Sagna closes on Arsenal switch

Bakari Sagna will complete his move from Auxerre to Arsenal on Tuesday, according to widespread reports emanating from France.
The talented full-back, who prefers to operate on the right but
can also play on the left, is thought to have undergone a medical at
Emirates Stadium. A five-year year deal is purported to have been agreed, after the two clubs concurred on a fee in the region of £6million.
Sagna arrives with a growing reputation in his homeland, having
been drafted into Raymond Domenech's France squad, although he has yet
to win his first cap. A whole host of Europe's biggest clubs were thought to be
monitoring Sagna's situation, but it is Arsenal who have stolen a march
on their rivals to secure his services.

Don't know much about him, but seeing as he's a full back, who gets dropped then?

Not a clue to be honest. Weird move.

I disagree it is a good move by Arsene.

Sagna is comfortable in either fullback position and will offer serious competition to Clichy and Eboue. The backup fullbacks are too young (Troare) and not first XI standard (Hoyte) so even though the deal could be worth over £6m it is a wise move to invest in more resources for this area of the team.

Maybe, but for a manager who spends little on first team player, speniding that much on a back up is definitely a weird move.
Hoyte may not be first class standard but he's a good young back up, and he scored as many goals as Walcott last year!
Agree with you about Traore although i think he will be a class player. The trouble is, it seems that Sagna prefers to play on the right... I guess that's never stopped arsene before though.

I hope we still have plans to sign that goalscoring midfielder....

Sagna is a good addition but so far we haven't actually made any improvements to pur first team.

Another season with Hleb as our right winger and we won't have a shout at the title, especially with Henry gone.

we aren't we bidding for Quaresma ?

I am not keen on this transfer tbh, and i don't think we need him at all. If he's indeed brought in to provide cover for the back four, where does this leave hoyte( who signed a long term deal not long ago)? Last season hoyte performed adequately well both at LB and RB, and i am expecting him to improve even more. We are well covered in defence imo

RB: eboue, hoyte, djourou, toure, gallas

LB: clichy, gallas, hoyte

CB: Toure, gallas, Djourou, senderos.

our biggest problem last season was scoring goals, we should be bringing in players who can help correct that eg. a high quality goal scoring midfielder. I know these players are very expensive and we might not have the cash to buy them, but we are now spending about 7.5m on a player we don't need, we could get someone like quaresma by adding the reyes money to that amount.

I think he will start of as backup but if he shows talent he may oust Eboue out of the starting XI in time. Wenger spent £6m on Lauren and he turned out to be a major success at Arsenal I don't see how Sagna can be any different. I have read from a few French experts that he is very sound defensively something that is lacking from Eboues game from time to time.

You also got Gilbert and Traore.

Tweedle wrote:I hope we still have plans to sign that goalscoring midfielder....

Sagna is a good addition but so far we haven't actually made any improvements to pur first team.

Another season with Hleb as our right winger and we won't have a shout at the title, especially with Henry gone.

we aren't we bidding for Quaresma ?

I think Ljungberg will leave (He has interest from Fiorentina) and this will leave Eduardo to become a Reyes type attacking midfielder who can operate as a striker when needed.

Have you seen how much Porto want for Quaresma? Wenger won't spend £16m+ on a winger that now has interest from Liverpool and Madrid.

I also believe that Wenger will bring in another striker soon.

Don't think this kind of signing will make Gallas feel any better

Cesc wrote:
I think Ljungberg will leave (He has interest from Fiorentina) and this will leave Eduardo to become a Reyes type attacking midfielder who can operate as a striker when needed.

Have you seen how much Porto want for Quaresma? Wenger won't spend £16m+ on a winger that now has interest from Liverpool and Madrid.

I also believe that Wenger will bring in another striker soon.

If Eduardo is the goalscoring midfielder then that's fine, though I seriously doubt Wenger will use him as such - not in a 4-4-2 at least, maybe he could play in a 4-3-3 with RVP behind Adebayor/Bendtner.

Can't see us getting another striker - the market is seriously overheated, we have Eduardo already who can play as the lone frontman as can Adebayor and Bendtner. We can play RVP, Walcott and Eduardo as support strikers so we're covered there as well

L.r.d wrote:Don't think this kind of signing will make Gallas feel any better

Gallas' problem is that he is used to the Chelsea transfer Summers when they spend £24m on Essien's and £26m on Drogba's.

If he expects us to spend big then he has another thing coming, I'm sure Wenger will have a quiet word with him this week.

Cesc wrote:

L.r.d wrote:Don't think this kind of signing will make Gallas feel any better

Gallas' problem is that he is used to the Chelsea transfer Summers when they spend £24m on Essien's and £26m on Drogba's.

If he expects us to spend big then he has another thing coming, I'm sure Wenger will have a quiet word with him this week.

Well i think it could lead to more than that. Most Arsenal fans i know don't think there is a chance they will win the league, and maybe Gallas also thinks this....it could lead to him leaving plenty of clubs would want him.

There's not way Arsenal can end up in the first three with the current team, unless they replace average players with good and experienced players or buy an attacking midfield (Pires type) to score 12+ goals a season.

Cesc wrote:I think he will start of as backup but if he shows talent he may oust Eboue out of the starting XI in time. Wenger spent £6m on Lauren and he turned out to be a major success at Arsenal I don't see how Sagna can be any different. I have read from a few French experts that he is very sound defensively something that is lacking from Eboues game from time to time.

But why did we let Lauren go then?

He had just come out of a 12 month lay off and there was no guarentee that he would return to his best for Arsenal?

Cesc wrote:He had just come out of a 12 month lay off and there was no guarentee that he would return to his best for Arsenal?

Not a necessary deal at all.

What would be the point of Hoyte signing a new deal if we have bought a replacement for him????

Figures just don't add up.