An Arsenal move for Karim Benzema has been long mooted this summer, but amidst all the clamour and excitement, there has been, perhaps, a lack of common sense.
Two main questions:
1 – Why would Real Madrid sell?
2 – Would Benzema actually be willing to swap Madrid for North London?
In both cases it’s hard to think how the answers would be in Arsenal’s favour. And now the player’s agent has come out to say that the French international has no intention of leaving the Bernebeu this summer.
“Karim is very happy at Real Madrid and he will be a Real Madrid player by the end of this transfer window, 1,000 per cent,” Karim Djaziri said.
“Karim is not looking to move anywhere this summer.”
Of course ‘not looking to move’ is open to interpretation, and there’ll be some who will say that this is just what agents do, but it sounds pretty definitive.
The question is: if this is honest, do Arsenal have any other irons in the fire to boost the squad ahead of the close of the transfer window next week?
Isnt this from a few weeks ago?
Yeah I remember the 1000% statement which Arsene replied to in the media, saying “wow, that’s a lot” or something along those lines… But that clearly hasn’t stopped trashy outlets like the Sun, goal, etc. from going on and on about Benzema, given that they clearly have nothing to publish.
Oh wait, Benzema is/was/will be a DONE DEAL and he’s gonna sign for us tomorrow/sometime this week/soon!
Recycled in a lazy piece by Daily Express last night I believe, no doubt to generate lots of hits by people with short memories – Arseblog you should really check your sources bro.
Clockwork
They said he had a thigh injury. But you have to remember is that madrid is a totally different club to most. They recycle players and squads very often, and its buisness. A new big name player generates shirts sales etc. Benzema has a been a good servant for them without being spectacular., if a club came knocking with 50 mil, they’d take it. What also supports this, is they have Bale and Ronaldo. Both want to play central or left. And it cant happen if Benzema is up top. Their idea at the club is to make Bale the… Read more »
That Italian bloke is a fraud who’s gotten many transfers wrong in the past. Of course he’ll be wrong again, but people will still continue to listen because we are in the era of clickbait.
I may be wrong on this but I thought Benzema had not featured much for Real in pre-season and there is a question about playing time for me. No other reason to leave Real except to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond? (sorry guys). Plus a move for DeGea could trigger a sale. Those were my thoughts. What I would really like to see is some positive activity for the next big thing. Some calculated risk; Arsene is supposed to be famous for taking players and making more of them. I’ve seen it before and I’d like to… Read more »
Benzema hasn’t been playing as he has a thigh injury. If Madrid had common sense they would not sell him (he is their only real number nine) and they failed to score against newly promoted Sporting Gijon last night without a focal point to their attack. That said, Madrid do lack common sense as they did sell Özil. Ha. Fools.
Bony? Lukaku? Benteke?
Seriously?
Have you not seen Lukaku this season? I would have a watch. It’s a delight.
My main question is:
Is Benzema TRULY world class??
Good question. If he is, then Giroud is also World class. Their stats are similar, especially when you adjust for the fact that Benzema plays with C Ronaldo. I don’t think he is a 50m pound improvement over Giroud. If we must break the bank, let’s get someone like lewandowski
It’s interesting you point toward Benzema playing with Ronaldo, yet Ronaldo is one of the most selfish players going. I would suspect the reason Benzema doesn’t score more often is because he plays with Ronaldo. He would be on the end of far more assists at Arsenal and I think you would then see a better goals/games ratio.
That said, he’s not coming so I don’t really see the point in me debating it anyway…
ahhh. I only wanted italics on the “because”
I don’t know about that. Ronaldo finished last season with 22 assists. That’s pretty remarkable.
But we need goals not assist. We are more than loaded in the assist department
Exactly. I feel people asking this question don’t want us to get anyone replacing Giroud.
Benzema is a better allround player and a better striker. No one in their right minds can deny this.
I know right. There’s gotta be other players out there. I maintain that another first winger who can attack from the right Ala bale or Ronaldo is equally good, but there seem to be no other rumours fingers crossed Wenger pulls a surprise.
I don’t reckon benzema would he hood for club or team.
The down-thumbers should check out this week’s Arsecast where Mr. Auclair makes a fairly convincing argument for the prosecution.
Simply put, he isn’t. Nor is Giroud. If only our fans crying out for a move had actually watched Benzema play more they would know this too. He’s very good, slightly better than Giroud, but nothing like the upgrade people are crying out for.
If he came he’d disappoint most people and Wenger would be slated for buying the next Torres/Falcao sized failure.
Quite frankly, I am sick of hearing this transfer rumor everyday. Benzema isn’t our solution. Much rather have Wenger spend £20 million on a DM.
If Cazorla, Ozil, and Ramsey step up with 10 goals each we can win the league. #COYG
I agree. We’ll be in trouble if Coquelin gets injured. Sure, Arteta and Flamini can play there but neither can do the job as well as the Coq. In my opinion a defensive midfielder is much important.
” If he came he’d dissapoint”
like he has dissapointed at real that they so badly want to keep him!
You think if he was “slightly” good, he’d be at madrid?? Benzema is world class and a far better player than giroud is. This is almost as bad as the Ozil-Coutinho argument.
Put Benzema in our team where he isn’t inhibited by CR7 and Bale and he’ll score more than he does at Madrid. I can’t say the same about Giroud.
If he’s not, I don’t know who is. True, Lewondowski is something else, but it’s the same as the difference between Real Madrid and Buyern really. You can’t really call it, but you know they are both quality.
Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Suarez, Lewandowski and Aguero. That’s about it I think. Perhaps still Zlatan on a good day, but he’s been injured quite a bit recently.
on the top of my head the list of WORLD CLASS strikers out there:
Aguero
Lewandoski
Suarez
Costa
He is you arse. Any player capable of being difference in a match and sustain that over some period of time is in my opinion world class.
because he isn’t coming means he is shit. ?
In 2011/2012 Benzema scored 31 league goals.
You mean 21 league goals. In subsequent seasons he has 11, 17, and 15 league goals. Is that worth 50m?
Dont think players price tags are now dictacted by their stats but how much you the buyer is willing to pay and i was replying whether he is world class question not whether the cash spent on him is ‘fair’ to you or anyone
Either ways, those stats don’t justify a world class tag. When I think of world class I think of players like Aguero and Suarez. Benzema is good, but not world class, IMHO.
I think the whole debate on who is world class has become distorted, especially striker-wise. Players like Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez are almost super human in their ability. They score as many goals as they play games and that used to not be something that happened in professional football. It’s something that only used to happen on the playground. It used to be the case that if a striker had a record of a goal every other game they were pretty much the best around. We’re living in a world where people want more and more. There will never be… Read more »
That’s true, but the definition of “world class” will always change depending on whatever the best players in the world are capable of right now, not what they were able to do 20 years ago. The simple truth is, we’re fighting for trophies against Aguero in England, and Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez in Europe, and so their abilities are very, very relevant. We need to be able to either outplay them or counter them or they’ll beat us in the long run.
So what you’re saying then is that we need someone who’s BETTER than Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, and Suarez – someone who can, in your words, outplay them.
Well, personally, I would absolutely love to have a player in our squad who can outplay Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, and Suarez. Who do you suggest?
No, but if we want to win the PL, we have to outplay or counter/outsmart the combination Silva, Toure, Aguero, Sterling, Navas in terms of offense and Otamendi, Fernandinho, Kompany, Zabaleta, Hart in terms of defense. That’s the reality. Of course, that is very difficult, but that’s simply what it takes to win the PL. If we can’t do that, we’ll fight for a top 4 spot again.
Those are two very pertinent questions which many Twitter folk’s ignorance is blindly fuelled by. The chances are we won’t sign him. On a scale of ‘we’ve got more chance of signing Karim Bagheri to Karim better tell the other Karim to stop misguiding us, because he’s actually rather interested,’ I’d say it’s somewhere in the middle.
This window has dragged man. I don’t think we’ll sign anymore players, kind of wish the window would close already and we can just get on with it…
I don’t think Arsene was ever in for him.
On a general note, it’s quite refreshing to see that the days of linking Arsenal with wild transfer rumours seem to be over. They don’t just don’t bother anymore. Man United and Liverpool seem to be the new tools in the hands of rumour mongers.
Was quite unsettling, especially for fans, who seem to swallow these stories hook, line and sinker.
I have a sneaky feeling we will announce a transfer or two right out of the blue.
We’re still mentioned as ‘Mugsmashers targets Pierre The-goat is also interesting Arsenal and Brentford’ and when the guy finally moves to Cardiff the media will shout ‘Arsenal target signs for cardiff’…..
Or “Pierre TG rejects Arsenal for cardiff” LOL
Rinse, and repeat as political propaganda.
It’s true this transfer windows for arsenal is a joke the fans just want a world class striker and a cdm and it shouldn’t take this long to get it done if benni was coming why hang it out all this talk is just like every year nothing happens
I have to agree Philippe Auclair – Benzema is good, but he’s not as good as quite a few seem to think. He can be awesome in one match and totally invisible in the next. For the kind of money the media are talking about (40-50m pound), it should be possible to get Cavani or similar, who are a notch above Benzema in my opinion. Benzema is more on par with Lacazette, so paying a crazy sum for him just doesn’t make any sense.
Cavani kind of hit Higuain levels since his move to PSG
In terms of goal scoring I agree, but not in terms of overall work rate. He was fantastic towards the end of last season, and rarely goes invisible (unlike Higuain and Benzema).
That being said, his form so far this season has been rubbish..
I’ve never been impressed by Cavani when I’ve seen him play. They guy in his Youtube highlight reels clearly isn’t the guy that turns up to play when I watch. Does he have a twin brother by any chance?
Ah, I assume you mostly see him play for Uruguay, where he’s doing the same thing Messi is for Argentina. For PSG it’s somewhat different, as he was their best player this spring.
I assume Messi and Cavani simply have decoys they send to their national team matches, in order to avoid injuries in pointless matches. Our players should probably be doing the same.
Wait. You’re talking about Lionel messi right? The guy who reached the WC and copa final and won the golden boot. Yes he doesn’t reach his own standards in Barca when he plays for argentina but still better than 95% of players for their countries..
“He can be awesome in one
match and totally invisible in the next.” Now if i could only remember a player we bought from Madrid for around the same amount!
Ozil is hardly invisible. He’s not always as good as he was against Palace, but he always puts in a shift. He covers the whole pitch, and is involved in almost everything we do.
That report was back in the end of July, he is on his way, I put my house on it…
As much as I hope you’re right, I hope your house is worth less than Danny Welbeck’s fart, or you have a nice holiday home you can stay in, because the odds are not in your favour.
I’ve got a cardboard box you can borrow. I’ll need it back next time I move though.
We laugh, but the way things are going in London cardboard boxes will soon attract Stamp Duty.
I for one was hoping for cavani I think he would be a better suit , but realistically I think it will be giroud and Walcott (welbeck) at least to January leading the lines
I don’t say that benzema will come but blogs this statement from his agent was 2-3 weeks ago and today the tabloids are repeating the same statement.
Ahh, fair enough. Still, something to talk about on a Monday.
And Terry is still a cunt on a monday.
Terry is a cunt on any day with a “y” in it.
A cunt who will miss our match against Chel$ki due to yesterday’s red card.
May sound mad to some, but what about Charlie Austin? 18 goals last season for a poor team, with our supply chain he could easily get 20-25 a season!
Exactly! I think he’d be a great signing.
I said the same thing a few weeks ago. He’s not better than Giroud but I think he could be a decent alternative when Giroud needs a rest. Austin would score goals, he has proven that in a shite QPR team. If we rotated the two of them it would keep Giroud fresh and maintain momentum. I know he’s far from the “wow” signing everyone wants but I think he could be a useful addition. It does strike me as odd that no one has properly gone in for him yet though. Some have pointed towards his injury record but… Read more »
This is the billionth story saying that this move isn’t happening. Can we move on now?
Pity. Would’ve liked Benzema with us. It’s always good to have two top strikers in your team who can rotate when you’re competing on all fronts. Oh well.
Is Benzema the answer? Wasn’t he benched by Giroud in France NT? Anyway #WelcomeChamackh
#Haterz
Getting bored shitless with this supposed link with him.
I’m suprised people still think we might be sign Benzema. Madrid don’t have a replacement for him even if they want to sell. If there was speculation about Aguero’s future, I’d have been optimistic.
Arsene may have someone else in mind, but I’m certain it’s not going to be Benzema. Not this summer.
Madrid have an outstanding debt of nearly £500m and have Ronaldo and Bale taking home nearly £35m combined per year. Im sure they could be looking to offload benz wages and pay off £45 milli.
I’m not sure how many conclusions to draw from this, but the words quoted are exactly the same ones used about a month ago http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-target-karim-benzema-1000-6131003 I’ve checked Sky Sports and they’ve got attributed the ‘new’ quote to when it was made. Has the agent just re-used the statement or are Sky just re-using the quote for click bait?
Probably both.
Between Benzema and Cavani, i prefer Lewandowski
Me too, but it would be cheaper to clone Henry or reverse his age than to buy Lewandowski.
How do you guys rate Cavani?
Considering there’s dearth of world class strikers, Cavani would be a good addition.
Heard he’s unhappy playing out wide at PSG.
Don’t know if there is a lack of world class strikers, I think Barca are just taking all of them. Would like to see how we got on playing three strikers, Barca style. Maybe Alexis and Giroud with Walcott or the Ox.
As I wrote further up, I like him a lot. He works hard, he’s good physically, he’s faster than Giroud and better in front of goal. I’d rather we got him than Benzema, but I doubt PSG wants to sell. He was very important last year, and that doesn’t seem to have changed.
Considering how late it is in the transfer window and the wages of these world class forwards what is the realistic pool of players we can pursue?
But…but…but the metro said he was on a private jet to arsenal today!why would they lie???
Guys, I’m French and I have followed one whole season of Real. Benzema is not worth it at all. You wouldn’t like his style of play and mostly he doesn’t do half the defending work Giroud does for Arsenal. Benzema has deceived a huge number of times for France and i do wonder how he’d do without the Real Madrid squad around him. I rate him but not much more than Giroud. Buy him, ok, but not for that much and don’t put Giroud in question for him.
I completely agree. I’ve watched quite a bit of him in recent years, and I really don’t understand why he’s so highly rated. He might be marginally better than Giroud, especially in front of goal, but a 40-50m pounds upgrade? Not even close.
But Rodney Marsh said it was going to happen?
I called Rodney and told him it was going to happen. I just like fucking with the dick-head.
This whole story is a bit boring now and it just seems like guff used to push clicks. ArsenalTV was posting a daily video regarding the speculation and the actual content was complete bollocks.
No one is actually saying anything of any substance in relation to it.
Old news mate catch up…..london colney was closed yesterday with only medical officials allowed inside. Benzema was left out of madrid squad yesterday and was training fine all week. The signs are there…..
I don’t believe AW will sign another striker. With Wlebeck, Walcott and Olivier he thinks he has it covered, I think he’s wrong. Not one of the those players would get a game at City, United, Chelsea, Real, Barcs, Bayern, PSG, Juve or AC; so why are they good enough for us? Probably because AW is loyal. He got lucky with TH14 inherited Dennis and he’s hasn’t really had another great goal scorer since……top 4 and an FA cup treble, if we’re lucky !
I cant help but notice the name of his agent.
Maybe he’s just talking about himself?
Shrewd play.
Has anyone else ever heard Wenger talking about be willing to take a ‘gamble’ in the transfer market before? Who would be a gamble? That Sevilla DM chappie (who?), Lars Bender (with his woeful pass completion) Cavani fits the profile! Reus as CF?
Andrew,
Why would Madrid sell?
* buying other players/debt constraints
* Benitez playing Bale or Ronaldo through the middle in pre-season
Why would Benzema leave?
* lack of playing time – see above
* Madrid force him out like Ozil
* our NED said ‘I think he wants to come’ – while he’s a buffoon, he’s also in the inner circle
Not saying it’s going to happen but I can see the circumstances in which it might a la Ozil. Think we are more likely to buy Illarr… That guy!
His name is Blogs. Mr. Blogs
He has to be going somewhere even if it’s only down to the shops to buy some biscuits.
This transfer window was the first time I’d looked into Twitter and trying to use it to get some inside knowledge on potential deals.
I learned:
Twitter is a vile cesspool where people write the most abusive shit I’ve ever read to eachother
Twitter “ITK’s” don’t actually know anything
The only person worth following is David Ornstein. If he hasn’t mentioned something then there is nothing.
Stick to Arseblog news and the yellow sky sports updates and that’s it, the rest is wank
The only reason I could envisage him leaving is if he wanted to play for a team that isn’t geared up around one player (Ronaldo). Think his stats would be more impressive at Arsenal and give us much needed pace upfront. Cannot see this move going through though. My feeling is our spending is done now and we go with what we have.
#welcomeReus
How about we go for ibrahimovic
The only thing I’m finding suspicious about this whole thing is when Lord Harris stated that Arsenal had been in contact with a world class striker who wanted to join however they had not managed to iron out all the cracks with the selling Club.
Did everyone forget about this or was it just brushed aside as him bullsh*ting everyone?
Still a chance for Salomon Kalou then??
We know.
just put in a bid for Gomis or Lukaku if there are no world class strikers available. They are at least an improvement on Wellbeck IMO
If you asked me a few weeks ago I would have been, “Wow! Karim Benzema! Yes, please!”
Now I’m not so sure he’s worth the money being talked about. I’m kind of hoping now it’s all smoke, no fire, and we just go with what we have, or maybe add a young superstar left-back to compliment Bellerin.
https://twitter.com/Benzema/status/635844916896264193 There’s your answer.
So you’re saying that those random blokes on the internet lied to all of us? I need to lie down…
I think a really good buy could be pato! not as the main signing but he gives an excellent option and is much much more clinical than giroud. Also he could cost only around 10-11 million which is a steal. he is a bit injury prone and may need to be managed a little bit like aguero but i think the 30 games you could get out of him he will be an absolute beast!