Opinion | Ander Herrera comes in from the cold to lead Manchester United to yet another Wembley cup final
Last season’s player of the year has elbowed his way into manager Jose Mourinho’s plans after spending much of the campaign confined to the bench
Footballers, coaches and executives are regulars on the Manchester-Barcelona route since England’s north-west is full of Spanish players – though some travel differently from others.
A private jet used by Pep Guardiola and his family was twice searched by Spanish police looking to see if it was smuggling exiled Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to England this year, while a month ago, a man in a tracksuit opted against priority boarding as he walked to the back of the queue for a budget flight from Barcelona.
Having again been overlooked by Spain during international week, the midfielder had travelled to Zaragoza, the city he grew up in, where many friends and family live and where Real Zaragoza, the team he supports, play. Herrera, who stood on the terraces and saw Zaragoza win Spain’s Copa del Rey against Real Madrid in 2003, has suffered watching Zaragoza in the last decade. Yet after five years out of Spain’s top flight, they were on a six-game winning run as they pushed for promotion and faced Sevilla’s B team, who were going down and had lost their previous 10 games.