There is an image of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola deep in conversation during a Barcelona training session that did the rounds on social media a few years ago.

Mourinho was Bobby Robson’s assistant at Barcelona and Guardiola was in his final years as a player at the Camp Nou at the time.

The picture became the perfect ‘guess the caption’ competition the best one having Guardiola say to Mourinho: ‘I’ll be Barça coach one day and I’ll win the treble’ and Mourinho replying: ‘yeah right, and I’ll manage Real Madrid.’

Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola in deep conversation following a Barcelona training session

No sooner had Luis Enrique joined Barcelona at the start of this season and the photo libraries threw up an even better shot – one of Luis Enrique, Pep and Jose in their time at Barcelona.

Then the archive scanners began to notice something about some of the other faces in the pictures from this era – isn’t that current PSG coach Laurent Blanc? And isn’t that current Porto coach Julen Lopetegui? And aren’t four of the coaches of the last eight in this season’s Champions League from the same club at the same time?

(From L-R) Barcelona's Juan Carlos Busquets, Luis Enrique, Mourinho and Guardiola at training

Laurent Blanc comes up against Enrique at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday in the Champions League

Blanc was a huge part of the Barcelona XI that won the Spanish Super Cup under Bobby Robson in 1996

Luis Enrique comes face to with Blanc in the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday night and both will have plenty to catch up on.

They were both in the Barça team that started the 1996-97 season by winning the Spanish Super Cup against Atletico Madrid 6-4 on aggregate.

With Robson in charge and Mourinho’s assisting him the team that won the first silverware of the new season included not just the French World Cup winner and the 62-times Spain international and the aforementioned Lopetegui and Guardiola but Albert Ferrer, who started the season as Cordoba coach; Abelardo Fernandez, who is now coaching Sporting Gijon in Spain’s second tier; and Sergi Barjuan, who has just taken over at Almeria.

The Barcelona XI that won the Spanish Super Cup under Bobby Robson in 1996 is breeding managers

Guardiola takes on former Barcelona team-mate Julen Lopetegui who is currently Porto manager

Albert Ferrer, seen battling Pedrag Mijatovic for the ball, went on to coach Spanish side Cordoba

Bobby Robson and Bulgarian defender Hristo Stoichkov celebrate victory against Real Betis

Also in the team were Hristo Stoichkov who has coached Celta Vigo and Bulgaria among others and Juan Antonio Pizzi, who managed Valencia last season and is now at Leon in Mexico.

Even those players from that team who never went on to manage have stayed in football with Giovanni now working as a scout for Olympiakos and Guillermo Amor a former director of Barcelona’s youth academy who is now director of football at Adelaide United FC.

Among the squad players that season were Roberto Prosinecki and Emmanuel Amunike now coach with Azerbaijan and Nigeria’s Under-17s teams respectively.

Former Barcelona 1996 squad player Lopetegui is currently manager of Portuguese giants Porto

Michael Laudrup (left) and Ronald Koeman both went on to manager Premier League clubs

Enrique travels to Paris to take on Blanc's PSG side at the Parc des Princes in the Champions League

Ahead of his meeting with Blanc on Wednesday, Luis Enrique crossed swords with old friend and former team-mate Sergi Barjuan two weeks ago when Barça played Almeria.

“It was the last thing we looked like becoming,” he said when I asked the Barcelona manager if both he and Sergi had looked like coaches-in-waiting in their playing days. “You change the way you look at things once you retire.”

Luis Enrique believes those who played in positions where they had the pitch in front of them for most of the game – the full-backs, the centre-backs, Pep Guardiola in holding midfield – went on to coach in part because of how tactically astute they had had to become to be successful in their positions as players.

Former Argentinean striker Juan Antonio Pizzi went on to manage Valencia and is now in Mexico

Where are they now? Barcelona XI that won the Spanish Super Cup under Bobby Robson in 1996: Julen Lopetegui: Porto boss Albert Ferrer: Former Cordoba coach Gheorghe Popescu: Jailed for money laundering Abelardo Fernandez: Sporting Gijon coach Laurent Blanc: PSG boss Luis Enrique: Barcelona manager Sergi Barjuan: Almeria coach Guillermo Amor: Adelaide United sporting director Pep Guardiola: Bayern Munich coach Hristo Stoichkov: Former Bulgaria and Celta Vigo coach Juan Antonio Pizzi: Former Valencia boss now at Leon in Mexico Advertisement

Where are they now? And the Barcelona 1992 side produced a few too: Andoni Zubizarreta: Former Sporting director at Barcelona Albert Ferrer: Former Cordoba boss Ronald Koeman: Southampton manager Fernando Muñoz: No coaching roles Eusebio: Former Barcelona B boss Pep Guardiola: Bayern Munich coach Jose Mari Bakero: Coached at Malaga and Real Sociedad Michael Laudrup: Former Swansea, Getafe and Mallorca coach Juan Carlos: Coaching role at Valladolid Julio Salinas: Television pundit Hristo Stoichkov: Former Bulgaria and Celta Vigo coach Advertisement

It’s perhaps more of a surprise that so many attacking players also graduated to the technical area.

Some will have got jobs because they played for Barcelona rather than because of all they learned at Barça – it’s the irresistible pull of giving a Barça old boy a job in the hope he will be able to build a side in his former team’s image.