Arsenal are reportedly monitoring FC Basel’s 19 year old highly rated Swiss striker Eren Derdiyok, who shot to fame after scoring just 12 minutes into his debut against England at the New Wembely.
Derdiyok was born in Switzerland but is of Turkish descent, and came through the ranks of BSC Old Boys before being promoted to the team during the 2005/06 season, in which scored 10 goals in just 18 games. Aged just 18, league leaders FC Basel snapped Eren up for a nominal fee, but he only made rare substitute appearance’s during his debut season.
However in the season just gone he was given more chances to play, and took them quickly establishing himself as a first team regular. He bagged his first professional hat trick against FC Thun in March, and reaped the reward as Basel won the League and Cup double. He completed the year by winning the “Swiss Young Player Of The Year” Award.
Derdiyok is a powerful all action centre forward, at 190cm he is fantastic in the air but equally as a good with the ball at his feet. Blessed with great technical skills and close control, but also raw power and energy. Eren is very physically strong, and one definately not to pick a fight with.
He is now in the full Swiss squad having previously played for the Under 19s and Under 21s. It is expected he will join Arsenal’s Johan Djourou and Philippe Senderos in the hosts Switzerland squad for the forthcoming Euro 2008 Championships.
Interestingly Eren has also been deployed as a central defender on occasions, and has shown early promise in that position. Whilst it remains clear he is a terrific prospect as a striker, Arsene Wenger could convert that promise to central defence. His Turkish roots have led to a £2.5 million pound offer from Trabzonspor, but this was quickly rejected.
The player himself has hinted at a move to England before, citing Newcastle’s Michael Owen as his favourite English player which had previously fueled rumours of a switch to Tyneside, however it seems this was wide of the mark.
Finally, As i told blog readers recently Alexander Hleb is in talks with Barcelona.
Article By – J.Sanderson
I remember his goal against England. Was a good finish.
But he would need alot of work if he was to be converted to a center half. But you say he has all the attritbutes to become defender.
Converting a striker into a DC? thats weird.
He plays a bit like Benzema, we better move quick before the euros or his price will soar like Benzema’s. I think he is a quality player however we have many attackers.
Interesting news. Do we really need another striker?
looks like matt connolly
the next dion dublin! snap him up arsene!
his signing would only hamper the growth of theo, vela and bendtner who are already all 1st players
but would buying him push some of the english lads down the pecking order? i know they have got to be good enough and cant just be in the side on merrit of being english but im not sure if we really need him, especially with jay simpson progressing.
One of my uncle’s is best mates with another Basel player Benjamin Huggel. Eren is a very good prospect,I saw him play a few times before his game against England when I was in Switzerland, and can tell you he’s very strong that’s for sure,technically I feel that he’s a little better than Bendtner,he’s like a rough diamond but with the right staff he can become world class! We have plenty of strikers but if we were to offload one then we could pick him,prefferably I’d like to get somebody with more experience but still he’s a very good prospect. Him and Tranquilo Barnetta are 2 top players for Switzerland along with Johan Vonlanthen and Fernandes.
Its definately an interesting signing should it happen. No doubt he is a quality young striker, but i feel that at centre back he could be awesome.
I can’t really see him coming because we have Van Persie, Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner, Theo, Vela as well as Barazite who will be trying to play in the first team.
As for central defense, if you’ve seen him play and you think he could excel there then it could be a possiblity, but i don’t see him being a striker.
What about Djourou? D’you think he could be a good centre back in the long term? Apparently Arsene’s told him he’s best just in fron t of the defense so who knows he could become a long term defensive midfielder, although i haven’t seen much of him cos of injuries.
Sorry to change the subject but its certainly interesting news in the French camp:
(Raymond Domenech has ignored Djibril Cisse, Mathieu Flamini, Mickael Landreau, Philippe Mexes, Hatem Ben Arfa, Alou Diarra and Julien Escude in his final 23-man squad that will play Euro 2008).
So it is a little strange decision from Domenech to ignore Ben Arfa and a welcomed one for Flamini.
Nasri is included instead of Ben Arfa so thats a big trust from the coach that he is the better one and that can only be good news for Arsenal.
haha flamoney. good thats what he gets for leaving us. im suprised Cisse has been dropped hes pace could’ve cause problems in euro 08
Im incredibly surprised there i thought Ben Arfa played very well along with Nasri and Gomis he was great for france. Thats a very odd decision the other’s i can understand but i think thats abit stupid leaving Ben Arfa out.
Ben Arfa is too mercurial, no consistency.
Dutchmaster it’s not that weird, strikers and central defenders need pretty similar physical attributes, while the player’s mental attributes don’t really become evident until he’s played a few years. Perhaps his anticipation, positioning etc. are particularly good and his composure not so great, meaning he might be better suited to playing at the back.
I don’t think Wenger will sign a striker this summer anyway so don’t get you hopes up…
Yes I think I remember his wembley goal. very Benzema-esque.
any idea when the Nsri deal willvbe completed?
I wish Arsenal would calm down in their persuit of great kids. I know only a small percentage will make it at Arsenal but there is such a thing as too much competition. By ALl accounts we have SO many strikers and CMs from the first team down to the reserves that it’s just becoming a bit ridiculous.
You can’t buy everyone and I for one would rather we had kids who were given more chance of development without ridiculous levels of competition.
Maybe I’m wrong here, but that’s just the impression I get. We seem to be buying every talented kid going and as great as that is, it all just comes across as a bit much to me.
yayy derdiyok wid him in our defence we wont have to play that retard toure anymore!!! Also i reckon we shuld buy Darren Bent to replace Adebayor and Loius saha to replace the injury prone RVP.
derdiyok can eventually become our established CB, and with the lightning pace he showed against england it indicates no real need for toure in the future, His positional sense in defence can become better than toures and he should be a good enough stopgap when senderos and djourou make the step up to become the best central defensive pairing seen in the prem…in my opinion they will b better than vidic in toure within the next two years,
Lol Swiss folks at Arsenal. Always great successes.
Ryan said this on May 28, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Ha. That’s the point though, RARELY do their come good. Look at Lupoli: he was scoring more than Bendtner in the youth team and looked great. Now he’s ina real league though? I don’t believe he has a goal to his name at the viola.
Competetion at least ensures us to get some wheat from the chaff. And it means, like now with a supposed ‘exodus’ (nice reassuring comments from rvp, even if he is right) and tiny squad problems like last season, it makes me feel a lot better when competetion in the u18/reserves pushes players to the top, so we can find someone who can fill the gaps.
I don’t know why this wasn’t mentioned, but fans should read what Fiszman said and analyze it.
“If you look at our total wage costs you will see they are virtually the same as Manchester United and substantially more than Liverpool. Of course we are all a little less than Chelsea who are in a world of their own. But compared to Man United and Liverpool we are good payers”
So how are we supposed to believe that we pay the same amount as ManUtd or Liverpool, who has several players reaching the 100,000 figure every week, and a lot on 60,000 too!
look at what Van Persie as said in this link:
http://217.204.41.132/cgi/NGoto/2/278345403?1244
The answer is very simple, we stuff a lot of players every season for the Youth and reserve teams, and put them on a professional contracts and that adds to the bill in a big way.
Although preparing new young players is good, but a lot of them wont make it, and will just receive his salary and then get released by the club.
This way we wont be able to buy Players such as Robinho, Ronaldinho, Quaresma and such names or keep our own rising stars.
It isn’t the problem of other team members asking to get the same as the new big stars, it is what the market is all about, players looking to improve their salaries which is normal in the end for any man.
Even with Arsenal’s debt situation, they should still be able to pay high salaries if they don’t have such a big amount of employees.
So in the end I think Wenger should give a chance to his talented young English players and don’t put more people in front of them, stop buying good young players,and just concentrate on the super rare player.
As a consequence he should be able to increase the money to improve the wage structure at the club to attract big names.
Yea but it could also be argued that we hardly ever just release these kids. I meen we got 200k for Matty Connolly and alot more for Muamba and Larson (just to name a couple). So the amount of money we get for them probably pays back what we’ve spent on them in terms of wages and a bit more. The kids arent just talent kids, i hate to say it but their investments, sure some will be released, but many will build up a reputation on loan and if wenger still doesnt see what he wants he can sell em off, make back anything we spent of them. Sure some we’ll make a loss on, but many we’d make a profit on. Plus if we stop signing all these kids we could be loosing out, because if you seriously think Chelsea, Liverpool and Utd dont do the same you dont know much about their youth squads. Liverpool have players from all over, So do utd, and Chelsea seem to own have the dutch leagues U21 players (not the dutch ones, the ones they cant get work permits for).
As for Derdiyok, hes ok, but i see him more as a striker than a defender and we dont need a striker, nor is he better than any of the strikers we have. If we signed him as a centre back…fine, but i think we can do better than him.
P.S. How can any1 really suggest we should sign Derdiyok to replace Toure and Saha to replace Van Persie (who sruggles with injuries even more btw), come on ppl…think about it.
Im not guna think about it cuz it wont happen, we might sign him, although i doubt it, we’re interested in lots of players, we dont sign many of them, Toure is staying, yea hes not had a great season, but think back to his previous seasons and then maybe u’ll reconsider wanting him out, and a fully fit Van Persie is worth alot more than a fully fit Saha, or Darren Bent for that matter.
Btw, if we stopped signing players from all over a few seasons back we wouldent have Fabregas in our squad today, or Bendtner, or Adebayor, or Toure, or Clichy, or Eboue (i know that 1 isnt so impressive). There is a good reason behind signing lots of young talent, and while it isnt flawless, its better than becoming a Real Madrid who sign the big names when the become big names for 20mil, instead of signing them for 200k when they’re 16.
this rumour sniffs of linkbait bullshit – “damn, this article about hleb’s under the word limit; right, ok, this is an article about arsenal, they like youth, right ok, so let’s pick a country on the map – aha, switzerland. right. Young Player of the Year? Eren Derdiyok, says here. Right. Oh, scored at Wembley! Fantastic. More words to add to this article”
Its not like I’m saying no to all of them, but just to slow down and make a better use of the money.
Eboue for instance is like a huge loss, sucking money of the club for no reason.
Today Van Persie said what he said, so imagine who will come next! and be sure there will be plenty waiting.
I know in 2 years time we will be in a better situation financially but we may already have lost respect as a big club at the same time.
After those 2 years we should be able to buy players for 25M-30M OK, but I’m saying now is the time get a hold of our stars and show them that we are a big club.
When will we make these signings? things just seem to drag on and on. let’s nip in, get the players we want and have done with it, instead of playing silly buggers all the time.
http://www.setantasports.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/05/28/Premier-League-Hleb-on-exit-reports/?facets/sport-space/football/great-britain-locale/Arsenal/Barclays-Premier-League/
Reyes//
Fuck off and support Chelsea if you can’t stand how Wenger is acting. It’s just to accept.
I hope Hleb stays I dont care what anyone says we need him in team
Reyes, Arsenal is a massive team, shut up, go do your homework.
I read Hleb is on the verge of signing with Barca, I support them and i´m really scared, cause after what he has done to Arsenal, shows no class, better that he joins Madrid for 30M!
Harry, you then just stay scared and it will be fine, if you support Barca why bother with Arsenal, if you know how to use the internet then try and do your home work (I’ve done mine), and don’t try undermine informations that other fans bring in facts.
You and mrjustice are just people who pretend to be fans but don’t know anything about your own club and you don’t want your club to wake up from its slumber.
If you want to say something different then search for a ways to keep the first team players happy, maybe you can pay them from your own pocket.
I just feel silly when I comment back on a biased supporters (Programed Robots), who tries to insult other fans because thats is all they know.
If I say something which is intended to help Arsenal then that means I’m trying as much as I can to help in any way, not just saying …… and then go to sleep.
I’ve been a supporter for the club since Wenger came, so you cant say I hate him or Arsenal, I made a lot of my friends support Arsenal without thinking that I must force them to be blind and shut up when they think something is wrong.
It is for the love of the club and its true supporters not for you.
greek media say that arsenal and manchester want sotiris ninis
I’m pretty sure I know a thing or twice about Arsenal, Reyes. If you have been a fan to Arsenal since Wenger came, it’s even more surprising that you attack his actions.
Jay Simpson is becoming a great player from what I have been hearing seems , like he will be a first team player nex season
It is not surprising at all, I respect him a lot and I know he is the best manager for Arsenal and the one who attracted me and a lot others to the club, but I’m sick from other clubs looking down on us, and our players leaving for extra money that we couldn’t afford.
Its like I’m expecting more players to come out and demand more money then I and other Arsenal fans will brand them traitors and hate them, so I don’t want to feel the same thing again.
Maybe if Arsenal directors donate a little bit of money every thing will be fine and we can be successful in keeping our best players and attract big stars.
I hope Arsenal can compete seriously for the next 2 seasons until Higbury Square is sold out then Arsenal can flex their muscles, but until then we need to keep our stars happy and bring another 2 Quality players in addition to Nasri, in the defense especially.
Havent you heard what Fizman said in the interview? Arsenal have similar wage costs to Man Utd the only prem team we dont compare to is Chelsea so how can you complain about the level of wages we give our players?
hey sanderson such a fantastic site, thought I might let others know, if you need any help with the site I would be glad to help, I was one of th eones to build http://www.eyefootball.com unfortunately the guy in charge was an asshole, stole my ideas and fucked off.
anyway others love the site http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F10270459?thread=5506533&post=64107432#p64107432
Definately should get google ads and i have a few sites who are keen to advertise
good luck sanderson
Hey Sanderson fantastic again as usual oh the (?)s lol. When i pester I only try to help anyway I think the site is so good I have enabled others to read the wonders of the site and people seem to love it. BTW if you ever need some help with articles or site management I would be willing. I was one of the people to build http://www.eyefootball.com, unfortunately the “owner” was an asshole and fucked off with my ideas anyway…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F10270459?thread=5506533&post=64107432#p64107432
This site is doing wonders and you could be doing even better with google ads etc and there are companies who i have contact with that are keen to advertise
anyway good luck
welovethecesc(sogos)
Very true JohnV so i dont know where all this fuss has come from with the wages it wasn’t a problem for Henry,Vieria,Pires and etc
You missed the whole point, read it again and you will understand what did I mean, in simple term for example:
1) Arsenal pay for 80 professional players 15,000-40,000.
2) Man Utd pay for 30 professional players 15,000-120,000.
In the end we are paying for a bigger number of players leading us to match ManUtd level of wages.
Remember this is just a theory that justifies why our players are on a lower salaries compared to ManUtd Or what Fizman said was just a lie, the numbers aren’t correct so don’t hold me responsible for it.
what I’m aspiring is something somehow close to ManUtd and Chelsea were they focus their money on the first team to keep players happy and the rest of the money for young players, although I’m happy with our young setup, I feel we have enough young talented players and the first team need urgent backing in terms of money.
We’ve been linked to Sotiris Ninis:
http://www.premiershiplatest.com/news/a … 10535.html
Very talented midfielder. £11.8m seems a lot to pay though.
http://www.premiershiplatest.com/news/arsenal-man-utd-along-milan-real-madrid–5510535.html
Apologies for the first link, 2nd one should be fine.
We don’t need a striker, simple as that. And after getting Nasri (I hope), we just need a rock in defence. This Derdiyok situation is quite intriguing, being able to play as a striker and in defence. If Wenger does buy him, I doubt it would be for his attcking prowess, unless someone is leaving, which would mean another conversion. Seems like the ultimate conversion to me, lol. But if anyone can do it, Wenger can, Ashley Cole used to be a striker, I seem to have heard, before he was converted into a left back, so I guess it could happen.
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he will come to trabzonspor :) he is turkish
Yeah I know what you mean about it being good to get these players while they’re cheap, but at least in CM and upfront don’t we just have enough?
Everyone’s talking about Wilshere, Lansbury, Merida at the very least as being future big players for us. Now the French guy kid who I gather plays in Wilshere’s role. It’s like, well only one can play in each position at any one time, how can we give them the chance they each deserve when they occupy each other’s positions? I know Lansbury is supposed to be more defensive, ok, fine, but we’re forking out millions on some kids to play in positions where we alreayd seem to have superb players, I just don’t see it as always worth it.
Nice post.