Nadal: Barça's special philosophy helped Enrique, Guardiola, Blanc and Lopetegui as coaches

Nadal: Barça's special philosophy helped Enrique, Guardiola, Blanc and Lopetegui as coaches

Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola, Laurent Blanc and Julen Lopetegui were Miguel Angel Nadal's teammates at Barcelona.

Now, as coaches, Nadal's four friends are all in the spotlight because of their progress to the Champions League in charge of Barcelona, Bayern, PSG and Porto. 

"Those four had a different character to the rest [of the players]," Nadal explained to Goal.com. 

"Laurent Blanc was only there for one season before moving to Manchester United, but he was a gentleman. 

"And with the others I have a good personal relationship because we were together for longer.

"I am happy because they are at big clubs, things are going well for all of them (...) but perhaps the one capturing the attention the most right now is Lopetegui because he is new. 

"He is working at a club that is traditionally a selling club, but is enjoying a fine season."

Nadal praised the influence Barça had on each of the managers' careers, pointing out that the ideas and style practiced at the Catalan club have helped all four of them advance in the game. 

"It's a special philosophy, a way of understanding football, a very defined style," he continued. 

And it was Johan Cruyff who was central to that, Nadal added. 

"For us the biggest influence was the Cruyff brand," he said. 

"That change of philosophy that we still see today was brought about by Cruyff, first when he came as a player but mostly during his time as coach. 

"The Cruyff brand is still evident at Barca now."