Part 1: Former coach gives his view on Barcelona star Arda Turan

Part 1: Former coach gives his view on Barcelona star Arda Turan

We met Arda Turan in the summer of 2009. We came to Istanbul, Johan Neeskens, Albert Roca, and myself, at the hand of Frank Rijkaard, to form part of the new technical team at Galatasaray. The first we heard of Turan was that the president of the club wanted to make him captain of the team. At just 21, in a squad filled with Turkish internationals and foreign veterans. This spoke something significant about the player. A homemade crack, a Galatasaray supporter since he was young, with tremendous personality. At the same time, a man the club wanted to keep because other big Turkish sides (Fenerbahce or Besiktas) would pay a lot to take him away. 

Arda demonstrated from the first day he was a natural leader and a great captain. I remember that he was always running by my side in warm-ups, telling me things in basic English about the country, and 'negotiating' for his team-mates the intensity of running they demanded. Turan was a hard worker and self-sacrificing, but I could understand his recent joking comment about the amount of running he has to do under Simeone, because this is part of the way he expresses himself and his jovial way when speaking about football. Without malice and without criticism, just a fun comment from a funny person.

By the way, on the subject of languages, whenever I've encountered him in Madrid I've always asked him about his Spanish and he's not been able to put more than two words together in a joking way. So, at Barcelona, don't expect too much joy with him learning Catalan. Languages are not his main skill.

In this sense, his performance in the warm-up rondos is now more significant. When a good exchange of passes was done, he shouted "Ole!" and looked at Albert and me, saying "Like Xavi, like Iniesta!" 

Have no doubt that Arda has been a lover of Barcelona's game since childhood, and for him to play against them in Spain, and fight for leagues and cups like in recent years, is a very special thing for him. To sign for them and be a Barcelona player is the culmination of a dream career.

The 2009-10 season saw Rijkaard adapt his successful 4-3-3 system at Barcelona to the Turkish side, and for the first few months the attack was formed of Arda, Milan Baros and Harry Kewell. They filled their bellies with goals, scoring four against Trabzonspor, three vs Besiktas, 4 against Panathinaikos in the UEFA Cup. Many newspaper front pages were very experessive, as they tend to be there, with drawings of Frank as a magician with a hat, pulling goal and records out of it like rabbits.

Adra played as a right-side interior in a 4-4-2 in the last season in which Galatasaray won the league, in 2008. Before that, during his loan at Manisaspor when he was just 18, he had played very wide. But in this new 'Made in Barça' systme, he was working on the left side, with Kewell on the right, coming inside to shoot at goal on his strong foot. Arda went along with it, giving great sacrifice to the team in this new position for him. It was Rijkaard who managed to get the best attacking numbers out of him, with 11 goals and 26 assists (a total of 37 direct contributions). And this despite being injured and missed a few important games. With time, his role as a finisher has dwindled, and Simeone uses him as a player in the centre, an organizer, good at bringing the ball forward. 

In that year there was a bad run of injuries to the attackers and so we tried to reinforce, with Brazilian striker Jo and former Barcelona youngster Giovanni dos Santos, but the record goalscorers never returned to be the same. 

Part two to follow.