Gabriel Milito transfers to Barcelona!
By: Isaiah | July 11th, 2007Yay! Gaby Milito is going to sign with Barcelona! If you can read Spanish, here is Real Zaragoza’s official announcement of the transfer. That’s great news because we needed more defensive help and so far we’ve brought in Eric Abidal, Yaya Toure, and now Gaby Milito! Despite spending €24m on a striker, the club has now forked out €9m, €15m, and now €17m for defensive or defensive-minded players. Both the Abidal and Milito numbers could go up based on results (I’ve read €2m and €3.5m maximums respectively).
While this is, indeed, a gargantuan amount of money, the club has at least not made the mistake, so far, of ignoring its back line in favor of expensive forwards. Sure, we’ve brought out our gigantic wallet and forked over a large sum of cash, but we haven’t gone the way of Real Madrid circa 2004 because we’re not focusing on purchasing headlines so much as making our signings into headlines. What Real Madrid did was buy Cassano, et al and forget about defense, or team cohesion. Only the Henry signing smacks of galactico-ism, but at least he’s a player that would work within the Rijkaard system.
As Madrid move toward actually being a forward-thinking team by signing Pepe and Christoph Metzelder (though they’ve also dug themselves a nice little hole by firing Capello and bringing in Schuster in a move that still perplexes me — I do, however, applaud their signing of Gaby Milito…Marca, you’re dumb), Barcelona need to keep from overreacting and either bringing in a lot of new faces who know nothing about playing the way Barcelona plays and the club also needs to refrain from selling off its assets. So far, so good. Now the only player El Pais has us linked to in their Transfers page is Frank Lampard. Shiver.
What do you think about this signing? And do you spell it Gabi or Gaby?
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Tags: Barcelona, Eric Abidal, Frank Lampard, Gabriel Milito, Real Zaragoza, Team News, Transfers-Transfer Rumors, Yaya ToureSubscribe
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Comments
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I think that Milito has been payed much more above to his real value. He is a good player but I do not think can make the difference. If I have to judge him for how he is playing in the Copa America more than one doubt arises on my mind about the quality of this player. We will see.
Posted from
United States
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Hooray! Yes, the price tag is too high (our own fault, for waiting so long and leaving ourselves with so few options) but Milito’s exactly the sort of player we need. We also need a couple of younger defenders coming up the youth system.
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United States -
Playing defense in La Liga, preposterous! Wait until Calderon hears about this!
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United States -
Bobby’s right, I’d like to see some young defenders come up through the youth system, but with the whole set up in a bit of disarray at the moment there’s nothing anybody can do about that.
I’m very pleased we’ve got Gabi, as he’s proven in La Liga. He’s a bit paceless, yes, but his positioning sense is fantastic (the player who intercepted the most balls in La Liga during 06-07), and he’s very good in the air.
It’s a pricy signing, but if you look at how much Real paid for Pepe, for example, it’s clear the market is inflated and there’s not much we can do about that.
Posted from
Australia -
Pace isn’t that important considering Puyol has plenty of it, the fact that Milito is good in the air and has great positional sense = the perfect compliment to Puyol (Similar to Marquez at his best, also not the fastest player who makes up for it with excellent game reading ability). I for one am very happy with this signing, also both Milito and Marquez (except for giving away that penalty but it’s debatable if that was a legitimate penalty) were solid tonight, and that’s not mentioning the brilliance of Messi.
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United States -
Question: Have we or have we not bought Palacio?
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United States -
Nolan: I’m in complete agreement there about Milito. And actually about the Marquez “penalty”. For the most part Marquez did a solid job on Messi, who actually scored his goal after switching to the right (though he was continually moving around). Very enjoyable game and it was interesting to see Marquez v Messi.
Bobby G: Apparently, there is a hold up over Palacio because of a dispute over who owns his rights (3 clubs have a claim to him in South America, apparently: Hurucan, Banfield, and Boca Juniors). The reputed transfer fee is £14.9m which is absurdly large. Paying almost as much for Palacio as we paid for Henry is just stupid. I don’t even think he’s that good. Here’s a story linked via Wikipedia about it:
http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=469235&CPID=103&clid=178&lid=10&title=Barca+move+for+Argentine+acePosted from
United States -
Isaiah, thanks for the Palacio update. I agree abou your assessment. GBP15 mil is absurd.
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United States -
I really don’t think the Palacio transfer is going to happen. He’s a good player who would work well on the wing or as a support striker (plenty of pace, good work rate, striker’s instinct) but we don’t need him right now.
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Australia -
I think Barca shouldn’t get Palacios he too much money they should go out and get a good and cheap forward Palacios has what it takes to play in Europe but,Omar Bravo the Mexican,Suazo the Chileno,even Cabanas the Paraguayan give them a try…..I think they can take Saviola Spot!Go Barca!
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United States -
The thing is, *I* could take Saviola’s spot. It’s on the bench and it’s nice and warm. But if Gudjohnsen goes somewhere else (and understandably so, really), we’ll need someone as a stop-gap until Dos Santos and Bojan can really step up.
And now, Linda, I have begun to feel a little snarl curl up on my lip since I’ve seen Saviola in merengue white. Ick.
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Hey Isaiah,Im just wondering does Barca still have Rafa Marquez or are they going to sell him ?
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United States -
Rafa just pledged his dedication to the club and it looks like, unless the club gets an unexpected high offer, he’s here to stay. Hopefully he gets playing time because I still think last season was a fluke.
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United States -
Yes, Marquez is still a cule, which is fantastic. The reports linking him elsewhere seemed about a season too early and if he returns to his form from the 2005/06 season, he’ll definitely be staying on even after this coming season. Just to be clear, I’ve seen nothing concrete in any newspaper or on any blog to suggest he’s actually moving anywhere. That doesn’t mean he’s not, but ,since no one has in Spain has been linked with him, there is little to suggest he’ll move.
Your mention previously, Esteban, of Humberto Suazo is timely (70 goals in 75 games with Colo Colo and no European squad picked him up? That seems absurd. Is that statistic wrong?) He’s 25, after all, so he’s still young and his exclusion from European soccer baffles me. As for Omar Bravo, he has had a dismal, dismal Copa America. I’ve been a staunch support of his for a while (not that anyone listens either way), but he really needs to step it up on the international level now in order to regain the faith he lost this summer. Caban~as, of course, is overrated.
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United States -
I really hope Marquez stays, because I have a sneaking suspicion that Yaya Toure isn’t quite the defensive midfielder Txiki thinks he is (from what I’ve heard, his specialty isn’t really defending) and Rafa’s quite good at the DM position when he’s on form.
And yeah, those photos are not comfortable viewing.
Dos Santos and Bojan probably need some playing time - preferably in the Copa del Rey - to stop them being snapped up by other clubs, especially the former.
Posted from
Australia
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