Richard Law: Salamanca will get a player of incredible quality

Richard law, Arsenal’s representative of everything to do with the Salamanca partnership, has reassured UDS fans in today’s As by telling them that they will be getting a fantastic player, who, although he was not named, is very probably an EU player unlike Carlos Vela and Pedros were.

In a very interesting interview with As, Law spoke about a range of details to do with the Spanish club, including Pedro and Vela’s experiences, why Arsenal chose Salamanca, and who would be loaned out there next season, all of which you can read about below:

The reasons for choosing Salamanca and Vela’s time there:

“We looked at Salamanca three years ago for their style of play, which is very attractive. Arsenal also likes to touch and move the ball. Carlos Vela was a great success for all and opened a path [for us]“

On Pedro Botelho’s future and the changes at Salamanca:

I only know that he [Pedro] has to come back to Salamanca for pre-season on the 21st. He has lived in the first year and experienced a process of adaptation and this season things can go very well. We hope that the history of Botelho is as good or better than Vela’s. “

“Dani Lopez leaving does not have any influence [on the partnership]. One of the most important things in this agreement between Arsenal and Salamanca is that we do not press any conditions [on Salamanca] in any respect. “

On Salamanca’s potential new loanee:

“We quite some time talking with Salamanca about what we are doing, and very specifically about a player. He is a great footballer, with excellent potential and upon which we have placed high hopes . As you know, Arsenal hasve a team of reserves that we want to gain first team experience. It is necessary to consider that many of the players who we have are international. I do not want to err on the side of arrogance, but if you’re already signed up by Arsenal you have more than enough potential to be a great footballer. “

Whether or not the player is Non-EU:

“You do not have to [be Non-EU]. For the relationship that we have seen with Salamanca and the characteristics that meets the club in his dedication to new talent, it might be a EU player” .

It is believed by As that the player will be an attacker, and is probably either Rui Fonte or Nacer Barazite. Fonte seems the most likely, as he has already been linked with a loan deal to Sporting Lisbon this summer, and will be looking to gain first team experience. Barazite, on the other hand, is of a higher level and I would guess Salamanca may be slightly lower than the standard he can already play at.

Source:

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-law-desvela-posible-cesion/dasftb/20080715dasdaiftb_31/Tes

How much of a difference will in-club promotion make for next season?

I was watching the footballing masterclass from Arsenal’s reserves at times against a very weak Derby side, and that got me wondering: what are the roles destined for the likes of Barazite and Nordtveit next season, along with returning loanees and the current players just outside the best 16? And more importantly, how much of a difference will these players make to the situation of not having enough squad depth to compete for the entire 38 games AND challenge for silverware in other competitions?

It has always been the plan that with each passing year, the conveyor belt of footballing talent will all get one year older and with that be promoted within the squad, and while this year the players on the fringe were that year too young, that year too inexperienced, will next year be different?

Over the next week or so I will be doing an article on each aspect of promotion inside the club - Loanees, Starlets, and Fringe Players, and see how much differece a year could make in our squad depth.

I shall start with the returning players from other clubs, starting with Carlos Vela.

Loanees:

Carlos Vela - A lot has been said by Arsenal fans about the 19 year old Mexican without him ever kicking a ball for Arsenal, and at the moment the trend seems to be to say he won’t be any use next season whatsoever, and that people saying he will be our saviour are wrong, yet no-one is calling him that by any stretch of the imagination. While he won’t be a first teamer immediately, not for a good few seasons most likely, he has the talent, the speed and the skill to make a difference off the bench, to change games as Walcott and Bendtner’s brief has been this year. He has spent two seasons playing first team, week in week out football, first for Salamanca where he was loved, and now at Osasuna in the second best league in the world, where he has drifted in and out of form like any 19 year old in the top leagues. An established Mexican international, he’ll add a bit more much-needed depth for the left wing position after a couple of months settling in England.

Mark Randall - Has struggled to break into the Burnley first team after a very promising couple of substitute appearances his first team chances have been limited very surprisingl. However, Wenger has always rated him highly, and I would expect his next season to be crucial in deciding his future. He has two options: to stay and fight for glimpses of first team action, or to tackle another loan spell at a Championship club for another season and see where it gets him. I would advise the latter because I can’t see him helping with Squad depth next season, with his game time more likely to be counted in minutes than hours.

Kieran Gibbs - After his great performance against Inter Milan in pre-season with the first team last summer, and then promising reserve performances followed up by another impressive game at Sheffield United in the Carling Cup, a loan spell at Norwich looked to be almost a finishing school before joing the first team squad next season. But the chances at struggling Norwich have been few and far between, never getting enough time to prove his quality, and the excitement surrounding him has died down. I think that most likely pre-season will decide his season, with the same choices as Randall has available to him to choose between. Purely because he is a wide player as well as being more versatile than Randall, sticking around could get him closer to the first team than another risky loan spell could, but I won’t be sure until he has pre-season with the first team this summer.

Fran Merida - Another difficult loan spell for a young gunner saw Merida travel back to Spain, with Real Sociedad signing him just before Chris Coleman was sacked as manager, and this was where it went wrong for him, as the replacement manager refused to start Merida, giving him a few minutes at the end of each game for no reason whatsoever. But that manager was also replaced I believe, and since then things have immediately looked better, with the young Spaniard netting the winner on his first start after the latest sacking. He has also been given a new long term contract recently and with that news I think that we shall see him around the first team set up next year in much the same way as Denilson was this year, playing the odd game as a substitute and starting Carling Cup games, gaining experience all the while.

Jay Simpson - The first thing to say about Simpson is that he has tried hard, both at Arsenal and now with Millwall, but I think he lacks the quality needed for Arsenal and a decent Championship club will come in for him and sign him for around £500K-£1m after his impressive spell at Millwall in League One. He has won several different awards there and no doubt a Wolves, Leicster, Crystal Palace type side will see him as a good substitute and one for the future and take him on.

Vincent van den Berg - Never has been impressive at Arsenal, and while I can’t say I know how his loan has gone I severely doubt it has been good enough to keep his career with the Gunners going. Therefore he will be leaving in the summer for pastures new as far as I am concerned.

Pedro Bothelo - Pedro has had a promising season at Salamanca so far, and will continue in Spain next year before coming to England in the summer of 2009.

Pedro will be staying in Spain for another season; Richard Law returns from Salamanca

Tribuna de Salamanca, the local paper for UDS, have reported that Arsenal’s agreement will continue as it has been despite Salamanca struggling with debt. As I first bought to your attention just over a week ago that Richard Law, Arsenal’s South American representative, would be meeting up with the President of the Spanish club to check up on how their financial crisis would affect the partnership, but having met with officials at the club on Wednesday, Arsenal are confident that as long as Salamanca stay in the second tier of the Spanish leagues, the agreement will remain, allowing more non-EU players to be farmed out to allow them to get their Spanish Passport to make Work Permit issues easier. 

Richard Law also reportedly confirmed that Pedro would be staying in Spain with Salamanca for another year, while more players will be loaned to the club next year, with Tribuna de Salamanca stating that any player that is loaned out would not have to be South American necessarily either, possibly leaving a place open for UDS to sign a non EU player, or perhaps for Arsenal to provide them with a quality youngster from another continent, such as Africa. There had been speculation that Pedro could apply for a work permit in the summer, but this seems not the case from everythng that I have read so far from Spanish sources, and so my guess would be that like Carlos Vela, it could just be wishful thinking from Arsenal fans wanting to see him play, rather than actual rumour.

Another thing that was also confirmed was that the Salamanca youth team would again visit Arsenal facilities this summer.

See my original article on this same story here:

(http://thearsenalway.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/arsenal-to-check-up-on-salamanca/)

Arsenal to check up on Salamanca

 

Richard Law is set to visit UD Salamanca, the Spanish club that we use to loan out players who do not have an EU passport, this week in an effort to discover how much trouble Salamanca are in currently.

Richard Law, the Arsenal representative, has been very involved in the creation of the partnership between Salamanca and Arsenal, and the Gunners have sent him to find out how the current financial situation at the Spanish club lies. They hope to know first hand what the decision of Juan José Pascual will be regarding a possible sale of the club. Meanwhile, they will also check on Pedro Botelho’s progress, a subject that they are not worried about given the amount of first team opportunities that he is getting at the club. According to the article at www.nortecastilla.es, the intention of Arsenal is to loan out Pedro for another year next season until he recieves his EU passport, rather than perhaps loan him out to a La Liga club instead next season as we did with Carlos Vela.

The article also tells us that Arsenal will have to give Salamanca the loan of another player next season regardless of whether Pedro remains with the club, and if Arsenal fail to loan out a player to them, a part of the agreement that Salamanca have with Arsenal is that the Spanish club will get a fee of 150,000 Euros in compensation, something that the struggling club may indeed prefer given their financial difficulties. 

Mark Randall impressing on loan

Burnley manager has singled out English midfielder Mark Randall for special praise this week following a substitute appearance against Coventry City this week, with the Arsenal loanee coming off the bench with just over half an hour of the tie left.

 Despite the limited time that he had though, Coyle has been impressed by what he saw:

“There were a lot of positives,” said Coyle. “Mark Randall gave us an extra dimension when he came on and showed what sort of player we all think he’s going to be in the future with Arsenal. He’s shown when he’s on form he can play. He’s got a natural flow to his play, a great eye for a pass and we think we can enhance his game and he can go back to Arsenal a better player.”

The Burnley fansite, www.clarets-mad.co.uk, also had several good things to say about the teenagers performance in mid week:

“It’s easy to forget the lad is just eighteen years of age; he looks so comfortable on the ball almost to the point of being too casual, and is always looking to make good use of the ball.”
“…..We followed that Jensen save with our best spell of the game and much of it was prompted by the impressive Randall. He had another shot at goal, this time a curler that just cleared the bar, but it was his confidence on the ball that stood out and his ability to bring others into play.”

Hopefully this wave of compliments will give Randall a first start for Burnley, with the Clarets looking to keep momentum going for their promotion push, in what will be a very difficult match against Watford at Turf Moor on Staurday.