Cruyff said that the Ibra-Eto'o deal was fully to blame on him , Pep and Txiki .
to Laporta credit the old dutch said he refused the idea but they pushed for it
orly? didn't know that.
in any case, I'm one of those who was never that hung up about overpaying for Zlatan because I felt we HAD to move on from Eto'o. and frankly the year of playing 4231 only served to recharge the trident. had we kept on playing it last season (and retained the services of Eto'o) I could have seen something similar to 06/07 happening. you can't stand still when you have success.
Pep is not a pushover to be thrown players at him the way you imply Meta , u add those 3 and the bad part becomes similar to the good signing .
that doesn't take his credit as a manager
perhaps you could make a case for Caceres, although given how little he used him I'm unsure. but he always expressed confusion at the signings of Henrique and Keirrison and always said he didn't plan to use them in his squad. I agree that he's not a pushover, they
tried to push them on him, but he turned them away which is why their Barca careers have been a succession of loan spells. he never asked for them, so never used them. so their crapulence can't be used against him to "prove" he's bad in the market.
I don't think it's fair to group those 3 signings as some sort of plot that poor Pep was a victim of either. Caceres was because Pep wanted another defender, the club wanted Garay but we were priced out and Caceres was one of the better prospects in La Liga. He didn't fit our system but I don't think it's fair to say Chyg was a victim never given a chance while Martín was just a scrub, both of them were very flawed players who were always going to struggle at first.
Chysus wasn't a "victim never given a chance." he was signed as a long-term project and was unfairly dismissed after a season by a new President on the warpath. he had chances in his first season and his performances ranged from good to awful. in a second season I'm sure he would have improved because his first year had to include adaptation to a new country, culture, language and football style. I can't say the same about Caceres (who only had to adapt to the new football style) not with the same degree of certainty anyway.
what we know is Pep had confidence in Chygrynskiy, something he never had in Caceres. which leads me to believe that, as you say, Pep probably just asked for a defender and was given Caceres. Martin then failed to impress in training so was barely featured. he's clearly not Pep's signing. if he was he'd have been given more chances, like Gleb or Chysus got.
