Fran Mérida returns to where it all started tonight as he takes a place on the Arsenal bench against former employers FC Barcelona, three years after he swapped Catalonia for North London at an important cross roads in his young career. Come July, the talented play-maker will once more have big decisions to make about his future.
Having turned 20 last month, Mérida is keen to get more playing time so has subsequently stalled on talks over a new contract with the Gunners. A brand new five year ‘double your money’ deal is on the table for the Spanish Under 21 international but boy hood heroes Atlético Madrid have also put in an offer. Neither offer guarantees playing time, but Madrid’s lesser status and a return home are key advantages.
Fran has made four starts in all competitions this term with a further three appearances from the bench. He has two goals, including one against Liverpool in the Carling Cup and a key strike at the Reebok in the Premier League. Injuries have curtailed further match action but a return to the bench has come in recent weeks. Being included tonight – picked over Carlos Vela – despite the large amount of injuries, indicates just how highly rated he is.
A decision on whether the midfield maestro prolongs his stay, is expected in the summer
I think Merida will stay but if we sign an attacking midfielder in the summer then Merdia will leave for sure
Although Vela wont be too happy still he wouldn’t have played anyway above Eduardo.
it would be a shame to lose him, especially for free. i myself rate him highly, the only thing he really misses to be a first pick is pace, and there is no arguing pace is important as a first team player for arsenal.
vela is more of an forward than merida aswell, and playmakers are in abundance with ramsey and wilshere being overall stronger players than merida.
top notch player, but who would he replace?
I think he is leaving and he definately isnt free because he is still under-24. We will get a fee for him
I think Wenger will have to sit down with him and explain his future to him clearly at the end of the season and then it will be upto to merida if he wants to stay or not.
If he feels Madrid is a better option then hey why not the kid is obviously going to be great and we already have players lined up to take his place and he wont go free . WE will get something 3-5 million for him.
but if it was me then I would sign a new long term deal but I will also make sure that I am allowed to be loaned out to clubs like madrid or a EPL league club.
Not really a cross roads though is it? Stevie Wonder could see that the guy off to Atletico in the summer.
The Madrid rumours have stopped over the last few months. I think he’s clearly going to sign a new deal.
next season i think he will play more, though he may benefit from a loan move somewhere. id expect him to sign a new deal though
I personally do not think that Fran Merida will get much playing time at Arsenal, especially when he has to compete with the likes of Wishere and Ramsay etc etc IMO.
Hey this is a great article. I’m going to email this to my buddies. I stumbled on this while surfing for some new lyrics, I’ll be sure to come back. thanks for sharing.
how do u stumble across when while looking for song lyrics?
He probably knows where he stands because even after Ramsey’s injury he was never in the squad, but he’s got a massive chance today if he comes on to show his worth. Let’s hope he does well because then he’d get a run in the team.
I’d much prefer him to stay as I think he looks a really good player and is only going to get better in the future but this season we’ve signed Lansbury, Sunu, Watt, JET and Wilshere to new contracts and we’re apparently interested in 20 year old attacking midfielder Ander Herrera from Zaragoza and Eden Hazard at Lille so if he was to leave it wouldn’t be the end of the world but I’d still like him to stay.
Arsenal v Barca
Almunia-Sagna,Vermaelen,Silvestre,Clichy-Denlison,Diaby,Nasri,Walcott,Rosicky-Bendtner
Arsenal vs Barca = 4-1
Fran will sign a new contract.He has always stated that he wants to stay but has been injured recently.All contract talks are on hold at the moment..
the difference between barca and arsenal was messi and i`m pleased by the way our team approached the game,i see better days for our team
Without Messi we mite hav won bu stil good display by most de players most notably diaby and clichy. At least we lost wit only half a team. Wenger has to let Campbell and Silvestre go in the summer and buy 2 quality centre halves for cover and a top striker aswell(Chamak). Maybe the premier league bu unlikely. Up the gooners………..
How many of our youth team players do you think can be promoted together up to the first team. If not together then relatively close to one another. This is the difference between Barca and us. We might be able to win England with a whole bunch of players picked up from other teams, but to get to their level, and there sustained dominance, we have to have a strong enough youth system to be able to promote not just one or 2 but at least 3 players upwards into the 1st team. Barazite, Aneke, Wilshere, Afobe, Ayling,Bartely, and maybe one or two others seem locks to join ramsey and Merida, am I right??? This is crucial to our long term success and our aspirations of Eurpean and domestic dominance. This is only my opinion by the way. And i can see us winning England next year without having to promote anyone. But realistically, if we want to beat Barca, we have to build a team that can read each other’s every thought and potential decision. If we treat and develop our youth properly, with an eye towards first team success for our best youth, then we will achieve what we want to. Just my opinion.
I think we should sign Messi ;)
spot on!!!! We need only 200 mill € :-)!!!lol
Naaaaah..
U forgot about Xavi + Silvestre, Denilson, Nasri (lack of vision, not the right man to fill in the playmaker role) & Rosicky (What can I say, he’s just not the same player we know before his injury)..
Almunia might need to go his distribution is terrible ! We only need one center-back and one potent striker that’s it? Who’s on the clubs radar?
No Comment for Alumunium,, I’m so tired of him. Add one winger with football brain to your list please, we need another winger with Arshavin’s quality.
are u joking??? 3-4 more players desperately needed!!!
Denilson was really good tonight much better than diaby.True Diaby try but f*ck it up half the time.And why nobody try to play Theo major strength (pace) and launch ball behind Abidal who was clearly not that fit.
.Bendtner has show his best and his worst tonight.Rosicky wasn’t fit to play but we are too short in back up player now..
We really should buy this midget (don’t remember the name ;) )
Nancy or something else ,i hear he is quiet good and score 4 goal in some match in the last few hour.Ho i forget he is not 10 foot tall and build like Tyson so probably not that good
As Gray say,Barca was to much better than us without the ball.
In my opinion the two players who have suffered near carreer ending injuries Rosiky & Eduardo are shadows of their former selves. It is quite sad to see how little confidence and fight Eduardo has left in him. He is still one of my favorite players but it is possibly time for either a loan move or a permanent move to get him going again. It would seem the only reason for retaining Rosiky would be to keep Fabrigas happy..
There were some strong Arsenal performances last night but Silvestre is well past it. I would also have a strong doubt about the commitment of Denilson again he failed to track back for two of the goals and gave up running on another.
arsenal had their
best defender injured – gallas
best midfielders- song and fabregas
best forward – van persie
how well would barca do against our full strength team with messi, xavi and iniesta all out
not very well i would prodict.
Rosicky is there because he is still a great player and adds some experience that we need in this young side. For that reason Rosicky should say for many years and will go down as a very good player for the club.
Im not sure what Gallas is up to with his contract, I think he might go. That would leave us short in defence. Definitly going to have to buy.
Rosicky is an absolutely outstandig player when he is at his best. I was maybe the man of the match at Saturday, allthough he didn’t play very well yesterday. I still have faith in him, and iI believe he will be an important player next season.
Barca hunt for the ball like a pack of wolves when they don’t have it. We are clueless when we don’t have it. Not enough is done to win it back. That is the one and only thing i envied about Barca last night. Arsenal lack hunger at times, it’s annoying.
Also, Wenger messed up on his team selection for both games. Period.
So how do you think should’ve played in stead? Wenger didn’t have too many choises.
spot on!! He needed to change tactics after we got the lead but he didnt!!!
http://www.novosti.rs/code/navigate.php?Id=129&status=jedna&vest=167300&title_add=PS%C5%BD%20krade%20crnogorski%20biser&kword_add=mladi%20fudbaleri%2C%20veljko%20batrovic
J, could you give us some information on this? According to this article, he trained quite a while with us and was even named man of the match in some friendly with Tottenham (2-2, two assists), with PSG also very interested (?) — Google serbian->english translation
J.,
I just read on another Arsenal site that Vela lost his passport and that’s why he was not in the squad. If this is true then maybe it wasn’t a straight preference for Merida over Vela. Maybe both would’ve been included…maybe Vela would’ve still stayed in London, but the point’s unclear with the news about his passport.
All that aside, as Paulinho said, “even Stevie Wonder could see” that Merida is gone in the summer. A 5-year double your money offer is good to hear, but if was enough Merida would’ve have already jumped on it. He’s going and its a shame for the club. This kid is an exceptional player. And what a joy it would have been to watch him fight it out with Wilshere, Ramsey, and the other esceptional young midfielders at the club.
Still, without him we are left with Cesc, Diaby, Song, Nasri, Denilson, Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere, and JET. All of them between 19 and 23 years of age.
Four of those youngsters were on the pitch against the greatest club team in the world last night. The softies will crawl from under their rocks criticizing the club, the boss, and the players for what will likely be another trophy-less season this year. But perspective must be brought to the players relative levels of development.
People don’t realize that the problem against Barca wasn’t that we don’t yet have a Messi in the squad…yes Messi is a genius probably still the best in the world, but we have our own young genius in Cesc, granted playing a very different role. But the problem is that at Arsenal we don’t yet have a Xavi or an Iniesta. Two or three more exceptionallly talented and vastly experienced players to accomodate our best player’s abilities.
Are such players emerging in the current Arsenal set-up? I think its certainly possible in Diaby, Song, and Nasri in the short term, and probably Ramsey and Wilshere in the longer term. It would be difficult and very expensive to change course and try to buy such players. How many of them are out there…Hamsek in Italy, Yoann Gourcuff at Bourdeaux, Ribery at Bayern, Wesley Schneijder at Inter. Who are the other world class midfielders that could come to the club with the talent that would be worth trashing the work and investment we’ve already put into our own emerging young stars? And every member of the group I’ve just listed is easily in the 20+ million range, and Gourcuff is probably in the 30+ million range.
I know the bitter humiliantion in Barcelona yesterday has many fans and even the boss talking of buying this summer but I do not think it shoudl be in the creative or attacking midfield areas. We should buy a new keeper (Hugo Lloris of Lyon is my pereferred choice—at 23 he’s the best young keeper in Europe), a center back (honestly, don’t have any strong ideas yet), and a striker but it looks like that’s already been done if the rumors of Chamak’s pending agreement are to be believed.
Outpass your opposition, flood one side of pitch with most of your players to help this possession and overload the far post for any crosses. Simple.
I think Diaby is still not good enough to partner Fabregas in midfield. I’m not saying Diaby’s bad, because believe me I’ve seen him since he joined and he’s developed fairly well, but we need someone with experience to combat the midfield alongside Song and Fabregas, someone with hunger and determination. Denilson and Nasri yesterday didn’t track back at all, and when Diaby did he was clumsy and most times he didn’t get back quick enough.
Tony,
Not saying Diaby is great at the moment. He’s not. He’s a young player who has improved tremendously this season but still has a ways to go. My point is this…who is out there at an appropriate price that has the kind of talent that is worth trashing all the time and money we’ve invested in Diaby, Nasri, Denilson, and Walcott?
Are there players with more talent and more experience out there…yes…you better believe it. But they will cost us money, and will their contribution be so superior to those we already have that we can justify throwing the years and pounds in the garbage that we’ve put into the players we’ve chosen to develop.
Who can you think of that would’ve won us the tie against Barca yesterday…keeping in mind that Cesc, Gallas, Van Persie, and Song were all injured. Gourcuff, Sneijder, and Ribery…big maybe. But all these players cost would cost a fortune. I’d think it’s workth if for a 23 year old Gourcuff or a 22 year old Hamsek, but for a 27 year old Sniejder who’s never before performed to the level he’s at this year…? I don’t know.
IMO, there just aren’t a lot of players out there that are worth usurping the work we’ve already done with our own players.
What about Hazard?
I’m not talking about a playmaker like Hamsik or Gourcouff, I think Arsenal need a proper strong, tall, powerful midfield engine who works for the ball with grit and determination.
I’m just hoping loads of talents emerge from the World Cup this year and we’ll snap a few up, like we did with Rosicky and Arshavin, albeit several months later.
J, do you have any news on the Nike U15 Cup, It started yesterday. Arsenal are in group with Aston Villa, Blackburn, Portsmouth and Newcastle.
All we need is to wait a bit for some players to develop. If Diaby doesn’t work out, we still have Ramsey. I just hope he can still play as well as, and improve upon his level of play like he has been even though he broke his leg. That is my biggest worry about the midfield. For me it is a bigger long term worry, than if Fabregas decided to leave. I can see Ramsey at his best as being a more refined Gerrard. He has the tenacity to tackle and defend, he has a great engine, and he can pass and get into the box to score. He also has a good shooting range. I can see him Song and Cesc in the same midfield together. I can also see him, Diaby and Song in the same midfield together if Cesc leaves in the next FEW years. For me, the midfield next year will be all about the health and development of the players that we CURRENTLY HAVE. This is the way it should, and has to be. If we happen to add one or two more players, then great, but I don’t think we need them at all. And like i said before way at the top of this blog article, the players whom we have in midfield have to bve able to develop the understanding that ALL THE BARCA midfielders have with one another. We might see this if and when the youth team players like Wilshere, Merida, Henderson Aneke etc come through. This intuitive and innate understanding of each other’s offensive and defensive movement is crucial. As well as the ability to make quick decisions in the more congested areas of the midfield. Song and Fabregas and Diaby can do this to some degree, but it has to be further perfected!! This is all I have to say lol.
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/5280098/
Wellington Silva starring
“When you play, there’s no such thing as small team – big team, all the games you play, you have to take seriously”
A statement that he exemplifies in the way he plays the game. A statement that reaffirms my hopes for his illustrious future in the game and as a Gooner.
Tony,
…ok, I understand where your coming from, but waiting for such players to emerge isn’t good enough. I mean think about it, the WC is the biggest tournament in the world, but all the players we’ll see are ones we already know about. They are the best in the world already.
I don’t see anyone among them at the position you speak of thats worth trashing the time and money we’ve spent developing Song and, to a lesser exten, Diaby into such players. Keep in mind too we’ve got JET coming on behind them and young Chucks Aneke coming on behind him. Aneke, especially, can also play the position of big, strong man in midfield.
But truth be told I think Alex Song has developed into one of the best ball winning midfielders in the world. I can’t question his “grit and determination” over the course of this full season. He’s simply been immense. We should be happy to have him and praise Wenger for the way he’s developed him.
I’m not sure why you feel we need another “proper strong, pewerful midfield engine who works for the ball with grit and determination” when we’ve already got a great one, unless you want to get rid of Denilson and find a more talented back-up.
There’s someting to that honestly. Wenger spoke of the need for strengthening after the pasting we suffered at the Nou Camp. Song, Diaby, Nasri, Bendtner, Ramsey, Wilshere, and of course Cesc, are going nowhere. For me, Denilson is the midfielder that must watch his back this summer. If changes happen other than GK, CB, and Chamakh at striker, I think it’s Denilson’s midfield spot that is most vulverable for an overhaul.
I thought arsenal missed aaron ramsey against barcelona. Dont get me wrong diaby, nasri quality players but they cant control a midfield.
Ramsey if he was playing would have kept the ball much better and linked up play. Hes a bit like xavi can shield the ball from 2 or 3 defenders.
Arsenal need wingers we really do. Wide players are a must especially on the left we really do lack someone who can get the ball do a trick get past players slip balls through or get shots on. We got too many central based midfielders which is why we get congested alot in midfield and why we looked so narrow
Everybody saying arsenal missed players yes ofcourse we did we missed Gallas, Fabregas, Song and Van persie but we are ARSENAL we are suppose to be an elite club and Barca missed players too Zlatan, Pique, Pyoul so we can’t complaint about Players being injured.
What I am happy about is that wenger has finally conceded that we need a bigger squad and we have one of the biggest transfer kitties available and rather than looking to increase our attacking prowess we need to focus on defense and goalkeeper
Alumina doesnt make anybody confident in front of goal and Fabianski is worse than Mannone and Tech9
Sol can fill in for a game or two but not half the season and Silvestre is past his years
Song is the only true DM player we have Denilson is not ruthless enough to be a DM he can fill in at the Gilberto Silva role.
Maybe a Messi type winger wont be a bad addition and only two come to mind Turan and Hazard anyone of them will be a good addition.
I dont think that we can solve all these problems in a year but we can atleast do all of this in two or three years.
Next years transfer window –
Goalkeepers – Sell Fabianski and buy Neur or Alder or Loris or Aginfeev
Defense – Release Silvestre and buy Hangeland
DM – Buy Blaise Matudi or get Maxime Gonalons for free
Winger – Buy Eden Hazard or Turan
I think he can hold of buying till the next summer window
BUT he has to invest in a new keeper and a new defender like Hangeland as for DM Maxime Gonalons he wil be free this summer with a small amount of compensation for Lyon.
This wont cost more than 20-25 million and wages can be covered but departing players like Fabianski and Silvestre maybe even Sol
Maxime Gonalons isnt free in summer. He has extended his contract until 2014!!!
Yeah they missed those three players but they were replaced by a very promising young striker who’s on the fringes of the Spanish national team and may just make the WC squad for them. They replaced their two CB’s with Mexican and Argentine internationals who can still do a very good job.
We replaced our CB with a Man Utd reject who is easily two years past being a player who can do it at the top level (something Ferguson knew, hence the sale to one of his biggest rivals) and hasn’t played for a couple of months so was always gonna be desperately off the pace of the game, and it showed. We would have seriously been better off starting Sagna at CB with TV and Eboue at RB if Sol, like Wenger says, wasn’t fit enough to start this game. It’s ridiculous and what many a true Arsenal fan has beef over with Wenger. He thinks he can do EVERYTHING on the cheap.
There is no better manager in world football who can run a club as successfully as he can on the budget he has but every now and then you have to pay that little bit more for that quality that’s needed. He did it with Arshavin last season where we struggled to keep pace with Villa for fourth. It ended up saving us our top four status.
Though I can’t really see Ramsey having made much of a difference against Barca (…they are the best team in the world) I have to say, I agree completely with John’s point about wingers. It’s right on the money. At present we only have Walcott that can serve as a proper winger. I feel Vela has potential to develop into a winger but, honestly, if it was going to happen the transition would’ve started by now.
I have great hopes for Wellington Silva possibly becoming a top winger. I know he’s showing great promise as a striker in Brazil’s top-flight but his size and pace may be more appropriate for the wing in the Prem. But alas…he’s still only 17 years old. Who knows what will become of his development.
he doesn’t play centrally he play on the left as a winger and in the last game he was the one who provided the cross for the second goal.
He’s more of a winger that likes to come in and either provide the final ball or go for the goal himself.
Diaby is still a good player but he needs to work on his passing and often when he gets in shooting positions just at the edge of the box he decides to pass a short ball to another player even if he doesn’t have the space to shoot hisself.
its not a centre midfield player we need it is a winger wo stretches teams. people like xavi and iniesta have players similar to them in the arsenal team (fabregas, nasri) but when arshavin is on the left ther is little width. we need to play a 4-4-2 as it gets more players in he box like when henry and bergkamp was at arsenal. In the last month when eboue played right back and wallcott played right mid, the team has looked impressive. It would be better if arsenal plays nasri more centrally.
angel di maria would do wonders for arsenal.
I partly agree with your opinion about a 4-4-2 but while it solves problems, it forms others.
For example, yes we have Song, but Fabregas isn’t exactly a midfield engine and it would work better if we had two central midfielders who worked tirelessly for the ball.
Secondly, Eduardo and Vela are two strikers who play much better in a 4-4-2, but with that, we are leaving out Ramsey, Denilson and Diaby as back up for Fabregas and Song in midfield, which will never work, not forgetting that you prefer Nasri in a central role. That makes it even worse.
4-4-3 works we really dont have any winger who cross and Fabregas can be better involved this season.
We should turn to 4-1-4-1 formation against top teams to stop them from counterattacking.
I think we’ve used 4-1-4-1 one or two times already. It only works depending on the striker’s form though, e.g. there is no way we could win a match with that formation if it was Eduardo or Vela up front. (Or Bendtner when he plays shit).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYMYKucPsiA&feature=fvw
Anyone?
What do you think Djourou? I really like this lad and I think with Vermaelen playing alongside him he can really form a solid patnership but what do you think of him? Do you think he’s good enough to start week in and week out?
Also I did some research about who is available to us next season for the CB position I Know newspapers are talking about us signing Hanglenad but Hangleand and Subotic have just signed new long term contracts so they wont come cheap and I doubt Wenger will pay over the odds for either of them.
Bonnuci and Boateng are the players who’s contract expire in 2012 and they are sure to leave their small clubs for big european ones(no disrespect to Hamburg) . These players are more likely the ones Wenger will go for and I think any one of them will be a great addition to our squad. I would although go for Bonucci (can play with both right and left feet and very good technically)
I think with Djourou fit and Vermaelen. Gallas, Sol and Bonnuci or Boateng in our squad I think we should be all set for next year in defense and hopefully with the sale of Fabianski and buying of someone like Loris, Aginfeev, Neur or Alder we should be all set for next season and ready to take one Barca in CL final and produce match of the century.
Djourou will be back to training in two weeks…
Djourou and gibbs are back should be fit in 2 weeks.
Wellington silva he looks brilliant but hasnt he got the visa problem and he will only to come to arsenal when he becomes 18.
Arsenal have a 4-3-3 system but we dont play proper wingers. We have been succesful but sometimes we look predictable and we also look slow. Oleg Luzhny was right this team lacks pace and strength overall.
You look at cesc, song, denilson, nasri in midfield its looks really slow.
We need a marc overmars someone who can break a tight defence.
we have Walcott and we are one of the deadliest clubs on a counter attack
Remember Eboue goals in the Porto game. I think Barcelona play a more fluid game than us. They make more passes than us and move the ball forward more quickly.
But I agree we have one true winger and that’s just Walcottothers are AM players who play on the wing when needed.
Everyone is telling me that Djourou is back in 2 weeks but noone has answered my question yet?
“What do you think Djourou? I really like this lad and I think with Vermaelen playing alongside him he can really form a solid patnership but what do you think of him? Do you think he’s good enough to start week in and week out?
Also I did some research about who is available to us next season for the CB position I Know newspapers are talking about us signing Hanglenad but Hangleand and Subotic have just signed new long term contracts so they wont come cheap and I doubt Wenger will pay over the odds for either of them.
Bonnuci and Boateng are the players who’s contract expire in 2012 and they are sure to leave their small clubs for big european ones(no disrespect to Hamburg) . These players are more likely the ones Wenger will go for and I think any one of them will be a great addition to our squad. I would although go for Bonucci (can play with both right and left feet and very good technically)
I think with Djourou fit and Vermaelen. Gallas, Sol and Bonnuci or Boateng in our squad I think we should be all set for next year in defense and hopefully with the sale of Fabianski and buying of someone like Loris, Aginfeev, Neur or Alder we should be all set for next season and ready to take one Barca in CL final and produce match of the century.”
Well he’s made 42 league appearances for Arsenal so Wenger must see something in him, but for me I haven’t seen anything from him for so long because of his injury, to be honest I can’t remember how well he played. :S