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How We Nearly Got Iniesta On Loan


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I’D LIKE to think that Alex McLeish was at home watching the television with a wee glass of Belgian beer on Tuesday night as Andrés Iniesta did his Fred Astaire in football boots impression.

Paris Saint Germain couldn’t cope with Andresito’s Puttin’ On The Ritz routine as he twinkled-toed his way past three white-shirted opponents then split two more of them with a guillotine-sharp pass as anguished “Sacre bleus!” and “Zut alors!” filled the Camp Nou Catalan night.

I don’t know whether anyone else read that Pittodrie matchday programme in the early 1980s which revealed that our promising new red-haired centre-half had been nicknamed Scooby-Doo by his colleagues.

But to my football consiglieri Graeme Runcie and I, Alex’s been Big Scooby ever since.

Back on message now. Iniesta’s display of footballing genius which led to the first of Neymar’s two goals and confirmed Barcelona’s place in Europe’s final four reminded me of the most surprising conversation I’ve ever had with Big Scooby.

While I was researching my Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team In The World book I came across some cuttings from the Catalan football papers, about a decade ago, which suggested that Iniesta might join Rangers.

Without being gratuitously nasty it seemed more than far-fetched, but your reporter’s training tells you to check it.

So I texted Big Scooby who admitted that he’d been behind such a move and agreed to a chat about it.

What emerged was so remarkable that the whole Iniesta-to-Ibrox thing got a bit lost in the aftermath.

The former Hibs, Scotland and Birmingham manager told me that his son, Jon, had spotted the emergence of an allegedly phenomenal talent by the name of Messi shooting through the FC Barcelona youth ranks.

But Jon had got hold of this information via the PC game Championship Manager.

Such was the power of that game’s information that McLeish senior asked his scouts if Messi was a name on the youth circuit and they immediately vindicated young Jon.

Big Scooby then asked his Dutch assistant manager at Rangers, Jan Wouters, whether he was still in contact with his Euro 1988- winning team-mate Frank Rijkaard – by this time manager at the Camp Nou.

Wouters was far closer to Rijkaard’s assistant, Henk ten Cate and immediately put it to his Dutch countryman that Rangers wanted to borrow Messi on loan for a season or two.

The concept being that McLeish had reinforced his squad with high-profile, high-wage signings the season previously and was now looking to add low-profile, high-quality footballers without any great expenditure.

The pitch to Ten Cate, which was duly put to the Camp Nou board and caused furious arguments, was that Messi could perhaps develop more quickly and be tested in front of huge crowds while playing some European football too.

Laugh if you want to – Messi scampering around Pittodrie in a light blue Rangers’ shirt – but, nothing ventured nothing gained, I guess.

Two things happened. Ten Cate and Rijkaard were both, at that stage, sure that the way forward was big, tall, physically powerful footballers like Mark Van Bommel and Edmilson – specifically because of the model Jose Mourinho was developing at Chelsea.

Technically able, but big, aerially strong, muscular.

Ten Cate told Wouters that he thought Messi was too young, too small and too slight to cope with life in Scottish football, but there was a lad who was three years older and who might just be the ticket. Name of Iniesta.

McLeish and his staff did their homework and were enthused.

The emerging midfielder, who wasn’t getting a whole heap of game time for the Blaugrana, would be like hitting the jackpot.

The second thing which happened was that a splitting-the-atom debate erupted within the corridors of the Camp Nou.

Football director Txiki Begiristain and most of the Catalan directors thought of guys like Messi and Iniesta as the immediate future.

Talented footballers over towering footballers would be the shorthand way to tell it.

Rijkaard and Ten Cate were deeply unsure.

It came to the point when Begiristain as good as told the Dutchmen: “We backed you in the first season when people wanted you sacked, now I’m ordering you to make a decision.

“Do your job right and either play the talented little guys or we’ll need to loan them out, you know which way I think it should go.”

Ferran Soriano, who is now chief executive at Manchester City, told me: “At the time of the Rangers interest in Iniesta, I remember Henk defending his logic.

“He said : The guy’s small, he doesn’t have the strength, maybe we send him away for a couple of years and then we’ll see.”

Such was the length of the debate that by the time Rangers were demanding a decision it was pre-season 2005.

And once Messi and Iniesta, the former giving the latter a divine goal-assist pass, put on a devastating show while toying with Fabio Capello’s Juventus in a pre-season friendly, the whole idea hit the rocks.

If Rijkaard had loaned either of them out at that moment he’d have been put in a straightjacket.

So much for Iniesta to Ibrox.

But by the time all of this emerged in my book, confirmed by McLeish and by Barca, Messi was already the darling of world football and it was that part of the story which caused the massive kerfuffle.

Obscuring the fact that Big Scooby, thanks to his son and to showing some courage, very nearly pulled off the scoop of a lifetime. Think of it. August 2005.

“And today’s team news ahead of Rangers’ match at Pittodrie, Alex McLeish’s team line up with: Waterreus, Ricksen, Malcom, Rodríguez, Farfan, Ferguson, Murray, Iniesta...”

Letters of disgruntlement from Govan to Señor T Begiristain, Manchester. Thanks Txiki.

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/sport/football/how-alex-mcleish-tried-to-sign-world-class-spaniard-andres-iniesta-to-rangers-1.868542

By Graham Hunter.

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