Arsenal are continuing to make regular checks on Tromsø’s 20-year-old Senegalese youngster Kara Mbodj. The versatile youngster has been one of the stars of the Tippeligaen in his debut campaign.
Scandinavian based official Bobby Bennett began watching the holding midfielder, who can also play centre back, in July. Chief scout Steve Rowley also made a check on Mbodj during a week long stay in Norway, and both men were impressed with what they saw.
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.
Bennett sent trusted scouts to watch Tromsø’s clash with FK Haugesund in late August where the 6 foot 3 inch powerhouse again stood out. The club are continuing to made regular checks and plans are afoot for Rowley to to again look over Mbodj before January.
Sources in Norway suggest a fee of £3 million pounds would be enough to secure his services.
great – that still leaves £53m to put away for a rainy day
Guess the words pre-tax were lost on ya.
Love how the club never rests and is constantly looking for additions to the youth set up. It’s the best way to meet the new rules and regulations that will come in over the next few years.
I really don’t see a lot of investment needed for this arsenal team in the present or the future. This team needs a reliable goalkeeper (be it almunia or fabianski or Szczesny or someone else) but reliable and experience which will only come with time.
A goalkeeper is what I will ask wenger to spend money on in January but before he does he needs to give Szczesny a try and maybe buy this DM as well to back Song up and make our midfield even more contested
3mil!!!!
Crikey and we wouldn’t pay a penny over £2mil for Schwarzer.
It is clear that the longterm goals for the club are to play good football and qualify for the CL year in year out whilst making a very handy £££ profit.
Schwarzer is a 38 year old whose contract runs out in the summer, Mbodj is 20.
Yeah 18 years difference between them.
Also how horrible of this club to want to be run like a successful business while they also try to appease fans with finding great players within their budget. Bastards.
Schwarzer hasn’t actually played that well so far this season. As bad as Almunia was against West Brom, Schwarzer was arguably worse against Blackburn. In that game he dropped a long ball from Paul Robinson, handled the ball outside his area (the ref didn’t see it), and ultimately was saved by a goalline clearance. To be fair he wasn’t at fault for the goal, because he was clearly fouled, but he dropped 2 crosses later in the game and generally looked uncertain throughout. Also Stoke scored 2 goals against him from set pieces (one corner and one long throw), not a good sign. He played well against Everton, I’ll give you that.
Also we put in a bid for 4m, and I got the impression Hughes would have let him leave, but he couldn’t convince Shay Given (and whatever other targets they were looking at) to leave Man City as a replacement.
Looks like we are liking the African talent nice size for us in the back sign em up!
Does anyone know if there any American players being looked at by AFC!
Thanks
sorry but arsenal play football,Americans play soccer,not interested in them.what americans call football is hideous judging by the fact that they play 90 percent of the time with hand,during the game.
3 million pounds is actually considering how that it is >25% of what koscielny cost
Schwarzer is totally average. I don’t know why anyone would want their team to pay more than £2m for him.
3 mill for an unknown is alot for Wenger, how much did he spend on Walcott?? Still i do trust him. Any young gun fans know where i can view reserve games? I’ve found this wicked website http://www.locatetv.com/person/arsenal/351006 which shows me whenever Arsenal are on TV including some reserve games but just wondered.
Mbodj might be unknown to us and the general public, but he’s not unknown to Wenger and his staff.
If we were buying players the manager’s never even watched (like Fergie with Bebe, and he paid £7m for him!), then we should be worried.
Hi JS two arsenal boys have been called isaac hayden and auston lipman for the England under 16s.
I have heard alot about Austin Lipman apparently hes a bit special i think hes 14 maybe he could follow wilshere who was 14 when he played for England under 16
Gus poyet son diego is also in the England under 16s intresting to see how he does.
Nice to see the F.A have finally adopted this new approach over the past couple of years or so that young, talented footballers could represent the England youth sides no matter how English their first and/or second names may actually sound.
Oh please, no more african players; their attitude sucks! and are age cheats as well!
stop your stupid comments
Good old racists, nothing like them. Yeah damn those lazy Africans who made up our greatest team of all time (Toure, Lauren) or the ones that have put just won the Champions League like Eto’o and Muntari. Don’t want anyone from that continant at our team playing like they do, no no. Only the next Franny Jeffers will suffice.
racist or not, only a handful of african players have made significant contributions in football. Many of them are awful. Maybe that’s why Manure are so succesful without those thickheads!
“thickheads”? Jesus, J can you ban this horrible horrible person.
Africa as a continent has been ravaged by so many socio-economic problems in the past two hundred years that no shit it hasn’t spent the past century putting in a system of sporting development you see in Europe. Chime in the racism in football that set the likes of Brazil (read about Pele – or don’t, considering you seem to hate black people) and still has negative effects today in many of the top leagues. And what fucking right do you have calling out a continent of people “thickheads”? What the hell does that even mean?
So Adebayor had a terrible and greedy attitude at Arsenal. That obviously makes him a worse character than the English and white Wayne Rooney, who has actually broken laws and put money into the vile sex trade. Or the white Italian Di Canio or the white Argentine Zarate who have both been known to do fascist salutes to the far right ultras who support Lazio and often are known to stab people.
Yup, those people in Africa are obviously much more savage and brutal and stupid when it comes to football than dear ol’ whitey.
OK, I was wrong and I take those comments back.
realex99 – tut tut
check it out…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serigne_Kara
heard a rumor that Valenica are looking to snap a pre contract agreement with Szczesny in January and happy to offer him first team football in the CL
If its true than this can turn into another merida type saga
Let’s say we get this guy, what will happen to the likes of Eastmond, Frimpong and Coquelin?
Or will he be preferred at CB if we do get him?
Raffan… South Africa calls it soccer to you and we are in for one of their players you fucking ass whole. Tired of random English people being dick heads for no reason.
Anyways, I always like these stories. I get tired of seeing local players that had an easy route complain all the time. The journey some of these African players make is unbelievable.
Also tired of hearing people complain about us looking for young talent. I am in agreement on the keeper thing and really don’t understand the whole situation but on the signing of young players… Do you have any idea how much Song cost us, or, Fabregas, Diaby, Clichy, Bendtner, Vela, RVP, and Ramsey? All of those combined cost less than what just Michael Carrick cost Manchester united.
I hope we sign Mboj. Coming from Patrick’s academy, that would make it extra special. I know this is a youth blog, but i missed the Champions League clash with Partizan. I know we won, but how well did we really play?? How did we keep the ball, pass etc?? I would really appreciate it if someone could fill me in on this!!! :D
an ok performance milo i tink we can play alot better, bu fairly satisfying considering we normally find it hard in eatern europe. wilshere showed some very good touches and fabianski had a good game.
Thanks Jamie!!:D
I just cannot see us signing both Mboj and Xulu. Wenger knows who he has in reserve in defensive midfield and centre back. He won’t want to alienate anyone like Frimpong, Eastmond, Bartley, Nordtveit and Miquel. I agree with this approach. We might sign one, but if we sign both, that just means that another youngster who we have invested heavily in will not make it. I know, I know we should sign the best players available, but sometimes it is better to wait and see what you really have in hand, than to rush and buy someone you do not really need at all.
That lacina traore fuk me hes fast.
Just seen the highlights of cluj vs roma.
My gosh this guy is an animal hes 6ft8 but he runs like usain bolt.
This guy is going to be awesome and hes only 20
Speaking of Americans….what happened to that tiny American guy we trailed from DC United(?). The 18 year old attacking midfielder??
Just get him NOW. Why? Because we are in dire need of a propern DM- ” a water carrier”. Song is trying but he does not really fit the job. He may try as much as he can but has limited ability. We need this kid NOW, to get used to PL ASAP.
Goonerbeall… Really? lol. Now Song isn’t good enough? Some of these fans probably only think Fabregas is good enough.
Lefty2gunz… He is still playing for DC United right now and they said he is not going on trial but who knows.
Since Kara plays for my local club Tromsø IL, I’ve had the pleasure to see him play every week and right now I would rank him as one of the best players in the Norwegian PL. If Arsenal were to pick him up I’d prefer to see him play the holding role as a backup/competition for Alex Song. Hopefully he can make the transition to the EPL if Arsenal buy him.