Arsenal FC Summer 2008 Thread

Arsenal Transfers Summer 2008

IN: Carlos Vela (Loan return), Ignasi Miquel (Compensation)

OUT: Mathieu Flamini (Bosman free), Jens Lehmann (Bosman free)

By the end of the summer the list should be a good size with lots of big figures as well.

Fidel wrote:Any sign of Nasri yet?

Arsenal tipped to sign star next week

Reports in the French press claim that Samir Nasri will be Arsenal’s first summer signing at the start of next week.

Arsene Wenger has always been a huge fan of a player who made his league debut at the age of 17 and Nasri’s agent Jean-Pierre Bernes declared that both he and his client are studying the offer made by The Gunners.

The Premier League club are not the only one interested in one of the most promising French players of his generation, but Marseille daily La Provence have stated that 'The New Zidane' will officially agree to move to Emirates Stadium ‘at the start of next week’.

The 20-year-old’s arrival in North London will be a relief for Gunners fans, who are waiting for new players to strengthen their young squad.

Lyon's flying winger Hatem Ben Arfa is tipped to replace Nasri at L’OM, and Morocco international defender Armine Erbati is strongly linked to the Stade Velodrome outfit as well.

http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/05/23/Prem-Nasri-to-join-Arsenal-next-week/

Apparently Franck Ribery told a French radio station that he is as good as an Arsenal player for next season.

I do hope so!

If you sign him then what impact do you expect him to make?

If he comes I expect Wenger to play 451 throughout with Nasri the no 10 ,he's not a winger if you think he will play on the left and never have I seen him play on the left for Marseille so lets see.

I don't. We have way too many strikers to deploy 4-5-1. I have seen Nasri play both left, right and through the midfield. He is very versatile, although saying that like alot of our playmakers his best position is central.

If he does come 10 goals in the first season would make me a very happy man.

Ray Parlour wrote:I don't. We have way too many strikers to deploy 4-5-1.

Hasn't stopped Wenger deploying that formation throughout the last two seasons.

I have seen Nasri play both left, right and through the midfield. He is very versatile, although saying that like alot of our playmakers his best position is central.

If he does come 10 goals in the first season would make me a very happy man.

He's no more likely to score 10 than Hleb. If I were, I'd be happy with half that number.

I don;t think its possible to condone how Hleb's acted, even if everything seems to be coming from his agent, but there's massive discrepancies in the quotes from these two articles which is a bit wierd to say the least.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7417028.stm

http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/05/24/Prem-Hleb-agent-on-future/

Hleb seems to have a multiple number of 'representatives' - I seem to remember them fighting over his move to Arsenal. The most telling thing, I suppose, is that he's kept quiet all these weeks whereas Ade came out and rubbished rumours about him and Barca straight away

A shame, as there's no doub about his quality and he seems to be a nice guy too. However, like Flamini, he is replaceable - we probably have replaced him already anyway.

Ray Parlour wrote:I don't. We have way too many strikers to deploy 4-5-1. I have seen Nasri play both left, right and through the midfield. He is very versatile, although saying that like alot of our playmakers his best position is central.

If he does come 10 goals in the first season would make me a very happy man.

He lack pace to play as a winger , a French would give a better view.

DS wrote:

Ray Parlour wrote:I don't. We have way too many strikers to deploy 4-5-1. I have seen Nasri play both left, right and through the midfield. He is very versatile, although saying that like alot of our playmakers his best position is central.

If he does come 10 goals in the first season would make me a very happy man.

He lack pace to play as a winger , a French would give a better view.

I agree.
Nasri is a playmaker, his position is central, not on the left nor on the right.
If Arsene wanted a winger he would have taken Ben Arfa.
His lack of pace is his main problem. That's why I'm surprised that Nasri joined EPL.
Also he don't score often, not selfish enough.
This season, he had a very serious disease, that's why he made an average season. But last year he was awesome. He has a great vision, very good technically.

He's a great potential no doubt , what was the disease I knew it but know I completely forgot.

He is the Hleb replacement, who to be honest doesn't have much pace either. With our system he will be given the license to come infield often like Rosicky, so it doesn't matter that he isn't a natural wide player if Clichy and Sagna can provide width.

@ DS

He had viral meningitis earlier this season.

Kind of a stupid question but do you guys consider yourselves a "massive club" like Pool, Real, Man Utd, AC Milan etc.. or in the tier just below with the likes of Valencia, Roma, Spurs (sorry)?

The reason I ask is that it is very much history based and I don't know enough about English football to really know.

I consider you on par with the other big clubs, but I am not sure if it is entirely correct.

Desgraciats wrote:Kind of a stupid question but do you guys consider yourselves a "massive club" like Pool, Real, Man Utd, AC Milan etc.. or in the tier just below with the likes of Valencia, Roma, Spurs (sorry)?

The reason I ask is that it is very much history based and I don't know enough about English football to really know.

I consider you on par with the other big clubs, but I am not sure if it is entirely correct.

Spurs! How dare you!

We're definitely not at the level of the real giants of European football, but I think it's fair to say we are at the next tier down (even if we haven't won the EC/CL).

We're comfortably the third biggest club domestically if you look at leagues and cups (well domestic ones anyway), and have a rich history and tradition in the English game.

We can't be considered a massive club though. We can't compete at the same financial level as most of them (although that may change in the future), or hold the same appeal for top class players, and it's been a constant problem for us since Wenger joined of our big-name players being enticed to one of the continent's elite, which probably wouldn't happen if we were on an equal footing to those clubs.

TheCrazy58 wrote:

A shame, as there's no doub about his quality

Well there is. His lack of end product for a start.

He's a very entertaining player to watch but IMO he's replaceable. Flamini I'm far more upset about.

Sheffield gunner wrote:

Desgraciats wrote:Kind of a stupid question but do you guys consider yourselves a "massive club" like Pool, Real, Man Utd, AC Milan etc.. or in the tier just below with the likes of Valencia, Roma, Spurs (sorry)?

The reason I ask is that it is very much history based and I don't know enough about English football to really know.

I consider you on par with the other big clubs, but I am not sure if it is entirely correct.

Spurs! How dare you!

We're definitely not at the level of the real giants of European football, but I think it's fair to say we are at the next tier down (even if we haven't won the EC/CL).

We're comfortably the third biggest club domestically if you look at leagues and cups (well domestic ones anyway), and have a rich history and tradition in the English game.

We can't be considered a massive club though. We can't compete at the same financial level as most of them (although that may change in the future), or hold the same appeal for top class players, and it's been a constant problem for us since Wenger joined of our big-name players being enticed to one of the continent's elite, which probably wouldn't happen if we were on an equal footing to those clubs.

I think that will change within the next 5 years or so.. Remember that many of the youngsters today can't remember an Arsenal pre-Wenger. The "boring Arsenal" tag doesn't exist outside England I think.

I was just thinking of all the Adebayor speculation and wondering what on earth he actually wants because he is already first choice at a big club and only arrived 2 years ago. Moving to Barcelona won't be that much of a change and there is no guarantee he would succeed here.

Ignore the Adebayor speculation, there really isn't much to it at all. At most it is his agent trying to stir things up for a new contact, and a player who isn't the smartest or most PR conscious guy around. As soon as the links and rumours emerged he immediately issued a statement on the Arsenal website stating that he had absolutely no intention of leaving Arsenal. I really don't think there was much foundation to those rumours at all.

I don't think we could ever be a truly 'big club' with Wenger's current philosophy. Our approach is almost a tacit acknowledgement that we can't quite compete at the same table as the elite clubs. The over-emphasis on youth and producing the big-name players at the club rather than buying them in is a result of not being able to compete at the top level financially (although possibly taken too far). Now obviously other clubs have traditions of bringing through youth, but they can also supplement that with big name signings, bringing in the best players in the world. I don't think people can envisage Arsenal doing that just yet. Our financial situation dictates that we can't do a great deal more at the moment. Maybe things will change in the near future once the loan debt starts to diminish.

Tweedle wrote:

TheCrazy58 wrote:

A shame, as there's no doub about his quality

Well there is. His lack of end product for a start.

He's a very entertaining player to watch but IMO he's replaceable. Flamini I'm far more upset about.

To be fair Tweeds I don't think we bought him to score goals. His track record at Stuttgart (13 goals/137 appearences) hardly suggests that. He was bought because he could bring something different in our attack and he did so to a degree but not quite with the consistency he may have been expected to.

Flamini I think had his head turned by the money. He doth protest far too much otherwise, which is a giveaway to the contrary really.

TheCrazy58 wrote:
Flamini I think had his head turned by the money. He doth protest far too much otherwise, which is a giveaway to the contrary really.

So it had nothing to do with superior weather, a bigger club, opportunity to play in a new league and the fact Arsenal completely disrespected him as a player?



Nah, must be all about the money. I mean, no one would want to leave Arsenal for any other reason, would they?

Fidel wrote:

Ray Parlour wrote:I don't. We have way too many strikers to deploy 4-5-1.

Hasn't stopped Wenger deploying that formation throughout the last two seasons.

I have seen Nasri play both left, right and through the midfield. He is very versatile, although saying that like alot of our playmakers his best position is central.

If he does come 10 goals in the first season would make me a very happy man.

He's no more likely to score 10 than Hleb. If I were, I'd be happy with half that number.

True it hasn't stopped him before but the preferred formation is 4-4-2. If RVP is firing and on form I very much doubt you'd see a 4-5-1.

First, Van Persie being fit and firing is a big IF, since he's managed that for approximately 2 out of the last 24 months.

Secondly, I've seen Wenger playing Van Persie and Adebayor and still go 4-5-1. All this talk about the 'preferred' formation and Wenger's comment about 'always' playing with two strikers is just that - talk. Fact is, 4-5-1 was the formation he picked more often than any other this last season.

Wenger speaks about the Nasri rumours:

“It is likely that the transfer (of Nasri) will go through, if it happens, it will be before the start of the Euro (June 7-29)”


http://goonertalk.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/wenger-nasri-move-likely-to-be-completed-before-euros/

Awesome.

Hm interesting that AW is actually talking about it before the deal is actually concluded. But the same quote appears in French press, so it's looking likely.

Arsène Wenger, entraîneur d'Arsenal, a indiqué dans Téléfoot sur TF1 que le transfert de Samir Nasri de Marseille à Arsenal avait des "chances de se faire".
"Ca a des chances de se faire, si ça se fait, ce sera avant le début de l'Euro (7-29 juin)", a expliqué le technicien des Gunners.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2008/05/25/01011-20080525FILWWW00044-wenger-transfert-de-nasri-a-arsenal-.php

Arsenal (and Atletico) have enquired about De La Red. Would be a good signing IMO, though he would take a while to adapt to the Premiership and so isn't an instant Flamini replacement. And you'd expect Madrid to want to hang on to him after his great season with Getafe, but they are notoriously bad with youth team players so Wenger could easily tempt him away with promises of first team opportunities.

I'm not convinced that we'll get anyone new to replace Flamini. More likely we'll play Gilberto and break in Song/Denilson. We need to bring in a CB more than a DM.

Another one from Marca - Arsenal looking to go up against Barça for Dani Guiza.

Don't need any more strikers. Slow day at Marca, Kas?

Yeah must be...slow all round since the season ended really. That's why C. Ronaldo is on the cover every single day.

Haven't they got things like the last mad thing Aragones did/said at seleccion training camp to write about?