There have been few videos I have enjoyed as much as this one, ever. Even if you’re not a Barcelona fan, if you’re into football or sports at all, you really must watch it. It’s really amazing and heart-warming to watch these guys as young kids growing up together. Look at little Andres getting a junior trophy from his future coach, or Messi with his mother, or Xavi’s features not having changed a bit. Great stuff.

What we are witnessing under the Pep Guardiola era might be one of the most radical experiments in modern football. I don’t just mean on the pitch, though that too is worth a mention — what with Guardiola basically revolutionizing pressing without the ball, making a 25-goal threat a 45-goal threat (Messi) by playing him more centrally, changing Barca’s shape such that it’s almost a back three so that full backs especially become wing backs, and much more.

No, what’s truly revolutionary about Pep is his absolute, no-holds barred authoritarian insistence on having players only that play for the team, and the complete banning of egos. Don’t get me wrong, there’s other managers out there who’re strict and schoolmaster-like. But even the worst of the worst tolerate some preening or selfishness (for example, even notorious hair-dryer-chucker Alex Ferguson put up with the insufferable Cristiano Ronaldo for years).

Not Pep. And it’s had real, hard consequences; Barca have an exceptionally light squad this year, and don’t tell me that a certain tall Swedish striker would not have helped on the pitch. But he was causing problems off it, according to Pep, and so he had to go.

As I said, Pep is conducting a real, live experiment here. Call it the anti-City experiment. The question is this: if you have a squad of players that basically grew up together, that like each other, that spent days and nights at La Masia playing footie and cards and video games, that’s basically one big family…can it make up for the fact that the squad has only 18 players, only 15 of whom you would trust in a real big European game? In other words, does quality and spirit and camaraderie make up for lack of depth? That’s what we’re about to find out in the coming weeks and months.

So far, the lack of depth isn’t really hurting Barca. What’s hurting the team more is a strange, inexplicable ability to finish gilt-edged chances. I don’t recall a team fluffing an open goal as many times as I’ve seen Barca do it in the first 6 weeks of this season. But the good news is that the chances are coming, despite Messi in and out of the lineup, despite David Villa having adjusting pains, despite Xavi now out for a couple of weeks, despite Mascherano being worked into the lineup, despite Pique having two bad games in a row for the first time since he left United — despite it all, the chances are coming. And there’s only three points separating the top four, so it’s not as if early season “struggles” have left them in the lurch.

Tell you what, though. If Barca win La Liga this year, it will be more impressive than either of the last two campaigns. Scoff if you want, but Madrid simply wasn’t a very good team in 2008-09, the year Barca won everything. This year they have an excellent team and an excellent manager. And Valencia (despite some major personnel losses) and Villareal (with some major personnel additions) aren’t exactly chopped liver either. It’s going to be a long season.