Agent Essien opens Barcelona door

Asked about the future of Chelsea midfielder and Ghana international Michael Essien (26), the player's agent Fabien Piveteau has unconfirmedly suggested to journalists that Barcelona could be an option for the player:

"Some clubs are interested in Michael. He likes Chelsea very much, but football is football and if Real Madrid, Barcelona or some other club make an offer he needs to sit down and discuss what is best for him."

Read more:
Barcelona interested in Essien
The swap deal as transfer strategy
Chelsea offers Malouda to Barcelona

Barcelona interested in Essien

Asked about the exit rumours regarding Chelsea midfielder and Ghana international Michael Essien (26), Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has said at a press conference that Barcelona is one of the clubs interested in the player but that he wants to keep the player:

"Inter, AC Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid all want Essien but he is at Chelsea. If I stay for three years I don't want him out, I want him to stay with me.

This is because he is very good player who can play in five positions very well. He is young and dedicated. He is our player and I think he is happy here.

Michael Essien is good news for me everyday. At this moment he is injured but he is recovering quicker than we thought. He comes here at 10.30 in the morning and doesn't go until four in the afternoon. He tries to come back early. It is good for us. He is a fantastic example for other players. I don't want to put pressure on him but I think we will have good news sooner than we expected."

Read more:
Swap deal including Essien and Xavi
Mourinho's eleven
Busquets renewal could be closed this week

Mourinho's eleven

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo has today a report on how Barcelona would have looked like if new Inter Milan managerJosé Mourinho would have taken over.

During a meeting with Barcelona officials earlier this year (read more here), Mourinho asked for the total control over the technical organization, the medical staff and the transfers. The Portuguese didn't think many transfers were needed and wanted to focus on changing structural things like the preparation.

Former Barcelona player and probabe future Barcelona B manager Luis Enrique (38) would have been his assistant. Both would already had met to discuss the project (read more here).

Mourinho counted on Messi and Eto'o, wanted to have a talk with Deco and Ronaldinho and would have tried to sell Henry. He didn't like Abidal, Touré, Giovani and Pinto and knew little on Bojan.

Mourinho agreed with the transfer of Alves and would have brought in a decent back-up for Valdés, a left back defender and a left winger. From his former club Chelsea, he wouldn't have tried to bring Drogba, but was interested in Carvalho, Lampard and Essien. Keita was the alternative for Essien.

This could have been the Barcelona XI under Mourinho:

Valdés

Alves - Puyol - Milito - Maicon

Essien (or Deco) - Iniesta - Lampard

Messi - Eto'o - Ribéry

Read more:

Next season's eleven

Next season's squad

Meeting with Mourinho

The swap deal as transfer strategy

This year it begun with Ronaldinho and Adriano (read more here), then there was Deco and Adriano (read more here), Henry and Altidore (read more here), Eto'o and Berbatov (read more here), Henry and Cesc (read more here), Zambrotta and Oddo (read more here), Eto'o and Adebayor (read more here) and I'm sure forgetting some: the swap deal rumours have arrived and they plan to stay until the end of August.

Catalan sports paper Sport even reports that Barcelona could make the swap deal a real transfer strategy this summer. It would allow the club to renew the squad without having to spend too much money.

The paper claims that Barcelona is considering an exchange of Barcelona centre forward Samuel Eto'o (27) and Inter centre forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic (26), of Barcelona midfielder Xavi (28) and Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien (25) and of Barcelona central defender Carles Puyol (30) and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fàbregas (21).

pep's opinion:

it's nice for the papers, but you rarely see this happen. with three parties around the table, it's already difficult to find a deal. with four parties, it just gets harder.