Arsenal have confirmed a deal in principle to sign Japan international Takuma Asano from Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
The 21-year-old striker revealed he’d been approached by the Gunners earlier this week and will complete his move once he’s had a medical.
Asano, who is due to play for his country at the Rio Olympics in August, was voted the J-League’s Rookie of the Year last season and is tipped as ‘one for the future.’
Speaking about the youngster, Arsene Wenger said: “Takuma is a talented young striker and very much one for the future. He has had an impressive start to his career in Japan and we look forward to him developing over the next couple of years.”
It seems likely that Asano will be sent out on loan abroad, as was the case with compatriot Ryo Miyaichi, to secure the necessary work permit and to get an understanding of European football.
Now, before you go wild in the comment section…just because we’ve signed a wildcard from a league you never watch, doesn’t mean this is the end of all our transfer activity. Try and keep a sense of perspective before bringing up Ibrahimovic’s move to United or Nolito’s switch to the Etihad.
As you were.
Here we go, what a world-class signing…….. The new Park.
And a 21-year old is not “one for the future”, he’s not 17; 21 years of age is already a first team player, don’t sell me that “one for the future” BS.
Not every player has to be a ‘world-beater’ at 21.. also ‘the future’ doesn’t exactly mean 10years like in theo’s case
Yes but we are in desperate need for a finished article no.9, and we’re wasting time, money and personnel on 21 year old prospects for the future. Arsenal fans with a brain are tired of this shit. Where’s zelalem that we raved about 3 years ago. Bellerin has been the only decent signing U21 that Wenger has made in last 10 years.
In the last 10 years, Wenger has signed, Ramsey, Jenkinson, Chamberlain, Chambers, Campbell and even Gnabry…. Off the top of my head…. There’s a whole load of players I’ve forgotten about who have been sent on loan and haven’t been media darlings but who cares. Toral was B’ham’s player of the season last year.
In conclusion…. Jog on!
Areaenal fans with a brain? You just ruled yourself out of that group with your comment.
Keep those comments to yourself.
Koscielny made his debut in France’s top flight at the age of 23.
Just sayin’
To be fair to you, the last title we bought a punt as “one for the future” was Sanogo.
At that time we were told he was for the future and would have no say in our first team and that we were still on the hunt for a striker.
Few months later, he’s starting against Bayern. And not because our first choice striker(s) weren’t fit and available either.
To be honest, Giroud was dumped against Bayern for having spent the night before we were trashed by Liverpool with a girl and this had surfaced in tabloïds. Was a leadership dilemma for the manager.
I doubt Girouds head was in the right place after being caught cheating on his wife. That being said we should have had better alternatives.
We didn’t buy him, did we?
I’m pretty certain we got him on a ‘free’ and after being a goal scoring animal at the u17s (I think) tournament he was worth a gamble (you can’t win all the time)…
Nolito at 25-years-old was at Barcelona B (Segunda) you dumb fuck. He was approached by Arsenal this January (a wage that would quadruple his Celta figures) and rejected it because he thought he would end up at Barcelona.
Did you miss the part that says he was awarded “Rookie of the year” last season? This means that last year was his break through year and it seems he had a good one at that.
He could very well be a late bloomer. There’s no guarantee that he will develop into a good European level footballer, but the investment here is minimal and the club won’t have trouble cutting him loose in case things he doesn’t improve as expected.
You know who started his professional career at 21? Ian Wright.
“Now, before you go wild in the comment section…just because we’ve signed a wildcard from a league you never watch, doesn’t mean this is the end of all our transfer activity. Try and keep a sense of perspective…”
Oh fuck it. Why even bother.
It’s over 140 characters and therefore incomprehensible so bring on the bile.
For reference, Wenger always says players don’t reach their prime until 25-26. Last I checked 26 was not equal to 21.
Are you able to read?
Maybe you can read what i just wrote….
maybe you can translate it?
I bet you read the first 2 paragraphs of this news post then jumped straight to the comments section, didn’t you!!!
First 2??? That’s way too much research for the WOB…
Fucking hell. This is getting worrying now.
If we don’t sign anyone else before the end of the window, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Everyone can thumb this down as many times as they want, but we’ve been here so many times before.
“Everyone can thumb this down as many times as they want”
Yeah don’t worry you don’t need to tell us that. As if upvotes and downvotes matters at all mate.
eh.. they do actually, too many down votes and your comment disappears.
Comments are not sorted by points like Reddit so it doesn’t actually mean much, you just have to click more buttons to see an unpopular opinion.
Even on Reddit caring about karma is stupid.
What’s worrying?? That on July 3rd, 7 weeks before the season begins, with the Euros still underway, most players on their holidays and LOADS OF FUCKING TIME LEFT we haven’t signed Higuain? Or whoever it is you think we MUST SIGN FOR 200 BILLION PLUTO KRONOR IMMEDIATELY?! Plus who knows what is going on in the background away from blogs about Arsenal. I’m “picking on” you but to be fair you’re one of about 20 dribbling babies above and below who the comment applies to. Shut up, get out in the sunshine and drink some beers, try to get a… Read more »
You might get to nuzzle the tits after she has nuzzled them herself, too. If you focus on her chest more than Arsene’s war chest.
Since the end of the season it’s taken us give or take 7 weeks to sign one player, and we still have gaping holes in our squad that haven’t been addressed.
So yes, it does concern me as a fan who pays a fuck load of money to go watch Arsenal home and away each season, that we aren’t making the necessary changes to our squad now, when we should be.
United, Chelsea, City, even Liverpool are signing decent players. .. we’re signing random cunts from the J-leagues.
You do understand that most of those teams have only just signed their 2nd player…
Here we go. Let’s all react and be upset about everything.
“EVERYTHING IS SHIITTTTT!!!”
All the same, huh? Racist.
He might be alright..
Hell if I know
gotta speculate to accumulate, cunt
I genuinely think it’s good we try to do something a little outside of the box. Nothing to loose basically and if he develops well we have a player on our hands for basically nothing these days.
*lose, even.
Most of our players are good outside of the box… it’s in the box where we have the problems 😉
I was going to to do that gag myself but thought better of it. Glad you didn’t.
I’m pretty sure Asano is Japanese for Arsenal, it’s a match made in heaven.
“Now, before you go wild in the comment section…just because we’ve signed a wildcard from a league you never watch, doesn’t mean this is the end of all our transfer activity.”
Where’s the fun in that? I for one reserve the right to go absolutely raving bonkers. It’s a coping mechanism really…
soo im hoping this is not one of the 2 signings Wenger mentioned…
He mentioned three
Clearly he means post the Xhaka signing.
wasnt Xhaka one of the 3?
I fail to understand peoples’ obsession with signings. I thought after Leicester’s performance last season, people would change their attitude. What matters the most is how the squad we have performs.
As with Leicester, Wales and Iceland are also proving it’s passion and playing as a team that matter far more than star name players
What rubbish. We know the only way to succeed is by paying 50m & 200 pounds a week for a player. That’s how it has been & how it always will be…
Actually, those are all outliers that go against the grain, and Wales and Iceland are probably not going to win the whole tournament. Meanwhile, look at who won other trophies this season: Serie A: Juventus Coppa Italia: Juventus Ligue 1: PSG Coupe de France: PSG Bundesliga: Bayern DFB-Pokal: Bayern La Liga: Barcelona Copa del Rey: Barcelona FA Cup: Man United Champions League: Real Madrid Which of those was won with cheapo players and a great team spirit? Moreover, we haven’t won the league or CL with the players we have. What makes you think that we’ll suddenly develop this fantastic… Read more »
All that being said, it doesn’t make this a bad signing, or that we won’t buy anyone else, just that I don’t buy the argument that we can win anything without signings.
Good point well made
Juventus more or less, a lot of there stars we’re free like Pogba and Khedira, academy players Marchisio, and now they kind are spending but I can’t think of anyone they have paid 30 mill for.
Erm… Dybala?
Buffon was over £30m as well (even if it was 17 years ago).
I swear, if I hear one more person use the word “passion” when describing what’s missing in a football team (almost always someone with a mindset heavily influenced by traditional British (i.e. outdated and philistine) footballing culture), I think my head might actually explode.
No problem with the annual ‘unknown’ player signing by the boss, intrigued to see what he’s got to offer.
Always amusing to see all the online-only fans going crazy with rage about this, so if only to see people getting themselves wound up beyond reason about this, it’s thumbs up from me!
Agreed 🙂
These people must have serious issues to begin with
That’s the striker situation sorted.
A really interesting signing. Considering the talk around using stats for signings these days (Wenger mentioned stats being an important part in the Elneny signing) I think in a few years he could well develop into a great player.
And he’ll be a great marketing tool in japan!
So potentially win/win…. Hopefully 😀
The Japanese Maradona, we are saved!
I want to leave Fenerbahce
But you looked so happy on the bench skunk
I thought I was the only one that thought bringing back RvP for the interim while Welbeck recovers is not such a bad idea.
it’s a terrible idea because a) he’s finished and b) he’s a massive cockbutton
surely he’s more of an arsebadger?
perhaps a twathammock?
I agree with – b)
But I don’t think he’s at all finished. Obviously lost pace,but he relied more on his movement and technique.
He has plenty of goals in him. Van gaal sold Welbeck, Hernandez and Di Maria. Van gaal was so wrong.
I’m not fond of Robin, but he’s still a lethal striker, a fox in the box.
I actually like the idea.Been saying it for a while!!
Buy a young talent like Janssen and then bring in a veteran like RVP to provide cover and mentoring for the young guy!!
because he’s known for being such a caring, sharing kind of father figure
Never been downvoted this much before!! Badge of Honor!
you’re right. you are the only one
You could always retire
Man Utd sign Zlatan, Mhkit, Bailly….Arsenal sign a piece of gum and a paper clip. So, maybe he has pace or something, but I swear…if this is who Wenger signed to supposedly fill our striking needs………….
Yeah, I too, equivocate Switzerland international Granit Xhaka as a gum, and unknown 21-year-old Japanese J-League Rookie of the Year, a paper clip.
Fuck me I hate going up to Arsenal forums on silly season but I can’t resist.
If we sign a Post-It, that’ll be the whole desk set sorted!
Love it! Paper clip will keep the team (sheet) together to be an offensive and defensive unit, post-it will give that give that addes something, and the gum will be a hindrance to the opposition. BRILLIANT!!!
Give that added something*
We’re lacking a hole punch in our attack and a ruler to give us the leadership we need. Plus someone who can com-pass through any defence and has a marvellous scissor kick. A stapler to hold it all together, alongside your paper clip, can erase all fear and sharpen our wits. Just got to make sure the HFB uses a rubber and Ozil doesn’t take a pen!!
Dick Law’s wife must be relieved. Apparently he’s been in Japan since last January.
Dick has been filming a karate kid sequel. Cue training montage with asano scrubbing decks and washing cars as dick looks on neutrally but silently praying that this one will be different to what happened to joel
is it really hard for wenger just to get a good striker because every team in the world can get one accept wenger dam
It’s not harder for Wenger than it is for anybody else. He just refuses to spend what is required to get the players who are good enough to win things. This is my one true gripe with Wenger.
I am very pro-Wenger but I appreciate this criticism a lot and I do somewhat agree with this. Civil criticism of Wenger online is very hard to come by, especially Arsenal fansites.
Hell, I didn’t realise that the transfer window is closed already.
Thanks for that. Yes Wenger is clearly a waste of space…
In recent seasons he’s spent more and I’m happy about that. But last season with Cech as our only purchase I really can’t defend Wenger when he has the money. Especially in January when we see Chelsea, City and United all being awful.
I want Wenger to be our manager for 100 more years but he has no excuse to only buy Cech. It was a great purchase, but he could’ve done more no?
to be fair, I don’t think that’s what either of these commenters were saying, and it’s hard to provide evidence of Wenger voluntarily overpaying for top, top talent.
He was slated for overpaying when he bought Henry. So he will pay what he needs to when he’s 100% on a player, but I guess that’s difficult for him to be 100% on a player if he hasn’t coached them previously (Like he had with Henry).
They were whinging about not having signed anyone yet.
Still time, isn’t there?
Whinge if we don’t get one before the window closes.
Henry, at the time, was a failure in the serie A. Spending money is always going to be a gamble. Especially if you’re spending 40m+ on a striker who isn’t used to playing in the Premier League. However, sticking to a strike force that has yet to win you a title is also a massive gamble. So, who knows?
Andy, it was a fucking question that was asked. You might think it’s rhetoric, but the reply after it was a reasonable opinion to hold of Wenger’s thinking.
Here’s the question if you want to answer it instead of blasting us for fucking discussing the question yeah mate
“is it really hard for wenger just to get a good striker?”
*GETTING IRRATIONALLY ANGRY AT ARSENAL SIGNING A FOOTBALLER*
Good luck to the guy, will be interesting to see how he develops
Comment: Just hope he won’t end up like likes of Riyo Miyachi & Park Jun Yong
You know you don’t have to write “comment” before writing a comment, right?
Do you say “sentence” everything before you say anything?
I meamt – Do you say “sentence” everyTIME before you say anything?
Response: Yes
I’m sure that’s what you ‘meamt’. Glass houses and all that…
that went well
Comment:
Chill out, my Gran is still available.
🙂
Comment over.
Why do you pick these two players?
Why not Sanogo, or TGSTEL, or Eduardo, or any other attacking players?
Is it because Asians are all the same? Seems a bit dodgy to me.
All Asians are the same.
That’s either a stunningly beautiful comment about the fraternity among us the human race or racist. Methinks the latter.
Or it was suggesting MyquelGunner’s initial comment was racist, seeing as how it compared Asano to 2 Asian players but nobody else…
Yo-Utube sources suggest he is promising…epl loan would be good or even pre season starts…Hoping for a few fresh faces that could do the job for us
I came here for the comments!!
POPKORN ON STANDBY
Is POPKORN something like Katy Perry singing Freak on a Leash?
Just hope Wenger isn’t counting him as one of the 2-3 signings he talked about making this Summer. If he follows this up with a proper striker signing then great, if this is his striker signing for the Summer then “oh crap”.
Can’t be any worse than Theo
Forgive my skepticism but the last few players signed from the Asian market Inamoto,Miyachi and Park didn’t ever make their mark on the first team… it seems to me this is another Commercial move. I would loved to be proven wrong but I guess we will see in a few years. Now Mr Wenger please somebody who will have impact now!
Junichi Inamoto??
Yes
Kagawa, Park Ji Sung, Honda turned out well. Don’t think the continent has anything to do with it. For every Sanchez you’ve got a Vela.
Don’t forget Nakata – he was a don.
It could be both a wise signing of a future talent and a marketing ploy…
5 minutes into his first game at Arsenal: “私の足は壊れて！”
Is that Japanese for “crocked”?
According to Google “My feet are broken”
Going by the pics he looks to be considerably more physically developed than any of our previous Asian.signings which should stand him in good stead
Rorz
Ason Who?
Interesting that you bring up Ibra and Nolito at the end there. Let’s face it if we had signed either of them people would moan. We can do even better than those guys and hopefully we will. Still nice to see us make signings for the future too
Welcome to the greatest club in the world Mr.Asano! Let’s give him a chance and who knows, might be a hidden gem
He’ll never play for the club and will go on a free to a second tier Spainish team in two years time. This is a complete waste of time and money and further indulgence from Wenger, it’s clear no-one from the club has the balls to challenge him.
We have much more urgent needs than signing a nobody. I really hope the England rumours are true & this is his last season.
I’m going to keep an open mind here and hope we’ve signed Japan’s greatest ever player-in-the-making. It could happen, right?
Just checked youtube for the obligatory compilation. Impressions: he’s quick and has pretty good skills on the ball. There aren’t too many balls going in the back of the net, though. Lets give him a chance… However, as others have noted, this in no way solves our immediate striker problems.
Are we only allowed to sign players that will be immediately part of the first XI? Just seems like a cheeky punt on a young striker that has no impact on what other transfer business we need to address.
I couldn’t care less! Clearly not a first team signing so I don’t understand why people are getting bent out of shape over this. Obviously more signings to come for the first team. Chill, people before someone has a Connery.
They’re getting bent out of shape over this because they want some reason to whinge and moan like little girls…
Oh dear
Optimistic for this signing and hope there will be more to come
We’re all doomed…….
Football fans are a funny lot
Simply shows no one knows shit about arsenal transfers so ignore all the press click bait. Welcome asano, hope you enjoy your time with arsenal and give us plenty to savor. It’s hit or miss but no man can say whether it will be hit or miss. Let’s give him a chance before going bonkers. And in this Era of mad money and a real dearth of quality, the way forward will be to develop the striker u want or play a system that is not too dependent on 1 man. But getting angry we did not sign a one… Read more »
It isn’t lame when you’ve failed to win the league for 12 years and somehow think you’re a big team. Lame is when you have the best chance of winning the league, yet you buy only a goal keeper and no outfield player.
Lame is when your first choice striker goes on a 15 match scoreless run and never scored more than 16 in the league and people still call him underrated and STILL think we’re a big team.
Lame is calling walcott, Welbeck and Giroud world class.
By every available index I see arsenal is a big club not winning the league notwithstanding. And examples abound of really expensive flops so big money does not guarantee success of any player. Past achievements doesn’t mean u will be explosive in d future, schevchenko, mutu, veron, di Maria, falcao, capoue, mangala etc.
Get a grip man, u need to chill and stop living angry. Arsenal will outlive u
If the boss thinks he’s worth taking a punt on then I’m completely behind him. It’s not like he doesn’t have a proven track record of finding gems. Even if it is at a rate of 3 Parks to 1 Koscielny, that’s still well worth doing. Why would anybody moan before he’s even got on the plane? I fully expect us to buy a quality striker soon, I don’t really think that Asano has been brought in to fill that roll, does anyone?
still relatively young. stop having a meltdown, people. wenger knows we’ve got a problem and i’m sure if there’s something available for money thats not obscene he’ll do it. he’s proved he’ll buy quality if its there and it makes sense. this kid clearly isn’t the solution, but signing him doesn’t mean wenger has stopped looking for one.
Have a tenner with anyone that this guy will never play a competitive game for Arsenal, and it’s worrying how many players are turning down Arsenal if everyone we are linked with is true.
Don’t believe the newspapers.
“LOUD NOISES!!”
Maybe that was the plan all along; an immediate band aid with Vardy to go along with a long term young striker solution.
I mean there were talks we were linked with a young German striker around the same time as Vardy that went under the radar. What this shows is that at least one half of that theory is true.
So he’s probably still looking for that immediate solution.
Blogs, I’ve been getting those pop up “congrats you’ve won something” ads on safari for iPhone and there’s literally no way to exit without hitting ok to be redirected to another site…what’s the deal? You never have such annoying ads on your site…
Sorry. I’ll sort this out tomorrow. Genuine apologies for the inconvenience.
Thanks! Not surprisingly the issue seems to have been sorted out 🙂
Time to go full-Daily Mirror and exclaim: ASANO WHOO?!?!?
Good luck to the lad
Let’s hope it’s another great 3 of July signing
Asano for Arsenal – has a nice ring to it.
Cant wait for the upbeat, positive post on Le Grove.
Young striker for the future? Check. Now sign Draxler and and a defender please!
Can’t believe what I’m reading in the comments. Typical overreaction, racist even.
He isn’t the striker we’re signing to solve our problems up front because he might not even get a work permit. He’s just a gamble that might turn out useful for us in the future.
And don’t be such fucking racists. ” Oh the only reason we’re signing him is to sell shirts”. Bollocks. We took a chance with him because the boss thought he had the quality. Ryo didn’t look so bad until he was completely wrecked by injuries. Christ.