Hector Bellerin continues to receive covetous glances from his homeland.
We already know of Real Betis’ interest in our right-back and now Atletico Madrid are reportedly weighing up his credentials ahead of a potential contract offer.
According to Marca, Bellerin is liked by Atletico’s sporting director Andrea Berta and is an option for the right-side of Diego Simeone’s defence.
The newly crowned La Liga champions want to replace Croatian Sime Vrsaljko who is “not at the expected level after his injury” and may need further reinforcement if Kieran Trippier decides he wants to return to the Premier League this summer.
The publication doesn’t rule out a swap deal between Arsenal and Atletico for ex-Sp*rs player but admits it’s more likely the full-back will join Manchester United.
Betis aren’t completely out of the question although Sport Witness, relaying a report by ABCdeSevilla, claims the club are willing to play the long game in the hope of getting the player on better terms towards the end of the transfer window.
Of the two clubs, you’d imagine Atletico might be in a stronger financial position to cover Bellerin’s wages but we have a sneaking suspicion that money might not be the deciding factor for our man should he decide to leave the Emirates.
Bellerin is 26 entering his prime. Trippier is 30 on his way out.
As a player I don’t mind Trippier, but I really hope we don’t end up doing a swap, and I hope Athletico offer a sizeable amount of cash to be able to get as good a replacement if not better.
Agreed, except maybe for the prime (time will tell).
Aarons or the guy from Lille look like better options to me.
I’m thinking the “swap” deal is made up and wishful thinking on Spanish end .. But then again. ..
SWAP deal.. by the people who bought Cedric (bosman but that loan was a fee).
Lol are we swapping trippier with cedric, then,selling him to man u for 10 mil?
If this is more than speculation, I really hope Atletico are not trying to do the same thing they did with Torreira last year. Turning a player’s attention away just for the sake of playing 4D chess.
I would really hate to see my guy, Hector, being played like that. I still think he’s the player with the most class in the squad.
I think ATM will drag it till the end. They would love to fck us over the Partey swap. Think we should not be holding out for an offer from their side. Better keep looking out for a right back.
Also what do agents do, if they cant manage to get a club for their players. Bellerin is still a good right back so we should not be heeding to loan calls or swaps.
Why? They got a replacement.
this whole they were mad about partey idea is tabloid talk.
I know La Liga gives them more time to find a replacement but they got one because they had to. Overall it’s clearly worked out for them but we did wait until the last day of the regular transfer window to trigger the clause. There’s no way to know for sure, but it’s quite possible they were pissed.
Getting a new player acclimated to the squad, city, play style and all of that isn’t something Atletico would’ve wanted to deal with.
It would make them black list Arsenal players?
They’ll soon realise Bellerin is also “not at the expected level after his injury”.
Shhhhhhh don’t tell anyone
Wait, so Atletico didn’t tear our phone number out of their books because we swooped in late for Partey last year? So it might be better for us to be a little more ruthless and not always be so nice to other teams and agents? Interesting!
I honestly don’t know what all the fuss was about. He had a release clause, we tried to negotiate and that went nowhere, so we paid it, in the actual transfer window (whatever about how late we left it, the window is the window and release clauses are compulsory in Spain so they can’t really be as shocked as they claimed). Just amateur dramatics leaked to their newspaper pals, in my opinion.
We also gave them a good replacement on loan. Not our fault they didn’t use him.
Probably easier to let bygones be bygones when you go on and win the league but agreed there wasa great deal of nonsense said at the time
They parted with Partey and won the league. Shouldn’t complain.
I’m not interested in Trippier, but this would be a wonderful move for Hector. He’s the one player in the squad who I would take a little less in a transfer fee if it meant he was going to club that benefited him. Hector is a good player, but he’s an even better human being.
Hector would have to step up his defensive game if he’s gonna play for Simeone. Dont know if thats a scenario he’s too interested in, always saw him as more attack minded.
Trippier is not interesting for me either. My Spuds friend always complained about him, too slow, this and that.
Well, I’d imagine that if Atletico are serious, then I’d guess Simeone feels he can get that out of Bellerin. Might be the move that defines his career. He’s certainly still young enough to improve his game.
Wait, you have a Spurs supporting friend.
Shame on you!!
Sadly Spanish clubs are broke. So maybe the best case scenario is swapping with someone decent, maybe a midfielder or winger. Lemar? Atletico can also take a 32 year old Brazilian winger from is for free.
Atletico have been a very consistent Champions League presence (kind of like us, once upon a time) and they pretty much only spend big after selling big themselves, so I’m not sure they get to plead poverty in this case.
U may want to check Atletico debt. Also of course if they spend big they will spend on Bellerin who cant even get into Arsenal first tram…
Mate, the TfL trams are only in South London😂😂😂. But seriously I get what you mean. Atletico has some funny looking finances. Their spending doesn’t always make sense, so there’s probably something else at work. Just look at the Morata purchase, only to loan him to Juve straight away.
All this is mildly interesting but I am surprised that Arsenal have ceased being linked with lower league players for several seasons now. I don’t know why George Graham’s approach of building on a strong crop of young players with hungry and quite good (not necessarily great) recruits from the old 2nd division, is no longer annoption?
Arise Buendia!
Occured to me with all the talk around Buendia it’s been an age since we bought a senior player from another English club that’s wasn’t a cast off from f##&ing Chelsea (not counting Mkhitaryan as that deal was just as stupid.)
Sol was probably the last one and he was free
Welbeck I’d say counts. He was a regular England international when we bought him. We tried with Vardy and Suarez but couldn’t convince them/were too tight. One player I always wish we held on to was Diarra. And of course we should not forget the £10m we paid Everton in 2011 for a certain M. Arteta.
Ramsey from Cardiff, Holding from Bolton and that young LB Arsene brought in from the 3rd division or something also count. If you count PL clubs, we’ve also signed Walcott, Chambers, Ox and a few others. When Arsene found the right quality, he made excellent moves.
I think the original post was about signing players in their prime from English clubs rather than those with potential (e.g. all the Southampton players we bought). Think the way Fergie bought Carrick, Ferdinand, Berbatov all in their prime. I guess Tierney counts if you say British club.
Well, we did exactly what you say with Tierney. But, generally (I know this is a shock), football has changed in important ways in the past thirty years. Money is one way; extensive scouting is another. You can get very lucky occasionally (Leicester with Kante), but generally every club knows how good everyone is in the lower divisions and other countries. And, since everyone knows, the richest clubs almost always get the best. And then your team of “quite good (not necessarily great) recruits” will finish eighth. Because, although Leicester got lucky with Kante (and Mahrez), both are now playing… Read more »
Man Utd pay a nice sum to Atletico for Trippier and Atletico pay a nice sum to Arsenal for Bellerin. Job done…
And what do Arsenal do with the nice sum from Atletico?
Pay Soares, Willian, Runarsson + Kolasinac to leave
Then if there’s any change, they buy a subpar replacement on a 5yr deal
Who they also pay to leave in the summer of 2022
Sum it up under the bottom line.
There!
Probably give it to some over the hill 35 year old in Kia’s back pocket.
Straight over to LA to help build Stan’s Tower of Babel.
No fucking way do I want that spud cunt Trippier playing for Arsenal.
Don’t forget we took Sol Campbell off that lot and then laughed all the way to the title.
Trippier’s a good player but too old for us now.
The BIGGER news is possibly an approach for Luis Campos at Lille.
Edu needs to be kicked somewhere. Arsenal will do ourselves a MASSIVE favour if we have better experience in transfer market.
Thus far we have been POOR selling on assets. That has impact to our ability to load on.
No truth to the Campos stuff, apparently.
Well, I for one think we should keep Hector. The lad is never going to be a worldie, but right now we have far bigger fish to fry than looking for a replacement for him. A back up – certainly – but not a replacement. The market is hardly full of 26 year old or younger decent right backs who would cost less than what we would probably get for moving him on. Let’s get shot of Xhaka, Elneny, Cedric, Willian and make doubly sure that Ceballos and Luiz have packed their bags as well. Let’s get in a decent… Read more »
On another note, shouldn’t we try to sign Sergio Romero on a free as our backup keeper?
Yes.