Catalan media delighted with Barca's teenage trio

The signing of Thierry Henry, Eric Abidal, Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito - according to the Catalan media - would revitalize a complacent Barca side which had surprisingly allowed historic rivals Real Madrid to overtake them for the title at the end of last season.

 During the last two weeks of July, however, centre stage has been taken by a trio of promising football teenagers.

 Marc Crosas, Giovani dos Santos and Bojan Krkic are the talk of the town at the moment - even more than Henry, Toure et al.

 The three teenagers have all shown up well in Barca's pre-season tour of Scotland, so much so that Dos Santos and Krkic featured on the cover of the Sport daily on Monday, pushing even Tour de France winner Alberto Contador into the sidelines.

 Catalan-language television channel TV-3 put out a special feature on them on Sunday, after all three had shown up well in the victories over Dundee United and Hearts.

 Barcelona have always been proud of their youth sections, in which boys from the age of 10 are taught, above all, to treat the ball as a precious possession and to pass it precisely.

 In the 1980s and 1990s the Barca youth scheme produced exquisite players like Luis Milla, Josep Guardiola, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta.

 In recent years, though, the pipeline has dried up. To make matters worse, Cesc Fabregas and Fran Merida - Barca's most impressive youth products this decade - were whisked away to Arsenal by Arsene Wenger.

 Now Barca are determined to hang onto their new trio. So much so that they are reluctant to loan them out to a lesser club next season - where they would play regularly and gain experience - which is the tradition in Spain.

 Indeed, Barca are pulling out all the stops to prevent Krkic from having to play for Spain in the upcoming Under-17 world championship, preferring him to be on the club tour to China which starts on Thursday.

 Krkic, 16, is the youngest of Barca's talented teenage trio. The son of a Serbian father and a Catalan mother, he has broke all the scoring records in the Barca youth sections.

 Krkic looked eager and sharp in Scotland when he came off the bench, with a lively change of speed, a keen eye for goal - and a refusal to "hide" and drop his head after missing chances.

 On Sunday he told the Catalan media that he was "asking Henry many questions during training...and trying to learn everything from him."

   The only one of the trio to score in Scotland was Dos Santos. Just turned 18, this left-sided forward or playmaker has an even more exotic background than Krkic.

 He is the son of Brazilian forward Zizinho, who played for Mexican clubs America and Leon in the late 1980s.

  Dos Santos was the star of the Mexican team in the recent Under-20 world championship played in Canada. Guadalajara club Chivas are keen to take him on loan for a season, but Barca have refused to let him go.

 He could turn out to be useful next season for Barca, coming off the bench towards the end and opening up tired defences with his pace and vision.

 Crosas, at 19 the oldest of the trio, has received much less media attention than Dos Santos and Krkic.

 Nonetheless, he is just as bright a prospect, an elegant holding-and-passing midfielder very much in the mold of Milla, Guardiola and Xavi.

 Barca are so impressed with the progress of Crosas that they have reportedly turned down offers for him from Liverpool and other major clubs.

DPA