Shur Eto’o was doing that. Thats not why Zlatan was bought. Until he does it at the top level in the CL, he’s only touch with greatness is touching Messi’s arsetowel.
Zlatan cost a notional €65m, only €35m or so in cash over probably 5 seasons. And Eto’o’s wages off the books. Zlatan obviously gets paid too but the worst case scenario was holding on to Eto’o for another 12 months and not playing him that regularly and paying him a huge salary to be a disruption. He wanted out of Barcelona and Barcelona wanted rid.
For €65m they have a guy who has played more regularly than Torres, who fits into their team far more than Ronaldo (who wouldn’t really have suited the club either). You could make a case for Villa alright but they want a guy with better link-up play. Villa’s more like Torres and probably not exactly what Barca wanted. It’s easy to argue against Ibrahimovic now but he started the season superbly and has looked a threat all the time for Barca, even if he hasn’t been scoring lately.
I’d say there are a handful of players good enough to play centre forward for Barca. Zlatan is one of them. Whether he’s the best or not will be told over time but he’s been far from a disaster.
I think you might want to check the meaning of “pinnacle!”
You’re basing your opinion on one game, or is it two - I can’t tell? I know he hasn’t been fantastic in the CL every season but he’s been good and he was superb overall at Inter.
My overall point on Ibramhimovic is that he has failed to deliver on the European stage. I find it incredible that you would say that he is a better option than Torres given he plays more games when the latter has delivered on the biggest stage for the last two seasons - something Ibrahimovic has failed to do.
This will ultimately come down to whether you rate Ibramhimovic or you don’t, and I certainly don’t, but I don’t think there can be any doubt that splashing out 65 million on a striker who has not delivered on the top stage does not make much sense.
Will it make sense if he delivers on the biggest stage this season?
Barca didn’t buy him because they wanted him to have a history of Champions League goals that would look good statistically. They’d have stuck with Eto’o if they wanted somebody who did do well. They want someone to do well this season and next season.
What did Torres do in Europe last season, if that is the biggest (and seemingly only) stage? Genuine quesion, I don’t remember him getting a glut of goals.
You’re writing off his chances of succeeding on the basis of a couple of games you saw him play in the Champions League. There’s more to football than one Last 16 tie that you attended.
Will Ibrahimovic deliver this season? I saw him in the flesh once, last season against Man Utd, and on numerous occassions for Juventus and he certainly didn’t look like someone I would pay 65 million for.
We’ll see of course if he delivers but I can’t see it happening.
As for Torres, he was excellent against Real last season in both legs. He also scored a peach in the first leg against Chelsea, something with Ibramhimovic certainly hasn’t done.
Champions League is the main stage of course - surely you can concede that and also concede that Ibrahimovic hasn’t performed to the way a top player which you pupport him to be should be?
Zlatan scored 2 in 4 in Euro 2004 and 2 in 3 in Euro 2008. You may recall his backheel against Italy or his Zlatan-Larsson-Zlatan piledriver against Greece.
Again nobody wanted you to pay 65 million for him.
Did Barcelona feel that getting rid of a player who was beginning to cause trouble plus paying 35m was a good outlay for Zlatan? Guardiola clearly believed so. He wasn’t judging him on a Champions League game against Man United that you attended. He’d no doubt seen him for years and feels that he’s the style of player to suit Barcelona and to allow them to continue rotating strikers, while crucially providing a central focal point this season to give them a few more options. Torres plays a different role, wasn’t offered for sale and isn’t really relevant to whether Zlatan was a good purchase or not.
Essien, Ribery, Robben, Higuain, Kaka, Torres, Ronaldo, Buffon… all cracking players but not really relevant.
I can understand that you don’t particularly rate Zlatan but you seem to believe you’ve been proved right in this already even though he’s an integral part of the best team in Europe at the moment.
He’s basing it on big games, they matter in rating a player. Plenty player do well in the run of the mill season games, but Farmer picks out CL 1/4 finals and i would add International games as well, he’s been well below par.
Eto has done it CL finals, and was winning games for Barca before Messi ever came along. Maybe in time Zlatan will prove us wrong, but for now i think Zlatan is grossly over rated, and over priced. Doesn’t matter how they pay the bill, thats the value they gave him.
Farmer didn’t pick out 1/4 finals. He picked out one Last 16 game that he saw Ibrahimovic playing in and extrapolated that to every big game he ever played.
He hasn’t done it at international level but has been Swedish Player of the Year in 4 of the last 5 seasons. Do you suspect you’ve seen more Swedish games than the Swedish media?
What does “well below par” mean? Does it mean well below average? Do you genuinely think that the player of the year in the last two seasons in Serie A is a “below par” international fooballer?
You can of course judge a guy on big games but only when it’s time to judge. The price Barca paid was a reflection of their expectations for him, not a reflection on games he had previously played. If he wins a couple of La Ligas and a European Cup for Barca then they won’t give a shit how he played at Old Trafford for Inter and it won’t come into their assessment of his worth. They’ll judge him on what he does for Barca.
Oh and it matters hugely how the fee is structured. There’s a huge difference between a net cash outflow of €65m and paying €35m and getting rid of someone you were actively trying to get rid of.
Time will tell Rocko, no doubt about that. It was €45m that they paid out though, I’m fairly sure about that. Eto’o was valued at around €20m. I struggle to believe they couldn’t have found anyone else to pay that. Weren’t City sniffing around? They paid €24m for Lescott, I’m sure they would have stumped up at least €20m for Eto’o.
City had bid €30m so I think that’s the price that has been attributed to the move to Inter. It’s hard to know exactly though because it’s just a notional figure. He may have decided he’d prefer to stay at Barca then go to City though so you don’t know all sides of the equation.
It’s all academic though, Barca bought him to play for them, not to play in front of Farmer in the flesh.
Farmer’s right here. How many goals in the knockout stages of the Champions League has Zlatan scored in his career? One. One? He’s failed year after year after year in the knockout stages of the Champions League. No World Cup Finals goals either. World’s most over rated player. The Henry Paul of the association football world.