The Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has confirmed that
Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Deco are all surplus to requirement at
Camp Nou. The trio have been repeatedly linked with moves to
Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea, respectively, and Guardiola
revealed today that his plans to revive Barça will not involve
them.
"We are contemplating the future without them," said Guardiola,
who admitted that Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez would be staying
at the club. "The coach thinks this way after analyzing questions
of performance and the [last] season.
All of the players in the first-team squad last season are of a
very high level.
But with the technical secretary we are forming a squad and Deco,
Ronaldinho and Eto'o are not in our minds."
Guardiola admitted he would be happy to keep Ronaldinho if the
Brazilian could recapture his best form, but made it clear that was
unlikely to happen. "If I felt that he wanted to be the player he
was again, he would be here," he added. "But the situation has
deteriorated and the solution is to build a strong
dressing-room."
Guardiola, who added that Barcelona would not be interested in a
move for the Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo, said the
club's priority is to sign a striker. "We will look at the
possibility of bringing in a winger, but if we don't then that's
fine; the priority is a No9," he said, before adding with a smile:
"We are looking for a No9 who scores 60 goals for us."