It appears Inter and FCB have a deal in place --> €40 million, Eto'o and Aliaksandr Hleb for Ibrahimovic.
I'm really happy to be getting some more Liga games next season. I think this Barca experiment will be interesting (why mess with perfection?). I only saw them play a few games last year, all in the Champs league, but I am curious to see how Ibrahimovic fits in this team. He is more of a pure goal scorer in my opinion, and won't do all the hard work that Eto'o did. I have read that Eto'o value was in large part protecting Messi on defense, probably something that Zlatan won't be eager or willing to do.
In all honesty, I would rather have Eto'o over Ibrahimovic. I never understood why both Barca and Eto'o were so ready to be done with one another.
In general, the problems with Eto'o and Barcelona are the following:1. His contract expires at the end of next season and he failed to sign the extension offered him signifying that he could leave for free. This is even greater of a concern given that he is set to miss 6 weeks this season with the African Cup of Nations.
2. Generally regarded as having attitude issues and has clashed with both managers and other players while at the Camp Nou.
3. Anyone who watched the last two semifinals of the Champions League is fully aware of Barca's main weakness. Eto'o completely disappeared in both legs of both years as he lacks the creativity to make chances when teams park the bus or to be a significant target in the air. Both are qualities that Ibramimovic has in spades, which is why Pep is after him harder than he was Villa.
4. Despite the goal in the CL final, Eto'o was
terrible at the end of the year. Losing the pichini to Forlan was inexcusable. Part of my negative feelings leading up to the final was the terrible form he was in late last year.
Some of his late season handiwork:
Eto'o Misses
5. Something that concerns me personally is that, despite a gaudy total of goals, many of his goals came against lower competition(outside of his 1 goal/1 shot in the final). He scored 6 of his 30 league goals in the ten matches against Barca's top 5 competitors( Real, Villareal, Sevilla, Valencia, and Atletico Madrid). This is the lowest among the strikers(Messi 8/23 and
Henry 11/19) while he played in more of those matches. Anybody can put up 4 against Valladolid, but can he get it done when it counts?