Benfica have ended negotiations with Arsenal over full back Armand Traoré. The French defender has failed to agree personal terms despite previously admitting his desire to complete the transfer to the Aguias.
Traoré had a medical at the Estadio da Luz yesterday after both club’s agreed on a £3.4 million deal, with £2 million being paid up front. Arsenal had also negotiated a favourable sell on clause of around 25% but Armand’s wage demands saw the deal break down. The former Monaco trainee is on around £12,000 a week with the Gunners, whereas Benfica are keen to pay around half that as the player is under 21 and not currently getting first team action.
Armand has now returned to London. As yet there are no other club’s in contact over the player.
Looks like the high wages we pay youngsters are coming back to bite us.
good update. they should loan him out now
Don’t sell Armand!
If you can’t provide him 1st team action, just loan him out, please.
At 20, this guy is not done improving yet.
12,000 pounds a week for a third-string LB? No wonder why we don’t have any money to spend on transfers. You Cannot Be Serious!
this is england and its normal wages for a youngster who is in the first team
this is partly the reason why Wenger buys from overseas, their wages arent even half of what we have to pay in england
That wasnt good at all, vant ser any orter club willing to trash out à vetter deal
Do you think he will stay here now J? And how do rate his chances of making it at Arsenal? I would much rather see him go out on loan as I feel he still has a chance of getting to the first-team in a couple of years.
he might make it as a LW but not as a LB
Good exclusive again. Maybe ‘arry will buy him!
the lad isc too good for wat benfica re offering.i think he should rather be loaned out cos sooner than later we willl need him
Transfer saga’s continue. Best of luck to one of my personal favorite players for the AFC William Gallas. I pattern my own play after him? I still don’t like Spurs! Peace. J freaking excellent coverage of reserves yesterday Thank you!
judas
It is an absolute farce that we pay players like Traore and Simpson over 10 grand a week, and yet we are haggling over £1-2 million when it comes to bringing in seasoned pros like Schwarzer. If we’re not careful we’re going to have a generation of Winston Bogardes on the books.
Mad from Arsenal’s perspective. If we paid half his wages it would cost us £72,000 a year. Given that we would make that back in interest alone on the £2million, it seems a no-brainer.
We’d be paying 6K (of his 12K total wages) per week not per month so it would cost us c.£312,000
I don’t understand. So he would rather sit on the bench rather than plan just so can earn more money.
Madness
£620,000 a year for a bit part player thats just mind blowing…………………
12K a week – jesus h christ – is that for real – will be hard to ship him out on those wages!!
This is why we have the third highest wage bill in the prem! loads of average youngsters on huge salaries! ridiculous.
Not buying that at all. Can you direct me to some proof of that?
Yeah I’m with Shane, no way are we paying more than any of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool or probably even Tottenham – our top earner is Fabregas who earns (according to reports) 80k per week…compare that with the 150k (Terry/Lampard) being earned at Chelsea, roughly 200k at Man City, 120k (Rooney) at Man Utd and 110k (Gerrard) at Liverpool. Admittedly these figures are based on newspaper reports which may not be reliable…but still.
Regardless, 620k per year is a heck of a lot for Traore
@ Paddy
It is Armand who has pulled out of the deal, not Arsenal.
£620,000 a year for a player who will hardly play at all this season is a bit of a joke.
Damn it, this guys is the worst available option for left back, was hoping he’d be gone soon. He gets £12k a week? Stupid really. If it was more like £8k a week, he might have taken the pay cut.
Honestly, he should be playing left wing, not left back – good with the ball at his feet running at players and crossing, but has an awful positional sense…
come on now, there’s a few too many handbags exploding around here…
ok the kid earns basically in a week what most of us do in a year, but 12k per week is hardly a drop in the ocean of premiership wages. where have you people been over the past 20 years? do yourselves a favour and don’t look at yaya toure’s payslip? especially if you’ve got dependants.
if arsenal don’t peg their young pro’s earnings to the wage level of the rest of football, you can kiss goodbye to us buying up and keeping all the best young talent. we pay high wages to get the best kids. overall we have a good bunch, and sometimes the performances of one or two of the kids seem overblown compared to their worth. it happens. but these kids move on.
anyway, arsenal can afford 12k per week.
People are massively over-reacting. £12k a week is nothing for a premiership footballer, let alone an Arsenal player.
When we signed Ramsey at 17 he was given a £850k salary. That’s £17,000 a week for a kid who had hardly played in the Championship. And since then his contract has been extended twice, so you can imagine what he’s earning now! And Wilshere is rumoured to be on around £30k a week.
Obviously when compared to a normal person’s wage, Traore is being obscenely paid. But compared to so many other young pros, his wages are actually very reasonable.
Six grand a week Lol, he could get twice that in the champioship, Benfica = tight arse mofo’s.
i though birmingham were in for him last year?
surely one of these promoted teams could do with a decent young left winger for 12k a week?
what is it with these clubs, they think they’re shit is so hot that they don’t even look at an arsenal-trained player with premiership experience? they want to take an honest look at themselves in the mirror. they should be honoured to take any scraps off arsenal’s table. arsenal trainees are at least 30% better than most of the scum other clubs churn out.
12k a week really isn’t much in the grand scheme of sports. American football players get 70m contracts having never played a pro game. NBA basketball players have a rookie wage structure that starts in the millions per season. 12k a week actually had me saying ” I’m surprised it’s so little “
how come you react on that salary? Evans, Macheda and Smalling earns more. they are fringe players too.
with todays rules of being able to breach contract after 3 years and break out of it I really see no choice for the club to pay high wages for talented youngster. Traore did at an early age play regularly for portsmouth in the premier
If he wants to play for Arsenal, given that Gibbs and Clichy are ahead of him, perhaps he could focus on becoming a central defender, defensive midfielder, or left winger. That’s where we need players.
This guy is one of our best crossers of the ball. give him a chance at left mid. whats the worse that could happen?? just dont play him left back because his defending is diabolical!!
I thought that with the different tax system over there he would wind up taking home about the same money. So the poor lad would not be in danger of starving and could still put gas in his Aston!!!!
how the hell can we pay this much for crappy players that have proven nothing yet ?we could save a lot of cash every year by lowering the salaries for youngsters that have done nothing noteworthy and then use that extra money to buy some players to strengthen and deepend our squad.
Traore seems like a real winger.He is extremely talented.He has a lot of pace.He is very tall and is one of the best crossers in the team.Arshavin is played out of position and has been useless for a while now.We should give a chance to Traore,Vela or Gibbs on the left wing.They are all capable of doing well.Whenever I have watched Traore and Gibbs , they always make great runs and are generally dangerous going forward plus they track back while the lazy russian stays up front.Vela was good in pre-season and he needs a run of 3-4 games to show how good he actually is.Traore`s salary is not big based on the money Arsenal is making every season.
I think Arsenal should not sell him.They should let him to train a lot with them so that he would establish himself as a left back alongside Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs.Hopefully,he would not leave The Gunners and would also continue playing with them. All the best,Armand Traore.
Interesting that people don’t think that he is paid that much for a Premiership player on £12K when Blackpool refuse to pay anyone more than £10K per week and thats their first team
The photo for this story sums it all up…..
Arsene to Armand – WTF!?!?
Thats a bit ironic. I always hear people complain we are too cheap and dont provide enough depth. Now i hear people saying we pay our backups too much. People, we can’t have everything… You cannot get the worlds 3rd best LB and expect him to be happy playing 3rd string, even if you already have the 1st and 2nd best LB ahead of him. I would assume that is why you see Wenger opting for 2 different options for the backup positions. Either they are a youngster with a lot of potential, or an experienced veteran that is just beyond his prime. To be honest here, the only real surprise in this news is that Benfica were willing to pay over 3M for Traore, but not 12K per week… I certainly am not going to complain about having this kid as a 3rd option at left back (or even on the wing). Don’t forget, last year both Clichy and Gibbs were out at one time, and even Traore himself!
If i was in a league with less pressure on players then i would spend 3 million on Traore. He lacks 1 quality that would make him a great left back. (his defensive positioning) Also you already no for sure that he is a good winger. He is a u21 French international after all.
LOL…no everyone has a degree in finance. What ever we pay these young players in wages, we end up getting at least that back when we sell them. Then you have to consider alot of them go on to be 7 to 10 million pounds sell and of course we have sold quite a few at 20 million pounds plus. I didn’t even mention the ones we keep. I don’t see how this is a bad business model at all.
i wish i was paid half his wages a week..LOL
Or just half his wages a month!
£12k is not crazy money… this deal was most likely signed before Gibbs arrived as a geninue left back and he was number two behind Clichy, really dont see why people are getting worked out. If Benifca cant afford that they are serious in trouble
the conclusion for all your moaners should be. if you ever have kids get into footy. Even a 5th choice kid in the top 4 club earn 12k a week. WAKE UP FOR GOD SAKE!
Blackpool dont pay anyone more than 10k a week? that is why they wil go straight down again this year too.
I would be terribly terribly dissapointed if i was a PL player, playing 5-6 PL games a year and not getting more than 12k a week. Thats like a minimum wage for these boys. Especially in the top 4 teams..
Guys wake up! Get real! 12k is nothing in the big picture! after all the real stars eary 220K a week! making 12 k what they earn pr hour.
I don’t have a problem with the guy’s contract. I still don’t think he is better than Gibbs in any department but I wouldn’t mind keeping him. If he improves his defending then he COULD be in the same class as GIbbs or Clichy, but he would have to make a concerted effort to improve his defending before he would be a genuine contender for the left-back position.
He is after all a world class talent. Every single player who is in the premier league is a world class talent and only very few of all the footballers around the world can come up to this level. 12k a week is nothing at Arsenal. In football you can’t compare to the wages a normal person has.
He did play quite a few matches for Portsmouth when Harry redknapp was there and he even said Armand will become a full international to france one day. This guy is highly rated for many managers around the world.
crate a caption ..
Wenger: WTF i said play like Clichy not Silvestre
Traore: but Silvestre said he was better than Clichy.
I don’t believe Traore is a left-back at all. For France U19s and U21s he’s used as a winger, when he went to Porstmouth he played on the wing. And if he had gone to Benfica he would probably have been used on the wing – they have the fantastic Coentrao at LB, but have just sold their left winger Di Maria.
Good choice of players to use to point out that you think Traore is a winger. Coentrao shows exactly why Traore is a future leftback being converted from a winger himself. If you have the pace and endurance and are a good crosser, then you can be made into a good fullback. Maybe you are a good winger but just lack that something special to be a top class winger. Traore has all the attributes to be a good left back as long as he can improve the defensive positioning.
im happy the deal didn’t go through traore is only 20 and the boy has alot of potiental
any videos on you tube of the arsenal match yesterday
Fabio contrao was an amazing winger he had more tricks than ronaldo I think he will end up as a left winger.
I just can’t believe how much he has changed he’s a hard working team player before he was a cocky, lazy player who just wanted to go past players it’s incredible really
why do people make crazy comments? He had more tricks than Ronaldo……..Really? lol
J
what do u think Wenger has planned for JET?
I think he should be in the 1st team squad pushing Theo on the right flank.
More talented than Walcott.
The u18’s got whalloped by the manc chavs 5-2. J, what happened?
anyone fancy some walcott baching today?
People always bash players for taking the money, but this isn’t even close to a Winston Bogarde type scenario. Some club in the Championship, EPL, Ligue 1, etc. will take Traore on loan, and he’ll get game time at a decent club while still making his 12k p/w. I don’t think it was easy for him to turn down a move to Benfica, wages or not. They were considered one of the most attractive footballing sides in Europe last season
It’s not like Benfica are a poor club. In 2007 (the most recent numbers I could find after a quick search). their wage bill was around 425,000 pounds per week. Even if Traore had kept his wages, he would have hardly made a splash on that number (about 2.8% of the total). I’m guessing on top of the wages, they couldn’t guarantee him first team playing time (because otherwise I think they would have paid him more – you don’t offer a first team player the wages of a backup and expect him to sign), so what’s the point? Might as well spend another year on loan and hope for a better offer which will inevitably come.