Barca land Garay

[donny1013]

Barcelona have won the race to sign Ezequiel Garay from Racing Santander, according to reports.

Real Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool and Tottenham were all reportedly keen on the 21-year-old centre-back, but it is claimed Barcelona have secured the player's signature.

Marca claims that Barca have struck an agreement after intense negotiations that have been going on behind the scenes for several weeks.

It is reported that Barca have agreed to pay an instalment of €4.75million (£3.6million) now, with the same amount to be paid in the summer and then in December.

Frank Rijkaard already has four central defenders at his disposal, but it is believed that one, if not more, could leave at the end of the current season with Lilian Thuram the first to go.



Some ITK's linked him with us i think during the transfer window. Looks like we have missed out though, great signing for Barca if true. Maybe we will rekindle our interest in Puyol. :razz:

 

[Coolpudge]

yeah would have been a great signing, not sure if start instead of Milito and Puyol although recently I've seen Puyol has played at right back

 

[Marty]

And you nicked this from ... ?

Shame if true. Would've been over the moon if we got him in the summer.

 

[Lilywhite_Bixo]

Agree, it would of been great to see him at the lane. And will be interesting to see who our center backs will be next year, suppose the urgent need for a new big recruitment will be dependent on Kings future condition.. if he can get back to playing more regularly for next season then who knows.. if we add a new (excellent) centre back i would expect one of Dawson and Kaboul to go.. and seems too early to judge Kaboul now..

COYS!

 

[SpurSince57]

And you nicked this from ... ?

Shame if true. Would've been over the moon if we got him in the summer.

Probably the same place I nicked it from at 9.25. See Amelia thread. :grin:

 

[Blotto]

Would have liked to see him at the Lane...

 

[tobi]

Milito wont get dropped, he has been playing well this season. Maybe he is a long term replacement for Puyol (who should not be playing at RB).

 

[yanno]

Looks like Barca's move for Garay has broken down. There's talk that Man Utd, Lyon and Juventus are in for him. I'm sure we'll be back in for the fantastically named Ezequiel Garay too, given the rumours that we were very close to landing him in January:

"Spanish press reports earlier in the week suggested that after a deal to sign Racing Santander's Ezequiel Garay collapsed, Barca have now turned their attention to Coloccini."
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11827_3332063,00.html

 

[Mornstar]

don't think we need him. We're overloaded with centre halves at the mo. Dawson seems to play ok alongside woody and I'm sure Kaboul will improve as a player.

 

[yanno]

don't think we need him. We're overloaded with centre halves at the mo. Dawson seems to play ok alongside woody and I'm sure Kaboul will improve as a player.

The scouts of the big clubs think Garay will be the next great Argentine CB. Now, that's no guarantee, but he's looked very comfortable for the last season-and-a-half in La Liga, and bad players don't get linked with Barca, Man Utd, Real Madrid and Juventus. The only reason Garay's transfer to Barca has fallen down is that they think they can get Lucio out of Bayern.

Personally, if we had a chance of signing him, I'd do so in a heartbeat, and it seems Ramos tried very hard to "steal" him from Barca in January. If King & Woodgate could be guaranteed to be fit enough to play 80% of matches next season, then we might justify spending the cash elsewhere. But, very sadly, the rumours strongly suggest Ledley has a degenerative injury which will only get worse.

Garay is a much better player than Dawson will ever be, and Ramos clearly doesn't trust Kaboul yet.

 

[Coolpudge]

I agree with Yanno. If you can tell me that King is going to be fit enough next season to play more then 60 minutes every 3 games then fine but as I doubt anyone can then this guy would be great. Not only is he a good defender but he also get s around 10 goals a season too

 

[chinaman]

At least we won't be hearing Bleats calling him "Exactly Gay" when commentating our matches.

 

[yanno]

According to Tribal (but doubtless lifted from somewhere slightly more credible), it was Rijkaard who blocked Garay's move to Barca because he wants to keep Rafa Marquez instead. The fee quoted is only £8 million, which means we could get Garay relatively cheaply if we shipped Dawson out for c£5-6 million.

Frank Rijkaard has blocked Barcelona's move for Racing Santander defender Ezequiel Garay. The Argentine was expected to move to the Nou Camp at the end of the season after Barca had agreed an £8 million fee with Racing last month.
However, while Garay's personal demands were initially blamed for the deal collapsing, DiarioSport says it was actually Rijkaard who ruled out the youngster's signing.
In a sure sign that the Dutchman will be in charge next season, Rijkaard told directors that he preferred they hang onto Rafael Marquez than sell the Mexican and replace him with Garay in the summer.
http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=82099