9 - Samuel Eto'o

[adil_909]

if arsene wenger had a brain, he would sign this man in an instant.

 

[gingerless]

This bolded phrase pretty much hits it on the head.
The highlight for me was in the semifinal vs Chelsea at the Camp Nou. He had Henry WIDE open with an open goal but decided to go for glory and Cech made the save, a pass there would have made that tie a lot easier.

If you look back at his performances in the 2nd half of the treble season, it was quite obvious that his level was way below par. However, if you look closely into his performances, you will notice that it wasn't the fact that he was off form, or that he lost his pace, it was mainly his decision making. Its as if he refused to accept his role under Pep and insisted to do what he thought was his job. This unfortunately led to him uncharacteristically wasting several opportunities, in which he either arrived late, had a better man at a better position but chose to shoot, or simply was too anxious to grab his moment of glory. If you look at our team now you will notice that all our players do not have that mentality, Pep has made it a point to filter that kind of thinking out of our squad. Even Messi, can be rarely accused of costing us a game due to him taking too much control, Pep has somehow achieved a balance between bringing the best our of each player yet at the same time not having that best expand outside his responsibility on the pitch. Surprisingly even Ibra, who is mainly perceived as a golddigger himself, was rather very unselfish during his entire time at Barca and what caused his departure was something completely different. Often you see people comparing the departure of E'too and Ibra, and writing them off as the same case of egoistic personalities the Pep didn't want, but the reasons behind why each player left is completely different.

E'too caught Pep's attention with his hard work in the pre-season, and I believe Guardiola assumed that he could effectively get rid of the 'golddiggerish' mentality for good. However as the season went along, it became clear to E'too that Messi's Barca is not gonna be like Ronnie's, due to where each player plays and their respective roles Messi will have to eat into E'too's glory while Ronnie amplified it. Hence the noticable difference of approach to his game and the eventual realization of Pep that this wasn't gonna work.

BOOM.

there is more to it than you like to think. a lot of it is on pitch problems, training sessions etc, football doesn't revolve around just what you see on tv. credit to pep for not coming out like a whiny bitch stating why this and why that. pep is too much of a gentleman to come out and fire on one of his players just to justify his causes

 

[Birdy]

@barcetia
are you kidding, right?
you cannot believe that..
I am sure you cant...

when you have Ibra parqadigm ->the worst-fitting player in our team (you cannot compare that to any misfiting of Eto'o really), you know that what you said is just not true..
/if Ibra have behaved like a human being, he would probably have been here still despite his clear, obvious, extreme 'not fitting'..
His arrogance, laziness, infallibility, belief he is superior to other players, his total mentality (what a jerk!) kicked him out of the club..

Do you think that the reason Eto'o was 'left', can be a football one? of course not..

@Devil
What you describe is one of the complaints i have about messi..
He is constantly doing that..
So what? we say nothing because he is messi and when somebody else is doing the same he curse him out of the team??

 

[Deco 20]

Far better players were happy with half Messi's wage.

Not true. Eto'o was among the top 5 best performers for Barca during pretty much all of the 5 years with Barca. If he hadn't been injured during 06-07 and 07-08 we'd have won atleast one of them.

Champions League Final 06: Earned Lehmann a red card + goal

Champions League Final 09: Scored the game-winning goal

And he was honest the whole time, not trying to please the fans with cheap love statements. You could still see he loved the club and the players. A true hero.

Not to mention the Samuel Eto'o foundation

 

[barcetia]

The highlight for me was in the semifinal vs Chelsea at the Camp Nou. He had Henry WIDE open with an open goal but decided to go for glory and Cech made the save, a pass there would have made that tie a lot easier.

Not once mate, twice

when you have Ibra parqadigm ->the worst-fitting player in our team (you cannot compare that to any misfiting of Eto'o really), you know that what you said is just not true..
/if Ibra have behaved like a human being, he would probably have been here still despite his clear, obvious, extreme 'not fitting'..

Read again. Read right. I won't take my time and explain it for you as it seems you won't get what I meant anyways.

Not true. Eto'o was among the top 5 best performers for Barca during pretty much all of the 5 years with Barca. If he hadn't been injured during 06-07 and 07-08 we'd have won atleast one of them.

Champions League Final 06: Earned Lehmann a red card + goal

Champions League Final 09: Scored the game-winning goal

And he was honest the whole time, not trying to please the fans with cheap love statements. You could still see he loved the club and the players. A true hero.

Not to mention the Samuel Eto'o foundation

He earned more than Xavi, Iniesta, Valdés, Alves(?) and Puyol. Players that are more important than him no matter what you think mate. ALTHOUGH, I might be wrong that they earned less than him, feel free to correct me if you have other stats!

Not true. Eto'o was among the top 5 best performers for Barca during pretty much all of the 5 years with Barca. If he hadn't been injured during 06-07 and 07-08 we'd have won atleast one of them.

Champions League Final 06: Earned Lehmann a red card + goal

Champions League Final 09: Scored the game-winning goal

And he was honest the whole time, not trying to please the fans with cheap love statements. You could still see he loved the club and the players. A true hero.

Not to mention the Samuel Eto'o foundation

He earned more than Xavi, Iniesta, Valdés, Alves(?) and Puyol. Players that are more important than him no matter what you think mate. ALTHOUGH, I might be wrong that they earned less than him, feel free to correct me if you have other stats!

 

[DucdeOrléans]

This bolded phrase pretty much hits it on the head.
The highlight for me was in the semifinal vs Chelsea at the Camp Nou. He had Henry WIDE open with an open goal but decided to go for glory and Cech made the save, a pass there would have made that tie a lot easier.

If you look back at his performances in the 2nd half of the treble season, it was quite obvious that his level was way below par. However, if you look closely into his performances, you will notice that it wasn't the fact that he was off form, or that he lost his pace, it was mainly his decision making. Its as if he refused to accept his role under Pep and insisted to do what he thought was his job. This unfortunately led to him uncharacteristically wasting several opportunities, in which he either arrived late, had a better man at a better position but chose to shoot, or simply was too anxious to grab his moment of glory. If you look at our team now you will notice that all our players do not have that mentality, Pep has made it a point to filter that kind of thinking out of our squad. Even Messi, can be rarely accused of costing us a game due to him taking too much control, Pep has somehow achieved a balance between bringing the best our of each player yet at the same time not having that best expand outside his responsibility on the pitch. Surprisingly even Ibra, who is mainly perceived as a golddigger himself, was rather very unselfish during his entire time at Barca and what caused his departure was something completely different. Often you see people comparing the departure of E'too and Ibra, and writing them off as the same case of egoistic personalities the Pep didn't want, but the reasons behind why each player left is completely different.

E'too caught Pep's attention with his hard work in the pre-season, and I believe Guardiola assumed that he could effectively get rid of the 'golddiggerish' mentality for good. However as the season went along, it became clear to E'too that Messi's Barca is not gonna be like Ronnie's, due to where each player plays and their respective roles Messi will have to eat into E'too's glory while Ronnie amplified it. Hence the noticable difference of approach to his game and the eventual realization of Pep that this wasn't gonna work.

Brilliant post.

 

[barcetia]

your right with Ibra's contributions for those clubs. But he did nothing for Barca at the time he was signed so i think its hard to justify the fact that the club paid the newcomer more than what a club legend was asking for. And all those things you described of Ibra, "a striker that would fit this team like a glove", well he only did that with Barca for like half a season. Anyways I don't want to bring up the old Eto'o vs Ibra thing again, so I'll just leave it at that.

Read what I wrote again. He was. That is before the swap itself. Anyone denying the fact that Ibra could have became the transfer that everybody would speak about is denying reality. Zlatan could have became succesful. But he didn't become the beast we predicted.

He was the striker that would fit the team like a glove. But he didn't.

 

[DucdeOrléans]

Read what I wrote again. He was. That is before the swap itself. Anyone denying the fact that Ibra could have became the transfer that everybody would speak about is denying reality. Zlatan could have became succesful. But he didn't become the beast we predicted.

He was the striker that would fit the team like a glove. But he didn't.

That is a highly debatable claim Barcetia, although I know what you mean by that.

But looking at it in retroperspective we should have known (before buying him) that he was limited in terms of position and fluency (which is crucial to our attack and total football in general), his lack of defensive work and difficult character. He was just too slow and even his main assset (his technical ability) was sometimes not at the required level (why he looked so stupid in a lot of our attacks).

In mine (and I guess also Peps) opinion the best option at that time was Villa, but unfortunately Valencia played hardball and we spend 67 million euros on Ibra just to sell him the next season and buy the exact player we should have bought in the first place (Villa)

 

[barcetia]

That is a highly debatable claim Barcetia, although I know what you mean by that.

But looking at it in retroperspective we should have known (before buying him) that he was limited in terms of position and fluency (which is crucial to our attack and total football in general), his lack of defensive work and difficult character. He was just too slow and even his main assset (his technical ability) was sometimes not at the required level (why he looked so stupid in a lot of our attacks).

In mine (and I guess also Peps) opinion the best option at that time was Villa, but unfortunately Valencia played hardball and we spend 67 million euros on Ibra just to sell him the next season and buy the exact player we should have bought in the first place (Villa)

That's not my opinion btw, I wanted Villa aswell, we'd have won the treble in that case last year aswell.

I just mean that frmo Pep's eyes, the Ibra transfer was justified..

 

[DucdeOrléans]

That's not my opinion btw, I wanted Villa aswell, we'd have won the treble in that case last year aswell.

I just mean that frmo Pep's eyes, the Ibra transfer was justified..

Fair enough, then we agree.

 

[Catalonian Devil]

@Devil
What you describe is one of the complaints i have about messi..
He is constantly doing that..
So what? we say nothing because he is messi and when somebody else is doing the same he curse him out of the team??

Please enlighten me how what I described is anything like Messi ?

Does Messi put his glory ahead of his team?
Did Messi ever try to resist his new role assigned by Pep?
Did Messi ever not take his training seriously?

Messi taking a few solo runs and ignoring a couple of teammates once in a while when a game is already won doesn't make him the 2009 E'too.
In fact comparing not only what Messi does on the field in his role, but how he approaches football mentally to how 2009 E'too approached his is simply ridiculous, just utterly ridiculous...


Btw Ibra's arrogance, or belief that he is superior to other wasn't the reasons he left the club, not even close. He recognized Messi as being the main man, and rarely did he show arrogance in his play.
He simply didn't fit the system, he couldn't adapt his style to our game, all this off the ball movement and continuous pressing on the ball just didn't work out for him, which made him look 'lazy' on the field, although 'lost' would be a better description IMO. Yes Ibra is egoistic and all, but I hate how people automatically assume that was the reason he left.

 

[Blaugrana dude]

Please enlighten me how what I described is anything like Messi ?

Does Messi put his glory ahead of his team?
Did Messi ever try to resist his new role assigned by Pep?
Did Messi ever not take his training seriously?

Messi taking a few solo runs and ignoring a couple of teammates once in a while when a game is already won doesn't make him the 2009 E'too.
In fact comparing not only what Messi does on the field in his role, but how he approaches football mentally to how 2009 E'too approached his is simply ridiculous, just utterly ridiculous...


Btw Ibra's arrogance, or belief that he is superior to other wasn't the reasons he left the club, not even close. He recognized Messi as being the main man, and rarely did he show arrogance in his play.
He simply didn't fit the system, he couldn't adapt his style to our game, all this off the ball movement and continuous pressing on the ball just didn't work out for him, which made him look 'lazy' on the field, although 'lost' would be a better description IMO. Yes Ibra is egoistic and all, but I hate how people automatically assume that was the reason he left.

Are you implying that Eto'o was selfish? I know that he has an ego, but to say that he had put his own glory before that of the team is a bit revisionist imo. True that he had problems accepting his new role under Pep, the Betis game comes to mind, but when it mattered like in the CL final with United, he was willing to accept that role for the good of the team. His willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of the team was seen with Inter in 09/10 where he often played second fiddle to Milito and served as an auxiliary left-back. He may not have been happy doing it, but he did them anyway, not traits of a person who puts himself before the team imo. You right though that it is wrong to compare Messi with Eto'o 2009

I agree with you about Ibra btw, though I think bottom line, he was brought in specifically for breaking parked buses and failed at doing so. Linking that with his lack of movement, pressing etc was the reason why Barca let him go.

 

[IbraFTW]

It was pure joy watching him play today. Caught offside 2-3 times but otherwise brilliant. At one point, I saw Nesta, Silva and a third guy, probably Van Bommel, literally running away from him Respect!

 

[IbraFTW]

Just saw the game again, he wasn't really that good

 

[Ocurrente]

Eto'o close to Anzhi move, says agent

what the hell?