Ibrahimovic was rumored to be making his way out of Barcelona in the up-coming transfer window as he failed to enjoy a strong season with the club and was rumored to be sold by Real Madrid to Serie A giants, AC Milan.
However it seems as if the rumors were just rumors as Ibrahimovic’s agent, Mino Raiola, went on to state that the Swedish striker is happy with the club and does not plan on making a switch. Despite not living up to the hype from when he first arrived at the club, his former club Inter Milan and Barcelona played 2 different styles of Soccer and Ibra had a hard time adapting but with time should be able to become a threat for Barcelona.
Mino Raiola went on to say the following to Radio Radio TV. :
“Ibra is not moving from Barcelona and I don’t understand why he should. He doesn’t want to leave Barcelona and the club don’t want to sell him. He didn’t have the kind of ending to the previous campaign that he expected, but everything was going well until February. It’s just an exaggeration of the facts to suggest that he should move to another club,”
Although Barca head-coach Pep wanted to get rid of Samuel Eto’o ,who was arguably the best striker on the team, Pep was hoping that Ibra would bring the same amount of work if not more than Eto’o. However, Ibra endured a disappointing season and many would have thought that Barcelona would just use him as trading bait.
Some reports have even stated that Barcelona will use Ibra to lure in Fabregas from Arsenal but Wenger is still standing firm in not selling the former Barcelona player back to the club.
What will happen with Ibra exactly? I’m still not sure, although Mino might feel that Ibrahimovic will not be leaving the club, I can’t see Barcelona keeping him on the squad with many more options that they have to choose from. With the addition of David Villa, using Ibrahimovic as bait to bring in Fabregas would only seem like the logical thing to do. On another hand, I can also see Barca using Ibra to bring in a striker that can fit the playing style of Barcelona.
What do you see happening with Ibra? Think he will stay with Barca at least another year to prove that he can adapt to the change of playing style or will Barca just use him to acquire other players? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.