12.08.2008 10:15
Youngsters rewarded for good work
David Puig
Guardiola is keeping his confidence in the five youngsters that took part in the US tour. They will all continue to work with the first team as they prepare for the game with Wisla.
Josep Guardiola knows them well and knows what they can do. They haven’t let him down this
preseason and he has therefore decided that after travelling to Scotland and the USA, they will
continue to play with the first team players. It may be an unusual situation, but Guardiola has
always been a firm believer in the B team. After all, he himself was a player who started out at La
Masia before going on to become a regular member of the Barça first team.
Winning confidence
Jeffren, Pedro, Sergi Busquets, Víctor Vázquez and Víctor
Sánchez have played well and worked hard, and fully deserve the confidence Guardiola has shown in
them. And the players have started at an advantage with respect to the first team, because they
already know all about Guardiola’s ideas.
Once the preseason is over, the reserve players usually go back to training with their peers,
as already occurred with Córcoles and Abraham, who did take part in the Saint Andrews camp. But in
a break from tradition, the five B team players will, for the time being, be staying under the
orders of Guardiola.
Messi paves the way
In recent seasons, this kind of attitude has become fairly
normal at Barça, though not to such a large extent. We need look no further than Leo Messi in
2005/06. The Argentinian went to Asia and carried on with the first team thereafter. But that same
summer, Rodri and Pitu, once the preseason was over, went straight back to joining in with the
reserve team preparations.
Bojan and Giovani
Last season, Bojan and Giovani Dos Santos were the only reserves that stayed on with the
first team once the trip to Saint Andrews and the tour of China and Japan were over. Bojan missed
the tour because of the Under 17 World Cup, but rejoined Frank Rijkaard as soon as he was back in
Barcelona. Giovani also stayed with the first team, while Oier, Dimas, Olmo, Marc Valiente and Marc
Crosas returned to the reserves.