Barcelona Insists, After Acquiring David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic Is Not For Sale

Barcelona’s acquisition of David Villa sparked speculation that incumbent center forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be leaving the Nou Camp this summer. Barcelona, however, is not amongst the speculators; rather, the Spanish champions claim they’re intent on keeping their Swedish striker, a statement that could be genuine or genuinely posturing.

The default position - since we are not privy to the internal thinking of Joan LaPorta, Txiki Begiristain, or Pep Guardiola - would be to trust the club’s president when he says the Catalan giants have no intention of immediately recouping their investment in Ibrahimovic: €46 million plus Samuel Eto’o. However, Guardiola’s end-of-season squad selection intimated Ibrahimovic had lost his place within the first team. After being subbed-off in the second half of Barcelona’s last UEFA Champions League match against Internazionale, Ibrahimovic lost his starting spot to Bojan Krkic. Having seeing Ibrahimovic lose this place in the team, we can infer the quick move for David Villa may have been as much about acquired a long sought jewel as it was the jewel perfectly fitting a newly identified need.

Regardless, that jewel makes Ibrahimovic expendable, with speculation holding an array of clubs are ready to help Barcelona recoup their investment. And if other speculation is to be believed, Ibrahimovic could see his playing time further threatened by the acquisition of another Spanish international striker.

Of course, there is a lot of speculation nowadays, isn’t there?

But even if Ibrahimovic stays and another striker isn’t acquired, and Pep Guardiola reverses his end-of-season preferences, and the coach reestablishes the Swede amongst this first choices, Barcelona would still have to undergo a significant stylistic or formation change to fit both him and David Villa. They are bother strikers who play centrally in a system that habitually utilizes only one player in the middle. Unless Barcelona plans on playing one of Ibrahimovic or Villa out of position, they would have to make big chances to their approach to accommodate both, simultaneously.

But perhaps that’s not the goal. Perhaps world football has come to the point where a team can have an Ibrahimovic, Villa, Messi, Pedro, Bojan, Henry (yes, he’s still there), and Jeffrén. Perhaps we’re at the point were Cesc Fabregas is insurance for Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta (and insurance costs over €40 million). If one Spanish team can have the likes of Kaká and Karim Benzema sitting outsides its first team, why can’t the other have an equally jaw-dropping bench? Perhaps, in a gluttonous sign of football’s new world order, Ibrahimovic stays in Barcelona - the world’s most expensive impact sub.

That is less likely to happen than Ibrahimovic leaving Camp Nou. With Villa in the team, he not longer fits with the team’s single “striker” approach, and while Barcelona’s approach is not rigid, there are certain aspects, inherited from Johan Cruyff and the Total Footballing approach that has infused the club, that would be difficult to change. Difficult might be a euphemism - it’s borderline antithetical. The single, central striker is part of a legacy, and while you could see total football allowing Ibrahimovic and Villa to move in-and-out of that role while starting in the same lineup, Barcelona has not taken total football to that extreme of late. After all, when was the last time you saw Ibrahimovic out on the wing?

Villa could play with Ibrahimovic were Barcelona to play more like the Spanish national team, where Villa often plays off Fernando Torres as more of a number ten. Given how many players on Barcelona are regulars for the national team, it’s enticing to draw the parallel. The analogy, though, stops when considering Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who did much of his 2009-10 damage occupying national team Villa’s place on the pitch. Increasingly, Messi is more comfortable in a number ten’s role, playing away from the right wing position at which he’d established himself over the previous seasons.

It seems if Ibrahimovic stays, Villa’s acquisition will crowd either him or Lionel Messi, should Barcelona try to play all three together. Lest Pep Guardiola do so, he should remember the experience his predecessor had trying to integrate his own superstar striker, where Thierry Henry’s initial season at Barcelona was defined by position conflicts with Samuel Eto’o. Henry eventually reverted back to the wider role of his youth, but it wasn’t until after a disappointing season that saw Barcelona finish third in Spain and Frank Rijkaard lose his job. At the end of that season, Krkic was against used that the saving sub, habitually coming in for Henry late in matches.

Like Henry, Villa has a history of being able to play a wider role. In that light, perhaps we should trust club president Joan LaPorta and concede that, although it may work no better than the first year of Henry at the Nou Camp, the team intends to try Ibrahimovic and Villa together.

At a cost of €40 million, it is an expensive attempt to revise recent history. Of course, that money would be recouped immediately if Barcelona’s only posturing, actually intending to sell Ibrahimovic this summer.