Former Arsenal winger Jerome Thomas has made his loan move from Charlton to Portsmouth a permanent switch, meaning Harry Redknapp can now bring in another loanee – with Armand Traoré expected to seal a move to Fratton Park in the next 48 hours.
Before the transfer window even opened Young Guns revealed Portsmouth’s interest in the French Under 19 International, and with Mikaël Silvestre now offering cover at left-back, the youngster is set to gain experience with the Premier League outfit.
Armand completing last season as a regular for Neil Banfield’s Reserves, scoring a pile driver against Tottenham as he adapted to his new role as a winger. He bagged three strikes throughout the campaign as the second-string completed the campaign with a 6 game unbeaten run.
Premier League rules mean a club can only have a maximum of two loanees in their side, and with Ben Sahar already moving from Chelsea, Thomas would have filled the remaining place. However, with the winger now making the transfer official, Traoré is expected to move on a season-long loan agreement.
Update – Deal Confirmed
Article By – J.Sanderson
It’ll be a good move for him and Portsmouth.
Where in your opinion would he play for Pompey J? Left back instead of Hreidersson or left wing (where he was seemingly being groomed now at Arsenal)?
I think it’s a great move as he’ll be one of few that get a loan to an EPL side so will learn more. And Arsene rarely lets people go unless they get a first team spot at the loan club so I hope he develops his game well.
if he plays alot of games it would be a good move, he definately needs some more experience
you think he will be played as a fullback or winger at pompey? shouldnt be to hard to muscle out herreidarsson of the starting 11:P
seriously i hope harry plays him at the left in midfield.
the portsmouth fans are chuffed to bits about this.. i am excited that he will be competing for places with a top half team. definitely a win-win situation
When i first covered the story, it was Traore going their as left-back cover.
Thomas should play as a winger, so yep Left back
I am sorry- its not a good move for him, portsmouth or the game.
This loan system ( between premiership teams ) is a farce. !
if pompey want him- they should buy him.!
players are activelly being encouraged to be disloyal!
the rule needs to be scrapped
regnew
crap…would really like to see him get some experience as a winger
J U KNOW THE SILVESTRE ARRIVAL, IS THAT THE SIGNING THAT AW HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT OR ARE WE EXPECTED TO BRING ANOTHER IN? INLER MAYBE, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ?
Traoré is going to be a future leftback, He has the physique for it, he needs to toughen up and work on his positioning, something I hope he will learn at Pompey!
i figured that the signing of silvestre would mean that he will be backup for clichy this season and then get shipped after the season.
next season pedro and gibbs would fight for the place behind gael and traore would play in midfield.
JS you think pedro will play at fullback or midfield for us?
Traore just signed for Pompey on year-long loan
Yep it’s official
Another one gone. You’re gonna be busy this season keeping track of these lads, JS.
It’s not on the official website
Why Did We Let him go??….i thought he was going to be our left winger dis season….(cameo appearences, like when he set up the goal for bentdner…
hmmmm….i dont kno about dis one arsene
Hreidersson was terrible against chelsea at LB… think Traore will play there… I don’t think it matters that he is not getting to play left wing… just the fact he is able to play regular prem football will help him advance…and even if he does play LB, he will still get forward! Good move by Wenger I think…and IF he is fit, Silvestre can cover both LB and CB, bringing good experience… can’t understand why so many Gooners are negative about the Silvestre signing…
It will be great for him and it’s unusual for our fringe players to be loaned out to a premiership team, so he must be very highly thought of not just by us, but by Portsmouth. If he plays as a left back, he will get the benefit of learning from Tony Adams, which can’t be bad. Good luck Armand.
To the poster who was complaining about the loan system, I don’t see the problem. Arsenal get to put an up and coming player into a regular competitive system without risking points to us, Portsmouth get to fill gaps in their team on a temporary basis with minimal outlay. Loanees are not allowed to play against the team that owns their registration, so there is no risk of foul play. It’s definitely a win-win situation.
I think loans to prem teams should be banned also. I’m delighted that Traore is gonna get some much needed Prem experience but the whole idea is flawed. FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say that Traore goes on to be Pompeys best player (I’m not saying he will!! this is just for arguments sake) and he scores 5 against United and 12 against Chelsea, but has to be dropped when they play us, you cannot tell me thats not an advantage to Arsenal. . . .
Just to clarify, I think this is a great move, but I think the loan system is flawed.
I know what you mean Claude and it´s an argument that should without a doubt be talked about. I think it´s first of all the advantage Arsenal, in this case, get, and second of all, the advantage that Portsmouth get. Now Pompey probably have to pay to receive his service, so that is not anything unusual. Birmingham reportedly payed 1 million plus wages for 6 months of Johan Djourou. But the advantage to Arsenal that Claude mentions is a more serious one. I think the worst case scenario could be something like this:
Chelsea buy a lot of good players and loan them out to Aston Villa, Everton and so forth. These players make it harder to beat the team but would rather have negative effects for the team against Chelsea, do to the teams relience on the loanee. However, this does not seem to be the case in the loan business today. There are mainly youngsters that are being loaned out. Although they will probably benefit the receiving team with the fore mentioned effects, they are unlikely to make a serious impact. As most of the big four do this (Richardson, Djourou, Carson etc.) I do not think it is a problem. If anyone would, however, start to use this systematically to arrange results in the league, I agree it should be changed. This system is a big part in the development of players in England, and will continue to be so. I respect your argument but my conclusion is that it´s not a problem at this stage.
I don´t agree with you that Hermann Hreiðarsson will be so easily kicked out of the team. It might be a little affected by the fact that he is an Icelander like me, but he is one of the highest payed players at Pompey. He is considered to be with over 50.000 pounds a week, a wages that we wanted to pay Flamini. Hreiðarsson is also a warrior and a great leader. He has a never say die attitude and is highly rated among the Pompey fans and coaching staff. No doubt that Traore has much more talent that Hreiðarsson could dream of but I am not convinced that Traore will take his place. I hope the best for young Traore but I think it will be a hard job for him to break into the first team of this solid Portsmouth squad. But if he does become a regular part of the team, he will be ready to make a claim for a starting place at Arsenal, that´s for sure.