Bordeaux president Stephane Martin has promised Arsenal face a ‘hard time’ trying to do a deal for Brazilian starlet Malcom this January and claimed speculation that an agreement has been reached between the clubs is ‘hot air’.
The Gunners are understood to be keen on signing the winger in the coming weeks as they look to cover the gap left by the probable exit of Alexis Sanchez.
Malcom, 20, only signed a new deal with the Girondins last summer so, unsurprisingly, the French outfit, who are reportedly asking for €50 million, are keeping their cards close to their chest.
“Things are clear with his agents,” president Martin told L’Equipe when asked for an update on the club’s stance towards a sale.
“He has not had his contract extended this summer just to give him away this winter.
“We haven’t had any discussions with Arsenal. From our point of view, it’s all hot air.
“They can always try, but they will have a hard time taking him from us.”
It’s believed that Malcom is highly rated by new Head of Recruitment, Sven Mislintat, who had identified him as a possible signing for his former club, Borussia Dortmund. Given how desperate Arsenal’s circumstances are, it’s unlikely we’ll give up just yet. Well, you’d hope not anyway.
Countdown to the overreaction. 3…….2………1…..Fruit Tile
What a surprise.
Thank god for this story, I’ve really missed being held to ransom by a French club with a young winger. Ah, the summer of ‘17. Such nostalgia.
Little hint this time Arsene: They will give their price and it’ll be pretty absolute, given his age, potential and the fact they don’t want to sell. It’s no use offering them half that fee and then chucking an extra 5 mil on every other week. They tend not to like that… Just a thought though, as you were.
There is absolutely no excuse to get this done.
As someone wrote in the arses yesterday, we have made over £80m in sales already this season. gabriel – 10m, szc – 10m, chamberlain – 40m, coquelin – 12m, gibbs – 7m, toral – 3m, hinds – 2.5m, kamara – 500k = £85m
Just this window – We should have taken 25m for Alexis from City. United, Chelsea and Liverpool are nearer peer rivals to our slim top 4 finish. Another 20m for Walcott. 12m for Coquelin. If we can get rid of lousy Elneny and Debuchy for 15m combined plus an academy player or two (say Akpom), That’s 70m income minus 2m for Mavropanos. We should be prepared to go 50m in red (which we can recoup from CL should we make it and shirt sales) Go big, get Draxler and Mahrez both 24 and 26 respectively and who will bringbranding plus… Read more »
I love how all the players you want to get rid of are worthless but you want premium value for and the players you want in return are all good players but you undervalue them. Thats brilliant.
Mahrez is going for 50m
I’m not sure about Draxler but I mentioned if he’s anywhere between 60-85m its worth it.
Learn to read.
But that 85M you take away Laca @46 and wage increases for the season. Did Kola get a sign on fee?
Whatever we get for Walcott(20M) and Sanchez(30M)
We should be able to get 1 proven quality attacker and 1 potentially good attacking player. Maybe squeeze in a CB and use Mustafi as makeweight lol
Our team lacks cohesion, an inexperienced 20yr old who doesn’t speak English isn’t exactly what we need right now.
Possible we get this done with the view to a move in the summer?
Ah well. Easy come easy go.
Solomon Kalou?
It doesn’t matter who it is; he’s interested in any old Mislin Tat.
Solomon Kalou he answer to all our ills. 😀
ANNOUNCE M’VILA
Just pay them what they want before Liverpool or Chelsea snipe in !
Are you sure it’s not the player (like Lemar) who does not want to come & be non coached by the old whinger? Also read yesterday ‘Dick Law’ is still hanging around the club, working for the Yankee dollar!
Thank you for reminding me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CATv-hGprzY
‘A hard time trying to sign him’ nothing new, that’s the core value of our club. Hard time signing top players, hard time selling shit players, hard time keeping hold of our best players and a hard time competing! We are Arsenal we love hard times!
Oh and a hard time getting rid of Wenger!
Why are there 9 downvotes for this? Fans still behind wenger :O .Damn
Ahhhh, the classic “why is this getting downvoted” downvoted comment
Wenger get your cash out!
Look I have over 21 years of experience. It’s never easy getting players in January. I can assure you we are working very hard every day. We have to focus on the players we have and on the next game. I am fully committed. I never disrespect a contract.
Wenger is that you?
I assumed it was Michael Bolton, who once wrote a song called, “Can I Touch You…There?”
No, seriously.
Top top quality comment. You showed good mental strength writing that.
Look I assure you we are on the case. My phone is red hot most of the time. You wouldn’t believe the amount of calls I get on the different players that want to join. We dont look to buy just any players. Only players that can improve this squad, without affecting the overall balance. I believe that is key.
I’m not convinced that Arsenal could negotiate Wenger’s zip on his coat let alone complete a transfer.
Like most everyone else on this site, I have never seen him play a match. I assume he is very talented and very promising, because who know a lot about football think so. I know for a fact that he is 20, plays for a club that sits 13th in Ligue 1, and has never played in a better league. Forgive me if this leaves me rational: I hope we buy him, but he is one for the future.
*people who know a lot about football*
And the future is all we have to look forward to. This season, at least in the league, is beyond saving. This team, until there are major overhauls in coaching, is beyond saving. So investing in the future looks like all we can do. And I personally think its better to buy a 20 year old with good performances under his belt and a lot of potential to develop than a 24 year old who has never really developed past his initial promise (Danny Welbeck) or a 28 year old who has only had one good season in his career… Read more »
Its typical AW buys though. All either extreme version of potential(like 16-19 yo which is fine) or Bargains(Perez, Ozil which fell into our laps) Panic(Overpay for a player like Mustafi, or Welbeck because we aren’t scoring goals)
As desperate as we are at the moment, I think the last few days have shown that we at least have a shopping list this time round. Going by the press (lol) the murmurs were we want two of Malcom/Lemar/Aubameyang/Martial(Mkhitarian) etc, and not just focusing on one target like we have done.
If we don’t get Malcom, move on. I’ve sure Stephane Martin will be knocking on Raul Sanllehi door if rumours of us talking to one of the other targets heats up.
Arsenal: We would like to buy player, how much?
Club: We would prefer to keep him
Arsenal: Ok, sorry for taking up your time
Ross, are you Canadian ? cuz we say sorry all the time too
Nope, Uk, but I have visited – amazing country, if I ever left the UK Canada is where I would be headed
Literally what happened the summer Martial moved to Manchester.
Arsenal: We were told by Monaco that they will not sell Martial this summer.
2 months later Martial is debuting for Man United.
Wow, a prickly, bomasbstic football club director/president – how novel!
We’ll let it run to the end of January, underbid, fiddle fuck around until 11:58, submit a proper bid, hand in the paperwork late, and not get Malcolm. We’ll have a surplus in outgoing transfer money and Ivan will get a slice of the pie as a bonus. Sir Chips will tell the supports in his not so smooth way, to pound dirt, AW will extend, and we’ll toil about around 8th to 13th for the next couple seasons as we concede goals at a faster rate then every year before the last. We love you Arsenal oh Arsenal we… Read more »
Is it just us or do other clubs find it this difficult to sign players?
It’s just us.
After getting my hopes high about we speedily making winter signings of trio Malcolm, PEA and Mhiki. Tabloids starts rolling out conversations with their agents cum clubs about how hard we’re going to get this through. I can’t remember the last time we truly fought for what we needed on and off the field. As the wind of change is blowing already at the management level, hopefully we get that translated on the field. Gabriel, Chamberlain and Walcott are yet to be replaced. At times I ask myself whether the club’s mgt is oblivious of the quadruple problem with our… Read more »
Just get Mahrez. No brainer. Similar price, slightly more but shirt sales more than make up for it. Experienced. Considering we are replacing Sanchez one of our most experienced and creative players, the last thing we need to be doing at this juncture is gambling on an expensive young player with no PL experience. As for Aubameyang, I don’t see how he fits. It leaves a gap out wide left. His best position will be CF which is Lacazette. Selling Giroud will be a mistake as he is the only player who has attributes and consistency in going route one… Read more »
How does Mahrez fit if Ozil plays on the right side forward spot? Similar priced? Puel already said he’s worth 100M or close to that. AMN readjust to the position he was playing coming out of the Academy? you are suggesting doing the same thing to AMN as they did to Chambers. Yes having 2 good strikers is a good thing. Competition like you are always screaming for. how is competition not a good thing? You complain about Xhaka being a starter there isn’t anyone else when Ramsey has been hurt or Jack hasn’t been fit. Bellerin keeps playing even… Read more »
Here we go. Another Aulas. We’ll get this done lads. No worries. Sounds like Le president privately wants some dough. Arsene will probably pay him off from his 10 million salary and probably throw in a bit of Debuchy or Jeff to sweeten the deal.
Of course we do. We get linked with everyone but we’re not closers.
I’d have thought that after selling us a total crock in Chamakh they’d feel a bit guilty and give us a few quid off…..
Wenger wouldn’t pay the 6m fee. So we waited half a season and got him on a free. Haha
I wouldn’t play it any other way if I was in Bordeaux’s position. Arsenal’s situation being what it is, and the money floating around the club.
Ok, so back to reality. As many promising players in recent years, Malcom will be to expensive for Wenger. Mkhitaryan will not agree terms with Arsenal, so that probably means Alexis will stay (in my opinion, but he could still go to United). Aubameyang is a kind of a player that Wenger or Arsenal would never buy (his 60mil. price is the first reason why). And we will sell/ or we already sold Walcott. Sad times ahead of us in my opinion.
On a more serious note, Malcom is playing for Bordeaux even as we speak so they do seem serious.
Where do you think wenger will be/hide this deadline day? The Vatican? Random fa conference no other manager is at? Book launch in Japan?
It’s something I always look forward to amidst the obvious agony of deadline day.
It’s the hope that kills you isn’t it?
Sanchez, Theo, Giroud (part ex w/Aubameyang?), Coquelin, Debuchy out.
Aubameyang, Malcom, Mkhitaryan, Mavropanos in?
What, ~£50m net spend? (Ignoring wages etc). That’s plausible, isn’t it? We know we know we need to spend, more bodies out than in.
I wouldn’t believe it except for that the fact it ignores the need for defensive cover (inexperienced 20 year olds aside) and a bit of steel in midfield so it seems very Arsenal there.
(Just realised my login name was in relation to the Evans rumour, seems appropriate not to change it).
Terrible man
If he’s been identified by Mislintat, my guess is we’ll buy him and he will sit on the bench for the rest of the season before being shipped out on loan for the next 2 seasons.
Classic wenger
Isn’t it about this time we now try and sign Gareth Barry??? Same old same old
Looking more forward to this deal than that swap deal with mkhitariyan. Kid has real potential
with arsenal nothing is ever concluded and they have another match to loose next week
Please please please let us bring in the big three that we are being linked with. I know our defence will never be solid under this regime & I think Xhaka should make way for Jorginho in the summer, but if we can bring in Henrikh Mkhitaryan & Malcom for an unhappy Alexis that keeps giving the ball away & Theo who doesn’t even get a game, I for one think that is a good swap given the circumstances. Then, although I’ll be said to see him go, swapping Olivier Giroud and a bunch of cash for Aubameyang would be… Read more »
This does seem like a long shot. Plus, when have we ever got three quality forwards in during the January window?!
Arsenal face a time sealing any deal. Yawn.
Go for Draxler then…
Buy this lad! Get Aubameyang as well for good measure. If Mkhitarian doesn’t want to come then let’s not push it. Sanchez can go (don’t care where), he can stay and play or rot on the bench another 5 months for all I care. Do we really need the peanuts he’ll warrant anyway? He’s the past now so let’s invest in the future!