The Catalan giants appear to either be trying to up the asking price on Samuel Eto’o in light of Liverpool and Arsenal’s interest – or they really don’t want to lose their striker.
Reports from Spain’s today have suggested that Liverpool have offered somewhere in the region of 60 million euros (around £42 million) for Samuel Eto’o. The AS newspaper, and the El Mundo Sport, have both suggested that the inclusion of either Xabi Alonso, or Momo Sissoko could knock as much as £15 million off that price.
Despite a serious knee injury the striker scored 12 times in 15 starts and with Barcelona still challenging Madrid for the title he could still have a major say in this year’s La Liga.
However, we believe some of the wild prices discussed today are simply newspaper fantasy. Although Rafa has been told he will be supported in the transfer market – a valuation of nearly £45 million is fanciful. Only weeks ago Barca were discussing a trade with Arsenal for Henry + cash. To add to it all Sky Sports published an article insisting that Barcelona no longer want to sell the player. In our view, it appears the media, as well as Barcelona, think that Liverpool will be bullied in to paying ANY transfer fee. This simply won’t happen. There are no blank cheques and there are more than enough strikers available for values less than half that amount.
Barcelona, nor any club, will be able to keep hold of a player if he truly wants to join Liverpool. Only then can an appropriate transfer fee be reached.