‘Brendan Rodgers would ask me about Barcelona – he wanted Swansea 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.”