Andoni Zubizarreta reinforced the commitment to players at the club. He seems really satisfied with their contribution during the preseason and made the point that there are reserve team players with a presence in the first team.
As happened last season with Thiago and Fontàs, the first team also has a couple of Barça B players
who will have a regular place in the first team, and will give depth to the resources of Pep
Guardiola. Although he didn’t want to reveal the names, the director of professional football
commented that "some of these players who will form part of the first team are currently playing in
the Under-20 World Cup".
Zubizarreta was pleased with the role of the young players this preseason: "Their
presence is important for the team but also for their football development. The last 30 minutes
against Manchester we ended up with almost the whole eleven brought through the ranks…..they
have the ability to understand how we play and lots of expectation", he added. The downside of this
situation, according to the technical director, is the lack of resources that Eusebio Sacristan has
at his disposal during Barça B’s preseason.
The Catalonia Cup with reserve team players
Many of these players will be playing in the forthcoming Catalonia Cup, immediately
after getting back from the tour. Zubizarreta, who recalled that on Monday the 8th players will be
called up for their national teams, confirmed that none of the first team will play "unless there
is a player we would like to have more minutes on the pitch”.
Calls for calm surrounding Deulofeu
Sergio Gomez and Gerard Deulofeu are the latest players to be added to the preseason
first team squad. Regarding Deulofeu, the technical director called for patience: "If in the case
of Thiago, Guardiola said he wanted to go 'piano, piano', then with Deulofeu, we’ll have to
go 'Pianissimo, pianissimo', with all the calm in the world. We don’t want anybody to compare
him with Messi".
More names
In addition to Deulofeu, in the press conference given in Miami, a lot of other
names came up. With regard to Jonathan Soriano, he guaranteed that if he stays he’ll be on a
Barça B team contract, on Keirrison he explained that he will train with the B team until they find
a team to loan him to, and as for Hleb they are also seeking a loan, but the player is still
recovering in Munich from a knee injury. He also spoke of Milito and Abidal; on the Argentine he
left the door open for his departure, while they’re working to renew Abidal’s contract:
"We want to deal directly with him to try to close it".
Asked about the status of negotiations with Arsenal on the signing of Cesc Fabregas,
Zubizarreta didn’t want to say too much: "Let’s see what happens. Talking about it
doesn’t help or contribute to help things go better".