Arsenal have announced the sale of left-back Gael Clichy to Manchester City.
The French international has signed a 4 year contract while City have paid Arsenal a fee believed to be around £7m. Clichy’s contract with Arsenal was due to expire next summer and the player broke off contract negotiations with the club earlier this year.
Clichy joined Arsenal from Cannes in 2003 and made a total of 264 appearances for the Gunners, scoring twice in his time at the club.
It remains to be seen if Wenger will replace Clichy via the transfer market or allow Kieran Gibbs the chance to make the position his own. Doubts remain over his injury record and Arsenal have been linked with Newcastle’s Jose Enrique, Everton’s Leighton Baines and Celtic’s Honduran international Emilio Izaguirre.
Arsene Wenger said “We would like to thank Gael for eight years of terrific service to Arsenal, during which time he gave absolutely everything for the Club”, while Clichy told Arsenal.com, “I have had eight fantastic years at Arsenal and made many friends. I have so many great memories from my time at Highbury and Emirates Stadium.
“I would like to say thank you to everyone at Arsenal for all of their support and friendship. I also want to send a big thank you to all the Arsenal supporters, who have always been so good to me”.
Good luck old friend!
I really hope Arsenal start aiming longballs down our right flank against Man City now, gonna be mayhem!!!!!!!
ROFL……….Made my day
I have to say that departures like this leave no bitterness at all, even if he is going to the scousers. No dissing the club, players or manager. No game playing with contracts/wage demands. Just a straight forward end of the line.
Good luck Gail
Bye Gael.
Now can our summer get started please?
Is that a Milan shirt?
Good luck clichy , you will be missed by this
Gooner anyway. Gent of a bloke .
meh.
Gael was a hard worker but I don’t think the best left back. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Kieran Gibbs starts eating a healthy diet and does not get hurt this year.
I have to say, if we lose Clichy, Fab and Nasri we are not going to be a better team next year. Mainly because the latter two drove the team last year and because Arsene will not go out and spend money on a big player.
This sucks. I am really frustrated that it is July 4th and all we’ve purchased is a 19 year old Finn.
you dont know anything about football.
Nasri and Cesc did nothing towards the end of the season.
I hear baseball is pretty fun though
Alright mate, so we’ll be a better team then, if fab4 and nasri leave and arsene doesn’t reinvest? Cock off
i agree at the end of the season fabregas and nasri went hiding but rvp showed what kinda classy striker he is……..
Texasgooner
The 19 year old fin is in fact english, with a proper english accent – he probably chose to play for Finland because England are so shit.
But he’s an Arsenal supporter – and that means a lot, espeacially after watching most of those muppets play last season.
Give me 11 lads who support the club over 11mercanaries anyday of the week.
why are you all attacking our fellow fan from the states allow him air his view..mschew
well today ,i will stay on a more positive note.Defence let us down next season,and i believe iot is an issue the manager will rectify.
clichy ,all the best pal.
wenger will get it right , hopefully.
1 down 2 to go. will there ever be an end to this summer of torment?
Good luck to him. It’s clearly the sort of lucrative move most players want to have later in their careers. He isn’t going to win the Ballon D’Or, so cash is all he can wish for. Just hope he has a ‘mare when playing against us.
Well done Ariel. You’ve handled your move away with true class. All the best for your future at Citeh
Selling our best left back…..wow…all who thinks gibbs is any better is in for a rude awaking….everybody seems to rate him because he is english but he’s not good, which other team he could represent in the prem? NONE
Bye Clichy and thanx 4 th 8yr service, cant wish u gud luck tho.
Could never fault Clichy’s work ethic and character, but he was far too error-prone, and, for all his speed getting to the final third, never managed to learn how to be effective once he got there, particularly with the cross.
That said, he is significantly better than Gibbs (who can only play 1 of every 30 matches anyway, due to glass ankles), and if Wenger thinks the Englishman is a direct replacement, we are in big trouble.
Let’s hope he’s looking at Enrique or Baines.
How many english players in the premier league are most influential for their team? Probably Rooney………..The others live off the players from abroad so i cant understand why the media is putting all the hype around these so called stars…The only reason arsenal isn’t the second best team in the world is because of the manager reluctance to strengthen the team in key areas. Look at the Premier Champions playing at wembley, although they were helped by the refree they were clueless. One team can play Barca and is Arsenal. The media should stop putting the hype around english players… Read more »
said he’ll put Verminator or even Vela on the left back position, damn sure those two are better than injury-prone gibbs..
Vela, heh
lol i think he was reading your blog tooo seriously!
Well done fella you have been a gent and I think its safe to say we will all miss you. You have conducted yourself very professionally unlike others.
As for Gibbs lets hope he can get things sorted and transplant robocops knee’s and ankles
“Good bye old friend” indeed. Clich did a good job for Us down the years but started to deteriorate on a regular basis (at the ripe old age of 25!?!) a couple of seasons ago.
Now for another type of ‘good buy’ as I don’t think Gibbsy can cut it as a first-teamer just yet. And there’s his Anderton-esque :-0 injury record.
Enrique or Baines have the steel and EPL experience to do a decent job for us. However I can’t see Moyes letting Baines go for an inexpensive sum.
Newcastle on the other hand……..
Do you think they will take Eboue ?
He has left with some class, but I cannot stand that we keep selling our players to our closest rivals, who’s next to Man Titty Arsene, Nasri, Arshavin, who??? Boy how my trust in Wenger has fallen, I use to think he was the end all to beat all, now all I think is he can beat off……..
Lol @ Eboue. Blogs seems to have missed that. Definitely number one LB contender right now.
Gael clichy in 2009 after adebayor leaves “I really believe if you are a player who only thinks about money then you could end up at man city” well done mate
Good luck Gael. Now we can move Vela into the back four so we can add an extra inch to the unit. o_0 Actually, I am really interested to see who takes his place. Wenger must have anticipated this, so it’s a great indicator of his state of mind. Sticking with Gibbs or Vela, and we know he’s showing signs of dementia and it’s going to be a long, cold summer for the fans. Sign Baines or Enrique and he might actually looking at ways to improve the team, looking past his favourites for once. Either would honestly be a… Read more »
Glad to see there’s plenty of love for Clichy – he’s shown a good deal of integrity when not all others have, plus it was probably the right time for him to go as he’s been found wanting defensively pretty often, though I think we need more who show his drive on the pitch. Don’t really agree with all the Gibbs-bashing though, he’s been a bit indifferent this season but I think he has better composure, and is more direct than Clichy – you can’t blame him for having a bit of bad luck on the injury front. Provided we… Read more »
lmao good to see other remember eboue’s ridiculous outfit.. I’ll never forget the look on mancini’s face
Eboue looks ridiculous in an Arsenal outfit.
i remember eboue playing left back to perfection once a few seasons ago when we played portsmouth…
he aint that bad.. defensively better than clichy but he teds to commit stupid fouls and dives like a bi yatch!!!!!!!!!
Another quality move by AW and the board. Sell our best left back to the team that have knocked us into fourth slot. About as much ambition as a smack head on giro day. If I thought we would sign Baines to replace I’d feel better but they’ll promote Gibbs to First team. I think I’d rather have Traore!!
….ooorrrrrr, we’ve sold one player whose defensive lapses at key moments have contributed to our falling behind Man City. I’m not saying it’s all Clichy’s fault, but I am saying Clichy has been part of a larger problem in the last three years rather than part of any solution. If you were to say “great we just sold Van Persie and Fabregas to Man City” I’d take your point, but Clichy? Come on.
I completely agree with you Clichy was a nightmare at times but ultimately he was our best left back. Mores the pity. For me it’s not that we’ve sold it’s what we’ll do now he’s gone that worries me
Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this exit coming. I wish it weren’t to Citeh, but we all know what Gael’s weaknesses are. By joining Citeh he’s signaled the end of his progression as a player. Look at everyone else we’ve sold them… and the other players who’ve joined from other Prem clubs- they’ve all gone backwards or at best maintained. Now, if Wenger fails to make a move to adequately replace Clichy, or any other players we let go in this transfer window, he’s showing that his stubbornness is getting in the way of the club living up… Read more »
Annoyingly this is pretty good business for them. £7m for a vastly experienced good young player. He’s not really world class but could still improve. Hopefully things move along now…
Is it good business for them? Seems to me they have about 4 left-backs, none of whom offer them what they want–a defensively solid defender who can contribute meaningfully to the attack. Clichy is neither. He’s fast, he can get into the final third in lightning quick time, but his final ball is a serious problem. Indeed, I’d say it’s good business for Arsenal. We just sold probably one of the if not the weakest link in our starting back four for £7m and he was in the last year of his contract. The time for frustration is if or… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more with your comments John B. Clichy flattered to deceive. For all his running, he couldn’t defend, cross a ball or score goals. 2 in 8 years as first choice left back is very poor. Especially considering the way Arsenal play. Ashley Cole and Lauren used to get at least 6 between them over the course of a season. Even Winterburn and Dixon scored more than Clichy and Bac (probably?). Bac however, can cross a ball and is a better defender. I think Baines would fit the bill at Arsenal. He can defend, attack, cross a great… Read more »
Controversial this, but bear with me.
As Gibbs is apparently not good enough or never fit so we can’t tell if he’s good enough (presumably he can’t be both), BUT in the absence of anyone else is now our 1st choice LB, as supporters, can we not, er, support him, instead of slagging him off?
Told you it was controversial.
Mate, I don’t think these comments are about not supporting Gibbs. It’s about wanting the best for the team, and the longstanding frustration with managerial / budget decisions that replace experience with untried youth. For me, Clichy was nothing special, but instead of throwing Gibbs to the wolves (like Wenger did with Denilson when Gilberto, Flamini, and Diarra all left one summer…and look how that turned out!), we should be looking to improve on that position, not take a gamble on a young player whose fitness has been a major worry.
And that’s a fair comment fella. Just hope we’re not writing him off entirely as, given time and lack of injury, he could be a half decent LB for us.
YES!!! £7m up for the summer! thank you mr Wenger for further ensuring the financial security of our club. a true gent
haha comedy
At least i wont have to listen to David Bleat call him Cliche’ in every game on 5live. I get the sneaky feeling that we might have mugged Chiteh once again. Now, if we could only get them to buy heroin addict, eboue, rosicknote, barry bentdner and that other bloke, we might have had a good result.
Good luck to him. Always professional.
For me what’s so frustrating is that we’ve had to endure 3 depressing months of football while we capitulated in all 4 competitions, prior to a summer where we might lose our best players. Wenger could show some empathy and come out and say something positive. Better still sign someone good. We can only be patient so long!
I can now understand the reason for our end of season capitulation. I hope we get rid of all players that did not really want to be with us. If Eboue, Denilson, Aluminia etc really want to be with us better they stay than having players that are not 100% commited.
Amazing. The same mugs demanding Clichy be sold after any mistake are now bemoaning us selling an experienced player. Our fans must be the biggest fucking whingers I ever heard
well said sir !!!!!, it was time for him to go anyway. More to the point why are some people waffling on as if thats it for the transfer window? it only opened 3 days ago take a pill and calm down ya big babies.
Tevez going. So arsenal aren the only team in cough … “crisis”
heh…we should buy tevez…hes a player with heart..
i pray that the ppl commenting abt vela at left back are just extrapulating yesterdays joke…. Gibbs is definately not ready….really hope its baines to take over left back… If i understand wenger correctly…he waits for other teams to make a move before playing his card due our lack of financial muscle….if thats the case with citeh out of the way the only team that should rival us for the signing of a quality left back should be liverpool now…and we have champions league football to offer (well probably)…so wenger doesnt need to wait till the end of july…nows the… Read more »
I think everyone knows blogs was joking but shave vela’s head and we may not know the difference between him and clichy… fast, accident prone, ball in the final third found lacking…?
I’m hoping we get baines and never have to find out
It was coming
Can’t say I’m bothered the guy was quick but his crossing shooting and concentration lapses were wank
Good attitude and servant to the club though all the best Gael
Good luck to Gael, a true professional and great servant to Arsenal. Was the right time for both player and more importantly club for this departure.
I’m waiting for Sept 1st before making judgement on Arsene’s transfer activity. No point stressing until we know exactly what’s happened! Sick of moronic comments about our players and manager though!
Don’t bet too caught up in which individual player is better than who. Bring in a solid back who makes the team better; that’s what we want.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5452844,00.html
gael clichy in july 2009
nuff said
Guess this means that we’re definitely signing a left back. There’s no way Wenger is foolish enough to think Gibbs can do the job with his injury record. Really hoping for Baines. If we get him we’d have 3 of the top 5 assist players from last season iirc (Cesc, Arshavin, Baines)
£7m for a player in his final contract year and who’s on the wane after 8 years decent service with Us, isn’t too shabby a deal.
As I said before, now for a quality, EPL experienced LB – and SOON Monsieur Wenger!!……..
Well this was inevitable, clichy broke off negotiations mid season so signalled his intend to leave. it seems clear the cub does want another flamini situation with a player leaving on a free. its disappointing selling any player to a title rival and city will be challenging for the title. I cant blame any player for wanted to job city, better money and a better chance of quality players improving the quad every season. the real fear would very nasri going the same way, i think he has grown as a player and i could see him in a vital… Read more »
He let us have Sylvester?
[…] expecting a left back to be added to the shopping list after the experienced Frenchman was sold earlier this week for around £7m, but when pressed on the reason for the sale, Wenger told Arsenal Player, […]
Thank you Gael Clichy for having been at Arsenal for all those eight years. Do wish you a prosperous time at Manchester City.
We really loved you being part of Arsenal family team. Thank you for all your time and selfless commitment towards the club.