9 - Samuel Eto'o

[Total-Football]

I would have forgiven pep if Villa was already secured because it made sense at least (even though etoo IMO is superior). Selling etoo for being a trouble and buying a well established equally entitled player without the barca dna was my problem. It meant selling etoo was more important to him than barca itself

 

[Vilarrubi]

One of the stains on Pep’s time here for sure. How can you sell Eto’o!

 

[khaled_a_d]

Agree with Serghi, Pep didn't know how to deal with the players early on in his career.
There's a reason why he failed to accept Eto or how to desl with Ibra. It is part of your job to know how to deal with players of that ego/character.

 

[serghei]

One of the stains on Pep?s time here for sure. How can you sell Eto?o!

That's what happens when two stubborn and proud people clash. But in this case, the manager must see the value that the player brings to the team and make things work for the good of the team. Pep didn't.

Pep just made the way a person is, his personality, a more important criteria than the value of the player in football terms in the case of Eto'o. That's just wrong in professional sports. Players take their motivations from all sorts of areas. And players like Eto'o are extremely valuable because of their spirit and mentality.

 

[serghei]

Agree with Serghi, Pep didn't know how to deal with the players early on in his career.
There's a reason why he failed to accept Eto or how to desl with Ibra. It is part of your job to know how to deal with players of that ego/character.

Ibra pushed too much too early, in a punk nasty way. Ibra is different than Eto'o. Eto'o had a completely different status and weight in the team. He was a legend that more than earned his role in the team. He was one of those players who are tough to handle, but for any smart manager, they are totally worth the hassle because they simply deliver in the biggest moments of the season. What Ibra did was bad taste.

 

[KingLeo10]

Would have won 3 straight CL tiles with Eto'o instead of Ibra or even Villa (as much as I liked Villa, he's not the instinctual striker Eto'o was). People forget Eto'o scored ~40 goals in 10/11 and gave Bayern Munich the work in the KO stages.

 

[FCBarca]

Agree with Serghi, Pep didn't know how to deal with the players early on in his career.
There's a reason why he failed to accept Eto or how to desl with Ibra. It is part of your job to know how to deal with players of that ego/character.

Nonsense. Professional footballers have to buy into a team concept, Samu was a great many things but he was best when he played with a chip on his shoulder - it worked in Pep's first year because he wanted to show he was indispensable despite Guardiola wanting to clear out the egos in the squad along with Ronnie & Deco after Rijkaard's Barca imploded. However, he didn't always tow the line with the Racing Santander embarrassment illustrating how badly Frank missed the discipline Ten Cate fostered

Ibra couldn't play as a #9 in our system and certainly not as a winger - ultimately he failed to adapt and you could see even his ego could not bridge that gap. I believe it's the only time his ego or talent couldn't deliver and focused his rage at Pep. But anyone who watched that side knows he couldn't buy a goal and was a hindrance on the pitch

Football careers as a coach are shorter & shorter, you aren't paid to be baby sitters at this level - so a big reason why you have to own your decisions and the leadership of a team. With Pep's Barca, Guardiola was the leader - Messi accepted it because of belief/trust in Pep and knowing he was indispensable. Samu, on the other hand - he wouldn't/couldn't tow the line. That's always an easy decision if you are not the most important player in the team/club and Eto'O was not. If it were Messi, Guardiola would've been gone

 

[Zebulun]

Eto'o was the best striker in the world. There was no upgrade to him. Also, the extreme cockiness and star-like attitude of Ibrahimovic was well known.



That's just not true man. Eto'o had the personality of a Barcelona legend. As a manager you have to know how to work with diverse personalities. Eto'o talked the talk, but also walked the walk. That should've made him un-transferable. When you deliver on the pitch and you prove you are essential to the team's success, that's what football is about. Eto'o was everything you want from a forward.

There's an issue when a player has a unpleasant personality, and doesn't deliver. Like say Quaresma. But Eto'o was far from that. Pep just didn't like him and didn't know how to work with him, and just allowed a key player in a sextuple season to leave just like that.

Eto'o was well liked and well respected in the squad. It was just something personal and I personally blame Pep for that more than Eto'o.

dwight yorke was the very same thing under SAF and he got shipped. all i'm saying is you're pointing this out in Guardiola when in fact, other managers do the same bro. Some Managers like to be the top dog, the biggest voice in the room whether they're right or wrong, pep is great but he's no exception.

 

[Richard.H]

Eto'o was absolute class. We would've been the first team to win 3 CL's in a row with him. Pep strikes me as the type of guy who isn't "chill", wants everyone to follow his ways down to the tee which I'm sure can be frustrating to some players.

 

[DonAK]

Eto'o was absolute class. We would've been the first team to win 3 CL's in a row with him. Pep strikes me as the type of guy who isn't "chill", wants everyone to follow his ways down to the tee which I'm sure can be frustrating to some players.

You mean like Sir Alex Ferguson, Gregg Popovich and Bill Belichick?

Eto'o might have been a good team mate, but he didn't react well to authority or to being held accountable, and that's the first thing Pep did when he came in. Holing everyone accountable.

Could he have done it differently and kept him for another season? Maybe, but one of the reasons guys like that are so successful is because they don't take shit from anyone apart from in special circumstances where a player is extraordinary where you have to be a bit more careful.

Pep's approach is not perfect, but the players who have been critical of his approach are Eto'o, Yaya Toure, Ribery and Zlatan.

See a pattern there?

You end up being too lenient such players take control and you end up like Ancelotti at Bayern or Valverde at Barca.

 

[serghei]

Eto'o was absolute class. We would've been the first team to win 3 CL's in a row with him. Pep strikes me as the type of guy who isn't "chill", wants everyone to follow his ways down to the tee which I'm sure can be frustrating to some players.

The thing is Eto'o did everything that was asked from him football wise. Messi - Eto'o - Henry connection was running smooth like butter handing trashings to most big teams. So, it's not a situation where a player plays poorly because he isn't following instructions. Quite the opposite. It makes no sense to sell a player who is cutting edge decisive in a way not even Messi was at times.

2010 season was affected by selling Eto'o big time. Because you touched a team that had a near perfect record. OK, so not everything was rosey in the team. So fucking what? It didn't show on the field at all and the team was as united as ever.

So, there is a big difference between elite players and consistent match-winners who are tough to handle, and players who are tough to handle and also don't quite deliver in comparison with their attitude.

 

[serghei]

Comparisons with Yaya Toure, Ibrahimovic and Eto'o are off. Eto'o was more quality, more key player in big games, was a Barcelona legend without a doubt, had a great mentality and desire to win. Everything that's worth keeping in a team.

I don't think people fully realize that Eto'o was the best striker of his generation. 2009 Eto'o would today be comfortably the best striker in the world ahead of Lewandowski, Suarez, Mbappe and others.

Pep tried to ship off Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o. With Eto'o he was proven wrong and had no footballing argument to see him off when he was instrumental to the team winning everything that season.

If anything Pep should consider himself lucky he couldn't ship off Eto'o sooner. Because the untouchable status for Pep was also obtained with the big contribution from Sammy in the sextuple season. We probably don't win CL in 2008-09 if Eto'o - Ibrahimovic deal happens 1 year sooner. And Pep's career could have panned out quite differently.

 

[Vilarrubi]

You mean like Sir Alex Ferguson, Gregg Popovich and Bill Belichick?

Eto'o might have been a good team mate, but he didn't react well to authority or to being held accountable, and that's the first thing Pep did when he came in. Holing everyone accountable.

Could he have done it differently and kept him for another season? Maybe, but one of the reasons guys like that are so successful is because they don't take shit from anyone apart from in special circumstances where a player is extraordinary where you have to be a bit more careful.

Pep's approach is not perfect, but the players who have been critical of his approach are Eto'o, Yaya Toure, Ribery and Zlatan.

See a pattern there?

You end up being too lenient such players take control and you end up like Ancelotti at Bayern or Valverde at Barca.

Agree, no manager is perfect, but Pep at Barca was as near to perfect as you can get. If he’d been more lenient we wouldn’t have been as successful.

 

[serghei]

Agree, no manager is perfect, but Pep at Barca was as near to perfect as you can get. If he’d been more lenient we wouldn’t have been as successful.

He was almost perfect in some areas of management, while obviously flawed in others. The great thing for him is that he was so great in some key areas, that in the end he didn't pay too much for his shortcomings.

 

[DonAK]

The reason Pep shipped him off wasn't strictly football-related. I made that very clear in my post. He had his reasons. Whether he could have done differently and perhaps adjusted is a different question, but several legendary managers/head coaches in different sports have done the same and have a similar personality as him.

The comparison between Eto'o, Ibrahimovic, Yaya Toure and Ribery was that they can all be very egoistical and have issues with being held accountable.

It wasn't a football ability or quality comparison.