Barcelona may have boosted their squad with the expensively acquired Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez but a staggering NINE of the club’s Champions League squad cost the Catalan giant precisely nothing.

Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Lionel Messi, Victor Valdes and Sergio Busquets are included in that number and the club’s performance in the inaugural NextGen series suggests that there’s plenty more where they came from.

Europe’s under-19 version of the Champions League has mirrored its full-grown equivalent so far this season, with Barcelona currently sitting on top of their group with three wins from three matches.

Big-spending Manchester City, meanwhile, are still searching for their first point in the competition having lost 2-1 to Barca at home and 3-0 away to Marseille.

Those results may not tell the whole picture but the City’s Academy manager Andy Welsh admits that the Barcelona standard is the one all clubs are aspiring to.