Arsenal are now believed to be back in the race for Fulham defender Chris Smalling after having a bid accepted by the Cottagers.
Manchester United have been in talks with the England Under 21 international since this morning and they’ve announced on their website that they had signed the player and that all but a medical is needed for the deal to be done. However, Fulham say nothing has been signed. Smalling is due at their Carrington training complex tomorrow where he will have those tests but Arsenal have now stepped in and reportedly matched the fee of around £8 million.
Life long Gooner Smalling now looks to have the final decision on any move.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Typical.
we will see!!! But I am sure ManUSA want do the same mistake again like they did with Ramsey!!!
Has the deal been completed all ready? It did seem as if Arsene was going to follow up with an improved bid.
Hardly matters though. Unless he comes back to haunt us later.
you sit there and type typical
but i bet you didnt even care if we signed smalling or not last week
Wenger the stupid idiot….. wanted to pay next to nothing. we have no ambition when it comes to signing players. i’m furious.
Oh dear…bring on the torrent of mindless Wenger abuse…
Oh.. its on Manutd.com. Official.
Man.utd were afraid this would be Ramsey all over again.
Mr Wenger why so Slow in wraping up deals?
Has anyone heard of AFC maybe signing the striker Gervinho from Ivory Coast? Who’s next on the CB shopping list?
Not according to AW’s press conference today, unless it happened while the conference was on or very shortly after it. He looked pretty confident when he talked about it being only a bid not a deal. Have you any reason to think its a done deal beyond SSN?
Revenge,
Aaron Ramsey chose us, and looks like he could be as good as Fabregas, the want revenge.
agree with you Paolo. He is so stubborn it is unbelievable!!!
Wenger needs to sort his life out!!! So sick of this stubborn side he has!
Doesn’t matter though because we have Sol and Mikael!
Oh, wait a minute. Erm, yeah.
Maybe the boy didn’t wanna come to Arsenal, but you suspect Arsene was just too slow to make a new bid.
Yeah its on the ManUtd website. Wasnt Aaron Ramsey also listed on their website until he decided that his future lay with Arsenal ? Oh I’d so love to see that happen all over again
Arsene Wenger is a cheap skate.
it was said he is a die hard Arsenal fan but never mind it is gone thx to Monsieur Wenger :-(!!!!
Man UTD have AGREED a deal. No sign anywhere of them saying the AGREEMENT has been signed or completed.
so how do you know that chris smalling wanted to come arsenal in the first place so all this wenger bashin is daft.
He’s gone, we just have to face the fact that ANOTHER transfer window of nothingness is petering out!
you will find it is not on manutd.com……..yet anyway
if we will outbid them again this would be just brillant!!!
arsenal4ever…not happening mate! So sick of this
too dam SLOW” TO BUY….
They got revenge, but we know know that Arsenal want a CB.
If you think about it then it seems we could lose Campball, Senderous, Silvestre and even Gallas at the end of the season.
We need to buy now!! if these players do not sign on then in the summer we would have to buy 2 if not 3 centre backs.
Then teams will know we are desperate and push up the price. Either wenger has faith in the likes of Nordveit, Bartley, Miguel. or we buy now.
seriously guys, he’s barely played 10 premier league games – he is not the player we need and is almost definitely not the player you wanted until fergie signed him.
what makes u think he’s any better than djourou???
Who cares? Smalling is too expensive, he is not that worthy, never 7 millions pounds or what, you can get a better player for this money…
I’m not worried about that…
Wenger deserves all the abuse he gets for his inaction regarding english talents. if smalling was a afro-france player for rennes he would have stumped out the cash.
Lets hope United only went for him because Arsenal went in for him.
And that Wenger knew this and sold them a dud.
jules this time I dont think so, too. Wenger already said now we have the most decisive part in season but he didnt sign anybody. Bloody hell we wont win anything again. I hate him more and more!!! Why can cashstrapped United outbid us? I dont get it!!
You lot should be use to this tight french twat by now, year after year its always the same transfer windows opens and close and still no quality players added to this kindergarden club, I bet sol campbell feels like a grandad in this team. For as long as this french tight pratt is in charge, we will never win any silverware, all you will get from him is “we have team spirit” how many times have we all heard this? 5 bloody years and still our trophy cabinets collect dust. WENGER OUTTTTTTTT
I have little knowledge of Smalling and have only seen him play once in the prem. But I do rate the judgment of Hodgson, if smalling was good enough now he would have maybe off loaded the sort after hangeland while retaining smalling until his value and reputation became too high for fulham. Therefore it seems the player is like many have pointed out a raw prospect….(who will cost 8m) don’t we have a few of those already and what we really need is someone who can step in now or next season and improve the team straight away, much like TV has.
dont worry guys. yea he will be a good player but if you gave bartley another 2 years from now, he might be even better than smalling. n plus there is still djourou and nordveit who are both stil young.
Why all teh Wenger abuse, dont you have respect? All for what a 20 yr old not many have seen play. Rubbish people here
I though Ivan was the one responsible for transfers, Arsene just picks the players, so if you have a gripe it should be with Ivan. Come on some of you must know how it works right, you even have JS steering you in the right direction, yet you come to the conclusion is’t Arsene’s fault… ah well, least I tried..
HAHAHA – the furious reaction on here just shows how absolutely desperate some people are for new signings. The fact is, nobody really knew the lad until it was announced we were interested. All I’ve seen of him is a game against Chelsea in which he scored an own goal and 2 years ago he was playing for Maidstone. Consider the fact that this could mean a further weakening of Utd in the short term. Can you really see Smalling moving to United and accepting being behind Rio, Vidic, Brown and Evans in the pecking order? Me neither. This tells me Utd will sell one of Rio or Vidic and I don’t think this Smalling chap is ready to step up to the first team right away.
Always remember, Wenger said that when they look for players they have 4 or 5 targets and make offers starting at #1 and working their way down. If none is available, they wait for the next window.
Either way, I don’t think we can really vent our anger at Wenger because we missed out on a player with 4 EPL appearances and who was playing non-league football 2 years ago! Get a grip, people.
we got nordveit…
Who can really say if he’s any good? Who around here is a regular at Fulham reserves games? Or are there any Maidstone fans around? If AW was interested then he must have potential, but 7 million for a Fulham backup player is crazy money.
It seems some people just want a shiny new player and don’t seem to care whether he’s worth the millions they want us to spend on him.
Smalling a player that NO ONE on this blog saw more than 2 times. Bartley is going to shut your mouths up in one year ;)
and btw, United’s bank must be celebrating ;)
i agree, Bartley looks like the real deal. If Wenger gets him out on loan for the rest of the season, he may be what we need next season.
NO matter what happens ,don`t pay a penny Arsene ,you have Eboue and Song back and also Bendtner and Nasri back,fuck the transfer window ,we will still kick the shit out of Chelsea and Manure with what we have got already,any addition in the January transfer window is blasphemy!!Please don`t buy for heavens knows what calamity will befall us if we buy in transfer Window, oh wait ,we already have Sol in!!that`s for January window ,Godbless Arsene,Silvest and Sol in the CL ,hmm !!bring it on!
Most of you need to get a grip, the abuse you are handing out to Arsene is absolutely stupid. I doubt any of you rememebr a pre Wenger AFC, let alone have been supporting our club pre 1997. Vieira, Henry, Pires, Petit, etc, etc were not big names and he made them into the players they are. Man U have probably offered him silly money to go there and I do not want a 20 year old who has barely played in the premier league on massive wages, its a very quick way to ruin our fabulous football club a la Leeds.
And who cares if they are English, French, Mongolian, or whatever, you sound like a Sun or Mail reporter. I love my club, and Arsene is the best thing that has happen to AFC since the 30’s.
I agree, Wenger’s methods can be frustrating at times, but hey do you really think 7-10m is good value when we paid 10m for vermaelen!!! So be fair and don’t write stupid comments slating Wenger without better reason or evidence
we could really have done with him. Everything i’ve heard about him says that he is going to be a top top player. He’s also 6’4 and would ahve been commanding at the back. Disappointed that we didn’t get him, but Utd must have been seriously concerned about losing out like Ramsey and made sure they completed teh deal in a day. We never seem to do that. We need to conclude deals much quicker.
i don’t understand why there is so much fuss about this deal. Some fans seem to only care about us signing someone in the transfer window. What seems to escape many is that Wenger clearly believes Djourou is a better prospect. He wanted to bring Smalling in as cover for THIS SEASON, but he saw no point in paying now for a player who won’t be available until next season when the likes of Djourou will be available then. Gallas may be aging, but Vermaelen isn’t and thus for the next few seasons we only really need someone to partner him, plus back-ups. United financed this deal with the cash they will get from Vidic, and with Ferdinand looking injury prone and past his best, they needed this signing more than we did.
looooooooooooooooooooool at all these comments.
This is the same blog where we regularly discuss the limitless potential of Bartley, Nordtviet and Ayling. The club has two of the best u25 centre backs in the world (Vermaelan and the forgotten Djourou), not to mention Song. Yet we lose out on a guy who has played a handful of games in the Premiership and suddenly he’s Beckenbauer and Wenger should get the sack.
Reports I read stated we had a 9m bid refused! That’s more than all but 6 Arsenal signings have cost! We got Vermaelan for 8m supposedly! And you guys are calling the dude stingy! The past month the sports pages have been full of talk of Utd being in 750m of debt they can’t pay off and they trumped us by bidding more than 9m for a guy who hasn’t beat Hangelaand- a guy who in the end wasn’t good enough for us- to the first team. OH NOES.
i do hope bartley comes through, but i imagine the next few on the wishlist would tasci, subotic, or maybe even jerome boateng, unless of course wenger is bringing in strictly english gents now.
So a prospect has gone to utd, we have hundreds already There is no need for people to act like we just missed out on the world player of the year!
For fucks sake what is the matter with you people? Wenger out!??
We wouldn’t have the stadium or players we do have but for Wenger. You do nothing but complain – in spite of the fact that we now have the best squad in the premier league and have scored more goals than every other team. Pathetic, mindless, juvenile, know-it-all tossers.
Bet all you moaning tits had never heard of Smalling until the last 2 weeks.
Wenger doesn’t over pay and that’s part of the reason why we aren’t in the terrible trouble that Liverpool & Man Utd are in.
This is an example of Fergie copying Wenger’s approach (buying young) because he has SO little money, but still completely overpaying. It’s a gamble on his part and Wenger obviously has other ideas in mind.
Get over it.
Jason, there’s only one twat on here mate and that’s you, why the f*ck are you so worried about Wenger not spending money? f*ck it lets do a Portsmouth, spend everything Wenger, come on, get the chequebook out, lets rack up a £700 mil debt like the manc tw@ts
get a grip you mug it’s not your f*cking money.
Aaron “who?” Hughes gets a game ahead of this Smalling character. Enough said.
Top comments Samuel, Jonny and others. So there is some sanity after all!
I despair at some of the ‘Football Manager’ morons commenting on here.
I’d rather we didn’t pay over the odds for someone who’s played about 10 games thanks. Wenger knows.
Bartley has plenty of potential.
I really don’t understand how arsenal manage to attract all these dumb ‘fans’. Smalling has only played a few games for fulham and looked OK, nothing special and suddenly he’s 7m? I don’t think so.
Also the deal will be done in the summer, this means either Man U are skint and are waiting for the Bond thing to kick in or Man U have already agreed a deal in the summer for Vidic. Because Man U really need a Defender now, think about it.
congrats to Man U for securing the deal. Y worry? we got Silvestreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
arsenal official website have removed the article on smalling
Plus we have noveit coming back, so next season we’ll have vermalen, gallas(hopefully), djourou, norveidt. Plus Song who can play there and Bartley to start blooding. That’s more than enough.
The thing is Wenger could of made in to a top ball playing centre half. the only thing we choose to do is flood our midfield of signings. but when it comes to buying in places that matter. he is to slow of the uptake. Buffon will be available. But he will be to expensive for us… According to AW, As will Dzeko. Chamakh will be decent but it shows our ambition in buying proven players. Wenger cannot deal with players Ego’s. AW reminds you of a corperate Empire he likes his ”YES Men”
Although, if Wenger was willing to go on record with his interest, and with Wenger being just about the top developmental manager in the world… you have to anticipate that Smalling has something.
Basically for me, if Wenger is disappointed, so I am – I think we might have missed out on something. But as with the Ramsey case, I’m not sure this deal is done yet.
Why can’t we just one time pull all stops to get our man. 99% of the time I absolutely love Wenger but sometimes he has to compromise!
If you want wenger out you know nothin. The fact he is not some afro french defender is the reason there is so much hype. And it is just hype. You can say we missed out but lookin at the bigger picture we have plenty of good talent comin through and 8 mil would be goin a bit mad. So grow up or f*** off we got better players younger than this bloke. You plastic gooners!
just noticed that arsenal.com have removed their article about wenger’s comments suggesting he hadn’t given up on signing smalling…pffft!
true… he’s not world player of the year so we should all calm down. The thing is us gooners hate losing out to Man U. I think that’s why everyone gets upset. I’d rather take Wenger’s approach then get into massiv debt and spend £30m on Berbatov… what a waste of money!
WOW arsenal have just had a bid accepted say ssn
JUST BEEN ANNOUNCED: SMALLING NOT YET GONE TO MAN UTD AND ARSENAL HAVE NOW HAD A BID ACCEPTED
medical and terms to be finalised
Wow… how old are some of you lot?? Fricking grow up, seriously!!
Just came on the news that Arsenal have a had a bid for Smalling accepted so it’s up to the player.
“Wenger out” prats can go back to their mums teat… it’s bedtime soon.
Talk about throwing your toys out the pram. What spoilt brats some of our supporters are. Sound like they didn’t get what they asked for for xmas.
What an embarrassing lot. Without Wenger’s transfer policy and ability to snap up bargains we would be a mid table team still at highbury. I’m sure Bruce Rioch wouldn’t have snapped up Viera, Henry, Anelka, Petit and created the untouchables.
Our new generation of fans seems to suggest that our ‘support’ will be even more groaners in the future.
Man Utd came to early again, typical of a red faced drunk OAP.
doubt that bollocks
HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO!
#
Man UTD have AGREED a deal. No sign anywhere of them saying the AGREEMENT has been signed or completed.
Arse&Nose said this on January 26, 2010 at 4:09 pm <—–
I just heard on Sky that the deal wasn’t complete and that Arsenal have had a deal accepted.
where did u hear that we had a bid accepted
Although i do check the site daily this is the first time i’ve left a reply..to those of you who want Wenger out all i can say is what team do you actually support?? This is Arsenal and we do things a little different than the other so called other bigger clubs. Wenger has given us the opportunity to build a lasting dynasty which when given time will be looked back on as possibly the greatest. Its his principle of developing youth with potential(nationality does not apply altho the lesser minds on here tend to think so), mixed with a ethos of playing breathtaking attacking football rivalled by very few. It was never going to be a quick fix but then the real fans(interested in the clubs long term glory not their own short term boasting) already know this! Anyways J keep up the good work and the rest of you with sense…it really is great to be a gooner isnt it!!!
Yeah, spend, spend, spend!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7073774/Goldman-star-Jim-ONeill-attacks-Man-United-fund-raising.html
Twats.
ARSENAL HAVE HAD A BID ACCEPTED
said who
everyone needs to SHUT UP
again the idiotic fans come out and speak pure trash
is this guy proven? NO
is he world class? NO
he has played ONE GAME where he got noticed and scored the winning OWN GOAL….and you people start chatting sh*t
wtf should wenger pay 8m for an unproven youngster in defense….when he spent 8-10 on wermaelen
people need to shut up
we buy players to improve our sqaud not to get one over on united
FOOLS
why don’t you ppl link your claims to somewhere?
can some 1 send me a link saying we have had a big accepted
Whether we sign him or not some of the people posting earlier are still retards.
Gazidis not Wenger conducts transfer business now, so he has been too slow.
If we win Wednesday we are top of the league. The reactionary clown brigade need to chill out and get their priorities straight.
Sorry got over-excited…SSN just said we have had a bid accepted. Dunno, their website says he has agreed personal terms as has Man Utd’s website. Massive LOL if this is true though. Not sure however?
these idiots are doing my head in, this is real life and real money. For all these FM gamers this is proper football management. Not an enironment where you can buy all wonderkids, owe £500m and then restart.
who cares if we get him.
david villa signing for arsenal would make jump around and get excited.
chris smalling has played 9 games for fulham. i repeat who cares!
they dont say he accepted anything they say fulham and manchester united agreed a deal… its a thing the man united admins on der site do so the press catch on and eventually the other clubs interested pull out the race.. well thats my opinion
smalling is an arsenal fan. as long as we match united’s offer he will come to us!!
fuhlam said nothing be agreed
Looks like Arsenal wanted Smalling now and Utd have let Fulham keep him for 6 months why they search the back of the sofa/beg/steal to get some money together.
Fulham say bid has been accepted, awaiting medical and personal terms
http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/January/SmallingStatement.aspx
Manure say bid accepted as well as Smalling agreeing to terms
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=%7BF9E570E6%2D407E%2D44BC%2D800F%2D4A3110258114%7D&newsid=6645696‘
Dissappointment stems from
a) losing out to ManUre in anything and for anything
b) when AW loses out on a player he wanted he can’t half miss out on some crackers i.e. Ronaldo, Cech etc.
Also as far as I can work out nordveidt isn’t starting at cb for nuremburg who are losing consistently as well, don’t bode well for his chances.
he has not signed for utd, personal terms agreed but no medical done and fulham aslo say final terms not agreed with them and utd, SKY Sprots NEws say Arsenal now have bid accepted, but hey does it really matter, he has four yes four EPL games for Fulham at 20 years of age, any of the Arsenal youths who do not have more than that before they are out of their teens is deemed a failure by most gooners, yet muppets on here want Wenger to leave if he misses out on this lad, laughable how stupid some of you are, stop calling yourselves Arsenal fans, cos you are not
The article about Smalling is still on the Arsenal website despite what a few on here are saying. It aint on the homepage anymore cause it was one of many articles taken from Wenger’s comments during todays press conference. People should really check things out before posting things like that. It wasnt exactly hard to check.
10M for a 19 year old unproven defender? Last year we wanted to pay 8 M for proven Hangeland. surly there must be cheaper and better defenders out there than Smalling for 10m?
agree with eduardo. People aren’t slating Wenger off because they think he is such a great player, I haven’t even seen him play. They just like to slate Wenger off, it’s their kind of thing.
Anonymous Hippopotamus: the point was that arsenal.com took it off the frontpage, it isn’t even in the previous stories list at the bottom of the page. Sure it is still there if you search for it, but it struck me as a little strange that they removed it from the frontpage…you should really read people’s comments before criticising them.
We offered £7m didn’t we… turned down. Wenger obviously didn’t think he’s worth more than that.
stone, people are slating wenger because of the football manager/championship manager mentality, whereby ‘experts’ are upset about the club not signing players irrespective of how good they are. These clowns think that because they can get their ‘scouts’ to ‘find’ someone on a computer game, it somehow means that it is as easy as that in real life.
I do however think it was strange for Wenger to mention Smalling and the ‘transfer saga’ in the way he did today. Not in his style, especially commenting on another club and a bid which had not been made public. Maybe he was playing mind-games, maybe it isn’t as clean cut as everyone makes out, who knows…
Well he is a 19 or 20 year old unproven cb how can he be worth more than 7M? We paied 10M for Verminator last summer? He is a very good player, but it is a shame, mame biram diouf and now smalling, seems like Fergie is doing all our cheap deals this year. Shame that is..just confirmed on the Fulham web page the deal with United is done btw….