Lyon look set to play hard ball with Arsenal should Arsene Wenger make a formal approach for midfielder Clement Grenier.
Comparing the 22-year-old’s playing style to no-chinned-mercenary Samir Nasri, the boss confirmed at the weekend that Arsenal’s scouts have been following Grenier’s progress throughout an impressive year in Ligue 1.
It is true that we follow him, I am impressed with his game intelligence,” Wenger told Telefoot. “He has very interesting qualities and reminds me a bit of Samir Nasri.”
Despite little suggestion that Grenier is on Wenger’s summer shopping list, the praise has drawn a bullish retort from Lyon chairman Jean Michel Aulas who is confident of keeping his player now that Lyon have secured a shot at qualifying for the Champions League in August.
“Clement said to me that he will give priority to Lyon if we qualify for the Champions League,” Aulas told Canal + when asked about interest from the Gunners.
“I prefer [to listen to] what he said, rather than what Arsene Wenger said. But, we have to make a financial effort to keep him. We will see after the level of our effort [that we have to do].
“If Arsene wants to have an idea of Grenier’s price, I will tell him that it is the same as what Bayern Munich paid for Mario Gotze – around €37 million.”
It’s pretty obvious that Grenier is not worth anywhere near Aulas’ proposed selling price but with the transfer window not even open yet in England it’s the type of peacocking you’d expect from a chairman looking to maximise his profits.
Whether Arsenal have an interest in the player or not only time will tell although Arseblog News suspects the boss was just being polite about his young compatriot. Polite in as backhanded a way as possible given the comparison…
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Yo blogs it’s been a week now since i read your daily blog every time i click on it a page containing a book about Arsenal (so paddy got up) and something about a blog roll appears. What’s going on? How do we read the blog?
Wenger’s planting all these rumours that seem typical of him to set expectations low and cover up the £50m transfer he’s about to make.
Or not.
It’s a bog standard quote really, scarcely even counts as “planting a rumour”. Saying that “we follow him” means little in light of the fact that every big club follows a gazillion players all the time. It’s about as meaningful as that time last summer when Bixente Lizarazu asked Wenger if he was “on the case” of Marco Reus, to which Wenger replied “yes”, triggering a flood of quixotic articles and tweets about Arsenal wanting to sign Reus. (The silliest aspect of the story was that at the time of this frenzy, Reus was a week away from joining Borussia… Read more »
or maybe wenger is diverting media attention to lyon and grenier while silently scooping up a completely different player from a completely different league under 10 million….
At the end he’ll end up being signed for £12million.
That would be the high point at the end he will move up to a little Village up North to fulfil his boy hood dream of earning more than “The New Zidane” Aulas is a cunt always has been always will be..
€37million? Jean Michel Aulas is the one who reminds me of Na$ri. Money grabbing c*nt
Oh come on, what is the guy supposed to say? The figure quoted was a symbolic gesture saying that he “thinks” that Grenier is as good as Gotze, as a public support of his player and to show him that Lyon wants and needs him more, appealing to the 4th level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Sorry, I just felt like putting that last part in, quite ironically 😛
Well said Imarnuel AFC. I Absolutely pissed myself laughing.
Please. No football club will say “Please, come take one of our best talents for a reasonable price. Let’s start with what YOU think is reasonable.”
I mean, it’s not like we just gave away Fabr… oh.
Maybe in another year or two, can’t see him slotting in JUST yet, unless we sell Rosicky or Cazorla, which I strongly doubt.
no more pants French players please
Yes, we’ve had terrible luck with players from across the channel in the past. I couldn’t agree more, old chap, no more damn Frenchies. Keep ’em out I say. Perhaps we could build a wall? I’m sure that Henry, Vieira, Petit, Wiltord and Pires would be only too willing to help out.
How can you include Wilturd?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0hYvRzGb00
That’s how.
Please don’t forget how bad sagna giroud and kos have been, those frenchmen are fucking horrible too and never helped us win right?
I guess people don’t understand sarcasm.
Yeah I guess next time I’ll have to put the fact I’m being sarcastic in the post…
Clement who???
Grenier, Clement Grenier.
He’s handsome enough for the arse. Sign him up and sell the Gerv!
Didn’t Montpellier do something similar when we were interested in Giroud? Anyway, saw two of his free kicks. Christ they were good. Don’t know how an attacking mid would fit in the team now though.
Just give Eisfeld a chance next season. – I think he’s a guy who looks very promising and could be the future replacement for Rosicky!
I couldn’t agree more… After all he was nicknamed the next gotze when he was in dortmund ..!!
Rosicky is all energy… Eisfeld has pretty much none.
clearly you havent watch him play then
I imagine Arsenal “follow” many dozens (hundreds?) of players around the world. Wenger was choosing his words carefully. I wouldn’t worry about Grenier being in an Arsenal shirt any time soon. Besides, I don’t think we need another attacking midfielder.
Hey Arsene! Isn’t another attacking midfielder the least of our problems? Surely u know that. And unless he reminds you of Marc overmars or Robert Pires I don’t give a shit!
This is part of Aulas’ business model. Wherever someone’s is intererested in one of your players, ask far more than they’re worth and tell them no one’s for sale. It’s all in Stefan Szymanski & Simon Kuper’s book.
the aulas model was great at the start buy cheap sell high win title ,a brand new 60 000 stadium was coming then he decide he want to be top dog in europe buy very expensive player in france amd now they cant afford the stadium,arent challenging for the title in 4 years,and sell all star player they have left,thanks god they have a great academy
When he says reminds me of Nasri, does he mean can see a quick profit on the twat??
Clement grenier! Prior to Football manager 2011 the guy is a decent player & a great passer of ball. That shuld be the last french player we shuld get wenger
He is just playing hard to get game. He is even talking of mobolizing finances, an indication he wants to sell but wants higher price or even increase the competition to inflate the market price.
He has only one year left on his contract…
Wenger shouldn’t identify players for others to come and buy, he has been watching them since and he has several agents all over. He should just load the wallet and go and buy straight away before others pop their nose to inflate the price.
You know what you want and whom you want, why wait for others to go for the same player before you put in a bid?
praising a player does not mean Wenger is interested….The Lyon chairman needs to get this into his fucking head…the lad played well n he wenger admired it….datz all…..
He is young.
He is French.
He is unproven.
He is exactly what Wenger is interested in…
I mean you didn’t really believe in Jovetic, Higuain or Rooney stories did you?
I bet those fabricated stories resulted in a small bump in season ticket sales for the more vulnerable of the Arsenal support base.
Vulnerable, yeah. And the stone-cold fans like yourself who don’t get sucked into Wenger’s shit, the scheming board, the sell-out media, or the American moon landing.
Need a top, top, top striker Arsene!
Grenier AND Pogba?
These are conceivable targets for once. And both would be ideal for the club.
Unlike Rooney, who’d stick out like a big, fat, icky, oiky, thumb.
Ten fingers one thumb doesn’t sound right.
i watched a bit of him on youtube. Looked okay. but like most are saying doesnt seem like a player we need.
Well it‘s good to have such so said talented player in our team, but I‘s really gurtid to hear arsene compared the lad with nasri, what of pires, the true gunner, pls mr wenger don‘t do that again b/cos I really felt gutid as na arsenal fan.
Yeah Wenger, fuck you and your honest comparisons. Next time please take the sensibilities of the fans into account. We don’t give a shit if he’s Nasri’s identical twin brother, who idolises his sibling and has dedicated himself to playing in the exact same way as his brother. You are NOT allowed to compare him to Nasri. Also if you get the opportunity to buy a striker on the same level as RVP, just pass it up. It might help the team, but we’d all feel gutid
Grenier looks like a typical Wenger buy: he’s young, he’s French and he’s (relatively) cheap. But, of course, he’s exactly the type of player that we don’t need right now. With Cazorla, Wilshere, the Ox and Walcott we’ve got plenty of attacking midfield talent. The priorities right now are: a top-quality striker, a tough defensive midfielder and a top-class goalkeeper. And if we have to pay top dollar for them then we should. But back on Planet Wenger this is unacceptable. What we must do is spend as little as possible on transfers then pay them far in excess of… Read more »
Your previous prediction of falling outside the top 4 puts you in good stead for further forecasts. Crack on.
Oh, where to start? 1. Apparently “relatively” cheap in ‘Fatgooner World’ starts at €37M. 2. Your grouping of “Cazorla, Wilshere, the Ox and Walcott” under “attacking talent” says it all. 3. Grenier would be more an understudy to Rosicky, but can also give us an alternative if SC19 needs a rest. Imagine if we had Mata instead of SC19 … then Grenier would be like signing Oscar or Hazard. 4. We’ve been after a “top-quality” DM before … namely Paul Pogba … and apparently we still are. 5. We’ve been after a “top-qualty” striker before … namely David Villa …… Read more »
SCHOOLED.
Nice one Eleanor!
oh! Transfer Window!
I was reading it as “because the summer Theo Walcott hasn’t even opened” because of all the other abbreviations. I was scratching my head for a few minutes there.
Totally agree BTW…
and I don’t mean Big Theo Walcott or Busy Transfer Window.
I prophesy Wenger will buy cheap & 13/14 will contain the same frustrations & top 4 mentality that we have become used to. Silverware I hope for but fear will remain elusive. The time has come for change though it’s hard to contemplate.
So, they want Gervinho for around £10-12m, but we have to pay a fortune for this guy?
Seems legit..
I’m hoping Wenger does some more match commentating. We get a ton of great quotes each time.
Grenier’s goal from yesterday or the day before. Didn’t know Giroud can be a goalkeeper as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEO_f8V51ik
This might be hard to take in but I believe we haven’t actually signed anyone yet this summer so that team is b/s
Benteki
Carzola wiltshire grenier
Rambo Arteta
Gibbs kos mert sanga
Mingolet
Subs giroud , poldski , Ben arfa, walcott, moneral , vermalen schez
This is our league winning team for next year
You would make a great manager…
You managed to misspell seven of those names.
No, he spelled them all correctly. The seven are all young, French and relatively cheap buys Wenger has lined up already.
Is that your fifa lineup ?
I know nothing about this player as I haven’t seen any French football apart from PSG’s Champions League appearances but I have to hand it to Lyon’s Aulas. This guy really knows how to use the media to extract every little penny he can possibly get for his players. Lyon have always been a selling club despite being powerhouses in French football so Aulas always has to sell his prized assetts. It’s a shitty situation, but this guy always seems to get maximum value or stupid money for the players he sells. That’s probably why we haven’t done a ton… Read more »
Arsene and Aulas don’t mix like two dicks with no bitch.
You find yourself in serious shit! hahahahaha!
Aulas didn’t do so well with the Lloris transfer, did he? €10M plus odds and ends.
But Lyon’s financial model is based on sales. And they do still have Gourcuff. So, this transfer possibility isn’t completely out of the question.
€10-15M plus variables should do it. Though, frankly, if it were at all possible, I’d prefer Cesc back.
They said the same about giroud when he was at montpelier but he turned out to be a meagre £12M. But here’s the thing clement Grenier is no giroud, he’s actually a good footballer. He was their stand out player against sp*r cunts. Tore them apart time after time. Has kept Gourcouff firmly on the bench, yet we know how talented he is. All in all the players will cost us either of £14M no less. I would still rather we go for some other bloke aka reus/jovetic but if wenger speaks so highly of this grenier then what do… Read more »
Please wenger sign matured so that we champions of europ. 2013/2014 coming
who’s Matured? Is he good?
This site is starting to sack. But i’m still not leaving. Not just yet.
I just had a nasty thought! What if Wenger with money is just like Wenger without money?
When Wenger had money to spend he wasn’t like Wenger without money. He can spend with the best of them… only smarter.
Why is anyone suprised at these comments? How many times did wenger say fabregas, nasri, song, van persie would not be sold. I would not be losing sleep over this guy anyways, im sure the majority of people hadn’t really heard of Clement Grenier until this season…. I’ve known who he was for quite some time only because he’s had his FIFA Starhead in the FIFA Franchise games for many years and i try to buy players on manager mode that actually have real faces. Other than that, couldnt tell you shit about him. Except apparently hes gone from a… Read more »
I have a feeling that this would turn out to be a red herring…
I have never watched this player, heck I haven’t even heard about him previously. But to all those who are saying “we don’t need another midfielder”, could this interest in a tall attacking midfielder be the end of Abou Diaby’s time with Arsenal?
If wenger got this guy, he would be more an arshavin/gervinho replacement than a diaby.
“…reminds me a bit of Samir Nasri.”
Well from the pic he doesn’t look like a horse-faced chinless lesbian, so it must be something else.
That leaves either something to do with football, or he’s a cunt.
[…] 【Arseblog News】 […]
“He reminds me of Samir Nasri.” What, you mean he’s a right cunt?
He scored some crackers from outside the box for Lyon good set piece option too
One unlikely transfer that I’d like to see which few would have thought of is Rene Meulensteen to Arsenal. Watcha guys think?
Aulas always comes out with this shite the second someone praises a Lyon player. He’s drawing more attention to the player so he can be flogged for more later. He said the same of Lloris, Gourcuff, Benzema, Malouda, Essein…
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Kudos!
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and
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Well he is pretty shrewd in the transfer market so am sure he will get his man at a good price!