Johan Cruyff's Chivas Project

Winter 2011, Club Deportiva Guadalajara has been knocked out of the title run by small team Queretaro FC leading to a disappointing end to a great season. Guadalajara, otherwise known a Chivas, needed someone to change their mentality, someone to lead them to victories again. Who could be put in charge of such an important task? None other than the Barcelona and Netherlands legend: Johan Cruyff. However, in order to be effective, he would first have to show that he has the qualities necessary for a leader. Cruyff is able to do this via practical wisdom, a topic that is gone into depth in the seventh chapter of Heinrichs's Thank You For Arguing, in which he divided it into three parts.

First, one must show off one's experience. This was probably the easiest part for Cruyff. Having won twenty-four titles as a player and fourteen titles as a manager, Cruyff has a lot of material to show off. The mere idea of a player that came second behind Pele in the World Player of the Century poll would come all the way to Mexico to help a team in the highly criticized Mexican football league would have any Chivas fanatic ecstatic. The man is already a legend. When it comes to showing off experience, Cruyff is basically set. It's the next two parts that require Cuyff's effort.

The second and last parts of practical wisdom are bending the rules and appearing to take the middle course. These two come into play in a decision Cruyff made recently, and by recently I mean yesterday. One of the biggest factors that define Chivas is the fact that the team is composed of only Mexicans. It is one of those traditions that should never be broken. However, this has posed a small problem for Chivas. With a more limited player pool to choose from, Chivas has recently suffered in keeping the level of the squad high despite the departure of most of the players that formed a part of the great team that played during the mid 2000s and were even crowned champions in 2006. As a result, Chivas has produced poor results in the recent years. Cruyff's response to this proved to be very controversial. Cruyff proposed that Chivas allow non Mexicans to join. What?! Cruyff had just decided to go against the tradition of the team! It was later clarified that Cruyff meant that players born outside of Mexico but of Mexican heritage would be able to join. By doing this, Cruyff is able to successfully fulfill the last two requirements of practical wisdom.

By altering the rules of the club, Cruyff is able to bend the rules and show that he has the willpower and desire to change the results of the club. Then, by not going to extremes in the changes that he does, Cruyff appears to take the middle course. This is able to fill all the Chivas supporters with hope, and allows the fanatics to believe in Cruyff.