Few minutes before 11 am this morning, a meeting between Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain and Josep Maria Mesalles, the agent of Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (28), has started.
After a one-hour meeting, Mesalles said to journalists that Eto'o wishes to continue although nothing can be excluded: "The club wants the player and the player wants to fulfil his contract. Both Barça and we know that the player has a contract and they know it's a great player.
We'll continue next season and we'll see what happens later. If they will offer us a renewal, we'll look at the offer because Samuel is happy here, there's no better place to live and he doesn't feel any need to leave. We certainly won't actively look for another club.
We're very happy at the club and the relationship is good but until 31 August you cannot exclude anything because some fool can come, pay his buyout clause and offer us 15 instead of 5. If an interesting offer for both the club and the player comes in, we'll also take a look at it. We're open to everything and I'm aware of the great value of Eto'o. He has won two Champions Leagues, three Liga and one Copa, I guess that you don't have to say much more.
I nevertheless want to stress that the situation is different than the one of last year. Back then, Guardiola made clear that he didn't count on Samuel. This didn't happen this year and we know that the opinion of the club and the coach isn't the same as last summer. Txiki now didn't tell us that Pep doesn't want him.
There are clubs that have shown interest in him but it's forbidden for us to listen to offers. There might be people that are calling you but that doesn't mean that you want to leave. Inter? We didn't receive a call from then and the meeting between Laporta and Moratti wasn't about Eto'o. Real Madrid? We didn't talk with them either. Eto'o is now focusing on his national team, after that he'll have holidays for three weeks and then he'll start training with Barcelona."
Read more:
Meeting with Inter on Ibrahimovic: A reconstruction
Barcelona considering how to get Forlan
Manchester City confident of signing Eto'o soon
Monday, 8 June 2009
Agent Eto'o repeats wish to continue
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36 comments:
yea leave. good for him. good for the club.
Is there any reason for him to leave? May be for a new challenge can be one or more money but I don't see any concrete reason for him to leave
!!!!ETO'O CONSIDERS INTER SWAP!!!!!
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jun8a.html
It says he's demanding a £10m per year contract for 5 years. That's 250,000 euros per week :P
Anyway unless Inter is willing to dramatically lower their Ibrahimovic valuation it's not going to happen.
Eto'o want to sign his last big contract. If he wait one year in barcelona he'll add the transfer money to his salary... (20-40 milion)
Barça must exchange eto'o this year!
Well if u read between the lines, it still sound more like a "Come and get me" Call.
It's the club who has to move now: offer him a renewal or accept he'll leave for free next year. They invite his agent over and they basically don't do anything: they don't say he should go and they don't offer him to renew.
You cannot sit there, say you don't want him to leave but at the same time you don't offer him a renewal while silently hoping Manchester City will splash for him (while they have much cheaper options in Forlan and Villa).
Sell Eto'o. It's time.
BUY RIBErY!!!
He'll stay and leave for free next summer. Fair enough. He gave us a lot and he'll be extra-motivated for another season ahead of a transfer and the World cup.
groga you are stupid
I think groga makes a lot of sense..
I don't think it's fair enough to let him leave for free. Ok, let's sign a new contract and lower his buyout clause for next transfer window to 30 milion Euro, that would be fair.
That's the problem, Ondra: they don't offer him a new contract. Everybody gets one, Puyol, Marquez, Valdes, but Eto'o not, I guess that says enough. For some reason, they don't want to renew him. Well, then they have to live with the consequences...
lol today there is a rumor out that we are going to swap eto+bojan for forlan.... what are they smoking?
i really dont want forlan in barca
groga - because he won't accept it. he wants either a huge raise or he wants to play out his contract for a big payday elsewhere.
It's insane to try and sell this man. I'm oblivious to why no matter what! he does how much he scores..you "fan's" still focus on what he missed or how much he'll cost the club if he stays. Let's look at this basically a striker that has helped CRUCIALLY in giving us an historic treble, wants to stay. Problem? on paper you'd think not apparently some fans knaw at the hand that feeds them. Laporta should renew and give that man whatever he wants.
Lets not forget, this contract situation is a creation of both the Barca board and Eto'o (and his agent).
Failure to negotiate an extention or transfer with just a year left and this will happen. Its not a good situation for either part, simply due to the fact it adds too much uncertainity. Renew or sell with 2 years remaining, just my 2 pence...
james, they cannot know what he wants since there hasn't been an offer and he hasn't been able to reject anything. they can try to "guess" it, but what's the point of that?
what do they want him to do? he should make a renewal offer himself? from: eto'o. to: eto'o. i offer myself a four-year renewal with a considerable pay rise. oh yes, fun, i accept. where do I sign? that's not how it works. He says: i want to stay next year and if they offer me a renewal, I'll look at it. So now it's up to the club.
If he wants to continue in Barca,renew him.It seems that nothing is enough for some fans
How do you know the club hasn't offered a renewal for a lower salary off the record? Maybe Eto'o has already informed the club he doesn't want to talk about a renewal unless you offer him a big raise.
I'm not saying I know the situation, I'm saying none of us know it.
"Give him whatever he wants", well then Messi will need a raise, and the whole wage structure changes. Is there a standard salary that a superstar player should get or do they just get raises every 2 years as long as they don't have a bad year? What's the point of 4-5 year contracts if they're only good for 2 years at a time? If a player completely sucks then he's got a guaranteed 5 year salary, but if he ends up being a superstar then the club should only expect 2 years at the agreed upon salary? I don't know the answer, I'm just curious.
Personally I think once you hit the 150,000+ per week salary there isn't much more room to improve. Eto'o wants to keep going to 250,000 euro weekly, I don't think clubs are going to offer him that, but him and his agent are convinced someone will.
"How do you know the club hasn't offered a renewal for a lower salary off the record?"
Because the club certainly would have leaked it to the press if they had (and even more if it was rejected - and even more when his agent keeps repeating they didn't receive anything).
And offering him a lower salary wouldn't be a serious offer anyway, that would be the same as saying "we want you out".
I agree that it could be interpreted the wrong way but if the ultimate goal is to sign him to the same salary he had before (or just below Messi's) then you might want to start negotiations a little lower.
I don't know if I agree that the club would leak a rejected offer. That would in effect signal to the the rest of the market that we aren't in good shape to retain him and lower his transfer value.
I haven't heard his agent say anything other than 'we will study any offers that come in but we want to stay in Barcelona' which is pretty much the standard answer for anybody going into renewals. Similarly Barcelona have said several times 'we want Eto'o to stay but we are waiting to find out his intentions' I don't think they're really revealing anything.
They're just both revealing that there hasn't been an offer yet...
If Eto'o says: "I want to stay and I'll look at the offer", what more can there to be find out about his intentions? Again: should he make the offer himself?
if eto really wanted to stay that bad he would accept any contract offered to him except a lower salary, if barca wanted to keep him that badly they would have offered him an extension with same fee or pay raise, from what i gathered eto wants pay raise barca just want contract extension and i don't blame them, with all the talent that is coming in and yaya turning down a pay raise as well, they have to take things carefully, players like ribery, zlatan, cesc could all join and will have high wages, eto can't increase his contract or we will end up like valencia and the fact that pep told him he can stay but he is not relying on him said it all, no pay raise. some say eto is loyal to the club and he is this and that but this is the second year where dealing with him has become frustrating and this year is different from last year, this year barca want to renew him but yet we are going the same problems as last year. barca is not chelsea and real, offering huge contracts to every player to keep them. look at ballack? why is he getting paid as much as lampard and terry. best thing to do is forget about eto cause we can't waste a whole transfer on him, he'll end up staying without contract renewal and leave on free transfer next season costing the club loads of money unless someone gets strict with him.
So if we're not a huge contract club, I guess you suggest we don't buy Ibrahimovic then, because his wage is currently twice that of Eto'o and even more than Messi's...
He'll leave for free and he's entitled to do that. He played the game better than Txiki.
So how much would this "beloved Ibra" ask for? lower than Eto's current? think again.
"you cannot exclude anything because some fool can come, pay his buyout clause and offer us 15 instead of 5. If an interesting offer for both the club and the player comes in, we'll also take a look at it. "
hahaha. i will rephrase it:
"Hey Manchester City... show me the money!!!"
Sell Eto'o, seriously it's time. He is one of the best strikers in the world + he fits in Barca very good, but it's time too bring in some new blood up there.
Especially since Eto'o most likely will want a better contract, and he only has 1 more year on his current. Buy Ribery and one striker. I don't care if it's Aguero, Ibrahimovic or Villa.
Btw Ibrahimovic would get less paid in Barcelona, but when you think about all of the extra money he would get from sponsors etc he would probably get more money in Barcelona than in Inter + If he is interested in joining Barca(most likely) it will be becouse it's a great team who have a good chance of winning titles, not for the money. Another reason is that he have played in Italy for 6 years allready. It's not weird that he wants a new challange.
Oh forgot..
Roumors says that Zlatan would be willing too go to Barca with less salary than in Inter. Swedish international Henrik Larsson (played in Barca 2006, did 2 assist in the cl final) has spoken with Zlatan about his future and recomended Barcelona. If Zlatan wants to leave he will probably want to go to Barca + Pep seems to want to sign Ibra.
Why waste a opportunity like this when a world class player like Ibra is out on the market, AND very interested in joining Barca? It would be foolish not to buy him.
Or lets do like groga wants to. Keep Eto'o this season. He will be away ALOT with his international team, and his motivation might be low, since he has allready done it all in Barcelona. If next season goes bad, Barcelona won't be as attractive to players as they are now. Eto'o will leave in the summer, and we won't get any money. Maybe no great striker will be available on the market next season.
So let me get this as straight as you put it.. "Sell him its time!" because he's now a dud and hasn't been a helping vien to the heart of the camp nou? No your reason is because it is "time?" Are we forgetting they also thought it was "time" before last season when it seemed more likely of his departure. Now that he's proven hisself yet again, its time? Laporta said "he's the best striker in the world and deserves what ever he gets". Eto' says "I would like to stay." I don't think the problem is should he stay. Or if he's wanted, eto' is a fine striker and has proven that I personally would rather he stay I think whomever says he should go just off the strength of his contract being up soon is ungrateful and worrying about the wrong things. Zlatan owe's us nothing and has no obligation to us. Eto' does the loyalty factor is much more comforting to me.
It's different next season. Eto'o will be away alot more than this year. I think that it is better to sell him now, get money and buy another world class striker instead of having him next season, when he will miss alot of matches and probably have less motivation than this year. He's already done it all in Barcelona. I doubt he will play as good next year as this year. I might be wrong, but even if I am I still think we should sell him.
We have to buy another striker sometime. The way it looks right now it's this season, or next season. Why not go for it this season when Barcelona has won the treble, and players are more interested in going to Barca. Lets strike while the iron is hot!
marws is right.
Despite all the samuel has done for us and the issues of loyalty this is also a financial decision. If we don't sell him now we lose $30-40 in potential transfer fees plus we don't have our 1st line striker for 2 months.
Just for the sake of arguing lets's say ibra's transfer actually does end up being going through at $70 (i predict it will drop to 50)...
we can use eto'o now as collateral either in a direct swap or redirect his fee towards paying inter. We would only spend around 40 mil....which seems ridiculous...
OR we can wait until next year and only buy a striker worth $40. this is all theoretical, essentially I am saying we can will only be able to afford a striker of a lesser market value (take this leap with me) which roughly translates to having a lesser quality striker.
Furthermore, we are at the mercy of the 2010 market for 2 reasons...
(1) there may not be a quality striker available (ibra is now a blanco b/c we didnt' make a move and villa is a chelsea, dzeko joins and pato renews with milan etc...u get my drift)
(2) clubs will KNOW we need a new striker b/c samuel is out of contract... they can squeeze us even more for cash...(who knows maybe kun will be a $70 target now!)
Other issue are thierry will be another year older and we risk losing 2 senior strikers in the same transfer period and bojan may not be ready to lead our line...
Also DO NOT FORGET it is an election summer and candidates will be more interested in big name signings rather than wat the team needs...all we are going to hear about next year is CESC,CESC,CESC
All I'm saying is yes it sucks to have to deal losing eto'o now But it could be WAAAAAAAY worse next summer... fingers crossed what if we do not replicate our success or have a worse season???
Marws, I agree 100% WE MUST strike while the iron is hot and barca is on top of the world...after all you don't win a treble very often...
I think Scanos814's analysis of the situation is pretty accurate. If our choice is to keep Eto'o for one more year and let him leave that's fine, however we don't even get to keep him for the full year due to the ACN. We also know we'll lose Henry next year, so it's better to spread out the changes. Right now we have the pick of the litter after winning the treble.
Henry has a contract until 2011, so that's one problem solved.
And if we let Eto'o go now, people will also KNOW we need a striker, so the price will also go up because of that (as the price of Eto'o will go down with one season left).
You can't predict next season's market. Now there are several clubs wanting to pay a lot (Madrid, City,...) so the prices are going up. Maybe next year there will be less money in the market and players will be cheaper...
Ofcourse next seasons market might be better than this year, but what do we know? Maybe It's worse than this year, and in that case we will look back and think "What if we would have sold Eto'o the last season, and bought Ibra/Villa/Aguero?"
Like I've said, lets strike when the iron is hot. It would be foolish not to.
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