Joe_Manchester
13 years ago
November 23, 2011
Here is Guardiola's side of the argument
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola insists he has no problem with AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League clash at the San Siro.
Ibrahimovic, who has scored in the three European matches he has played for Milan this season, will take on Barca for the first time since leaving the club in the summer of 2010 after just one year with the Catalan outfit.
The Sweden striker openly criticised Barca and Guardiola in his autobiography this month, but Guardiola has vowed to "act like sportsmen'' if the two meet.
"If we meet I'll be spontaneous and I'll greet him,'' Guardiola told a pre-match press conference. He's a formidable player and he helped us a lot during his time at Barcelona.
"I don't have any problems with Mr Ibrahimovic. I've said it before, being real and natural is the most important thing. If we meet, we'll act like the sportsmen that we are.''
I have always wondered and then I found this article:
I read an article (Last updated at on 4th November 2011) and It says the following:
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has blamed Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola for his failure at Barcelona, claiming that his former boss used to 'bully' him.
The Sweden striker, now back in form at AC Milan, was an expensive flop after joining Barca from Inter Milan for £40million plus Samuel Eto'o in 2009, but has lifted the lid on why he thinks he struggled and the blazing rows he had with Guardiola.
Ibramhimovic claims one verbal assault culminated in him shouting at Guardiola: 'you have no balls'.
And, after starting his Nou Camp career with seven goals in his first seven La Liga matches, the striker says in his new autobiography that things went downhill because Messi, the current FIFA Ballon D'Or holder, demanded to be moved position.
'It was a childhood dream and I was walking on air,' said Ibrahimovic. 'It started well but then Messi started to talk.
'He wanted to play in the middle, not on the wing, so the system changed from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1. I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed.
'So I asked for a meeting with Guardiola - for a discussion, not an argument. I said I was being used in the wrong way and that they shouldn't have bought me if they wanted another type of player.
'I told him what a friend had said to me - "you bought a Ferrari but drive it like a Fiat". The chat seemed to go well but then Guardiola started to freeze me out.
'I would walk into a room; he would leave. He would greet everyone by saying hello, but would ignore me.
'I had done a lot to adapt - the Barca players were like schoolboys, following the coach blindly, whereas I was used to asking "why?" I like guys who run red lights, not pedantic and strict rules. So I tried to be overly nice, didn't dare lose my temper.
'But after this I stopped trying to adapt. For example, at Barca players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous - it was no one's business what car I drive - so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene.'
Ibrahimovic claims that he had a major row with Guardiola after a 4-1 win at Villarreal in May 2010, a game in which he came off the bench to replace young Spanish forward Bojan for just five minutes.
'(Pep) was staring at me and I lost it. I thought "there is my enemy, scratching his bald head". I yelled to him: "You have no balls!" And probably worse things than that.
'I added: 'You are s****ing yourself because of (then Inter manager Jose Mourinho, whose side beat Barca in the Champions League). You can go to hell!" I was completely mad.
'I threw a box full of training gear across the room, it crashed to the floor and Pep said nothing, just put stuff back in the box.
'I'm not violent, but if I were Guardiola I would have been frightened.'
Ibrahimovic says that he tried to make peace with Guardiola, despite Barca buying Spain's star striker David Villa in May 2010.
But the Swede alleges that Guardiola continued to 'bully' him, eventually resulting in a loan move to Milan, which was made permanent in the summer.
What a story, what are your guys' opinions?