‘I was telling the boys about this degree I’ve just started. Sports science, or something like that. You never know what’s around the corner in this business… and then Javi pipes up. “I’ll do it with you,” he says to me. Javi bloody García!! As if! I told him so as well.’

While the backroom staff at Real Madrid used to tease their young midfielder about his academic ability, they never doubted the talent they had on their books.

Maybe Javi Garcia was worried about the fallout rate of young players at the club, and was considering continuing his studies just in case. Or perhaps it was the sight of Oscar Miñambres trotting around an empty pitch on his eternal quest for fitness that served as a sobering reminder of the possibility of a career-ending injury.

He needn’t have worried. Having already represented Spain’s youth national teams, in 2005 Javi García formed the axis - together with Rubén de la Red - of one of the most promising Real Madrid reserve teams in years. To Rubén de la Red’s Emmanuel Petit, García was the side’s Patrick Vieira – conveniently so, after recent rumours about Arsenal’s interest in the midfielder.

On the right of that midfield side was Borja Valero, now at Villarreal. To the left was José Manuel Jurado, now of Schalke 04. The midfield four supplied the prolific Roberto Soldado up front, now at Valencia. Javi García, meanwhile, was particularly important in providing protection for the centre backs, which included Alvaro Arbeloa, now back at Real Madrid after spells at Deportivo La Coruña and Liverpool.

While Arbeloa and Javi García fought it out between them to pick up most yellow cards, both averaging a booking every other game, García was nonetheless impressive as one of the younger players in the team. Tall and strong, industrious and boasting as fierce a shot on goal as a challenge for a 50-50 ball, not to mention a strong range of passing, he had been singled out as a future first team player for Real Madrid.
No sooner did Fabio Capello take over at the club he looked to fast-track García, and moved him up to train with the first team squad, although he would still play in the reserve team at the weekend.

While this ought to have been García’s step up, the timing was against him. Capello had been brought back to Madrid after a four-year trophy drought. In his first press conference, he spoke of the 3-0 defeat to Barcelona the previous season. ‘This must not happen again,’ he said. Everybody knew what was coming.

Capello was brought in to deliver silverware, by any means possible. His first signing was Emerson (along with Fabio Cannavaro) from Juventus, while he also insisted on Mahamadou Diarra from Lyon. The Spanish press hated Capello, hated Emerson, and particularly hated Diarra, but they ended up winning the league title. The job was done, and Capello promptly left the club.

In the process, though, there was no room to blood youngsters. The priority was elsewhere. So the likes of Soldado, de la Red, Arbeloa and Valero were farmed out. García, meanwhile, had often ended up training alone with a coach, Capello intermittently looking over to see how he was progressing.

Just as his progression seemed set to be stunted, Javi García embarked on the journey many Real Madrid youth team products take, with extended loan spells, swapping clubs every year and rarely settling. García moved to Osasuna, then back to Real Madrid the following year, before then finally cutting ties with the club he grew up at and moving over to Benfica for 7m euros in 2009. Whereas this move signalled the downward spiral of his career for former teammate at Real Madrid, Javier ‘Rocky’ Balboa, García revelled at his new club, settling into the first team and winning the Portuguese league title in his first year at the club.

Three seasons later the rumour mill places Javi García at the centre of a transfer battle between Arsenal and Manchester United, largely fulfilling his potential after three years of regular first team football. Whether he is the true heir to Roy Keane, or indeed Patrick Vieira, remains to be seen, although there can be little doubt that he is the perfect fit for the EPL. Benfica, meanwhile, will be aiming for a David Luiz-esque profit on any deal that takes Javi García to England.