JUANJO insisted today there are still few teams in the world who could live with Barcelona – even if Ronaldhinho's departure has seen his former side lose some of their magic.
The Catalan giants are in Scotland for tomorrow night's friendly clash with Hibs at Murrayfield and Saturday's match against Dundee United at Tannadice.
They flew in on Monday with a much-changed squad from last year's pre-season visit, with Ronal
dinho and Deco having moved on and Samuel Eto'o apparently ready to follow them out of the Nou Camp exit door.
Former Hearts player Juanjo, pictured, who started his career at the Nou Camp, was hugely disappointed to lose the duo but Pep Guardiola's side is still jam-packed with other top-drawer stars, and the speedy attacker said: "Barcelona are a wonderful side, but I think that there will be a little bit of magic missing now that Ronaldinho has gone.
"He was one of the players that I liked to watch when I was younger and one of the most talented players to have played for the club. I know that they still have many talented players in their side, players who are real quality like Lionel Messi but Ronaldinho was something special for me.
"It will take something really special to replace him although I think Barcelona will always be a club that can play really good football, especially in the middle of the park and nothing will change that.
"Bojan is also a huge talent for them. He is still a young lad and you never know what is going to happen when you are his age.
"He did really well for Barcelona last season, I know that he only got a few minutes against Hearts last year at Murrayfield, but if he continues to get time under Guardiola then I think that he can be a big success.
"He has done really well in the game time that he has had, and has scored a few goals off the bench as well. So even without the spark of someone like Ronaldinho, it will be a very difficult game for Hibs tomorrow night."
Barca lost out to great rivals Real Madrid in La Liga last season and Juanjo says they will have to make the most of their training base at St Andrews and put in the hard graft for there to be an improvement next time around.
And with new signings Alexander Hleb, Gerard Pique and Daniel Alves added to the squad, along with new manager Guardiola, Juanjo added: "They will have to play better than they did last season and it will be difficult for them to win the league. It was a hard season the last time around and they really need to have the players all working for one another.
"They have made a couple of good signings and hopefully in a few weeks' time we will see them settling into the side and playing some good football."
Juanjo made his first-team Barca debut against Deportivo la Coruna, but failed to hold down a place in the starting line-up and moved to Tynecastle in October 1998. He spent three years with Hearts before spells with Bradford, where Jim Jefferies was in charge, and Spanish side Jaen. He then returned to Scotland for a further three years, playing with Inverness and then moving to Hamilton on loan in late 2006.
Having spent the best part of seven years, on and off, in Scotland, Juanjo can't believe that it's only in the past year that Barca have come to train in the country: "I lived in Scotland for a long time when I was with Hearts and then again when I came back to play for Inverness and with Hamilton – but in all that time Barcelona never played there!
"I was a bit surprised when I first heard that they were going to be training in Scotland but I think also that it is a good idea.
"The weather is cooler in Scotland, in Spain if you turn up for training and you out there in the sun between 10.00am and 11.00am it can be roasting.
"So I think that one of the main factors in their decision to train in Scotland would be that the weather doesn't take so much out of the players physically."
Juanjo, who was most recently on the books of CE Premia in Catalonia, is currently waiting to find out where he will be playing his football next season, and admits he would find it hard to turn down a return to Scotland.
The player was back in Scotland earlier this year to finalise the sale of his house and while he was here, had spells training with both Ross County and Inverness and he continued: "I am waiting to see what will happen over the next three or four days because I would like to have something sorted soon.
"I may have a couple of options in Greece and Cyprus and hopefully I will have a chat with the clubs over the next 48 hours or so. There may also be a possibility of me coming back to Scotland.
"I was over there about four months ago tying up a few loose ends with my house and I trained with Ross County and with Inverness. And my agent is also speaking with some clubs in England.
"I spent a lot of time in Scotland and I liked being there so it would be nice to come back at some point."
Meanwhile, Barcelona star Thierry Henry believes that Hibs will provide a stiff test at this stage of their pre-season training, having suffered at the hands of the Scottish national team twice in the last year.
Henry was part of the France team which lost out by a single goal at both Hampden and in Paris in the Euro 2008 qualifying matches – goals from Gary Caldwell and James McFadden respectively putting one over on the World Champions.
The striker had only just joined Barca last year when they arrived in Scotland for friendly matches against Hearts and Dundee United so he knows what to expect.
And from those games he remembers on player in particular, Barry Robson, who was at that time captain at Tannadice and stood out from the rest of his team-mates.
With Steven Fletcher having been linked with a move to Spain with Real Madrid, Henry will be keeping his eyes peeled for other young talent in the ranks of the Scottish squad.
The former Arsenal frontman said: "I talked a lot last year about how well Scotland could do against France and how many good players they had.
"I remember talking about Barry Robson because I thought he had a really good game against us for Dundee United.
"He was excellent that night and I felt it was worth picking him out.
"I thought that he was very talented on the ball and was good going forward, so it wasn't surprising that he got a move to Celtic.
"Sometimes I feel people in Scotland don't believe they have talented players. I think that this proves you have.
"I know that there will be a lot of talented players in both the teams that we play when we are here in Scotland. I can tell you that for a fact because France played Scotland twice last year and we lost twice.
"You don't achieve that without good players so Scottish football has a lot to be really excited about.
"It's definitely a good time for football in this country.
"Rangers got to the final of the UEFA Cup and were unlucky because they played against an excellent team.
"And if you guys didn't lose in Georgia it would have been difficult for us to have qualified for Euro 2008.
"Now there's the World Cup qualifiers coming up but I don't think Scotland should be scared of anyone now."
Hibs manager Mixu Paatelainen admits that he would have loved to have taken on a star-studded Barca side himself as a player.
And he is hoping that his own side will put the experience to good use, after their disappointing exit from the InterToto Cup a fortnight ago. He said: "I'm really looking forward to the match because Barcelona are top-class opposition. It's a shame it's the only other European opposition we will be playing against this season. This would have been the perfect preparation for the InterToto Cup but it wasn't to be.
"Now I want the boys to learn from Barcelona because they have some of the best players in the world."
WHO TO WATCH OUT FOR IN THE BARCELONA LINE-UPBOJANThe 17-year-old striker is regarded as one of the hottest properties in Spanish football and has already set about breaking a number of records. The Son of a Serb, Bojan holds both the record for being the club's youngest goalscorer in La Liga and the Champions League and netted ten times last term in his debut season. Blessed with blistering pace and superb close control he has already won a call-up to the full Spanish national team.
ANDRES INIESTAThe midfielder was an integral part of the Spain side that won the European Championships this summer. Often in the shadows of Ronaldinho and Deco, but the importance of Iniesta's work for Barcelona cannot be underestimated.
Just last year, Real Madrid were linked with a near £50million move for the former Spain under-21 captain but he always insisted he wanted to stay at the Nou Camp where he his contracted to 2014.
GERARD PIQUEThe defender was signed from Manchester United over the summer for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £7million.
The 21-year-old began his career with Barcelona's youth team but moved to Old Trafford with no fee as he was too young to sign a professional contract.
After signing a full-time deal he spent four years in Manchester but managed only 12 appearances with a season on loan at Real Zaragoza.
XAVIThe 63-times capped Spanish internationalist was named the player at Euro 2008 by UEFA. The midfielder joined Barcelona at the age of 11 and already ranks fourth in the club's all-time appearance records having played 420 games.
He is contracted to the club until 2010, and Xavi has a £100 million buy-out clause in his contract.
The full article contains 1758 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
