There have been speculations about Bojan Krkic and Dmytro Chygrynskiy will be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season. Barca President Joan Laporta has publicly assured fans that these two will be staying at the club for the next season as well.
On the other hand, the news about the Ivory Coast national Yaya Toure and the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not as good. For the record, Laporta did not mention anything about their departure but the rumors are quite strong.
Laporta’s term ends this summer but the candidates for the presidency and Pep Guardiola seems to be echoing his stance.
After a slow start to the season, Bojan picked up in April and May making 12 appearances, starting six times and scoring six goals. This came as – what it seems like – Pep lost faith in the hefty signing of Ibrahimovic. The deal made with Inter Milan was a cause of concern for most of the Catalan fans; which made them very critical of the striker’s performances.
On top of that, Ibra has been guilty of some ‘attitude problems’ as well. Attitude problems is something that he has been tagged with throughout his career. They never go down too well with managers and clubs. This was apparent as the season came to a close and Bojan was given the start instead even though the battle for the league went right down to the last game.
Adding to the speculation, Sport has reported that Pep has told Ibra that he is free to leave if he chooses to and if he decides to stay, he will be welcome with “open arms” but he will not tolerate any conflict in the dressing room.
Also, after three seasons of inspirational performances by the Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure might be heading to Arsenal. The 27 year old, has always been a commanding figure in the midfield and even when he was filling in as a central defender – his height always worked to his advantage. Toure is said to have fallen out of favor with Guardiola as he commented regarding his lack of playing time around the start of the season. Recent comments by Laporta hints that he’s on his way out.
There is also news of Thierry Henry leaving for New York Red Bulls, Argentinean midfielder Javier Mascherano coming in from Liverpool and of course David Villa coming in.
I was talking about it with Ahmed Bilal about this very situation yesterday that what would Guardiola do if Mascherano joins Barcelona and so does Cesc Fabregas. Midfield is the only place where Barcelona does not need to change anything. It’s the strikers and the defense that needs to be altered.
If Toure leaves for Arsenal, would it be a swap for Fabregas? Unlikely, I suppose – not because Fab is too good to be swapped with Toure but because Barca has Xavi and Iniesta petrolling the midfield already.
What it seems like from the rumors: Mascherano will replace Toure, David Villa will replace Ibra and Bojan will stay as a back-up striker with Pedro replacing Henry. And Fabregas will stay at Arsenal pretending to be playing beautiful football.
What do you think?
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