Today I read that Xavi, of Barcelona, has said that Wayne Rooney is good enough to play for his Spanish club. In an interview where he also talked about Paul Scholes and Cesc Fabregas he said “And before people imagine headlines like, ‘Xavi says Rooney to join Barcelona’ – although, I’d love him to! – what I mean is that he’s our kind of player.”

He may not be explicitly saying that Rooney will join him, but he is definitely paving a way. He is making it clear to Rooney that he would be welcome at Camp Nou and he is good enough to get in their side. He also implicates that Rooney would fit in with the Barcelona style of football, another compliment in itself.

Xavi also said that Rooney was “extraordinary” and “could play for Barcelona”. Understandably Xavi is keen on Rooney. The implication is that to play for Barcelona you don’t just have to be a great player, you also have to have a similar footballing philosophy. On the pitch Barcelona currently have an obvious strategy and it takes great skill and technique to be able to play it, but I don’t like these comments as it appears Xavi is starting to believe in his own press.

You may think I am overreacting, but when you take into account some of his previous comments in the Daily Mail, you can see where I am coming from. He said “If I go to Liverpool’s ground and someone puts the ball into the area and Carragher hammers it out of play then the fans applaud. In the Nou Camp you would never be applauded for that.” And “the typical No 9 in England was a Crouch or a Heskey and it was a long ball from the back from a Terry or a Carragher and nothing in between.”

Comments like these make his praise of Rooney into a sort of challenge, you can imagine him saying “Hey Wayne, come and prove you are good enough to play for us, we are so much better than your country’s teams”.

What annoys me is his attitude that if a player does well in England, he might be good enough for Spain. It sounds like he, and Barcelona in general, are starting to think that they are so far ahead of the English clubs, Manchester United and Arsenal, and that they might be just a stepping stone for the likes of Rooney and Fabregas.

It may be a dream for a Spaniard to play at Barcelona or Real Madrid, but not necessarily for Liverpool-born Rooney. I think Xavi is just being a bit presumptuous; yes Barcelona might currently dominate Europe, they have a brilliant side at this moment in time and could have had all 11 players in the Fifa World XI, but they have not always been so far ahead and they will not always be.

All in all, I think I am just frustrated at the idea of Rooney leaving Old Trafford for Spain. I’d like to think that he never would but compliments such as this from Xavi will play on his mind, especially given the fact that he has previously expressed his admiration for the club. It is a mind-game from the little Spanish maestro.

Barcelona may play brilliant, attractive and effective football, but at times they can come across as arrogant. I think their interest in Fabregas has become more of a hounding than a pursuit. I hope that now they feel Rooney is capable of playing for them, that they don’t play the same game with him.