Barca pounce for Keita

[yanno]

Hindsight's a wonderful thing but it's a real shame we didn't sign Seydou Keita instead of Prince Boateng last summer. Unfortunately, we got the Prince and Sevilla switched targets to Fredi Kanoute's Mali teammate:

------------------------------------

Barca pounce for Keita

Midfielder signs four-year dea


Midfielder Seydou Keita has joined Barcelona on a four-year deal from Sevilla.

The Mali international only moved to Sevilla from Lens last summer but he made such an impression that he was linked with several top clubs including Premier League trio Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham.

Barcelona have now won the race for Keita's signature with reports suggesting he cost in the region of 14million euros (£11million).

"Seydou Keita signed a contract committing him to Barcelona for the next four seasons, or until June 20, 2012," the Catalan club said in a statement.

Keita, whose arrival could pave the way for Portuguese playmaker Deco to leave Camp Nou, is looking to carry his good form into next season.

Happy


He admits there was interest from elsewhere but is delighted to be Barcelona's first summer signing.

"I'm very happy because Barca is a big club," Keita told the official Barcelona website.

"My decision is very important because I had offers from lots of clubs, but I've liked Barca for a long time.

"I don't like talking because I don't think you should talk too much when you're not on the pitch.

"I only want to say that I hope to bring a lot to Barca, as I have done with Sevilla."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11827_3613484,00.html

 

[talkshowhost86]

Does this mean YaYa is available?

 

[Kendall]

Yes but it looks like he's gonna go to Arsenal to replace Flamini.

 

[yanno]

Does this mean YaYa is available?

I doubt it. Poulsen was the holding CM at Sevilla, with Keita having more licence to get forward.

Nobody knows what formation Guardiola will play at Barca next season. But this suggests to me that Deco is definitely off, and Edmilson has already left. The other creative CMs are Xavi and Iniesta, and I'd be surprized if either of them were available.

 

[joey55]

This is really annoying. I'm no proffessional football scout, yet to me it was obvious the first time i saw him, that he was brilliant and just the sort of player we needed. He's so calm on the ball and is a real leader. He reminds me of Ballack in that he is genuinley an allround CM player. I'm not all surprised Barca moved for him. Though he'll be wasted there. They don't need another CM. I think he and Senna have been the best CMs in Spain this year. This is even more annoying seeing as Senna said he'd be leaving Villareal last summer and a number of us at SC wanted to sign him.

 

[joey55]

I doubt it. Poulsen was the holding CM at Sevilla, with Keita having more licence to get forward.

Nobody knows what formation Guardiola will play at Barca next season. But this suggests to me that Deco is definitely off, and Edmilson has already left. The other creative CMs are Xavi and Iniesta, and I'd be surprized if either of them were available.

I never really saw it like that. I always thought Sevilla played a pretty flat CM pairing. I know Poulsen is a holding player by trade and Keita was a more attacking player at Lens, but at Seville I thought they played quite as a more restrained midfield pairing, with neither really getting forward too much. Maybe Poulsen was more of the ball winner nad Keita was the one who set the tempo and moved the ball around, but I never really observed them as one holding and the other getting forward. I saw them more like how Carrick and Scholes play for Utd.

 

[yanno]

Plus we signed both Assou-Ekotto and Taarabt from Lens, so our scouts much have been aware of Keita.

Sevilla only seem to have paid c4 million Euros for Keita too..
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11807_2595504,00.html

 

[talkshowhost86]

Plus we signed both Assou-Ekotto and Taarabt from Lens, so our scouts much have been aware of Keita.

Sevilla only seem to have paid c4 million Euros for Keita too..
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11807_2595504,00.html

Doesn't say a great deal for our scouting network does it?

Sevilla sign a player who soon moves to one of the best teams in Europe and we sign a crock and a player who is more interested in skinning the same player 3 times than doing anything useful.

When was the last time we actually signed someone for not much money and they turned out to be excellent? Carrick i suppose but other than that our scouting record has been appaling recently.

 

[yanno]

I never really saw it like that. I always thought Sevilla played a pretty flat CM pairing. I know Poulsen is a holding player by trade and Keita was a more attacking player at Lens, but at Seville I thought they played quite as a more restrained midfield pairing, with neither really getting forward too much. Maybe Poulsen was more of the ball winner nad Keita was the one who set the tempo and moved the ball around, but I never really observed them as one holding and the other getting forward. I saw them more like how Carrick and Scholes play for Utd.

Yes and no. I'm not saying Keita was box-to-box; he definitely wasn't. However, Poulsen never gets forward, and Keita did make occasional forward runs.

However, the season before, Ramos usually played Maresca, Renato or even Marti alongside Poulsen and they were a much flatter CM pairing than Poulsen & Keita.

At a more general level, I agree that Juande doesn't like his CMs to get forward very much. That's why Jenas has been playing a much more disciplined role, carefully picking and choosing his forward moves, under Ramos.

 

[yanno]

Doesn't say a great deal for our scouting network does it?

Sevilla sign a player who soon moves to one of the best teams in Europe and we sign a crock and a player who is more interested in skinning the same player 3 times than doing anything useful.

When was the last time we actually signed someone for not much money and they turned out to be excellent? Carrick i suppose but other than that our scouting record has been appaling recently.

Berba (although the fee was quite sizeable). If we sell him, we'll make a huge profit. Of course, I hope we don't sell him.

And Monchi isn't infallible. He signed Arouna Kone for 12 million Euros (a record fee for Sevilla), and Kone scored twice last season... :wink:

 

[joey55]

Doesn't say a great deal for our scouting network does it?

Sevilla sign a player who soon moves to one of the best teams in Europe and we sign a crock and a player who is more interested in skinning the same player 3 times than doing anything useful.

When was the last time we actually signed someone for not much money and they turned out to be excellent? Carrick i suppose but other than that our scouting record has been appaling recently.

I have more confidence in our youth scouting than our ability to buy well for the 1st team. If you look at Comolli's history it was pretty much all concerned with youth players. At Monaco he was a youth coach, he then moved to Arsenal who only really scout for youth players and then moved to St Etienne as Director of Youth Developemnt. He only had less than 2 years as Director of Football at St Etienne and this is his only experience at senior level.

On top of that, we've had a good British youth scouting network for many years now. The quality of player has gotten better over time as the club has become a more attractive draw, but the for a long while we've had the network. We started with the likes of Davies and Etherington, then moved up a grade to the likes Lennon and the Hudd and now seem to be able to attract the cream of youth players in the likes of Bostock.

I'm much happier seeing the first team players bought by the coach and let the DofF buy for the future.

 

[Bobishism]

You honestly think Comolli wouldn't have short-listed Keita? Dillusions.

 

[Makkaveli101]

Kind of makes me wonder why when we brought in Ramos, we didn't capture Seville's director of football too, and release Comolli from his duties.

Their scouting network has brought in some REAL quality over the years.