Transfer talk: Robinho – Ibrahimovic swap?

With talk of a Edin Dzeko having cooled over the past week, there’s been  a corresponding rise in speculation linking City with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Could the two be connected?

City passed on the option of signing Dzeko for 40 million euros with Wolfsburg making some disparaging remarks about a communication from ourselves on the eve of the deadline. The German side maintain they want to keep the player with no indication that they’re willing to do a deal for sensible price.

For our part, there’s no sign that we’re pushing for a deal at the moment. Instead attention has been on Barcelona, where Yaya Toure looked close to being our second confirmed deal, following the capture of Jerome Boateng.

Unfortunately outgoing Barca president Joan Laporta has been quoted saying they value Toure in the same bracket as Fabregas – around 35 million euros. This is quite a step up from the 17 million which was being spoke of a couple of weeks ago!

With Brian Marwood attempting to bring some common sense to our spending, we appear to be at an impasse once again. Hopefully a price for Toure can be agreed as he would be a fantastic signing to annouce prior to the World Cup. The momentum of completing deals would be maintained, and with a player who appeared out of our when we missed out on fourth place.

An even bigger, but more controversial signing would be Ibrahimovic. On the face of it, moving to City would sonceeem unlikely for the serial title winner. However, his poor season, the arrival of Villa, a possible Barca bid for Torres, and his relationship with Mancini may make this possible. For the money Barca would want, there’s unlikely to be many other takers for the languid Swede.

There’s a feeling that Mancini would prefer Ibra over Dzeko – not something all City fans agree with. Many would prefer to sign a quality young player on the rise, ahead of one whose application has often been questioned.

Once again the fee could be a stumbling block, with Marwood and co unlikely to see value in anything like the amount Barca paid a year ago. Today sees Sport.es float the old idea of Robinho to Barca, this time in part-exchange for Ibra.

Sport claims Barca want to ‘reflect’ on this idea, presumably where reflect means seeing how Robinho performs in the World Cup.

This could be a face saving deal for both clubs as they seek to extricate themselves from transfers that didn’t work out.  Barca do have a Thierry Henry shaped gap to fill on the left side of their attack. A good World Cup for Robinho is quite feasible and our ‘misfit’ could start looking a whole lot more attractive.

Chelsea have been talked up as rivals for Ibrahimovic and Toure. I don’t see it. With Essien and Mikel, there seems little need for Toure, particularly if Ballack agrees an extension. As for strikers, Chelsea are best placed to make a bid for Torres, which would surely eat up their transfer fund and satisfy Abramovic’s desire for a galactico. Such a deal is unlikely to be completed until after the World Cup giving us plenty of time for discussions with Barca.