Both main Catalan sports papers, El Mundo Deportivo and Sport, claim today that Barcelona has reached a verbal agreement with Arsenal midfielder and Belarusian international Alexander Hleb (27) .
Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain travelled to Germany yesterday to meet with the player. In Kaiserlautern, where Belarus and Germany played a friendly game, he talked with Hleb about the last details and in the end the deal was closed.
With Inter Milan also being very interested in the polyvalent midfielder, Barcelona will now start negotiations with Arsenal. It is expected that Hleb could leave the Premier League club for a transfer fee of between 15 and 20 million euro°.
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° 15-20 million euro =
24-32 million us dollar
12-16 million british pound
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Toure, Xavi and Iniesta now that Keita and Hleb have been signed. They are both utility midfielders.
I'm getting a bad feeling Toure may be headed in the other direction with Hleb's arrival. Toure was our best signing last year.
Clearly, there won't be room for all five of them in the midfield. I have to think Iniesta is untouchable, but maybe not so much with Xavi and Toure. Xavi has given a lot to this club, and it'd be sad to see him go as well.
Didn't mean to say Hleb had been signed above, my mistake, meant IF he is signed.
A great player, with great skills and control on the ball.. he would add alot to the team... but i wonder in what position is he gonna play... we already have xavi, iniesta, yaya and keita in midfield.. maybe he will play on the left wing.
Good point from the last anonymous cause that's what 'Sport' has been suggesting for a while: Hleb as left wing guy.
And if Giovani would leave, Hleb could maybe be first back-up for both wings (if Silva is brought in).
But I don't know if he would really like that role, I think he said before he prefers to play in the centre.
About the midfield: since it's believed Iniesta is untouchable for Guardiola and Keita comes to replace Deco, it could well be Xavi who falls out the XI. But we'll see.
It sure seems the club isn't looking for a real back-up for Touré anymore (which was a top priority a few months ago!). Apparently they think Piqué-Keita-Marquez?-Crosas?-Xavi-Iniesta should be able to fill that spot if Touré is not there.
Hleb should be a wing striker in Barcelona, no doubt. He's great at small spaces so I think he would adept pretty fast. But the question is if he's worth 20 million euro.
of all people???there are a number of much better players available.hleb is no doubt good with the ball at his feet but iniesa is better than him at that.as well, if theyre going to sign him to replace deco,then he does not really fit the bill because deco used to drop deep,run with the ball and basically had the ability to send it accurately to any part of the field.hleb definitely does not have that long ball threat we are sort of lacking at the moment.plus hes a real pussy head looking at the way he wants to get out of arsenal.
this guy is too dainty.. barca is full of fragile little guys.. bojan iniesta xavi.. all tiny little men . Deco is a scrapper who will drop deep and contribute a little on the other side of the ball hleb wont do that... and he is nowhere near as good a passer as deco or iniesta... he might be better in small spaces but.. we already have messi to make people look silly and geovanni can contribute... I just dont see why we would buy him... plus .. he is right footed.... we want a left sided left footed player to give the team balance... in addition he doesnt score... we need 5-10 goals a season at least out of that left sided player and I am not sure that hleb can reliably give you 3 per season.
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