Wednesday 28 January 2009

Barcelona plans few changes in the summer

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain and Barcelona general director of football Raúl Sanllehí are regularly holding meetings regarding next season's squad.

As things stand now, the club thinks that only a few minor changes are needed. The example to follow would be the summer of 2005, when Barcelona, after winning the title, only added Van Bommel and Ezquerro to the squad and ended the 2005-2006 season with the double.

If Barcelona would win the Liga ànd the Champions League this season, this initial idea could change. In that case, to keep the hunger and motivation in the squad, there could be more incoming and outgoing transfers.

Defense
The contract of Sylvinho expires in June and won't be renewed. The club is looking for a substitute. The future of Cáceres and Milito is uncertain. Henrique will return from loan.

Midfield
The contract of Gudjohnsen expires in 2010 and he would be the only midfielder who could leave, unless another player receives an offer he cannot refuse.

Attack
Barcelona wants to renew the contract of Eto'o, that expires in 2010. If that's not possible, they would want to sell the player. Villa would be the first option to replace Eto'o, with Benzema and Adebayor next on the list. Henry could leave because of his age, because of the offers coming in and because the club still wanting to bring in Silva.

Read more:
Villa again linked with Barcelona move
A goalkeeper, a left back and a left winger
Barcelona monitoring Silva situation

10 comments:

sashi said...

WOWWW!!! this plan is amazing... coming summer also, we need to get a couple of players in defense... like Lahm or Zhirkov or Bale... try convincing Eto'o to renew his contract n if he refuses, get Benzema or Aguero... Loook at Silva more than Villa bcoz of his age...

Dan R said...

seems like a nice safe plan.
don't crucify me but i believe we should sell Eto'o this summer!
I'm sorry but he just doesn't have the Barcelona mentality.
And although he scores a lot, it is mainly because of other players' actions and not his, and he rarely creates his own scoring opportunities.
We can get 40m Euros for him, and get a better replacement (Like Benzema, Villa, or even my dream transfer - Fernando Torres).

Plus look at his horrible haircut! :D

Anonymous said...

We never get 40 million euro, Dan. This guy has one year contract left and if we don't renew, he'll play it hard.

kamikaze kontiki said...

I hope we don't get Adebayor. He is highly overrated and is a very lazy player. We constantly seem to be on the look-out for that Kluivert replacement.
Villa would be expensive and a short-term solution. Kun might be better as a centre-fwd than a left winger. Renewing Eto'o in the end might turn out to be the best option.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with DanR about Eto'o, but for the first time I agree with Kamikaze :). Renewing Eto'o would be the best choice. He can play at the top at least 3-4 years, maybe more, but certainly, Barca have to sign another forward due to (possible) Henry departure and Eto'o's absence due to African Cup.

Here's my opinion about summer transfers:

GK: IN: Asenjo (or maybe someone more expensive if VV decide not to extend his contract)
OUT: Jorquera, Pinto

Defense: I think there's no need of buying defenders. Caceres should get the chance to improve his worth + Henrique will be back next preseason. If Pep decides to buy left attacking full-back I'd like to see Adriano (Sevilla) or Zhirkov playing for Barca.
OUT: Sylvinho (Milito's future to be decided, but Barca could sell him too)

Midfield: Iniesta showed everyone he can play left winger, so there's no need to buy Silva + Hleb is playing same position too.
IN: Navas, Hamsik, Gourcuff
OUT: Gudjohnsen (Keita-if OM splash 13-15M)

Attack: renew Eto'o
IN: hard to decide. Villa will be expensive buying, Benzema&Adebayor unlikely. Maybe Zarate (Lazio) or Cavani (Palermo).
OUT: Henry

Knives Out said...

Dan R: and who do you reckon will pay €40 million for Eto'o exactly and put up with his €9 million wage demand?

I am not in favour of Silva, possibly because he doesn't seem that convincing. Besides he cannot score from the wing. I doubt if Valencia would let either him or Villa go off easily. Though if Villa is for sale, we should pounce on him rather than let Madrid get to him.

Benzema and Adebayor are not tested in La Liga so there is a risk that we would be taking with either if we do opt for them.

As Kami has suggested, Kun would be a great option. If we do have to ship out Eto'o we might as well go and buy him, and maybe use him/Henry/Bojan as the CF.

I would say the signings we would have to make are that of a goal keeper (Asenjo), a left back (Zhirkov or possibly Lahm), and a winger (Agüero or Ribéry).

Anonymous said...

kun or benzema would be the best move. I like eto'o a lot but rather selling him now than paying him a messi-salary or losing him for free. I would just go for aguero.

a left back who can attack would be welcome,but abidal is doing great this year. zhirkov is maybe the best solution because otherwise we would be playing with 3 right footed midfielders (iniesta or busquets, xavi, yaya the bear) and 4 right footed defenders..a youngster with attacking skills like arsenal buy them all the time seems good to me!

i would also get a hardworking, strong midfielder. with offensive and defensive qualities as a remplacement for guddy. Gourcuff is a good possibility i think

aguero, left back,

Anonymous said...

kun or benzema would be the best move. I like eto'o a lot but rather selling him now than paying him a messi-salary or losing him for free. I would just go for aguero.

a left back who can attack would be welcome,but abidal is doing great this year. zhirkov is maybe the best solution because otherwise we would be playing with 3 right footed midfielders (iniesta or busquets, xavi, yaya the bear) and 4 right footed defenders..a youngster with attacking skills like arsenal buy them all the time seems good to me!

i would also get a hardworking, strong midfielder. with offensive and defensive qualities as a remplacement for guddy. Gourcuff is a good possibility i think

aguero, left back,central midfielder

Ramen said...

Bojan will perform much better than now in the future as long as he's given time on the pitch. He'll fit into the Central forward position like Eto'o has since he's the type of striker that runs towards the goal. When Rijkaard gave him time, he was able to shine in a team that had low morale. Guardiola is protecting him right now because of his age, so I'm sure he'll be a great striker by next season.

If Barça buy Kun or Benzema, what'll happen to Bojan? Kun and Bojan are almost similar. I don't think Kun is the correct striker to buy because we need different strikers for different strategies. Benzema is a different type of striker, but he seems to be a striker that likes to run backwards to the midfield (Gudjohnsen is kinda like this). So, I don't think he'll work in our system because we won't have a focal point in our attack anymore like in 06/07. Besides, he will never accept the bench for Bojan.

What I propose is that we get a target striker. If Barça gets Silva, Dani Alves and he will have the option to cross into the box. So I suggest that we get Guiza (not Adebayor). He'll definitely accept the bench for Bojan because of his age. I'm also sure that Fenerbahçe will let him go. For more pro-propaganda, Guiza was a former Barça product.

Dan R said...

heck 40m or 30m both are fine by me...
Can any of you truly say Eto'o has the Barca mentality? In 04-06 he was on top, now i think he is just leaning on our midfielders (and Henry's) amazing form...

I wont buy Aguero either... not the type of striker we need.
a good replacement for Guddy/Keita is Napoli's Hamsik... great defensive and offensive skills.

But in generally i think the only player we should buy is Zhirkov, he really is a lefty Dani Alves.

Other than that, i can play Eto'o... until El Nino comes!

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