- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Adelaide United’s new coach, Spaniard Josep Gombau, says a bit of Barcelona can rejuvenate the Reds.
But Gombau admits he doesn’t know whether he has the players to achieve his lofty goals with the A-League club.
“The style that we want to do is like the style working at Barcelona, the style of the Spanish national team,” Gombau told reporters in Adelaide on Monday.
“Now is so early for me to say I have the right players to do this or I don’t … it’s something that just needs time to work.
“It’s a style to try to keep possession of the ball and attack – beautiful football, this is what we will try to do.”
Gombau, 36, has signed a two-year contract and becomes the sixth man to coach Adelaide in three turbulent years.
He takes over a club which imploded when knocked out of last season’s A-League finals, with captain Eugene Galekovic criticising his club’s poor culture.
Gombau spent six years from 2003 as an academy coach with Barcelona and joins Adelaide after a four-year spell with Hong Kong first division club Kitchee.
He has already lured two compatriots to Adelaide, with 26-year-old midfielder Isaias Sanchez and 28-year-old wing/forward Sergio Cirio to soon arrive in South Australia.
“They are players that want to improve,” Gombau said.
“Sometimes you can bring a player and they come here just to retire … they are young, they don’t come just for the experience, they come to work.”
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.