The Fans Football Blog3

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that, after deciding that they wouldn't count on Samuel Eto'o for the next season, Barcelona started looking earlier this year for the best possible successor.

Barcelona's technical staff started with a list of 15 to 20 players, on which Barcelona had detailled reports. In a first shifting, several names were deleted from the list, among which Ajax forward Huntelaar (25), who didn't get the full support of Joahn Cruijff.

The first choice of Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain was Lyon forward Karim Benzema (20), who soon appeared not to be for sale despite Barcelona being willing to make a bid of 40 million euro°. Barcelona then started working on the transfers of Arsenal forward Adebayor (24) and Tottenham forward Berbatov (27).

Because of the unclear plans of Mourinho at Inter and the uncertainty surrounding Drogba leaving Chelsea or Cristiano Ronaldo joining Real Madrid, the market didn't move between May and July. Barcelona tried to force a deal by offering Eto'o in swap deals with Adebayor and with Inter forward Ibrahimovich (27), but no club was willing to accept Eto'o's salary demands.

Although other names - like Stuttgart forward Gómez (23) and Bayern forward Luca Toni (31) - were discussed, it was in the end decided that Eto'o would stay with the club and that no transfer would be made.

Read more:
Barcelona working on Benzema transfer
Berbatov alternative for Adebayor
Meeting with Inter president on Ibrahimovich