Madrid - European Champions Barcelona are prepared to swap Thierry Henry and other players for Manchester City's Robinho, according to a report in sports daily AS on Friday. AS claims that Barca are reluctant to pay City's asking price of around 35 million euros (52.26 million dollars) for the Brazilian winger, and want to bring the price down by offering the Manchester club several players in part-exchange.
According to AS, these players are Henry, Yaya Toure, Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal.
Barca are clearly disappointed with the frequent injuries picked up by Henry, who has still to score his first goal this season. On Thursday they announced that he will be out of action for 10 days after tearing a muscle in his right leg in Wednesday's France-Austria clash.
Barca coach Josep Guardiola is unhappy with the displays of Abidal but seems to be satisfied with Toure. Puyol, 31, is club captain but his contract runs out in June 2010 and has still not been extended.
Rival daily Marca, for its part, claims on Friday that Barca might be more interested in taking Robinho on a six-month loan, from January to June, instead of signing him in the winter transfer window.
Catalan paper Sport claimed on Wednesday that Barca had already agreed personal terms with Robinho, 25.
Guardiola has said on various occasions that his squad is a little thin. The only genuine winger that he has at his disposal is young Pedro Rodriguez.
Robinho knows the Spanish Liga very well, having been at Real Madrid from 2005 to 2008, before leaving for Manchester City.
