The search for a new winger intensifies
The likely departure of Thierry Henry has intensified the search for new wingers to reinforce the squad for the coming season. According to a report in Sport today, Barcelona is looking closely at three promising candidates.
First on the list is Benfica star and Argentine international Angel Di Maria, 22. Despite strong interest from Real Madrid, he remains on the market. Sport estimates his current value to approach 35 million Euros, a price that might make the signing prohibitively costly for a player unproven at the highest level.
Next on our shopping list would be Valencia forward and Spanish international Juan Mata, also 22 years old. Mata was quite close to joining the club in last summer’s transfer market and is said to be open to leaving Valencia. Mata would be expected to cost nearly 23 million Euros.
Should both these options fall through, a new player has recently entered into the equation: Mallorca winger, and Uruguayan international Gonzalo “Chori” Castro, 25. Castro is coming off of an impressive season with Mallorca, and the dire economic situation of his club will make them willing to do business. The likely price tag: four million Euros.
totalBarca will continue to keep you updated on the latest transfer speculations. But in the meantime: who would you sign?
didn'y txi say dat villa can play wide so he and ibra wil b compatible or sumtin like dat?
u dont knw football….for u to be pairing villa with ibra.wat does that ibra knows hw to play,a cheer waste of money. pls if u r not a true barca fan ,pls stop commenting or suggesting for our club.
kenny you are the one who doesnt know anything about football and worse you dont even watch it, go watch some valencia games and some spain national team and then come back and we might take your comment seriously
Maxmaxmaz for fan of the month!
i jus strted 2 watch barca about 3 years ago and i am jus askin what i read..idk if dats a problem 4 u kenny
LOL that is exactly what I thought when I read his comment. He didn't even come close to answering your question haha.
Does anybody know a bit more about this Chori guy? 4 million sounds pretty cheap. I know Mallorca need the money so that's probably partly why.
Another option that's not on the list is Luis Suarez from Ajax. I'm sure he could do well at Barça too. But will we be brave enough to go for a player that hasn't proven himself on the highest level yet? (remember Arsjavin for example)
IMHO Chori is NOT an improvement over Bojan or Pedro…
It doesnt make sense to spend even 1 euro on a ok player when we already have them both..
I I dont think chori would work, i mean technically we still have Helb who is more experienced and most likely better than him imo
Mata will be great
Out of those three on the list I would only take Di Maria. After him, I'm not sure any are better than the players we currently have on the roster and don't see the need for an extra winger to begin with. I mean, assuming that the trident is Messi, Ibra and Villa, that leaves both Bojan and Pedro as substitutes anyway.
Let's sign Ibra. He has pace, trickery, a lightning turn and cool finishing. He'll be a hit as a winger.
don't forget his high work rate, he will keep running anfd running, making space for messi and being so strong in the air
LOL at your stupidity! Ibra does make space for Messi and co, go watch the season again..
Mata is awesome… But come on, use the young guys.. That is why we have a great system and group of players…
Don't sign anyone… Jeffren, Pedro, Bojan etc will step it up
I totally agree with FCBattle. Did Pedro not prove himself and what about Bojan?! He DESERVES to be on the pitch more often.
If Ibra leaves and Pedro or Villa or gets injures…then what.!!!…..bojan will b our only option…and remember will be competing for 3 trophies next season so bojan would be tired from playing so many games.!!!
4 trophies ok
good comment….u hv realy spoken well.i tink we need more attacking option after the sale of useless ibra……he is a waste of money.
@kenny omidiji
Couldn't have said it better myself Thumbs up for you. I remember saying to the guys at fcbtransfers last year that Ibra will be a flop. He won't score more than 25 goals per season. And i also remember someone saying "You'll cheer his name soon, you'll see". Did I cheer his name? NO. Did you cheer his name? I dont know but im sure you did jeer him just like I did myself. He's a flop. How true was my prediction?
So he didn't score 25 goals, he scored 21, 4 short of your prediction. Count in his assists and the importance of his goals, it easily becomes more important than scoring 25 goals against all the weaker sides in La Liga. Do you think Messi and Pedro would have scored as many goals as they have without Ibra? Think carefully!
hindsight is 20/20.
I also agree – we do not need to sign a winger, we should give the playing time to Pedro & Bojan. Since Henry didn't play much this season his leaving does not leave a big hole in the squad.
I think Di Maria would be the best signing for Barca,, if we could get a good price. This guy will make our attack and impossible to defend kind of one.
David Silva !!!
i think of all.u hv realy spoken well.i prefer david silva to them al….cos i tink he will complement david villa n bin together right now with the national team will smoothing their understanding on the pitch
i too would really love to have mata or silva! but the way i look at it, i think its not good to get all the great players from the other spanish teams as this will only make the difference in top from lower teams in la liga even worse.. i dont see this as a good thing..
I thought we bought Villa for Henry .. ??
that's wat dey said…..but we all kno dey bought Villa for Ibra…….cuz Ibra might still leave since they can't afford to pay so many high priced Wages…especially when Fabregas comes.!!!
definitely di maria. he is 70% of messi and come most near to his performances. pedro is great but we can't count on just one winger. jeffren should be loaned out to a spanish club.
If Villa plays wide left, it is unwise to play Messi in the hole for the balance of the team, unless we also play Pedro on the right in which case we will be thin defensively in midfield. So we cud see Messi back to the right side but it will mean we will be using him less effectively. All this is of course assuming we play Ibra as CF.
Lets see if Pep learns to use Ibra's strengths better. I only hope Pep learns when NOT to play Xavi, coz many of our opponents parking the bus is bcoz of our no. 6 partly.
when teams park the bus we need shots from 20 meters. cesc would be perfect for that case. and iniesta and xavi need to lear how to shoot from that distance. that's the only lack of both of them.
what about iniesta in the champions league match against chelsea?
Either way I though Zlatan was here to be the bus breaker? Why are we looking for a LW, we should give zlatan a chance.
after that goal iniesta scored a goal 8 months later. that shot was perfectly taken but i really think he wouldn't do it once again if you give him 10 trials. you have to see it from the keeper's position. if any team parks the bus, the goal keeper isn't always able to keep a clear view. shots from distance are very very dangerous because keepers do see the ball too late. furthermore some shots can be deflected by one of the 20 legs in the box.
that was one of the problems against inter. they played the ball around the box for a long long time. i guess from 10 shots at least 3 would have been dangerous. and against chelsea it really was in the very last part of the game. it could have ended 1-0 for chelsea. we had a lot of luck.
and we waste corners freekisks and poor crosses from alves barca have to learn teams weaknesses ok what you think result in our goal vs chealsea a poor clearance of a cross so even teams park bus take shorts on goal out the box n get more bodie in the box 4 a rebound or some thing i realsise this season we lacked that. when team park bus get bodies in the box and get proper crosses go back to the yr 200 when we beat chealsea watch etos header the winner was a header chealsea hate whe a team cross a ball in the box this season conceded so many goals look at the goal messi scored ucl finals balls like that into eng clubs box they dont like it ok any one ready to challenge me on that. ins like evry body know how barca pklay if we were taking shorts and balls hitting players in they face they would not park bus when we scored vs chealsea at chealsea that ball was hit with powe u guys think ballack and cole wanted ball hitting face are barca blind
a search for a winger seems to suggest that the ibra talk could be true….
messi, ibra, villa, bojan, pedro…that's 5 solid players for 3 spots. plenty of rotation. throw jeffren in the mix and you have plenty of coverage. why bring in another winger?
Di Maria !
These winger-speculations are just made up by the newspapers. We don't need another winger. As it stands right now, we have:
Ibra/Villa/Bojan/Messi
Villa/Bojan/Pedro/Jeffren Messi/Pedro/Jeffren
Then we can still use Iniesta (if really necessary) or Gai Assulin.
We could also just switch to the new 4-4-2 Diamond tactic (no wingers at all!) should all are wingers get injured.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Monica Ramirez, totalBarça. totalBarça said: The search for a new winger intensifies – http://bit.ly/aelv7q [...]
Winger? i think we are lack of defenders and defensive mf, if Toure leave us.
I am not too sure if we should bid for a winger this summer.
Certainly not till Ibrahimovic stays on our roster.
Neglecting the risk in picking a player from one of the lower leagues,
my favorites for the left wing would be Angel di Maria & Luis Suarez.
Both are talents worthy of wearing the Barca colours.
from these three Mata is the very best choice !!
trident to me espesially in europe messi villa and di maria yes not trying to follow madrid but we lack the cutting edge on the left if we get ansaldi and dxi maria on the left and the lb and lw like to play with each other leke our rw and rb get cesc europe will just fear especialy overated eng clubs. i want one 2 watch matches where messi is crowded in the middle and or at rw look at space pedro has on the left a true winger would take on maicon more . the piece of the puzzle on the lw take on defenders bursting in to the box taking long shots di maria has them he is so quick. and the back up for alves that we need
barca won't buy any more attacking minded players,except the possible acquairing of cesc,the deffence i where barce would strnghten from now on.btw villa is predicted to play on the wing in the attacking pack alongside messi and ibra,pedro,jeffren and bojan are back up,is there better 22 years old wing better than pedro?????
yes di maria. although i really appreciate pedro and i love to see him playing i think di maria is still better than him. neither di maria nor pedro can play every game so we need 2 wingers. especially because henry is leaving and neither ibra nor villa are true wingers.
ur right but why cant we go for ozil tiki why last yr of contract free kick threat creativity on the the left but a true lw ozil is creative in attack the puzzle missing is a scoring mf creativity from lw and lb combining like how mess n alves combines on the right side we would be blessed and the making of of a dream thing one more thing i still think we waste corners and frree kicks
look i know werder bremen since 1994. and i watched a lot of games because i love them and the only player werder bremen ever had who would fit in barca was diego. noone else was or is good enough for barca. mesut özil needs to improve by 300% to become interesting for us. mesut and marko marin are both very talented. but they're far away of beeing part of a team like barcelona or inter or chelsea or manu or real or arsenal, etc.
dont forget jeffren
i'd say if ibra leaves get di maria, is he better than pedro, i dont think so, but he does offer something none of the others do, he will take people on, and if neccessary get to the by-line and put crosses in, meaning that they wont always come from the right (ie alves).
i feel sorry for ibra but i really dont think he fits our system, he is just too static for tika-taka. should we keep him and change the way we play or sell and use the money to get say di maria, javi martinez and a back up RB?
You know what? I am really tired of the left winger debate. Hasn't Pedro proved himself more than good for this Position? We have 5 Players for 3 spots. Thats enough. Don't forget about the clubs financial health!!!
pedro is better on the right
agree, that would be a slap to the face benching pedro and playing a different winger next season, if we sign a winger he must be capable of scoring and fast and must be bench, pedro is my number 1 choice.
only 1 name… : ROBINHO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We don't need a winger, what about Jeffren? Why spend money on a new player when we already have good players in that position? Messi, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren can all play on the wing, even Villa or Iniesta can play out wide, this is a position that doesn't need improvement. All we really need is a holding midfielder in case Yaya goes (and I would prefer he stays but Guardiola made him want to leave), and some cover in case Alves is out injured or suspended. We don't need many players to improve, just some new strategies when we come up against a team that just defends.
we only need RB …
do not need winger!
balotelli would be a great singing as "the next Henry"
di maria or castro ( i dont like mata)
What do we need a winger for? We got Pedro, if he can´t Iniesta, Bojan, Jeffren and Villa can play as a winger…
let´s just keep Toure and give players such as JDS and Thiago the chanse….
…. Villa, Messi, Ibra, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren.. is ALL we going to have.. I said it before.. if we want to safe some money use some of the players we already bought and loaned out.
We have 6 fowards from which all except Ibra can play excellent on the wings. Villa and Ibra can play CF but if we are looking for another winger.. bring Keirrison back and give him a shot.. we bought him for a reason, didnt we?
Same goes for RB cover for alves, Caceres is playing that position… give him a shot? Then spend the rest of the money on Cesc or another high quality creative mid.
Why not Diego Capel? He is only 22 is aggressive, got good foot skills and speed, has become expendable because of Perotti and weren't the Madridistas trying to sighn him up a few seasons ago.
are barca blind when teams park the bus that the wall will obtruct keeper thats how peter cech was blocked lok at a game vs malaga pedros goal they locked down the middle and rw so pedro had space he took a short out the box the defender did not have time close him and pedro scored
well, our priority should be a midfielder, Cesc or a DM that is if Yaya leaves
WOW, even more attackers.
Read Mou is trying to get Lampard, Gerrad and Cole. Comments?
And City is trying to snag Van der vaat, Gago and Higuain, Wow!
I don think we need another players but Di Maria is a great prospect for me,I cant see Villa starting as our Left winger.This would be my preffered line up:Valdes-Alves-Pique-Puyol-Abidal-Busquetes-Xavi-Iniesta-Pedr-Villa-Messi because whith this formation we can play with 3 different formations
1-4-3-3 with Pedro on the right,Villa on the left and MEssi as false no 9
2-4-3-3 with Messi out wide,Pedro as a LW,Villa as a CF
3-4-4-2/4-2-3-1 with Iniesta,Pedro out wide,Messi jusr behind Villa
and IBRA ? our 70 million ? Trust me its going to be messi Ibra villa unless we sell ibra
its not about big names Max,The prescence of Pedro in the line up is Ver Important IMHO,Next season we will see a lot of rotations but this will be my favourite one.
I agree with you. It's important to have a player like Pedro. He can score 30 goals next season, already managed 23 without being a fixed starter this season.
And I think Pep sees Keita as a backup DM, and then we would give space to JDS and Thiago as our two backups for the CM spots. Even if we get Cesc and get rid of Yaya, there's room for JDS and Thiago as part of the first team squad if we assume Keita is the DM backup which I think would work well. Iniesta, Bojan and a tall backup striker who can head the ball would be other options for the attack. That way Pep gets lots of different options from the bench when needed and we make room for the most talented youth (I think we should count on Maxwell, Milito and Chygrynskiy plus the youth as our defensive backups).
i never denied pedro's or bojan's skills but do you honestly think Ibra will not be starter ? he was benched at the end of the season cause he played very bad but next season he will get a starter role . i guess we have to wait and see
i haven't watched chori much so can't say but 4 m isnt a big price and he would provide us with depth and who knows maybe good for us. i would love to see reyes in barca love his style of play and teh way he can move with teh ball.
after spending 40m i don' think its wise to spend huge amounts, get reyes. he is cheap and surly suits teh football we play.
i say if we are goin 4 a lw since no ribbery i dont want mata what about ozil cheaper creative threat from free kicks or di maria or hazard or suarez or pato lol or make turn k9 into1 lw lol
hazard is the one i would like to see
Hazard's dad is apparently a Madridista. Let's face it. No need to sell anyone other than Henry (because he's the only one who no longer stands a chance of offering something), no reason to buy anyone (including Fabregas) for the attacking two-thirds of the pitch. Touré is versatile, knows the way we play, should stay, his agent is the problem. Ibra had a bad 2nd six months but, like all star signings, will get the chance of a second year to adapt I reckon. The only back-ups we might need are a couple of wing backs because Alves was overworked and his form went off as a result late in the season and Abidal and Maxwell are neither young, nor injury free. Filipe Luis still available at an alright price? All depends on how ready the young kids are, Sachin? I'd prefer not to buy (or sell) anyone else this summer… don't want us becoming like RM.
What about Robin Van Persi?? BRING BACK THE DUTCH!!! XD
Maxwell is in his prime while Abidal was superb this season and was unlucky to get injured in the last part of the season. Why would we buy a player who will demand a first team spot for the LB? Nothing suggest that Abidal is finished. Just because he had an injury for some weeks doesn't mean he is finished.
Alves is never injured and the backup RB would play 2-3 games per season. Who would you choose? I prefer our youth and Puyol for such a role.
so when alvez is injured every1 cries yes take madrid and season for granted we will be in 4 competions alvez not a machine ok
He would fit perfectly but if arsenal dosnt want to sell us cesc no way they will be selling their best player van persie. I agree with all who says villa needs to play in front of the goal and that we should still be looking for a LW. Buy di maria and david luis if real hasnt already done that, which i kind of think they have. Another interesting player who I think could replace henry on the lw is balotelli he isnt as tested as van persie, ribery and so on. But I have very high expectations to this player, only problem is he is more likely to stay at inter now that mourinho is gone. I am still a little upset that we chouse to buy villa instead of aguero or torres and especially aguero since he would have no problem playing the LW
Mario Balotelli
I definitely like to see LUIS SUAREZ in barca shirt to compete with Pedro…I don't know why barca doesn't have interest in signing him!!! he is playing in ajax and will suit well in style of barca..ha has speed, creativity, goal scoring instinct!!!! also his price isn't expensive, I think barca can sign him between 20m -25m…. LUIS SUAREZ IS THE BEST OPTION FOR LEFT WING….
Can't understand how u guys think.
Pedro have shown what a player he is all season long. Scored and played very well in the big matches and all. He got speed, technique, heart, vision and a good scoring ability wich di Maria,Chori or Mata has.
He knows the system already!
I think de Maria would get some problems to fit our system and he has scored just only 10 goals in 80 matches!
Mata is good, but I rahter see Pedro,Jeffren,Bojan or Gai instead of buying.
If we buy Chori he will be the new Esquerro..
wow you are stupid, even scrappy him self wouldnt say stupid crap like that lol
I read most of max's comment and the guy is always honest and sound intelegent, you dont need to be a coach to know more than someone else. plus his comment about ibra being useless is stupid