Kluivert: "Ansu should drop down to B team if he doesn't get minutes"

Kluivert: "Ansu should drop down to B team if he doesn't get minutes"

 Patrick Kluivert habló con SPORT de Ansu Fati / | Marta Fernández

The Dutchman spoke exclusively to SPORT about the latest at La Masia

In the interview with SPORT, Patrick Kluivert was asked about Ansu Fati's situation. The teenage forward burst on to the scene earlier this season but has found minutes harder to come by recently. Kluivert, Barcelona's director of youth football, believes games with Barça B could be the answer. 

Ansu Fati has jumped straight into the first team. How is his progression being managed?

It's being overseen more by (sporting director Eric) Abidal and (his assistant Ramon) Planes. We're communicating well with each other. If all the first-team players are at 100 percent, I have the feeling that he will have to play for Barça B to get some minutes in his legs. We saw that with Carles Perez at the weekend, too. 

Ansu was playing under Victor Valdes in preseason. What happened with Valdes? Why did he leave the U19s after just two months? 

Everyone asks me that question. I get it. I don't want to go down a negative path. I don't want to harm anyone. It's not good for me, for Victor or for the club. There are four people that know what happened and I want to leave it like that, it's better for everyone that way. Sometimes you have to make decisions at football clubs, which is what we did, and I don't want to start a debate

The U19 team is very important, Ansu was there not long ago... 

The step from the U19s to Barça B isn't as complicated as from the B team to the first team. Players that have spent three years in the B team have to leave, either on loan or sold. The step between barça B and the first team has to be fluid. 

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