Former Barcelona captain Luis
Enrique has signed a 2 year deal to take the reins at the Nou
Camp and will look to ring the changes following a barren season without honours under Gerardo Martino.
Following the retirement of Carlos Puyol, out of contract Victor
Valdes and a host of squad players
allowed to leave, the 44 year old will look to tap into the rich talent pool at the clubs academy La
Masia.
When officially presented to
the media for the first time as FC Barcelona manager, 'Lucho' said:
“I love to support young
players but I demand that they show hunger and ambition. The door is open to
all B players, and all the players in the youth teams.”
Enrique spent 3 years as head
coach of Barcelona B and welcomes back three
graduates of the Catalan's world renowned academy after successful loan spells,
Rafinha Alcantara from Celta Vigo, Gerard Deulofeu
from Everton and Bojan Krkic from Ajax.
In the curious case of Bojan
Krkic, a player with such promise early on
in his Barcelona career, has spent the last three seasons out on loan, firstly none other than Enrique brought the
striker to Italian side Roma in his
maiden managerial role, a stint at AC Milan followed and lastly at Dutch champions Ajax where he helped
Frank De Boer's young side claim a fourth
consecutive Eredivisie title.
The player has a year left on
his Barcelona contract and may be given a
lifeline by the new boss after previous regimes left the promising talent in loan market purgatory.
Bojan was handed his
Barcelona debut in 2007 by Dutch manager Frank Rijkaard shortly after his 17th birthday, finishing his first season
with 10 goals, the youngster broke Raul's record
of most goals scored in a debut season.
The following season he
scored a combined 5 goals in the Copa del Rey to help the Catalan's lift the trophy for the first time in 11 years.
Bojan struggled to find the net consistently in
2009-10 but hit form towards the end of
the campaign, notching up 7 of his 8 goals in the final 12 games.
Despite the departure of
Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the summer of 2010, the young striker found his chances in the first team limited, falling
behind Lionel Messi, David Villa and Pedro in
the pecking order.
At the end of the 2010-11
season Bojan had accumulated over 100 appearances
for the club, but expressed the need to go out on loan in order to gain more first team football after
struggling to nail down a first team
place.
Roma agreed to sign him for
an initial £11 million with an option to sign
the youngster long term for £25 million, Barcelona also installed a buy back price of £13 million. After his first
season in Italy, he was allowed to move
to AC Milan on a season long loan, which didn't impact on the pre-agreed buy back clause.
The season concluded with
both Roma and Milan passing up the opportunity
to sign Bojan permanently, thus returning to Barcelona in the hope of resurrecting his Catalan based career.
It proved a false dawn as he
was loaned out to Ajax for the 2012-13 campaign. Amassing 24 appearances, starting 17 and contributing 4 goals on route to Amsterdam's 33rd league crown.
He returns to the Nou Camp
with his future up in the air, at still only
23 he has bags of potential and is thought to be held in high regard by those at Barcelona. He may be a prime
candidate to help the Barcelona
rebuilding project but after his promising career has stuttered whilst out on loan so too his reputation,
the Catalan's may wish to cash in, with Liverpool among the teams rumoured to be interested in the player.
The Spaniard of Serbian
descent commented on his future: “We'll see what happens, I've really enjoyed this season and I have to assess the
pros and cons. Back to Barca is obviously an
option, I have a year on my contract with
the club.
“We'll see, I must evaluate
the best for me and my progression.”
As the all conquering Barca
side of the last decade looks fractious and
set to disperse, the club is allegedly willing to listen to offers for the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Dani Alves, however this is no guarantee those players mentioned
will leave.
The appointment of Enrique is
not the only restructuring at Barcelona, with
former first team assistant under Tito Villanova, Jordi Roura being named director of youth football, while physical
fitness manager Aureli Altimira will take
up a new role as youth system coordinator.
Bojan highlighted that wherever
he plays in future, he would take with him
"The philosophy, style of play and passion for the game" that he
has experienced in Amsterdam.
