(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Usually when a team has massive success in one year its better to add players to that group rather than subtract. It would be foolish to remove a player or group of players especially if the one player you are removing was one of your best players out on the field.
In case you haven't realized yet, I am talking about the Samuel Eto'o saga that has finally found its conclusion.
With the conclusion of the Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona for Samuel Eto'o along with €48 million euros due to be done by this coming Monday, its time to take a look at how this saga actually began, back in the summer of 2008.
Summer of 2008
Call it the exodus and the re-establishment. Ronaldinho, Deco, Juliano Belletti, Gianluca Zambrotta, and their coach Frank Rijkaard were all shown the door while Lilian Thuram hung it up due to a potentially fatal heart condition.
In that summer came in Pep Guardiola as their coach, along with Seydou Keita, Alex Hleb, Gerard Pique, and Martin Caceres.
There was a strong push from both Guardiola and president Joan Laporta to have join Eto'o join the former group with an exit at the Nou Camp. They were heavily offering away "Samu" (as the Blaugrana faithful call him) to Milan, Chelsea, Inter Milan, and Arsenal.
Numerous deals were being offered; Eto'o for Emmanuel Adebayor (who came off his monster season), Eto'o for Didier Drogba, Eto'o for WHOEVER.
It was a slap in the face of a loyal servant who was coming off a year where he scored 18 goals in 28 total games which included 16 in 18 La Liga games.
Unfortunately for Eto'o a deal never materialized. Lucky for Barcelona. They would not add a forward that transfer window. And Eto'o would go off to have a big year leading them to the treble.
All the while that Barca were shopping away their No. 9, Eto'o continually insisted that he wanted to stay at Barcelona and see out not only his contract but his playing career as well.
Eto'o did not deserve Barca, he deserved better.
The 2008-09 Campaign: The Year of Barca's Treble
Barca started the year off in scintillating form with the offense in full force outscoring opponents 15-6 while going 4-0-1 in that time. Eto'o was responsible for four of the first 15 goals.
When everything was all said and done and Barcelona had finished their 2008-09 season winning La Liga, Copa Del Rey, and the Champions League: thus concluding the treble.
In that Champions League final against Manchester United, it was Eto'o who tore through the Manchester United defense in the 1st 10 minutes to score the game-opening goal.
At the end of the 08-09 year Eto'o finished second on the team in scoring, amassing a whopping 36 goals in 52 games which was 10 more than Thierry Henry and two less than Lionel Messi; the man who received all the accolades and praise for Barca's success.
Summer of 2009
Barca started the summer off quiet while Madrid and Manchester City were the ones making all the noise.
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