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

Arsenal could be a key player in the Barry deal

Arsenal need a defensive midfielder, that much is certain. It looks to me that Gilberto is as good as gone, following Flamini out of England. This means that we’re left very short for partners for Fabregas, only a year after we had the likes of Diarra, Gilberto, Denilson, Diaby, Flamini, Song all lining up for a chance.

And apparently Wenger is methodically looking at the Greth Barry saga with some interest, Pat Rice contacting Aston Villa in recent days with this to say:

“Myself and Steve Walford both know Arsene Wenger’s assistant Pat Rice,” O’Neill told the Sun. “He phoned Steve to ask how the Liverpool thing had gone and said that they might show an interest. At the end of the conversation Arsenal said ‘that’s fine’ and that they’ll let us know.

“That is exactly what happened.”

Interesting quotes from one of the most honest people in football. Clearly Martin O’Neill is getting tired of Liverpool offering bids far below what the Villa manager wants for his captain, and it seems Arsenal are waiting to see whether or not we can take advantage of this by offering a deal more attractive than Liverpool’s. Our main trump card in all this is while they are offering Steve Finnan, worth £1m, aging right back with only his worst footballing days ahead of him, we have Justin Hoyte, worth £4m, who is still only 23 and fits right in with O’Neill’s young and promising team. What’s more, we haven’t annoyed O’Neill in any way, which is always a bonus.

But outbidding Liverpool for Gareth Barry isn’t the only option available to Arsene Wenger, because there is also a transfer saga revolving around a Liverpool player. Xabi Alonso seemed a dead cert to be a Juventus player next season, with offers and counter offers being exchanged. But once again Liverpool annoyed a fellow club with their transfer actions, and Juve quickly changed targets and landed Poulsen instead.

Spanish website Publico.es today claim that Arsenal are keen admirers of the skillful midfielder, who has the defensive capabilities to fit in alongside Fabregas, but also the fantastic passing range to help the fluency in attack. Publico reckons he would love to come to Arsenal and apparently yesterday negotiations took place with Alonso’s agent, Inaki Ibanez.

I can only hope that we will get one of these great defensive midfielders this summer. They are exactly what is needed at the Emirates to compete for trophies next season - can you just imagine a team like this for the opening game against West Brom, assuming Hleb leaves, but we keep Adebayor.

———————— Almunia ————————

Sagna ———- Toure ———— Gallas ———— Clichy

————————- Alonso/Barry ——————–

Nasri —————- Fabregas ——————— Walcott

——————– Adebayor —– van Persie ————–

Subs: Fabianski, Senderos, Song, Diaby, Ramsey, Eboue, Vela,

 

Sources for this story:

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5goXmuejOj-dlJcXpbnZCNYTDhanQ

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.publico.es/134548/arsenal/negocia/fichaje/xabi/alonso&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.publico.es/134548/arsenal/negocia/fichaje/xabi/alonso%26hl%3Den

Nasri has signed: Officially Official!

Well, well, well…

Wenger always manages to spring a surprise on us doesn’t he? Who could have predicted this one eh?!

Seriously though, it is fantastic that he is signed. Gooners being gooners, we’re mostly absorbed in criticising the fact he is 21, his (poor) scoring record at Marseille, that it is too much money, that he won’t help our defensive issues….. Lighten up!

In Samir Nasri Arsenal have got a fantastic young player who can easily become a world beater. He is pretty fast, very composed and does everything you expect an Arsenal player under Wenger to be able to do. It’s all about short, crisp passing into feet, movement off the ball and clever pieces of skill. For £12-15m I think he is a very good signing as well - if you consider the prices Nani and Anderson went for last summer, and even if you perhaps take a look at transfers that have gone through so far this summer, such as Elmander (£10m), Nasri is an excellent aquisition.

For those complaining that if he replaces Hleb, there will be a backward step - I am not so sure. In terms of goalscoring people are claiming he doesn’t score enough, an accusation Hleb will be too familiar with. But I reckon he is set to surprise a few people once he is adjusted to the Premiership. With young players you have to go by their last season I think, as there is usually a steady improvement to be seen, and it is the same with Nasri. last season with Marseille he scored 6 goals in 30 games - an average of 1 in 5. 2 goals in 31 games was Hleb’s total - 1 in 15. Now bearing in mind the adaptation may take a little while, I think it’s not unreasonable to expecta total of 5+ this season from Nasri, a decent improvement over Hleb.

He’ll fit right in amongst the other players, I reckon, and will join up with his new team mates on the 21st July for pre-season training.

So good luck Samir Nasri, and welcome to the Emirates, I have every faith he will be a star.

OK, getting really bored now…..

23rd June, 2008: Nasri confirms the Arsenal deal via his own website, supposedly run by his dad. This is immediately followed by denials of a done deal, and then followed up a couple of days later by Pape Diouf saying it is just a matter of days before the deal is completed officially, and that the deal has been verbally agreed. A week after that Diouf came out and said it will be done in the next couple of days.

But no, it just couldn’t be that simple could it!

All the excuses us Arsenal fans have clutched at for why he hasn’t signed yet have run out. It’s now a new financial year, the new Arsenal kit has been launched, the Euro’s have finished…. yet where is he?!

Well it seems while Arsenal fans have grown more and more frustrated with the deal, instead of hopping over here along with Wenger to sign on the dotted line, have a few pictures taken in the new kit and a small interview, then jetting off to sun, sea and sand, Nasri, his agent, Arsenal and everyone else concerned have ensured Arsenal fans can’t get excited about a very good singing quite yet. Nope, he and Wenger have both gone off to get a tan for themselves, with this coming from the player’s agent:

“He is on his holidays. It (the transfer) will be made when he will be back, in about 10 days.”

So that’s that. We will now have to wait until the 14th July, which is a Monday by the way, to see this deal through, if indeed it does happen, with the more paranoid of Gooners worried that Marseille may have tricked us, something i find very hard to believe, or that the deal relies on Hleb’s sale, another thing I find extremely difficult to believe. Just to ease worries on this ruimour, here are quotes from Wenger before the stat of the transfer window:

“I will try to buy, maybe in the defensive area and one on the creative side of the game as well because we had some players, important players, who were out this year,” said Wenger. “We want as well to bring new talent in on the creative side of our game.

Will Arshavin save Wenger from selling Adebayor?

Interesting reports from Spain today suggest a number of things regarding top scorer Adebayor’s future at the Emirates Stadium.

Marca claim that Arshavin could join Barca instead of Arsenal, Chelsea or the other possible destinations for the highly creative second striker. It is Arshavin’s favourite club and he has stated that it is La Liga where he sees his future, not the Premiership. This would mean that they would no longer make a bid for Adebayor and Arsenal, providing Milan do not tempt him away, would have won the fight to keep the Togolese man in North London.

Obviously coming from a Spanish newspaper, large pinches of salt are needed with any transfer story, but I can see how this could fit together. Firstly, Barca need to sell in order to buy, having already spent a net price of around £45m+ this summer on other players. But Eto’o, Deco and Ronaldinho will fail to fetch very much purely because Barca are in a rush to sell, and so prices will drop as a result. I would guess the three of them will get a total price of £45m, more than enough to buy Adebayor, but with Barca hesitating on the Daniel Alves deal as well, finances are clearly tight. Therefore the reasonably priced Arshavin could do just as good a job, even if he isn’t the number 9 Guardiola is after. This would leave Arsenal with only Milan, a UEFA Cup team, to fight off in order to keep Adebayor.

El Mundo Deportivo predictably disagrees with Marca, saying a deal worth between £25m and £30m will be done today for Adebayor, who has apparently told Ken Friar and co. his future is in Catalunya. I seriously doubt any such deal will be conducted just yet, as Arsenal can hold out to see what Milan are going to do in order to raise the price further.

Meanwhile, Wengers comments about keeping his players at the club being his main objective this summer may also come to light as perhaps he will decide that despite his principles tell him £80K a week after one good season is a bit steep, the price of losing the Togolese forward may be even greater. So far it has been reported that only £60K has been offered, but I would be very surprised if we haven’t offered more than that and Adebayor has just decided he wants to leave.

On a side note, Adebayor has been voted the third best player this season for Arsenal, with 20% of the votes on Arsenal.com. This shows his incredible rise in popularity this season, and the reason why Wenger wants to keep him. My current thinking on Adebayor is that if he wants to leave and there is nothing we can do about it, there is definitely other layers who are capable of coming in and doing just as good a job for the team as he has done. Knowing Wenger, that replacement could even be someone promoted from within! Adebayor got 30 goals this season, an incredible feat, but my gut feeling is that anyone leading the line by himself for as long as he did, with only the goal-shy Hleb behind him n the hole, could have got a hat full of goals as well. He missed more good chances than he scored and while he is a brilliant foil to any good striker, with movement and workrate, his quality has been emphasised by the absence of goals coming from other sources. We should keep him, but if we had had Eduardo and van Persie in form and alongside him throughout the season, he would have got less goals, but the team would have got more overrall. And so if he leaves, I have complete confidence as long as his replacement isn’t injury prone, we will do just as well without him. It is our creative edge which is key to us, not who the striker is on the end of the chances.

Clichy signs contract extension! Now Adebayor needs to do the same….

Rumours in today’s papers, backed up by comments made by both the Roma boss Spalletti and Juve boss Ranieri, suggested that Gael Clichy is attracting interest from two of Italy’s top teams and may go this summer.

But Gael Clichy, the legend that he has already become at Arsenal since taking over and bettering everything Ashely Cole did before him, and more, has through his agent told Calcio Mercato that rather than looking to leave the Emirates, the flying full back is set to join Bacary Sagna and Alex Song in renewing his contract with club. This is what his agent had to say:

“The Giallorossi have never knocked at the door, to the contrary. It would be useless for them to take a similar player as [new signing John Arne] Riise, don’t you agree?Anyway Clichy signs a contract extension with Arsenal today.”

This is great news for the club, as I believe he is fast approaching being the best left back in the world, even if Domenech doesn’t think so.

But Adebayor’s rumoured transfer talks are said to be ongoing, despite numerous outbursts by the club and by the player denying that he is looking to leave. The Spanish press are convinced by Ade’s wish to join Barca in a £21m deal, while Milan have made him their number one target. And these quotes have appeared today from Adebayor himself:

“Now I do not want to comment on anything relating to FC Barcelona, perhaps later it may be necessary but not now,” Adebayor told Sport (alledgedly). “It is better to wait.”

Now until comments come from a more reliable source than a pro-Barca newspaper, I think I’ll sit back and wait.

To sum up the Spanish press believe he is Barca bound, the Italian press reckon he is off to the San Siro, while the English press in the form of the Daily Mail have today reported he is about to put pen-to-paper on a new deal worth £80,000 a week. I really hope that the English press have got it right as we need to keep our better players, and Adebayor is certainly one of them.

And I still believe he will stay, despite the rumours.

 

Nasri to sign very soon; but we need Nasri AND another wide man if Hleb leaves

With France out of Euro 2008, many Gunners were confident now would be the time that Nasri would finally seal a move to the Arsenal, after numerous delays caused by the tournament and certain contractual terms that Arsenal needed to meet in order to sign the French starlet.

And this morning, BBC Sport has stated that it ”understands” that Nasri has agreed a four year contract with Arsenal and will sign for the club after Euro 2008, something which makes little sense considering France are no longer involved. But this story is taken far further and more detailed by Setanta Sports, who say this:

A deal was agreed before Euro 2008 started, and the player who will turn 21 next week will reportedly make the trip to England to sort out the last details of the first move of his career with agent Jean-Pierre Bernes.

Nasri did not take the French squad’s helicopter following the team’s elimination from the European Championship but a private plane to Le Bourget, which is due to arrive at 3pm local time, from where he is expected to take another one to London on Thursday.

French sources claim that L’OM and Arsenal held talks in the last two weeks regarding the financial aspect of the deal, and Nasri is reportedly on the verge of signing his new contract before taking a three-week holiday following a very long season.

This is taken from La Provence, who make it seem certain that the young Frenchman will now make his long-anticipated move to the Emirates Stadium. Bearing in mind they have already stated that he was flying over here once, don’t take it as a certainty, but surely it must come to an end very soon.

So if we take it that Nasri is an Arsenal player, where does this leave us for next season? Well, at the moment it would leave us with great options on the wing for next season, as the starters would be from these four; Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri, Alex Hleb and Tomas Rosicky. Now Rosicky, perpetually injured, would be replaced by Vela or most likely Eboue in the squad, but even so there would be excellent options in my opinion.

But Hleb looked to be half way out of the Emirates Stadium already, although that may not be the case now, with Arsenal for once playing hardball with these potential suitors, in particular Barcelona. This is in contrast to events with Vieira and perhaps Henry, both of whom could have been sold for far more in my opinion. Barca’s Marc Ingla had this to say:

“The negotiation with Hleb is still in progress and despite him being a player with special qualities, if his club are not ready [to sell him], we have other options in mind.”

So maybe its not so clear cut, although I think it is inevitable and we’re just getting the best price we can for him. I will predict he goes by July for a fee of £14m, and if this is the case, we will need a replacement for him immediately because otherwise with Nasri in, Hleb out, we will be back to square one.

Time for Mr Arshavin to step forward. The Russian playmaker is absolutely perfect for free flowing attacking with quick movement and style in abundance, so where else for the schemer but the Emirates?

This is certainly the opinion of numerous papers jumping on the back of last nights great Russian performance to link him to the Gunners. I reckon he is better than Alex Hleb and would slot into the Premiership with very little adaptation due to his guile and relative sturdiness given his small frame. he apparently has a buy-out clause in his contract of just £10m, a price which I fancy Wenger would pay with little fuss.

But is it just media speculation with nothing in it? Possibly, but I can always hope.

So if we fail to land Arshavin, there are still many other options available to Wenger if he gets the replacement for Hleb we would so obviously need. In recent days a couple of very interesting names have been mentioned in the same sentence as Arsenal, in particular another star performer of Euro 2008, Arda Turan of Turkey.

Only 21 years old with bags of pace and direct running, Arda is another player I’d like to see as an Arsenal player if Hleb leaves. The price would be around £10m, expensive next to Arshavin’s proposed price, but for his potential could well pay off. The fact that he is a ”normal” winger would give us something different in the wide areas, and I would be willing to bet that he’d get goals here. But I reckon the link is only in the light of good performances at the Euros and we are not as interested as some sources claim we are.

Meanwhile, the likes of Kranjcar, Hatem Ben Arfa, Diego etc. could all see themselves back in the frame if Hleb leaves, along with a few players we have never heard of that Wenger finds. Either way, I am confident we WILL get another attacking signing if Hleb leaves.

Arsenal target starlets Spear, Christofi, ; Rui Fonte set for Sporting loan?

There are various rumours flying about the place, as is always the case on Sunday mornings, but the majority of the Arsenal-related transfer stories are focussed on Wenger’s continuing youth policy - the oldest possible signing for Arsenal I found in the papers today was 19 years old!

Firstly, the News of the World (so don’t hold your breath) have two news stories that concern the Gunners, and both are related to the Gunners’ academy, with one possibly coming in, and another going out on loan next season. Firstly, having completed a move for Ramsey on Friday, Arsenal are reportedly one of two clubs to have been given permission to talk to very highly rated Plymouth kid Aaron Spear. Plymouth Chief Executive Michael Dunford has been quoted as stating:

“Newcastle and one other Premier League club have expressed an interest in Aaron Spear. He has been given permission to speak to them. We would like to keep him, but the lad appears adamant that he wants to talk to the Premier League clubs.We are waiting to hear from Newcastle whether they have decided to sign him.”

These quotes seem to be from a while ago, and so the prospective deals have moved on since then. Spear is only 15 years old and so Plymouth have had little choice but to let him speak to the Premiership clubs interested in him, with Newcastle agreeing terms with Plymouth this week. It remains to be seen whether Arsenal or Pompey are the second club battling for Spear however, with both being given credit for an interest in him in recent weeks.

A more likely story is the next one that NOTW has produced is the story that Rui Fonte, Arsenal’s Portuguese reserve player, is set for a move to Sporting Lisbon for next season. He was signed two years ago and has impressed me far more this season than his debut season, and a move out on loan could be what he needs, although how much time he’ll get on loan I’m not sure.

Next up is The People’s Arsenal story, with the news that we and Manchester United will fight it out for a Cypriot striker who goes by the name of Demetris Christofi. Despite being only 19, he was given a transfer worth £800,000 from ENP FC to Omonoia, the record transfer for that domestic league. But now he has attracted interest from Premier League giants Omonoia will struggle to hold onto him if a decent bid goes in for him, and of the reported fee of £3m , ENP FC will get 15%.

Last season he scored 9 goals in 27 games for ENP FC, and so it seems strange that such big clubs would be interested in a striker nearing 20 years old and hardly prolific in a poor standard of league, but there you go. Even by The People’s standards its a very strange story, and one I doubt we will see any more of this summer. But you can never tell with Wenger I suppose.

Ramsey officially signs: Wenger “delighted” with capture

In Arsenal’s first confirmed summer transfer, we have captured Cardiff City’s exciting young prospect Aaron Ramsey for a fee that although predictably “undisclosed” by Arsenal themselves, Cardiff have said is a fee of £5m straight up, with no clauses for extra fees like there were in Theo Walcott’s transfer for example. The signing emphasises the great youth policy Arsenal follow, as well as a considerable coup to be able to steal Ramsey from under the noses of Premieship and European Champions Manchester United.

Ramsey, a Man Utd fan whose idol is Ryan Giggs, was widely reported to have signed for his favourite club at the beginning of the month, only for Arsenal and Everton to also have bids accepted. Ramsey then visited Manchester United’s training ground without meeting Alex Ferguson, before going to talk to David Moyes at Everton. He was then jetted out to hold talks with Arsene Wenger in Switzerland, where the Welshman made his choice:

“I’m so happy to have signed for Arsenal. I am joining one of the biggest clubs in the world and can’t wait to meet my new team mates. I recently met with Arsène Wenger and he was a big factor in my decision to join Arsenal. He talked to me for a long time about the Club and the plans for the future, which really excites me. Arsenal is a Club which always gives young players an opportunity at the highest level of the game and I am going to work my hardest to be part of future successes here.

“It was a really difficult decision to leave Cardiff City, they are my local club with great supporters and I would just like thank everyone at Cardiff City for their support and help in my early career. I will still look out for their results and there will always be a place in my heart for the Bluebirds.”

 His new manager is also ecstatic with how the race for his signature turned out, and Wenger had this to say:

“We’re delighted to have signed Aaron Ramsey. He is a young player who has shown huge potential with his performances for both Cardiff City and Wales at under-17 and Under-21 levels. He is still only 17, but has already shown that he is a very intelligent and mature player with great quality. Although he mainly plays in midfield, Aaron is a versatile player and can also play across the defence. We are all looking forward to welcoming Aaron to the Club for our pre-season preparations.”

Aaron Ramsey will look to meet up with Arsenal’s global stars early next month as they prepare for the new season, but if he appears in Augusts Emirates Cup as expected, it will not be the first time he has appeared at the Emirates Stadium. While representing his club against Arsenal in the Youth Cup on the day Jay Simspon grabbed the Emirates first hat trick, Ramsey also found himself on the scoresheet.

I think that this season he will see numerous substitute appearances, such is Wenger’s faith in youth and also Ramsey’s considerable talent and maturity. He will also almost certainly get starts in the early stages of the Carling Cup, and in the coming seasons we can hope to see a lot from the rising star of Welsh football.

Arsenal agree Ramsey fee?

BBC Sport “understands” that we, along with Premiership champions Manchester United, have had a fee agreed with Cardiff City for amazing Welsh talent Aaron Ramsey, who we have been linked with for over a year.

Cardiff City’s own statement had this to say about the rumours:

“We can confirm that on 3 June the club has received formal bids from three top Premier League teams for Aaron Ramsey.

“And Aaron has been given permission to speak to two of these teams.

“One of these teams is Manchester United though at this stage we can confirm that no deal has been done and the player has not yet agreed terms.”

We are believed to be the second of the two teams, although this means that there is still a less than 50% chance that we will clinch the deal for the teenager, who is a lifelong Manchester United fan. The rumours are that to gain the upper hand in any deal for Ramsey, we have offered the possibility of more first team, Premiership football, while in Manchester United’s deal it has been said that he would return to Cardiff on loan.

No doubt many Gunners fans, including myself, want experience brought in, but Ramsey is a huge talent we don’t want to miss out on and I wouldn’t be hugely surprised to se him at the Emirates next season.