Thursday 9 October 2008

Renewal or exit for Eto'o

Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio claims that Barcelona wants to have certainty about the future of Barcelona forward and Cameroonian international Samuel Eto'o (27), whose current contract expires in the summer of 2010, before the end of this season.


The club would be considering two options: Eto'o will be offered a contract extension that would include a pay-cut or he will be sold at the end of the season since he could otherwise leave for free one year later. The negotiations with Eto'o and his agent would start soon.

Barcelona thinks that Eto'o could have received a big offer of a European top club since he would have asked to lower his buyout clause and don't want to go through the same soap opera as last season.


Read more:
Renewal talks coming up
Laporta never wanted to sell Eto'o
Last-minute Manchester City offer for Eto'o rejected

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

If he scores 30 goals this season, which he will easily do if he doesn't get an injury, they will end up offering him a pay rise.

Anonymous said...

if they sell i think it will be a henry story.
he will only score goals for one team
but i think they will renew his contract and if they sell they got money for a new striker.
1.aguero
2.benzema

Anonymous said...

I think that Eto loves this club and wears the shirt with a lot of pride so he will accept a new deal with salary cut.
Dont worry,he already has a ton of money.

Més que un club!!!

Anonymous said...

As first, guys look at goal.com an article about Benzema. Probably, next summer he'll join RM.
Second possible target Aguero will join his father-in-law at Inter (not at goal.com).

Regarding Eto'o- it looks like an ultimatum to me- sign renewal with salary cut or go away. Having the best striker in the world is invaluable.
Talking about salary cut is a blackmail. They pay much more to Henry which is benchwarmer- by some reports, one of the 5 best payed players in the world!
Personally, I think Guardiola (don't have to mention I don't like Guardiola) doesn't want Eto'o in the squad and he and Txiki will make everything to get rid of Eto'o. But, I hope Laporta is still behind Eto'o and he wouldn't let Eto'o go.

Players like Eto'o you just don't sell. Just imagine Juve sell del Piero, or Roma sell Totti, or RM sell Raul. Eto'o is club's trade mark, and I claim 100X better than every other striker linked with Barca move recently.

Just let him play.

Anonymous said...

Wow .. an improved attitude and better performances and goals on the pitch = a salary pay cut.

Messi is doing excellent these days so I think he deserves a pay cut too .. Roll on Laporta !!!

Anonymous said...

"Messi is doing excellent these days so I think he deserves a pay cut too"


LOL!!!

wanted47 said...

this is bad...it has one been mentioned in this forum that etoo is a ticking bomb!

pep said...

Goal.com just takes their stories from other sites/papers, HouseMD. The Benzema story comes from As so you shouldn't believe that as if it's actually true (could be true, but maybe not---just like the Eto'o story for sure). Although Madrid of course is looking for a substitute for Ruud and probably is ready to spend big.

Anonymous said...

Is it only me that think the board are handeling this correctly? I think he should leave this summer to bring in some fresh blood and most importantly a other kind of striker to add a dimension to our play.

To compare Eto'o with Del Piero/Raul/Totti is silly. All of those players spent their entire career from when they were a teenager at their club. They are like Bojan but 30 years old.

Two new strikers are needed next season. Benzema or Adebayor should be signed and a backup to one of them. Henry and Eto'o out.

Anonymous said...

well, wheathe you like it or not.. Eto'o should decide either to renew or to leave next summer.. otherwise he will leave on a free transfer!! then, every one here will whip his disloyal behavior, be realistic guys, modern football knows no trademarks except the club's trademark,
wasn't Henry the trademark of Arsenal?? same for Beckham and Man u.? Ruud? the list is endless.
some people said that barcelona will not exist after Roony, and you know what? we are today much better without him.
and for the blackmailing thing! good players are always in the position of blackmailing the clubs, only when players start loosing their form the opposite happens!!
I'm not saying that we should sell Eto'o, but every player should know that no one is untouchable..NO ONE..

Anonymous said...

TO HOUSEMD.. I like eto'o a lot but you must not compare him with del piero or toti or gerard or raul.. those players are like flags to their teams.. and you can't imagine those team with out them.. but barca with out eto'o is still barca.. is not barca without eto'o!!
roma without toti is a midtaple team!!
if you are asked to tell the flags of our team what place eto'o will be?? i say puyol xavi messi iniesta i even put valdes ( can you imagine barca with an exelent geeper? :) ) and then eto'o.. for me.. if you feel outherwise i am ok with that.. and how you can not like quardiola?? let me ask deferently.. you mean the person the player or the manager??

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Eto'o also requested that the club lower his transfer fee. Why? Almost certainly to facilitate his departure. As I've said before. He and Henry are outta here by the summer.

Eto'o won't stay mostly because I don't think that the club wants him to stay. I don't think that he does, either. If they did, the renewal offer wouldn't include a pay cut. It's that simple. The club is banking on the notion that, based on this summer's lack of real activity, Eto'o isn't that hot of a commodity.

I said when all of the summer "sale" stuff was going on that the relationship was damaged. I think that this is the unfortunate evidence.

Eto'o, as great as he's doing this year, is playing like someone who is auditioning for a new job somewhere else. Players in all sports have great years in their "contract" seasons. Yes, he's under contract with us until 2010, but only the insane think this isn't his last year with Barca.

I think that Eto'o is a great striker in our system. I don't know how good he will be in another system. And comparing his salary with Henry's just doesn't stand up. Henry's sustained excellence earned the euros he grabbed by coming to Barca.

But the real question is: What is Eto'o worth to Barca? Is the answer contained in the renewal effort, or is that just a negotiating ploy? Time will tell. You can make inferences based on the presence of Henry and Krkic, coupled with this contract business.

As I see it, the only thing it can do is piss off someone who has, this season, had a great attitude. Yes, that attitude comes from his "live audition" role, so to speak. But still. I consider it a miscalculation for that reason.

The other thing is locker room reaction, and how transparent is Guardiola as regards the motivations behind this business. If you hear players coming out in support of Eto'o, calling B.S. on the move, it will have been a HUGE miscalculation.

By the by, Eto'o is not a club "trade mark." Xavi? Yes. Messi. Not quite. Not yet. Puyol? You bet. Iniesta? Close. But others have said this better than I can.

What is Eto'o going to do next, is the question.

Finally, don't trust anything you read in AS. Much of the Spanish sporting media is biased toward a particular club. AS is Evil Empire, through and through.

Anonymous said...

To clarify, I think that it's a good move from a business standpoint. If Eto'o balks, bench him and play Henry and Krkic. The timing is right. I just don't think that the psychology is right overall.

Anonymous said...

thats the point kxevin, why the hell would any player ask for reducing his price tag if he is dedicated to stay in the club?? doesn't make sense.
and for his attitude, after seeing what happend with Roney and Deco, he would think twice before doing anything naughty :)

Anonymous said...

sorry but the last comment was mine
ooops!!

Anonymous said...

OK guys, I'm really tired recently of studying for national medicine exam, so I'll try to answer to some of you.

Maybe I overreacting, but it's hard to me to imagine Eto'o in different shirt...

As first, Pep's stats show who's best striker this season, and if he scored 8 till now, imagine what will be till the end of the season.

@waleed: Eto'o NEVER acted he's untouchable, so WTF are you talking about? He's normal guy.

@kempe: OK, maybe I gone too far comparing Eto'o with Totti/Piero/Raul. Maybe he's not a flag of our team, but he grew as a player all along with the other guys, including Puyol (which is flag of team) sharing good and bad times.

I don't say Eto'o should stay forever- but let's be realistic. FCB must NOT give up on Eto'o so easily, especially now when he plays the best football of his life, and just to be mentioned-he's 27, he could play another 4-5 years of great football. If I ask who would you like to be the new No. 9, everybody will reiterate Benzema! or Aguero! -they're just overestimated!
Benzema didn't show a shit at last EC, same for Aguero in the last game against Barca!

@kempe: I just don't like him. I don't share a lot of his views regarding the team. He could be a good person, I don't know. But I wish him luck and I hope he would improve as manager.

Anonymous said...

i pray you all get Adebayor. He would make you cry! i can promise you that. it is very disrespective to compare them (@ least for now). Imagine Eto reading your comments.

What did u expect him to do in the summer? cos u are alll saying he was asking for price tag reduction.. what lead to the price tag in the 1st place? Loud mouth sep Guardiola said hes not in the plan.. so what could he have done?

Get Benzema and God help you he doesnt "click" in the Liga, you would all sulk but blame no one cos u asked for it.
Who would have thaught Henry wouldnt click? Do the midfielders in Lyon hold the ball as much as ours do? Benzema would want the ball as qucikly as Henry wants it now, but our style is different. We have failed Eto as a club. I said in one of my previous posts, fans/clubs are not loyal but we complain that players are not loyal. God help us.

+ who has guaranteed you guys you would get Benzema? and if you wnt Adebayor, u might as well support Arsenal, (adebayor, Henry, Cesc, Hleb, slyvinho, Van Bronchost.. etc) Enuff said...

Anonymous said...

yes HouseMD I see, he was SOOO normal when he was replaced by Henry against AT. madrid, he was like.. "yes why not? i already scored 2 goals and Henry will come in? sure..I'm a normal person!!" he didn't even give a shit for the crowd that stood up to praise him as he left the field. so normal!!
and he never said before a few months that "if barca continue playing that bad I will leave" !!!!!
so normal!!

Anonymous said...

I predict Eto'o will leave this summer. It's not because of his attitude or because he isn't good enough, it's because fc barcelona is a business and realizes that it should sell eto'o while his price is high and reinvest that money in a striker who is getting better, not worse.

Yes, Etoo's birth certificate says he is only 27 but trusting african birth certificates is a risky business. He should be in his prime, yet he used to be better.

Henry will leave too, so bring in Aguero and Benzema. Their ages justify their prices.

Noubarca please change your name, we have failed Eto'o as a club? What you fail to understand is players are club employees, when the players start paying the club then we can expect club loyalty. If you feel so bad for Eto'o maybe you should bake him some cookies or something.

Anonymous said...

ncn9ne, i seriously feel like giving you names.. but i wld be wise about this. Whats your business with my username? + I 'ld let you do the honours and bake him the cookies

You should also see it as a career for footballers. You are seeing it as a fan who cares about the club only. What would you say if Messi wakes up 2moro and say " I have a dream, I want to try the premiership?"

If you dont want players anymore, you dont have to go to the press and make noise. Thats why we failed these guys (eto, ron & deco) and even failed ourselves as a club, that was why we got £8Mil for Deco (knowing chelsea's bottomless purse). Once you make such silly anouncements to the media, the players' value drops!

If you are employed in the labour market, you should know better, just because your employee pays you dont mean they shouldnt be loyal to you. Imagine the way the Lehman brothers satff felt at Canary Wharf on the monday they got to work and was told to pack their stuffs cos the "party was over" therr should be loyalty fom both emloyees and employers. My sincere opinion...nothing personal YET

Anonymous said...

Actually, we got a "low" price for Deco because we had to sell him. Ronaldinho screwed the pooch himself. The club didn't fail him, unless the club told him to gin up an injury, get fat, not play and go clubbing. The notion that we "failed" Ronaldinho and Deco is, in my opinion, inaccurate.

As for Eto'o, ncn9ne is correct in concept. Big-time football is a business. You have to find the balance between team excellence and profitability. AC Milan didn't go for Ronaldinho because they think he's a great player. They know better than that. His best years are behind him by quite a ways. But what he did for shirt sales and season ticket requests more than paid his transfer fee.

It's business. Eto'o isn't Xavi, who might be offered a lifetime contract. He's an oft-dyspeptic mercenary-ish striker who follwed the money, as talented players are supposed to do. He would have played for RM, had they kept him, just as vigorously as he played for us (and did for Mallorca).

But just as a player has the right to seek more money, a team has the right to comport iuself in a way that makes it more profitable. But because people are fans of players, they tend to think that the business entity is being unfair by seeking the best deal.

More to the point: Eto'o has the right to do what he does, just as Barcelona has the right to what it does.

barca nike said...

He is the best number 9 in the world.Hes better than Aguerro and Benzema.

Dan R said...

I Actually prefer to look at this in a diffrent point of view.
As you all should know, Eto'o is an owner of several african youth acadamies for footballers and he is responsible for the 11 Africans playing in Barca's youth system, 3 of them are destined to be super-stars before the age of 16.
Loosing all those talents to other clubs will be bad on the long run.

We already have Ebwelle, Etock and several more promising african yougnsters... We'll just have to wait and see

Anonymous said...

ok dan r if wee sell eto our youth acatemy will collapse!!

Dan R said...

Would you mind giving a comment which is more to the point... "Anonymous"?

Anonymous said...

@ HouseMD.. uh.. u want guardiola 2 improve as a manager.. i guess 4-0 against valencia 3-0 gaisnt sevilla 2-0 gainst real madrid 6-1 gainst atletico not good enuf for you..

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