The goalkeeper's tongue may have been firmly planted in his cheek when he made the remark but he does expect a tough pre-season work-out from the Catalan giants.

And the Jambos skipper has told his team-mates they will have to be "cute" when they come face to face with some of the best players in the world at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Asked what advice he would give his defenders to help them cope with the likes of Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o, he laughed: "To kick them as near the halfway line as they possibly can!

"We might have to have a few tactical fouls to stop them in their tracks, nothing dirty, but we might have to break up the play from time to time just to stop them from giving us the run-around.

"We will need to try to be quite cute and quite professional in the way we try to handle them."

He added: "We are further on in our preparations and hopefully that is something that will level the game out a little bit.

"But we need to get the ball first to get around the pitch."

However, Gordon has no fears about Hearts being star-struck this weekend, insisting every player will be relishing the opportunity to test themselves against the best.

He said: "I don't think that will be a problem.

"Everyone will want to go out there and show what they can do against top-class opposition and prove to everybody that they're a good player.

"I think that will include the young boys as well and I don't have any fears about them not going out there and giving it their best."

Meanwhile, Gordon expects speculation to continue over his own future until the transfer window closes at the end of next month, even though Sunderland boss Roy Keane has dropped his interest.

He told Hearts World: "It's something that will probably run for the next week, while there's still a month to go in the transfer window.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'll just take each game as it comes.

"Hopefully, I'll play against Barcelona and then I'll be getting ready to play against Hibs the following week."