I choose to digress.
It's not arbitrary at all if you study their history in detail. Johan Cruyff was a very deliberate choice and he alone is by far and away the biggest influence for what the club has become in the modern era. In a way, Cruyff is to Barcelona what early Fergie was to United, in terms of being an innovator and laying the foundations for future success (we wouldn't attribute a lot of it to Atkinson and co. would we ?). Cruyff's influence can be broken down into 3 distinct phases of his Barcelona career.
1. The inspiration behind La Masia - His first and perhaps greatest contribution for Barcelona.
It was Johan who brought up the idea of converting the premises into a dormitory for youth players in 1979 to Josep Nunez. He knew the importance of having a great youth academy setup at the club, having been the mainstay of one at Ajax. Without La Masia, there would be no Xavi, no Puyol, no Messi, no Guardiola, no Iniesta no Amor, no Barjuan, no Ferrer, no Busquets, no Milla etc etc. Without them there would be no Barcelona as we know it.
2. Cruyff the manager - There is very distinct contrast in Barcelona pre-1990 vs post 1990. Nowadays people have become accustomed to their success, but for almost 30 years till Cruyff's appointment as the manager, they won just 2 league titles and no European Cups, infact they hadn't won even one European Cup before 1992 and Wembley. He gave Guardiola his debut, bought the likes of Romario, Laudrup, Koeman, Stoichkov, Hagi and what followed was a stretch where they won their first European Cup, reached another final vs Milan, won the Liga 4 times after having won it just 2 times in 30 previous seasons, won the Cup Winners' Cup and so forth. The structure that he put into place from his managerial tenure influenced Barcelona under both Rijkaard (who started phase 2 of Barcelona's modern success) and Guardiola (Cruyff's protege).
3. Cruyff the administrator - He was a major influence for what was known as L'Elefant Blau, a group spearheaded by Joan Laporta that was opposed to the presidency of Nunez. Johan was also the advisor to Laporta when he ascended to the post of club president, and Laporta kickstarted the second phase of success with Rijkaard and Ronaldinho and Eto'o and Deco.