"Estoy Tri-tranquilo"...aka the '09 summer transfer thread Part 3

Sport.es' english version is, like you might know, always just robot-translated and because of that, bad english. But the current version really tells a "wacky" story about the manner Zlatan and Barca bosses celebrated the signing with a dinner. Menu seems kinda funny/troublesome.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.sport.es&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en

It's the third small news, after Chygrynskiy-rumours.

I guess after spending 45m on Zlatan Laporta can't afford the good shit.

Zlaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatan!!!!


I swear, if barca goes to the Champions league final ill be there!

It's at the Bernabeu this season so if your dream comes true be sure to disinfect the seat before you sit down.

The number 9 on a Barca shirt still somehow looks like it's Eto'o's shirt. But I sure hope/trust Ibra delivers to deserve it.

Haha! I will have two bottles of chlorine with me ;D

You could always go this route.

I haven't read anything so far that suggests Benitez is asking for Yaya in return. According to reports, his asking price for Mascherano is 50M and Barca are willing to offer 30M+.

Jees , for 50 million I would expect Mascherano AND Xabi Alonso !!

Benitez is notorious with tagging his players with ridiculous prices. Even 30M is reaching, but 50M is ridiculous.

I think 30M is fair. Mascherano is the premier destroyer on the planet at the moment, and his technical qualities are up to snuff as well. Ie he can bring the ball out of defense and distribute it at a solid level...he's not Makalele useless going forward.

I just think Yaya is a better fit because Mascherano would give us a three midget midfield.

Then again, with the big man up front, maybe we push Iniesta wide on the left, and Yaya into Iniesta's role, with Mascherano anchoring defensively?

At any rate, I don't think we can afford to lose Eidur right now. Unless he is demanding an exit, we should keep him because he's an experienced and settled option for both the midfield and attack for a side that is paper thin at the moment. At least we don't have to worry about our #9 going off to ACN EVER AGAIN! That's worth a little bit of money, no?

30M for Mascherano would be fair...20M a bargain...40M a reach...50M absurdly too much.

Lets hope that Laporta has a quiet, Maxwell-esque trick up his sleeve for our midfield. I'd love a more imposing, veteran midfielder who could go box-to-box and be physical in tough cup ties against big English teams. Someone like Vieira without the injury problems and stated desire for first-team football. I'll admit, my mind draws a blank for real options of this sort. I liked Lucho Gonzales for this project, but that ship has rather expensively sailed.

It's tricky to fill little gaps in a treble winner.

Hey folks, long time off for me for the summer but this news has brought me back...
ZLATAN!!! Wow, I really think he'll be a great fit. He brings finesse on the ball, good links with the midfield and Messi and Titi, aerial force, a thunderous long-distance shot... He's not as zippy or explosive as Eto'o, but I think more consistent, less temperamental.

As for the midfield, there might be another swap deal in the works: Caceres for Poulsen.

That deal would really leave me cold. We JUST paid a bunch of cash for Caceres last summer...to give up on him in favor of a 29 year old Poulsen who has never been more than very good...I think it would be a poor buy.

For a budget option in the midfield...what about Arteta? He's coming back from a knee injury, which would be the only major stopping point for me. If he could pass a medical, I'd think he could settle quickly, and cover 5 positions for us. I don't know exactly what price we'd be looking at to bring him back to Barcelona.

Xavi + 20M euros + some other player as a gift from Laporta.

eto'o inter jersey

Well, I was under the impression that 2 terms were the max. Coincidentally, I just saw this article in sport

Now that the Ibra/Eto'o thread is closed, I will ask my Ibra question here

Not having watched much of him, is it more likely that Ibra will play some games on the wing so we'd get line-ups like Ibra-Bojan-Messi or Henry-Bojan-Ibra? I know the frontline players moved around a lot during games, but I always thought Eto'o always started in the middle as the #9. Seems like if Ibra is more versatile that will give Bojan more playing time, which he deserves.

Though Ibra has played with a lot of positional freedom and drifts wide quite a bit, I don't think he's played in a predominantly wide role that much, except at Juventus for a while. Then again, neither did Henry before he came here.

I think the main thing limiting Bojan's playing time as a CF last year were:

1) Pep's lack of confidence in Bojan (and generally in squad players not named "Keita," "Busquets," and, eventually, "Pique").
2) Pressure to play Eto'o for maximum minutes in La Liga games for his Pichichi chase.

(2) won't be an issue next year; it remains to be seen whether (1) will be.

Zlatan should stay primarily in the middle, but he will be able to drift to both flanks.

I think everyone can agree that Ibra floating out wide and switching with Henry or Messi will be more valuable to the team in those situations than Eto'o was going out wide, right?

Article in NY Time's regarding the transfer
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/sports/soccer/29iht-SOCCER.html?ref=globalhome

Here's some info on the "math" of the deal.

According to that article:

So Ibrahimovic will be making more than Messi?

I don't think that is more than Messi makes.

Like I said earlier, Eto'o was dead set on leveraging his ability to leave for free to get a huge contract and he did so magnificently. Huge deal and gets to play for a great squad, not Man City or some dictator-run team in the former Soviet Union.

More interestingly, and off topic, if anyone reads the Goal.com top 50 player non-sense, it is pretty clear that tomorrow they will reveal the top 3 players in the world as Iniesta, Xavi and Messi (or perhaps Xavi, Iniesta and Messi), given who they have named so far. They counted up from 50 to #4 now, Crynaldo: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1956/europe/2009/07/28/1409224/goalcom-50-cristiano-ronaldo-4

and have yet to list any of that Barca trio, 2 of whom of course played for Furia Roja to win Europe for Spain. They list Zlatan at #5, Eto'o at #9, Alves in between if I recall, and Puyol and Henry down the list somewhere. I don't think that they rated Yaya, probably the biggest omission. Oh, that other big LPB signing, he came in around 35 or so, near Karim.