14.10.2008 12:24
Caparrós and Guardiola in support of home-grown talent
Jesús Carrillo
Athletic Club and FC Barcelona play this Sunday in a game between two managers, Josep Guardiola and Joaquín Caparrós, who are huge fans of drawing on their own club’s youth players.
Both these managers share the philosophy that it is not just big name imports that make a solid
team. The FC Barcelona manager has drawn upon the likes of Pedro Rodríguez, Sergio Busquets and
Víctor Sánchez, who have been promoted from Division Three, Group V matches to the bright lights of
the Camp Nou. We could also include Gerard Piqué here, a 21 year old who may already have
Premiership and Champions League experience with Manchester United, but was also a product of the
Barça youth system.
Caparrós makes his mark
Somebody who would appreciate what Guardiola is doing is Bilbao boss Caparrós, who since he
took over the club has maintained the philosophy he originally developed in Sevilla’s Ramón
Sánchez Pizjuán.
‘Jokin’, as he his known, took command of Sevilla when they were in the second
division. He used youth players as the basis to turn one of the most disappointing Sevilla sides in
recent history into what is arguably the finest generation the club has ever produced.
Capel, Navas, Ramos, Puerta…
Sevilla was enraptured by the talents of the many players that were brought
up from the reserve side coached at the time by Manolo Jiménez. Caparrós was the man who gave
chances to the now famous Jesús Navas, Diego Capel, Javier Casquero, David Prieto and the late
Antonio Puerta, who all quickly became regular starters for Sevilla.
It was these players that managed to fill Sevilla’s stadium again and the sense of
local identity worked wonders for rebuilding a team that was soon back where it belonged – in
the first division.
Reyes the first
The first real star to emerge from the Sevilla youth setup was José Antonio Reyes, who made
extraordinary progress, and within two years of his debut was snapped up London club Arsenal for 24
million euros. Reyes’ move to Arsenal, plus those of Sergio Ramos and Julio Baptista to Real
Madrid, are the finest examples of the good work done by Caparrós to encourage local talent. And
then there was Dani Alves, who the Sevilla manager nurtured to perfection, and sold on to Barça for
a handsome fee.
Now at Bilbao
Since last season, Bilbao has also witnessed a similar
project that has seen players of the calibre of Balenziaga, Ion Vélez, Ustaritz and Susaeta coming
up from the reserve team, and all of them are likely to be in the eleven that takes on Barça on
Sunday. Caparrós and Guardiola may be from different generations, but both share the idea that the
present and the future of their respective clubs lies in their own reserve and youth teams.