Recently retired Pedro granted an extensive interview to Mundo Deportivo. In the fourth part of the interview, Pedro recalled the atmosphere in Barcelona's dressing room during the Guardiola era, analyzed the similarities between the current Barcelona team and the former 'Dream Team', and discussed the future prospects of young talents like Yamal. He also reflected on Tito Vilanova's guidance and the late coach's unique approach to man-management.

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Reporter: What kind of atmosphere existed in that dressing room? Was it this atmosphere that led to the birth of what is considered Barcelona's greatest team in history?

Pedro: The atmosphere in the dressing room was incredibly special, filled with understanding and harmony, with a natural connection between all the players. Everyone was crystal clear about their roles and tactical positions; no inflated personal desires overrode the team, and we were all highly coordinated. We had an incredibly clear consensus about our objectives and how to achieve them. We yearned to play exquisitely beautiful football, accompanied by unimaginable hard work. The outside world always talked about how brilliant our tactics were, how pleasant Tiki-Taka was, how amazing our possession percentage was, and how easy and comfortable it was to win, but the truth was far from that. Behind all of this was an enormous amount of sweat and effort.

Although the team at that moment brought together top-level talent and quality, we did an unimaginable amount of hard work in terms of high pressing intensity and the rigor of movement off the ball. It was an era of perfect combinations: a unique and perfectionist tactical mastermind, a group of talented players in their prime, plus the greatest player in football history, Lionel Messi. All these favorable conditions came together to create an unrepeatable legend. And what's gratifying is that this current Barcelona team seems to be recreating these qualities. The club is currently building a wonderful project with great future prospects, and once again, incredibly talented young homegrown talents are emerging, like a natural genius like Lamine Yamal. I hope he can maintain this peak level for many years, just as Messi did back then. At the same time, the team also has an extremely solid La Masia academy foundation, like we did back then, with Pedri, Gavi, Fermín López, Alejandro Balde, Cubarsí... This is a very solid, young, and extremely promising youth development core, and I hope this translates into a continuous flow of championship trophies in the future.

Reporter: Do you see similarities between the two generations of teams? Do you believe this Barcelona team can replicate your past achievements?

Pedro: I do believe so. They have all the strength and conditions to achieve this objective. In fact, as I just said, this group of players has extremely high talent, and in terms of age structure, they could even be younger than we were back then, which means that if everything goes well, their period of maintaining peak performance and winning championships could be even longer than ours. If they can diligently follow the right path, Barcelona's future will surely enter an extremely bright era.

Reporter: You've just shared many details about Guardiola. Tito Vilanova, who was his assistant and then his successor as head coach, was also a key figure. What are your memories of Tito? And what kind of help did he provide you?

Pedro: Tito was a person of great charisma. He was one of the most honest and loyal people I've met in football. Witnessing his battle with illness was extremely difficult and painful for all the players who had known him for so many years, because he always comforted us with his unique charisma. He nourished me greatly both on a football level and personally. On a personal level, from when he, Guardiola, and I worked together at Barcelona B, I was a naive young player, and he helped me improve rapidly. He taught me to truly understand the essence of the game and helped me make progress in tactical positioning. He was extremely wise and had an insightful understanding of the game. He was every bit as good as Guardiola. Later, I was fortunate to continue being coached by him when he became head coach of the first team. On a professional level, he was extremely frank.

I remember a very amusing anecdote about him: for a while, despite being a regular starter, I was in a scoring drought, going several matches without a goal. One day he came up to me and said: "Listen, Pedro, right now you couldn't score if you kicked it at a rainbow, you can't put a single goal away. I feel for you, but I have to put you on the bench and give other players a chance." I immediately replied: "Mister, there's no problem at all, you're right. My recent performance has been really disappointing. I haven't scored a single goal. It's perfectly reasonable for you to trust in others. You don't even need to explain it to me. I'll keep training hard to regain my goalscoring touch and my form, but I completely understand and accept your decision." Even so, he went to great lengths to comfort me, give me a sense of security and confidence, telling me: "Don't be discouraged just because you've had two or three poor performances and been rotated out. On the contrary, I'm doing this to maintain healthy competition, and I believe you'll soon return to the starting lineup."

This is the common quality among those excellent coaches, and it's the coaching quality I admire most: frankness and sincerity. If I ever become a coach, this empathy will be indispensable. It's never easy for a head coach to put himself in someone else's shoes, and it takes courage to say those things face to face, because when dealing with players in different mental states, others might not handle it well—their mentality could collapse, or they might even give up. Mastering this empathy is the hardest part of coaching: conveying a unified message to the entire team, making everyone feel they have a fair opportunity to compete whenever possible, and that they are part of the team's winning plan. Over the long journey of a season, there are enough matches for everyone to shine.

Throughout my career, coaches who were good at motivating everyone and understood man-management in the dressing room often achieved greater success than those who only had tactical theories but didn't understand the human element. Whether it was Pep or Tito, it was great fortune for me to know them during my career. They were the two most important mentors in my life, and without their support and guidance back then, I wouldn't be where I am today, and I would never have had such a long and brilliant career.

Traducido por IA.

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