In a statement on their official website this evening, Villarreal have confirmed that the Spanish club have an agreement in principle with Arsenal over the sale of Gabriel Paulista.
Although some contractual details are still to be completed those are expected to finalised on Monday, and he will undergo a medical before signing his Arsenal contract.
They signed off by thanking him for his performances since his arrival in Spain and wishing him luck in his career in London.
As we reported earlier, Villarreal will take Joel Campbell on loan until the end of the season, subject to a medical which should be little more than a formality.
So, it looks like everything is done, now we bite our nails over the work permit issue which should be made more clear next week.
Great news.
As long as u can land rvp on his f**kin face that will be some well spent money.
Problem is – What will happen once he fails to get the work permit? Do we even have a backup plan?
You have to consider the fact that we might not sign any defenders in this window because we are very close to the end of the window. Risky business, as always.
What’s Tom Cruise got to do with it?
Scientologist in the Home Office. Calling in favors to get that work permit.
First Arsene goes to church. Then it gets serious and he calls on the Top Gun(ner).
doubt the club have gone to all this hassle to have the work permit issue get in the way they must have figured out something.
If he fails to get a permit (doubt the club will have come this far without being confident he’ll get one) we could always bring back Sol Campbell. Or, more realistically, move for someone like Winston Reid.
Why always negative JC? I have never seen you make a positive comment here.
We’re all on such a high after last week’s win and Marueen’s “devastation and shame” that negative waves like this get quickly thumbed down but there is a salient point here. I really want to believe that all the previous visa problems have been sorted well in advance and there isn’t a drawn-out saga cos It’ll just give haters more ammunition. So I’m going to believe that Arsene knows and I’m confident that the Arse will take Brighton seriously and tomorrow at work give out some serious schadenfreude to the Manc fans and Chelski minions. COYG the next round beckons.
We have more great players than you could shake a stick at!!
Looking forward to the rest of the season! COYG!
Sorry to spam this thread, but as Arsenal fans I think we all should watch this video, a brief documentary on Arsene Wenger’s career. As a post 2004 Arsenal fan, I have obvious disagreements and frustrations with the manager, but after watching this video it certainly changed my perspective on the man. And that’s exactly what he is, a big man, even for all his flaws as a manager. The same can rarely be said for most managers today, and in particular one who is a very good manager but an absolute selfish cunt of a man. Enjoy guys, I… Read more »
An excellent watch thank you fab
I love this video most because it led me to this beauty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMT2O72eoT0&src_vid=9eMazip0tZA&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_2371058259
and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5DJJhYYMg0&x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534
In Arsene we trust
I don’t understand these work permit issues too well. Who are some good players that were wrongly denied work permits by the tribunal, and who are some terrible players that got through. I’d like to have some sort of idea as to how likely it is.
2 examples of players that didnt get work permits, petr cech and angel dimaria.
examples that did get work permits, denilson, song, ryo
We also missed out on ronaldiniho (spelling?) Before he moved to PSG. Its a shite system!
too many i’s
pretty sure Song play most his life in france (he play for them in youth side) and so has french passport, ryo only work after he earn his japanese cap
,visas was refuse until that, denilson was Captain of brazil at youth level so it was easy to get him Special Talent
song was a special talent visa too
It’s mostly to do with a few things: language learning, being “sponsored” (ie given a job) by a club etc but the main sticking point is they have to prove to the FA (I think? not too sure if it’s them or the Home Office but read its the FA) that they’re a talent. Normally, this means they play 75% of competitive matches for their international team over 2 years. Gabriel isn’t capped so this can be an issue. However with Willian, who only had a couple of caps for Brazil, was accepted because Chelsea persuaded the panel that Brazil… Read more »
The fa advise the home office but in the end it its their call
Thanks for the clarification!
Can’t see there being a huge issue with work permits. I refuse to believe a club with the size and stature of Arsenal would pursue a deal when they weren’t absolutely sure they could complete it.
Well if it doesn’t go through, at least we know who to blame for jinxing it!
You’re right. It’s not like a player would get signed and then turn up with a passport that was actually made with a pack of crayola *cough* Just ask Edu and Sylvinho *cough*
The young are oh so trusting 🙂
They’re supposedly changing the system from next year so anyone signed for over 10 million gets one automatically. Even though that policy isn’t technically in effect this year I would be surprised if they didn’t quietly apply it here.
Neither do Arsenal Ermias haha!
Would have liked to have seen Campbell given more of a chance, given how exciting he was in the World Cup. Nonetheless, welcome Gabriel Paulista–god knows we need some depth in the defensive department.
Good buy, by all accounts a solid centre back, just turned 24 so likely to keep improving. Joel Campbell is an interesting, think we didnt plan on letting him go but probably became a negotiation part for Gabriel to get abit off the fee. Will be very interesting to see if he’s still with us next season. Either way I think it maybe used as a chance to play Akpom abit more to convince him to get him to sign a new deal. Look forward to seeing him play more too.
Gnabry, Walcott and Ozil have all just come back from injury. He harldy played a game while they were out, what chance would he have now?
Akron is a centre forward. None of the three you mentioned are. Despite Walcotts pretensions.
I really feel as though Campbell deserves a chance at Arsenal, especially after a really good world cup run. The squad rotation would certainly help out the team physically and enable our usual substitutes to establish themselves in the team if they play well enough. I suspect our injury problems are at least partly caused by overplaying key players or bringing them back from injury too fast – something that could easily be avoided if we actually utilized our squad depth, in the forward area at least.
Good piece of business.
Yeah, sounds sound to me, all round. Sound as a pound…
Good signing. I hope he wont be judged using alexis as a standard. its wayyyyy harder for defenders from spain(especially one who just came from brazil 18months ago) to settle into the premier league. besides alexis is ALEXIS!!!
I’m sorry. Who on the planet is comparing this signing to that of Alexis? And what standard could you possibly use to do so?
I think he referred to the fact that players from La Liga usually doesn’t adapt to the BPL as quickly as our lovely Chilean workhorse has.
Half the people on here are likely to get frustrated with him as he takes at least a season to get up to speed with us. You know they’re going to declare him rubbish and a waste of money when he starts making errors because the refs keep letting big ugly fucks like Crouch and Carroll flatten him with their perfectly fair and manly elbow charges.
Let’s hope he does better than our last few brazilians signings…
Yeah, hopefully more gilberto than Santos.
to be fair to Santos, we did play him massively out of position and stylistically we’re a nightmare for him.
A LB/WB over here is massively different to in Brazil and what he was asked to do in his career until he joined us. Besides, guy was a hero!
there’s something eduardo-esque abt Gabriel. quietly understated, but solid by all accounts. welcome!
Let’s hope he does a better job than the brazillian centre backs in the world cup. Jokeing aside, I think this could be a great signing and it is awesome that we managed to get him. However aren’t we looking a little bit thin on the foward/winger side as well?
Giroud and Welback for strikers. Theo, Ox, Sanchez are great on the wings. I think I saw Gnarby is back in training – and I rate him better than Campbell. Also Rosicky, Cazorla, and Ozil can all put in great shifts on the wing. I think we are well covered for the front 3 positions. The quality there is the best it’s been in a long long time.
I think part of the reason for clearing out Poldi, Sanogo and Campbell (kinda) for the rest of the season was to convince Chuba Akpom that he will get first team chances and encourage him to sign on long term. Like, right now for instance, he’s Giroud’s only back-up until Welbz comes back, so Akpom will probably play against Brighton.
I don’t understand what you mean. Both Brazilian centre backs just made the FIFA World IX. I didn’t see the World Cup. What happened?
Ask Per and Mesut.
We’ll have to make do with Giroud and Welbeck till the summer.
What’s the business buying a defender and sending Sol Campbell on loan?
I don’t even know how to respond to this..
What’s the question…?
He’s scared of the Mansion tax that’s why
No,sol campell is going out on loan,we’re short on defenders as it is
What????
Ah, what a classic for the ages.
Ultimate Gooner… living life a decade in arrears.
Hs next question…. So where did Portsmouth get to then?
Guess Ultimate Goooner woke up .5 years too late
What a week, beat city, signed bielek and Gabriel, sanogo scored, now lets beat Brighton and let fit again Theo, ozil and Rambo get some minutes under their belts!!
plus chelski lost, citeh lost, spuds lost, swans lost, soton lost. great week so far.
…and all lost at home, just to make the experience even more hilarious.
…and both United and Liverpool have an extra game to play now, and their managers are coming under more pressure by the minute.
one of the best FA cup rounds, from an Arsenal standpoint, ever!
let’s hope we take advantage tomorrow
Plus Swansea got two red cards in their match today and will be without both of those players for the next three matches.
Everyone’s a winner…we get a high quality , young and athletic defender and in the meantime, Campbell gets that much needed first team football in a great league. 2015, so far, so good.
PS: Still daydreaming about the 0-2 vs. City…
PS: Middlebrough also having the same daydream.
Proof that Arsenal lead the way.
Well he had been struggling to break into the first team since the Invincibles era…you can’t blame him. lol
May not be biggest name in transfer this window but I’m sure this is going to have big an impact as any other big money move. Welcome Gabriel.
I really hope we’ve pre-sorted the work permit issue so he can come straight into the squad. If, as I’ve read, he’s a Kos type of defender it gives us the chance to rest Kos in some games to manage his workload
Some great results in the FA cup too lol a great day all round
Why is nobody laughing at Sp*rs?
That’s because they aren’t really relevant.
Don’t be silly, everyone is laughing at spurs. But we don’t need to mention it, in the same way I don’t need to mention I’ve been breathing today
Oh and welcome to the Arsenal Gabriel!
Does this finally mean we have a #5 again and my squad number OCD can calm down?
Haha I feel you man. Wilshere taking 10 also bugs me, yes he was primed for that #10 position, but the past year he’s developed into a more central midfielder. I need to see him taking the 8 from Arteta (when the latter leaves), and Ozil taking up 10.
No way Wilshere is giving up the 10 shirt.
whats he done to deserve the #10.
he’s been living on the hype ever since he broke into first team, when i saw him take the no.10 shirt i didn’t know what to think…
He was living on his performances when he first came into the team, since his injuries there’s a little of him lving on hype, but only because of what he could do as we saw him do it, rather brilliantly, for a year, rather than a Townsend style *looking* like he might do something, sometime, maybe.
If it’s true that utd were interested too can I just thumb my nose & say nyeh nyeh ne nyeh nyeh ti them? Ta.
C’mon lads, do the business tomorrow.
Wenger was never going to go for a big name CD as he is not looking to replace Kos or Per (at least for now) and Bautista is the perfect type of buy right now where he can come in and provide cover for any of the four defensive positions and also allow for some rotation as needed. His style of play seems so much like Kos’s that they could be quite a partnership over time. Imagine the speed we’ll have in the back when our back four is Gibbs, Kos, Bautista and Bellerin in matches. Personally I would liked… Read more »
who is Bautista? Lol dude, we are linked two weeks with gabriel paulista in every paper and internet sport side and you didn’t even remember his name how is that possible 🙂
We signed the the wrestler batista
It’s Jose Bautista. He’s going to hit a lot of home runs for us.
It’s actually ballista. He’s going to destroy a lot of enemy troops for us once we reach the iron age and construct him in our siege workshop.
It’s Gary Paullister we’ve signed.
Brilliant reference haha, I’ve not thought about Age of Empires in about 15 years!
Short term memory loss brought on by a violent shaking of the head while rolling about on the floor laughing at Chelsea, Man City, Southampton, Liverpool, Man United, and SP*RS THE B*ST*RDS.
You mean Paulista, Gabriel Paulista, dont’cha? (That’s why the thumbs down, I imagine)… And I don’t think that strikers are on A.W’s mind at the moment, as he has other priorities and we already gave an excellent attacking offensive force,right here.
We don’t have an “excellent attacking offensive force”; compared to city, chelsea and manure, our strikers are decent at best. We don’t even have a world class finisher.
Ask van Gallstones how his strikers are doing.
He isn’t using them well enough.
God knows i’d take a fit and in form falcao over giroud and welbeck ayday of the week.
… So let us all switch our colours and root for Citeh and Chel$ki ey?..
You missed out the ‘Wenger Out!’ part I think.
What does wenger out have to anything again??
Fact is our strikers do not match city and chelsea…if you don’t like or accept the truth, that’s your problem.
I’m sure wenger will be the first to tell you that aguero and costa are better than our strikers; but that mean he wants to “switch colours and root for city and chelski”??
Take Costa out of Chelsea ‘ s attack and you have the ageing Drogba or Remy. Ok for the odd game but if Costa was injured for say 6 weeks, it would make a difference esp in big games. Take Terry out of their defence and….Again not so hot. Citeh aren’t the same without Kompany Yaya or Aguero. So really every team has their weaknesses in terms of key players. AW clearly wants a central lone target man. That being so we have 3 players who can play there. Giroud Welbeck and Akpom. AW clearly wasn’t convinced Poldi or Campbell… Read more »
We have the great yaya. End of.
Who is Buatista? Please enlighten me
We signed Gabriel Batistuta? He’ll have a hard time breaking into the side with our attacking riches
And that’s wide off the mark
Hitting the bottle pretty hard tonight, eh? lol
Sebastian Squillaci approves this shit.
Interesting deal. Hope the permits and contractual issues are sorted quick as Gabriel is in pretty good form at the moment. Sod the myth about how long it takes to integrate.
Good luck to Joel as well, although not sure what benefit him playing well in Spain is for us – he already showed he could do that last year! Just like Yaya, i feel we’d have been better served by sending him to another Prem team.
The yellow submarine is playing really well this year, & can even cope w/ gabriel’s loss if ruiz & musach stay healthy. They have a strong forward line rotation, so if joel can get minutes there and make an impact i think it would be a great sign for us and leave the arse in a strong position at year’s end.
First both City and Chelsea are knocked out of the cup, and then our New CB signing is As good As confirmed. This calls for a Guiness. Skål!
Have one for me too!
Goodluck Joel real Football people know you’re talented and you need more playing time…Welcome Paulista..
Paulista isn’t his surname, it’s a nickname. He’s either Gabriel or Gabriel Paulista (it means Gabriel from Sao Paulo). I imagine he’ll have Gabriel on his shirt. Sorry for the lecture but this stuff matters to some of us
The only way this day could be better is if there was a report that RVP tripped over the coffee table in his home, getting a minor ouchie on his knee and spilling his tea on the ManU crest on his shirt.
You forgot broken chocolate leg somewhere there.. Otherwise.. agree.
Ouch, I actually hurt my side!
Brilliant weekend this so far. City, Chelsea and Tottenham out and we sign a defender and to top it all off Sanogo and Chamakh scored. All we need is win tomorrow.
Apologies for going off subject arseblog… can anyone advise on whats the best way to buy tickets for an arsenal home match? My old man isn’t too well and it’s been years since me and him went to a match. Is a red membership the best way forward?
Red membership is a good place to start. The club will notify you when tux go on sale. There is also ticket exchange for members. If a match is sold out, you can check the exchange for tickets available from member’s who are not attending said game. If all else fails, I’d try stub hub, or other reputable ticket sell-on website.
Here in the U.S. it doesn’t seem like we can find any Arsenal tickets on Stubhub. I’ve looked a number of times and couldn’t find any. Finally got to the Arsenal vs. QPR game on the 26th of Dec. through Red Mebership. Just keep in mind tickets won’t come on sale for Red Membership until one month before the game at 10am London time and you have to get on the queue as soon as it opens.
The reason the club don’t use stubhub is that the seller can charge what they want whereas with ticket exchange you pay face value. Sp*ds rip their fans off by using stubhub. Imagine paying over face value to watch that shit!
Well let’s be honest we get ripped off enough already.
Thanks a lot guys 🙂
You can also use @arsenal_tickets on Twitter where fans sell on tickets for games they can’t go to.
If you’re a member of a foreign-based supporters club, you can get tickets that way as well. Supporters clubs outside the UK get tickets just before the silver members do.
If you go to @arsenal_tickets on Twitter, people are always selling tickets in the few days before games, and you don’t need to be a member most of the time. Always face value too as it’s a rule of arsenal_tickets.
If we can keep Coquilen this summer and sign another midfielder, say Sami Khedira, we will be an absolute complete team with no weaknesses. That’s assuming Flamini and Artera leave
We’ll have 3 top Goalies, 2 right backs, 4 CDs, 2 left backs, 3 DMs, 2 Box-to-Box midfielders, 2 central attacking midfielders, 3 strikers, and 6-7 wide players. The boss is gradually building something special
2 average and injury prone DM, 2 average strikers…quality not quantity.
There’s no pleasing some people!
all we need now is a bigger team bus
Joel got out when he could after all
Eh still a loan and he is (if I read correctly) renewing his contract. Admittedly, I hope he kicks ass in La Liga to prove to Wenger his worth.
I dunno guys, we look a bit thin upfront. Campbell seems one too many striker loan. Btw…I got a feeling their is a Champions league & FA double on the horizon.
Should sign Australian International Trent Sainsbury from PEC Zwolle as well. What talent he is with massive potential. Would be very cheap as well.
Definitely been a standout performer at the Asian Cup.
As much as I would like to see an Australian player at Arsenal none of the current crop are anywhere good enough right now.
Keep the Aussies out … Winston Reid is a Kiwi … but happy with Gabriel if he’s any fooking good that is … Don’t slip up against Brighton youse fullas, today’s results should be a kick up the Arse for the Arse …
I am not happy having a player named after a well know supermarket. End of! 🙂
*known Doh!
I bet he doesn’t get a work permit and we end up getting Sol Campbell or Silvestre to come out of retirement and sign a six month contract.
Oh ducks, you’re so crazy…
Silvestre played for my city franchise in the ISl and wasn’t half bad. But it’s still India so….
Well Wenger has done it! Nice one COYG!
The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. – Malcom X. Thank you Arsene. This is exactly what you’re doing. Cazorla being 30 and Ozil 26, we can see what position Ozil will end up in. Kos 29, Gabriel 24. Per 30, Chambers 20. Alexis 26, Rambo 24, Ox 21.. See the trend? This is a squad which will achieve a lot for many years to come. Wenger is a genius.
Its safe to say that this deal is as done as it gets. How embarrassing it would be for Villareal saying their goodbyes only for the permit failing and having him back. I’m sure they wouldnt put themselves in that position if they werent certain themselves.
So what’s the chances that part of the deal is that if he doesn’t get a permit then they’ll take him back on loan and look after him for us, and they get to keep Campbell on loan too for being so accomodating.
Has anyone noticed how AW has been dragged across the coals the last few years regarding his perceived inability and desire to bring in good players through transfers to plug holes in the team.. I can only say a few things in response: Ozil, Giroud, Cazorla, Debuchy, ALEXIS, Welbeck, Chamberlain, and now Paulista.
The Premier League is the hardest place in Europe to get a work permit. This is all based on the prevalent, erm, dislike of Johnny Forrener. The FA believes cheap forren players are preventing English players from developing. Whether this is right or not, that’s basically why it’s so tough to get a permit. The new rule of a player costing £10m or more is actually an attempt to make the criteria more stringent and reduce the number of imports. This all whiffs of xenophobia, or at the very least desperation, when you consider that clubs are allowed to sign… Read more »
Perhaps investment in yoof academies, and more enlightened coaches in the UK, would put an end to that phenomena.
Isn’t starting every week in La Liga enough to demonstrate his talent? Maybe I’m wrong, but haven’t a lot of foreign players been given “special talent” work permits in the past without ever having started a match in one of the top leagues?
According to skysports:
“Paulista has agreed a long-term deal, with a fee believed to be £11.2million agreed between the clubs, and Villarreal pay Arsenal £700k to loan Costa Rica international Campbell.”
I think its a pretty good deal.
Wasn’t Gabriel valued at 20 million Euros too? Not bad, I say.
Subject to special dispensation for Work Permit, Gabriel deal looks certain. Should be a good one, the Brasilian having the tenacity to cover Koscielny who will need rest as well as possibly the technical skills to push up into covering midfield should we decide to pursue another defender in the summer (Metersecker cover) OTOH Campbell looks a foot out of the door. he may yet do a Coquelin with a good showing on loan but there is also Gnabry coming back to offer competition in wide areas and I am sure Wenger may opt to replace Rosicky in the summer… Read more »
I dont think we’ll get work permit for him. Very risky. Agree with above, Sainsbury would have been better move, very talented young CB.
Shouldn’t have given up your day job Tobin!
I think it’s a great signing all around. As for the departures of Sanogo, Poldi and Joel I think it’s also great especially for Sanogo who will be playing alot (plus getting that number 9!) and I think Wenger wants to get Chuba closer to the first team. I actually think he’s making room for him, and I beleive Chuba can become a real force. And well getting Paulista is perfect, he looks like a really good defender. Welcome Paulista!
should’ve get a defender in august but Better late than never, now to hope he can get a work permit and that he come better than the last brazilian defender we got. Hope the loan also helps Joel since i believe he has potential
Also read on a tweet that the work permit is sorted
Transfer window slams shut for Arsenal as the “one or two bodies” have been brought in. The team in general looks good and we should have enough in the tank to really make a fist of defending the FA cup ( Bradford, Boro, Leceister etc have made our work easier), make a splash in the CL and make real push up the table ( I still retain some hope that somehow, we may just find ourselves back in the title race). The Chelsea machine is showing signs of wear and tear and City too. Can we find the consistency to… Read more »
Wenger and the club must surely have got a ‘nod’ about the work permit….they must have asked if it would go through before committing to the transfer.
1 question (I’m not that bright, so sorry): if he doesn’t get a work permit, does that mean Campbell stays here?
Nope. He stays on loan.
Seeing as he’s included in the original deal, there’s probably some interest from both clubs to loan Campbell, so if the Gabriel deal doesn’t go through then Campbell could well get loaned out anyway as part of a separate deal. Just my guess though.
don’t know enough about the player to make a reasoned argument, but given the price tag and the loan were agreeing to in order to get the club on board i think its reasonable to expect a certain quality, if not a koscielny right away at least a vermaelen which along with chambers should settle our defensive shortcomings and allow for a bit of rotation. With any luck the work permit will go through and we get Campbell back in the summer after a decent loan spell. quietly optimistic. on other notes fa cup success seems a deal more likely… Read more »
The price is over 10M gays.. relax.. Permit is coming.
http://www.villarrealcf.es/en/news/index-all-news/item/8122-preliminary-agreement-for-gabriel
Their website doesn’t mention squat about work permit availability factoring into the transfer probability. All it says they’re waiting for, is the medical. So yeah. REJOICE!
In all honesty, if even if he’s only equal to Vermaelen, I’m okay, because that’s a good place to start, and he’s got age on his side.
COYG!
Um, no, the player can belong to Arsenal and still not have a work permit to play in the Premier. Why do you think we’ve been sending Campbell out on loan all this time? If we buy Gabriel and he doesn’t get a work permit we’ll probably have to loan him back to the Spanish league.