The future - I've seen it

Bored of Barcelona and tiki-taka? Tough. There's more of it coming - much more.

Last night, Huddersfield Town completed their pre-season schedule with a game at home to Barcelona B. It not being often that the Catalan behemoth sends a team to West Yorkshire, so the radio station broke with tradition and sent a team to cover the match live.

Of course we weren't going to see the established stars. We weren't going to see the big hitters from last season's B team that finished eighth in the Segunda Division given the first team's pre-season tours and the burden that places on squad resources. Town went in with what appears as close to a first XI as any of us could guess at, though with striker Lee Novak deployed on the right of a five-man midfield. If that was supposed to overwhelm the Barca whippersnappers, it didn't.

From the off, Barca B did what Barca teams do - hog the ball, knock it about patiently, try and create openings and, if none become apparent, retreat and start over. What Huddersfield did do was retain their shape and, as such, kept the magical footballing micro-pixies at bay, but it was only ever going to be a temporary thing. Town held out in the first half and enjoyed a ten-minute spell towards the end where they were, arguably on top. Barca made eight changes at the break and were immediately more incisive. This time, Town's spell was just five minutes at the end, by which time they were 2-0 down to a Gerard Deulofeu penalty and Sergio Araujo's goal after an incisive move up the middle.
So what did we learn? About Town, not a great deal other than they look a solid outfit and won't have to face a team like that too often in the Championship. About Barcelona, we learned that their players are inculcated from a very early age in the style of play we've become accustomed to seeing and that their ability to find players from outside the club to fit that style is very effective indeed.

You have to hope that Town are sitting down today and poring over the lessons available to them. Denied the services of Cristian Tello, Thiago Alcantara, Rafinha, Carlos Carmona and others, this wasn't Barca B's first eleven. It mattered little. Again, it's all about respect for and retention of possession and it starts at the back.

In England, if a centre-back gets to a ball first and launches it into the stands, he's applauded. This has to change. It's a cheap surrender of possession which the Spanish didn't do. Instead, being good on the ball having played futsal and been coached into making the weaker side less obviously weak, it's a little drag back or a trick to create some space and play an easy pass, retaining the ball for his side. Neither do goalkeepers or defenders play low-percentage, hopeful punts into the opposition half. Why would you, when there's little guarantee of retaining the ball? It makes no sense.

The rest is purely coaching and arguments that have been had time and time again, usually when England have been dumped out of a major championship by a side that is vastly technically superior. It's futsal, it's skills, not pace and size and winning games on full-sized pitches in a mudbath. We hear all this on such a regular basis, yet nothing changes. It's not the English way.

Tiki-taka is not a panacea. It will not work every time. However, it's philosophy of ball retention, patience and passing is more likely to produce good results than up-and-at-em, two banks of four traditional English football. Barcelona's system isn't the perfect one - there's no such thing - but all great football dynasties have - from Austria's wunderteam, the mighty Magyars, Rinus Michels' Ajax and Netherlands sides to modern Barcelona - been based around respect for possession and technical excellence. The former cannot come without the latter and we're all pissing in the wind to a certain extent until the conclusions of these regular lessons are put into practice.

It's a long road, but you've got to start somewhere. Agustinho, Deulofeu, Kiko, Alejandro Grimaldo, Sergi Gomez, Carles Planas did not emerge from the womb with tiki-taka stamped across their DNA. There's been a tremendous amount of work done to mould them into that method.

And if you find Barcelona's approach boring, I suggest you don't watch European football any more. There's another generation all set and ready to go.

Deadline day: The good, the bad and the downright panicky

January 31, the day when everyone awaits the visit of the Transfer Pixie and hopes they find the star striker/dominant centre-half in their stocking that was diligently hung over the fireplace the previous night. Only the good get what they want, while the very bad boys and girls get an Ade Akinbiyi. So who has been good and who ended up with the booby prize? Let's have a look at what highlights there were:

Steve McClaren
The former England manager has definitely been good this year. Indeed, his signing of Wesley Verhoek from ADO is perhaps more significant in terms of his recent career choices for Verhoek it was that McClaren wanted at Nottingham Forest only the board to blanch at the prospect of actually having to pay for him. By contrast, the FC Twente board were happy to compensate the Den Haag club and pay Verhoek some wages. Good bit of business that, replacing the outbound Mark Janko. McClaren also picked up Glynor Plet and hung onto Luuk de Jong. ADO got Ebi Smolarek which will also do nicely to replace Verhoek.

West Ham
Ravel Morrison. £650k. £1m agents fees. This just smells bad from the off.

Porto
Swiped back Lucho Gonzalez from Marseille and got Janko from FC Twente, offsetting the loss of Fredy Guarín to Italy. That looks a good swap to us.

The Olsson twins
Someone at Blackburn has a dodgy internet history. File under P for panic buy.

Donal McDermott
After terrorising Huddersfield in four games for Bournemouth last season, the Terriers moved quickly to sign McDermott from Manchester City in the summer and then proceeded to either not play him or play him in a totally unsuitable position. He's well out of that and away to Bournemouth again where he'll probably do well. Good for him. Meanwhile Huddersfield are crying out for defenders and signed one, 19-year old Murray Wallace from Falkirk. And loaned him straight back there. Good for Falkirk, bonkers for Huddersfield.

Espanyol
Took Philippe Coutinho on loan from Internazionale. It looked like he was working his way into Claudio Ranieri's first-team plans, but hadn't played for a bit. Instead, the 19-year old - marked out as one of the top 100 young players in the world by In Bed With Maradona - represents a bloody good bit of business for the Spaniards.

Sunderland
Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Wayne Bridge. Panic!

Internazionale
Sent Coutinho out on a low-risk loan to gain experience and brought in Guarín on loan from Porto with an option to buy. Again, that's a low risk move. If it doesn't work out, back he goes, but it will work out because he's a classy operator. They also bolstered their attack by moving Sulley Muntari on. Best of all, they palmed him off on their stadium buddies. Just good business all round.

Kevin de Bruyne
Not the player, but a transfer symptomatic of a sick system. Chelsea paid decent wedge for de Bruyne and immediately loaned him straight back to the Belgians. He'll be off out on loan somewhere next season too. See also Thibault Courtois, Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Tomas Kalas. It's no wonder the Chelsea gaffer is the one to pop his head up above the parapets and call for B teams to play in England's lower tiers. It'd save him having to sort out loan moves for his stockpile of young players. Bad.

Ryo Miyaichi
Injury robbed Bolton of their two best midfielders - their two best players really - before a ball was kicked this season: Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong. Miyaichi, more like the latter than the the former, is a talented player who did well on loan at Feyenoord last season. Bolton have a good track record in taking young players - Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge, for two examples - and looking after them, so this looks a good move beneficial to all parties; Bolton, Arsenal and Miyaichi.

There's probably more to be said and more analysis to be done, but frankly it's too much like hard work to sift through all the deadline day moves. What do you want from us? Anyway, time to put the Deadline Day Stocking away until the end of August now and Jim White can return to hibernation. Sleep well children and be good, unless you don't want the Pixie to come in summer.