20 Jan 2013

'He isn't flawless' - Carra slates Pep Guardiola's €75m transfer fail. Fair...?

Bayern Munich announced this week that former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola will become the Bundesliga giants' new manager this summer. Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher is a big fan of of Guardiola, but he's dismissed suggestions that Spaniard - who led Barcelona to unprecedented success - is somehow infallible in the transfer market.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Carra admitted that it's 'a shame he is not coming to the Premier League', and warned that Guardiola's fallibility in the transfer market could be exposed in Germany because he will 'not have the benefit of plucking talent from Barcelona's La Masia'. He added:

"His [Guardiola's] buying record isn’t flawless. There were expensive blemishes.

"Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for starters, at €49.5million (£41m), was not a success coming from Inter Milan in 2009.

"Alexis Sanchez, at €26m (£22m), has not justified such a huge fee since joining from Udinese"


The reality is that transfer mistakes don't really matter when you're as successful as Guardiola, and he's probably made all the money back in victory cash from winning lots of trophies in his four years managing the club.

Sanchez is definitely struggling to live up to his massive fee, but Ibrahimovic? He won the league and cup double in his single season at Barcelona, and grabbed 21 goals/9 assists in 44 appearances, which is hardly flop territory. If only Andy Carroll flopped to that extent!

In September 2012, Sanchez was linked with a move to Liverpool, and according to Spanish sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo:

"Brendan Rodgers has ordered his scouts to collect information about Alexis Sánchez, who is Liverpool's transfer priority"

Barca boss Tito Villanova quickly moved to quash the speculation, however. He told reporters:

“The boy is fine, and he still has a long contract with us. I hope that he continues to play here at the Nou Camp for a long time.”

Jaimie Kanwar

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32 comments:

  1. Ibramovic and Sanchez is not a flop. You see Barca team is build around Messi and this is the problem when others strikers has adapt to the system and assist Messi as much as possible. Then Ibra fed up of this system so he left. In order words Barca team = Messi system.

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  2. if carraghar is slating gaurdiola i wonder what he thinks of rodgers but obviousley cannot say 

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  3. After reading your ever expanding comments policy I have now realised why Old Red Nose never comments here, he's been banned lol.

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  4. I've heard that Gaurdiola wants Suarez as his first signing. Don't know how much truth thier is in that romour. But it certainly doesn't help when you hear that Gaurdiola's brother is Suarez's agent. I hope it isn't true. As despite all of Suarez's faults we need players of his quality.

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  5. i to fear this will be suarezs last season,cannot see him sticking around for another and after all the stick hes got who can blame him,hope he gives us another season but a lot will depend on results and signing between now and then

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  6. every manager can make bad signings. to suggest ZI or AZ are not quality players is not a fair comment. they just have/did not work out at Barca. 

    the issue here as per LFC signings of late is the amount they cost. both were more than their individual value imo.

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  7. Carra is actually onto something with respect to Guardiola's transfer record. 

    Ibrahimovic is a fantastic player, but he was not the right player for Barcelona at the time - and the club lost a fortune between the EUR 69 million they paid Inter Milan to bring him to Barcelona and the EUR 24 million they recouped by selling him to AC Milan. People also forget that he sold Eto'o to Inter Milan for a mere EUR 23 million as part of the Ibrahimovic deal, a player who scored goals for fun at Barca and who came back to haunt them in the 2010 Champions League semifinal. The transfer of Aléxis Sánchez has also failed to shine so far, while successful buys like those of Mascherano and Alves were relatively low risk (Benitez had identified the promise of both players years before Guardiola ever showed interest in them).

    Pep Guardiola has been far more successful promoting from within the club, which is probably one of the reasons Bayern were keen on him. One can expect to see more of the same, which means Guardiola will be a positive catalyst for the development of talent internally, while the astute leadership of the Munich giants will probably rely on others for key transfer decisions.

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  8. Truthyouareaclown3:36 pm, January 20, 2013

    This is the most stupid comment I think I've ever read. Ibrahimovic got fed up with the system and left??

    You are clearly a moron

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  9. Carra isn't slating anyone, he's pointing out the fact that there was expensive mistakes and there was.  Nearly £70million worth of strikers who couldn't perform to the levels required

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  10. He's just sighned a new extension to his contract. He ain't going anywhere

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  11. I also don't like how Suarez is treated not just by the press but by anyone who simply tries to degrade the guy before a game in the hope it might effect his concentration, and put him off his game during the match. But with his recent statement's i don't know if he actually craves the negative attention attracted towards him? Why would you make such statement's if thats all everyone has been slating him about since he joined? It doesn't make sense. Don't get me wrong i love the guy. I just can't understand him from time to time. And as for tranfer's i totally agree with you. It must be frustrating as a world class player when you can see that the owners lack any real ambition to bring in quality players reguardless of thier age. As every footballer wants to compete at the highest level but when thier are a lot of players around who lack the same passion or commitment that you have to help the team move forward. It must get even more frustrating!

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  12. Nobody says they're not quality but clearly for the cost you expect a lot more from both. Any average manager can buy the best if he has the money but a great manager will get the best out of these players

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  13. I knowhe has just signed a new contract but if Gaurdiola's brother is Suarez agent. He know's exactly how much it would cost to activate his release clause. And who's to say he won't?

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  14. sorry m8 am just using the phrsae jaimie used (carra slates top boss)

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  15. if only everything in life was so simple,

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  16. its up to fsg to show there hand ,if they sell suarez it will show they have no ambition i hope they dont but i think the time will come sooner rather than later

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  17. Another silly article  - users slam content - fair?

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  18.  id love Suarez to stay but i think hell be gone within two seasons....i feel the amount offered + the amount of grief he gets = transfer

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  19. I dont think fsg will be able to do much about it Jase if he decides enoughs enoughs...the spotlight hes under for even farting in public is crazy...they would blame him for the icebergs melting

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  20. they could try and show him that there serious about competing buy signing players for now instead of the future when he will be too old 

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  21. we will now see how good pep is. rikjaard started the engine at barca, pep just tinkered, and villanova has just kept the engine going. because of his success at barca, he is never going to take over a reading/west brom/aston villa, etc. that goes for mourinho and the other 'top' coaches/managers. if one of them was ever brave enough to actually build a team up from a mediocre position, my respect would know no bounds. it will never happen saddly. 

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  22. more money for us in the summer then, when he goes.

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  23. Hope Guardiola doesn't try to sign Suarez

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  24. We should be afraid. We should be very afraid about the appointment of Pep Gauardiola as the new Bayern Munich coach. Apparently he has openly admitted that he is making the pursuit of Luis Saurez his number 1 summer transfer target.

     Why should this worry Liverpool fans you might ask your selves? We all know many clubs have already tried to sign Suarez in the past and each of those occasions he has stayed loyal to Liverpool and the kop. Even signed a new contract not so long ago so clearly he must be committed to Liverpool right? Well don't need to tell you that Guardiola is a very well respected individual in the footballing community. He is a really acheived genius status at the moment for the way he inspired Barcelona to be world beaters during his tenure with the Catalan team.

    Why Liverpool fans should worry that Pepe Guardiola wants to make Luis Suarez his number 1 transfer target is simply that Mr Guardiola's very own brother happens to be the agent for Mr Suarez. Yes Guardiola will know everything about Suarez before anybody else will know. He will also know what the magic number for the buy out clause on Suarez's contract is and Liverpool would not be able to do anything about it should Suarez decide later that he wants Champions league football with Bayern Munich. 

    The only thing i see for Liverpool to do is to continue to prove to Suarez that we are serious about becoming a really competitive side once again. The victory over Norwich is really nothing to get excited about. Norwich is a poor side and you don't expect anything less from Liverpool against them. We need to do that against Chelsea or City before we can get call ourselves really competitive.

    We have between now and summer to build a successful team around Sarez. Biggest thing we need to do to convince Suarez that he can play Champions League football with us in a short time to come. This is done by making an immediate change to the silly transfer policy and bring in experienced world class footballers. Steven Gerrard himself recently made a comment that Liverpool need at least two more experienced players for the side to really compete this season for all major honors. Early reports claim that Suarez's buy-out clause is 40million.

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  25. No on said they were bad players...just they clearly didn't fit in. You can also add Chygrynskiy to those also at €26 mill...another flop to add to that. And for Jamie to try and claim Ibrahimovic was a success because of his records....all scored in first half of the season...once it came to crunch time...as per usual with Zlatan....he went missing...!!!

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  26. This is just a paper story.  Suarez stated he wanted to play for Barca when at Ajax.  Guardiola was the new Barca coach.  Barca made a total of ZERO approaches for Suarez.  Guardiola is now going to be Bayern coach and some hack has decided to link some very spurious dots up.  For any club to activate the release clause would take c£40 (which I would take for the boy!), but Bayern do not have a reputation for paying big and buying at the top of the market.  I don't see this one happening at all!

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  27. The issue is that they were expensive mistakes for Barca.  Zlatan was loaned back to AC for two years before leaving on a free - nearly €50m down the pan!  There are quite a few expensive acquisitions by Barca who have not worked out and I back up what Carra is saying - his purchasing record is not great.  He's a great coach who inherited a great team from Rikkard and a great youth set-up.  But if he had to build it again himself....  

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  28. As long as your successful, its mostly "all good". He was successful, massively successful, with those so-called flops in the squad. The best side of the last two decades at least (which also had a massive impact in terms of personnel, tactics and style on the national side, which has gone on to become one of the best international sides of all time (no, not all on Guardiola but his era at the club has played a part as well as the general Barca philosophy)). That is some achievement, regardless of the resources he had at his disposal. So I don't see it as a knock-out blow, in relation to having a pop at his qualities as a manager, as success like that can brush the issues of signing flops aside with relative ease. Mourinho, Ferguson, Guardiola, etc, have all had flop signings but not much spotlight is put on that, because of success and imo, rightly so.

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  29. Carra didn't say "carra slates top boss" thats just the writer of the article sensationalizing what is actually being said! carra pointed out that Ibra and sanchez did not fit the system and cost alot of money! really is that simple! I may bring out a guide book for what article headlines actually translate to when reading the story!

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  30. Pep Guardiola is not a fighter...he also same like Jose Mourinho.They only want to manage only biggest clubs because power of money but rebuilding team from zero to hero.They will refuse to take a job from a little clubs,this will show up their weakness.With bigger clubs nobody will argue him,will get fired when struggle to win the champion.

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