Arsenal are said to be keeping tabs on Panathinaikos winger Sotiris Ninis, and could make a firm offer for the Greek International should the Gunners miss out on Cardiff City’s Aaron Ramsey.
Ninis has recently been called into the Greece team as they look to retain the European Championships next month, however he has recently been in action for the Under 19 team where he caught the eye against Holland who included Nacer Barazite in their squad. During that game he scored a late minute penalty to win them the game, in front of watching scouts from all over Europe.
Reports in the Greek media are reporting that AC Milan scouts will be at today’s Under 21 match against Russia, but it is expected Real Madrid and Manchester United have also been watching the prospect. Arsenal have great connections in that part of the world, and recently invited Nikos Karelis on a trial.
This news added to reports yesterday that the club had an offer turned down for Cardiff’s Ramsey, shows that it seems Wenger is looking for a youthful right sided winger. One sticking point could be Ninis’s buy out clause which is set at €15million or £11.8million, whilst Ramsey could be signed for around half that figure.
The move could also be blocked by Panathinaikos supporters who describe the prospect as a “phenomenon”. Manager Jose Peseiro recently resigned, and the sale of the player could prove detrimental to the fans. Peseiro worked under Carlos Quieroz when the United assistant boss spent a season at Real Madrid, which could swing the balance in the favour of Manchester.
Although it seems their is an interest from Arsenal for the player, it seems Aaron Ramsey would be the preferred signing.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Have you seen this kid play or do you know what sort of player he is. Does he like the paint of the side lines or does he like to cut in? Also how old is he?
Cheers for the update J.S
I prefer Ramsey.
how good is this guy compared to ramsey?
I have not seen him play no, there is some videos on a certain video website of him.
Seems a natural winger to me, and he is 18
it seems AFC is connected all over the world thats a sign of good management
In terms of natural talent, it seems Ninis would probably be better, but he is more expensive, so everything is relative
Cheers J.S
Could be a good prospect, seems like their fans love him anyway haha!
whats the chance of getting 1 of them?
“Also how old is he?”
I can answer that. He turned 18 this April, it seems. He is approx. 173 cm tall, made 4 apps for Panna this season, one in the UEFA cup, and 13 apps last season, scoring 3 goals.
Ramsey could happen, like Walcott if wenger really believes in his talent he could buy him although he would be very expensive for his age..
hay J.S this nasiri thing it relly over are we allready sined him ?
theo was also expensive ,only started to show his talents at end of season..
might take them some time as well
or might the money be better spend on a more experience player?
There is no way that i can see Wenger spending that much on a kid like he did with Walcott. He found that by doing that there is too much expectation on the player. if he could get him for the price of Ramsey then do it but i don’t think that we should be spending that much on an 18 year old myself. I could be wrong on that but i just can’t see us paying that much for him.
JS do you by any chance know where this player is being targetted at playing? As i cant see either Ramsey or Ninis getting in the team for a while and we have Merida, Barazite, Lansbury, Randall and Gibbs who are all good players so i dont see the need to buy either of them.
It seems Wenger wants a winger who can feature on the odd occasion, not an experienced player, who will want first team football straight away.
Ramsey and Ninis are completly different players to Randall,Gibbs, Lansbury.
First of all they are wingers, and the others are central players. Added to that there are all unproven at any level, whereas the other two are both full internationals
is barazite in the 1st team plans for next season?or which youngester should get some appearances in the league?
is there a lack of wingers at arsenal?
cause 1st team players are not natural wingers
i dnt think ramsey will get into the arsenal side even thogh i like him.
True JS i just thought that Wenger might convert Randall into a winger and Gibbs which may have allowed them to develop and get some games for us. I think if we do sign Ramsey or Ninis then Randall and Gibbs will have to leave as they’ll be to much competition for both CM and winger berths for them to make it at Arsenal.
have you got any report on the new kit beacasue i have
Ok just to settle this Aaron Ramsey is a central midfielder who can play wide and also at right back.Ninis is a winger in the mold of Limpar or Overmars.The Boss has been watching Ramsey for 18mths now so he is the one he wants to sign.Also at 1st team level we don’t play with orthodox wingers so what is the point of signing them?
well we play theo walcott dont we mate hes a winger
Isnt Ramsey a left winger JS because he’s left footed and played on the left in the cup final.
Click Here To See A Video Of Ninis In Action
Ramsey would adapt to the premier league much quicker than Ninis, from what I’ve seen of Ramsey he looks like a Premiership player already.
Why would we be looking for a winger when we’ve got Walcott?
I’m Greek, and support both Arsenal and Pana. This kid is naturally talented and has great close control. He’s comfortable hugging the wing or cutting in and having a shot or setting someone up. He will move on eventually but i very much doubt he’ll be leaving for at least another season. There’d be riots if they sold him considering the situation at Pana now.
Also, he was left out of the Euro 08 squad to clarify, although scored on his full debut last week becoming the youngest Greek ever to do so.
ninis is better than ramsey
I’ve seen Ninis play a few times, and from what Ive seen he looks like a brilliant prospect – i’d prefer him over ramsey, who is more of a central player isnt he?
Jimmy: Wenger plans to move Theo up fron after next season, which means Ninis could be his long term replacement there.
haha..He put the question mark up for that guy who always insists upon its presence. Good article, he sounds like an interesting prospect.
Great Blog.
love that but
will we sign nasri
i’m from Greece and i have watch a lot of times this kid nini i would like more ben arfa than ninis but ninis is not bad player.
I like Dos Santos and with Hleb possible on his way to barca we could swap plus a little cash coming our way.
I suppose that makes sense then if Walcott is being moved up top possibly for next season. As for the Ramsey vs Ninis debate absolutely everywhere i read about Ramsey he’s described as a Steven Gerrard type player who can boss the game from the middle of the park. I don’t see why we can’t sign both in that case as they seem be completely different type of players.
Ah, journalists who play football manager only to name players they scouted out (and become great) as Arsenal prospects. It seems an easier option of finding random names for stories than being in conversations between Arsene Wenger and Steve Rowley now doesn’t it.
By the way, Ninis can be bought on that for about 3m and Barca bought him off at 21 for 19m, only for him to break his leg and be sold to Fiorentina for half that. Then he was pretty good.
What he’s like real life, god knows. It’s not like we will buy him.
Loving that comment Samuel, way too true lol. I know we are gonna win the title next year and a cruel exit to ReaL Madrid in Semi if CL. (It just happened on FM08). Also we don’t get Nasri, it’s all about Diego!
Don’t want Ninis nor Ramsey, don’t need either of them. Wenger needs to stop wasting his time signing kids and sign some expreienced players. We have Wilshere, Lansbury and Randall, why do we need more 17 year old midfielders?
ummm you what!?! sign them now and then when the fifa ruling about “homegrown” players comes in, plus why wait 5 years and pay 10 times the amount for them?!
great article as usual , i am still at a wondering where you get your news from …I have a proposal for you …I am thinking I should register the domain name younggonners.com for your use instead of the wordpress you presently use …using a domain will add a proffessional edge to your site and you can make money from it by putting adsense on it or afilitates ….I will do it free cos u deserve it but let me know what u think
Samuel before you pre judge i am against Football Manager, for the reasons that it can lead to people thinking they can manager teams.
So before you make comments on other peoples work, at least get your facts correct.
Duno anything about the Ninis kid, i know we’re interested in a centre back who plays for Panathiakos (i think), cant remember his name though, and Man Utd are (or atleast were) interested in him aswell.
Basically Ramsey is 8mil, but hes not really a winger, hes a CM, and we dont really need a CM, but i wouldent be against signing him.
Ninis is a winger, but will cost more.
I wouldent be against either or both coming, but its a risk considering their age and price tags.
As for bloody football manager, its really unreliable. I meen think back to CM 03-04, where Anatoli Todorov and Daniel Braathen were the two best young strikers in the game (in my opinion), Braathen is now a Bolton Reserve and Todorov has disappeared from football all together as far as i can gather. Its useful if your a tiny club who cant afford to employ scouts as you can look for players on the game from the low leagues (even semi-proffessional) that are two footed cms or left footed wingers, etc, but its defanatly not a reliable scouting tool for big clubs.
I find this amount of money thats being asked for Ramsey and Ninis ridiculous, I mean if you want to pay money of that amount then why not search in Brazil or Argentine for the new young Messi, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Kaka? (maybe pay a little more).
Until now I feel gutted that we missed the chance to sign Ronaldinho when he was young because of work permit issues.
Why didn’t Arsenal buy him and loan him immediately to another team in spain or Belgium?
How about the Bulgarian player Dimitrov who is said to have impressed a lot in his trial, but wasn’t signed for the same reasons, by the way he would have cost between 2-3m.
If Wenger intends to get rid of a lot of the young players at his disposal saying that they aren’t at the required level, and then bring another bunch that are only a little better than our young players, then it is meaningless.
If he wants to replace the talented young generation, then he should try and sign super young talents like Messi, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Kaka.
We already have a strong squad which needs a center back and center midfield, with Nasri here and Hleb not confirmed that he is going, I think we have a lot of wingers.
So I’d like to hear us competing for the best young players in the world with the other top teams, and that is the least we can do if we can’t compete for the real best players in the world.
Its simply not fair, our young players wont be convinced that they are not good enough until they see us buy super talented players to replace them, or we will hear another story like Bently saying he wasn’t given the chance and Wenger doesn’t like English players.
Note: to anyone who thinks I’m criticizing Wenger, I’m not.
I’m just thinking as a fan from our young players point of view too.
J Maverick, you’re talking about Socratis Papastathopoulos…he plays for AEK Athens not Pana. Imagine that on your shirt! lol
Football Manager is fun though! :D Anyway I think all the people who like to see all the seventeen year’s old come to our club, don’t have to complain at the end of the season about not winning anything!!!
Ofcourse these are all wonderkids, some destined to be great, some destined to fail because of the pressure. I love talents, I love the fact that Arsenal gives young talents a chance. But come on guys we can win something!!! We need established, experienced players that are at least over 20/21. We need to win something I don’t give a dime about if we are signing Ramsey or Ninis… We have enough talents in our youth who can play in our team!! And what a dumb excuse is it, to say that we need a 17 year old winger!!!
Come on guys what the hell are all ya’ll talking about!!!
We need to dicuss prospects like Nasri, Thuram, Miguel Veloso, David Silva, Yaya Touré!!
don’t have = shouldn’t sorry I’m from Holland it’s my best English ;)
“J Maverick, you’re talking about Socratis Papastathopoulos…he plays for AEK Athens not Pana. Imagine that on your shirt! lol”
lol, and i thought van persie was a bit of a shirt filler. Hes meant to be the next Tony Adams, but ill reserve judgement on that 1 until i see him. I think hes goin to the euro though? Only 19 so there cant be much bad about him.
“Its simply not fair, our young players wont be convinced that they are not good enough until they see us buy super talented players to replace them”
Thats their problem, and we do buy top quality relacements, i meen Lupoli was probably a bit shocked he was sold after his season for the reserves and not doing bad on loan. But we signed Adebayor, and look at him now (and for that matter look at lupoli now).
Yes buying top quality recognised players is nessesary, but so is buying top quality youth prospects, its about getting the right players and the right balance, and i dont think we have the right balance but at the end of the summer it might be a bit more evened out (especially if we get Thuram and Nasri).
Anyways i off to watch the second half of Holland vs Denmark, Bendtners not doing great so far, 1-0 to Holland and i recon they’ll win the euro (you heard it here first). Van Nistleroy, Huntelaar, Robben, Babel, Van Persie, Kuyt, Snieder (sp?), van der saar, van der vaart, and bendtner just nearly made it 1-1, so im definatly off now, but still, great names, great side, i recon only maybe spain and france equal them on paper, and bendtner just nearly scored again.
Ill tell you another thing, since the whisle went Bendtner has been ripping Holland to pieces, what a wonderful prospect he is, i meen i know loads of you are now guna disagree with me because he doesnt seem to be a very popular player, but i recon by the time hes 23 he’ll be able to give Adebayor real problems for a starting position, hes improved so much over the last season, i think he can be massive. Just my personal opinion, take it or leave it, im back off to watch the game.
1-1, beautiful assist by Bendtner, hes a footballing god (im guna regret that arent i).
great article as usual , i am still at a wondering where you get your news from …I have a proposal for you …I am thinking I should register the domain name younggonners.com for your use instead of the wordpress you presently use …using a domain will add a proffessional edge to your site and you can make money from it by putting adsense on it or afilitates ….I will do it free cos u deserve it but let me know what u think
Admin said this on May 29, 2008 at 5:29 pm
A site about young dead folk? I don’t think gonners is what this site needs. :D
Samuel before you pre judge i am against Football Manager, for the reasons that it can lead to people thinking they can manager teams.
So before you make comments on other peoples work, at least get your facts correct.
J.Sanderson said this on May 29, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I’m not blaming you for this J, you aren’t the head of the rumour mill. But for years it’s been the same, a new FM comes out, a certain select of obscure players turn out to be awesome on it so we get linked to them. We never buy them and instead get ones no-one ever bought on fm, but are just as obscure. FM does lead to muchos bullshit from football fans I agree. I was talking to my mate Joe who took Rushden and Diamonds to become the biggest club in the world, the other day, how he bought Barcelona’s new wonder kid, ala Messi, for 80m. Sure the game is fun but realistic it isn’t. It just seems a lot more realistic than every other football managing game.
As for bloody football manager, its really unreliable. I meen think back to CM 03-04, where Anatoli Todorov and Daniel Braathen were the two best young strikers in the game (in my opinion), Braathen is now a Bolton Reserve and Todorov has disappeared from football all together as far as i can gather. Its useful if your a tiny club who cant afford to employ scouts as you can look for players on the game from the low leagues (even semi-proffessional) that are two footed cms or left footed wingers, etc, but its defanatly not a reliable scouting tool for big clubs.
Johnny Maverik said this on May 29, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Lol Damien Commoli and Tottenham Hotspurs.
Actually it’s not good for looking for “two footed cms” since FM08 thinks Wilshere is strongly right-footed… er.
i am still at a wondering where you get your news from
Admin said this on May 29, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Really…?
Ramsey and Ninis are completly different players to Randall,Gibbs, Lansbury.
J.Sanderson said this on May 29, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Totally agree, each of them brings something different to what we have. I personally see no reason not to buy either or even both other than financial reasons. Ramsey and Ninis also have star quality about them, something I’m not sure at least the first 2 of the others listed have. That’s not to say I don’t rate them, just that Ramsey and Ninis have that little something extra that makes them standout above others and makes people believe that they might not just become good players, but truly special players. If Wenger thinks these guys are good enough, that they are better than the options he already has and he has the funds to do so, he absolutely should buy them. The fact is if Randall, Gibbs etc can’t stand up to the competition then I’m afraid they’re not good enough anyway. I know that sounds cold, but that’s the way it is.
The homegrown rule Blatter is trying to put through contravenes European employment law. He won’t get it through, at least not in Europe. If they try and enforce the UEFA rule on domestic competitions that’s not that big a deal, we already have to comply to them for the champions league anyway. Players like Bendtner, Barazite, Cesc, Traore and Walcott all qualify as homegrown under those rules, as would Ramsey if we bought him. I think Vela would even qualify by November this year.
“Actually it’s not good for looking for “two footed cms” since FM08 thinks Wilshere is strongly right-footed… er.”
Lol, fair point and thinking about it a very valied one aswell, i just remember seeing some documentary on TV where a coach from a small side starting using it to find two footed players from the leagues below them.
“he fact is if Randall, Gibbs etc can’t stand up to the competition then I’m afraid they’re not good enough anyway. I know that sounds cold, but that’s the way it is.”
Very good point, but for me the issue is more if Ramsey and Ninis fail to stand u to the compatition, then itd be 20/25mil down the drain and we-d be lucky to get 5 back. Im all for bringing in young talents, but when you start having to pay 5mil+ you really have to be sure they can cut it and more, cuz if they flop you wont be getting any refund. You also have to think about it positionally, Ramsey is a CM, is he better than the ones we have in the reserves? Does he have the potential to be better than Diaby, Denilson or or Song? To be honest after seeing him a couple of times for Cardiff this season, im not sure about either, hes a good young player but you cant help but feel hes not exactly above the level of say Merida, Landsbury or Wilshire. If any of them were playing for Cardiff they would have probably have done just as well as he has (in my personal opinion that is). As for the other kid ive never seen him so i cant comment, but we have very few Wingers in the Reserves or the first team, so maybe hes a safer (thou admittadly more expensive) buy.
It sounds like we agree mate. Wenger has to first decide whether they are an upgrade to what we already have. Then, perhaps more importantly, he has to decide whether they are significant enough of an upgrade to justify the amount he’d have to spend on these players and whether or not they also justify the risks involved in doing so. It’s a risk versus reward decision at that stage. I think both players are fine from the playing side of things but I’m not so sure about the financial. What I do think works in their favour is their ability to be good squad depth players immediately (although Ninis might need time to adapt of course). They’d provide some value in the short term whilst they hopefully develop into the stars you paid the money for in the long term. Much like Walcott and Denilson who have been mostly bit part players so far, but nonetheless useful ones, whilst starting to fulfil their massive potential.
I haven’t seen Ninis play myself but the player I hear him compared most to is Luis Figo. Great attacking talent with a lot of skill that takes players on and creates/scores goals.
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being a panathinaikos fan i have seen ninis on many occasions. he is a versatile attacking player. He plays on both wings for panathinaikos (naturally right side) as our wingers are always swapping sides during the games. For our U-19 and his first full cap he has played as a central attacking mid behind the strikers and used as the playmaker.
He has good pace (not walcott or SWP pace). He is two-footed and is a very good dribbler.
His top strengths are his first touch, vision and cross. He looks more comfortable in situations where he is allowed to move around more and exploit gaps in the defense.
He is not a typical premiership winger. He can be very good in arsenals system where creativity, movement and flair are utilized. He would be much less effective in a system where he must hug the touch line beat the back to the byline and cross it in.
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What to say about Ninis….I think his crossing and passing vision is up there some of the best and will get much better, and he has solid technique so he is not afraid to run at the defense.
Ninis is one of the best pure rw i’ve seen since 2000.
I’m a english soccer fanatic and believe he will become one of the greatest players in the world.