Saints settle for early fee over Theo

 

Arsenal have managed to get close to £3m knocked off what the eventual fee could have been for England and Arsenal winger Theo Walcott, with cash-strapped Southampton accepting a reduced fee up front for the 19 year old to help their financial struggle.

Arsenal had so far paid £7m of the maximum £12m fee, with £5m of that being paid straight up in January 2006 when the teenager was bought to the Emirates (well, Highbury at the time…). The Gunners will now only be asked to cough up £2.1m extra this year for the youngster, bringing the total transfer price up to £9.1m, with £2.9m being written off completely.

Although the eventual price for the teenager had shocked both Arsenal fans and the English media at the time, Arsenal are looking far happier with their aquisition, Theo now proving his potential far more convincingly as a super sub for the Gunners, even getting a recall to the full national squad against France last week before helping to change the game as a sub against Bolton on Saturday. He also contributed on the goalscoring front far more this season, grabbing a total of five goals -  a brace in the Champions League, two goals against Birmingham and a goal against Spurs in the Carlling Cup.

Arsenal still in for Brazilian youngster Patrik

 

Reports in todays Record, the Portuguese newspaper, indicates that Arsenal are still keeping tabs on Patrik, a Brazilian who Wenger gave a trial to 15 months ago. Still just 17 years old, Patrik is now attracting the interest of Porto and Sporting according to the Record.

He plays as a attacking midfielder and according to the paper the reason that Patrik did not move to Arsenal back in the January transfer window of last year was that he did not wish to go on loan to a Belgian club to escape the work permit issues, but this seems a strange reason considering that Arsenal had a link Salamanca with Carlos Vela there which would surely have been more logical, so my guess is that the Record have got this detail wrong. However, perhaps with more Spanish links now with the likes of Osasuna, Real Sociedad may mean that this transfer could be resurected once again this year with competition hotting up for the youngster.

Another factor in his transfer could be which division Porto play their football next year, with match fixing allegations meaning that there is a chance that, like Juventus a year ago, if the allegations are proved Porto could drop down a division.

But last year when Patrik was interviewed about the Arsenal trial, he had this to say about his ambition for the future:

“I have the dream to one day play in Europe, like any player has. But I am relaxed. First I want to go up to the Juniores, and then when I am 18, go to Arsenal.”

In the same article, the president of Sao Caetano said that he has good contact with Peter Hill-Wood and Dick Law, something which is vital to any potential deal.

So perhaps the transfer to Arsenal is inevitable, and just that he did not want a loan deal and instead would wait until he was 18 so that we could try and get a special visa for him on the grounds of “Special Talent”, or perhaps he has lost his way a bit in the last year and Arsenal have dropped their interest, we will just have to wait and see.