Pablo Mari has arrived in London to undergo his medical ahead of his move from Flamengo to Arsenal.
The Spaniard said his goodbyes to teammates yesterday, and traveled with Technical Director Edu from Rio, arriving in Heathrow airport earlier today.
He was met by our pal Charles Watts of Goal, who was there to ask him in-depth about his proposed move ?
Pablo Mari has just arrived at Heathrow with Edu and he tell me he is excited to be joining Arsenal.
Medical to take place this weekend. pic.twitter.com/6VY1RM3wJL
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 25, 2020
The 26 year old will become Mikel Arteta’s first signing since taking over as manager in December, and will add some depth to the centre of the defence.
In terms of numbers, the Gunners have Sokratis, David Luiz, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi, but obviously there are some concerns about Holding as he continues to recover from a cruciate knee injury, while the German made another high-profile error in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
All going well though, the Flamengo man should be an Arsenal player in the very near future.
The murky world of transfers and the contact book as Arsenal target defenders
Certainly and upgrade on at least one current CB.
*an
CBs are the best!
Which leaves us 6 CBs excluding Mustafi. Between Sokratis, Holding, Chambers and Luiz who stays and who goes?
What’s wrong with you? It’s 6
Saliba, Holding, Luiz, Sokratis, Chambers, Mari
At least one of them has to go come next summer, and it’s obviously not going to be Mari or Saliba.
Mavropanos
He’s not even a factor, he’s basically done.
Age-wise, I think it’ll be Luiz
I’ve a feeling Luiz will stay as he’s signed a two year deal on good terms he won’t likely get elsewhere, he’ll leave the following season on a Bosman.
Chambers isn’t likely to go anywhere while injured. So it’s between Holding and Sokratis I think.
Well, his worth according to transfermarkt is 1.8 mio. At the age of 26 that’s really low. Unless there’s some hidden talent that nobody was able to unlock until now, he won’t be the solution to our defensive problems, I fear. But if he’s just an additional number to be able to offload Mustafi, I’m fine with it. I think in Chambers and Holding we have to players that are at least good enough to be very useful squad players and in Saliba and the one top center back we will hopefully acquire in the summer (optimistic, I know) we… Read more »
makes you laugh that there are players out there at the level of mustafi who can take over his role for lesss than 2m, when we paid 35m before it got insane!
Remember Mustafi made a very good start with us and we had an undefeated run of about 17 matches with him and Koscielny as central defenders. Nobody could have forecast his regression.
You are correct, Eben I thought highly of mustaffi and his defence can still be quality but he makes costly mistakes at a very high rate.
Incredible Unai impression goes almost unnoticed
This is a tired narrative .. Mustafi was always suspect from the very beginning – his rashness just wasn’t punished nearly enough. His skill or lack thereof was increasingly highlighted with the steady decline in the overall defensive efficiency of the team. Even G. Neville questioned why we’d gone for him.
They could actually. Guillem Balague said he was not good enough for Arsenal before the signing was even announced. And that was on top of my own poor impressions beforehand
Apparently Arteta knows him from his time at city. My glass half full reading tells me he could be the first of Arteta’s hidden gems. Fingers crossed..
You have everything worked out already, long before you watched him play, and based on his monetary value!
Did you also check Gabriel Martinelli’s value on transfermarket in the summer too?
I don’t know about his summer value but he’s now worth Greenwood².
Martinelli was barely 18 in the summer and has played regional football before. This guy is 26 and has played nearly 200 games of professional football. Do you really don’t get the difference? And I didn’t say that I’ve worked out anything. I didn’t know this guy before so I have checked the most reliable site in the net when it comes to player evaluation and I just stated that this site doesn’t seem to rate him at all and that – based on that fact – it would be a surprise to me if he’d become a regular starter… Read more »
Leicester paid only 400k for Marez if I remember correctly. There are premier league quality gems out there, with a little luck Artetas inside knowledge has helped us find one.
Martinelli is worth 18 million on that website. That wouldn’t buy one of his toenail clippings.
Last update was early December. Be sure that after the next one, his worth will have increased again. The values on that site are very accurate.
How do you know this exactly?
If it happens, it happens
Unless he fails the medical it’s happening.
But until he passes the medical it hasn’t happened, that’s how it works ?
It only works that way before your birthday.
Finally a CB with height
Hopefully one that can defend
Baresi and Cannavaro weren’t towering men but were fantastic defenders. Only in Britain would height be considered as the paramount criterion in signing a defender.
Considering we’re playing in ‘Britain’. No reason why all football becomes the exact same.
Considering how dismal we have historically been at defending set pieces, in particular losing headed battles, and how often that tactic is utilized by English clubs, height is quite a welcome relief.
Didn’t help Mersacker too much. He was beaten on crosses regularly.
Metersecker was only beaten ever because the crosses were too low for him…
You’ve literally made this up.
Chelsea had 17 corners Tuesday.
And WE scored from one when mustafi won the header!
In truth our problem defensively the past 18 months hasn’t been set pieces. It’s been a lack of positioning, failure to put bodies on the line and dreadful mistakes. One can only hope he comes in and helps reduce these areas on weaknesses
I’ve seen a lot of people say this. Am I the only one who thinks David Luiz is quite tall?
Siri says David is 6 ft 2
6’4
…he is tall and that’s without the hair.
But Mustafi is better in the air.
At least a foot of Luiz’ height is his barnet
If the proposed loan with an option to buy move is true, it’s a solid piece of business. Arteta obviously rates him from his time with City, and he’s worth a shot with a commitment to little investment and a chance to move for a top rated center half in the summer. If he works out, great. If not, not much will be lost in terms of capital.
Arteta rates him so much he never got matches at City? Arteta probably realized they underestimated him not that they rate him but never played him.
Arteta wasn’t the manager at City. He was the manager. It’s very possible that Mikel rated him, but City and/or Pep didn’t.
Lolz. He was the **assistant manager.
Too many people wanking off to themselves. This player is a risk. May pan out , or not we don’t know but its a big risk. Critically the cost isn’t much but we’ve seen it with elneny, imperfect solutions and squad players at best when we needed better at that stage. This player failed to impress sufficiently at City to be retained and did not find work in a higher league in Spain before going to lower league in Brazil. Could be a Martinelli for us or a Andre Santos. Arteta likely does not know much about him. If he… Read more »
In my original comment, I find no proof of wanking off to myself as you put it. I actually agree with you that he could be good or he could be squad depth in the end. As for him being turned down by a big club, that doesn’t necessarily indicate the end of his career. Think De Bruyne, Sancho, Salah, and quite a few others. I also realize that doesn’t mean he’ll pan out. I also disagree with your opinion that Arteta wouldn’t know much about him. Sure, he may have been on loan for 3 years at City. But,… Read more »
Its a roll of the dice, but then again our central defense sucks big-time, so even a marginal improvement back there gives us a better chance at winning Europa. Plus, if you are a starting CB at champions Flamengo, the most popular club in football-mad Brazil, that ain’t nuthin’ to sneeze at. They gave Liverpool a real run in that recent final – it was a good game, and their back line was solid all game against Flamino, Mane, Salah etc. I have a feeling he needs a really skillful type of CB partner though.
If it’s a loan then there’s no risk at all. Riskier to not bring someone in. He’s probably not great but I’d wager he’s solid enough and didn’t look dodgy against Liverpool last month. If it’s a buy then I’d hope the fee was minimal under £5m and wages are lowish. If he plays some games then selling him on and even making a profit won’t be hard. Maybe it’s suits him just to be in the European shop window again.
I knew this could be true considering the fact that Andrew didn’t leave any poo in the rumor article. And regarding the signing I am not sure what to make of it watching only YouTube videos. Welcome anyway, will support him!
No poo goes a long way 🙂
Not when you have to stop in a lay by….
A beautiful image….
Unless it’s a ghost poo (you know, the ones that just aren’t in the loo when you look). Who knows how far they go?
Well, I guess if a player travels into London together with an official Arsenal representative there doesn’t need to be poo-meter speculation if the club’s interest is real. I guess Edu didn’t pick him up to have a squirrel in Hyde Park eat nuts out of his hand and then sends him back to Brazil.
Maybe they are just friends and he didn’t mean to tell the reporter that he was happy to be joining Arsenal. He could just be in England for a winter holiday ?
That’s what happened to Higuain!!!
Well his cv is a little underwhelming but fingers crossed we’ve picked up a gem that’s gone under the radar. If nothing else he’s another body to put before resorting to Mustafi…
‘put in’ not ‘put’. Blogs, can we have an edit function on the next update please! ?
You have to ask the question why Arteta was using Mustafi two games in a row in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with Rob Holding’s fitness. This is a convenient invented excuse. Fact is Holding has also been unconvincing when on for us against Leeds. That said, I would have started him ahead of Mustafi purely since like for like, he has the longer term future. Blatantly Arteta felt Mustafi had some good qualities (His passing from the back and his power with headers) but he was wrong that he could scrub out the odd calamity moment. (Remember Koscielny… Read more »
“it was Mustafi instructing Martinelli where to stand” – I don’t want to come across all millennial but this genuinely made me laugh out loud. Damn Santori! Only you could possibly find a way to give Mustafi that much credit for Martinelli’s goal. You’re so far down your own Mustafi rabbit hole you’re clutching at straws like this now? Don’t you see how irrelevant this is to the argument? “Oh sure, his frequent brainfarts lead us to concede goal after important goal, but hE tOlD mArTinElLi WheRE tO sTaND”. That doesn’t “balance out the criticism”. If it’s any sort of… Read more »
Actually I think only most of us agree that Mustafi has a lot of quality but that it is out-balanced because, too often, his errors are so serious. That understanding is fairly recent, I think, giving him credit for the way he has conducted himself in the past year. But some supporters seem unwilling to admit that, and they blame Mustafi for things that are clearly the responsibility of others. By the way, on the Martinelli goal, I think Mustafi very consciously tried to create a breakaway for us–but I think he was trying to put it into Pepe’s path,… Read more »
No doubt his agent is mates with Edu. Who needs data-driven analytical scouting huh.
#svencomeback
There it is, the anti-agent narrative.
Because Arsenal, who have Lucas Torreira and Guendouzi and Martinelli and Saliba to come, is a club that doesn’t use scouts anymore. Arsenal, who literally bought an entire data analytics company, don’t do data-driven scouting anymore.
All football clubs deal with agents. We really need to grow up as a club and drop this toxic stupidity
Nope, agents were not the target of my comment, Raul & Edu were.
There is something akin to an ideological battle going on at Arsenal and across boardrooms all over the world, including many companies I work with (at a data analytics agency). Some rely on their network, some use data to make decisions.
Jaeson Rosenfeld and StatDNA have been increasingly marginalised, as reported by many sources. Case point: the signing of Denis Suarez.
Anyone with a passing interesting in data can tell you that Darren Burgess massively improved Arsenal’s muscular injury record, and yet still got shitcanned by Raul.
I guess my response would be show me a shred of evidence that Raul “shitcanned” Darren Burgess as part of Arsenal’s strategy to move away from the data-driven model.
Way too much of this talk relies on hearsay and sounds way too much like gossip to me
“Jaeson Rosenfeld and StatDNA have been increasingly marginalised, as reported by many sources. Case point: the signing of Denis Suarez.”
Thinking after the Unai Ennui fiasco– that Arteta will be the one driving this car for awhile.
Didn’t Blogs publish a well-informed piece this morning about Sanllehi’s reliance on his contact book of super/agents, and how there appeared to be a power struggle behind the scenes between Sven (representing a data- and scout-driven form of recruitment) and Raul (representing a contact- and agent-driven form of recruitment), which the latter clearly won? I think some fans are just a little concerned that our recruitment is tending towards the agent-driven model more than the data-/scout-driven one. Of course, no player is recruited without data analysis, scouting reports, and agents doing their agent-ing, but for fans of a club that… Read more »
Mslintat was not data driven, he was also using old contacts at Dortmund for most parts
Kaius, people enjoy and refuse to give up on romanticism, either because they haven’t thought better or simply prefer their old arguments. Even normal jobs like Doctors and Educators use HR reps, who granted they didn’t have to guide you through all your life, still get a commission. So in my opinion please let Don Mino Raiola enjoy the fruits of his excellent foresight and decision-making for the professionals who entrust their careers in his hands. The solution to the fees agents charge is for more people to become as good as he is and increase the general quality of… Read more »
Great point about romanticism artetas assistant.
Much of the fear-mongering about Raul, Edu and agents is unfounded but it’s true that Arsenal fans more than fans at other clubs are still in love with the idea of a scout finding a rough gem and signing them on the spot
(though we know football doesn’t work that way anymore, because even those gems are already represented by agents!).
Data driven analytical scouting made us choose Xhaka over Kante. Of course, Xhaka has my support. But if you asked me to sign one or the otter for basically the same price, it would be Kante!
I’m not sure we passed over Kante for Xhaka as much as kante chose to go to Chelsea rather than coming to the Arsenal
Yes agreed – he was getting more at Chelsea than what we were willing to pay
No, Chelsea were only interested in Kante in 2016 after he won a title with Leicester. He’d been on our radar, but we passed on him in 2015 before he left Caen in Ligue 1 and signed for Leicester.
Remember the summer of 2015 guys? It was the year we signed no outfield players.
Then those two *data-driven* legends Xhaka and Mustafi arrived in 2016.
I would take the otter every time
There’s definitely a power struggle that has been won by Sanlehi. Mslintat was hit and miss himself. He preferred really ex-Dortmund players. Aubaemayng good but we had to break the bank. Sokratis and OK short term signing but we could have done better. Mhkitayan a waste of time when we could have pushed for Mahrez. Emery demurred to Mslintat too much but in a sense he wanted to give him his own rope to hang himself. Then Sanlehi consolidated his position with Edu who is inexperience. he does not have the pull in market to bring in top names at… Read more »
An otter bossing the midfield sound hilarious, I need it
At last, we can point out the obvious, Kante or Xhaka? it is enough to make a grown man cry. Whilst we are at this, why did we pass up Jonny Evans for 2mill when he was available. A far better player than the dross we have at the moment.
I would think it’s both. After the data driven analysis the club still need to complete the transfer with humans…which generally (ha) include agents.
Lol those guys think Sven sent them Facebook invites
lol exactly, all clubs do both.
Will trust Arteta on this one.
Just a hunch but I doubt Arteta had much input on it
This is the problem. The purchasing team has now got too independent. I think Emery wanted to have a more forceful say of what was coming in but he left Mslintat some rope to hang. now Sanlehi has consolidated power. I’m not sure Edu has much pull on account of inexperience. Hopefully he has a good sense of what is a good player but we are right now dropping into the ranks of all the also rans in the PL, teams like Wolves, Sheffield etc. Nothing wrong with that of course bc they regularly pick out good gems but it… Read more »
Con, You can present options to a manager of an organisation but you don’t sanction anything without them. They’re the driver of the boat.
Being his assistant, I am sure you know.
Yes. I’m a lucky guy, learning from the best
No the fact that Arteta knows him belies this. Secondly to think one can sign over the manager’s head is a bit over the top
Watched him a lot when he was at NAC a couple of seasons ago. Decent centreback and captain in a very mediocre relegation fighting team in the Dutch Eredivisie. If you would have told me he would play for Arsenal in 2020 I would have laughed in your face. However, wish him the best, may he be our vert own Van Dijk?
Hopefully more Virgil than Dick…
“Hopeful” is the operative word. How we have fallen down the pecking order of clubs now. We are not buying any better than say a Wolves. Which is not bad but probably not going to get us punching higher because the competition in the PL is intense. United for all their failings will spend. City and Liverpool are miles ahead. Chelsea will spend. That’s 4 clubs ahead of us and in CL spots. Then there is Spurs with Moarinho. hopefully it implodes sooner than later but they will also be spending. Where will we be in this pack? Its a… Read more »
Do you actually enjoy anything to do with Arsenal? It seems you don’t. You exist only to whine and cry about everything that’s wrong. Arsenal brings you no joy so maybe you should just fuck off instead of infecting everybody else with your negative shit every day.
From YouTube looks good in the air, good on the ball, good anticipation, perhaps a bit slow
Could be a decent signing. Can see why we would be in for him.
Calm, good anticipation, seems a good reader of the game, with spider legs to poke/steal/pinch and tackle ‘blindside’. Can see how this will reduce the trench warfare that seems to go on in our box. Sokratis and Mustafi will/should be shipped in the nest two/three windows. Luiz will be here a while. Hope Mavropanos makes it. Saliba, Holding, Chambers, Mari + Luiz/Mav/youth. Arteta must have a tantalising shortlist, bearing in mind his football heritage/philosophy and previous position. I assume that he made his choice – within budget of course, and Edu went in swing his BFC cojones about. That’s two… Read more »
Sokratis seems ok recently. Mustafi has to go
Youtube can make everyone look like a world beater or look bad. Fact is he is not playing in the most competitive league. BUT we have Martinelli then again you can also get an Andre Santos or a Squillaci. You generally pay for what you get. Wenger bucked the trend until he had to spend big and ironically it did not help. Purchasing team put in place thereafter wasn’t any better. Mslintat did not resolve any issues and was lazy, Sanlehi has back loaded us to the tune of 79m with potential impact to subsequent summers. And still many positional… Read more »
It is what it is, he’s about to look like the best Spanish defender sitting calm in Mikels unit. So yeah, I’ll wager call up soon too.
Sokratis would be perfect beside this guy, Luiz would be great too. Imperious maybe.
Musti needs a new club and a lot of private work, truth-telling and constructive critique.
Unfortunately, both #20 and his dad like his current wages.
The club just need to eat the wage bill to break The20Curse.
Sokratis is fine when not paired with The20Curse.
Certainly a CB
When he scores the winner in the Europa League final …
Row row row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Mari Mari Mari life is but a dream!
“dream” being the operative word.
We are now risking it with cheap solutions because of last summer. We spent 105m on an erratic Pepe, a non existent Saliba and a panic buy Luiz.
99m of which is back loaded (lets say 79m left) and will have impact on future transfer windwos.
Which is why short cuts again and roll the dice.
I’ve heard this on before. Zzzzzzz.
If only youtube can tell a full story. From what the videos, he could be our Van Dijk.
If only they did YouTube calamity moments?
Oh…they do! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THIHIY5w3TY We can talk about this now yeah?
Hilarious viewing. Comedy Gold. ?
You have a strange sense of humour.
Well Paul, I think there comes a point where you just have to laugh at players who would otherwise boil your piss. I mean these mistakes ARE laughable for a so-called professional, never mind an professional international. What’s even funnier, of course, is the section of our ‘support’ who would STILL back the clown if he allowed a Tottenham goal that relegated us.
Goalkeepers must hate him 😀
Cech for one. He seems a hard guy to pissoff too.
I managed to watch for 8 minutes before I had to turn it off. Do I get an award?
I found that hard to watch, really.
The amount of times he leaves his man to run to the centre of the penalty box when another defender is there ?? ive never seen someone do that, let alone consistently!
He has no other responsibility it seems. I just got brushed off by a pal (a smart guy too) defending him– when I showed him a still shot of #20 watching as Azpilicueta side-footed home Tuesday.
Sez he: Maybe Arteta has directed him “to stay with the line defensively. Leno might be expected to make that save.”
I’ve no fookin’ idea on what planet– the people who defend #20– watch their football. It ain’t this one.
Takes a lot of character for a Spanish player to leave Europe for Brazil and be successful so I hope this one works. If it doesn’t we’ll just blame corrupt agents right? Honestly this anti-agent narrative doing the rounds is pretty funny stuff. Poor virginal Arsenal Football Club, Values FC, the Mother Teresa of football clubs, has now succumbed to the “wily ways”, to quote Arseblog, of football agents. What a load of rubbish. Every single one of our European rivals has been managing dealing with agents for decades and still winning trophies. Liverpool, whose transfer policy is regarded as… Read more »
I think we were all ok about it until you started ranting about the use of the word “wily”? 🙂
Like not looking selectively for positives much…
…you could also say he failed to impress at City, could not get going in Spain and ended up in Brazil.
You could find the negative in any situation. It’s one of your talents.
You could and it’d be true but he’s 26 years old and is about to sign for Arsenal FC. Good luck to him.
We’re getting MARIed in the morning…..
We got Maried to Ozil yonkers ago and we still can’t get the divorce papers through it cost us 350K a week still.
We are still Maried to Elneny and Mhkitaryan two throughly useless players for us, can’t get rid of them.
We took forever to get rid of Lucas Perez (now thankfully plying a successful trade at Alaves) or for the matter Jenkinson (Thoroughly poor player)
And as mentioned we are still stuck with Mustafi.
I wouldn’t be celebrating like a drunk groupie just yet…
You’re such a negative cunt.
Best comment I’ve ever seen on here baz00r. Worse though, is that he’s so pompous with it.
In my opinion, Our “cheap” CBs have always done better than expensive. Kos, Kolo, Campbell (free), Mert, and Holding to an extent. This guy could join the list. I read it’s loan with an option to buy which is a good business. It doesn’t work, he goes back. Even if outright buy, 7.5m and probably low wage is low risk. The best defensive pairings I’ve seen always include one guy with pace and aggressiveness, the other guy is slower but depends on interceptions, organization, and game reading. Vidic-Rio, Kolo-Campbell and the list goes on. Kompany and Van Dijk aren’t fast… Read more »
Campbell was hardly free. What didn’t go to Them by way of transfer fee went into his pocket as a signing fee, from what I can gather.
I am not interested in heaping praise on a rival club, but the idea that Van Dijk is not a fast defender is just wrong. He rarely needs to show his pace, because he (and the rest of his team) is usually well-positioned–but we have all seen him out-sprint wingers when he needs to.
Apologies for that. You are correct about Van Dijk. He rarely has to use speed. I hope Arteta’s organization will help.
Squillaci, Silvestre also cheap, also Andre Santos, Debuchy…
Is there ANY joy in your life? Can’t, for the life of me, understand why you “support” Arsenal.
Would have preferred Rodrigo Caio if we’re signing a CB from Flamengo, but this is a body at a problem position for us, so hopefully he’ll bring some fresh ideas and help to mentor some of the younger players we have at CB.
Rodrigo Caio is phisically weak and error prone.
Taxi for the German Frank Spencer. Try not to cry, all you heartbroken Musties.
Ok Qwaliteee I’ll bite, by just asking you two questions. 1. Why do you need to be so nasty and rude about a footballer that has always done his best? 2. Why do you have to belittle the fans that thought continually chastising the player was not helpful going forward?
Paul, mate, chill out. As fans we’re all entitled to our opinions, yeah? Now, if people don’t agree with my opinions fine. But just because my opinions don’t necessarily match theirs, that seemingly becomes an issue. I have stood on the North Bank at Highbury and heard players being given absolute dogs abuse by certain individuals. Nine times out of ten, I disagreed with them. But it didn’t make my opinion any more or less important than theirs. It’s just an opinion. I think Mustafi is now the worst player I have ever seen pull on the red and white… Read more »
You haven’t answered either of my questions?
What are you, a politician? I don’t owe you or anybody else any ‘answers’ to any ‘questions’ I’ve already explained that to be a football fan is all about having different opinions. If you’re too thick to understand that, that’s not my problem.
Qwalm down thickeee.
*Slow hand clap.
No you don’t owe anyone answers that is true. I was trying to draw your attention to the level of hate and rudeness within your comments. I shouldn’t have done that.
It was a wasted exercise. 😉
Ok, well, thanks anyway for putting me on your couch, Dr. Sigmund Freud-Roberts. For the record, I don’t ‘hate’Mustafi; like I said, it’s nothing personal, I wish him well. And might I suggest, for your next ‘exercise’ that you actually try and understand that to be a football fan is all about having opinions that may differ from other people. The match day experience, football fanzines, football blogs, radio phones ins are all about watching great football and being a part of the passion of the supporters. It’s competitive sport – it’s not some politically correct Sunday school picnic where… Read more »
My question was why are you so rude and belittling. It is incredibly thick of me to try and change you. You got me!!
?You’re boring me now mate. Go and troll someone else.
True. Mustafi has made a living out of blaming anyone but himself. Horrible defender.
The guy is a mercenary as well. All the more reason to get rid of him ASAP.
He doesn’t cost much but if this turns out well, we ll save a hell lot of money. Its worth the risk and gamble. Big money signing doesnt guarantee anything anymore. We spent 35millions on a world cup winner defender who is still error prone and a certain club paid 80millions for a defender that can organise the defence.
We haven’t been better, we spent 72m for Pepe who has been erratic. 27m for Saliba who is non existent for us this season, not entirely proven, and 7m for panic buy Luiz that’s 105m of which 99m is back loaded with impact on future transfer windows. hence why we are going cheap now. And it is STILL a risk buying bargain basement player who has failed to impress at City or in Spain. But that’s the territory we are in now bc of botch spending practises. Yet too many on this site prefer to imagine we are somehow guaranteed… Read more »
What do you expect Arsenal to do? Splash another senseless amount of money? Its winter transfer window… Be smart about it. I did mention is a risk but also hoping he will succeed in our club.Every signing represents risk. It’s no diff to the corporate world either. Stop being judgemental dude. Player hasn’t even represent Arsenal and you’re alrd on it. In regards to ur comment on pepe and saliba, the entire team hasnt turned up this season, mainly due to emery style of football. His constant changing of formation, putting players like torreira way up instead of his usual… Read more »
Pepe has had a solid start. What do you expect, players to come in and score 30 goals in their first season? It doesn’t work like that. It takes time to adapt and let’s not forget he started off his tenure with Emery’s boring as fuck tactics. Pepe has look much improved under Arteta. Saliba was never meant to be existent for us this season. It was a purhase for the future and one we only secured on the proviso of loaning him back. But you keep banging on about it constantly. I really think you struggle to understand basic… Read more »
Give it a rest, Spud.
An aymeric Laporte type of player. Fingers crossed
Hope it works out. May or may not be an upgrade. Too many people prepared to assume it is. May just add to the collection of imperfect non solutions. But better something than nothing I suppose. Guessing Sokratis Holding (Arteta is somewhat reticent about him it seems – prefers to bring a new chap in than play Rob), then maybe this chap or Luiz (we should get rid of in summer). Mustafi also likely gone (but you never know…) then there is Mavropanos and Saliba next season so that’s 4 plus Chambers (if he isn’t also out the door at… Read more »
I don’t understand why we count Mustafi anymore, anyway…
Careful mate, you’re batting on a sticky wicket here. They don’t like ‘nasty rude hateful words’ about His Holiness around these parts…..
Saliba I’m guessing still far from match fitness otherwise ideally we should just have got him in early, pay whatever extra we needed to modify the contract with St Etienne. We already paid a whopping 27m for him, might as well use him. Its a poor set of circumstance and we still have yet to find perfect solution at the back. We are reluctant to spend on the problem and this has been an issue for a long time. Wenger skimped with Squillaci, Silvestre etc. The one player he paid big for Mustafi did not turn out to be decent… Read more »
I am bored, Santori
Hope Charles Watts lives near the airport! Blimey, what a job.
A spaniard, playing in Brazil? What kinda backwards voodoo is going on here??
Anyway, hope Mikel saw what he needed to see in this guys brief reserve stint at Man C.
Fran Merida played in Brazil as well haha
Not going to go overboard but if he performs like he did in the world club championship I think we may have a bargain.Outstanding against Liverpool in the air and on the ground.
If it’s only on loan with an option to sign permanently, it seems very low-risk and could be a shrewd piece of business. But he hasn’t played since 21st December so hasn’t had a proper pre-season yet (Brazilian league finished before Christmas), and I’d imagine he will be 4th choice at the back behind Luiz, Sokratis, and Holding, so I don’t think we’ll see much of him for another month yet. Whether we sign him permanently may depend on what Arteta sees of him in training.
Looks like Flamengo have played twice in the Rio state championships. Mari wasn’t on the team sheets, but might have trained with them?
We move forward from here …..COYG
Excited ???
Well that all happened very quickly! Had no info about this until yesterday so it was all kept under wraps incredibly well. I won’t pretend to know anything about him so it’s certainly going to be interesting to say the least.
Cheap CB’s Squillaci , Stepenove ,Senderos I can go back to Jeff Blockley there must be more
Senderos just retired from the MLS.
Jeff Blockley? He was no Terry Mancini ?
This is an «scratch my agent buddy on the back» transfer. Absolutely no evidence that this will improve our team. Our top guys in management represent all that wrong with Football today, no heart for the club , only fight for position and cash deals.
Come on mate, at least give the new lad a chance. You never know, under Arteta’s influence he might just develop into becoming a vital cog for the team. Only time will tell. High profile signings from big clubs don’t guarantee value for money any more. The market is awash with bang average players costing the earth. Let’s just see what happens with this guy.
A transfer conducted very much in the traditional Arsenal way. For the most part absolute secrecy, no gossip, no fuss, no dithering. Don’t know much about this guy, but hope he settles in quickly and can help bring some much needed discipline and stability at the back.
Signing of such a low profile player who is not a teenager really shows the depth to which this great club have fallen ☹️☹️
High profile players don’t necessarily work out either do they? At least if this doesn’t work out the financial cost is minimal.
Mustafi you could say was high profile and look how that turned out. I’m more than happy for the club to start looking elsewhere for talent as opposed to over-spending on high profile players who turn out to be flops anyway.
Rubbish. George Graham signed Lee Dixon and Steve Bould from Stoke City – not Barcelona or Real Madrid. They went on to become two of the best defenders in world football. Humble origins don’t necessarily mean a bad player. Give the lad a chance.
It’s a move much appreciated and we look forward to seeing you in the midst of Gunners amazing family ???
I’m shocked there is no POO-meter for this transfer. Come one Arseblog !
Mari. Spotted at Heathrow. Incoming. With Edu.
Need any further clues?