New Transfer Rumors
By: Martin | July 12th, 2009Not much going on this weekend, really, but there are a couple new rumors floating around.
First, we’re reportedly interested in St. Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi. He’s just 22, and relatively small (5′9), but is apparently a defensive midfielder, which is what we’re in the market for. I’ve never seen him play, so I can’t pass judgment on whether he would be a good signing. But my gut instinct is that at that age, and only having played against a slightly lower level of competition than he would see in the Premiership (Ligue 1, UEFA Cup, U21 International), he would not be a guy we should reasonably count on to make an impact right away. Though I guess it would take Arsene Wenger one step closer to his dream of fielding a squad comprised exclusively of injury-prone French players of African descent. So there’s that.
The other name that has popped up in very general terms is Valencia midfielder Ever Banega. The young Argentinian is even younger (21) and smaller (5′8) than Matuidi. So pretty much the same thing for him–he could very well turn out to be a good signing, but I don’t think he’s someone we should count on to break into the first team next season.
Also, Robin van Persie came out and said he turned down offers from Chelsea, Manchester City, Juventus, and Inter to stay at Arsenal. Maybe that’s true, and that’s fantastic. But this seems like one of those things where you make up or exaggerate to make your current option feel flattered and lucky. Like when you tell your girlfriend some college student was flirting with you or your ex-girlfriend sent you a booty text at 11:30 on a Friday night and you, being the good loyal fellow you are, turned them down. Even if it’s all make believe, the feeling that one won some sort of competition for a prize will make them value the prize all the more. Robbie’s a good enough guy and a class player when he’s healthy, but he’s getting paid a lot of money to play for Arsenal and those other players would have given us a lot of cash, I’m sure, for him, so the fact that he turned down offers from other clubs which didn’t have the right to sign him in the first place is neither here nor there.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend–only 6 days until the first friendly.
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Category: Transfer News and Player Movement
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I said it countless time: Van Persie is good agaisnt lower team. When the team need him the most, he chokes miserably. It’s a good thing that Arsenal are reputed to not be able to maintain their over 30 years old players. Van Persie is 26. If he can stay like 2 more years and make a reputation, then we could sell, make money and leave the place to younger and hungrier strikers.
At least, Van Persie’s work rate is way better compare to Bendtner. Adebayor is in the middle. He can turn out to be very good, missing a lot of chances or can be very disappointing. In my opinion, Adebayor is the next striker to leave the club. He’s somehow a hindrance in Wenger’s plan. But, I would largely prefer Persie to leave.
Posted from
United States
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Third eye. Are you mad. Van persie struggles when we need him most. Yeah right off the top of my head I’d say the two games against Roma and Chelsea showed just how much we need him. Bendtner was beginning to show a lot of promise towards the end of the season and is still young so to critize him is a bit much. Adebayor in the otherhand. I’m not sure about him. I don’t know if he was affected by th criticsm last season or what but he didn’t have a good season. I still think we should keep him as we need the depth. I would be very optimistic if we sold nobody this close season. Because we’d have an amazing squad. And that will help us win back the league.
Posted from
Ireland -
“Though I guess it would take Arsene Wenger one step closer to his dream of fielding a squad comprised exclusively of injury-prone French players of African descent. So there’s that.”
I had much higher expectations of you and unfortunately you’re reiterating the same comments made by some Italian fans about the French Soccer in general.
It doesn’t make any difference what the nationality of a player is, and as a blogger you should leave those sentiments to yourself.
I am sure LAURIE won’t be too happy with your generalizations either. You can try to back peddle and say other wise, but your quotation is pretty much what it is!
This will be my last reply and once again thanks for all your great passionate work. This is the very same reason I never read Goal.com! Full of haters specially towards
the French and their African players.P.S. Zidane(African Decent WHITE) friendly in Toronto was amazing, even though the turnout was less than expected, I had never seen so many Les Bleus Jerseys in Toronto gathered in one place chanting ZIZOU!
And of course there were some Italians wearing Juventus
jersey showing him the finger as well, so go figure!Posted from
United States -
RVP has been very clutch against big and small teams this year, i don’t even have energy to argue this, i think this is obvious third eye.
Posted from
United States -
wouldnt be a bad idea to get Blaise.
one less St. Etienne player, the better ( Lyon Fan
)Posted from
United States -
foreverzidane–
Sorry if I caused offense. It really was just a throwaway joke line, and I certainly didn’t mean it to be racist or dismissive of French football in general.
But it is true that Wenger has a “thing” for French players of African descent–Sagna, Diaby, and Nasri among the current squad–and those players have shown a tendency to be injury-prone. But if you’ve read the site regularly, and I know by the amount of comments you’ve left that you have, I think you know that I really, really like two of those players. And my dislike of Diaby has nothing to do with his nationality or heritage.
Again, apologies if I caused offense, but it really was just a stupid joke of a line that was meant to note that he was French-African like many current members of the squad, and was injured for a significant period of last season. As the source of your username, as well as the performance at the club and international level shows, French-African players certainly shouldn’t be subject to any negative stereotypes at this point, and I honestly don’t think that’s what the statement from which you took offense was doing.
Thanks for reading.
Posted from
United States -
I’ll go ahead and stick up for Martin on this one. He’s a funny guy and devoted to the team, particularly all the guys who contribute something (regardless of where they’re from or what they look like).
Posted from
United States -
Thanks for speaking up ForeverZidane, I felt the same way.
The comment, not the first of its kind, struck me as unnecessary and irrelevant.
The history (frequency) of my visits to this site aren’t yet long (high), and it shouldn’t be up to readers such as myself to interpret and analyze the poster’s history, sense of humor and state of mind and to what extent they “really” meant it. As ForeverZidane pointed out, there are many people out there who say things like that in all seriousness.
Anyway, some socioeconomist may (or may not) be able to tell you why such a large percentage of rising French football stars are of African descent.
Also, there’s a big assumption when you say Wenger has a “thing” for French players. Maybe his ability to attract said French players to the club is enhanced, the same way Benitez attracted all those spanish players to Liverpool, and Mourinho/Scolari brought along the many Portuguese-speaking players to their respective clubs.
French-speaking or not, I don’t want a parallel-reality Arsenal without Henry, Pires, Vieira, Clichy, Nasri, Toure, Sagna, Gallas
Posted from
United States -
I think I speak for Martin when I say that I don’t really care if the whole team consists of purple aliens with 3 heads, as long as they perform and win some titles. There is certainly a history of Wenger and French players. And a lot of those French players, if not most, happen to be of African descent. So if we joke that he’s trying to make a team full of such players, why is anyone particularly offended? I don’t really get it.
I don’t know Martin personally, but I know it’s a very dedicated Arsenal fan. And I’m also willing to bet that a couple of his all-time favorite Gunners are Henry and Vieira. Guys who contributed a lot to major success. Guys I like a lot too, and still root for. Would Martin be opposed to a team full of such players? I really doubt it.
If Martin wanted to see a team full of English players, he would have bailed on Arsenal a LONG time ago.Posted from
United States -
I agree with homey… I dont think martin have anything against french player, and if he did, he would not been an arsenal fan cuz most of our team is french
Posted from
United States -
Ask yourselves this.. If wenger had not joined Arsenal and had not bought the French players to the club, would we have had anything close to the success we have enjoyed over the last 13 years? And would we have that cherished memory of a certain French player of African descent Wiltord winning the title for us at old trafford!!!!!
Posted from
United States -
About Blase Matuidi, i saw him last season in the derby against Lyon, and i can tell you that i was absolutely impressed. He ran all day long making tackles and making it a hell for Lyon. He’s not bad technically, would fit perfectly in behind Fabregas
Posted from
Norway -
I like that Wenger is now looking at the type of players we need, I was just hoping he would bring some experience in to play that position.
Posted from
United States
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