Xabi Alonso never made a secret of the fact that his move to Bayern Munich in 2014 was influenced, not just by a desire to play for another top European club after Liverpool and Real Madrid, but by the opportunity to do a football management Masters under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola.
Three years on from his last game for the German club, Alonso is following in Guardiola's footsteps, back at his home-town club, quietly molding a youth team in his image in the lower reaches of Spanish football.
Guardiola did it for a year in the fourth tier with Barcelona's B team.