Hi John
I've only tried the player career mode; I'm much better at getting tonked by my colleagues on WHF and Stuff in our FIFA league...
But my son plays manager mode quite a bit. One thing that springs to mind is that you aren't leaving yourself much room to grow, starting with Barcelona! You've already got the best team in the world, so pretty tough to improve things hugely. And quite easy to muck it up.
It might well be easier to start with a third or fourth tier team, and bring them up through the ranks. That way you get the experience points on the way to becoming a five-star manager over a season or two of lower league footie - hopefully with your chap comfortably the best player on the park. Which will bring him on as well.
That isn't much help to you in your Barcelona role, though, I'm afraid...
Good luck!
Jonny