Catalan sports paper Sport, who today claims that future Barcelona manager Guardiola is already planning next season's squad for over one month, made on Wednesday an overview of the players Guardiola wants to stay or leave. Before we throw that one in the trash can, here it goes:
should stay: Valdés, Zambrotta, Milito, Márquez, Puyol, Sylvinho, Abidal, Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Messi, Bojan and Eto’o
can leave: Jorquera, Pinto, Thuram, Oleguer, Edmílson, Touré, Gudjohnsen, Ronaldinho, Henry, Giovani, Ezquerro
The same paper says today that Barcelona wants to listen to offers coming in for every player of the current squad, except for nine: Valdés, Milito, Puyol, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Bojan.
Madrid sports tabloid As claims that Guardiola has explicitly asked for Bayern Munich full back defender Philipp Lahm (24).
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Guardiola thinks that Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor (24) could be a key player in his new project. Barcelona did not yet make any move for the Togolese player but, despite his comment that he wants to stay with Arsenal (read more here), Barcelona will do everything that is possible to bring Adebayor to Barcelona. Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o (27), who has a close relationship with Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, could be included in the deal (read more here).
And British tabloid The Sun claims that the manager change in Barcelona could lead to Barcelona trying to bring in Liverpool central midfielder Xabi Alonso (26), for whom Juventus is planning a 20 million euro° bid.
During the Barcelona presidential elections back in 2003, Guardiola was the candidate to become the new Barcelona sports director if Lluís Bassat would win the elections. Bassat ended second (behind Laporta) but El Mundo Deportivo digged up the list of players that Guardiola planned to transfer at that time (having chosen Ronald Koeman, then Ajax manager, as the new coach), which could be an indication of the kind of players he would like to bring in now:
Inter Milan central defender Iván Córdoba, Zaragoza central defender Roberto Ayala (then Valencia), Inter central and left back defender Cristian Chivu (then Ajax), Milan defensive midfielder Emerson (then Roma), Liverpool winger Harry Kewell (then Leeds United) and Atlético Madrid winger José Antonio Reyes (then Sevilla).
Read more:
Adebayor new name on centre forward list
Deal with Lahm
Ribery says 'non, merci'
Friday, 9 May 2008
Which players are on Guardiola's list?
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9 comments:
In regards To Adebayor, I think the two things Barcelona finds appealing about him are...A.) His young age...and B.)His "physical" style of futbol upfront. He's not afraid to mix it up, up front, much like a bull in a china shop. However, what he brings to the table in his sheer size and power, he lacks in the "technical" aspects of the game, (i.e. one touches, passing, dribbling through traffic) He would much rather "run over" a defender than go around him. And his peripheral vision and passing inside the box are woefull. Again, he's a one trick pony in my opinion...I'll discuss what should be Barca's #1 target to follow.
Guardiola and Laporta can have a Christmas list of players they would love to have, but the first name, the ONLY name that should matter most is DIEGO!...They should do everything and anything at all cost to secure his services for a few critical reasons...1.)He fills that attacking/creative midfield role with Ronnie gone;and also takes some of the pressure off Messi to create everything by himself...and perhaps just as importantly...2)It prevents him from going to archrival Madrid (which in effect)makes them weaker by plucking a player they too were after....and finaly 3.)What good does it serve to talk about Benzema and Huntelaar and the like if there's no one in the middle to provide them service up front? To me that's like putting a Kia engine in a Ferrari. It will be pretty to look at but the damn thing will run like a piece of sh*t!
With Diego, we sure wouldn't need someone to replace Eto'o, I guess. Well, we don't need that anyway, don't know what the fuss suddenly is about. Give the guy a break, he had a serious injury (again), but still scores like a machine.
Except for the semi-final, ok. He biggest mistake was probably he didn't fall when Ferdinand (?) tackled him in the Camp Nou. That would have been a clear penalty!
To Mr.djoef,
I won't argue Eto'o's skill for putting ball in the back of the net. But you have to weigh that with his "attitude" off the pitch, in the locker room, and with the media. As I've stated in a previous post, I don't think there's a player in that locker room that takes losing harder than him, nor wears his emotions on his sleeve like he does. But the "way" he presents some of his feelings and frustrations seem to undermine the team and are counterproductive and only serve to present the media with more carosine to add to the fire!...and let's not forget that he is a "finisher" meaning that he's not the type to go "get" the ball and move a little bit down further in midfield if he's not getting service up front. He get's easily frustrated and at times dissapears from matches for spells at a time. Would I still hold onto him? Without a doubt, YES! but if he ever dreams of being a leader on this team he needs to keep his criticisms in the locker room and "bring it" every night, every game on the pitch! It seems lately that the players who "complain" the most about this wasted season are the ones who contributed the least! Let your actions on the pitch speak for themselves!
Diego's an excellent choice!!! him and Eto'o playing together could work wonders....and Eto'o stays! he's extremely good and is a major part of Barca...if he stays just watch next season will be completely different for him! not that he really had a bad season but he was seriously injured, just give him time
oh and Adebayor is no Eto'o but he'd do pretty well if we got him
° 20 million euro =
30 million us dollar
15 million british pound
I agree on Eto'o. Don't know, seems a smart guy (meaning: he can form his own thoughts and express them---something you cannot really say about for example Ronaldinho) but he has now had two outburst who were -to say the least- unlucky in wording and timing.
I guess that why now suddenly there are all these "for sale" stories. Two months ago, nobody would have thought about selling him. First time you could say it was an accident but twice... Better no third time.
But I love the player, I truly think he's the best centre forward in the world and that he can play (and score in) any system. From a counter attack 4-5-1 to our dominant 4-3-3.
Interesting that Xabi is now again linked with Barcelona, while he seemed out of the picture over the last two months or so. He's probably the closest to Guardiola there is right now, so could be a logic link...
The only reason I can see Barca persuing Adebayor so ardently is due to his physical presence and physical nature of his game. Consider that with Messi and Bojan how "frail" Barca look up front. I believe he would be a good compliment alongisde Eto'o. But I also wouldn't agree that an Eto'o for Adebayor swap would help Barca out either. It also all depends on what happens to Henry. If he stays, and Eto'o stays as well then there realy is no reason to pursue the likes of Adebayor, Benzema or Huntelaar because you also have Bojan as your third striker if necessary. If Eto'o and/or Henry goes then Adebayor won't be enough. I think Huntelaar and Benzema will be cost prohibitive given all the holes the team needs to fill. I think a player like Guiza or Lyon's Hatem Ben Arfa might be more sensible choices. Also given the tenuous relationship between Arfa and Benzema at Lyon I can't see that striking duo pairing up the same next season. One of them has to go.
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