Sunday Papers: Gibbs, Chamakh and Felipe Melo

Not a huge amount of Arsenal interest in the paper news this morning as the big stories surround the clubs most likely to get big names this summer – Man City, Manchester United and of course Real Madrid.

Still there is a few pieces of news to bring you from the gossip columns.

Firstly the Mirror reports that Kieran Gibbs will be rewarded for his efforts towards the end of the season with a brand new, long term contract more fitting for Arsenal’s second choice left back. Gael Clichy’s understudy enjoyed a run in the team after the Frenchman’s injury and backed up his managers faith with several high quality displays.

Despite an unfortunate slip in the CL Semi-Final and several moments of unease defensively Gibbs showed himself to have the right ingredients to become a very good Premiership player in the near future. He has followed that up with 3 starts for the England U21s, including 2 goals against Azerbaijan in the warm up game for the main tournament. And despite being the youngest of the team he has played excellently with arguable MOTM performances in each game.

And now he is set to be offered a better pay deal to keep him from any potential suitors and to assure him he has a bright future at the club.

Next there is news of potential incomers to the squad, starting with the latest on the ongoing Chamakh speculation:

I am really struggling to understand why Arsenal would be interested in Chamakh unless one of Adebayor and Robin van Persie is to leave the club, but the Moroccan has rarely been out of the news in recent weeks and the last bit of news was that Arsenal need to bid more than 10 million Euros to get their man. This came from the Bordeaux president and this morning in an interview with Le Parisien Chamakh has hinted that he wants to leave the club if an acceptable offer is made.

“If an offer is interesting for everyone, then I hope that my directors will be comprehensive,” he told Le Parisien.

Whether this means Arsenal remains to be seen, but if Arsenal do make their interest in the form of a bid then there is no question one of our strikers will be leaving in a move that would significantly weaken out attacking options in my opinion.

Finally this morning there is a fairly obvious bit of journalism from the News Of The World detailing our interest in Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo:

26 years old, a regular now for his country and a player who impressed hugely this season in Serie A Felipe Melo ticks all the boxes for me. He gets stuck in and adds presence to the midfield while still having the talent to spread play cleverly. These attributes and the discipline he shows in sitting back is probably what we need and with not many other alternatives out there availble for less than £15m I would be very happy to see this happen.

The NOTW’s take on it is much the same as the Daily Mail’s earlier this week, saying that want away defender Senderos could be used as part of the deal that brings the Brazilian to the Emriates and this does seem logical although much would depen on whether or not Senderos feels he could do better than Viola I suspect. Personally I think if we get Melo in and lose no one vital it could be a very successful summer for us. But how many times have we said that only to lose a key player straight away? And with rumours surrounding Van Persie, Adebayor, Gallas and Toure with three of them coming to the end of contract I won’t hold my breath for an ideal summer just yet.

And for anyone yet to see the Brazilian in action he should take part in a clash between the Italians and Brazil tonight. The BBC streams Confederations Cup matches live on their website for anyone interested.

Andrey Arshavin can follow in Pires’ footsteps

What a fantastic feeling it is for your football club to splash out on a big name, big money signing. For all the mention of thrifty, intelligent spending that Arsenal get, of a club with a conscience and living within our means, isn’t it great to see Sylvain Wiltord’s fee smashed to pieces by a Russian superstar?

But he isn’t just a marquee signing to please the fans who gaze at Man City and Chelsea with their Football Manager binoculars in awe. He could well become one of Wenger’s very best aquistions for the club. It has been plain for a good few years that Arshavin has had something special, but Gazprom-backed Zenit made him rich, they won titles and he was willing to stay. This all changed when his talent finally caught the eye of a more global audience in the Uefa Cup. Cutting through balls, great movement and fantastic balance made him stand out amongst a very good team who went all the way in Uefa’s 2nd biggest club competition.

Then came the Euros. Suspended for the first and second games, Arshavin proved exactly why he was included despite being eligible for only 1 of the 3 group games against Sweden. Involved in the first goal, and applying the finishing touch for the second, the diminutive Russian inspired his country to victory. It was a brilliant display but more was to come in the next game against Holland. He terrorised the Dutch defence time after time with one of the best individual performances I have ever seen, with some pundits suggesting it was as dominant a display as they had seen since the great Platini.

Of course, I am, much like many other Gunners, not a massive fan of the Russian Premier League and so do not know what to expect from him on a weekly basis, but what I do know is that in the games I have seen him, the big games, he has been superb. Which leads me onto my main point.

With the North London Derby on Sunday, memories of Robert Pires coming to Arsenal in his late late 20’s and becoming the scourge of Tottenham despite often only coming on as a substitute bring a smile to my face even as I type, and who’s to say our new record signing, with his match winning capabilities and big match attitude, can’t do equally as well at Arsenal?

And if he does do half as well as Robert Pires did here, that £15m will look like a bargain buy in the current climate, believe me.

Arsenal’s smoke and mirrors approach needs to work this time

The January transfer window has been made into a form of torture for Arsenal fans over the years, with all the speculation the summer one has, only without the actual signings.

But this time it will be different, we think. This time Mr Wenger HAS to spend money on quality players. Does this mean this January will be exciting? No, it means it is even worse….

Two words: Andrei Arshavin. 6th in Ballon D’Or voting, star player of the Euros and last season’s Uefa Cup, I’m sure you all know the one I mean by now eh? In the last week or so we have had confirmation of a bid, been informed that Zenit will lower their asking price, Wenger keeps hinting away, Arshavin himself has said he would like a move to the Emirates, and is even willing to help pay for his own transfer fee according to todays reports in Russia.

Yet are we all confident of an immediate transfer before moving onto another target? Can we begin to draw up possible formations that could incorporate the potent attackers of Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie, Adebayor, Walcott and the diminutive Russian playmaker? No.

While other clubs proceed to bid £12m for the world’s most average left back and those jokers down the  buy their own player back at a £7m+ loss before trying and nab a Honduran international we rejcted for £2m 18 months ago for £15m, what do we think is an acceptable starting offer for a player with twice the talent that the aformentioned Bridge, Defoe and Palacios put together? £10m. That’s like going into a Ferrari dealership and offering a Toblerone, a half eaten Big Mac and £50 in two-pence pieces for their latest supercar.

Well, this time there’s no room for error. We need at least two quality players and with half a month already gone we need to compromise a bit of our reluctance to spend before it’s Febuary and we’re stuck with a team that carries less fear factor than a newborn kitten.

Arshavin’s agent says something will be sorted out early next week. Mr Gazidis, time to earn your money.

Yaya set to join Kolo?

I have the feeling that Yaya Toure is going to be a player who will be linked to Arsenal until the day he decides to join the Gunners, or until the day he retires. Having joined the club on trial from Beveren in 2002, Wenger liked the look of the 6 foot 3 midfielder, but a deal couldn’t be done due to work permit issues. A year later Ukrainian team Metalurg Donetsk had a bid accepted for the Ivorian and although Arsenal had first refusal, again the work permit issues stood in the way of buying Toure.

Next he moved to Greek giants Olympiakos and he impressed for them, again attracting newspaper’s to rite about Arsenal’s interest in him, and this interest continued right up until his move to Monaco, but a bid failed to materialise, probably due to the presence of first Vieira and then Gilberto in the midfield at that time. But he didn’t stay at Monaco long either, with many impressive battling displays and great goals alerting Barcelona to his talents, and so the following summer Barca signed him for around £6m. He went on to play 37 games last season and looked very good in particular against Manchester United in the Semi Finals of the Champions League, despite getting knocked out by the Premiership Champions.

But the likes of Sergio Busquet coming through the ranks (who has also been linked to Arsenal) and the signing of Keita in the summer has seen Toure be used far more sparingly this season and again Arsenal have been linked with him, with talk that Arsenal had wanted him in a swap deal with Hleb in the summer.

And today the rumours about a possible departure from the Nou Camp have escalated with the News Of The World reporting that Toure’s eage demands prevented a move happening in the summer, but Arsenal are now willing to match his demands in order for him to join his brother at the Emirates in January. The People also grabbed hold of this story, although that seems to be just a carbon copy of the NOTW article.

You can see the News of the World article below, complete with “quotes” from a “Mr. A. Source”. Must be true then.

YAYA FIRED UP FOR GUNNERS

Toure looks like joining brother at Arsenal

SWITCH – Toure tussles with Tevez

25/10/2008

ARSENE WENGER looks like landing long-time target Yaya Toure — brother of Gunners defender Kolo.

The Arsenal boss has had the Ivory Coast man in his sights for months and sees him as the player for the defensive midfield role.

Wenger held talks with Barcelona over a switch in the summer and agreed on an £8million fee.

But they were unable to woo Yaya, 25, as they would not match his £50,000-a-week wages.

Yet a January move appears on after the Arsenal board agreed to up the offer of personal terms. A source said: “It’s now likely that he and the Gunners can resolve the issue.”

Personally I am not sure whether I believe this article, but The Sun/NOTW always seem to have far more credibility with its Arsenal stories than many other rumours they write. The Sagna and the Nasri stories are two of the recent rumours that I remember them reporting first as almost done deals and they both happened, although obviously they get their fair share wrong as well, so for supporters its only a guessing game. The crucial thing to this deal is whether Gokhan Inler or Xabi Alonso are available, and also whether or not Wenger considers St. Etienne player and part time stuntman Blaze McTweedy (ok, ok, his real name is Blaise Matuidi, I admit it) a better and younger option for a similar fee.

I can definitely see Wenger buying a midfielder or two in January, and a move for Toure could be on teh cards.

Silvestre – Hmmm…..

I’ve got to say, out of all the many weird and wonderful rumours I have encountered as an Arsenal fan, I cannot remember a much stranger one than this morning’s rumour about Mikael Silvestre, Manchester United’s long time injury prone squad player, is wanted by Arsene Wenger.

There are many strange thingsa about this whole proposed deal. First of all, and most worryingly, is these quotes I have found in many of the sites reporting the story:

Wenger wants to integrate Silvestre into a defensive unit that already contains Frenchmen Gael Clichy and William Gallas. The arrival of Silvestre — if the transfer goes through — would also probably spell the end for Arsenal’s unreliable Switzerland centre back Philippe Senderos. (Daily Mail)

Wenger does not regard the former Internazionale defender merely as a squad player, or as a back-up for Gaël Clichy at left-back, but as a first-choice centre-half alongside William Gallas. (Guardian)

Arsenal will expect to pay United around £750,000 for a player who moved to Old Trafford from Inter Milan in the 1998-99 season and will offer him £50,000-a-week. (Daily Mail)

Now call me suspicious, but Wenger refused to pay the wages that Adebayor wanted for large parts of the summer until coming to a conclusion that his wage demands were eaier to accept than losing our top scorer and one of our few non-injury prone players to boot. We did not want Arshavin, because of his wage demands. We have NEVER paid ridculous sums except to one Thierry Henry, probably the best player Arsenal have ever had. So £50,000 to an injury prone player Man United, our benchmark, do not want or need seems a terrible waste of money to me.

The rumour about us wanting Sendeos out is also stupid, and can’t be true. Why would be buy extra cover for the defence, something most would like to see, only to then sell a younger, better, and less injury prone player to make our defence light on numbers once more….?

Then the whole “first choice centre half” rumour crops up….. WHAT??! No way, if Wenger is to buy Silvestre, there is no way he could then decide he is better than Kolo Toure, or Senderos, or even Djourou as a center half for a club of our quality.

 

Now I would welcome this rumour to an extent, but only if most of the above rumours are false. Having lost Hoyte, to gain Silvestre would be a step up. Silvestre is versatile, can play all along the defence and is undoubtedly more solid as a full back as the departed Hoyte, as well as the very raw Traore and the out of position Kieran Gibbs. So yes, he would be a step up for squad depth and with that I can accept his signing.

As a first choice centre back it is a joke, at £50,000 a week it is hypocritical, and to sell Senderos due to Silvestre’s signing would be nothing short of pathetic. I can’t see any reason for around £2m or less, we could find a better, fitter, slightly younger and in the long term cheaper back up for defence, complimented by the signing of a Gokhan Inler or Xabi Alonso.

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.