Héctor Bellerín has admitted his ‘pride’ in joining Arsenal, as he prepares to fly to London ahead of his debut campaign with the club.
Bellerín used his page on social networking site Twitter to confirm the transfer, and then posted a photo of himself at London Colney. The 16-year-old joins fellow midfielder Jon Toral in moving from Barcelona, for a combined compensation fee of €750,000.
The pacy winger told his followers:
“Starting today, I’m an Arsenal FC player. It gives pride to play for this great club!”
That comment may help to restore an already difficult relationship he has with some fans, after admitting just after signing for Arsenal he would like to return to Barcelona one day.
Héctor is expected to move between the Reserves and Under 18’s next season.
To be fair to the lad he’s 16 and who wouldn’t want to play for barcalona?
He looks pretty decent from what iv seen but guess we’l be waiting 2 or 3 years before he’s in the first team. Very good judgement of the ball so sooner he’s ready the better
“one day he hopes to return” is not necessarily a bad thing who knows what the situation of both clubs will be come ‘one day’. I’m glad he is here and I’m glad AW continues to give these young lads a chance no matter where they come from.
Welcome to Arsenal
Another Fabregas!
However, Hector will use it for playing Arsenal BUT Wenger use him for sell a big profit in the future!
Keep the money coming in…Barcelona! :)
we are not a selling club
we bought hector to play football and give us his services.
making profits from players excites you what about replacing them? with who?
remember we struggle to win games last season when cesc was not playing.
shame on you jono!
Shame?
That is a fact! Cos Bellerin have say that he want to go back to Barcelona one day. How can you think he is loyalty to Arsenal? That is a big question mark!
I prefer the players who have a big commitment, faith and heart to play for Arsenal such as Bergkamp, Adams, Winterburn, Parlour etc.
get off his back for saying he wants to return to barca one day. as long as hegives us his all and puts in a good shift for a good few years, he can go wherever he wants to later in his career. henry didn’t stay for life and we all still love him. it’s about what they give us and what they leave behind.
i am not sure i have confidence in spanish players. its not even about winning trophy, cesc is leaving us. we paid big money for reyes he still left us and ran back to mama.
but arsenal fc will live on,
welcome to arsenal Hector! we wish you great time and hopfully you will make a difference.
players like bergkamp, henry, pires and vieira gave us beautiful football, passion, effort, trophies, glorious memories and respect. none of them were one-club players. people need to get over this ideathat a player should pledge his whole future to one club. if bellerin gives the first team five years of quality service, you can’t really complain in this day and age.
re: spanish players, i’m actually quite optimistic that miquel will stay at arsenal for a very long time. he has seen the diwnside of playing for the big spanish clubs first hand, and he has spoken about how much he appreciates how he is treated by all at arsenal.
I am sick and tired of the un-loyal players that come and go at Arsenal. It is time we start blooding our own academy kids. The Lansbury’s, Bartley’s and Frimpong’s all need to be given as much chance as Denilson or Diaby have been given.
These kids have the Arsenal DNA. They would stay loyal if we show them love.
Hell yeah! Just look at that chap, Ashley Cole. Loyal ’til the end.
Come on what would you expect from a kid. He leaves his favourite team and his home town and country, why wouldnt he say he hopes to return there one day, it is obvious he will. The days of a player playing for one club have long since gone even for English players. If you get 4 years plus out of a foreign player he is the equivalent of a 10 year englishman. OK he wont get a testimonial, but you know what i mean.
Loyalty generally runs along side comfort, money and trophies now days. Sahin was a ball boy and childhood Dortmund supporter who just won the Bundesliga on the youngest team to ever do it and he is only 22 then the next year what happens? I am not sure loyalty exist at all with the money that is available for these players now days. You will get 1 or 2 exceptions but the list is very short.
Doesn’t matter if he ever goes back to Barca provided he shows the qualities that Cesc shows us and hopefully with more success with the trophies. Welcome to Arsenal!
16yrs old….. 4 years maybe untill he gets a chance in the first team!!!?? It’s a joke!!! We get him they get fab!!!
Arent one or more of these youths represented by Guardiola’s brother?
Obviously Narcelona is happy to see them leave and take the money. They are Spanish anway and like Cesc will of course gravitate home in the end. And if they are any good they will of course chose barca upon return to spain.
So I think these guys have left with full blessing of barcelona. The fans should not be nainve enough to think that these guys entered barcelona acedemy and didnt and will never want to want to play there, even if they left to get chances elsewhere now.
The difference between a selling club and just a smart club to me has always been whether the club sells their true top talents. Cashing in on players that we can replace does not make us a selling club. In the Wenger era, we always kept our top talents through their primes and built around them like Adams, Henry, Toure, Pires, Bergkamp, etc. When we start selling our Nasri and Fabregas’s is when you become a selling club. It is when you don’t make the prolonged effort to build a title winner. You just bring up players to eventually sell.
Barcelona is “our” feeder club. Ha ha
Arsenal must show to the world their true financial power.
They seem to be missing David Deans common sense. They must improve with the these new changing times.
Please Keep Fabrigas and Nasri.
Our wage bill is huge due to the size of the squad. Too many bench warmers in the squad. Get rid of the ones on high wages and replace them with fewer more versatile bench warmers.
Keep your “star players”. Step up their merchandise value through sales, sponsers and advertising, which will help with their wage increases and get rid of some dead wood.
Wages Talk or Players Walk.
Come on Arsenal Directors, Get a good surgeon to remove that stick- Give Fabregas and Nasri the wages their worth, they will win us trophys with the right reinforcements added as well. They are young and the best midfielders in the country-it’s a no brainer!
Get rid of the bench warmers who are not worth the wages they are being paid to compensate=again a no brainer!
We need to add a quality target man, a pacey left winger, a tall defender who can command and read the game and an agile left back with good positional sense to replace Clichy because he lacks both those qualities, and of course an experienced goal keeper who can organise against set pieces. I would buy this goal keeper form a team who uses and practices set peices in their game.
Job done.
I have a coaching badge and I am available if arsenal need a tactition as they could do with one of those as well!
I don’t mind if a player leaves. I do mind if he signs a long contract and then leaves. As far as I’m concerned, if a player wants to sign up for three to five years and then go elsewhere, that’s fine by me as long as he is committed whilst he’s here.
Loyalty is a two-way street: you don’t get it for free; you have to earn it. Arsenal have, at this stage, done nothing to earn Bellerin’s loyalty beyond the period of the contract Arsenal have given him.
I know most of the commenters here are too young to have had many jobs, but think about how it works for you. Do you feel loyalty to your employer if they do the bare minimum? Or is it only once they’ve done something for you over and above what you’d get anywhere else that you start to feel you owe them something?
So then Fabregas should be the most loyal person ever. You can’t compare our normal jobs to sports. It just doesn’t work.
Sam>
“So I think these guys have left with full blessing of barcelona. ”
So did Fabregas. They told him he had no future at the club…
Barcelona are a “buying club” and their youth players know this, which is why they are happy to leave and try and proove them selves in the hope of one day returning. Thats the real truth.
This will all end in tears, Barcelona we’ll finish the work for you, then you can have him back.
Arsenal FC = Stepping Stone FC
Sign players that want to play for Arsenal, he already has made himself clear that he hopes to return to barcelona.
He’s a great player if he stays, but he wont stay..
Sheet!he said “in one day he ‘d like to return to his boyhood club”.it mean like he is no different to Fabregas .he ‘ll feel homesick, when he is a top class.
Spanish players are no more prone to leave us than French,English or other foreign players. There is an added aspect to Catalan players (Barcelonians)because they are a separate ethnic minority in Spain and there is still a great deal of nationalism and regional sentiment for Catalunya. the Spanish Civil War started in Cataluyna and Barcelona paid the highest price in that conflict, being the capital of the revolution. Catalans speak a different language and you hear it anywhere you go in the region. They consider themselves Catalans first and Spanish second. It isn’t surprising that they are firmly attached to their identity and that Barcelona Fc is more than a club (mes que un clube their theme in Catalan)it is their identity. Playing for Barca is every Catalan Footballers dream and their eternal hope is that one day, Cataluyna will be an autonomous part of Spain.
It is because Barcelona are successful not because the are from the region. You do realize there is a team called Espanyol from there to right? “More then a club”…what a bunch of horse shit.
talking about loyalty being more with English players brought up from within the club; Ashley Cole proves that rule wrong. It comes down to the values and ambitions of the person. Looking at the waves of talent coming through the club now, there is no crisis if one player leaves for big money; only the timing remains te question
Welcome to arsenal, i hope you star either in the under 18 or reserve and for those who compare his case with fabregas are wrong because when he will start playing for the first team, arsenal have started winning tropies by then so relax the future is bright also come to think of it, do you think fabregas will be interested in barca if arsenal are winning tropies even if he will be interested since it is the place where he come from, he will say i will like to finish my career at barca.
@Sam
Arsenal are a selling club
welcome to Arsenal son do a FAB4 than a FRAN u and TORAL can and will make us great again in the near future after all has been said and done ARSENAL FC will alwayz b here
@Shane, Barcelona is the identity of Catalunyas and the club is regarded as more than just a football club.
While Real Madrid represents the oppresive spanish forces, Catalonias regard Barcelona as their own identity. That is why it is almost impossible for someone like Fabregas, Xavi, Pique, Valdes to wear Madrid jersey……
Because they are GOOD. Just because they have fans and players that identify with the club doesn’t make them “more than a club”. You think Barcelona are the only team with history? You think just Because most Barcelona kids won’t join there rivals means that makes them “More than a club”? By the way, even Fabregas said at one point in the past that he would not rule out joining Real Madrid. Getting sick of the more than a club bullshit. They are no different then any other club except for they are they most arrogant self righteous hypocritical assholes in all of football. I seriously just saw an article where it said “stars made in la Masia” where it claimed both Pedro and Fabregas were “made” there. So you claim Fabregas who left at 16 but you also claim Pedro who joined at 17? What a bunch of BS. I hope Pepe kicks the shit out of everyone of the next year when they play Madrid.
By the way, Merida joined Atletico Madrid so I don’t think he cares to much.
Compare what he said about Barca to what Zak Ansah said about Man Utd. I’m amazed this kid is getting so much criticism while our English lad’s say and do far worse to incite fans.
deacon joined sunderland good luck to him.
frankly i am sick of wenger…i dont mind buying kids for our future as that is how the club has built a solid foundation but he seriously needs to invest in the first team as we are quickly falling behind our so called rivals and at this rate i am struggling to see us retaining a place in the champions league let alone winning anything
I don’t know who’s fault it is. None of us know the whole situation at the club. He sure wasn’t responsible for contract negotiations.
Lets say all of us are professional footballers at this instant, would you go to any football club or just to arsenal? What if Arsenal wasn’t interested in you, would still got to another top club? Players are humans, they have preferences that’s the truth. you may go to a club that’s not you favorite, just to play football, but you still have a preference.
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theeo> Look at our own club, not other peoples’ clubs. You’ll be happier that way. The amount we have available to spend doesn’t change depending on how much United spend, y’know. If we can’t afford to challenge, that’s just the way things are – but you can be damn sure that Wenger’ll get the most out of what the club has available.
what are the chances that we aren’t going after chamberlain now because bellerin and torral are close to ready for the 1st team? Not that I’m complaining; I have no real idea how good chamberlain is, and I’d actually be very surprised if he ended up as good as either of these two.
Davi>
You’ve been reading the papers too much. Sure, Barca have a good youth system, and excellent recruitment, but that doesn’t give them a monopoly on talent. O-C could be just as talented and/or advanced as the other two.
That said, all three are just kids – I wouldn’t expect them to be in the first team any time soon unless they’re as good as Fabregas and Wilshere.
another fabregas in the making lol
the mirror claimed that they want to factor the two players in a deal for Fabregas. They value the two players at 7 mil. Is this true? has the deal already been done with the compensation and is the mirror just fabricating news? I know i have posted this comment before, i just needed an answer.