A deal to sign 15 year old Brazilian goalkeeper Luis Guilherme could still go through despite the keeper wanting to stay at Botafogo.
The impressive youngster came over for a trial after his excellent performances helped Brazil win the Under 15’s South American Championship, and Arsenal were keen to sign him, but the level headed prospect spoke how important his development is.
“The important thing is not to skip any of the stages needed in the development of a professional goalkeeper because the most important thing for a goalkeeper is experience”
Although Luis describes the Arsenal trial as important he indicated to Brazilian sports news site Globoesporte.com that it may be better to stay at Botafogo and complete both his football and academic education before joining Arsenal on a more permanent basis, but with plans to loan Vito Mannone next season, and James Shea and Charlie Mann behind in development terms the Gunners could move in and snap him up in the summer.
However with rules in Brazil meaning players cannot leave until they are 18 a deal for the signature of Guilherme could faceanother hitch.
Article By – J.Sanderson
3 yrs ago we could have signed buffon for 8 mil had a keeper for 10 years now every other year we sign a mug for £2m
I think thats a little harsh, but i take your point, buying Goalkeepers is not one of Wenger’s strong points
Cmon not strictly true is it ? Lehmann holds the record in Champions League and Almunia hasnt done too badly this year either. Then we have Fabianski who is supposed to be good – still developing, but no worse than say a Craig Gordon or an Anti Niemmi.
I don’t remember Buffon being transfer listed or offered to the club. I think your memory is playing tricks on you because i don’t care what rumours there are, Juve would never sell a GK they bough for 30mill for 8mill. The press invents these things so people like you buy papers.
I think Almunia has become an excellent goalie, and Lehmann was a great servant to the club back in his heyday so he’s not too bad really.
I really like Almunia but at this point in time I’d certainly consider Anti Niemmi better. I really think Niemme is a fantastic keeper.
“However with rules in Brazil meaning players cannot leave until they are 18 a deal for the signature of Guilherme could faceanother hitch.”
It’s not just a Brazilian rule, It’s a FIFA rule, and counts for all non-EU countries :)
If Luis Guilherme is that good a prospect they should by him but leave him in Brazil till he is 18 years old and then bring him over because to get him here at 15 years of age is much to young IMO
The thing with GK is there’s only one in each team and he is definitely one of the most important player. So a world class club, like Arsenal, doesn’t have a world class keeper it shows. Almunia is a fantastic keeper but just not one of the very best. Lehmann was.
I do agree with you JS that GK is not Wenger’s strong side. We might think differently about it though if he had beaten Chelsea for Cech. Maybe he didn’t realize how good he was and didn’t offer for therefore. I’m telling you, Cech was the difference in 2004-2005. If we had had him we would have won the league instead of Chelsea.
This guy looks good although it’s impossible for spectators to estimate how good he is. If he would come he might even be the U-18 keeper next season, because the Polish keeper will be too old (right?). I’m not gonna try to spell the Polish guy name.
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Like the above I get a bit sick about the amount of effort AFC spend in trying get cheapo goalies from whereever. IF Arsene really did his local housework and his UK scouts were not so pathetic he would have snapped up Ben Foster for a pittance when I wrote to him suggesting a quick look nearl 4 years ago! Even Carson was available not long ago for £1 mill.
Sadly there are really top kids around in the UK but we lose out because they are convinced that foreign comes first with AW>
getting experience is the key for any keeper.
Every year a couple come through the ranks at Arsenal, but none have really made it.
Stuart Taylor and Graham Stack are the most well known.
Mannone went on loan I think last season and had an awful time.
Fabianski looks OK, but he made some mistakes in the Carling Cup. He has a lot more to learn. Almunia has come on a lot, I remember before a game against Man U I was sitting in the North Bank and he looked so nervous. He ended letting in 4.
If the kid mentioned is good we should try and sign him on a pre-contract that we can both review when he is 18.
‘However with rules in Brazil meaning players cannot leave until they are 18’ However there may be a way round it as teams from Portugal are allowed to buy Brazilians under the age of 18
Buffon said no way so that was that