Have Barca sold Ibrahimovic? Was on loan last year to Milan wasn’t he? If they sell him that should bring uo their transfer budget. Also would they be prepared to sacrafice Villa to get both Sanchez and Rossi? They would almost certainly recoup their money on Villa if they sold to Chelsea on Man City. Villa suffered by playing slightly out of position in the latter half of last season.
Probably the best signing for Malaga so far is Pellegrini. If they give him sufficient time he’ll do well there I think.
I guess Barca could get both, particularly with Bojan on the way out. They’ve really bit short a striker since the likes of Gudjohnsen didn’t work out. I think adding Sanchez and Rossi to Villa, Messi and Pedro would be a bit much though. At the very minimum that would spell the end for Afellay and force Jeffren out on loan but I reckon they might be willing to offload Villa if they can get Rossi and leave them with Sanchez, Rossi, Messi, Pedro, Afellay. I think that would be a mistake, relying too much on wider forwards and probably a bit too young, but it wouldn’t overly surprise me if that’s where they wanted to end up.
As you say much depends on the Fabregas deal too. They’ll probably end up with two of Rossi, Sanchez and Fabregas or equivalent. They still need to do something defensively too. The Jose Angel talk has dried up a bit but they’ll certainly be in the market for at least one defender.
I don’t think there’s anything official yet. The loan with Milan included an option to buy at an agreed price of c.€24m. They have to pay €7m to Barca for the loan if they don’t take up the option. From reading reports, it seems that Milan want to make it permanent but there’s meant to be interest from Real Madrid too. Either way, he’s not expected back at Barca but I doubt Barca would deal with Real Madrid and he seemed to be happy at Milan.
Following on from Rocko’s post earlier, Sid Lowe of the Guardian is saying that Sanchez to Barca is pretty much done.
Mllan have purchased 50% of Stephan El Shaawari’s rights for €7.5m and 50% of Alexander Merkel’s rights. El Shawaari will join Milan this season and Merkel to Genoa. Merkel said he hopes to return to Milan after gaining experience.
Anyone seen much of El Shaawari? Meant to be the next big player in Italian football and it’s a decent outlay by Milan and alot of faith shown to bring him into the first team for the coming season.
The Udinese president has claimed that a fee has not yet been agreed with Barca for Sanchez.
Napoli have also added Marco Donadel and Mario Santana to their ranks on free transfers.
Why would Barca sell David Villa?
It would be hard to say that they should sell him but it’s far from inconceivable and looks like something they’re actively considering.
A few reasons that do count against him:
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He’s 29. Not old but his likely replacements (Sanchez and Rossi) are both considerably younger
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He doesn’t really suit the Barca style of play, despite being an excellent striker. He is unique among the outfield players, in fact all the players, in not being a passer and he is always last on the stats in terms of touches, passes played and usually passes received. He’s been effective in a way in playing outside the system but Guardiola may feel that they’re a bit more predictable on his side of the pitch because he’s direct and doesn’t want to link up play or create for others really.
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He was taken off for Affelay in the one big game Barca lost this season (the cup final). He was also taken off at the Emirates in the other significant loss for them. Of course you can argue that his withdrawal was the reason they lost but there’s a hint there that Guardiola doesn’t trust him the way he trusts his other attackers.
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His goals per game ratio wasn’t better than Zlatan’s, who wasn’t retained.
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They have a small squad. They need to sell to fund some of their acquisitions.
He prefers playing deeper than his position at Barca but 23 goals in his first season is hardly bad.
Often the player furthest up the pitch, Villa in this case, would have the lowest passing stats, would they not? As they would be taking risks to get goals, having shots etc. I think you can be guilty of trying to quantify these things. David Villa is one of the best striker in the history of the game. He has a phenomenal scoring record. Id certainly take the punt of him fitting better in his second season but if books have to be balanced somewhat.
Chelsea should break the bank to get him in if there is a chance of getting him in. Playing behind Torres and with Modric in midfield. They would bang in goals. They would hardly sell to Real.
I don’t think he really does prefer playing deeper. He’s not the creative type who fits in behind another striker, he’s a goalscorer, an excellent goalscorer, but I don’t think Barca have played him out of position at all. They’ve given him chances centrally and on either side of Messi. If those roles aren’t too high up the pitch for Messi or Pedro then they aren’t too high up for Villa either.
Stats can often be misleading but Villa is so consistently at the bottom of the table for Barcelona, often below Valdes on possession stats, that he does stick out by a mile. He’s not even close to the other attackers in the team and his role shouldn’t be too dissimilar to Pedro’s for example. This is partly due to his role but I can’t imagine he’s expected to be as involved as infrequently in general play. It sometimes results in Barcelona overloading their attacks down one side because they don’t really keep the ball, certainly at the same sort of pace, when they switch it out to Villa.
None of which is to say he’s been a failure. But I think much the same applies as it did with Zlatan last summer and Eto’o the summer before. All excellent strikers who had really good goalscoring records (they’d be the best in the league with Messi and Ronaldo) but Guardiola just doesn’t seem happy with that sort of output from one of his attackers. I think he’s happier with Villa and other than financial pressures there’d be no compulsion to play but the style of play of Rossi and Sanchez is more similar to Pedro and Messi. Bit of a risk taking a “conventional” striker out of the squad but Guardiola hasn’t got too many decisions wrong so far.
Seems nuts to me to contemplate selling Villa. They are well balance arguments in fairness to Rocko but as Rocko has also outlined elsewhere, Barca are relatively short in terms of striker options. Villa can play that role if Messi got injured - who else could? And if you do boil it down to stats, it’s worth noting that Villa was second top scorer, had two less assists than Pedro on the other side but five more goals. When Barca don’t have the ball his workrate is phenomenal. I think you could possibly make an argument for Rossi because of the age factor, and therefore longer term value, but Sanchez is hardly a better fit than Villa imo. Also, if they signed Fabregas and played Iniesta in a more advanced role, I wouldn’t expect Iniesta to get as many goals as Villa.
[quote=“ClarkeyCat, post: 583256”]
Seems nuts to me to contemplate selling Villa. They are well balance arguments in fairness to Rocko but as Rocko has also outlined elsewhere, Barca are relatively short in terms of striker options. Villa can play that role if Messi got injured - who else could? And if you do boil it down to stats, it’s worth noting that Villa was second top scorer, had two less assists than Pedro on the other side but five more goals. When Barca don’t have the ball his workrate is phenomenal. I think you could possibly make an argument for Rossi because of the age factor, and therefore longer term value, but Sanchez is hardly a better fit than Villa imo. Also, if they signed Fabregas and played Iniesta in a more advanced role, I wouldn’t expect Iniesta to get as many goals as Villa.[/quote]
That would be a ridiculous move. Why would you break up the best midfield in club football just to accomodate a player who has never actually done anything on a world stage? Not saying that you are advocating in Clarkey but I have heard a few other people do so. Iniesta isn’t as good that far forward.
It would seem strange to me selling David Villa but I think the biggest thing here in Guardiola’s mind is his age - that’s all I can think of anyway. They don’t have a huge squad and he is probably looking at a drop in price next season should he decide to sell him then. The likes of Xavi is older but he is obviously untouchable.
KIB, while I do think Villa is a fantastic goalscorer (his record is superb), I think you’re jumping the gun when you say he’s one of the best strikers to ever play the game. For instance he is not nearly as good as Messi or as good as the fat Ronaldo.
Not advocating it in the slightest. I’ve said in another thread or two that Barca don’t need Fabregas and it’s wasteful to buy him as cover. When I questioned Bandage on where he would play, his curt response was midfield. I made the assumption that Bandage would then be thinking Iniesta would play more advanced.
You’ve named two that are better than Villa, farmer. It’s hard to argue with Villa’s stats and medals. For whatever reason he doesn’t really get mentioned in the same breath as the greats but I think he is one of the best ever.
Wolves have signed Jamie O Hara for 5M.
I think Bandage’s point was that football cannot be really thought of in a ‘best 11’ anymore. Having four players for three midfield places is perfectly logical. However, the question is when the big matches come around who is going to get the nod. However doesn’t is not going to be happy.
I haven’t doubted Villa’s record but he never struck me football wise as being one of the best ever. For instance, I would have Torres ahead of him as a striker with both on top of their game.
Apart from setting up the winning goal in a World Cup Final? Think your dislike of Arsenal, Wenger and Cesc is shining through a bit there Farmer. Fine, he’s not Iniesta/Xavi just yet, but still.
I probably was a little hasty but I am bugged from comments by the likes of Giles who claim he is one of the best midfielders in the world on the grounds of having seen him in the EPL.
Yes, it’s a squad game and all that but you can only put eleven on the pitch and Pep doesn’t tend to rotate. Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t feel he has the luxury to and Fabregas would provide that. I just think it’s expensive, particularly for a club with questionable finances. It would be a difficult one to manage too because everyone would want to play the big games. At the moement Barca have a clear delineation of who is first choice and who is cover. And it has worked. They are by far and away the best team in the world.
Both Villa and Torres are pretty much unstoppable when on top of their games. Villa has done it more consistently over a longer period though and has a better record internationally (including the big tournaments), in Europe and domestically in Spain.
True but Torres for me is superior in around the box, sniffing out chances, and scoring goals from nothing. He suffers more from injuries, has a much more questionable temperment to Villa but I would have an all firing Torres ahead of an all firing Villa as strikers. Don’t know how I can prove that - it is just a subjective thing.
This lad was excellent for Valencia years ago but I haven’t being keeping up with his recent progress. Still worth a punt for someone on a free transfer.
Valencia winger Vicente expects to join a Premier League club on a free transfer this summer and will make a decision on his future in the next few days.
The 29-year-old is out of contract with Valencia at the end of this month after 11 years with the Primera Liga side.
Blackburn, Newcastle and top-flight newcomers Swansea have all been linked with a swoop for the former Spain international.
And Vicente admits he “desires to play in the Premier League” and is close to reaching a deal.
He told Spanish newspaper Superdeporte: “In a few days I will decide my future and it will be in England.”
Vicente has notched up almost 250 appearances for Valencia since arriving from boyhood side Levante back in 2000.