Ribery set for Madrid as Pep prefers Villa and Navas
According to France Football, FC Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has cut his short-list of potential left-wing transfer targets down to a list of just two, with the coach set to focus his energies on bringing either Valencia’s David Villa, 28, or Sevilla’s Jesus Navas, 24, to the Camp Nou this summer.
The left-wing position has proved a weakness for the Blaugrana so far this season, and with Thierry Henry predicted to move away from the club in the summer, it seems Guardiola has already done his research as to whom he wants to fill the void.
A move for David Villa was thought to have been close to agreement last summer, only for the transfer to collapse due to wrangling over the proposed transfer fee of the player. Perhaps this summer the two clubs can come to some agreement?
If not, Barcelona may find themselves turning to Navas, who the club has courted for some time, only for personal problems to always stall any potential move for the Andalucian. After featuring in Spain’s victory over France yesterday, the player is rumoured to have said how ‘thrilling’ it is to be linked with a move to Barca’s bitter rivals Madrid, so perhaps Txiki will have to act fast to complete any deal.
One thing is for sure though, there will be no move for Franck Ribery, whom France Football reports has already given his word to Zinedine Zidane and Florentino Perez over any future transfer. The paper claims that the Bayern Munich player’s agent has already set the wheels in motion for a potential move to Los Merengues, with one source from within Bayern claiming:
“Ribery has an offer on our part to continue here, but if he refuses, it will be to go to Real, the only club he wants to join.”
I hope we get Villa
Villa, Messi, Ibra – that would be my dream come true.
I think Navas would be great. I wonder what kind of a price they would put on him.
knowing del nido he would cost around 35-40 million. that guy is a tough negotiator.
I would rather get Navas. Pace is so important on the wings, especially with Ibra in the middle. I feel as though Navas' pace will give our team something it may be lacking on that side of the pitch.
Did you see ger – arg? angel di maria is awesome on the wing…
He is!
Watch his hat-trick for Benfica last week.
He put in a stellar performance and his second goal – a lob over the keeper – was a class act.
He shall stay my favorite for the left wing, closely followed by David Villa and Sergio Aguero.
Trio of Villa, Ibra, Messi is refreshing! I hope we get the deal done.
yes sascha i saw it
oh please now just concentrate on up coming games, really i get bored from transfer news, just now i wanna see barca winning from now till the end of the year and i hope that we can win 2 cups.
navas is not coming cheap and villa is not going for anything less than 70m. navas around 40m easily sevilla can really pump teh money out. theres no way we can pay around 110m euros after ibra. we are not real madrid. i wud love for us to get a player like di maria who was excellent against germany last night. he wud come for 25m and wud be an excellent addition.
villa, aguero, navas are just too costly.
why teh hell we always have to go for stars and pay huge money for them. players like etoo and ronaldinho came for around 22m euros and look at them. podolski is another option who has vast experience and is a wonderful player. r
I don't know what world do you live in, but your figures are overly inflated.
No kidding. Not taking into account transfer price inflation either.
lol poldoski is an international-only player.. what that means is he plays average in club football but better for germany. why u think he was sold to koln
koln is his hometown club.
yea but since when does good player return home so early, it's usually when they are nearing the end of his career and he certainly didn't shy away from saying he wanted to play for barca when he moved to koln.
Schevchenko is an example to your point
FYI… benfica had earlier asked for 40 million euros for di maria. which is other clubs like man utd, chelsea and man city who were also rumored to be interested backed out.
so di maria wont be cheap either. doubt benfica will even think about letting him go for 25 million…considering that a lot of clubs would easily bid that much. might get down to a bidding war.
the only good thing about that is that we have a right of first refusal on di maria.(because of the keirrison deal). altough I wud be interested to know if thats still valid.
if we do have the right of first refusal… it means whatever price any other club offers benfica… they will offer us the player at the same price first.
Is that official??????????????
Valencia asked 50 million this summer
I think it will be 40-50 even next summer
podolski??????? are you serious? i hope not
I hope villa comes, hes one player i have huge respect for and i consider him one of, if not the best striker in europe.
Get villa or Torres(article on this site on how he'd welcome a barca move). I'd prefer Villa since he's less injury prone, but Torres on a health day is a beast and is only 25. I mean if were gonna blow 55mil for villa we might as well go for longevity and get a guy who is just as good and younger, aka El Nino!
Pedro and Bojan for left wing. But if they aren't ready, we should go for Hulk. Villa is a striker and not a winger and Navas is a 4-4-2 winger who only runs down the line(even when he is playing on the left) and put crosses in the box. We need a player who comes inside to cause danger. Hulk is fast, powerful and skillful, he will be great.
"Villa is a striker and not a winger"
just like bojan. i agree with you of navas
Ibra on the wings.
Ummm villa is not a winger and navas can only play on the right wing. Rumors,rumors and more rumors. If we want a LW we can get di maria, else we stick with pedro.
Navas isn't capable of playing on the LW. I would much rather see a bunch of other players on our LW than Navas. Don't get me wrong, I think Navas is terrific and perhaps the best pure winger in the world but Barcelona don't that kind of player especially because of Dani Alves.
I hear a lot about how Villa is a striker and not winger. Henry's not a winger either and he gave us two decent seasons.
Henry was a winger, converted striker at arsenal. Same as VAn persie now. VIlla can play on the wing yes, but you'll not be getting 100% from him. Same with iniesta when pep plays him on the wing instead of midfield. They can play there temporarily, but not ther best position to get the best out of em.
Yeah, every time there is a Villa article there is always at least one person who says that Villa cannot play on the wing. I wish that the next person who says that would at least provide a well thought out argument as to why they feel that way. I would be very interested to hear how they came to that conclusion.
nevermind, thank you scrappy for putting forth an explanation. strangely it wasnt there when i wrote my comment. I dont think its fair to assume Villa cant adapt his game 100% to a wider role, he played on the left wing for Spain against Belgium, he played really well and scored a really great goal. Hopefully Del Bosque will play him there more so we can have a more definitive answer. He has all the attributes to make the transition though unlike iniesta and his lack of goals.
no prob. I just personally think villa derseves to be the out an out striker on the field and to not try to change his game at this stage of his career where he is on pace to be the best spanish striker both internationall and on club level. There are other natural wingers out there who have that natural insticnt of being a wide player. Di maria is the perfect fit. I've watched villa play on the wings and TBH, he's like a person just trying some stuff and hoping they pay-off. Its clear to the eye that villa is not a natural winger.
You have a point, but when i think of a natural winger, i think of a wide midfielder in a 4-4-2 formation. Not so much a goalscorer but a pacey and skillful guy who mainly stays by the touchline and swings in crosses, kinda like Capel and Navas for Sevilla. I would never consider Messi a natural winger and I'm not sure a natural winger is really what we need. A winger in our 4-3-3 is more of a forward in that we expect them to contribute heavily to the goal haul. Personally, I would prefer we buy someone with a prolific goalscoring record and the ability to do everything else as well. The real advantage to a 3 prong attack is 3 players in position to score goals, if we bought someone who wasn't an excellent goalscorer we would really be cheating ourselves IMO.
I've been reading both, you and b4rc4delphi4, conversation and both of you have good points.
Well if I remember correctly when Luis Aragones and earlier Del Bosque played both Torres and Villa at the same time Torres was the in-box striker. Villa did more of a sacrificial role. He was the one that dropped down to receive balls and also the one that moved wide, specially to the left side. If you watch some of Valencia's games when he moves wide it is so Silva can take his role and then they do a play where it allows Villa to cut inside from the left. What Villa does with Valencia and in the NT with Torres is basically the thing that Barca plays with concerning the LW. Remember, why did Pep and Rijkaard choose Henry to be the LW and not the striker, it is because on the RW Messi has freedom to rome wherever he wants and to cut inside. Now what is the Strikers role, or most importantly what is Ibra's role? It is to pull players off the middle so Messi can cut inside the opening. Ibra is the pivot up front, he will pull the mark either to the left, Messi cutting inside, or to the right, so the LW can cut inside.
Now if we had Villa he can cut inside beautifully and can shoot with his powerful leg and most likely score, since he is a natural goal scorer, something we have been lacking on the LW. Villa would be a perfect fit. And if it doesn't work Barca could try something that OmarX proposed, moving Ibra to a winger and Villa as striker, I prefer the other way though.
b4rc4delphi4 has a good point about Navas. He is a 442 winger. The few games that I've seen from Sevilla where the coach decides to switch Navas to a different position, Navas seems lost.
Pedro is gonna be the undisputed lw next season and g.assulin as back-up..the only i see villa is cominng is as a direct replacement for ibrahimovic…barcelona will gain speed and hes moves are less predictable…
Ibra is hear to stay, get it outta your brainwashed head. Villa will be a good addition!
Pedro is gonna be the undisputed lw next season and g.assulin as back-up..the only i see villa is cominng is as a direct replacement for ibrahimovic…barcelona will gain speed and hes moves are less predictable…
I know ibrahimovic aint leaving anytime soon,but if he was then villa will be his perfect replacement…
Ibra wont leave wont
Know stop talking trash
Villa!!!
[...] Continued here: Ribery set for Madrid as Pep prefers Villa and Navas | totalBarça [...]
I actually feel villa can do the same job henry used to do last season, which is cut in from the wings and take a shot, switch positions with Ibra etc…
Ibra would be quite good as a LF too….he plays very well when he drifts wide and his crosses are pinpoint accurate and his back-passing trickery is there for all to see…….Ibra's assists would also improve dramatically if there will be a clinical finisher at the end of his magical back-passes…..
Ibra is a tall and unpacey forward. He cannot be a winger cuz a winger's best weapon is his pace. Ibra is a target man and should stay where he is.
Ibra is a tall and unpacey forward. He cannot be a winger cuz a winger's best weapon is his pace. Ibra is a target man and should stay where he is.
Di Maria – Ibra – Messi
:):)):):):)
Iniesta – Tourekeita – Xavi
Abidal – Pique – Puyol – Alves
Valdes
How did you manage to morph Toure and Keita into one being? Since Keita is left footed and Toure is right, he must be the best two footed footballer in the world!
Navas/Di maria/Villa/Ribery/Suarez. Obviously Villa is the better choise, why?
He hadsgot the age and experience, he is mature and has already proven himself and he plays for the spanisch national team so he knows a couple of barca-players and their pay. he would fit in Easily, we don't need any youngster because we have Bojan and pedro for teh future. A young player would demoralize pedro and Bojan and would be bad for teh balance in the team.
But we have to remember this is a world cup year, opinions about payer tend to change dramatically after the worl cup. if ribery leads France to the finals and Spain gets kicked out in quarter-finals everyone will call for Ribery. Even new good players show up every World cup. Remember Sucker who went to Real?
We will olso need a back-up for Alvez, beacuse when is is injured, things get messy.
pep must see the potential villa has for the LW, from a selfish point of view i would like aguero but villa would also be great. maybe he could play more as a second striker which would mean that messi stays wider more often, i think he plays centrally too often this season, we sprang a surprise on madrid and man u by putting messi in the centre now it is almost a given. also villa would most likely become the main goal scorer taking a bit of pressure of ibra and messi allowing them to focus more on creativity while wading in with goals too, finally if we buy villa it means that he wont always score against us!
feel a bit sorry for pedro though
Is Arda Turan a LW because if he is we should get him he is awesome…