FCBARCELONA.CAT

04.09.2008 11:55

Guardiola returns to the Ciudad Deportiva

Marc Gullén / Jordi Clos

The manager and the six first team players still in Barcelona have trained with the reserves at Sant Joan Despí.

This Thursday morning Pep Guardiola has returned to the site of his first steps in management, the Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper. The first team coach arrived in Sant Joan Despí an hour and five minutes before training started and said hello to many of the reserve team coaches and players he worked with last season.

With Barça’s international players away, the coaching staff organised a joint training session for the first team and reserves. Both Guardiola and Luis Enrique, the current Barça Atlètic manager, kept a close eye on what was going on though the session was actually run by assistant coach Joan Barbarà.

Always with a ball

The session consisted of keep-ball sessions (in which Guardiola took part in a group made up of reserve team players), a tough
warm-up, possession football on half the pitch and finally a practice match.

The first-team players present were Víctor Valdés, Pinto, Sylvinho, Dani Alves, Víctor Sánchez and Eto'o. The Cameroon striker turned up at 10 am with the permission of the club. After greeting Guardiola and his team-mates, Eto'o trained as usual and was the star of the practice game as he scored two out of the four goals it featured.