All the signs are pointing to Al-Sadd forward Mauro Zárate joining Arsenal this summer, in one of the least talked about transfer stories around. Zárate is currently in his home town of Haedo, Buenos Aires Argentina following the completion of his 6 month loan spell at Birmingham City.
Alex Mcleish and the Birmingham board had previously spoken of there desire to keep Mauro on loan for next season, but after they were relegated to the Championship the players agent has confirmed he will not consider playing in the second tier of English football.
His agent also confirmed that he has had offers from clubs in the Premiership, and said his client is in talks with “one of the big four clubs”. With Setanta Sports, who conducted the interview suggesting Arsenal are in the driving seat.
“We are in talks with two Premier League clubs, but there are three or four others who are also interested, There is one club from the top four and another couple from the top eight”
“Mauro arrives back in Argentina today. In the next couple of days we will continue to talk and then make a decision.”
“Mauro will stay in England, He would have loved to stay at Birmingham, he really liked it there, he loved the fans and they loved him but unfortunately with the situation there it will not be possible for him to stay.
Added to these quotes from Christian Otero (the players agent) comes the hints that Arsene Wenger made last week regards to a potential new signing. All the hints Wenger makes perfectly describes the 21 year old Zarate, with the Frenchman saying he wanted a “creative” player, with Premier League experience.
“It would be better to buy someone who has played in England because they are less risky, But it costs more money if they are from the Premier League, so maybe I will try to do both.”
“We want as well to bring new talent in on the creative side of our game.”
Not only this but Otero claims the transfer to the “unnamed club” will be completed inside the next 2-3 weeks. This statement was also made by Arsene Wenger who said he will make his first signing before the end of the month. Niko Krancjar was mentioned as being that player the Gunners boss talked about, but today he confirmed he does not want to leave Portsmouth, as he feels he can achieve big things with them.
So will we buy Mauro Zárate? i do not know if i am honest, but look at all the facts presented, look at the type of player Mauro is, and with it being claimed he can leave for as little as £10 million, Wenger’s eye for a bargain could see the little Argentine join Arsenal.
You heared it here first ! … sort of.
Article By – J.Sanderson
as usual, just a damp squib. we will sign no one quality. Perhaps a few orfans from Africa and some shite Frenchie. Then RVP and TR7 will get injured for the season again and we will win nothing. Again. I think the days of us winning trophies under AW are FINISHED.
Ok, if you are right about this one full marks for the rest of the summer. Not because I’d love to see him play for the Gunners, but because your reasons are based mostly on coincidence and conjecture. Pretty thin coincidence and conjecture at that. Meaning if you nail this one it was done almost entirely on instinct. Meaning, I’d be very impressed.
i’m going to go out on a limb and say that liverpool will be the top four club interested. although we are looking for a creative player i dont think we are necessarily looking for a striker. whereas liverpool may be if voronin leaves and they dont think they can hold onto crouch leaving them with torres kuyt and babel. i could see benitez going for zarate. i really believe ben arfa will be the soon to be signing. but we will see.
Clutching at straws here
Get him on loan with a set fee agreed for summer 09 if hes a success and buy Ben Arfa.
I agree with Slick – not a criticism but the evidence is sketchy.
More to the point, AW said fans would be “re-assured” when we see the players he signs. This signing wouldn’t ‘reassure’ me…
wouldn’t mind him but i was kinda hoping for kranjcar.
Another thing – how can a player allegedly worth 10 mil be plying his trade in Qatar?
Is this a Carlos Tevez type situation?
Bin Arafa said that there is a contact between his club and Arsenal, so what does that tell you?
Is Mauro Zárate an alternative or Wenger wants both of them?
Either way I don’t know much about Mauro Zárate, so if someone can describe in depth what is he all about, and who is better Mauro Zárate or Bin Arafa technically wise I would much appreciate it.
Very nice player. don’t know if he’s a first XI player, but would have been very handy this year.
Pure conjecture as someone else said before me. I’d also say that the fact that the Qatar club will be looking to recoup most of the £10m they paid for him would make this a lot less likely. And given the fact that Ben Arfa is looking more and more like the creative player Wenger mentioned, I’d say that both sides of this Zarate suggestion cancel each other out.
I would luv to see him play for the Gunners. This is a wonderful star in the making. I rate him better than Afra and Nasir.
Firstly I have had little recollection of this guy… and on paper why would we think an ex-Birmingham player is what we need?? After all, if this guy is good, he’d have been splashed all over the news by now! Again, I have no evidence just like the author here except conjecture and some logic.
goal.com picked it up just now. it’ll spiral out of control just like the boca juniors palacios rumour last summer!
Hmmm… signing someone out of no where is what Wenger do best. I remember so many people discard the thought of Eduardo.
Anyway, I have not seen Zarate play.. and it could all be agent talk to up his client’s price tag as he mentioned one of the big club is after him. It could most probably be Liverpool you know? They have a knack in buying redundant players.
Mauro Zarate is the best argentinan football player never seen, I am from argentina and y see him playing in Velez Sarsfield, he is a really crack, some times he was concidered better than Kun Aguero, when kun played here, and then the club and his family made him to go to Qatar because they would pay 20 millon dolars.
If Arsenal take him, he will be recognised worldly as one of the best world football player. Arsenal will be in the right.
he looks great i was hoping Birm. would go down just 4 this possibility Teves Berkcamp cross
right foof free kick specialist as well
The reason he’s not mentioned in the press and he plays for a Qatar club is because he hails from a poor background. He’s a very simple and shy boy who blew the Argentinean league away at 17/18 years of age, it was a shock to hear he had joined a Qatar club when he had so much talent, he explained he had joined simply for the high pay, before he started his professional career he wanted to financially aid his poor family.
Thing is he played as a striker at Birmingham…question is do we need another striker? (We already have Ade/ Bendtner/ VanPersie/ Eduardo/ Walcott…)
If we pay 10mil for this player, let alone the 20mil the Sun reckons it tells me one thing.
USMANOV is running the club with advice from Abrahamovic and Martin Jol and Houllier have taken over the managers role!
I don’t mind Mauro Zarate at all to be honest.
I’ve accidentally watched several Birmingham games (due to boredom) and this guy is definitely the one to look out for. Tricky, pacy, technically sound. Even though his physique might remind you of Javier Saviola, but his trickiness might surprise you.
As I’ve said before, Arsenal need more tricky players. Mauro can be one of them. But still, we’ll have to wait and see. J Sanderson did a great job of linking all the possibilities and information together. Great job there.
I don’t think we need him. I would much rather have a winger or central defender than a small, weak striker. He’s a good player but I just don’t think he’s good enough.
Sniff,
when he moved to Qatar last year he was quoted as saying he would play there for 2 years to ensure the financial support of his family back in Argentina before focusing on his own career. Of course, obviously getting a chance in the premier league will no doubt do the trick now
another great one from J. first at the news …I think Zarate will be great for Arsenal but we can never be too sure right now until something is definite I hope he signs for us though..
join soccerfanbase.com for the best of soccer discussion …J email me and let me know about the link exchange
Zarate is class but i’m not convinced he’s the signing we need, as he’s more of a striker than a winger.
isnt the top four club that he is linked to liverpool?
Zarate is the next Pires.
since this news poped up ive been looking at some vids of zarate on youtube and the first thing that struck me was that hes very similar to messi in his style of play. exactly the same little sidestep to the left. ( not sayin that hes as good as mighty messi but he indeed looks like him)
i think he will go to a ‘top 4’ club but that may not be us. Liverpool are certainly in with a shout. Zarate definitely impressed when he was at Brum. if anything they underused him – he often started on the bench even after he has played a blinder the week before.
If it happens then I would be happy. either him or Ben Arfa would be fine by me!
All evidence on the creative and re-assuring player in my eyes point to Ben Arfa…It’s been confirmed the club has spoken with him and the reason for the 2-3 week delay is because of the French Cup Final!!! Mark my words Ben Arfa is an Arsenal player and I am truly excited and re-assured!!!
not sure if he is the kind of player we need. We have Hleb and Rosicky, do we need another similar player?
Players that go to Qatar end up fat and unfit. Waste of money.
Harry, thats for retiring players.. Rivaldo? lol
I highly doubt we’re in for Zarate. Mostly just agent talk. It will only carry a bit of weight if its from the player’s mouth. Don’t ever trust the agent.
This seems like a very likely signing. Typical Wenger. I would not be surprised if Wenger was also behind the loan to Birmingham so he could get a look at how Zarate would fare in the Premier league.
Beautiful player, As ~I said before a right footed Messi.
I like him alot but think we will get Ben Arfea and another creative player like Gourcruff of Milan.
This kid for me has Liverpool written all over him
He is a decent player, but we have more than enough strikers already – another is the last thing we need, especially considering that we need recruits on the wings, in cntral midfield and in defence.
He went Qatar admittedly for financial reasons. He is a good player but far from the finished article. We may sign him but he hasn’t shown that he has enough potential TO BE BETTER than our current players.
Beautiful player, As ~I said before a right footed Messi.
—————————————————————–
I don’t agree with that Rockypires. I think Wilkshere is the new Messi or maybe even Pires. Zarate is more of a support striker.
Guys!! We don’t need this guy come on… he might be a great talent but that’s not what we need at the moment! First of all he’s a small guy, I prefer Niko because he’s taller, stronger and can score some great goals. I can see him becoming our new pires!! We need a new pires what are you all talking about we like Zarate… ofcourse he looks great but will he be usefull for us! We need Ben Arfa too, and if I may speculate like the author of this article did. Olympique Lyon is closing in on a deal with Miralem Pjanic which means it’s likely that Arsenal is closing in on a deal with Ben Arfa, cause he already said they were neggotiating… so I hope my story is true and this one is wrong! We need to sell Hleb for 20 million euros to Inter or Barca and buy Niko and Hatem and if Arsene isn’t going to use Song, Gilberto, Denilson or Diaby for our vacant midfield position we might do well selling Gilberto and buying Kolo’s brother Yaya.
This site used to be based on facts and I really do enjoy your work J. But lately lot’s of dribble and speculation is being written. Please don’t turn this into tribal football or football365 because your are better than that. I hope you don’t take offense it’s simply that I love this site.
the top four team he linked with is spurs!….what?..ohh…
I think we should sell Hleb to the highest bidder and take both Zarate and Ben-Arfa. Ben-Arfa can play a more natural wide role. Zarate can play anywhere across the midfield or behind a striker. This gives us extra strength in depth as we can allow Fabregas a rest at times or can play the 4-5-1 system to good effect. In fact he will for me be better than Hleb because he posesses Hlebs trickery and elusiveness on the ball but is a much better goal scorer. He has a mean right foot with free kicks but also seems to score with both feet in open play. He is young so has not hit every teams radar yet and the fact he was at Birmingham means he is not so much in the limelight, but I predict he will become a great and recognised player in world football and we should steal a march on him now before his price rockets.
One more thing, just seen Mouhsin’s comment above. The other player I want is Yaya. He is massive but quick and a very good footballer with it. With Adebayor, Bendtner, Van-Persie and Yaya we will not lack height in attack, so Zarates size does not bother me. If we were offered Messi on a plate you wouldn’t say no thanks he is too small. I am not saying Zarate is of Messi standard (yet) but he has a lot of the similar attributes of him. He will go to a big club and become regarded as a great player. I don’t want us to be kicking ourselves in 1-2 years about not getting this guy when we had the chance.
if you write headline grabbing drivel then you get hits.
zarate flits in and out of games and was never the first name on the team sheetat brum so why would be any good for us.
I think his agent is talkign about top 4 clubs so that he can get interested parties in his client.
the conjecture in the article above is rediculous.
I think that Zarate would be a good signing. He’s shown great potential and cost his club £20m to sign, not long ago.
I would love him at the Emirates but not instead of Ben Arfa. I aslo think that Wenger was talking about either Barry or Dunne.
Hi J, great site – always an interesting read. Just wondered if you had anything more on Pjanic ? I might be wrong but I seem to remember you making some pretty confident statements about him ? My apologies however if I am confusing you with another site
Lay off Sanderson, guys. Its speculation, perhaps true, perhaps not. Zarate is young, thus young guns.
Personally I dont see him coming however speculation with some concequences is no harm what so ever. Well Done J at least its something to talk about.
How about your oppinions on the future of Djororu,Hoyte and Senderos. I think Song will for a fact stay. Traore will be loaned out for his own good as a LM.
I think we will sign a free transfer as cover for LB/CB maybe Thuram or Slylviniho. Would love to see either of them with us.
Anyways keep up the good work mate.
He’s good a player that can improve alot under Wenger the way he runs and dribbles with the ball reminds me of messi.If its a loan deal then its a good one.
get him on loan.. 10 million is a bit too much.
I think Zarate would be a very good addition to our squad as he is versatile he can play anywhere in midfield and up front. we should sign him and Ben Arfa then we would finally have a right winger and left winger for next year that gives us width, flair and creativity and the ability to do something special when the game isnt going for us (something we havent been able to do this year hence all the 11 draws) admit it guys you would rather see Zarate on the right instead of Eboue wouldnt you?……………… thats what I thought
nice post JS
Sorry for the late reply guys, as i have college and things.
I think its important for me to say, i am not saying we are definately buying him, but its interesting that things fit.
Where would he play? Ben Arfa comming in, Vela comming back, Gibbs comming through, Traore comming on the left wing…. Dont want him anyway, simply not good enough for Arsenal.
Matt, And what, is Gibbs and Traore better?, don’t think so. I think he’s even better than Vela.
I can not see this one happening unless we get him on loan.
He looks like another version of Barazite only 4 years or so older and smaller.
Hey Browny! I know he’s a great talent but he does need developing and he lacks power and height! We need someone who can strenghten our team from the start of the season… I don’t want to see another half a season Eboué playing on the right wing :P I don’t believe Zarate can be the new Cristiano Ronaldo he will be a good player but trust me on this one… we need some physical presence like we use to have with Henry, Pires, Vieira! I think Niko Kranjcar can be our new Pires and Yaya our new Vieira… Hatem Ben Arfa can be our new Wizz kid though… Why buy two creative and very attacking players who can play on the same position?!!
look at these vids of Kranjcar and imagine him in the free flowing Arsenal playing style under Wenger who can make in to a top class player?!!
http://www.dailymotion.com/popular/search/niko+kranjcar/video/x49ynk_kranjcar-vs-chels-02022008_sport
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/niko+kranjcar/video/x45pdv_kranjcar-vs-drby-19012008-extended_sport
let me know what you think!
Cheers
I don’t think we will be signing Kranjcar as he has just made a statement about wanting to stay at Portsmouth because he believes he can achieve something with the club..
Why is it always “this guy is going to be our new Pires or Viera or Henry? Move on guys… We don’t necessarily need identikit copies of all our past players
good deal.
Quite surprised at the number of people who haven’t seen him play – he’s clearly far too good for Birmingham and a genuine “skill” player. Not quite sure if we NEED him, but more depth in the squad is always good. We have a lot of players coming through who are unproven, whereas I think you could stick Zarate in as injury cover and he’d do reliably well.
Here’s to Vela, Walcott et al coming through – a younger, hungrier squad with more cover and more competition for places. And no Eboue.
why did a club in relegation trouble keep zarate on the bench if he was that good?
he is no better the some of the young players we have at Arsenal.
if he was any good consistently then he would have been bought by a european club not a mideastern club. who the hell goes there if they have talent?
as for 10mill they got done and 20mill dont make me ROTFLMAO!
VELA is way ahead of him he has just completed a fulls season in la liga with ossasuna and got rave reviews for some of his performances notably against real madrid where he skinned ramos all night. what the hell has zarate done?
if we are going to add players then it shouldnt be non entities that look good coming on for 15 mins but could not play for 90 mins.
if we are going to spend 10 million the we should be going for samir nasri or nuri sahin both are highly rated and have alreday proved more the zarate. hes the kind of player that will end up at everton a bit like arteta looks good but finds it hard to controle a game like our FAB THE MASTER PASSER.
lets all hope that we dont buy zarate, i would say that JACK WILSHIRE should be given a go ahead of him.
ARSENE KNOWS!!!
Guys, guys,…..I TELL YOU SOMETHING ABOUT HIM…
Did you watched him when arsenal vs birmingham?
He was good enough although a subtitution player.
I rate him hingly.
When you play the latest Championship Manager or Football Manager go and buy him.
Look at his stat….Wonderfull, very talented.
I know its just a game.
But that game is like a real.
They know the potential player and know how good the player is.
Zarate just like messi.
I know he dont have experiance yet.
But he will suitable with the way our play.
He is stronger, creative, free kicker, and have a lot of trick.
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Jo Jimmy it brought us succes didn’t it?!! And we obviously lack goalscoring from midfield. If you have a right and left midfielder that don’t score often… You’ll miss out on 15 to 20 goals a season. It’s that simple actually… We don’t need exact copies, we need similar players with their own style! As long as they can score and are strong enough.
do u think barry’s comin 2 arsenal??
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we need villa not zarate
villa, richards, nasri, makoun, would be 4 perfect signings, i fink well get 1 or none
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i have watched birmingham play alot at home this season and i have seen enough to know he will be a big big star next season. he skips past defenders with ease without doubt world class!!!
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Zarate is a very good player if you cared to watch any Birmingham games you would know this. Why was he not used so much at Birmingham – because he was on a different playing level than most of the other players so the understanding was off, the manager favoured the old warhorse centre forward of McFadden. When he came on it was normally when they were trailing and with 20mins left. Zarate palyed a free style role for the last 20mins and basically took the ball and took on the other team. Scoring a cracking freekick in 1 match to earn a draw. Wenger was also behind his move when Bruce was in charge, maybe to get a look at him – who knows. He would be a great addition at Arsenal. The team with him, Walcott, Vela, Ben-Arfa, Rosicky, Sagna, Clichy (speed galore) together with the passing skills and strength of Fabregas, Van Persie, Ade, Hleb and Toure. Awesome if it comes together. You also have quality back up all over
Id welcome him, he can play on either wing from what ive seen aswell as through the middle which is great because what with Hleb going we could use a player capable of that. Nasri is a possible aswell though and im worried about possible overloading in the squad, although Mauro is probably the kind of player who wouldent be too put out playing second fiddle to two positions. He’d still get lots of games due to his versitality.
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please dont accuse me of lying but my girlfriend works in the canteen at chelsea cobham ground and she has told me that she and her collegue spotted zarate getting out of a car last friday, the day before the FA Cup final and her friend took a pic on her phone so maybe we arent getting the cheaper messi
plus with wenger saying the reason for not buying tevez being that he is a third party ownership and the same situation is for zarate
Zarate is owned by another man aswell, i dnt know if it is the same man as tevez but i just wanted 2 give u a heads up
hope this shed some light
Guess it wasn’t a “u heard it here first”