All the little whispers about Ibrahimovic are set to explode after Barcelona confirmed the signing of David Villa this lunchtime. Given the style Barca play, this move effectively relegates last summer's star signing to the bench and, after an unconvincing season, this could lead to the Barca management wanting to cash in.
A few weeks ago, the Spanish football expert Sid Lowe, speaking on the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast, suggested City as the only possible destination. The implications of his words are: one, large amounts of money would be involved, and two, it would be a risk - and judging on previous windows City are thought to be cavalier enough to take this on.
There is no doubt that Ibrahimovic has unbelievable ability but the worry is that his languid style, that frustrates fans in Spain, would be swallowed up by the pace of the Premier League. In that mould, he has always reminded me of a far more talented Berbatov - but as we've had the pleasure of seeing, this doesn't always work in the Premier League. Although, the sheer ability of the man, and his consistently high goal scoring record (he has still scored 21 goals this season) would obviously benefit most sides in the world.
One of the major remaining questions here though, as always, is why would he want to join City? Without Champions League, City do not offer the level of football Ibra is used to, and this is a major stumbling block. He is already on huge wages at Barca and I don't think the City management (no longer as intent on making the status-signing) would break the bank in his favour, so the usual bargaining isn't there. At 28, he has already achieved a lot in the game - so the bargaining stand point that he could 'help write the history' of a club may appeal to him, but only if he is convinced it will happen quickly.
As I see it, the only factor in favour of City is Roberto Mancini. When Mancini arrived at City, journalists sought out Ibrahimovic's opinion pretty quickly:
"City want to become a big team, and in order to do that you need a manager who knows how to run one," he said. "I think City have already learned that you don't become Barcelona or Inter Milan overnight. It takes a lot of time, but it also takes the right man in charge. Roberto will change the mentality of the club overnight, he is a big manager and the players will learn that very quickly."
The whole article can be found on SkySports. Ibrahimovic scored 32 goals in 53 Serie A games under Mancini and he obviously has fond memories of his time with him. With the murmurs of players that are unhappy under Mancini, Roberto could well look to buy in someone (like he did with Vieira) who he knows he can rely on.
It seems a very unlikely deal, but City are in a better position this year than the side that finished tenth last season - and even then it appeared City came close to signing some stars of the world game - Kaka, Eto'o and Terry, in particular went on long enough to suggest consideration from those names. Whether Ibrahimovic would be good for the team dynamics is another question altogether.
On the subject of Ibrahimovic, it is always nice to see this goal he scored for Ajax:
What an utterly stunning goal. I would buy him just for that alone. Incredible! There is so much psychology in football that I think he and Mancini would work well together -- and in turn he'd be good for City.
ReplyDeleteWhy should we buy him, it would only swell Barca's coffers and allow them to compete for other players we're interested in?
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