Liverpool's Manager, Rafa Benitez may have quietly backed down on a move to sign highly rated Barcelona star, Samuel Eto'o.



Strong indications, suggest that Liverpool have dropped out of the race to obtain Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o after deciding the strike ace is beyond their reach. For weeks, Liverpool have been at the forefront of the Eto'o bid and tabled a cash offer for the forward who has been highly sought after in Europe. The offer received no tangible response from Barcelona.


News of this cash offer echoed across Europe and attracted Italian giants, AC Milan, who are also interested in the Barca marksman. This made Milan swing into action in response to the English move, digging in through their official, Galliani in the famed Mission Impossible adventure. Barcelona classified Galliani's bid method as a distraction.


Liverpool have been more visible than other Premiership teams in their attempts to win over the Cameroonian from Cam Nou. Other Premiership clubs intrested in Eto'o are Manchester United and Arsenal. AC Milan and InterMilan are representing interests from the Italian angle.


Liverpool's decision to back down may be influenced by the mindset which is gaining ground at Camp Nou to tighten its hold on players it considers pre-requisites to its success next season, and attempts are being made to solidfy the squad especially after the shocking result in the weekend La Liga encounter with Espanyol lent more concrete on the need to have a more secure team.


A big and unlikely IF hangs on the possibilty of Barcelona even agreeing in the first place to sell their attacking gem.


Other than Barca's organisational drive, Liverpool's exit may also be attributed to cashflow. The lords at Anfield may be too constrained to disburse Eto'o's real worth, which is no doubt ranging upwards from the 50 Million Euro mark.


As proof of this, Liverpool have considered signing Villareal's former Man U player, Diego Forlan as an alternative to Eto'o.

Clinical finishers are the watch-word for Barcelona as they look to sign a striker ahead of next season.




Already, with strong speculations surrounding Barcelona's desire to net Thierry Henry of English Premiership side, Arsenal, the Catalans have also shortlisted two prolific scorers namely Diego Forlan and Roy Makaay.


Both strikers have played in Spain before and proven they are worth Barca's buy. Makaay is currently with German clubside, Bayern Munich and with the club closing in on a deal to bring Italian International Luca Toni into their fold, there doesn't seem to be too much opposition from the Bundesliga side should Makaay decide to leave for a club like Barcelona who are ready to pay good money for the striker's services.


Thierry Henry however, remains Barcelona's number one target, but just incase they fail to win him over to Camp Nou like was the case last season, they will fall back on securing either of the two star players.


Barcelona's main striker, Sam Eto'o has not hidden his desire to have a gauranteed place in Barca's starting line-up and will have to be sure his position is well secured. It will be interesting to watch how the balance will be struck by the Catalan's technical bench when a second striker comes in.


Eto'o will be out for six weeks when the African Cup of Nations commences in the early part of next year and he expects to return to his usual top marksmanship position for Barcelona.