BARCELONA
Barça and Messi settling in at Saint George’s Park
Barcelona have settled into their luxurious facilities at the English FA complex just north of Birmingham. The squad were taken through their first training session at 6:30pm on Monday.
The Barcelona squad are fully settled into their quarters at Saint George’s Park, were they will be based until Saturday, when they are due to fly out to Dublin for their first friendly of the pre-season against Celtic (18:00 BST). Before that, Luis Enrique has programmed double sessions every day at 10am then 6:30pm, with just the morning sessions open to the media.
Messi is back in the fold
With Leo Messi showing off his beard and fetching, new blonde rinse, English fans are keen to see the Azulgrana squad at work, although security measures have been stepped up in an around the training complex.
The Barça squad flew from El Prat airport to Birmingham, where they were taken to Burton-upon-Trent buy coach - a journey which took approximately one hour.