Gervinho’s move to Roma is official, and the Ivorian winger has moved for a fee of around €8m, signing a four year contract.
He moved to North London on the back of some impressive Ligue 1 performances and arrived with a reputation as a tricky, if unpredictable, winger.
He leaves having failed to convince and despite scoring 4 and 7 goals respectively in his two seasons, will be most remembered for a string of glaring misses, not least of which the one in the Capital One Cup against Bradford.
To be fair to him, both seasons were interrupted by international commitments as he travelled away at key points for the African Cup of Nations.
Still, if there were issues with his quality, he couldn’t be faulted for effort (unlike some), and he’ll be hoping a link-up with his former Lille coach, now the boss of Roma, will revive his career.
Rudi Garcia said, “I’m happy with his signing, as I was happy with the captures of Morgan De Sanctis and Kevin Strootman. Gervinho is a quick player, he’s good at going deep and he has different characteristics to other players.”
According to Football Italia: “Roma have yet to officially register the player as they firstly need to free up a non-EU spot in their squad. That should be created by selling 32-year-old Brazilian Babù” – who, as we all know, is actually an animated Ocelot.
Fare thee well, Yao Kouassi.
We hardly knew you.
But we’re kinda ok with that.
Holy shit, you guys, look at his little spots! Look at his tufted ears!
I’ve never seen one of those before!
I loved the ocelot reference!
2 people need to get watching Archer.
Lana?
Lana?
LANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!
WHAT?!
Danger zone!
@Mikel Artekkers he said the bird is the word…
She’s in the Danger Zone.
Little known fact: Gervinho was like, the Pele of anal.
Who would you say was a better attacking midfielder: Gerviniho or Eboue?
Regardless of the flaws Eboue possessed, I remember Eboue as a better attacking midfielder than Gerviniho
My mouse pad is a list of archer references… Written in order of person preference…
#1 Kreiger – I love That I Have An Erection, That doesn’t involve homeless people…
Side note, i believe this was a good deal for both Arsenal and Gervinho, but as Andrew stated on his Soccernet Blog, this is the first sale leaving not just a lack of depth, but a hole in the squad that needs to be filled.
Does this possibly mean instead of signing a forward we will sign a winger who can play forward? Hope not…
I reckon le Boss is looking to Gnabry, Caz, Pod & Ox to cover the left…. Would love to get someone in, but I don’t see it.
So Gervinho’s gigantic head has gone . . . . hang on i had something for this
Good luck Yao. May the grand force of decisiveness and accuracy find you upon your new quest as long as it is not against us!
Fair enough really, he was a punt that never worked out. Good point about him always making the effort, Blogs. Always showed for the ball and didn’t hide when the crowd was on his back, but unfortunately lacking a little bit the quality. We got decent money for him in the end all things considered; now to the small matter of a replacement….
Goodluck Gervais Lombe Yao Kouassi
Roma’s manager: “Gervinho has different characteristics to other players”
Uhuh.
I still think there is a decent player hiding in there somewhere…..extremely well hidden sometimes, sometimes disguised as Rick James Alla Dave chappelle . Best of luck at Roma.
this image fits perfectly:
http://cdn.themetapicture.com/media/funny-ginger-kissing-girl.jpg
Goodbye Gervais, there will never be a forehead as glorious in the history of football and we have been truly honoured by its presence.
Lucky for us however, we still have Nicklas Bendtner to grace us all with his omnipotent striking.
It’s €8m + optionals €2m based on caps.
Unbelievable piece of business I must say, thought we’d have kept him ’till the end of his contract like some of the pieces of garbage who are still at the club and don’t want to leave.
Other than Bendtner, who else falls into that category please?
Those will be pretty big caps.
but will they be gervinho-branded caps like the one he’s wearing in the photo?
Before I get crucified for the current date and how long there is left to go in the window…
As it stands now.. we’re in the green again for a summer window.. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
What ocelot of forehead he has…
Probably the easiest bit of squad transition we’ve had in a while. I’m more than happy with Gnabry or Miyaichi coming in to fill up that space in the squad.
Gnabry, Yes. Miyaichi, not there yet.
Gnabry is nowhere near either.
Are you trying to say we’re fucked?
So long as we get another more experienced wide player, it’ll be fine to have either of these two in and around the first team. As it stands, though, they don’t seem quite ready to be competing for a starting role like Gerv was!
Will never forget his miss at Bradford. Got to laugh haven’t you really.
At the time no and now no 🙁
I’ll never forget your semi – final winner against Wolves, Christopher. A much better memory.
and we have the prospect of a 26 year old from League 2… WTF are they wasting their time on???
“Angers have confirmed Arsenal have taken midfielder Alharbi El Jadeyaoui on trial, with the 26-year-old set to spend two days in England. However, the Ligue 2 club say there have been no negotiations about a potential deal for El Jadeyaoui.”
Seeing as Koscielny was once a prospect from Ligue 2, I see no reason to complain just yet.
and how many titles have he won us :p But kokes aside, I like Koscielny.
The bar must be placed a little higher than 26 year olds from League 2 if we are going to challenge the title….
You must be some kind of special to trial with Arsenal from Ligue 2 at 26. Hopefully El Jadeyaoui is the good kind.
Also, Gilles Grimandi is usually pretty good.
I think it is kind of presumptuous of you to say that a 26 year old from Ligue 2 is not quality. Quality sometimes gets suppressed in lower leagues due to various factors but one thing you can be sure about a person who has had to work from the bottom to the top is that he will give body and soul to the cause. E.g. Giroud and Koscielny.
How much time does that take up? They have training anyway and the guy gets involved and then they decide whether they like him or not.
Also it’s worth mentioning that Drogba was playing in League 2 in France as a 25-year old.
It’s worth mentioning that this is total bollocks. He was in Ligue 1 by 22 or 23 at latest.
A 26 year old who’s never left the French second division? This guy WILL be an Amaury Bischoff level signing and we all know it.
Angers is, I’m guessing, a gossip rag from Angers, France?
Making our barely-4th-placed squad another player shorter before we’ve actually purchased anyone or even, so it seems, have anything on the horizon: genius.
I know he’s not great but unlike the player who’s replacing him he has the distinct advantage of actually existing.
All the best gerv. You were a quality player. It never really worked out for you and us after the afcon 2012.
Wishing him all the best. A bit of me is quite sad he’s gone. Would have loved to see him playing with some confidence.
“He moved to North London on the back of some impressive Ligue 1 performances and arrived with a reputation as a tricky, if unpredictable, winger.”
He leaves North London with a reputation as a tricky, if unpredictable, winger.
as an unpredictable, if tricky.
let him go
I think you’ll find we have!!!
I’ll kind of miss the guy. As irritating as he could be, he was fantastic occasionally. He always seemed to be trying and always had a smile on his face. It’s a shame it didn’t work out for him with us. Good luck to him. What’s worst though is that I can’t make forehead jokes anymore.
Decent squadplayer, so unless we buy a couple of replacements we might actually miss him…
Strange player to evaluate really. Sometimes he struggled with very basic technical things like keeping the ball in play and moving forward with the ball. But when he attacked the full back and got to the by-line for a cut back he was effective. Pretty sure that’s what we bought him to do he just didn’t do it properly enough of the time. So we’re officially weaker than last season now, while certain others are stronger, as if it needed saying.
Zervinyu iz gone?
His forehead is still at the Heathrow aiport though, officials have refused to let it through.
“He’s good at going deep”
phnarrr
Kyuk Kyuk
Hehe I chuckled on your last sentence. I dont know if people realise this but the squad is getting really thin. you look at the team now and realise Coq, djorou, gervinho, arshavin who are more than decent squad players; moreover who never complained are gone. even If we sign 3 players (what?) the strength in depth we posses is nowhere near challenging for major honours…
I honestly have no idea what Arsene has in mind.
Yes it is indeed, we’re almost getting to the point where there’s actually no-one left at Arsenal that makes us get that godawful panicky feeling when their number comes up for the obligatory 70 min sub, quite bizarre. In all seriousness though, bizarre is a pretty good way to describe our transfers so far. Absolutely unprecedented levels of clearing out going on, it’s as if Arsene has suddenly out of the blue discovered how to do ruthless. All these ones that have turned out to be nowhere close to worth their wages, and we all pretty much accepted we’d be… Read more »
Bye Bye
Hehe I chuckled on your last sentence. I dont know if people realise this but the squad is getting really thin. you look at the team now and realise Coq, djorou, gervinho, arshavin who were more than decent squad players; moreover who seldom complained are gone. even If we sign 3 players (what now?) the strength in depth we posses is nowhere near challenging for major honours in a hectic season.
I honestly have no idea what Arsene has in mind heck neither does anyone else. just gotta hang on…
Gerinvho wasn’t a first choice player – he was a squad player. It looks like our first choice winger is Cazorla (TR7 central), with Poldi in after him. That makes Gnabry third choice, which is perfectly fine for his level.
Gnabry is a very interesting prospect, with the right build for the Prem, as Le Grove pointed out, and a real willingness to shoot. There are many kids that won’t make it, but Gnabry is one of those who has a very good chance.
Yes he wasn’t. I just said that. you look at a team with a strong first 11 but as the season progresses you’ll realise their strength in depth is what really matters. look at bayern, chelsea e.t.c
I suspect this season Arsene is planning to employ his young guns abit more I just hope it doesnt leave him redfaced cause judging by the cameos miguel, chuba, e.t.c gave against real opposition (emirates cup) they are nowhere near ready.
there’s ofcourse this factor too “Will rosicky, poldi, stay fit through the season? “
Yes it does make the squad look very light it has to be said, all these departures – but to some extent it has been anyway even with some of the deadwood. Not Gerv so much, because he wasn’t one of the worse ones, but there’s been a real lot of times in the last few years where we’ve been 1 injury away from having to play Chamakh, or Squillaci etc. Squad depth is vital especially taking into account we’ve got a few who are 1st team or close who have had ongoing issues with injury – but not good… Read more »
So true. The squad is super thin. We needed some key first XI players before, but now we need those AND we need squad players too. I think we got a good amount for him, but he was a decent squad player who was impressive in some games. Several negotiations to be sorted in so little time. It’s looking grim.
Foreheeds a jolly good fellow
Foreheeds a jolly good fellow
Foreheeds a jolly good fellow
Aaaaaaaaand so say all of us!
Good luck Gerv.
Fourheads is not better than one.
We have had a few decent players over the years arrived at our club and failed to make a mark on the pitch! I wonder why that is!!!
One of the best dribblers in the league – with an eye for goal he would have been world class. Alas.
Playing in a less physical league will be a good move for him, and especially working with a manager who believes in him.
Anybody happy to see Wenger avoid the usual 5-year plan and call quits early on a player?
Not when our squad is paper thin and he was the best backup we can realistically hope for at our current level.
Fine, you don’t like him, but do you really think somebody better than Gervinho is going to come in to sit on the 4th placed team’s bench? Pfft. Pure naivety.
This is a mind boggling decision when we haven’t bought anyone, our youngsters, if we’re honest, have consistently disappointed in preseason, and our only transfer target, who we’re unlikey to get, plays in a different position.
I was at the Blackburn FA Cup disaster last season, sat right by both the corner flag and the Blackburn fans. Not only were all the Arsenal and I jeered horribly after Blackburn scored, but my seat meant I had the best (worst?) view of Gervinho’s first half performance. He was awful that day. As much as I don’t want to judge him purely off the back of that one performance, and I wish him all the best at Roma, I’m glad he’d left. Never really seemed good enough to be an Arsenal player. I’m also glad we managed to… Read more »
At least he had a go at it. Wasn’t the greatest but didn’t hide on the pitch even when he was having a mare.
Credit for taking a positive step with his career as well instead of sitting on his arse collecting splinters and cash.
Correction – It wouldn’t be splinters he’d collect on the modern game’s bench seats would it – more like leather (or vinyl) rash.
Good luck G, nearly scored one of the goals of the season against Bayern away. Thought the season just gone would be his, but alas, not everyone who plays left wing comes good in their second season.
Bring on Nani! Awsome available replacement at a good price. Go for it Prof
Are you serious, Nani is terrible.
Nani is shite. I would rather have kept Gervinho than we end up replacing him with that 80s Michael Jackson faced joke. He is the sort of player that only plays for himself and when he can be bothered, which is probably once every ten games. He’s really lazy too.
Before he came to Arsenal, I really liked what I’d seen of Gervinho playing for Lille and Ivory Coast, and so was very happy we signed him. Of course I hadn’t noticed that he had woeful shooting technique. Still, credit to him, he’s a guy who always tried to make things happen, even when everyone else was playing with the handbrake on.
Well that’s 9 out & 1 in by my count. Great work if you’re a company trying to rationalize its workforce and cut costs but not so good if you’re a football club with ambitions to win something. Can’t fault Gervinho for effort but just not quite up to it. All the best at Roma G
^ Insert ‘Time to unleash the ox’ comment over here
i just thought you were speechless
I remember when Eric Bristow got ‘the yips’, where he couldn’t release the dart when he wanted to. Gerv suffers from a very similar ailment called ‘Hleb Syndrome’, the main symptom being the inability to release the final ball until you’ve run yourself into a cul de sac.
Actually, with Bristow I’d just superglued the dart to his hand. He kept on asking why I did it. I said you can never let it go can you?
(Tim Vine joke. Not mine.)
I can honestly say Gervinho is up there in the top 3 worst Players I have seen perform in an Arsenal shirt … (We are talking mid 80s to present)
He is weak, not particularly quick, gave the ball away constantly, had no end product and could not actually strike a football properly.
I would bearing in mind the cost consider him to be Arsenes worst ever signing and am so thankful he has moved on.
top 3 worst since the mid 80’s?
Gus Caesar. Vince Bartram. Colin Pates. Chris Kiwomya. Glenn Helder. Jimmy Carter. Alberto Mendez. Amaury Bischoff. Igors Stepanovs. Michael Silvestre. Fabian Caballero. All far worse than Gervinho.
XMarks,
you can add
Franny Jeffers & Eddie McGoldrick.
Right you are DC. I left out Seb Squidly and Lord Nelson of Vivas as well.
Ian selly & David hillier
Louis Boa Morte was pretty bad, Kaba Diawara also worse.
Yes Kaba was useless also Christopher Wreh.
I think Glen Helder wins it though
Havin stood in the Luton end at the ’88 League Cup Final, I have to go with Gus, as I had the misfortune to see his performance that day right in front of me.
Could of been anything really. Was quite excited when we signed him to replace nasri but didnt quite work out for him. Good luck to him anyways. Would love to see miyaichi get his game time now.
Who are our substitutes going to be this year? Which player can we put on the field in the 70th minute to turn a match or to score a winning goal?
Think we have a solid first eleven, but you need at least 4-5 players who are almost as good if we are going to be a top 3 club…
Like Eboue he got into dangerous positions…..then his brain failed him.
He’s gone?….thank fuck for that. Hopefully my blood pressure and heart rate will come down on match days. In fact this transfer has probably saved my life.
There seems to be a bit of sellers remorse on here. Now some of you are complaining that Wenger actually did what you asked for and has cleared out the ‘Deadwood’?.
He was practically hounded out of the club by the boo boys.
He didn’t help his cause with that miss at Blackburn.
He is a form player, and will be back under the wing of his former manager.
Good luck to him at Roma. He was frustrating as f*ck for us, but at least he tried, unlike the squid.
In a way i am not happy that he is gone, as it thins the squad. However it is still a good shift of the deadwood. People are now saying we have a thinner squad, but i disagree… a) The youth prospects, with the exeption of Jernade Meade wernt going to be featured this season. At all. b) Djourou and the Coq werent trusted last season, and Gervais was someone we were all clamouring to never been seen in the shirt ever again. In terms of players we used last season, we are only down 1, and its a player… Read more »
The unspoken subordinate clause of ‘throw out the deadwood’ is ‘and replace it with something better’. Gervinho just has the edge on thin air for me.
Correction #Bradford – all northern teams look the same.
Apparently the only way to tell northern teams apart is the quality of the pies on sale at their home matches.
I really like his hat.
That’s £46,880,001 for the bitey racist now, going by current exchange rates. No excuses. Don’t like Suarez, but like another commenter says, I want this one to go through now based on the ridiculous comments of Liverpool fans on blogs, John “Wanker” Henry and little-fish-in-a-little-pond Brenda “cunt” Rogers.
Its worth buying him for 100m to let him rot in the reserves just to see the reaction of the scouse fans…
They’d bite your hand off for 100m. Suarez himself would probably bite it off for free.
Gervinho was an amazing dribbler. He always got past his man. But he just couldn’t cross, and was mediocre at shooting compared to the elite. I liked him and wished he could have got those elusive shooting boots on that Van Persie stole from Henry’s locker.
X marks the Coq I said considering cost he is in the worst 3. All the players you mention were youngsters or bit part players who didnt cost a big fee like Gervinho. Apart from the Champs League qualifying second leg versus Udinese in his first season (where he can at best be described as lively) i can honestly say I didn’t see him have a decent game. The failed experiment to play him up front for a time last season (when it should have been Walcott) was also pointless as he cannot kick a football properly so was never… Read more »
I’m gonna miss that forehead, not the shooting though!
Did Roma sign him because of his Nazi salute?