Guardiola turns to youth to solve Barca injury crisis

By Duncan Shaw Jan 14, 2012, 15:21 GMT

Madrid - The fans of world champions Barcelona are desperate for coach Pep Guardiola to announce that he will stay at the club for another season, until June 2013.

According to media reports in the past fortnight, that announcement will be made shortly.

Guardiola, 41, has guided Barca to the most successful period in the club's history, winning 15 out of the 18 trophies he has competed for since taking charge in 2008. On Monday he received the FIFA award for the world's best coach.

It is hardly surprising, then, that the supporters want him to stay on.

Barca president Sandro Rosell has offered Guardiola a long-term contract on countless occasions, but the coach prefers to renew his agreement on a season-by-season basis.

The Barca fans are anxious for him to continue, but they would also like him to consider signing new players in the January transfer window, to judge by an online poll published on Saturday.

The poll, taken by Catalan daily Sport, showed that 62 per cent of readers think Barca should sign at least one new defender due to the serious injury suffered by youngster Andreu Fontas.

Fontas, 22, tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee in Thursday's 2-1 cup win away to Osasuna, and will be out of action for the rest of the season.

The Barca squad has been reduced to just 15 fit players, mainly due to injuries. Striker David Villa and midfielder Ibrahim Afellay are the club's other long-term injury victims, while winger Pedro will be out of two weeks with a pulled thigh muscle.

In addition, midfielder Seydou Keita is playing for Mali at the African Nations Cup, and left-back Maxwell was on Wednesday sold to French club Paris Saint-Germain.

Several Catalan media outlets have suggested that Barca should strengthen their depleted squad with a couple of January signings, a view backed by online polls and supporters' blogs.

However, Guardiola made it clear straight after the Fontas injury that he prefers to give a chance to the kids from the club's famed youth section to making January signings.

'I have a lot of confidence in the young players. I have said that many times. It is not a good idea to go into the market at this stage of the season, and also we do not have much money,' he said Saturday.

'We will keep going with what we have until the end, winning or losing.'

Guardiola made it clear that he will use several youngsters in Sunday's league game at home to Betis, and also in the upcoming cup clashes (January 18 and 25) against holders Real Madrid.

Barca are five points behind Real in la Liga, the biggest deficit faced by Guardiola since taking charge in 2008.

The only winter signing permitted by Guardiola during his four-year reign was that of Affelay, in January 2011, from Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.

Sport said Saturday that Guardiola had 'blind faith' in the youngsters, who are currently playing for the club's Barca B second division side.

According to Mundo Deportivo, the youngsters that Guardiola will look to are right-back Martin Montoya, centre-backs Marca Bartra and Marc Muniesa, midfielders Sergi Roberto and Jonathan dos Santos, plus wingers Isaac Cuenca and Gerard Deulofeu.

Guardiola's policy has always been to first give a chance to the youngsters before looking to the transfer market.

The youngsters promoted by Guardiola over the past four years include Sergio Busquets and Pedro - both of whom helped Spain to win the World Cup in 2010 - Alberto Botia (now at Sporting Gijon), Oriol Romeu (now at Chelsea), Xavi Torras (now at Levante), Nolito (now at Benfica), and Jonathan Soriano, who is about to rejoin Nolito at Chelsea.

Moreover, Guardiola insisted on Barca 'repatriating' two youngsters - Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas - who had left the Barca youth sections for England (Manchester United and Arsenal respectively), expressly because they had learned the club's possession style since the age of 10.

The consequence of Guardiola's policy of giving the youngsters their chance was clear for the entire watching world to see in December, when Barca thrashed Santos 4-0 in the Club World Cup final with an astonishing total of nine youth products in the starting lineup.

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