Joel Campbell will arrive in London this morning to complete his £930,000 switch from Deportivo Saprissa. The fee is a Costa Rican record, but the money that’s changed hands isn’t the only bit of history made between the two clubs.
Saprissa president Juan Carlos Rojas has confirmed the 29-time Primera División Champions have agreed a partnership arrangement with the Gunners, after Richard Law was impressed with the sides youth setup. Rojas revealed the news at a press conference in San José over the weekend, in which Campbell was presented as an Arsenal player.
Rojas said the details of the setup were sketchy, but the initial plans include the sharing of training methods and the creation of an elite Academy, where Arsenal and Saprissa would have their pick of Costa Rican talent.
“We are extremely excited about this opportunity to strengthen our organization through the sharing of best practices Arsenal. We will be visiting London next month and in due time we will provide details of this relationship, which includes close collaboration on a number of issues, as well as the creation of a Saprissa-Arsenal Academy.”
South American executive Law called into the press conference and spoke of his delight at capturing Campbell, who was later presented with an Arsenal shirt with his name on it. The 19-year-old then gave his view on the transfer.
“I’m very happy, very proud for my family, football and Costa Rica. Arsenal is a team that I’ve liked my whole life, and gives chances to young players. It’s a good team to show myself.”
Joel has signed a five-year-contract with the Gunners, and has already requested the number 12 shirt. Arsenal are hopeful of securing a work permit, but Campbell is expected to train with the first-team while awaiting confirmation.
So we’re turning them into a feeder club?
Mutual benefits for both clubs so calling it a feeder club is rather disrespectful to them.
We are not turning into a feeder club dont worry about that. This happens with every club going through a transition. In todays football two things create loyalty Trophy and Money. We are missing both at the moment but with the new Financial Fair Play rule and hopefully some trophies we will back up there
Its a frustating state right now for us but it will pass. THIS IS A 125YR old club and these 6-7 years will be peanuts in the future
Read what I said again. Note the subject of the sentence.
Hey other Jake, this is gonna get confusing. If your name is actually shortened from Jacob or something would you mind changing? If not I’ll do something :)
Yeah it is a little disrespectful. It will benefit them hugely, but it is nonetheless what is happening.
If we can’t get a work permit then I will be very annoyed because if this was man utd they would defo get the work permit but we seem to struggle to get our players work permits
What are you basing that conclusion on?
chitorito was not a full international signed and got a work permit without a question arsenal had to send wellington vela bothelo miyaichi and galindo away to gain european passports (well apart from miyaichi)
also you could add manus rafael and fabio de silva both brothers brothers got work permits without any trouble and manu signed both from a brazilian club when they were nowhere near the brazilian first team
For those who say Fabio and Rafael got a work permit without being near the brazil squad blah blah blah….They are HALF PORTUGUESE! Carlos Queiroz tried to cap them for Portugal when he was in charge but they want to play for Brazil.
“gives chances to young players. It’s a good team to show myself.”
I don’t really like this, it is true but I feel that most talented young player that come to us use arsenal as a spring board. Few players being exceptions.
That perception will change once we start to win again. Hopefully this season.
Not if oil money doubles your wages fron £90k to £165k per week.Unfortunately loyalty goes out of the window when the wallet is involved.Clubs will find ways to get around the Financial Fair Play.Arsenal will have to think about changing the wage structure to be able to compete.
^^ That seems a very valid point. I still don’t understand why the deal was called off until recently? Something about him wanting/waiting for a better club to give him a call.
I just hope that his attitude will change if he becomes a regular feature in the team. We don’t want more people like Hleb and Flamini.
Players will only leave if we continue to not win trophies. When we start winning trophies again no one will want to leave. I wont be too worry about, they are not leaving for free anyhow. Arsenal FC will be here way after the millionaires leave football
I’d add, that City is really the only destination where you can earn much more than Arsenal and have a chance at trophies and play in the best league in Europe. It was Chelsea five years ago – to wit, Ashley Cole leaving us — and now it’s Citeh. (Cesc to Barca is an outlier, not a trend.) But they’ll fill up with players soon, too, and switch to youth and yadda yadda, and thankfully there are enough world class players to go around the European top 10. Special special talent will only stay at arsenal if loyalty to the club card is played (or Financial Fair Play is serious).
This is a continuation of good things at Arsenal. Wenger adding some directness to Arsenal’s game. No matter what anybody else says, I totally believe in Wenger’s Arsenal and believe that we will win at least one pot this season. Up the Gunners!
We are going the same way as Ajax arent we in our youth academies.
These academies will be very very good in the future for us.
As for Campbell he reminds me of Henry which is reason enough in my book to sign him
“It’s a good team to show myself.”
So Arsenal is a platform for players?
Piken78,I do not appreciate you using sense and logic whilst posting……I am questioning whether you truly are a Gunners fan. Seriously,your comments are spot on,but don’t expect to agree with you.
Vermaelen,name some of those we have list that have flourished elsewhere please.If you can’t then your comments are based on nothing. If you can,I bet I can name plenty more to have left and failed.
This kid is good. But I hate to continuously use that word. No doubt, with the right guidance he can be a top player in the future, but we really need consistency and for lack of a better phrase; experience.
if he’s given a shirt number means he will win work permit and join the first team straight away
Just saw a clip of his goals on youtube and must say his shots are reminiscent of Henry’s style. But as always, can’t use goal highlights as a sole comparison for greatness. Hope he maintains his style of play and be capable of adding more flair to his game. I know it’s a cliche, but Arsenal lack a striker who can bring the amount of flair Henry brought for the Gunners.
Costa Rica have some quality talent but just don’t have the resources of other countries and they play good football. Watch the Brazil vs Costa Rica game in the 2002 world cup. With the new media and internet, scouting has become easier so more of the kids get european moves at a young age now which is good for them. Just in recent years they have 4 or 5 quality players coming through like Bryan Ruiz, goal keeper Keylor Navas (Levante) and Esteban Alvarado from AZ Alkmaar as well as Campbell of course. Improving the training methods and all that will only help Arsenal, Saprissa, Costa Rica and the level of world football which is always a good thing.
how many of you gooners wanted us to sign joey barton? you should be ashamed of yourselves.
arsenal fc try to pick the finest english talent available and don’t even mind paying over the odds. but seriously linking us with the likes of barton, parker, jagielka just because they are english was an insult
I don’t think anyone will admit to wanting us to sign Barton…and who cares??? In truth, if I didn’t care so much about this club, it would be an intruiging mix of character seeing him under the tutalege of Arsene Wenger. So I can see why some people wanted him. But in all honesty, he isn’t good enough to truly help us. He’s NOT coming so why worry about it??? I just hope we sign someone who can help us in the areas that need strengthening. We don’t need a whole raft of players to come in!!! I saw Campbell play a couple matches in the under 20 world cup. While he was impressive he has a little of Balotelli about him in the sense that he does NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING defensively. Doesn’t even bother to pressure or anything. I know he’s a striker, but I hate seeing players walk around when they could be helping a mate out!!!! So get ready for a dose of frustration watching this young man play!!!
my fellow arsenal fans dont worry we are not a feeder club just look at manchester united and the amount of players they sold to real madrid i give you two examples ronaldo and van gabeil henze they more of a feeder club then arsenal bt now is the time for ramsey to step up and prove his worth
Wenger wil mek gret moves.kwanza da ayew n m.marvin is da gretest shift he cn mek 2 giv hope 2 da fans.
Who knws about a Bolivian youngster who we signed back in 2009,Samuel galindo?? N Amaury Biscoff?? Am tired of Aw with his philisophy
And I, for one, am tired of pseudo-fans like yourself who clearly follow Arsenal, and then come up with silly questions, with a pinch of negativity. Get real, man.
Jamie’s tweet….”Sandro Rosell says Barcelona will pay £25.3m up front for Cesc, with add-ons worth £8.7m. Total fee: £34m. Amazing.”
That fee is flat out embarrassing. I feel ashamed for football that a club is allowed to flat out bully a club into pretty much giving away a player. Even worse is we let those scum bags use our training facilities last year.
And why would you believe that? It may be a lie. In football we can’t really trust anyone anymore. I believe its more but even though 25 upfront is a lot of money and allow us to buy players imminently. We can get one really class player with 15M and the rest is for someone else who is better than arshavin or rocisky. The prices of football is insane right now but that doesn’t mean 34M for Fabregas is low fee.
34 million for the player that has lead all of Europe in assists and chances created over the last 5 years and he did that before even reaching 25 years old is a massive joke. That is an extremely low fee for a guy like Fabregas.
it nice to invest in youth but imidiate problem need to be sorted out.i think we need more option at the midfield and defence. Up gunners 4 life
Saprissa’s 17yo winger John Ruíz looked impressive in the under 20’s World Cup. Apparently Barcelona are after him.
though there’s bound to be some pesimesim surrounding the club,lets be optimistic,through out the last few seasons cesc’s influence has reduced significantly..plus now atleast we neednt be worried about cesc & the barca saga..but we seriously need to do something
?…”through out the last few seasons cesc’s influence has reduced significantly”?
Just 2 years ago he had his best year for us and last year we had a far better record with him then without him.
I will definitely agree with the rest though but it is hard to feel like you have not just been punched in the face and robbed.
ARSENAL ….. The coming of a new era!
with the new signings / quality players.
Patience mates!
No revolution comes at no cost,life is about letting people grow in their wildest dreams.fab and nasri are great guys,but life goes on,lets build again.UP ARSENAL.
Welcome Joel. As he has I believe 8 full caps for senior side permit should not be a problem.
By the way this is a gooner site for young players so stop with the dissing of the senior side and in particular the fee etc for Fab4.
Peace and kLove.
This is a site where Arsenal fans come to get reports on youth players and discuss football. How much stuff can we say about players that we have not seen a ton of?
I personally like having conversations with people on this site rather then on normal Arsenal blogs because the people that care about the youth of the club tend to be more logical with their thoughts and not just glory hunting pricks.
Really wonder if he will replace fab or bring maybe ozyakup or somebody else from the youth team into the 1st team squad to replace fab not this year but the next..
I.e play carling cup and a few games and have more influence next year? Hold the fort with rosicky/Ramsey/wilshere as attacking mod this year?
Interesting to see
Right on HotRod, Ozyakup is the answer to replace Cesc great at the pass and set-pieces and taking corners just needs the chance! Enjoy the season!
Rvp to drop into the hole and we.get drogba as part of the.nasri deal. here is a question if city offered us adebayor and richards in exchange for nasri would you?
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I’m heart broken that cesc is leaving but i really cant blame him. Barca wins. Period. They win games, that is were he’s from and this season he insisted he wanted to leave and got his wish. I just hope that we find a really good central midfielder before the window closes… i was definitely shocked by our lack of inspiration and cutting edge in that game.
You can’t blame him? Cesc is a bitch. He is a coward that always bails. He already bailed on Barcelona once and now he bails on Arsenal. Cowards bail. Fabregas knew the situation when he signed an 8 year contract. Wenger put everything into building this young squad so at 24 years old when they hit their prime they would be ready to deliver. We just came of a season where we beat Barcelona and beat all of the other big clubs so we were right in line for success this year and our CAPTAIN jumps ship leaving the man (Wenger) that always stuck up for him no matter what and was like a father to him, hanging out to dry. He has to be one of the worst captains I have ever seen and is a coward. No other way to put it.
Watching the Real and Barca game last night, Real will not not make it easy for them this season.
Mourinho is the best coach in the world at this. No body knows if he can stay with a team long term but on the short term with cash, he gets the job done. I love how he shows Pep what a crappy coach Pep is. Pep lives behind this golden generation but when he has to do some actual coaching that wasn’t already a part of the Barcelona style, he sucks. His subs are alway crap and he always waste money on his signings. Rijkaard got found out when there was some failure and when he moved to a different club and I could see the same happening with Pep.
I still think we need a CB although that’s not too pressing an issue. A midfielder to replace Cesc, that team looked too flat against Toon and I’d rather not rely on Ramsey, not yet anyway. And a striker like Adebayor but not a Dickhead like Adebayor. Delighted about Joel coming in though, I haven’t seen much but I trust Wenger completely, he can’t be matched when it comes to buying top young talent.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it for the last time… Good bye cesc you’ll not be missed.
Time for the real Arsenal to step up, hope Joel campbell gets a work permit, what’s happening with Lansbury? he looked shocking during preseason, has Norwich ruined the boy, I had high hopes for him.
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Saprissa won the best team award from the concaf beating all the mexican,usa and others from 2000 to 2010 so is not a small team at all.Not only that but they buy all the good young talent from other costa rican clubs.
Shane you are a complete and utter tart. Wenger and Cesc both knew when he signed that 8 year contract that Cesc was never EVER going to see it out. As I said before he’s done us a favour by signing a long term contract, the less time left on his contract the less money we get for him when he is INEVITABLY sold. And I’m sure that was even discussed between the two of them.
I can’t believe how disrespectful you’re being to a man who has been an absolutely unbelievable player for us (for 8 years) and always given 100% on the pitch. He’s a Barcelona fan ffs born and bred, he deserves his move back. He’s too good for us quite frankly and he’s too good a player not to win trophies.
Cesc didn’t ask for the captaincy, he was given it. No he’s not a natural leader but you can be damn sure he gave it his absolute best shot.
Cannot believe fans like you.