Arsene Wenger admits that he is paying big money to secure the services of Calum Chambers but hopes the 19-year-old’s versatility will prove value for money in the long-term.
Speaking openly in New York about a deal that is ‘done’ but yet to be confirmed via official channels, the boss admitted on Saturday night that the price agreed (£11m up front potentially rising to £16m) with Southampton was somewhat inflated due to Chambers’ British passport.
“He can play at centre-back, right-back and central midfield,” Wenger said after the defeat to New York Red Bulls.
“I hope he will give us competition for the players in these three positions. He hasn’t played many games, no, but the English players on the market in England are very expensive and at the end of the day I was ready to take a gamble because he is a player for the future.”
It remains to be seen whether the acquisition of Chambers sees Arsene tick ‘centre-back’ off his summer shopping list. Arseblog News supposes any futher movement in defence may well hinge on Thomas Vermaelen’s future, although we do look light there whether the Belgian stays or not.
What about Southampton? Chambers is the fifth big money exit of the summer at Saint Mary’s with the Saints also losing left-back Luke Shaw to Manchester United and Liverpool snapping up trio Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.
With new manager Ronald Koeman replacing Mauricio Pochettino (his mother having turned to questionable late night activities don’t you know) it’s an exodus even Bob Marley might have struggled to put into words.
On the plus side, it’s not us. So who gives a sh*t?
Nice
Indeed. Also thank you blogs for not leading with “Wenger admits to huge gamble with Chambers signing…” like most others
Watching Culann Davies’ compilation, I noticed his style has a bit of Kos about it.
Might develop into a top CB.
Now when did we go to New Yoek?
i also think its now “Londen” and not “London”
And further, not futher.
Really like the depth he adds to our defence. Fills the 4th cb role that Sagna left open, while providing competition for Debuchy. Not sure if I can see him playing in the midfield, with the depth we have there. From the youtube scouting I have done, I can envisage him moving to cb later in his career.
Apparently he used to play right mid too. once upon a time.
And to think that £16m was not so long ago our record transfer signing. How times have changed that we can now take a £16m ‘gamble’. We are finally amongst the big boys when it comes to spending power.
Really feel for Soton, reminds me of us post emirate move.. They’ve done really well to develope the squad they have and can do nothing to keep them.. Provided they re-invest, they should be fine
Great to have the versatility that Chambers will give Wenger. Also feel for Saints – a good team to watch (or has been!). I go to St Marys occasionally when I cannot get to the Emirates, being not far down the road from me. Not many signings there to date worth commentary.
It will be interesting to see if their manager gets to invest some of these massive transfer fees back into the team. They’re a good bunch to watch and they’ve been quite the talent school for young British talent for quite a while now.
I do feel for Southampton too.
Who gives a sh*t? We all should. They seem evidence of a great academy which the top teams while teasing away their players should be wise to be looking to emulate the successes of their youth set-up too.
Especially The Arsenal since we have an investment in bringing through youth.
“Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”
Here’s hoping Southampton stay up. And Arsenal take the league. Wahey!
They have a load of cash to plow back in, with presumably another load of youngsters coming through though.
They just need the right manager to spend it, that could be where they come unstuck.
Shrewd business but hope it pays out. With arsenal having such a young core, the future looks bright. With proper succession plan, arsenal is set to dominate. I believe with Calum, we will get security in the chambers
Will have to trust the manager on this 1 as i don’t know enough about him to justify an opinion, but i would question whether a raid on scummy utd for phil jones might have been possible? essentially the same just more experience, that said, if the manager is sure enough to put what would have amounted to our transfer record pre Özil on a 19 year old, well who am I to naysay? will commence youtube scouting if we make it official on the site.
The outstanding player in the England youth set up and, as always with the Southampton lads, a thoroughly decent chap.
“don’t know enough about him to justify an opinion”??
The is the internetz…. just make one up! It’s worked well for goal.com et al.
Decide whether you’re outraged, or just plain angry, then just go for it!
*this
Also buying him now represents good
business, come back next year and we would be throwing stupid Liverpool lallana-esque or uniteds shaw-esque money at them. These overpriced English ducklings have yet to even share water with the big papa ducks but goddamnit their prices!
and ofcourse he can play in 3 or 4 positions like Wenger
says, bet even Chambers himself had no idea he could!
His arms look longer than his legs….no one will get away from him. Welcome to arsenal!
11m for 3 positions??? That’s about 4m a piece. Comes with British passport? That’s just plain cheap. Good business again.
You probably have deciphered how Wenger decided on this buy!
With this, I’m wondering what other incoming we can expect in this transfer window.
A DM still seems to be required but with Arteta, Flamini, now Chambers & the LANSs (sorry) Le Coq & Diaby we seem to have the quantity but not the world class quality (in Diaby’s case fitness & not quality).
So, wonder if there are going to be some ruthless cull by Wenger
You know I have this gut feeling, Jack will play as holding midfielder alternatively with Arteta this season.
Why? Is Flamini going into the tailoring business and making long-sleeve shirts into short-sleeve shirts instead of doing what you are suggesting of Jack?
Yeah, Jack holding a fag, because he certainly won’t be holding the midfield.
As much as I’m excited at this signing, I’m a little confused why we can’t have one backup for every position. We had three centerbacks last year, but Wenger hinted that Bac could (and yes indeed he could very well) play there. But versatility does not prevent fatigue. If anything versatility is an added bonus to depth. Otherwise the best team in the world would be 11 superstars and 3 Eboues.
Either Chambers is a backup RB or he’s a backup CB. We can’t loan Jenks AND sell TV5 because the boy can play both is basically my point.
Very hard to sign a player as straight up 4th choice CB, like who wants that. So I reckon this is a good signing, shrewd baby
The rate at Southampton is selling players. I wonder what they are planning, even their manager was sold to Spurs. Time will tell
Damn, I really rated Mauricio Pochettino. Now I have to refer to him as scum, cunt or twat…
Good signing I reckon, the heir to per?
What about Walcott?Great things were expected of him.
I hope he can start and deliver soon. As for Wenger,rest assured fans will grumble if he can’t
get the gunners challenging. A repeat of last season’s losses to the top 3
will turn the fans on him.
Let’s make it clear first that we are different Malaysian gooners.
And I’m starting to wonder what Theo has to do to impress some fans. When fit, he has been absolutely outstanding for the last two/three seasons. Looks at those goals/assists per game ratio. He’s one of the best in Europe when fit.
To be honest, Walcott’s been hovering between the “good” and “great” boundary for the last 18 months – if he hadn’t been injured last season I think we’d have finally seen the player we all wanted. Got to remember he’s still only 25, heading into his prime years. If he can stay fit, I think Walcott will be one of the most exciting players in the league this year.
I think you´re perhaps giving Walcott too much credit. Yes, he can score goals, he proved that last season with a number of well taken solo efforts. That said, it remains to be seen how he will come back from his ACL injury. Moreover, while his pace is an asset, the OX is already miles ahead of him on the technical side of things. He can actually beat a man, not just run at him and hope he falls over. For me, Walcott provides an option, but I wouldn´t rush into considering him a definite starter when he returns from… Read more »
“Yes, he can score goals, he proved that last season with a number of well taken solo efforts.”
Well he is an attacking player, so if all he ever did was score goals, he could still argue pretty well that he’s meeting his job description quite nicely.
Feeling really sorry for Southampton, they’ve built an exciting team, to see it being sold off completly. DOn’t think they’ve any options though, a few players have a high enough price tag that can’t not sell and when players like Lambert, Shaw and Lallana went it must be tough keeping the others.
From a Swedish point of view I really hope that Koemann brings in John Guidetti from City, he was Feyernoords top scorer when on loan there, with Koemann as a coach.
Any Wu Tang fans hoping Chambers gets number 36?
that would make my day
£16m only?! What the hell were we thinking when we payed £50m for luiz!
I feel for the football websites. One less clickbait page. No Manquillo or Peruzzi rumour
This signing put me in a good mood….then I bought a match ticket for AFC v Palace this morning that cost £75!!! Well they’ve got to pay the wages of £16m teenagers somehow…..
As if Angelo Peruzzi is still playing……
Anyone else think Angelo is probably ridiculously fat now…
can’t be bothered googling him
Great signing in my opinion. Gotta feel for Southampton though, even RMS Titanic left Southampton and never came back. Oops.
So, is he like the future Lahm of Englad?
There is certainly something fishy going on at Southampton – I feel sympathy for their fans.
Here you have a club owner who doesn’t have any affinity with Southampton and realising that by applying the age old ruse of selling their best players at huge profits and bringing in much cheaper replacements there is an opportunity to make big profits couple with the fact that if Southampton DID get relegated there would be the rather substantial parachute payments.
Its quids in for Freddie Krueger and for the loyal fans sadly heartache at seeing their club stripped of its assets.