Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

Royale with Cheese

Apparently Bayern are going to bid £8m for Van Persie. That is actually an insult and I hope they're told to fúck off and to never call again.

Aliadiere should be leaving too, Boro his likely destination at the moment.

cson

Bayern Munching? Ha.

He very nearly left though early on, remember when he got himself sent off against soton and more or less cost us the game? Wenger wasn't exactly glowing in his praise of him.

Can't believe they sold Muamba, I hope they've inserted some sort of first option/buy back clause. That lad is gonna be a star next season with Birmingham.

Pepe LeFrits

Got £2m for Muamba potentially rising to £4m dependant on performance, which is good money. He's not very good technically, so I'd be surprised if he's ever a really top player. He'd be too far down the Arsenal midfield pecking order anyway.

cson

I disagree tbh, I think he's going to be very good. We've Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby, Gilberto for centre mid I think, it wouldn't hurt to still own him imo, keep him loaned out.

I was thinking too, we've had problems with the gallas-toure cb pairing so I wonder how a Gilberto-Toure pairing with Diaby and Fabregas in centre mid would work. Dunno where that leaves Gallas though.....

leninbenjamin

cson wrote:

I disagree tbh, I think he's going to be very good. We've Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby, Gilberto for centre mid I think, it wouldn't hurt to still own him imo, keep him loaned out.

I was thinking too, we've had problems with the gallas-toure cb pairing so I wonder how a Gilberto-Toure pairing with Diaby and Fabregas in centre mid would work. Dunno where that leaves Gallas though.....

i dunno if Diaby will ever become imposing enough to form the defensive part of a 2man midfield.

i wouldn't be surprised though if Gallas was suffering a Chelsea hangover (i think the intensity of Mourinho's coaching has begun to have some adverse affects contributing to some of the injuries they've had and i think Gallas might have been affected similarly). i think he'll come good next season.

Pepe LeFrits

Gilberto at CB was fairly disastrous at times this season. I'm not sure if Gallas-Toure can work but I'm fairly sure that Gilberto isn't the answer. Hopefully Djourou and Senderos can push on next season.

Muamba was behind Song in the pecking order, so make of that what you will. Song generally looked much better than him when I saw him in the reserves, while Song has played in the PL and Muamba hasn't.

cson

Ah yes, Alexandre Song, forgot about him. Yeah he's much better technically. Muamba is more imposing though.

I'd also hold high hopes for Djourou but I've lost faith in Senderos. While I wouldn't go so far as to say he's another Zinedine Cygan thats the way he's headed. Dunno how they managed to get to champs league final without conceding with him in defence.

Another part of that defence was Mathieu Flamini who was quite cruelly dropped for the final for Cashley Cole. He's leaving in the summer apparently, I'm disappointed to see him go, he was quite good. A better version of Gilles Grimandi if you will. Thats probably the reason why he's leaving too.

Pepe LeFrits

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=468361&CPID=8&clid=3&lid=&title=Baptista+set+for+Real+return

Woo yeah!

Julio Baptista has been told that Arsenal will not take up the option of signing him permanently.

Also, lol:

Speculation suggests Real are lining up a huge bid for the young midfielder, in the region of €25million (£17million).

£17m? Huge bid? They're off their rocker.

Finally, Wenger talking about Vela apparently:

"He's top class," I like his intelligence and his pace. He scores goals but he can also create them."

"He's a special talent and I believe 100 per cent that he will make it at the highest level."

Hopefully he'll be at Arsenal in January 08.

the1andonly1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2007/05/halftime_at_arsenal.html

This is an interesting report on the behind the scenes goings on at arsenal, in relation to the possible takeover. Looks like Dein will sell his shares soon, which will increase pressure on the rest of the board to sell out.

cashback

I got news of a new job today. I also heard the news that the Beast is going back to Madrid.
It's saying something that I was slightly happier to hear the Beast is f**king off than I was about hearing of my new job.

Pepe LeFrits

According to the Daily Mail, Vela has been granted an exceptional talent work permit and will be allowed to join Arsenal this summer instead of January 2008, and Wenger is deciding whether to exercise that option. Seems a bit strange to me though that they'd apply for it and then not take it...

Might leave Wenger with a bit of a dilemma regarding buying a winger in the summer. It'd leave us with:

Strikers: Henry, van Persie, Adebayor, Bendtner, (Walcott/Vela backup)
Wingers: Rosicky, Hleb, Walcott, Vela

That's assuming Freddie leaves. Now the immediate reaction is to say that we need to add an experienced winger there but Rosicky and Hleb are young enough themselves and it wouldn't leave much room for either Walcott or Vela to develop. Given he spent £6-12m on Walcott and another £2.5m on Vela, and how highly he rates both of them, that'd be a risky choice. Of course, not bringing in another winger would be risky also, if Walcott and Vela weren't able to step up the appropriate level when required.

cson

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Wingers: Hleb

Oh that Hleb....

Pacifico

Great news about Vela and Baptista going back to Real....he was such a disappointment!!

keano_afc

Just seen some online images of our new away kit. If they're true(which I doubt) its WHITE. If you want to look just google new arsenal shirt and you'll see a few images.

leninbenjamin

keano_afc wrote:

Just seen some online images of our new away kit. If they're true(which I doubt) its WHITE. If you want to look just google new arsenal shirt and you'll see a few images.

it's been on boards already a few times... there's no point to it, it still has red sleeves which could get annoying which could get annoying if it were to come to a tangle of bodies etc. if they were to play someone in red.

PHB

I think Reyes is still a pretty handy winger,

Rosicky, Reyes, Walcott, Vela, Hleb
is a pretty good set of wingers imo, and I think either Vela or Walcott could step up next year.

Pepe LeFrits

A trustworthy source from another forum says that Wenger will definately spend this summer. His number one target is Ribery (ugh). He says Wenger is in Spain trying to negotiate a deal for Reyes but at the same time is trying to convince Reyes to come back. He wants to sign a winger regardless of Reyes coming back or not; if he stays in Spain I imagine Vela will come this summer in his place. Any moves will not happen until the Reyes situation is sorted out.

Watch this space.

The Muppet

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

A trustworthy source from another forum says that Wenger will definately spend this summer. His number one target is Ribery (ugh). .

Its not a beauty contest, Ribery is an excellent player . I rate Reyes ability too but he's not too keen on the physical side of the game

Pepe LeFrits

I hope I'm wrong if 'Frankenstein' is signed, but I just don't rate him. I don't really want to see Wenger spending a massive sum on another lightweight goal-shy winger.

keano_afc

Ribery is a crosser of the ball, not really an AFC type winger.

DubDani

Reports in Germany say that Bayern have signed Ribery this week for 15 mil. Euro, and that he will be unveiled either at the weekend or beginning of next week.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_SOCCER/idUKL2544578520070525

Royale with Cheese

Yeah Ribery looks ok but I wouldn't fancy spending all that much money on him. €15 million isn't a huge amount though. Reyes was quite light weight but he did alot better on the wing than Hleb or Rosicky.

People should remember though that Cesc was injury free all year, if he has a season next year like Henry or Van Persie's last year, then Hleb or Rosicky could be very useful in the middle of the pitch.

One proven winger is a must signing. Maybe a second could be useful. Centre back too please. Goalkeeper's already been signed.

Some goals from midfield, Henry & Van Persie staying fit (coupled with Walcott staying fit and Bendtner in reserve instead of Baptista), and a little bit more security at the back, and Arsenal won't be in too bad a shape next season.

herbieflowers

Van Persie has the potential to be a top top player imo...do you think Song might get a chance next season, he was well impressive for Charlton, I liked the look of him, played well against Man U too - never lost the ball once in that match...

Hopefully this season Arsenal can fulfill the immense talent amongst their young players...although we were saying the same thing last year, a few experienced signings to tighten u the defence and midfield should do it imo, they should have the funds if they get taken over....

Galvasean

Getting rid of Baptista feels better than signing a new player IMO, he did more harm than good in his stay. I couldn't believe how much he deteriorated after an impressive start.

cson

His Liverpool performance was far overrated. He scored a free kick Dudek should have saved and had two of the goals handed on a plate to him by Aliadiere. Aliadiere was far more impressive in that match.

Anyway onto more pressing matters, anyone think this Fabianski chap will displace Jens? I'd feel sorry for Almunia, he's a solid keeper, great shot stopper but he'll forever be tainted with that David Bellion strike in the CC a few years ago.

keano_afc

Fabianski has been voted best keeper in the Polish league the last 2 seasons running, but thats hardly difficult I'd say. I've a Polish friend who's also a keeper and he says he's very decent.

Pepe LeFrits

The same source as before says we're in for Andres Guardado, and are awaiting a work permit. For those who are unfamiliar, he's a 20 year old Mexican left-winger. Replacement for Reyes perhaps?

More on him - http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542064

Galvasean

According to Wenger Fabianski will act as Lehmann's understudy in the upcoming season, with a view to replace him at the end of the campaign. leets hope it all works out.

Bounty Hunter

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

The same source as before says we're in for Andres Guardado, and are awaiting a work permit. For those who are unfamiliar, he's a 20 year old Mexican left-winger. Replacement for Reyes perhaps?

More on him - http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542064

he is class on fmmanager if that is anything to go by

Galvasean

Anyone else going to the Emirates Cup in July?
Ive got tickets to see Arsenal play against P.S.G. and Inter

Vokes

Yup, got a ticket for the Saturday games. Great stadium. Some good teams (although i haven't seen what PSG have been up to the past few years).

I'll be shouting for Inter

Pepe LeFrits

Was going to go to it but I've got a load of other holidays to book and it's on telly so I'll probably give it a miss. There seems to be some confusion as to whether Arsenal are competing in the Amsterdam tournament this summer - if Arsenal are involved I'll probably head over, get blitzed and enjoy an exhibition friendly between Arsenal and AC Milan

I posted these figures on another forum but I thought I'd post them here too to put Arsenal's recent difficulties into perspective. They are the NET transfer spending figures of the current top 5 premiership teams since January 2002.

Chelsea - £267.8m
Liverpool - £86.6m
Manchester United - £73.1m
Tottenham Hotspur - £60.3m
Arsenal - £13.2m

Wenger seems to be coming in for a lot of criticism from certain sections of the Arsenal fandom and I don't think it's justified. For a club in Arsenal's position, saddled with stadium debt, I don't think there's a manager better suited to be in charge.

dcarroll

are those figures correct? who have arsenal sold over the last 5 yrs that would have raised money?

Pepe LeFrits

Muamba (2-4m)
Larsson (1m)
Stokes (2.3m)
Lauren (0.5m)
Cole (5m)
Cygan (2m)
Vieira (13.7m)
Bentley (2.5m-ish)
Pennant (4.25m)
Quincy (2m-ish)
Jeffers (2.3m)
van Bronckhurst (3m)
Manninger (0.9m)
Wright (3m-ish)
Upson (4.2m)

Those are the biggest ones I think, there'd be other smaller transfers on top of that.

Vokes

Probably Vieria, Pennant, Jeffers, Wright, Upson, Cole and ton of lesser-knowns whos fees were undisclosed.

Edit: Beaten to it.

cson

Hleb, Reyes and Rosicky must have cost £30 million between them..... Ade £4 Million, Walcott £5 million......

Is there a source for those figures Pepe?

Pepe LeFrits

It's an excel spreadsheet. I'll lash it on a usb stick and post it tomorrow when I get it.

Those figures are about right, although the beeb reckon Adebayor cost £3m. Arsenal haven't splashed much cash on many others beyond that though. Wenger got all the defenders in the squad for about £4 million total!

cson

Yeah I know its mad isn't it, Gallas was a swap, Toure cost 500K ish, Clichy cost 500K ish, Eboue cost a controversial £1-2 million....

In fairness though he kind of stumbled upon Toure as a centre half, he hasn't much of a track record in spending serious cash on defenders. Jesus we've had some woeful ones he bought though > Stepanovs :eek: Zinedine Cygan :eek:

Pepe LeFrits

There you go.

Galvasean

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Chelsea - £267.8m
Liverpool - £86.6m
Manchester United - £73.1m
Tottenham Hotspur - £60.3m
Arsenal - £13.2m

When you look at those figures you realize Arsenal have not done half bad. If arsenal had £60m+ to spend they'd be unstoppable

cson

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

There you go.

Excellent. Some great ones there > Van Persie £2.75 million.

Didn't the Managing Director Keith Edelwood promise Wenger £40 million to spend in the summer? Tbh he hasn't been great spending large amounts of money, Jeffers, Van Bronckhorst, Hleb even...not a great record imo. Henry would be the one that sticks out where he spent fairly big and made a major success of it.

Royale with Cheese

Supposed new away shirt. Yes it's white but I don't think it's all that bad. I guess the redcurrant bit is a way of justifying it.

Looks better than the other white + red version I've seen going around.

Pepe LeFrits

There have been so many fakes I'm just going to ignore all speculation and wait for official word.

GuanYin

Apparently Reo-Coker is interested in a move to Arsenal. I know Wenger looked at him before - be a nice addition with Fabregas.

Eirebear

Anyone know anything about an 18 yr old cypriot player, george Effram who's supposedly signed for Rangers this week?
Cheers

raido9

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I posted these figures on another forum but I thought I'd post them here too to put Arsenal's recent difficulties into perspective. They are the NET transfer spending figures of the current top 5 premiership teams since January 2002.

Chelsea - £267.8m
Liverpool - £86.6m
Manchester United - £73.1m
Tottenham Hotspur - £60.3m
Arsenal - £13.2m

Wenger seems to be coming in for a lot of criticism from certain sections of the Arsenal fandom and I don't think it's justified. For a club in Arsenal's position, saddled with stadium debt, I don't think there's a manager better suited to be in charge.

Do you have a source for these figures? I looked into it myself before but my results would have arsenal nearly double the figure you have quoted and a bit less for spurs. Also if you go back to 2002 Utd are probably the second highest, but in more recent years the pool have been spending more each season than them.

Vokes

Pepe posted a spreadsheet above.

Looks pretty interesting.

PHB

Those figures are pretty accurate, in relation to Arsenal since 2002, I'd put them slightly higher.
Well,

Upson: Soccerbase reports Upson sold for 1 million, Sky has 2.5 million, not sure which to believe.

Abedayor: Soccer base have his sale for 7 million, Sky don't know it.

Aside from that, it's pretty accurate. Actually Mike, mind if I start a new thread with that excel sheet so we can try work it out completely with no errors?

Galvasean

Arsenal will play in the Amsterdam tournament this year against Ajax and Lazio.
Source: arsenal.com

Pepe LeFrits

Go ahead dude.

The figures for United, Liverpool etc probably need a bit of work as they are mainly from soccerbase which isn't 100%. I've done a fair bit of checking on the accuracy of the Arsenal ones. Regarding the two you've queried; I must admit I always thought Adebayor cost £7m too, but the BBC claim he cost £3m. £3m certainly seems a more realistic figure to me considering Adebayor was being frozen out at Monaco and was told he'd never play for them again (they never really rated him, tbh). I need to do a bit of searching on Upson, but I think most sources say he cost about 2.5. He was sold because he wanted regular football, not because Wenger didn't rate him, so I'd be surprised if he was let go that cheaply.

Anyway.

I haven't seen the interview myself but apparently Thierry has been on SSN looking very unhappy making commnts about 4th place not being good enough and hinting that he might not stay. Seems unlikely that he'd leave given how many gazillion times (recently) he's said he's staying here. On that note Marca have come up with an amusing story today saying that Barca are offering £17m AND Samuel Eto'o for Thierry this summer. I'd be gutted to see Thierry go but that'd be some deal. Maybe Marca will claim tomorrow that Kaka and Ronaldinho want to buy out their contracts so that they can join Arsenal too.

One player who does seem to be on his way to the Gunners is the 17 year old Icelandic fella I mentioned earlier. I nabbed this translation of an Icelandic newspaper article from another forum:

Sigthorsson ready to fulfill his potential

17 year old HK Kopavogur striker, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, is expected to join English Premier League giants Arsenal on a 4 year deal next month and thus rejecting similar offers from Spanish superpowers Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Sigthorsson’s potential has been there for all to see in Icelandic football for quite some time now but it wasn’t until during the christmas period four years ago when Arsenal came knocking at his door at Icelandic club Vikingur Reykjavik and asked to take a look at him, people began to take notice.

The blond haired boy didn’t take long to impress the Arsenal coaching staff and managed to score one goal and create two in a win over Chelsea for the U-18’s.

Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, had seen enough and asked Sigthorsson to come over on a trial the summer after, which Sigthorsson did and impressed again. He rejected Arsenal couple of time due to schooling but is ready to take the next step.

Sigthorsson’s future looks bright and his coach at HK Kopavogur, Zeljko Sankovic, who has coached the likes of Robert Prosinecki and Davor Suker is in no doubt what the talented youngster can achieve. “Im 100% certain he will become a bigger player than Eidur Gudjohnsen. They are also not similar players. Kolbeinn is one of the best prospects in European football and he has similar attributes to Thierry Henry.” That’s quite a compliment coming from such a respected coach, also given the fact that Henry is Sigthorsson’s idol.

The date is March 24th 2007 in Caldas de Rainha in Portugal and Iceland are set to play the reigning U17 European champions Russia for a place in the Finals. At the beginning of the match Iceland are tied with Portugal on two points in the qualifying group. Russia are top with four points. Iceland drew 2-2 against Northern Ireland where Sigthorsson scored a brace and drew 0-0 against Portugal before this match and Iceland pin their hopes on their star striker Kolbeinn Sigthorsson. 40 minutes later, spectators are in awe by the Icelandic performance and especially the performance from Sigthorsson. Iceland lead 5-0 at half time and Sigthorsson has scored four of those goals. Incredible. A stunning come back from Russia in the 2nd half was not enough and Iceland won the match 6-5 and qualified to the finals. After the match the Russian coach said one man had destroyed their dream to defend the title, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson. Describing him as a beast in the penalty box and a ballet dancer with the ball at his feets.

Iceland where poor in the Finals, it has to be said but Sigthorsson was the ray of light. Despite being injured, he managed to play one match and score one goal.

He then went on a trial at dutch club Ajax and flew home with a contract offer in his pocket but his mind was somewhere else, at Arsenal, where his future for the next few years is almost certain to be.