In Graham Hunter's exceptional book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, the writer confirms that early on in his career at Barcelona, Andres Iniesta was the subject of a loan bid from Rangers. In the process of discussing a move for another player (more of which soon), Barca assistant manager Henk Ten Cate suggested they should do themselves a favour and sign Iniesta on loan instead.
I think his exact words were, 'This boy is going to be a world beater', which he proved against the Netherlands in South Africa. Henk told us that Iniesta 'sees the picture in front of him', earlier than anyone and that hes got a great pass and an ability to beat people.Eventually we made a formal enquiry; I think it would have been towards the end of the 2004-05 season... Then Iniesta scored in a big pre-season game which meant that the club couldn't really loan him out without losing face."
It seems Iniesta had too many fans at Barca, and the talks to bring him to Glasgow failed as his talent indicated that he would make a breakthrough into the first-team quicker than Ten Cate seemed to think.
