Saturday 31 January 2009

Hleb could already leave this summer

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona is already busy planning for next season (read more here).

The priority of the club would be strenghtening the left wing. The interest in Bayern Munich players Philipp Lahm (25) and Franck Ribéry, who can both also play on the right, should be seen in that perspective (read more here).

Because the future of Barcelona forwards Samuel Eto'o (27) and Thierry Henry (31) is uncertain, Barcelona is also monitoring several other attacking players who could join the club in the summer.

Lyon player Karim Benzema (21) and Le Mans player Gervinho (21) are on the list, although Arsenal player Robin van Persie (24) and Valencia players David Villa (27) and David Silva (23) would be among the favourite options of both Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain and Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola if a key player would leave next summer.

Gabriel Milito (28), returning from injury, and Henrique (22), returing from loan, will be fully part of the squad next summer. Sylvinho's contract expires and won't be renewed, while Martín Cáceres (21) and Alexander Hleb (27) could both leave, on loan or permanently, at the end of the season.

Read more:
Bid for Cesc and Van Persie being planned
Ivorian Le Mans striker Gervinho being scouted
Barcelona plans few changes in the summer

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loan Caceres, he needs more matches and he has great potential to be excellent player. Sell Hleb and Milito.

Anonymous said...

I agree with HouseMD. Sell Hleb, Milito & Gudjohnsen too. Bring on Ribery and Zhirkov. The next year Toure, Keita and Eto'o will play in Africa Cup and we must cover that positions... I like to see Diego or Hamsik as ideal replacment for Gudjohnsen and Hleb. But Ribery shld be priority in the summer..

barca_boy said...

Hleb isn't player for Barca, Caceras need to play more. I wish Titi stays with us 4 one more season. All we need is winger like a Silva or Ribery. 4 me Abidal is gr8, but he's too old, we should buy Salihovic from Hoffenheim (:, that man is an amazing .

Anonymous said...

Sylvinho deserves to retire in Barcelona.

Tohar Investment Limited said...

no i dont agree with that of milito but i agree with that of hleb and caceres,BUT dont u think hleb should be giveing more time to adapt?

Anonymous said...

Olalekan is right. Recall that last season, people were calling for the scalps of Henry and Abidal. This season both are excellent. Barca is a tough club to integrate into and play well with. Hleb has talent and skill, but needs time.

Now, the Hleb for Ribery question is a no-brainer, but that's a different question.

Anonymous said...

It says that he could leave this summer, so he has at least 4-5 months to adapt. He's professional and adapting to the new system have not to be hard. It seems to me that he was overrated from the start and Wenger knew that it was time to sell him while he can get some decent money. I was against buying him. Barca could offer him+cash to get Ribery, but I think it would be very hard. Bayern won't sell Ribery and Lahm so easily.
Talking about Milito, I don't know much about him, but I didn't enjoy watching him last season and it is question mark above him if he can play as good as before after his injury. Instead of chasing Bayern duo, cheaper and equal quality duo could be Sevilla's Capel and Adriano.

Anonymous said...

Sylvinho is gonna leave because he wants first team football while he still can play. I didnt really agree with the hleb signing, so i wont be too mad if he leaves. I'd rather we keep caceres as he is younger than milito. If we win everything i suspect that the "tired" henry may go to the US. In that case Silva or Ribery may be the best options although i feel gai and jeffren will get no opportunities if we do pick up either of those players. At left back lahm is my choice.

Anonymous said...

It seems to be a real big renovation if all that will happen.

But there are some problems even this season that can be better

The left wing is one of them. Henry is better this season then last years, but still enormous from his level.
He will never come back to his highest level nomore.

Iniesta did very well before injured on the left wing, but we need to have two very good player in every position..
So i dont mind to say buy to Henry and bring a younger a better.

Hleb played some few times on the right instead of messi, last match against espanyol on the left and before some mathces in the middfield. It did not impressed at all.
I dont beleive one more year will bring a big change. I was critic from the first beginning, because Hleb had big difficults to addupt in London. I have a feeling that he has difficults to adupt life aboard, anywhere. Some kind of people are like that. They don't have easy to come in to e new place.
so no problem to say buy also to him and bring some one else.

And the last position is of course the left back instead of sylvinho.
The speaking about Lahm are good. I would like to have someone like Lahm, which means someone that can play both left or right position. Lahm can do it, but there are more.

I dont want to have Alves playing every much. He is still a human and must get tired from all matches. Lahm or soemone else that can rotate both for Abidal and Alves is a good idea.

Henrique instead of caceres can also be smart (Caceres on loan for the future).
Milito is a good and experience player (plays also for the argentina nationell team before injured). He is not so old.

kamikaze kontiki said...

Hleb I don't believe n really don't want him to stay. I don't believe he has the ability to prove a threat to the opposition. Milito is the youngest among himself, Puyol n Marq n we have spent one yr waiting for him to recover n that is an investment of faith in his ability. So I hope to see him stay for at least 2-3 yrs more. The duo of Ribery-Lahm has some advantages those mainly being that both can switch flanks n we provide effective coever for Messi while at the same time providing for the transition of Henry into a sub for Eto'o. But I d prefer to see Pedro develop into the player for that LW position n that we buy a strong n physical CF say around next Jan. If not Zhirkov, Lahm will be necessary addition for next season.

Anonymous said...

selling hleb and milito might sound nice....or loaning caceres, but i doubt we would get our money back for these guys. i think milito was 24mil. and hleb 15m...cant see anyone paying those sums for them. short term doesnt look so bad but if we continue to buy high and sell these players after one year or two for a lower price, it doesnt make our board look so smart and it effects our debt.

kamikaze kontiki said...

Lot of grammatical errors n typos in my last comment-- just a little tipsy.

kamikaze kontiki said...

With his performance this season its unlikely we will find many buyers for him. It might end up as a sale to an East-European club which is unlikely to pay much but may just get full value coz Hleb could prove a leader in a lesser club with his experience in the big leagues. Bad buy from the very outset in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

hleb as a sub for messi, which is what he is (nothing more), i'm ok with. he can play on the left or right after a game has already been won and he's familiar w/henry. lahm as a sub for both abidal & alves sounds good but i don't think he'd accept that roll but why even bother buying him when you could put somebody you sank a grip of money into, caceres, to work in that same vein? barca is doing exceptionally well right now so to completely renovate the team would be retarded, but i do think an addition to the left-hand side would be welcome. ribery would be ideal if he came in to play on the left wing. if iniesta were to play on the left wing i think he'd do just as well as he's already shown he could, but that would leave a spot open in the midfield. my solution for that would be to bring in fabregas. he's played w/messi, pique and others already in the b-team while he was here and i think guardiola would want a player he sees himself in playing for the squad. if barca were to win some trophies and arsenal none i think pep would be able to convince the captain to come home and rescind his contract under the webster law, pointing to the fact that he came over to arsenal for free and 20 million euros or whatever compensation for arsenal would be more than enough for the club that gave him a chance to prove himself.

i'm gonna get tipsy now.

Ramzi said...

Barcelona Board already proved being one of the smartest in europe approaching the transfer market and picking the right targets, few teams could be labeled in that level -Mine is Napoli- If we got back the same Milito we had in his first few months with barcelona before the whole team collapsed then he is the best Central defender we can sign, and Caceres is too young to evaluate him on "Puyol quality" scales, no way the board will even think of selling this player.

Hleb had the most difficult situation between the three(Keita-Gudi-Hleb), Gudi needed no time to adapt, he was there, Keita was playing in spain and he also has the attributes that help him to do his role easier than hleb who depend mostly on his distribution skills which need extra understanding with the group and his dribbling and that need physical presence that he still lack specially after his last injury.

As a left wing he will never be the perfect option for me, he don't have the needs of a Barcelona wing, but since he was signed my bet was that he can take the distribution role in some games when Xavi need rest and iniesta can't play as a Midfielder, beside in some away games in CL when you need to dominate possession permanently he may be able to play with them both and kill the game tempo. Though Busq improvement may do him no favor.

The same was said about keita and Gudi after few bad games-Useless-, but now if u evaluate their contribution so far I dont think they were that bad, at least they offered what pep demanded when he started his coaching adventure "Scoring Midfielders" and their scoring rate -surprisingly-is higher than Deco scoring rate based on goals per games, it doesnt make them better-who dare to say so- but at least they offer what the coach need while we have now a better DM than before and Xavi is the distribution machine combining with Alves-Messi-Iniesta, so most of Deco roles are covered already in a collaborative manner adding to it extra work rate and higher scoring rate.

Hleb may turn to become another plus for another role, still early to give up on him. But he really need to improve fast, bug teams cant wait, specially barcelona.

Anonymous said...

I really hope they don't sell him. I know this sounds crazy, but he reminds me of a slower, non-goalscoaring Messi. I think his runs are brilliant, although his passes could be better. I say keep him for at least 1 more year

Anonymous said...

I would not sell Hleb, it sends out the wrong message, he is still settling in, he changed lifestyle and league for Barca, we owe it to him to give him 2 full seasons before making judgement. The weird thing with Hleb, is that pre-season he was impressive, but maybe its injuries or confidence, but Hleb isnt repeating that form. His skill on the ball is top notch, he just needs to be more dominant on a match, and be a bit more decisive, and maybe, selfish. I think Guardiola should use him a project and really sit down with the player and iron out a new strategy or offer some advice.

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