Arsenal are following a number of promising young players, but are not close to firming up that interest with firm offers, in a week which has seen a number of exciting prospects transferred.
Steve Rowley and his team have all bases covered at present, with a contingent of scouts working at the current Under 21 Championships in Denmark. Elsewhere, Gilles Grimandi has recently returned from the Toulon Tournament, on another fruitful trip.
Grimandi has been hard at work throughout the season, and two of his more highly rated finds are being strongly linked. Those include French Under 21 duo Emmanuel Rivière and Raphaël Varane, with the latter being subject of praise from Arsène Wenger this week.
Much has also been made of an apparent deal for Southampton’s 17-year-old winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but BBC Sport journalist David Ornstein has confirmed to Young Guns that his sources know nothing of such an agreement. Arsenal remain interested, having been in talks during the January window.
Two players Arsenal have been scouting that are unlikely to be signed are AIK youngster Alexander Milošević, who looks likely to stay another season in Sweden, and Argentine midfielder Ricardo Álvarez, who is subject of mass interest from Malaga and Roma. Both clubs are due to open talks over Álvarez shortly.
The priority for Wenger is clearly more experienced faces, but expect him to sign at least one promising prospect in his summer reshuffle.
Hopefully Arsenal sign a couple of youngsters for the years to come.
Chuks Aneke and Benik Afobe to be with the first team in pre season hopefully.
Rafael Varane or Alex will be very good signing’s this season
We have 2-3 very promising wingers coming through so buying Alex is not really a priority but if Rafael Varane is better than Bartley and Miquel then we should move for him now
He’s got very good height and will suit the english game
Was it so that Bartley wants to leave if we sign another (young) CB? I do I remember wrong?
Jamie keep doing what your doing its great.
Whats happening with Miquel?
Going to be an interesting summer for Arsenal – let’s see who we sign. For the first time in a long while I’m feeling deflated :( but surely its only good that the competition in the EPL is improving!
Here’s to a good season with the Gooners, getting rid of some deadwood and greeting some great new faces!
always good to see new faces sign for Arsenal, hopefully they’l add a new dimension to the current set up and also prove good competition for the others. Alvarez looks quality too
i may be wrong but i think ricky alvarez has already signed for roma
Hope we get Raphaël Varane. At 18 years of age and already 1.91m!! bringing him in will also allow kyle bartley to compete for a place as they both young with plenty of talent.
will this chabberlain saga ever end.i hope he signs quickly
i think wenger should not publicly disclose the players he is tracking as other clubs who dont have that good scouts like roma take advantage of wenger’s experience and try to sign players by paying more money.
Wenger never publicly discloses players he wants to buy.
chamberlain close to Arsenal or Liverpool?
Is there a good chance it Marines?
OFF topic who do u think is beta or got more talents & pontials alex oxlade chamberlain & conor wickham jordan henderson & jack rodwell plz give ur reasons
Four COMPLETELY different players, impossible to compare.
hope we sign both varane and chamberlain… alex wants to play at arsenal, and is great at that young age, and varane is just what we need, a tall promising centre back… also i hear we are close to gervinho, and that he chose arsenal… now only lille can stand in the way, but i think they will findmour offer good enough…
Not only Lille to stand in the way, there is also Arsenal, we could yet do our normal and try to drive the initial price down and load the back end of the deal. I really hope not cos, i think if the deal is done correctly, Hazard will follow, probably not this summer, but you never know, could be our galactico january window signing. Dont mess this up please, I cannot think of a player more wanted than hazard in years.
i’m loving the larsson rumours…arsenal kid comes home…amazing…he’ll be awesome for us
Too true, excellent crosser of the ball and can turn out on the RW, RM, CM and is a very good RB. Would certainly mean we could sell Eboue and Rosicky if we had too, the latter certaintly. Could also take young Olsson under his wing and Milosevic if we get him.
Off topic, really rate Javi Martinez the spanish u21 the other night. 6’3 what a beast in the holding role.
I think a lot of fans will see that transfer as backward step
backwards step? if he replaces eboue or rosicky? come on.
he has great goalscoring/assist stats for a player who plays for a really bad team.
he was trained the arsenal way, and is still friends with a lot of our players.
i think he could be a great squad player. a new freddie.
Get alex chamaberain & albrighton
I don’t think that wenger will actually buy any big names like parker, Chamberlain etc. although i hope i’m wrong!! I really want to see him buy some upcoming talent who could go into the first-team or, like jenkinson probably will, switch between the reserves and first-team.
any words on Sime Vrsaljko Mateo Kovacic from dynamo zagreb?
1 to 100? Few percent chamberlain come?
Marine him a chance? Comment me please!
1 to 100? Few percent chamberlain come?
Marine him a chance? Comment me please!
The ajax kid who won player of the year and is a Denmrk international at the age of 17.
Forgot his name but he is as creative as fab and fast like walcott with an eye for goal.
What is his name?
Christian Eriksen. We were interested but anything else was stopped by Ajax.
Apparently we have done deals for:
Chris Samba
Alex chamberlain
Gervinho
Don’t really know what to think
i am hearing different, with Samba going to spurs for £8m plus Bassong and Woodgate
Parker also going there £8m plus Jenas
Scum also want Carlton Cole if Adebayor doesnt go there.
And your source for the information is?
Why you asking for my source, cos you dont like what you hear? Noone asking Aristote’s source cos they like it? Well my source is probably no better than yours, his or Jamie Sanderson’s himself. He is a spuds blogger drinks in the local, that all. Lets face these are rumour sites and the only real “exclusives” are for youngsters and fairplay to JS for that. The real deals are only ever believed when the club actually announce them. Just dont get too touchy……….source, calm down dear!
We need to raise the players spirit and the profile of the club by bying at least 2 world class names.
This will send a message to the world that we are a mega club and for the rest of the premier legue to be scared off us.
We had names like henry, berkamp, overmars, pires, lunberj, veira, adams,cambell, keown fabigas. We need that fear factor again. Names Names Names.
Benzema and Schneider, we can only dream.
Falcao and Hazard would also be nice
but Gervinho and Chamberlain will probably have to do.
Yes because all those guys you listed were massive “names” before they joined Arsenal.
They all made their names after joining Arsenal (with the exception of perhaps Bergkamp and Overmars).
jeez it doesn’t take anything for us to start drawing up christmas lists and hoping santa grants everything on it. Honestly I do believe in Wenger… when the financial regulations kick in… its going to be a dark day for a lot of teams. The more i think of it this would be the only year that Fab can leave… because barca cant afford him next year with all that debt. But if he stays and we continue to strengthen the team… it could be great. However I’m happy to see that he is going for experience so i look forward to this year with anticipation…. the league would have the best competition in it since 2003… look at all these contenders…. Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool. Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle are not far off and would be tough to beat. I tell you if Arsenal wins it this year… I would be extremely proud.
There’s some avid followers of South American football on a forum I go on and they can’t speak highly enough of Ricky Alvarez. They think he’s a special, special talent. The little bits of him I’ve seen have looked very smart indeed.
Varane is one player I’ve seen quite a bit of and he is superb. Would be a great signing but would put Kyle Bartley’s (who I rate very highly as well) future at risk.
Alvarez is not even a starter at Velez.
Once again, I find it hilarious when people give a thumbs down to factual comments. Alvarez is not a starter for Velez and that is fact not opinion.
Shane,
I just thumbed down both of them because it’s not a fact. Factually, it is wrong and shows a lack of understanding of the way Argentine teams work.
In the current tournament, the Clausura–which Velez secured the title for with a game remaining–Alvarez started 11 and came on as a sub 3 times. He’s also been used in the Libertadores (4 starts and 5 subs) which, in Argentina is always a priority over the league — teams will often rotate almost all their starters between the two competitions because their conditioning is just not good enough to last an entire season on all fronts. For him to start 11 of 18, play 3 more in the league, plus be involved in 9 out of the 12 Libertadores games they played and even start both ill-fated Copa Sudamericana games they had shows that Velez definitely is increasingly counting on Ricky.
Compare that with the Apertura, the last tournament, where he started 2 games and came in as a sub in 13, and you see how quickly they’re including him in their plans. I’m still not sure that he’s the real deal, as I wrote about him before, but I do like the guy.
I don’t think you understand mate. For the biggest game of Velez’s season, the second leg of the semi finals, he did not start. People don’t play their back ups in those games lol. Also in all of the games I watched of Velez, it was mentioned by the announcers a lot that he is not a starter. I get rotation mate. Argentina is not the only team to do it, but when the big games come, teams play their best 11. It would be silly to argue that mate.
What is wrong with you people. I seriously find it amazing that so many people can some how disagree with fact. That does not say much for our fan base on here lol.
He’s started 13 games this season, and made 29 appearances. Given his injury record, this isn’t too bad. Just because a player doesn’t start all that regularly for one club does not mean he won’t be any good to another. There are all sorts of reasons he could be in and out of the team, especially given the rotation policy of Argentinian clubs, as pointed out by roundedsquare. The reason you get so many thumbs down Shane, is because you’re always so negative, yet rarely know what you are talking about.
For one mate, I am one of the people that is rarely negative lol. I am usually on here defending our players and I am usually one of the ones that tries to keep it realistic. For 2, I never said anything about his talent in my comment. I simply said he not even a starter enlighten of everyone jumping on this band wagon that he is awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I think he looks a good talent (a lot better if he really was free), but he is the same as what we already have a ton of players at…central attacking midfielder. I would be fine if we sign him tho.
I don’t care if people give me thumbs down (sometimes I like to hear why tho), but I just find it funny when people give a thumbs down to a factual state. Example, If I said Robin van Persie is an Arsenal player, and people then gave that a thumbs down, I would find that pretty dumb.
Now for why on some of my comments, I get a lot of thumbs down is because the truth is, the Majority is often wrong. Why do you think certain people have certain jobs. Example, if all of the fans were always right and Wenger was always wrong then would Wenger be the Manager of Arsenal? Unfortunately some people on here don’t know how to think out side of the box. That is why 90 percent of the transfers that people yell out for Wenger to make are Benzema, Baines, Cahill, and a big named winger. Also it is the same reason that a lot of people on here seem to think that all the money goes into the share holders pocket even though it is pretty clear that the brand new stadium cost a lot of money and has to be payed for. Same people that don’t think we should sign young talented players that have to spend a few years on loan before they can get a work permit even though it has proved very successful during the Wenger years. These are some reasons why I get thumbs down sometimes. By the way, most of the comments I make turn out to be right. Still remember when people were up in arms when I said that Randall going on loan to a league 1 team a few years ago did not signal that he was not going to make it at Arsenal. Now I am not saying that I am always right but still. Cheers mate.
@Shane
I appreciate your sentiments, but your argument does not hold much water. The best point you brought up was his omission from one match.
1) Omission from one match, even if important, can hardly be proof of a players standing in the team. Coaches don’t just throw in what they consider they’re “best” player (as if there is only one 0 to 100 scale) but what they think the game needs, perhaps tactically, in terms of fitness or to counter specific threats etc.
2) In the Clausura, Alvarez is in the top 10 number of starts and if taken with his sub appearances, he would be in the top 7 in terms of appearances.
3) In the 30 matches played in 2011, Alvarez has featured in 23 of them (17 starts, 6 subs)
4) In the first 9 matches of 2011, Alvarez only featured in 2, that is to say, in the last 21 consecutive games, he has featured either as a starter or entering as a sub during the game..
That’s 21 consecutive games, out of 30.
5) It is safe to conclude that, while you might not classify him as a key indispensable cog in Velez, it is a great stretch to say that he is not a starter or does not start for Velez.
You can chop it how ever you want mate. Simple fact is in the big game people play their starters point blank. Not many coaches coach like Alex Ferguson. It was stated so many times that Maximiliano Moralez returned to the line up for the 2nd leg for Velez plus in the first leg they spoke tons about Alvarez coming in for Moralez who was out for that game. Every game I have watched of Velez, the announcers talked about him not being a first choice player. They even referred to the whole Arsenal being so interested in him even though he has yet to establish himself as a first choice player at Velez. Done arguing this point mate. cheers
It’s not a simple fact. Completely untrue. Just because many coaches start they’re usual first XI in big matches does not mean that it is a habit, but it could also mean that they have evaluated fitness etc. and found that the usual team does the job.
Sometimes they find that that’s not true. But it’s incorrect to say that just because you observe teams fielding first XIs, does not mean it was done without much thought.
The numbers speak for themselves. Moralez and Alvarez have started plenty of games together instead of one backing up the other.
And commentators knowing stats and necessarily understanding team selection?
Sure, done arguing. But facts are facts, you can’t make em’ up.
I think it will be much better for the team, if all deals are done as early as possible. A coach like wenger should know that there are alot of cheap and unknown talented players waiting for a knock on their door. Osaze was bought for only £2m and nigeria and real zaragoza striker[ Ike Uche] is another top talent who will also be available for cheap. On our targets, i dont know what to believe again as some sites reported a done deal of gervinho and chamberlin only to read later that we are only about to help talks. so i will keep my fingers cross until all deal is confirmed announced. I will welcome any recruitment as far as it is done base on current form rather than experience alone. Ask squillaci. Gunner till DEATH.
How about:
Frank Ribery
Robin
benzema
cahill
bains
parker
green
How about:
Messi
Ronaldo
Iniesta
Xavi
Maradona
Eusebio
Bobby Charlton
Rick Astley
Alan Titchmarsh
nah mate we have enough skillful wingers already
varane would be a quality signing, it would b nice to beat utd to one promising centre half. Chamberlain i think will come to us hopefully.Alvarez would b as good as javier pastore only 4 injuries. Apparently we are close to signing willian from shackter also.with denilson goin the other.I dont know really what hes like but he couldnt b much worse than denilson.
Alvarez compared to Pastore , you have got to be kidding !!
What I like about Willian, not scared of big games, look what he did against Barca in Nou Camp showing that he is the player just like them and only skill can tell who is the best. I like him a lot and he’ll add dimension to Arsenal. Also, it is time to let those who want to leave and become frustrated where they are going. Arsenal will be Arsenal and we’ll play the Arsenal way from now on. Thanks
South African Gooner
Looks like someone’s been on the Sky Sports website. Pure speculation at the moment.
I will be happy as long as Wenger buys players for the positions we need. He gets it right most of the time and I expect him to again. Only thing I am concerned about is that we are not being linked with many defensive mids because that is a really issue for me. Song can not play ever game and we don’t have another defensive mid reedy to step in.
One of the things you’ll notice about Arsenal is that when they are really after a player, they’ll keep it to themselves till the deal is done. All the tabloid press is speculation, and even Wenger’s own comments are generally misdirection. One day he and the papers will be saying one thing, and the next something completely different will happen.
I agree with that mate. Thats one reason why it is fun to be an Arsenal supporter. You never know what is going to happen but usually when we do sign a player, it is well known for about a week.
Trade fabregas, nasri, van persie, + 30mil for messi
Alvarez is not a starter on his team…. and at 24 its quite a downer. silva and D.ramirez to me are better talents on that team. He has talent but guys i watched two matches one against tigres… he was a none factor… and against penarol he was also a none factor. Lets gain a sense of perspective and calm down. Watching a youtube video could be a summary of every brilliant moment since his career began…. or the summary of one good season. Either way its nothing to wax poetry about.
See my post to Shane regarding Alvarez being a starter.
As for Ramirez and Silva, yeah, it’s easy to choose the two highest scoring players in the team and say that you’d prefer them, but while they’re good, I think the best player that team has is el Burrito Martinez — Juan Manuel Martinez. Got his nickname because of the similarity in his style to Ariel Ortega, and apparently Tevez is trying to bring him over with him wherever he ends up next year.
dont get me wrong he scored against tigres but he was not involved in a lot of the build up play.
With all this talk about Clichy leaving, who would be you guys choice to bring in. Obviously Gibbs would be there but you need 2 leftbacks. Personally I am a fan of Martin Olsson from Blackburn. Also curious about the situation with Traore.
I dont see the point in selling Clichy for 5Million so I would keep him for the last year of his contract and make Traore or Botelho his backup and send Gibbs on loan for one year to takeover when Clichy leaves.
Unless Wenger thinks Gibbs is ready now then I would bench Clichy and give Gibbs the starting position.
I think Gibbs he is very talented and only needs a run of games to shine again.
5 million pounds would go along way to getting a replacement especially with how good Wenger is at finding players. 5 million pounds for 1 year of Clichy at left back would make no sense. I also still don’t see the hype in Botelho. I doubt anyone has even watched him play more then 5 games this year. I also don’t see how or why we would loan out Gibbs next year.
Leighton Baines is still the best in that position. I watched him last season and I told myself this boy belongs to Arsenal but as you know, your le boss only wants French players at Arsenal. Baines will bring something new to this team, trust me boss.
I luv all Gooners all over the world
I like Baines as well but that is the obvious choice. Who knows what kind of fee he would need because Man City is sitting right there when ever you speak about big name players plus I am sure he would bring the english fee with him. I think people are a bit boring with their transfer hopefuls. Olsson has all the qualities for me to be a great attacking Left back but I guess we all have our opinions.
By the way, I am not saying that I want Clichy to go. I am speaking hypothetically that if he did not sign a new contract and we sold him, who should we bring in. Personally I think Clichy has a lot of good qualities but he is not a player I worry to much about losing. His inability to hold a defensive line cost us several big games last year including Barcelona.
Varane would be awesome. Any word on lansbury’s contract situation? Last i heard, he had 1 year left.
Whatever the situation is bring in EDEN HAZARD in midfield !! he is awesome and the guys who provide arsenal with cutting edge !!
For defender, i noticed u guys highlighted raphael varene alot…why not sakho ?? he is a true leader, tall and cost merely 15mil. He will be another prospect and leadership in the future than varene
I think most of us have hoped for Hazard for a couple years now. To me, he would be my dream signing for us but at this point, I will just be happy with any signing that push us forward. Gervinho would be a player that would do that. As long as Wenger is filling the missing holes in the team, then I am happy.
MERELY £15mill? Firstly, I think he’d go for more than that, secondly, £15mill is a hell of a lot of money for any club, thirdly £15mill is roughly what we’ve spent in total for each of the last three years, fourthly, it would make him one of our most expensive players of all time, fifthly, there will be other clubs after him, sixthly…..
And we signed Samir Nasri under very similar circumstances so no need to act like it is impossible.
Just heard on skysports that Barcelona sign a 16 year old from Leeds. I am sure they will go on to ignore this one too when the hypocritically complain about us signing one of their players. Honestly I hate Barcelona so much now that I hope we sign everyone one of their players and then charge them 50 million to get them back. Barcelona will sink themselves in massive debt and we will set ourselves up for the next 100 years of football.
They are the most horrible club in the world poaching every talented youngster from all over the world.
Look at how many Africans and South Americans play in there youth teams and how many Spanish players they have taken off other Spanish clubs.
2 Months before they were crying in the media about toral, they took Eintracht Frankfurts two most talented youth players.
The media hype they get is sickening.
But yeah Arsenal are thieves that cant produce there own.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/17/england-world-cup-watford
Don’t know if this has been posted here before about the Watford academy seems very interesting.
Do we have the same possiblities?
Glad to see Fabregas’s recent comments. We all know that he would be happy to go to Barcelona but at least he is not trying to force Wenger’s hand. He would be happy to bring us trophies as well and he puts his transfer situation to what ever Wenger wants to do. Now hopefully even tho it will not happen, Barcelona can fuck off or offer up the real fee that it would take to get him.
i just saw a interesting comment off a guy who said we bought squillaci 3 weeks before arsenal announced the signing, he said that arsenal had bought Hazzard but that he will go back on loan to lille for one year and that it will be announced next summer.
If Arsenal were to sign and loan a player his registration details would have to be recorded with FIFA, and therefore the press would know about it. The only scenario in which this is plausible is if the two teams agreed on a transfer in advance, but did not ratify the transfer with FIFA. Not going to happen with Hazard though. The risk of him getting injured alone is enough to prevent that.
That is bullshit. sent him back to lille????? He is a pretty much complete player already and to adopt for premier league instead of sending him back is a much better option.
we should be going for experienced players and not youngsters who come from a different country as we already have good players that will hopefully come through the ranks such as benik afobe chuks aneke and potentially coquelin or frimpong and centre backs like bartley. In reference to barcelona they really think they can take the moral high ground when they have poached a 16yr old leeds prospect Elliott Kebbie and have also poached messi from argentina when he was twelve every club does it so why are arsenal always being singled ou when it happens all over the world
Messi’s father demanded Barcelona sign him at age 12 so that they would provide him with growth hormone therapy that Argentinian clubs could not/did not want to pay for. Barcelona certainly have had some questionable transfers, but Messi’s is not one of them.
You missed the point mate. Nobody gets upset with Barcelona over signing young players. Every team does it and there is nothing wrong with it. The problem is Barcelona being hypocrites and pretending like they don’t sign young players from other clubs and them always moaning when they lose a young player.
Missed the point? So his message doesn’t say “[Barcelona] poached Messi from Argentina”? I need to get my eyes checked.
Yes, you are more focused on his miss wording because we are not professional journalists. It is just the word that is used so often by Barcelona when they refer to us signing players. Barcelona arranged a trial and then offered things to Messi that his other club did not. No different then how we sign players. His overall point was clearly with the theme of things, that Barcelona sign young players from all over the world but then complain when we sign one of theres. You can focus on the wrong point if you want but you know what he is was getting at mate. Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with it all just that Barcelona are hypocrites.
PS, the same way you could focus on that I missed used “there” went I meant to type “their”.
Redrum – Arsenal would be mad to loan back a player which they have spent around 15-20 million on, I mean… I can’t remember the last time that happend with any club, and it would be pointless, I’d rather have Hazard developing at Arsenal then let him develop another year at Lille, a year difference could prove to be vital so I wouldn’t consider the loan option and I’m sure Wenger won’t either.
What about Yaya Sanogo? What happened to Arsenal’s interest in him? I know he was injured, but he is an absolutely awesome prospect.
i think, we must buy juan mata.. very good and very talented player..
people should stop slagging off gervinho.
ok his haicut’s stupid, but he will be an amazing player.
could become our eto’o.
We have a lot of home grown talent coming thorough the ranks at U15/U16 level they should be given a chance.