It sounds unlikely now, but in the 1970s and 1980s Barcelona were an average side that were regularly pipped to the league title by Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid. Their ability to squander opportunities reached a remarkable peak in the 1981-82 season, when they threw it away completely

Barcelona’s thrilling Uefa Super Cup victory over Sevilla last Tuesday earned them their fourth trophy of the calendar year, a figure that could rise to six with the Spanish Super Cup and World Club Cup still to be awarded. A new generation of football fans is growing up watching the club as a Lionel Messi-powered trophy vacuum that glides serenely across the footballing landscape effortlessly sucking up every piece of silverware in its path. Bedazzled by the glamour and success, many of these fans will be oblivious to some of the club’s somewhat chaotic and comedic history from the not too distant past.

It wasn’t just that Barcelona managed but a solitary title in the quarter of a century between Helenio Herrera in 1960 and Terry Venables in 1985; it was the titles they could have won had they not contrived to regularly grasp crushing defeat from the jaws of inevitable victory. And never was the club’s long-standing fragility better demonstrated than during the climax to the 1981-82 La Liga season.

Compared to the skilful and cosmopolitan game we know today, Spanish football back in the 1970s and 1980s was a radically different affair – less tiki-taki and more kicky-hacky. Much of La Liga’s star quality was contracted out to big-name foreigners then as now, but there the parallels stop. Contemporary Spanish players complement the foreign stars with skill, craft and guile; back then they tended to be cast more in the supporting role of ruthless henchmen tasked with doing the team’s dirty work.

The Barcelona of 1981-82 was little different. West German midfielder Bernd Schuster and the Danish winger Allan Simonsen supplied the stardust; the battle-hardened veterans and fierce youngsters of Spanish provenance supplied the violence.

The evergreen striker Quini was an honourable domestic exception and Barcelona relied heavily on his goals. In March 1981 he had been kidnapped and, by the time he was released unharmed 25 days later, his team-mates had collected just a single point from the four games he missed. Another promising title push ended in faintly ludicrous circumstances.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Barcelona team that played Spurs in the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane in 1982. Back row (left-right): Jose Sanchez, Martinez Manolo, Antonio Olmo, Jose Alexcanco, Javier Urruti, Miranda Gerardo. From row: Juan Estella, Enrique Moran, Jose Carrasco, Jose Ramos and Allan Simonsen. Photograph: Keith Hailey/Popperfoto/Getty Images

A 4-0 hammering in the Nou Camp by Köln in the final of their own Joan Gamper Trophy did not augur well, but once the domestic season began, competitive form was much more encouraging: Alexanco was in towering form at sweeper; Simonsen was irresistible on the right wing; Quini was putting away goals in his easy, unfussy manner; and Schuster was pulling the strings at the centre of everything.

The ever-temperamental midfielder was never far from controversy. He was stupidly sent off at Gijon and was then involved in a training ground punch-up with his own team-mate, Estella, but he was the motor driving the “Barcelona Eléctricos” as the press were calling this revitalised team. Such was Schuster’s form that, when Bilbao’s notorious Andoni Goicoechea shredded his knee ligaments and ended his season with one of his trademark tackles in December 1981, there was panic at Barcelona over the loss of their star man.

Frantic attempts to bring in a new foreign star to cover for his absence saw emissaries dispatched to West Germany and Brazil to talk to Bruno Pezzey, Socrates and Toninho Cerezo. The expense involved in concluding any of these deals would have been prohibitive and their domestic form wasn’t appearing to suffer unduly - Real Madrid were dispatched 3-1 in Barcelona’s first home game after the Schuster injury.

By March 1982 a 2-1 home win over Real Zaragoza extended Barcelona’s run of unbeaten games to 10 and put them five points clear of reigning champions Real Sociedad with just six games to play. With Barça also having the advantage of a better head-to-head record over the Basque club, finishing level on points wasn’t even going to be good enough for Real Sociedad. And yet the Catalans didn’t even get close.

A longstanding myth suggests that the 1981-82 title bid collapsed the moment Schuster hit the ground clutching his knee, but in reality it was a full three months later before the wheels fell off their campaign. Outplayed at Valencia and meekly surrendering their unbeaten run in a 3-0 defeat could have been dismissed as a blip, but alarm bells started to ring the following week when their city neighbours visited the Nou Camp. Español hadn’t won there since 1973 but cruised into a two-goal lead within 17 minutes and ran out eventual 3-1 winners.

The climax of the Round 31 games suggested momentum was now swinging firmly away from Barcelona. With just five minutes remaining, both Barça and Real Sociedad were drawing their away fixtures. The Catalans had fought back manfully to draw level from two goals down in Pamplona only to be stunned by an 88th minute Osasuna winner; just 60 seconds later Sociedad grabbed a winner at Valencia. A three-point lead in the table was reduced to just one within those few fateful minutes.

Liga 1981-82

Morale in Udo Lattek’s team had collapsed, individual errors were rife and there was a distinct lack of onfield leadership to steady the team – a long-standing problem for the club. Arresting the run of four straight defeats in Round 32 brought little satisfaction. The typically angry return fixture at home to Bilbao was drawn 2-2, with Barcelona unable to find a winner despite the visitors playing the last 35 minutes with 10 men. Real Sociedad won again and with the teams now level on points, only Barcelona’s better head-to-head record kept them top.

A visit in the penultimate round to a Real Madrid side taking huge delight in the growing Catalan calamity was the last fixture Barcelona would have wanted. Madrid played with an intensity that suggested they were chasing the title rather than their disheveled opponents and fully deserved their 3-1 victory. With Sociedad drawing at Osasuna and moving a point clear in the table, the champions had taken control of their own destiny for the first time all season. The reaction in San Sebastian was incredulous.

Coming into the final round of fixtures, Barcelona could still become champions if they defeated Betis at home and Real Sociedad didn’t win at Atocha against their Basque neighbours Athletic Bilbao. As intense as the rivalry between the Basque pair was, to Bilbao the idea of Real Sociedad winning another title was infinitely preferable to it going to Barcelona.

Their performance in that final game could charitably be described as lackadaisical and Real Sociedad comfortably won 2-1 – not that Barcelona would have taken advantage of any slip-up anyway. Their wretched season end was typified by the manner in which they threw away a two-goal half-time lead to allow Betis to draw 2-2.

A team that had needed just seven points from their last six games to become champions, could have still managed it with four and yet managed to collect just two: the 1981-82 season represented the most dramatic squandering of the title in the history of the Spanish League.

So next time you see the Blaugrana lift silverware, just remember that only a few short decades ago the club were underachievers on an comically epic scale. Those days might yet return, but it’s probably unlikely at least until Messi retires.

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