AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Barcelona's Pep Guardiola was scared of Jose Mourinho, & Iniesta, Xavi and Messi were like schoolboys
The Sweden international has revealed that he had a furious row with the Catalan side's head coach, while also admitting he did not connect with their star players

AC Milan attacker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has revealed that he completely lost control in the aftermath of Barcelona's 4-1 away win over Villarreal in the 2009-10 campaign as he slammed head coach Pep Guardiola for his 'lack of balls' in their Champions League elimination by Inter only days before.

Swedish publication Aftonbladet reports that the striker reveals in his autobiography, which will be published in two weeks' time, how he told Guardiola that he was afraid of then-Inter coach Jose Mourinho and that the Barcelona coach could "go to hell".

"I yelled at him: 'You have no balls!' And probably worse things than that. And I added: 'You are sh***ing yourself about Mourinho! You can go to hell!' I was completely mad. If I were Guardiola, I would have been frightened," Ibrahimovic writes in the first chapter of his book.

The former Juventus star also took the time to reveal his true feelings for Barcelona trio Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.

"The atmosphere in the dressing room was way too quiet for me. Messi, Iniesta and Xavi always obeyed without protesting. They were like schoolboys. I'm not like that and I couldn't be myself."

Ibrahimovic also explained that Messi is Guardiola's favourite, while also stating that the coach made little attempt to communicate with him.

"Messi asked to be played in another position. He wanted to play as centre forward and got his way. I didn't have a relationship with the coach. He hardly looked at me."

The 30-year-old attacker left Barcelona for AC Milan in the summer of 2010 after only one year at Camp Nou.

Wow...

After reading that, I can safely say that Ibrahimovic is just as bad as I thought.

Really? I've gained more respect from Ibrahimovic, all he wanted was to be treated equally.

Ibra

Now he will hopefully turn his CL mojo on and destroy barca

zarola wrote:Really? I've gained more respect from Ibrahimovic, all he wanted was to be treated equally.

Really? Wow I guess different people, different opinions but that lowered my respect level for ibra even more. He dislike Messi simply for following instructions and hated guardiola for making a logical decision. Honestly,both those actions just reek of immaturity.

But Messi just got everything he wanted at Barca. Messi (according to Ibra) said he wanted to play CF, and he got the CF position.

And Ibra had no say at all in there, Barca pay through the roof for him and they just snub him. Barca play some good football but their work behind the scenes needs some fixing

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:But Messi just got everything he wanted at Barca. Messi (according to Ibra) said he wanted to play CF, and he got the CF position.

And Ibra had no say at all in there, Barca pay through the roof for him and they just snub him. Barca play some good football but their work behind the scenes needs some fixing

But that's just the point isn't it? Guardiola decided to put Messi in the CF position. It worked. End of story. If Barca had failed miserably that year Ibra's concerns would make sense. But they didn't so they don't.

But Barca spent SO MUCH on Ibra and they just reject him to the point where they out him on the bench?

And it's not like Barca play entertaining football WITHOUT Ibra. In his first 4/5 months he was doing crazy skills and scoring goals

Guardiola didn't put him as a cf,messi put himeslf as a cf.kind of a joke when you have one of he best cfs in the world at your disposal,I think ibra didn't perform well because he hated being at barca,he couldn't stand pep nor his teammates.And of course mehssi worked as a cf,he's he best in the world...

So from both of you I've pretty much narrowed it down to this:

Does Messi>Ibra as a CF?

In my humble opinion, hell to the yes. So Guardiola did nothing wrong.

Also, keep in mind it wasn't Guardiola that bought Ibra.

Messi didn't put himself there, he asked Guardiola. One of Ibras complain was that messi followed every instruction from Guardiola without any protest, so I don't think that Messi orded Guardiola..

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:But Barca spent SO MUCH on Ibra and they just reject him to the point where they out him on the bench?

And it's not like Barca play entertaining football WITHOUT Ibra. In his first 4/5 months he was doing crazy skills and scoring goals

Ibra was scoring, agreed, but, apart from his backheel assist,he was not doing some crazy skills. His general play was, simply put, awful. The only game that ibra looked world class was against espanyol, all the other games he would score and then disappear and in the 2nd half of the season he wasn't even scoring..

Ok you're Ibra though, look at this from his perspective. Winning leagues wherever he goes, the star man. A club buys you for a lot of money, but the entire time you're there you're ignored and not only ignored but another player gets whatever he wants and the coach and you don't speak much at all.If you get paid that much to change countries and do work you would expect a little respect. It's not as if he was doing bad for this relationship to cause problems, he was simply not given the chances he deserved because he was ignored. As others have mentioned, he started off brilliantly for barca.

Oh no please don't turn this into a Messi v. Ibra debate theres enough of the "everyone in the world or messi, whose better? debates going on"

zarola wrote:Ok you're Ibra though, look at this from his perspective. Winning leagues wherever he goes, the star man. A club buys you for a lot of money, but the entire time you're there you're ignored and not only ignored but another player gets whatever he wants and the coach and you don't speak much at all.If you get paid that much to change countries and do work you would expect a little respect. It's not as if he was doing bad for this relationship to cause problems, he was simply not given the chances he deserved because he was ignored. As others have mentioned, he started off brilliantly for barca.

The thing is, he didn't. If he was a poacher, then yes he started good, but its ibra who we are talking about. He is more than just about goals but he NEVER showed that at barca.

ACMRox wrote:So from both of you I've pretty much narrowed it down to this:

Does Messi>Ibra as a CF?

In my humble opinion, hell to the yes. So Guardiola did nothing wrong.

Also, keep in mind it wasn't Guardiola that bought Ibra.

The problem for Ibra was that Messi got whatever he wanted at Barca, including Ibra's CF position

To me, Messi sounds like an absolute b**ch. Ibra was entirely right to say what he said.

ibra is too big of an ego and pep needs to work on his approach with certain type of people... nothing new, really...

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:

ACMRox wrote:So from both of you I've pretty much narrowed it down to this:

Does Messi>Ibra as a CF?

In my humble opinion, hell to the yes. So Guardiola did nothing wrong.

Also, keep in mind it wasn't Guardiola that bought Ibra.

The problem for Ibra was that Messi got whatever he wanted at Barca, including Ibra's CF position

To me, Messi sounds like an absolute b**ch. Ibra was entirely right to say what he said.

But is that so wrong when Messi deserved it more?

If Pippo beat out Ibra to the CF position here and benched Ibra, would he attack Allegri the same way?

Because Messi is a VERY highly paid player and professional

It is his duty to take orders from Pep, not tell him what to do and how to do his job (i.e. play Lio as the CF)

i dont think messi forced pep to make him the cf....

and doesnt ibra contradict himself? first he says, messi and co. obeyed like schoolboys and then he alleges that messi got it 'his way'....

Ibra is our star player, but there is no denying that his ego is bigger than his brain. He is obviously jealous of Messi because he is the best player in the world and Ibra is nowhere near him. I am a fan of Milan and Milan alone, but there is no denying that Ibra is not half the player that Messi is. It is pure jealousy.

Everybody always hates on the best, especially when you think you are supposed to be that person (Ibra's case)
Messi is the greatest player I have ever seen play, and if I was Pep, I would listen and build my team around him just like he asked.

messi asking for the position ibra plays is an insult to ibra as much as it would be to anyone. sounds more like messi felt ibra wasn't performing well enough as a CF and wanted a go on the position

i also don't think he had much fun off the pitch due to the nature of the barca players who were only about performing well on the pitch, forgetting how to have fun off it, hence the school boy quote

So hold on a second.

Ibrahimovic goes to a club where 8/11 of their Starting XI are homegrown players from the academy who joined as children and expects to be treated equally ?

How can you tell this guy has never worked a day in his life ? Seniority, Zlatan ?

Apart the fact if anyone is without balls, it is you. You being the ultimate Judas hopping from Juventus to Internazionale to AC Milano. Yeah, you must have a lot of balls and courage to be a little bitch who cannot deal with adversity.

When the going gets tough, there goes Ibrahimovic = title of the autobiography.