Racing Santander winger and former FC Barcelona player Luis Garcia, 31, has spoken of his regret at not making more of an impact during his time at the Camp Nou.  “I would have liked to have had more years at Barca, but the train passed me by, and I had to take a tough decision. I wanted more minutes.”

The Catalan winger, who moved to Liverpool at the start of the 2004/2005 season, went on to explain how he had not only enjoyed his time in the first-team but also playing for Barca B, where he won promotion with the youth team, playing with current Barca favourites Xavi, Víctor Valdés and Carles Puyol, who he also played with during his single season in the first-team. “I knew them from Barca B, when we won promotion to segunda A at the Bernabeu. That’s one of my best memories, as everything was really in favour of Madrid that day.”

Of his one and only season with the first-team Garcia said, “it was great. We put in an extraordinary second half to the season and we finished second after a really bad start”.

Discussing this seasons chase for the League title Garcia seemed unable to seperate the top two, “The league will go to the wire. It’ll be close till the last four or five games. The difference between Madrid and Barca now isn’t important. I think the way they both finish the campaign will decide the title”.