Ibrahmovic - Eto Swap is Now Official

FC Barcelona website has reported that Zlatan Ibrahmovic will be arriving at Barcelona on Sunday for Medical. At the same time FC Barcelona has given permission for Samuel Eto and Hleb to got to Milan for Inter Medical. In the end of the deal the only team which could be smiling has to be Inter as they got a quality striker and a good player plus some around 48 million Euros of cash to play with. It has been a good business for Inter than for Barca. Now Barca has to find immediate cover for other positions especially the position left by Hleb. There is a high chance that Gudjohnsen also will move away and we may need another one more player to fill that position. It is clear we will not be able to fund those transfer from Player sale and we also might have stupidly give more than what was needed to Inter. For me this is one of the most idiotic business done by the club in its history. FC barcelona never was a club who use to inflate price but in Ibrahmovic case we have followed the Madrid path. Laporta may deny it but there is no difference between Madrid's huge spending and Barca's this deal. Atleast Kaka and Ronaldo have more star value compared to Ibrahmovic. It is also yet to be seen how Ibrahmovic's arrival upset Barca's pay structure. Zlatan was the highest paid star in Europe, but because of lower taxes in Spain he will take a pay cut, but still it will be closer to the likes of Messi (the real superstar of the team).

Samuel Eto'o has been one of the most dynamic player in Barca's history. A player who succeeded last season evethough his coach never had a bit of confidence in him. Eto'o has been the outcast in Guardiola's squad last season, but everyone expected the wonderful performance last season might have made Guardiola re-think. But never, Guardiola works with his strange pre-conceptions. "Once an Outcast, Always an Outcast" in Guardiola's books. For the last few weeks most of the Barca supporters have ridiculed Eto for not putting club first. Why he should? Will all these fans who point their fingers at Eto put their Company ahead of their job and family. I doubt so. Eto was hired for doing a job; and simply put he did that with perfection. He don't need to see whether Barca made money form his sale, he was hired to score goal. It's plain and simple. many of these fans forgot that Eto'o has been an essential member in FC barcelona's resurrection in the recent past. He was an essential member in the Rijkaard era and did splendidly well in last season. How many centre-forwards are there, who have a 100% goal scoring record in UEFA Champions League Final. I thought Eto's wonder goal in this year's final turned the tie in favour of us. But majority of Barca fans always concentrated on his negative side. Eto is a very dynamic person, he could be a handful in dressing room and is more insecure than any of his team mates. But then traditionally centre-forwards tend to be more insecure than anyone in the team.

Everytime Barca is linked with a good centre-forward, Barca fans tend to highlight Eto's personality as a reason for the change. Sure he is a handful in certain situation, especially the tension he created after the criticsm of Ronaldinho in public was very hard to handle. But in the last two years he was very discliplined as far as i am concerned. Maybe Guardiola's treatment could have lighted the spark in him to excel well. And bloody hell he indeed did that. Another fact Eto haters put forward to ridicule him is his inability in air. Ibrahmovic maybe better than Eto in air but there is not much of difference between them. And to all those who thinks that Ibrahmovic is the answer to the "Park the bus mystery", I would say dream harder. The teams which parked the bus against us were Chelsea and Manchester United not some small team. Manchester United played a much iopen game against Inter last season and even then Ibrahmovic couldn't do anything. So it will be too much if we ask Ibrahmovic to solve that mystery for us. In the end this is a good deal for Eto than Barca. For a player it is always better to work with a boss who respect his contribution, and Guardiola does not do that.

FC Barcelona vs Totenham Match Pictures

Totenham - 1, Barca - 1

An under strength FC Barcelona side was held to a 1-1 draw by Totenham in their first pre-season friendly in the Wembley Cup. Bojan Krikic gave FC Barcelona the lead in the 32nd minute but Totenham equalised in the 82nd minute through Livermore's header. Guardiola decided to rest majority of stars from the squad who made it to London. In the first half we featured a team consisting of Jorquera, Montoya, Caceres, Fontás, Abidal, Victor Sanchez, Toure, Gudjohnsen, Pedro, Bojan and Assulin in a 4-3-3 formation. In the second half we put almost a different team with Pinto, Dalmau, Henrique, Muniesa, Espasandin, Johnathon dos Santos, Rueda, Keita, Jeffren, Rochina and Oriol. Considering the strength of teh sides a 1-1 draw in their first pre-season match can be considered as a good result.

Totenham started brighter in the initial exchanmge of play, but with time Barca started taking control and looked more organised. In the 17th minute Bojan gets into the edge of box and tries to lob the ball over Totenham Goal Keeper, Cudicini, but was a bit high. Then in the 20th minute Pedro cuts inside from the right and drills a low shot towards the near post but was brilliantly denied by Cudicini. But Barca went desrevingly ahead in the 32nd minute thanks to excellent finish from Bojan after some serious good stuff from Toure. Toure collected the ball just ahead of half line and sets in a fantastic run skipping past defenders; desperate defending from Spurs saw the ball being blocked off Toure in the box but it fell for Bojan who never hesitated in taking the shot. It was indeed a brilliant finish. Then in the 34th minute Gudjohnsen chipped in a great ball into box spotting Pedro's run; Pedro collected the ball and put it past Cudidcini but was wrongly adjudged offside. Then in the 38th minute there was a double scare for Barca when first Modric shot hit bar and then Assou-Ekotto from the rebound had to be punched over by Jorquerra. The first half ended with Cudicini tipping over a great shot from Sanchez from outside the box.

Second half saw Totenham trying to impose themselves against a much more weaker Barca side. But they couldn't stop the free passing game of Barca boys. In the 82nd minute Totenham equalised when Livermore heads in a Chimbonda cross.

FC Barcelona Signs Keirrison

Keirrison da Souza Carneiro has officially become FC Barcelona's second signing this transfer season. FC Barcelona will pay 14 million plus 2 million in incentives to the player's club Palmeiras for the capture of 20 year old sensational. Keirrison will have a medical on Friday before signing his contract with the Club. Even though he is seen as a player with great potential, Barca will most probably loan him out this season. He was born in Dourados, Brazil, the son of an Operário Futebol Clube footballer Adir Carneiro and Alzira Rosa de Souza. His name was chosen by his father, as a tribute to rock musician Jim Morrison from The Doors, and an admiration for the letter K. His older brother is called Kimarrison and his younger Kayon.Keirrison and his father bought a football club from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state in April 2008, and renamed it to Centro de Futebol Keirrison, shortened as CFK9.

Keirrison started his career with Coritiba. He became a regular in 2007 season helping the team win Campeonato Brasileiro Série B. He was the top goal scorer of the Campeonato Paranaense in 2008, with 18 goals. Keirrison joined Palmeiras from Coritiba in January,2009 .

Has Eto Agreed To Leave Barca?

Reports are emerging from Spain that Samuel Eto has finally agreed to a 9 million Euro a year deal with Inter. There has been no confirmation from both the clubs but the players agent was recently quoted - that a deal is imminent. The whole saga of Eto - Ibra swap has taken some crazy twists recently. One media report suggested that Barca is ready to scrap the swap agreement and pay 75 million Euros for the Swede striker. That showed the desperation of Barca management to sign Ibrahmovic. With Eto agreeing to terms, this can be considered as the biggest signing of Barca history (it is still not clear whetehr Hleb is includede in the deal). Laporta earlier this season criticized Real Madrid for their extravaganza and inflation of the transfer market. He also recently defended the Ibra-Eto swap deal as nothing similiar to Madrid's transfer this season. But I am sorry to disagree with Laporta on this. Real Madrid with their purchase of Kaka and Ronaldo inflated the transfer market out of proportion. If the Ibra-Eto deal goes through we will be doing the same. Madrid atleast can justify that they have paid these enormous amount tow former WPOY. We can't even do that.

Samuel Eto has been an essential part of Barca's success for all these years - first with Rijkaard and now with Guardiola. It is not a huge surprise that he scored in both of Barca's triumph in Barca's greatest triumphs till date - the Champions league final in 2006 and 2009. With Eto one thing was guranteed - Goals. Ibrahmovic is a slightly different kind of player but more technically gifted. But he initially has to fit into the 4-3-3 formation we play so well. And with the price tag associated with him he has to score atleast 25 goals in league this season. Now that would be a huge expectation to live with. Many of the people point out that we have to change the team as we have won everything last season and they are firmly behind such a huge move. They all fear that not acting now will repeat the failure of 2006-07 season. But honestly how many of you have recommeneded to have Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto sold out after the 2006 Champions League final triumph? The truth was that Rijkaard lost it completely interms of discipline after that seasona and we basically paid for that. Still this deal could be good but the price of this is cannot be justified.

Another statistics that has been put forward to justify this deal was the aerial ability of Ibrahmovic. He was billed as Barca's potential answer to the Bus-Parking done by Chelsea this season and ManU a year before. Ibrahmovic is much better than Eto in air but I don't believe that he will be that good agaisnt the Chelsea and Manchester United defense. Last season I have watched the ManU vs Inter match and he looked impotent in that match. Maybe we can hope that maybe a one-off game. But he could be real threat when it comes to free kick. After the departure of Ronaldinho we were quite innefficient in this field and we could add another weapon to it by Ibrahmovic signing. Again then it is yet to be seen whether he will track back to help defense like Eto has done in all his times at Barca. It is quite surprising that Barca fans who yelled out at Madrid's huge signings weeks before is seeing this huge signing in a different angle. They justify this saying that it is essential for FC Barcelona at this point of time. But then it is quite surprising to see them crying foul at Madrid's signing as it was essenitial for Madrid to bring in major players after such a succeful season for their traditiona rivals.