Calcio Mercato: Ibra and Eto'o exchange on the cards

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's future has been put into doubt again as a deal to take him to Barcelona and send Eto'o, 40 million euros and Alex Hleb in the other direction to Inter. The rumour mills started churning late last night on goal.com and have continued throughout the day all over the web, with a number of sites suggesting that the deal is already done. The latter part is unlikely, but a deal could well be on the cards. Ibra has long stated his desire to move away from Inter over that last few months, but in recent weeks this storm had subsided and it appeared likely that he would stay. However, this deal maybe enough to tempt Inter as the 40 million could be used to resolve the creative midfielder issue, perhaps in the form of Franck Ribery. Still, then again it may not and Inter could well have traded in their best asset to the European Champions, thereby making them stronger and their desired Champions League even more unattainable. It is a real gamble, but they must go deep in the Champions League this year and Eto'o does bring the experience for that. Additionally, wonder kid Balotelli may really develop this season and with Argentine International Diego Milito on board the forward line remains very strong. But without Ibra Inter lack that key cog of a player, much like Messi is at Barca, Kaka was at Milan in 2007, and perhaps Diego will be at Juve next season.

Too reliant on Ibra
Its been said before that Inter are too reliant on Ibrahimovic. Whilst that is partially true, without him who will be the architect of goals at the Biscone. Motta will help with this, as will Balotelli if deployed out on the left side of the forward line, which is expected to be 4-3-3, but if this deal does go through that 40 million will need to be used to address this issue. I guess we will find out soon enough.