Gaby Milito - Out for 7-9 months

[BlackNess]

The duo are both on international duty for Argentina at the Copa América in Venezuela and discuss life at the Catalan club.

Barça are in the market for a central defender and have Milito in their sights after refusing to pay the asking price for AS Roma's Christian Chivu.

Milito has already informed his current club, Real Zaragoza, that he intends to leave this summer and the Aragón-based outfit are waiting for a club to match their asking price.

Juventus have also been storngly linked, but Barça are confident that they can match the Italian's offer and equal their personal terms.

The Blaugrana may have the upper hand after the Copa América finishes as Messi has been spending time trying to persuade Milito to join him at the club.

"It would be wonderful, Gabi is a great player, I would love him to sign for Barça," Messi explained.

"His arrival would strengthen the defence and bringing in players of his quality is very important.

"He has everything. He is solid, very strong and is great in the air.

"He is a winner and always transmits that, he really does not like to lose.

"Also, he is a great person, a really good guy, and it would be fantastic if he could play for us.

"We have talked many times in training and, although we do not have much information, we speak about all kinds of things."

[BlackNess]

this Thread is about all the CB's that Barca are after ..

i hope that there will be good discussion here ....

Real won Chivu and in Puyol's Thread i don't think that we should talk about the new CB there ..

[Pat Murphy]

Well Milito said he wanted to play for Barca with Messi and Messi has returned the compliment the other way. It looks like Barca will go for Milito now that it looks like they've lost out on Chivu.

The Barca fans favourite is Milito. As this poll in El Mundo Deportivo shows...

Gabi Milito (Zaragoza) -- 55%
Chivu (Roma) -- 30%
Andrade (Deportivo) -- 5%
Heinze (ManU) -- 6%
Pepe (Porto) -- 5%

Total Votes: 48807

Barca may very well not get Milito tho as Zaragoza are asking for a lot so they may turn to Andrade who is going for a bargain 10-12m Euros. Either Milito or Andrade would be fantastic with me.

Just noticed that poll adds up to 101%, El Mundo can't count

[ODee]

barca should break the bank to sign chivu

he is great CB and has a lot in front of him he is also quite versatile as he can play at left back as well

dont think that milito is in the same league as chivu

[lionel]

Originally Posted by ODee

dont think that milito is in the same league as chivu

I don't know much about chivu, but I can tell that milito is in the highest level of defenders! he is also still young and in argentina they consider him the leader of the defence after ayala retires.
milito is better than anyone(except puyol oc) ... he was absolutely incredible in his last year at zaragoza!

[BlackNess]

yes he was very good last season !!!

[BlackNess]

Barça To Choose Chivu Or Milito

FC Barcelona's technical staff have to make a choice between Christian Chivu and Gabriel Milito as the club maintain their interest in both players.


The Blaugrana are set to sign a new central defender and know that whichever one they pursue will be keen on a switch to Camp Nou.

Both Sport and El Mundo Deportivo are insisting that the club have verbal agreements with both players and will now have to choose who they believe is the better player.

Real Madrid have had an offer for Chivu accepted by AS Roma, but the Romanian international has let it be known that he would prefer to join Barça.

Milito has also stated that a move to the Blaugrana would be his first choice and the Catalan outfit are due to meet with his agent, Eduardo Gamarnik.

Barça have set themselves a a deadline of Friday evening to make a decision and will then spend the weekend attempting to close a deal.

While Chivu was the first option, the financial package to sign him has raised eyebrows and that has meant that Milito's situation has looked the more attractive.

The Argentinian has told Real Zaragoza that he wants to leave and is unable to make hefty demands as Juventus are the only other interested club.

Another attraction could be the chance for the Blaugrana to off-load Thiago Motta and include him in the deal.

Zaragoza's new coach, Víctor Muñoz, is keen on the Brazilian-Italian defensive midfielder to bolster his defensive unit after the exit of Gerard Piqué back to Manchester United.

Chivu's situation is different as Madrid are determined to land their man and the player's agent telephoned Barça to see if they would agree to meet los Merengues' latest offer.

The former Ajax centre back is not all about the money though as he is keen to join a club with a settled coach and is attracted by the style of football.

With Inter having informed Roma that they have pulled out of the race, that leaves the way clear for Barça to decide.

[Hawk]

the technical staff have decided who will join, tomorrow is d-day.

El Barça ya ha elegido - SPORT - Barça

[Pat Murphy]

Originally Posted by Hawk

the technical staff have decided who will join, tomorrow is d-day.

El Barça ya ha elegido - SPORT - Barça

Interesting stuff. SPORT saying that they'll have the name of Barca's new CB on the front page of their paper tomorrow morning. I really hope it's Milito, he would be my choice all the way.

[Pat Murphy]

Barça – elsesports.cat

And as a report to the story above it is rumoured that Barca have chosen Gaby Milito to be Barca's new CB. The story explains that Barca have both agreed terms with Milito and have offered 20m Euros to Zaragoza which matches his buy-out clause and so will be accepted.

£13.3m is quite steep but hopefully Milito will pay this off. Remember that La Liga can be decided in just 1 moment as we've seen from this season. If we win a trophy next season then the spending will be worth it. The defence seems to be set in stone, it's just the attack and midfield that needs to be decided now.

[Hawk]

Originally Posted by Pat Murphy

Interesting stuff. SPORT saying that they'll have the name of Barca's new CB on the front page of their paper tomorrow morning. I really hope it's Milito, he would be my choice all the way.

tbh i have no real preference, but what may swing it in chivu’s favour is his ability to dictate play from the back



maybe ricardo carvalho?

[Pat Murphy]

It seems Barça will go all out for Gaby Milito and drop their interest in Chivu. Zaragoza are holding out for €20m which is his buyout clause, Barça started out with a €10m + Motta offer then increased to €15m + dependables like more if winning league or CL. Zaragoza apparently dropped their asking price to €18m and a deal could be struck there. Barça have already agreed a 4 year deal with Milito, only the fee needs to be agreed and Txiki and Soriano are in negotiations.

[BlackNess]

Barcelona Choose Milito Over Chivu

FC Barcelona have chosen to pursue their interest in Gabi Milito from Real Zaragoza and end all interest in signing Christian Chivu from AS Roma.


The Blaugrana technical staff opted to put all their efforts into signing one of their two main targets and the Argentinian was the preferred option.

Apart from his familiarity with the Spanish league, Barça have been impressed with Milito's repeated desire to join the club over the past two or three seasons.

Now vice-president, Ferran Soriano, and technical secretary, Txiki Begiristain, will step up talks and hope to have a deal in place by next week.

Zaragoza are demanding €20m for the central defennder, but Barça are trying to offset that by offering Thiago Motta and Santi Ezquerro as part of an exchange.

Milito's agent, Eduardo Gamarnik, has already been in contact with the club, as he was in the city to oversee the transfer of Clemente Rodríguez to Espanyol.

Milito, who is on international duty with Argentina at the Copa Amèrica in Venezuela, has maintained contact with his representative and knows of the Blaugrana's interest.

Juventus were in the frame to capture the player that Real Madrid turned down four years ago, claiming that he had a knee problem, but their offer was below Zaragoza' asking price.

The Italian giants opened with a €14m bid and raised that by €1m at the start of this week, but the Aragónese outfit are holding out for more.

[BlackNess]

Juve Give Zaragoza Deadline Over Milito

Real Zaragoza have been given just 24 hours more to reach a decision over an offer from Juventus for their coveted Argentine defender Gabriel Milito.

[Pat Murphy]

FCBarcelona.cat

Txiki confirms on the official Barca site that Milito is close to Barca. All that needs to be agreed is the price with Zaragoza.