THE BARCA FACTORY
Sportsmail spends the week with Messi and Co
There is a magical quality surrounding Messi and Co
DEEP in the lush, green Staffordshire countryside, no expense has been spared in the construction of St George’s Park.
This is football utopia. Pristine pitches and training areas stretch as far as the eye can see. Footballers here are treated like thoroughbred racehorses. It is breathtaking.
Yet, for all the millions invested, the poverty of performance in England’s recent Euro 2016 exit to Iceland was a stark reminder that the Three Lions remain somewhere short of producing a team befitting such a world-class facility.
This past week, however, has seen the plush home of English football finally fulfil the FA’s lofty ambitions for their Burton upon Trent HQ as the £105million complex could at last be called home — however temporary — to the beautiful game’s global glitterati.
Barcelona don’t just amble into town, they swagger. They are here to prepare for this afternoon’s International Champions Cup clash with Celtic in Dublin. This is a footballing A-list. Even their supporting cast sparkles.
There is a magical, magnetic quality surrounding the five-times European champions.
The excitement in the air is palpable. Scrums of reporters and photographers fight to capture the words and deeds of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. The third component of the fearsome ‘MSN’ frontline, Neymar, is absent as he prepares to represent Brazil in the Rio Olympics.
Barca fever was also evident in the faces of the children who huddled under umbrellas in the rain with their star-struck parents to grab a glimpse of Messi, the five-time FIFA World Player of the Year many believe to be the greatest footballer of all time.
There was even one American fan who had flown nearly 4,000 miles from Florida to stay in the team hotel in the mistaken belief that doing so would gain him the chance to grab Messi’s autograph.
For Sportsmail, the true appeal of the La Liga champions only really hit home when a familiar Cork brogue called out to ask if this correspondent knew where Luis Enrique’s superstars could be found training that morning.
Barcelona had even piqued the interest of Manchester United and Ireland legend Roy Keane.
Unexpectedly, and unnervingly, the 44-year-old Republic of Ireland assistant manager confounds expectations by being pleasant and chatty on the stroll to pitch six.
The mystique of one of football’s most complex and intriguing characters would soon return, though, when a burly security guard claimed to Sportsmail that a short time ago he saw ‘Keano’ upset a bunch of youngsters by brusquely refusing their pleas for an autograph.
After using his famous face as ID, day-tripper Keane was allowed entry to training. He cut a solitary figure as he sat in the background, until being greeted by a warm handshake from Barca boss Enrique and his backroom team.
Then, as Messi and Suarez emerged on to the pitch, their arrival was to the kind of frenzied camera clicking reminiscent of muffled machine-gun fire.
The pair are an inseparable double act. They go everywhere together. On the training pitch, wherever you find one, you will find the other. It is little wonder that the understanding they have developed on the field of play verges on the telepathic.
To watch Messi — sporting his new-look peroxide blond hair — on the training ground is to witness a master at close quarters.
The 29-year-old’s first touch in the Rondo drills are delightful, the ball killed and controlled in one movement. More impressive is the little Argentinian’s work rate when it was his turn to go in the middle and intercept the super-speedy passes that pinged between his talented team-mates.
A raft of security guards stalk the star duo’s every move. Unwanted attention is frowned upon. They are treated like crown jewels, priceless.
While at a signing session for some of the club’s young fans, former Liverpool star Suarez disputed a comment from a supporter as he signed a club-branded football.
The young Barca fan had claimed Suarez was ‘the best’, only to be met with the reply: ‘I’m not the best. You know who is the best?’
And it appears the youngster is in tune with the views of most Barcelona stalwarts, firing back the reply ‘Messi’, which was met with laughter and a simple ‘yes’ from Suarez.
The Uruguayan’s respect for his team-mate has never wavered. He defends him regularly when the debate revolves around who is best — Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘No debate is needed,’ Suarez has said previously. ‘Lionel Messi is the best player in the world. He is the cut above the rest in every match.’
In the end, it is namesake Denis Suarez, who is first to speak to the media. It is laidback, convivial. But even the player knows the focus of attention is elsewhere.
‘A top haircut for a top player,’ the 22-year-old grinned, rather unconvincingly, when asked about Messi’s new hairstyle.
Munir El Haddadi, Barcelona’s highly-rated 20-year-old attacker, was then mischievously asked whether Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola was the true Special One.
‘Luis Enrique,’ he shot back, showcasing the same dexterity in evading perilous question as he had earlier displayed in eluding markers on the training ground.
The plethora of riches available to Enrique is astonishing.
Sergi Samper is an up-and-coming midfielder with a huge £42m release clause. He is being hailed as the future of the Catalan club after replacing the legendary Andres Iniesta to make his La Liga debut against Getafe last March.
‘I saw Celtic drew 1-1 in Kazakhstan on Wednesday and that was a good result,’ said Samper. ‘I think they have a good team and a good manager in Brendan Rodgers. I believe they can get into the Champions League group stage.’
Spanish international right-back Aleix Vidal won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2015 and is hailed as the natural heir to Nou Camp legend Dani Alves, who recently joined Juventus.
Such is Barca’s financial might they could afford to buy Vidal for £16m last summer, then sit him in the stands for six months until the club’s FIFA-imposed transfer ban ended.
After batting off yet more questions about Messi’s hair, Vidal insisted facing Celtic at the Aviva Stadium today will be good preparation for Barca’s latest assault on the Champions League, won last season, of course, by bitter foes Real Madrid.
‘I am a football fan, so I know about Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers,’ said Vidal.
‘Celtic have played in the Champions League many times and I feel this will be a beautiful match in Dublin against a very historic club. A lot of our younger
The plethora of riches available to Enrique is astonishing
players will get a chance to impress against Celtic. It will be a good test for us ahead of the Champions League.’
Scotland’s own £33m Oriam elite sports performance centre is due to open in the autumn at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh but it’s still hard not to feel envious of the five-star facilities England boast on this stunning 330-acre complex in Staffordshire.
New England boss Sam Allardyce will prepare his side here for the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup on 12 full-size pitches, one full-size Sir Alf Ramsey indoor artificial pitch and an exact replica of the Wembley turf where England will host Scotland in a qualifier in November. Opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2012, Prince William would have noticed the image of his grandmother presenting England captain Bobby Moore with the World Cup at Wembley in 1966.
All around are evocative nods to English football history. From the bust of Sir Walter Winterbottom CBE, the first full-time manager of England who died aged 88 in 2002, to the iconic image of the best manager England never had; Brian Clough, holding the European Cup aloft as Nottingham Forest boss in 1979.
Outside, the full-sized pitches are named after Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and David Beckham, with others left blank to honour future stars — pitch six will soon be named after Wayne Rooney.
Back inside, Sportsmail spots a row of portraits paying homage to five Scots who have made an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Football’ in England.
Kenny Dalglish, Sir Matt Busby, George Graham, Bill Shankly and Sir Alex Ferguson are on the wall of fame, along with Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.
Less impressively, though, some walls are decorated with murals containing FA technical director Dan Ashworth’s ‘England DNA’ manifesto. Basically a sequence of management jargon, urging players to ‘seek creative solutions’ and ‘be proactive when the ball is lost’.
This DNA concept came under fire from Ashworth’s own boss in the wake of the Iceland debacle.
‘DNA? What does it mean. It’s a slightly pretentious term,’ said chief executive Martin Glenn.
In the forthcoming qualifying campaign, England will go back to basics under Allardyce.
But warning bells ring on Sportsmail’s final day at St George’s as Allardyce’s assistant, Sammy Lee, watches intently as Messi and Suarez train.
As Scotland aim to avoid 20 years away from major finals since France 98, the Tartan Army will be hoping Barca’s magic does not prove contagious.