Barca wonderkids will not be coming to Livi

Dec 18 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

BARCELONA’S football stars of tomorrow could have been lining up for Livingston today after Nazareno Salvatori revealed he asked old friend and current Barca boss Pep Guardiola for some of his young prospects on loan.

Lions fitness coach Salvatori coached the Spanish legend during a spell with Brescia in Serie A and the two have kept in touch.

And when fate brought them both to Scotland last summer, Guardiola to Murrayfield to play Hibs and Salvatori to Almondvale, the pair grabbed the opportunity to catch up.

“When Hibs came to Scotland I met with Pep and I asked him for some young players on loan to get them some experience,” he revealed. “But it would cost too much money. It would be possible but not easy.”

Guardiola took over the Barcelona hot-seat in the summer and Salvatori insists it was one of footballs worst kept secrets.

“Pep was in charge of the Barcelona second team for two years and every summer the newspapers were writing that Pep the new Barcelona manager was coming. I wasn’t surprised when he took over.”

Guardiola is not the only world class star to have put their paces on the training ground by Livi’s fitness guru.

Roberto Baggio, Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni and Cristian Lucarelli. are just some of the household names he has coached but for him Baggio was far and away the best.

“I worked in Serie A for seven years and had spells with Brescia, Bologna, Livorno and Como.

“The best was Roberto Baggio who was a brilliant player.”

Now though the Italian has his hands full with the first team stars at Almondvale and he reckons he has another prospect on his hands now who could go all the way.

“Leigh Griffiths is an explosive player,” insisted Salvatori. “Defenders have to try and stop him and he can be a target for fouls.

“But Leigh needs to work on getting his mind thinking as quickly as his legs move. He is so fast and he can have a great future.”

The Italian was brought to West Lothian by the recently departed Roberto Landi and he admits to being sad to see his friend go.

He said: “I'm happy to stay here but it isn’t the best situation. Football is a funny game and sometimes the manager leaves and other times it is the coaches like me.

“I have a two year contact and the chairman wanted me to stay on.”

Paul Hegarty has enjoyed a promising start to his Livingston career and Salvatori reckons there is no reason why the team shouldn’t be aiming for the SPL.

But he does feel the rules in Scotland are stacked against clubs earning promotion.

“I don’t think there is much difference between the bottom five in the SPL and the top five in the First Division. I also think that having just ten teams in the top two leagues is wrong. Why do we have to play the same teams four times when bigger leagues would be so much better?

“There should also be an avenue for at least two teams to earn promotion.”

But for now Salvatori’s priority is keeping the Lions line-up in top gear for boss Hegarty and he is sure they can get back to winning.

He added: “We won eight games at the start of the season so we need to figure out why haven’t been winning lately when we have the same players.

“We have a good team and that is clear but we don’t have enough players. We have a lot of young players but when we are missing McPake or Griffiths we suffer. This is a league which needs experience and isn’t ideal for young players.

“I believe our first eleven can match anyone but it is difficult when we have injuries as we lose our balance on the pitch.

“I hope the new manager will bring in two or three new players. If we can bring in a new defender and midfielder and we will have Rafael De Vita back as well for attack then we can do well. There are still plenty games to play.”