Arsenal have made tentative enquires with Romanian outfit CFR Cluj regarding their teenage striker Lacina Traoré. The Ivorian powerhouse has been priced at £3.5 million by chairman Iuliu Muresan.
The 19-year-old 6 foot 8 inch (208cm) striker is yet to impose himself on the Cluj first-team on a regular basis but his explosive talent is starting to become known around Europe. Muresan confirmed to the Romanian publication “Prosport” that the club are waiting for the Gunners to firm up their interest with an offer.
“We’ve had contact with Arsenal, but we have not yet received any concrete offer.”
Lacuna came through the Jean-Marc Guillou Académie de Sol Beni in the Cote d’Ivoire, before moving to Stade d’Abidjan after graduating. Four goals and a collection of assists in just ten matches convinced Cluj to pay a nominal fee and bring the leggy striker to Europe. Now in his third season, Traoré has stuck five goals in eighteen games.
A tall, rangy forward who can play as a central target man or across the forward line in a 4-3-3, Traoré is possibly a little light weight to play in the Premier League straight away so a deal which would involve the Ivorian staying on loan with his current employers until the summer would be a little more favourable for both parties. You can watch a video of Lacina in action below.
Goal One – Goal Two
Article By – J.Sanderson
He looks a prospect but he needs to toughen up bulk up i feel but hes 6ft 8 we definitely need someone of that height.
JS u got inside info who arsenal are looking at?
Dembele? Nikola Zigic on loan? Llorente of Bilbao 6ft 5 big powerful?
Steffan kiessling? Pierre gignac?
He is going to be Arsenal’s first basketball player.
Ok… this has deffo captured my imagination… this chap is an absolute monster
Who else are we looking at, I would be pleased if we signed him.
If Wenger is looking at a young, imposing, talented but unproven striker he should rather be looking at Romelu Lukaku from RSC Anderlecht.
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6 foot 8… sorry… but you cant teach size… if Arsene can teach Adebayor to score 30 goals in a season… he can make Traore a world beater
6 foot 8 !!!!!!!!!!
Ah…Jean-Marc Guillou, isn’t that the man behind the ASEC/ Beveren co-operation? So he has got a new academy now?
if he likes to shoot as much as the clips show that would be great… and he looks quite strong already (well, not quite a drogba…that’s a beast) so if he bulks up a bit more and could learn the arsenal way – but continues to love to shoot – he’d be great. i assume he could jump and make some headers, flips etc… looks good and at 3.5m, come on!
6 ft 8 (208 cm)?! is’nt that a lil bit too tall? I mean, even peter crouch (who is only 201 cm) having a hard time on finding the target w/ his header. However, If he is better than Bendtner (during the same age), I say bring him here!!
i get the feeling there might well be some real weight behind this link. let’s hope so.
Working late huh JS? :)
Two absolute scorchers with two different feet. Impressive.
I said we were looking at this guy like 5 articles ago.
We don`t need a promising African to break in couple of next seasons. We need a ready made striker to score goals and fight with premier league centre halfs in the tip of our 4-3-3 right away. Carlton Cole would be perfect! Price wise also. Injury prone? Yes, but if he could make it could make it until may Bendtner should be in shape by then.
I watched him play in the uefa cup vs kobenhavn and sparta spraha. He has good ball control and had a couple excellent finishes. He is more mobile then you would think but isnt a strong as you would think. We be happy if we signed him as a project but not ready for much more then that.
sign sign sign
There is no way if very signed him, that he would want him to stay on loan. They are out of the uefa cup so i doubt the Romanian league is the best place for him to progress. Also he is a very raw talent and needs to get under Wengers training asap.
Daniel Cousin is joining QPR on loan from Hull. He’s currently at ACN, but will probably serve as Jay Simpson target-man when he returnes. He’s certainly an upgrade over Patrick Agyemang. I can only think it’ll help Simpson to be around more quality players.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12874_5837460,00.html
looking at his body figure, he’s really gonna be a monster when he matures. it’s like a giant drogba. he may be raw, and i think wenger shouldn’t let him slip. this guy has a great pace too.
get balotelli or agbonlahor.. cm on spend 25m – 30m and get d best out of the lot…. though i knw arsene is not d type to do dat… but ds guys r rly good… and also young… other options can be
Briand or Neymar or detinho also eden hazard… de r very fast and also goal scorers specially neymar and briand…
well i dont mind if he gets traore cz hez young and has the potential to be a very good striker in the future…more imp, hez fast and nt a lazy bum lyk adebayor.. and 3.5 wud be a good bargain
Maybe will become a future icon for Arsenal. Bulk up your muscle & become the next DIdier Drogba for Arsenal by Bullying Opposition Def with POWER, AERIAL ABILITY, & SPEED!!!
The official CFR Cluj website says he is 203cms tall
i would like arsenal to buy him his longshot are superb he hits it with alot of power
i like the ultra long stride. That makes him very difficult to mark. At 19 he comes at a abetter age than Adebayor who I suspect was very difficult to change/reshape.
J – Have you got any update on the Zezinho transfer? thanks
now this is pissing me off . wenger only go’s fot young players but for him to replace van persie’s goals he wouldnt even get 1 he is so crap
cant he just buy a good striker bloody hell the highest he has ever bought a player was 13m like come on
and he is sayin manchester city and chelsea are cheating
how are they thats what normal teams do the by normal players noy yng players every bloody time
like we have no chance of winnig a trophy this year
evrery one says are youth team is good
if it is so good why did manchester city hammer us 3-0 ffs wenger
ike he is playing in the romainia league dats a crap legue
this is bullocks
james hinde ur an idiot
he’s 1,98 m not 2’08 m !!!!! And VELA will be the best player in the coming years.
just heard a (wild?) rumour that we’v signed Cole with Wilshere going there as a loan signing. Cole to be presented Monday.
James hinde said this on January 7, 2010 at 11:57 am
Why do you even bother to read this blog when you show no interest in new and promising prospects for Arsenals youth system. In case you didn`t know this blog is about Arsenal youth and youth only. Go complain some other place, your comments are not needed here.
…and to the guy mentioning Lukaku of Anderlecht as a possible signing: I`m pretty sure Wenger, everyone working in Arsenal, everyone else involved with any decent club in Europe, everyone playing FM and everyone even remotely updated on the most promising youth players in Europe already know about Lukaku… …. and that makes it very difficult to sign him unless you are prepared to splash a lot of cash. Can`t really see Wenger doing that, and I also think his family wants him to stay in Anderlecht a while longer..
Thanks J, love your blog!
Put some weight on him through strength training and weights. Five pounds of muscle mass will do him well. Good 6’8. Wow, a force in the middle. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
great! Cole? Pffft…yet another chelsea reject. And an injury prone one at that. Better just be a rumour.
6 foot 8 inch is 203cm
holy shit!!! When i heard 6ft 8ins I thought he would look like crouch but he is moving lika a basketball player. Like ade. He is looking awesome!
Watt and Sunu is looking very very promising for me but murphy and simpson looks like they don’t have what it takes to make it. i still have hopes for murphy but this tall guy is looking so great.
according to his wikipedia profile, Lacina is already having a medical test at Arsenal. Is this true J?
according to his wikipedia profile, Lacina is already having a medical test at Arsenal. Is this true J?
according to his wikipedia profile, Lacina is already having a medical test at Arsenal today. Is this true J?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacina_Traoré someone’s joke
He looks intresting, thats for sure.
What about this Wellington Silva kid? How good is he? Will he make it? From what ive seen he looks like a real killer.
I have a good feeling that we will get either him or lukaklu or someone of the sort as well as another more prominent 1st team striker. Why? i hope it is because bendtner has had his chips. Im not a typical bendtner hater who just sees his misses and wants him out, i stongly believe even when he matures, he will not be good enough and after a more than impressive loan spell at the brum he should have excelled alot more than he has with more impact. I think vela is at the stage bendtner was 2 years ago and he also has to prove he is worthy.
Bendtner is the 3rd biggest target striker young talent in the world behind Balotelli and Lukaku. I dont get why everyone seems to doubt Bendtner. He is onnly 21, of course he isnt the finished article.
shane are u insane? Bendnter is the best for his age. Higuain could be above him now. But is Lukaku playing reguarly in national team and so Balotelli?
BTW this Traore thing could go through and we will loan him back to them as he cant play in england for now. So I am pretty sure we will get a proven goalscorer aswell.
http://arsenalanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/hold-your-horses-lacina-traore-transfer.html?
here are more videos of him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFZOtCBMypk
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz-kAE7v5xA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFZOtCBMypk
Arsenal4ever- can you read? I said 3rd biggest talent. For 1, Higuain isnt a target man plus I was talking about 21 and younger. Also biggest talent inolves potential and you would be out of your mind not to rate Lukaku and Balotelli ahead of Bendtner but the point is that Bendtner is really good and has amazing potential.
Shane, you were saying that some people didn’t understand the Eden Hazard situation. I do know he is going to be a great player, however somebody already mentioned how difficult it will be to sign Lukaku because of the awarness he has created for himself around Europe, and because of the number of teams interested in signing him. This’ll obviously drive the price upwards. Although he would probably be worth it. And as for him being C. Ronaldo, yeah he is similar but I would hope he is a bit more of a team player. Although Ronaldo is growing up, United taylored their entire strategy to fit him. It worked but look at United now!! They lack so much creativity. I hope we sign Lacina Traore!! He really could be the tall guy we are missing. He’s younger than Bendtner and can be a sort of insurance policy if Bendtner doesn’t turn out. Although I think he can!!
Eden hazard has said that he only wants to play for Real Madrid or Arsenal. Yes obviously he is not a clone of C Ronaldo but anyways did you read your comment? “Look at Man Utd now”. That just shows you how good he was. I am not a fan of his but 3 straight title plus back to back champs league finals compared to how they look now and the only difference is that they lost C Ronaldo. Goes to show you that you cant let the major talents slip away when you have the chance to get them.
Bottom line Arsene and AFC should buy no one. And give Gilies Sunu and JET a run in the first team and Kyle Bartley? To much media overkill. This blog is about young guns we should stick with Arsenal Football Club present! Go Gunners
one things fo sure..wenge wants a big target man which shows that he knew that he needed to eplace adebayo..he shud have done his business in the summer..hes buying this guy because hes tight and saving cash again!..he could have brought chamakh in the summer but didnt want to shell out so now hes cup tied and he has a pefect excuse to by a cheap unknown instead..again!…
why would we want another adebayor aswell by the way??lol
i like bendtner aswell..we shud give him a chance thru the middle..hes immense there for denmark
News flash people….We do not want Chamakh. If you have ever watched him, he is very average. Bendtner is better and younger then Chamakh. Wenger is like a guy that flips cars. You buy a car that has a few issues for a bargain price. Fix the car up a little, make it look better than it really is, then sell it for 3x what you bought it for. Example Adebayor…which I believe thats what he was or will do with chamakh.
Shane I read what I wrote, I’d much rather see us play the football we are playing now instead of buying one player to hopefully fix some of the problems we have. United played like crap with Ronaldo and now they are playing even worse. By crap I mean unnatractively. Or however you wanna spell that word. If we get Hazard great!! If we don’t it’s not the end of the world. I’d rather we see how some of our own players develop, and maybe buy a striker this transfer window.
bendtner is better then chamakh,hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm NO,there both shit
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Personally, i think NB52 is going to be a brilliant player in a couple of years. Right now he’s good but in a couple of years he’ll be one of the top strikers around.
Shane – I have to agree with Milo on what he said about Ronaldo and Man Utd. If you watch Man Utd nowadays, they play pretty much the same way they have played for the past 3 years, only difference is they don’t have him to bail them out with a bit of brilliance and Rooney is a good player but not good enough to step into that role on Ronaldo’s level although he does continue to be their talisman.
a-dog – I gotta disagree with that. AW didn’t anticipate losing RVP for the whole season and he was the target man except not aerially but played into his feet. When has Wenger ever played direct high-balls to the front man? Even with Adebayor we tried to use him in the build up play with short, quick passes (much to my annoyance ‘cos he clearly never had the nous for such intricate play). For Arsenal, the lone front man’s role is to drop deep, get involved with the build-up and try to create as well as fashion out chances for himself. It’s what AW is trying to do with Arshavin right now but he has never played this role before and seems a little lost in it. NB can play it and that’s why AW said that our transfer activity over this coming month very much depends on Bendtner’s fitness.
I’ll tell you what i’m pretty sure about. Not entirely, but quite sure still. Wenger’s not gonna buy a Dzeko or Cole or any other striker for that matter any time soon UNLESS he gets rid of one of our current strikers. We have simply too many on our books to overcrowd it even more.
Many fans simply think about the here and now and want success NOW, NOW, NOW. Except buying Dzeko or a big target man does not guarantee we’ll be lifting silverware at the end of the season. Wenger’s thinking, what if i buy another big striker (let’s say Cole, for example). Then when next season kicks off, i’ll have Cole, RVP, NB, Vela, Theo, Eduardo, AA23, Rosicky, Nasri, Wilshere who would all be expecting to play when fit. Then we have Simpson, Watt, Sunu, Merida who will all be better by then and their abilities may command more action in the first-team.
That’s a MASSIVE headache he doesn’t want. Moreover, he’s thinking, in about two or three years (although he may have offloaded one or two by then) i’ll have great talents such as Afobe, Freeman and Wellington on the periphery (or, depending on how fast they develop) of the first team. The key to this management business is thinking long-term and not to go down that NOW, NOW, NOW route. That’s why there’s a common saying which states the average football fan is fickle. Many FC’s are running themselves into the ground but AW has a beautiful vision which if it comes to fruition (which may very well happen) will catapult AFC into a self-proficient, all-conquering, monster of a club for the next 50 to 100 years (maybe longer, who knows) as long as no chumps come along and ruin it with their selfish ideas, i.e. benefactors and such.
The books MUST be balanced in order to survive as a football club and AW has more responsibility than any other manager in the PL right now to be tight with the cash as he’s currently the only manager in the PL who’s club are paying off a huge debt on their new stadium. Liverpool’s plans for that have failed miserably, as have Pompey’s. The Spuds think building a new stadium, moving into it and then paying it off is a walk in the park, ha, good luck to them. Na, i hope they’re crippled by their debt and are rotting in the shallow pits of the BS Premier or some shit in about ten years time while the mighty Gooners march on from strength to strength. :)
On another note – Am i the only Gooner who would like AW to buy Kaboul as a backup CB. He’s eligible for the CL, is big, strong and fast, we could easily get him for around £3m or so due to Pompey’s financial problems. Make no mistake, they have to sell as they’re going under, (crooked ‘Arry seems to do that to all his clubs before he jumps ship, here’s hoping to he does exactly the same thing to those bloody Spuds), he’s still young for a CB and has much to learn still (what better than to do so under the tutelage of Wenger and under Gallas’ wing), and he’ll jump at the chance without commanding crazy wages. It’s a win-win situation. I only mention this as it’s clear big Phil hasn’t got much of a future here and he’s better than Silvestre and wouldn’t mind being a backup to Gallas and Vermaelan for the time being. It’s hard to find someone like that right now. Surely this must have crossed AW’s mind.
Sorry, i thought i’d get all of that off my chest before i got some kip. :)
like adebayor? :D
tj da goon never mind about the silverware,balancing the books is much more important,do you think the likes of cesc worry about arsenal balancing the books or having some medals on there mantle piece for when they retire
Everyone absolutely everyone says that we need a big target man up there. HELLLL NOOOOO. I would much rather prefer a mobile, skillful forward who can hold up the ball and link play. It would be second nature, if we brought a big man, to change our style of play, even if only a little, this would cripple us going forward, look at our stuggles over the last 3-4 years with ade and b52 up there. Van persie is perfect for that role, honestly, no one else is better, we need someone who can play there as well as wide when rvp returns. Perfect man- Zarate, Cavani. Why change a style which has worked so well this year when all we need to do is tweak. I also suspect this is why wenger has been reluctant to put b52 in the centre throughout this season, in our current system we maximise our attacking capabilities, tweak defence and midfield and we will be up for any challenge.
watsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!
buy him and buy Aden Ljajic from Partizan.He will be very cheap because Partizan needs more money
I dont care who we sign just make wenger sign a bloody player
g4eva, have you actually watched this Traore guy – he isnt Peter Crouch on anything – he is quite mobile period, not just “for a big man” – he reminds me much more of a young John Carew or Mido, who at the same stage in their careers were actually often playing out wide on the wing. yes 6 foot 6 but clearly this guy has touch and skill.
Also if you study his background he cames from an academy founded by the SAME guy who partnered with Wenger to create the ASEC Academy in Ivory Coast that produced the likes of Yaya, Kolo, Eboue and Kalou.
Arsene should sign this guy up pronto – by age 24 when he has filled out, he is going to be like Drogba but with better skills.
It’s not a signing for this season, but at that low price, it shouldnt be – no different than how Adebayor came quietly one January then exploded a year later.
Hi, great post! I really like it, your article “Video – Arsenal Make Enquires For Cluj’s Traoré”
Thanks for posting it.
Effie