‘Brendan Rodgers would ask about Barcelona – he wanted to play like Guardiola’
Brendan Rodgers found success at Swansea City while taking inspiration from Barcelona – aided by Andrea Orlandi.
The Northern Irishman was only on his third managerial role when he arrived at Swansea in 2010, having had mixed success with Watford and Reading previously. He had grand ideas nevertheless.
Rodgers wanted to implement the style of play that Pep Guardiola had so excellently instilled at Barcelona, and it just so happened he had one of their former players in Orlandi in his ranks.
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The Spaniard spent two seasons on loan with the Catalan giants, primarily playing for their B side but regularly training with their iconic first team. That was a repeated source of interest for Rodgers.
“He loved Barcelona,” Orlandi explained to Daily Star Sport. “When you ask me if my team-mates were asking me about Barcelona, Brendan was the one that, every couple of weeks he would come into his office and comment on the Barca game.
“It was because this is how he wanted to play and and the football he liked. So I thought that we had a similar brain in terms of what we think about football.”
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Rodgers enjoyed two highly productive seasons in Wales, earning promotion through the Championship play-offs before guiding his side to a mightily impressive 11th-placed finish in their first campaign in the Premier League.
That earned him the Liverpool job in 2012 and his subsequent roles at Celtic and Leicester. He now has nine trophies to his name, including the FA Cup and two Scottish titles – with a third on the cards.
He previously spoke of his admiration of Barcelona, telling The Coaches’ Voice in 2019: “I was a lover of the European game. I loved what Johan Cruyff brought Barcelona. I also admired Sevilla, and Valencia, who have an inherent belief in young players.”
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While Dave Kitson, who played under him at Reading, revealed to The Athletic: “He never made any secret of the fact that he wanted to manage Barcelona. People may have scoffed at the time, but you can see he probably is a perfect manager for Barcelona.”
Rodgers was linked with the role back in 2021 when Barca were hunting for a replacement for Ronald Koeman, but they instead appointed club legend Xavi.
Orlandi couldn’t speak highly enough of him, adding: “I have great memories with Brendan, and it’s true that when we got promoted I barely played in the Premier League under him.
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“If you ask a player that is not playing about the coach and he tells you good things about him, it means that he’s a good coach. I used to wake up every morning looking forward to a training session because there was always something new.
“It was always ball related, it was intense, and I always got something out of it. His training sessions were were fantastic and as a coach, a very good coach.”
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