BARCELONA delegate Carlos Naval believes Steven Fletcher will be the one to watch when they travel to Edinburgh this summer – and admitted the Nou Camp side already have their eye on the Hibs striker.
The Catalan club will spend a week in Scotland as part of their pre-season training, just as they did last year.
This time, though, Barca will take on Hibs and Dundee United – they played Hearts 12 months ago – at Murrayfield on July 24 and at
Tannadice two days later.
The Spanish side's stars are the first to admit that they don't know much about the Scottish teams but it seems that Fletcher at least is beginning to make an impact on the continent.
Fletcher, pictured below, may be just 21 but is attracting attention from clubs in the Premiership and Championship in England and is already on Real Madrid's radar.
The Bernabeu side are set to whittle down a list of promising youngsters over the next few weeks and finally make a decision on who they want to bring to the club. But Barca team representative Naval admitted that they have also been keeping an eye on the prolific Hibs striker's progress in recent times.
Naval, who was in Scotland yesterday to cast his eye over the accommodation and training facilities which will be on offer to the Catalan stars next month, said: "I have heard about him and we have seen him play and if Real are interest then he is obviously a good player. I am not on the technical side of things so I don't know exactly what the coaching staff might think. We always look for gaps in the team to see where we can fill but it's not based on the rivalry or just because Real are also interested in the same player."
And Naval does not believe that it would be too difficult for a Scottish player to settle in Spain, insisting that, if someone has the talent required, they can be a success anywhere in the world. "Football is universal, so if a player is really good then he will be good no matter where he is playing, whether it is Spain, Italy or France. A good player will do well, no matter what," he explained.
The Barcelona players will spend a week at their St Andrews base and Naval was again delighted with the standard of facilities offered at the complex.
"The players will be training morning and afternoon and then will have a chance to relax in the evening. We worked very hard last year and as we all know pre-season is a very important time in preparing for a new challenge."
The club suffered a disappointing end to the season – losing out on the league title to Real and being knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United at the semi-finals stage – but Naval explained that he was used to such pressures at Barcelona.
"We set our standards high. It is not just the challenge from Real Madrid that we have to contend with, there is also Villarreal, Athletico Madrid and Valencia to think about." The Catalan side are likely to look elsewhere for their pre-season base next season, but Naval admitted that the Nou Camp outfit would love to come back to Scotland at some point in the future to face either side of the Old Firm as part of their pre-season schedule.
Barca beat both Rangers and Celtic in the Champions League last season and Naval added: "I would be happy with that – and if it was the same results as last time it would be perfect!
"We have the greatest respect for Rangers and Celtic but we do not fear playing anybody.
"The best time to do that would be the end of August because the Scottish season starts earlier than the Spanish season."
Tickets for Hibs' match against Barcelona at Murrayfield are available now by visiting www.hibernianfc.co.uk or www.scottishrugby.org or by ringing the credit card hotline, on: 0131 346 5100.
The full article contains 689 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
