Author: jamesgillesp

Nasri is an Arsenal player: An overview of the new signing

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Transfers1 Comment

Samir Nasri has finally signed for Arsenal after months of transfer rumours. It just shows that sometimes the rumour mill does bring up some stories with a real foundation.

Samir has confirmed the deal on his website:

“We inform you with the news that Samir Nasri will not be an Olympique de Marseille player next season.

“We also tell you that he has signed a four-year contract with the London club, Arsenal.”

Apparently the deal is worth £15.8 million, which hopefully will be good business. Nasri has signed a four year deal with us, which is very exciting.

He will take the number 8 shirt, as that one is free at the moment. Whether or not he will replace Hleb or play alongside him remains to be seen, but either way this is a good signing on Arsenal’s part.

The 20 year old played four seasons in the Marseille first team, making his league debut during 2004-2005. He plays as a winger, and can score goals – he got six in 30 games last season.

On an international level he had just two substitute appearances in Euro 2008, but has represented France through their youth squads, starting in the Under-17 European Championship side in 2004. He first played a full France international in 2007, and now has 7 caps. He was also Marseille’s fans player of the year for the 2006/2007 campaign.

We’re still waiting for official confirmation of the signing, but Arsenal.com have uploaded pictures of Nasri (here and here), probably whilst preparing the announcement!

UPDATE

Nasri’s official website is down and Arsenal have removed the pictures – the transfer was leaked too early, and the deal is not totally finalised.

Van Persie’s top 5 goals for Arsenal – A perfect partner for Adebayor? Video Post

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal, Video2 Comments

Holland are out of EURO 2008 after a 3-1 loss to Russia, but one player who did shine in the tournament was Robin Van Persie.

He has had injuy problems during his time at Arsenal, but I hope that he will recover during the break he has now and be ready to play consistently next season.

He is a great player who can score fantastic goals, he would also be the perfect partner for Adebayor, if Ade does stay. We haven’t seen them play together enough due to RVP’s injuries. If he can stay fit we have an awsome talent, one of the best players in the Arsenal squad.

Here’s some of his best goals from his time at Arsenal.

Barca bid for Adebayor and Hleb? Are Arsenal a selling club?

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers4 Comments

The news is rife with stories concerning Adebayor and Hleb and whether they will leave.

On Thursday we heard that AC Milan’s sole transfer target this summer is now Adebayor. Barcelona are also chasing his signature. AC Milan scout Ernesto Bronzetti says Milan still have a chance, but that Barca already have a deal:

“Let’s say we have a 50 per cent chance, a lot will depend on the wishes of the player in the end. Arsenal want to sell him to Barcelona, for their own motives. Barcelona tell me they already have an agreement with the player. I only know that the Barcelona president, Laporta, after having been doubted, now wants to shut everyone up by buying a big-name forward.”

“I do know they won’t have the economic means to buy him until they sell Eto’o or Ronaldinho, so I’d advise Milan not to buy either of them or they’ll finance the operation of taking Adebayor to Barcelona.

“(Saying the players weren’t needed) was a massive strategic error. Now anyone who wants to buy those players is maybe going to wait until August 29.”

Ade has come forward to say that he won’t comment, although he has said he will stay before, this media frenzy does worry me:

“Now I do not want to comment on anything relating to FC Barcelona, perhaps later it may be necessary but not now,”

“It is better to wait.”

Barcelona are also interested in Hleb and have reportedly offered about 50 million Euros for the pair. I’m not sure if they will leave, Goodplaya says that we will sell Adebayor if the money is right and replace him with Santa Cruz. I don’t like the idea of that happening, not at all. I think Ade is vital to the team and we need to keep it together – but Santa Cruz would be a quality replacement if he did leave.

Hleb, is a controversial issue these days, Wrighty7 doesn’t want to see him in an Arsenal shirt again after all theat has happened in the last few months. I would love to see him stay, but I would be much less worried about him leaving than Adebayor – simply because in Adebayor we have found a top stirker just at the right time, whereas Hleb is replacable.

If either do leave I will be worried about our ambition to be honest, if that did happen it would seem like we have become a selling club, and that isn’t how you become a successful club. I jus hope Arsenal find the right direction.

Talking of Adebayor there’s a great article on the BBC about his life and growing up in Togo, he seems like a genuinely nice chap.

Anyway, enjoy your Saturday/Sunday, I’m off!

Arsenal Transfer Rumour – Clichy wanted by Roma and Juve

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers1 Comment

Hello all you Gooners, anyone heard anything about this Clichy rumour? Roma and Juve are both interested, the papers claim.

The evidence lies in two quotes, neither of which really link them directly, all they say is that they think he is a good player, so don’t get too worried by this rumour!

Firstly, Roma manager Luciano Spalletti:

“Clichy is an excellent defender of international class. He is also still very young, so has plenty of football improvement left in him. Certainly it would please me a great deal to see Gael Clichy in a Roma shirt. We will have to wait and see what develops.”

Secondly, Claudio Ranieri (ex-Chelski) Juve manager:

“Having worked in England with Chelsea, I know the Premier League players very well and I have to admit that Gael Clichy is one of the most impressive players right now. He is an important player, above all, because of his versatility. I believe he can play anywhere down the left and across the defence too. He could come to Juventus.”

It strikes me that these quotes are both from interviews where journalists may have just asked ‘do you think Clichy is good?’ These sort of quotes just mean that they think Clichy is a good player, and who doesn’t after seeing his performances last season, of course he is in demand.

He is loyal, so I don’t see him going anywhere!

Nasri deal confirmed by Marseilles

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers25 Comments

Marseilles President Pape Diouf has confirmed that Arsenal and Marseilles have reached a deal over Nasri and that the player is completing a medical with the Gunners.

“There is an agreement between Arsenal and Marseille but Nasri is not officially an Arsenal player, he must first complete the medical.”

This is the first official news we have heard out of either club, so surely as soon as Nasri passes the medical he will announced as an Arsenal player.

Who is happy?

Arsenal Diogo bid – for real or publicity stunt?

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers3 Comments

Whilst scrolling throught the reams of regurgitated Arsenal news in the early hours of the morning, I came across an item which I can’t remember seeing before.

Apparently Arsenal made a bid for Diogo Luis Santo, a 21 year old Brazilian, playing for Portuguesa de Desportos. Their directors claim they have rejected a bid from us.

The buy-out clause is about £16 million, but they claim that the offeres they have recieved were too low.

“We have already refused an offer from Arsenal because it was too low, until now, the biggest offer made to us came from Italy, with €12 million (£9 million).

“We will only start to think of selling him from €15 million (£12 million). Benfica have approached him via representatives that intend to bring him to Portugal, but there has not been any proposition yet. We have previously been contacted by Sporting but an offer was not made.”

Now considering the fact that so many clubs are apparently interested maybe they are saying they rejected a bid from Arsenal as a way of hyping up the player and his value, and also increasing publicity and interest in the player and alerting potential buyers.

This would mean that they advertise his desirability and the fact you will need to bid high. This doesn’t necessarily mean we have bidded for Diogo. I think it is more likely to be a way of pushing bids from Benfica and Sporting up.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what comes of this. Do you reckon we actually bidded for Diogo?

Nasri signing with Arsenal after medical

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers

According to La Provence, Samir Nasri is in London for a medical with Arsenal. He didn’t leave the Euros with the rest of the French squad after they got knocked out. Instead he was taken by private plane to Le Bourget at 1pm on Wednesday, and then flew on to London from there, arrving Thursday.

The Grove is waiting expectantly for him as he is expected to complete his medical and finally sign on for the Arsenal! It is thought that the signing may be announced today (Friday), which would bring to a close the biggest transfer saga of the summer.

The financial side of things have been sorted out with Marseilles, and Nasri is expected to sign a five year contract.

After that he’ll be off on a three week holiday to relax before the new season.

Expect an announcement soon Gooners!

Kolo wants to stay for life

On By jamesgillespIn Arsenal1 Comment

Kolo Toure has spoken about staying with Arsenal till the end of his career. He has been a fantastic player for us and apart from a little loss of form during last season, he is still one of the best centre backsw in the world today.

“When I put the shirt on it means a lot of things for me. I will be so glad to finish my career here. At the moment everything is going well.

“We had a great season and played some fantastic games, but we went away without any trophies – and that’s a big, big thing for us.

“The team are still really strong, the club are still really strong and the manager is doing a great job.”

At 27 he is at what may be the peak of his career, and with his pace and skill he will surely be an Arsenal legend when he retires.

Vieira, just how we remember him!

On By jamesgillespIn Video3 Comments

Remember those glory days, when we battled it out with Man Utd evey season for the title and Vieira graced our midfield? Remember the antics of our players, Vieira in the tunnel with Keane, the brawls, Keown on Van Nistelrooy, the pizza incident?

Well it seems the rivalry is for life, as during France – Holland, Vieira, ex-Arsenal, and Van Nistelrooy, ex-ManUre, had an argument in the tunneland ‘traded insults’. Vieira was also spat at by a Dutch fan.

Van Nistelrooy purposely waited for Vieira after the 4-1 defeat to the Dutch in Berne last Friday. There is a video, which I am looking for showing Vieira in the tunnel apparently being pulled away from arguing with Evra, and apparently Van Nistelrooy was waiting afterwards.

Anyone got a link to the video? It would be interesting to see!

Update:

Thanks to Dariano we now have a video, this footage only shows a clash with Evra, before the problems with Van Nistelrooy.

Arsenal Transfer Rumours: Arshavin, Camacho

On By jamesgillespIn Transfers10 Comments

The Mirror is linking us to Andrei Arshavin. They say we will pay £10 mill. The guy is a 27 year-old midfielder, he plays for Zenit St. Petersburg and he’s very, very good. I’ve seen him play a few tiomes and been impressed.

As for Arsenal signing him, I think it’s unlikely. We hear these sort of rumours everyday, and something with no evidence whatsoever can officially be classed as a ‘rumour’ at this stage.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see us sign him, but we have other options. The benefits of signing Arshavin is that he has experience, is at the peak of his career, and is an excellent attacking player.

We’re also linked to a kid called Camacho from Spain. He’s apparently an impressive, young Atletico Madrid midfielder, and Chelsea want him too! He is captain of Spain’s Under-17 squad, and to be honest, I think he’s probably on the Arsenal radar, but we won’t sign him either!

Oh yeah, we’re not signing Albiol either! His agent said it!