he was one of the few high-ranking officers who knew of the plan and was keeping a watch out for the rescue ships. One of Gardiner's most controversial statements is that the Titanic did not strike an iceberg, but an IMM rescue ship that was drifting on station with its lights out. Gardiner based this hypothesis on the idea that the supposed iceberg was seen at such a short distance by the lookouts on the Titanic because it was actually a darkened ship, and he also does not believe an iceberg could inflict such sustained and serious damage to a steel double-hulled vessel such as the Titanic.

Gardiner further hypothesizes that the ship that was hit by the Titanic was the one seen by the Californian firing distress rockets, and that this explains the perceived inaction of the Californian (which traditionally is seen as failing to come to the rescue of the Titanic after sighting its distress rockets). Gardiner's hypothesis is that the Californian was not expecting rockets, but a rendezvous. The ice on the deck of the Titanic is explained by Gardiner as ice from the rigging of both the Titanic and the mystery ship it hit. 

Researchers Bruce Beveridge and Steve Hall took issue with many of Gardiner's claims in their book, Olympic and Titanic: The Truth Behind the Conspiracy. Author Mark Chirnside has also raised serious questions about the switch theory. There is also evidence that Gardiner's theory is not true. When parts of the wreck were recovered, the construction number 401 was found on all of them. 401 was the Titanic's construction number, the number of the Olympic was 400. However after Olympic's collision, it was fitted with temporary repairs and many of Titanic's parts already stamped with the number 401 were fitted to Olympic.

Believe what you want to but the truth remains that the RMS Titanic never completed its maiden voyage and sank to its watery grave at 11:40 PM on 14 April, 1912. To pay tribute to this legendary ship, a video was released recently highlighting exactly how the massive cruise liner sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean and reached the ocean bed miles below.