Kristoffer Olsson jets into London this week to begin his Arsenal career. The 16-year-old arrives from Swedish outfit IFK Norrköping.
Olsson agreed to sign for Arsenal in March, following two successive trials. He then made his debut for Steve Gatting’s Under 16’s at the Ferroli Cup, only for mistranslated quotes to emerge, suggesting the transfer was not yet complete. However, sporting director Tony Martinsson has now ratified the deal.
“I can confirm that the deal is done, but I won’t comment on any numbers. But we are pleased with the deal.”
Liam Brady will be splashing out a large proposition of his budget on Olsson, with a development deal worth £293,000 agreed. The money will help Norrköping grow their Academy system, and although the cash is a welcome bonus, Martinsson would have liked the player to stay.
“We are happy, but we would have preferred Olsson staying at IFK and develop into a first team player. He wanted this opportunity, so we won’t stand in the way of that.”
“Now that Kristoffer has made up his mind, I hope he doesn’t come back in a couple of years – I hope he comes back after a long, successful career to finish it at IFK.”
Olsson will begin training with Steve Bould’s Under 18’s this week.
What position does he play? And do you thnk he’s as good as what we have??
Any links of him in action?
how good is he and what position will he play for us
Good luck to the boy, Im sure if he works hard and has luck with injuries he will develop well.
Its nice to get the low down on the young signings. Liam Brady keeps buying up all this talent, the future is bright.
future is always bright when it comes to Arsenal now only if we can make our present bright as well
Good luck to the kid. I am glad we stepped up the recruiting this year. Good to see
Andrew,
he plays CM. He played attacking midfield for Arsenal last autumn against Charlton and scored a goal. He has been told to work on his physical strength and to become more mobile after passing the ball.
http://bit.ly/p5UWyL
any truth that we are after him??
Did you even read the article?
HE plays CM or CAM
ya i read the article this link is about yesil
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arsenal.com%2Fnews%2Fnews-archive%2Fgervinho-agrees-deal-to-join-arsenal&h=gAQD_82bk
Afobe and Yesil could be devestating for arsenal up front
I want Coulibaly from Ivory coast. Would love Tchibota from Congo and the number 8 midfielder from Ivory coast too.
@Gunner SA the prospect of such a partnership would trouble any opposition
It is interesting to hear Wenger speak on the situations recently. You can tell his frustration and determination and I just love how he is not sugar coating anything or covering for the board. He is telling it how it is.
On another note, I know this is not related to our club but as a football fan, it is sad to see all the long term injuries for Michael Essein who in my opinion is one of the greatest midfielders of all time.
I must admit I can’t really understand this whole keep Nasri thing if he does not sign a new deal that Wenger is speaking of. Clearly we can not lose 25 million pounds for one year of Nasri service. The other thing that is scary is that he said we won’t be signing a new left back. Injury prone Gibbs and Traore who at this point is just a poor mans version of Clichy does not give me to much confidents to be honest.
@ shane,he also said that we have vermealen would love a guy like Aly sissckho to join us bt wenger believes in traore whom according to js has improved vastly,so why not??as wenger basiclly pointed out we are an attacking club so our best means of defense is attack!so we need to find a really classy striker,lets admit it last season our best threat to the opposition was van persie look at the number of matches we lost without a top notch striker,against sunderland twice both of which we should have won,traore&gibbs have alot to learn from pique
I heard him say Vermaelen but I would think that means he is signing a new center back then or depth will be really poor. I wouldn’t see the point in buying a new centerback when we have 3 great ones (4 if you count Song) rather then another good left back or defensive mid which we have no proper depth in. Maybe get Vertonghen who fits all 3 lol.
As for striker, we signed gervinho mate. He is just as good at either striker or wide attacker
I really like that reinforcing our youth setup with these talented midfielders and wingers, competition can only bring out the best in them. I hope we sign some top talents for the striking and defensive positions too. samed yesil, souleymane coulibaly and carlos fierro would be great.
i am not really sure arsene will sign a defender.
when we badly needed a cover in january he didnt buy anyone now with vermaelen fit le stubborn will count on bartley as cover.still a new addition wouldnt hurt in case gibbs and traore flop then vermaelen will have to play left back.
we still don’t have a goalscorer. with gervinho on board, is walcott moving in the middle? still signing benzema or lukaku wouldnt hurt. even if cesc and nasri stay buying new players will make us stronger.
personally i think without new additions we are still in the same position as last season, we will start well then injuries and tiredness will derail our compaign for lack of depth in the squad.
the whole wenger business is always confusing but i hope we dont get to that situation again when seniors are playing 3 times a week.
and arsene knows what would happen if walcott,van persie, gibbs, djourou, diaby and cesc play many consecutive games
@shane ya of we signed gervinho but he’s not a real striker by any means,if nasri doesnt sign then he will likely be sold in january for a cut price.so i really think that we need a top notch player if such an occasion arises to immediately replace him question is who will replace cesc if he leaves..personally i think hazard is one option,but since lille dont want to sell him,think we need to offer a few players plus cash,bentdner,rosicky & denilson