Arsenal have stepped up their enquires into Tromsø’s 20-year-old Senegalese powerhouse Kara Mbodj.
Scandinavian based official Bobby Bennett was in the stands to watch the versatile defender on Sunday, and now Chief scout Steve Rowley will make further checks as he completes a week long stay in Norway. The Gunners have significantly stepped up their coverage of the Norwegian leagues, with several Premier League club’s making Nordic purchases in recent seasons.
Mbodj has had an impressive start to his career with Tromsø, mostly featuring in central midfield after a transfer from the Diambars Academy in Senegal last February. The Foundation was setup by former Gunner Patrick Vieira, and Arsenal have kept an eye on the progress of the youngsters within that side. Kara is one of the first notable players to achieve success and many believe he has a solid future in Europe.
Although he’s featured in central midfield during his time in Norway, Mbodj is actually a centre back who can play the holding midfield role if needed. At 6 foot 3 inches tall, he cuts an intimidating figure.
However, plans to continue watching Kara with the view to a possible transfer have hit the buffers, after he sustained an injury and is expected to miss the next few weeks. Rowley’s checks will now involve gathering information from his trusted sources in Norway about the player, not viewing a match personally, as initially planned.
A deal may not be on for this transfer window, but Arsenal will no doubt maintain a keen eye on the players development.
Presumably this will not be a reserve-team signing? More of a back-up to Song i’m guessing…
wheres pedro botelho JS?
He’s on holiday.
Interesting. Impressive build but I will hold my judgment for the time being.
Bet Bobby Bennett’s watched Anthony Annan a fair few times
Hes a wonderful player.
NO, he’a a very stationary player. We need a mobile player backing up Fabregas, not a player in danger of getting parking tickets during the games!
What? Why would we even need a backup for Cesc? We have like 3-4 quality players who would kill to play in his role whitin the squad to cover for him already.
I thought Kwadwo Asamoah was better than Annan for Ghana anyway, think he’d be a great signing for Arsenal
Intresting! I wonder if Bennet is also keeping an eye on Linus Hallenius from Hammaby in Sweden. He has been god-like this season.
And he should be with a name like that!
Hahah right!
From a norwegian who follows the Norwegian Tippeliga: Kara has been a revelation this season. Strong and powerfull in the tackle, covers a lot of ground defensively. He`s been tooted as signing of the season so far.
I`ve seen him live on a couple of occasions, and the sheer size and physique of this monster is impressive.
Needs some work on his long-range passing and has not been impressive in his offensive adventures though
Why can’t he be 6 years older, and have top flight experience? He sounds like exactly the player we need otherwise.
JS so what is going to happen with Pedro Botelho?
Botelho is on vacation, per J.
Oh why God, can we not scout someone I can pronounce the name of? Koscielny, the Silent H and now this?
Well it make live more interesting don’t they..
JS – Any update on the following?
Botelho (work permit)
Galindo (Loan move)
Martinez (has he signed? will he be available this season?)
Botelho is on vacatoin, per J.
Ronan you’ve written that twice and neither times did it actually serve any useful purpose.. J, I would also appreciate it if you had any info on basically what Samuel asked.. Also what do you think is likely to happen in with Wellington Silva when he arrives in Jan – do you think we will have to loan him out or would we be able to get him in the same way we managed with Denilson?
Thanks
Dan, and does it mater that he wrote it twice? was it bashing the young guns site? J’s great writing and reporting? no so let it be, its not your website to moderate so please my friend, relax and take a smoke break if needed.
Botelho – on holiday
Galindo – no loan move yet
Martinez – will be Under 18 goalkeeper this season
Dan, if you actually read the comment you would see I wrote exactly what J said in response to a previous comment. Twit.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Arsenal Step Up Scouting Of Defender Mbodj | Young Guns - Arsenal Reserves & Youth News -- Topsy.com
sorry no samuel, silly me, I meant what bc asked!
I’m sure he’ll be pleased by the interest – Tromso in winter must be a bit cold.
What’s happened to the under-19s? France are sailing – well, they looked to be earlier – and England are on the way home?
Droll to see chelsea hammered 3-1 by Ajax. Maybe they were playing their kids?
Any news – or rumours – on the players we hoping to sell, Simpson, Randall and – alas, at least for some of us – Barazite?
i hope bara goes on loan to a good premiership club so he can show wenger what he can offer…
Good old Patrick Vieira lol. It would be perfect if a player from his academy signed for us. Really symbolic!! I hope he turns in to a great player regardless of where he plays or what team he signs for!!:) It would be good for the academy and Patrick himself.
I don’t get the impression Wenger is going to change his mind about Barazite, so a loan deal in England probably isn’t the best thing for the player any more. He needs a decent club, perhaps in Holland, where he’ll be valued and can get his career underway. Sad to say.
You’re probably right.
Its insane the number of chances theo and even players like simpson have been given compared to barazite, when I don’t see how they’re better. Barazite has fantastic control and from what I could tell was one of the best finishers to come out of the youth teams (?). He learned to play several positions and always showed good teamwork. I dont know what he has done wrong to be honest.
Hello from Austria…
Today Traore went off with a susp hamstring. AA23 went off in the moring session, and did not show up in the afernoon work out. JET was awsome (very good) and must have a future in Arsenal. He is a cool finisher, and is the boss in the air. Only Vermaelen could handle him. But also the new boys Cha29 and Kos6 show some good signs today. Diaby told me he was fit from his calf, and maybe could play on tuesday. Vela, Eboue, Diaby, Clichy, Sagna and Song did not touch the ball this afernoon, only runing and some gym. Henderson, Eastmond, and Landsbury did not show up at all today. Almunia answer the quiz about this season : “Ask me again in december” (???) AW tried to pratice his pass and move game, but we lack of good passes in front of goal. Theo tried 10 times but fails to hit Cha29 and JET from his right wing. Frimpong did it better, and Håvard too… ITs worries me a lot… Jack W and Gibbs did OK from the left wing… WE need someone who pass well in front of goal…!! (the last deadly pass, behind the defence) Do you guys knows someone ??
Thanks mate thats some nice info! Im happy to hear that JET is doing good!
I agree on the delivery thing. We need a proper winger badly. Walcott often seem so lost i really feel sad for him. He is no winger. He should be played down the center on not played at all, atleast against lesser teams who parks the buss
Being a striker doesn’t excuse being a poor passer.
Van Persie, Henry, Bergkamp, Kanu, Wiltord — these guys were/are strikers but they’re all versatile and can create as well as score. Probably the last striker we had who played regularly and basically was just a finisher was Wright.
Theo needs to improve that side of the game and the best place to do that is on the wing
Does Walcott ever practise distribution/accuracy with the ball on his own after training ?
He has been way way of the level required at top level with his passing accuracy up to now.
Frank Lampard used to say how he would practise against a wall with maybe 3/4 different markings on it for hours on end until he could hit each target at the drop of a hat, varying the distance all the time…..
Walcott simply doesnt have the physique or the close control to play through the middle unfortunately in my opinion
SuperMac, blimey, Walcott’s crosses seem to get worse every year! JET is going to be a shock to defenders. He’s like some kind of oak tree that’s wandered down off the Austrian mountain and started practising step-overs.
Is Traore for sale? Last season there was talk of him going to PSG?
I think traore just said he like PSG and the papers starting making up stories about him leaving. I dont think hes leaving any time soon.
thanks SuperMac !!
and of course
thanks J
Do we know anyone who could do Walcott’s job better? Yup, what about Barazite.
If you want to see Eduardo’s presentation at Shaktar, Red London has the video up. Really sad, but I hope it goes well for him.
Will Alex Song have the number 9 next season ? In the Austria news bulletin on arsenal.com you can see him wearing a training shirt with the 9.
the players wear random numbers in training
Bendtner will probably have 9 – he asked Eduardo last season if he could have it, before he settled on 52.
I doubt he will be changing again this season. And random numbers in training? Really?
Thanks for update SuperMac, can I ask which players have impressed you most over there in both playing and attitude ? Can you see any conflict between the keepers or is everything being kept professional, whatever people think Almunia he seems to be a decent bloke, a gentleman of the game
Hi NZGooner.
I dont like to judge too much in the preseason. Like before in preseason, the young ones impress me most. Henderson, Nordtveit, JET, Jack W and Frimpong show great stuff. But about the keepers I can not see any/feel any bad conflicts. I feel Szezesny and Vito are in good mood, and Almunia seems more sad, but people are/act different. They all are working hard. I like Almunia a lot, but we need topclass goalkeeping. Almunia has to improve his game – week in week out. I am sure we can win the PL with Almunia. All gooners must give him full support and stand behind. It will help him a lot… If AW buys a new keeper – OK for me, but today we have 4 and all we can do are to help them….!
Hi supermac – Can i ask if theo is showing any kind of ability out there and what is it? Do u see him dribble past players or do anything special apart from run fast
Cheers
Doubt it.
“or do anything special apart from run fast”
He can stop quite quickly too :P
we need players that wont go to ACN every other year . Already Song goes to ACN and we are left weak in a crucial time of the season . ade was a bit better cux togo didnt go far in ACN . too bad he turned out to be a cunt . hope Frimpong Eastmond improve to cover for Song
Its far too early too judge players.
Of course the younger players will be eager to impress cause they want to prove they are good enough guys like walcott, nasri, djourou, vermaelen are just thinking of getting fit and being in good shape for the premiership
good player by the looks of it
arsenal should try and do a deal by the end of the transfer window
we can use a player like him in our midfield
Well physically he’s the type of player I’ve been saying we need so hopefully we can get something done. Even if he’s capable of playing 10-15 games next season it will go a long way to allowing Song to have a bit of a rest when needed.
Apparently the signs are good about Sol re-signing next season as well. Wenger has admitted we need another defensive player recently as well (hopefully that means even if Sol re-signs). Starting to feel better about our squad being rounded off before the season starts.
Replacing Almunia with an experience GK would be gravy but not a necessity. Not a huge Schwarzer fan even tho he’s an Aussie. I feel a lot of mid-table GK’s get a free ride while the GK’s who play for the top teams get scrutinised a lot more. And that couldn’t have been more evident with Green. Because *every* game counts for the top teams GK’s are critisized a lot more. Imagine if Schwazer made that howler he did in the last game of the season for us. He wouldve been crucified if it was a title-decider.
J has Chesney changed his squad number to 26?
Seems to be wearing that number in most of his trainin pictures
We won’t go for Schwazer. Why would we? Last season’s stats show he was only 1 point better than Almunia, so it would be a complete waste of 3 million. I know why the papers are always saying a deal is imminent: he’s a Premiership player and therefore they’ve heard of him – like they said we were going to sign Green, then Hart, etc., etc. Anyway, Wenger confirmed it last week, and Arshavin said a couple of days ago that it’s not on the cards.
Fabianski worries me. Sure, he’ll probably do brilliantly pre-season. He always does. A couple of years ago, I saw him in a friendly game against some lowly club and he made more stunning saves than Buffon or Casillas could have managed. The trouble is, he can’t do it in the big games where the pressure is on. We’ve seen this again and again. How many more seasons are we going to watch him fall to pieces in a Carling Cup semi or – worse – a CL quarter-final when our first choice keeper is unavailable? I’d prefer Almunia as no. 2 and Szczesny to get a chance as first choice. At least Szczesny should improve daily from the experience, even if it’s a bit costly at first.
Is it true our goal-keeping coach is leaving?
another shit black player
and people call you racist
james hinde clearly talking out of his
what a first class knob!!
Read an interview in a norwegian paper where he says his dream is to play in PL and he has learnt English as well. He has had a fantastic season with Tromsö but the interesting thing is that he has hidden the extreme pain he must have had from this injury for quite some time according to the medical staff who finishes off with the words “…and it puts his efforts on the pitch into even greater perspecitves”. He seems like a really talented guy!