Iniesta: “We have to look to the future

Andrés Iniesta has admitted that he is sad to see Frank Rijkaard leaving the club, but is confident and excited by the prospect of next season and the arrival of Josep Guardiola at the helm.

The 24-year-old midfielder is working on recovering from his knee injury, but spoke to the press on Wednesday: "The thing with Rijkaard is sad, but they are things that happen in the world of football," he said. "But now we have to look to the future and we should confront it with hope and confidence."

Eight years on

Iniesta can now prepare to work under Guardiola, eight years after sharing th dressing room with the incoming head coach. "I am pleased to be able to work with him again," he continued. "He will be the new coach and I have faith that he can change the current situation around. This year has ended sadly for everyone, it was a year full of deception. But in football things can change very quickly and that is what we want."

Heroes

"Josep Guardiola and Michael Laudrup were idols of mine when I was a child," Iniesta then revealed. "Now to work with Guardiola will be important to me and we will all give him our total support."

Reflecting on other issues that have arisen at Camp Nou in recent days, Iniesta spoke first about the whistles aimed at Deco and Samuel Eto'o during hte Mallorca game. "We did not like that because they are our team-mates," he said. "But the fans always have their reasons and we just have to accept it."

Captain’s role

In the future, Iniesta could become one of the team captains at Barcelona and he would relish the prospect. "It would be marvellous to be a captain," he stated. "To any player it would given a boost and more confidence, but right now we have the best skipper we could have in Carles Puyol."

Finally, Iniesta was asked about Bojan Krkic's possible inclusion in the Spanish squad for the forthcoming Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland. "We must not become too excited beacuse the list will not be announced until Friday," he said. "But I would be very happy for him and for those that have supported him all year. He has had a very good season and deserves the recognition."