Although the signing of Yaya Sanogo has yet to be made official, it does appear as if he’ll be playing in red and white next season.
And the soon to be former Auxerre man revealed that it was a personal intervention from Arsene Wenger that convinced him to join the Gunners, despite offers from other clubs.
“Arsene Wenger came to see me in Paris and was very frank,” he told L’Equipe. “Plenty of clubs were interested. On balance, it was Lille and Arsenal. Initially, I wanted to go to Lille, but the approach Wenger made the difference.”
The French U21 international spoke about his injury problems, but seemed to take a grounded view of how things would go for him next season at Arsenal.
“This is a tough league, but I’m going to work hard. We’ll see how my body reacts. I have come to learn, and gain experience.
“My goal is obviously to play but not to be number one in the first season. This is one of the top eight clubs in the world. We do not expect too much, too soon.
“I lost a lot of time and I hope to catch up some of those years.”
The most un-officially confirmed signing of all time … Not seen a lot of him, but for Wenger to make the trip, obviously sees something
Like chamack and squillaci
In other extremely pertinent and related news, Mark Schwarzer has no plans. Mayhap we can interest him in some quiet backup-mentor type action, occassionally gracing the first team when Szcz needs a kick up the arse?
Seems highly unlikely purely because Schwarzer still has designs on playing for the Soccerroos at Brazil 2014, so occasional first team football probably won’t suffice for him.
Granted, Australia are about to enter the deciding phase of whether they will be there or not in the next fortnight, so if that goes horribly awry it may be plausible.
Not when Cesar is coming.
Let’s all hope this guy can be more like a Henry and less like a “insert recent shite Wenger signing”.
Koscielny? Arteta? Nacho?
No, he’s obviously talking about Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud! Jokes aside, the only real ‘worry’ on the books next summer will probably be Gervinho, and it’s arguable whether or not he’ll underperform again next season since the lows he’s played this season have been so vividly bad. Frankly there hasn’t been many flops since Arsenal moved to the Emirates at least. Not counting first-team players, since Squillaci’s transfer that’s only Chamakh, Andre Santos and Park (3) out of 13 first-team signings that we can consider flops today, the other 10 are regular fixtures in the teamsheet and… Read more »
Granted, not one of them has been in the Veiria-Henry bracket, but this conastant repetition of lazy talking points just gets on one’s nerves. On mine, anyways.
For our current punching weight these signings aren’t superflop bad, it’s just selective memory with the 2006ish intake of Denilson, Gallas, Bendtner (I think?), Arshavin (2008), etc. Not to mention people like this tend to think of players such as Ramsey, Jenks and Eduardo as flops.
All those “amazing” fourth place players.
A lot of good they did against certain Championship and League 2 teams this year huh?
You obviously ignore Mert our first choice centre-back who’s displaced the club captain, Carzola our player of the year in his first season, or Poldi who’s scored double figures from the wing plus lots of assists also in his first season?
Have some balance in your assessments, mate.
Btw it’s a response to D above, not to emob…just to clarify 🙂
“…We do not expect too much, too soon.” Also applies to we fans
At least we’re still in the top 8 by his estimation.
As with every single signing we make, we should be getting behind them and hoping for the best. No point moaning right from the get-go before a signing gets a chance to prove anyone wrong.
…and also rather pointless singing their praises when they have started proving their worth and then slaughtering them if they have a couple of under-par games. I don’t like the way being a Gooner has changed in the last few years. We never used to be so trigger happy. We understood that there are good times and not-so-good times and we dealt with that by getting behind the team whatever happened. There was none of this short-termist hate for any player who had a bad day at the office. We know from experience that players thrive on being booed by… Read more »
Well said!
I know a lot of you might think “Same old same old”, but I do have a good feeling about this one.
Marquee signings please… Not bargain dump cheap sales please!!!!
It’s a free signing, chill out… His still an untested kid, with a lot of potential, if it doesn’t work out then it’s not a big loss. At least we’ll have some extra depth.
STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE!!
It was probably just bait, can’t really imagine a guy this dumb unless he was a young boy.
I can’t believe that so many so called “mature Arsenal (Arsene?)” fans are overjoyed by the signing of an injury plagued LIGUE 2 striker.
A degree of scepticiism’s healthy, but cynicism’s draining. Why not just welcome the kid?
Sangogo turned out to be shit on my fifa arsenal save, so I, for one are extremely dissapointed we signed this shit piece of future deadwood, ESPECIALLY FOR THE LUDICROUS TRANSFER FEE AAAAANNDDDD WAGE WE PAYED!
193284million for an injured ligue deux attacker and 500k/week ooooomgggg.
At least you’d think that was the case with some of the comments on here……
I always wonder, when fans demand ‘marquee signings’, how they would respond to Wenger signing a Pole from Lech Poznan for £3 million, or a Colombian from River Plate for £2.5 million, or a Brazilian from Tokyo Verdy for £4.5 million, or a Uruguayan from Groningen for £5 million. Blind fury, I’m sure.
The Pole that Dortmund signed was Lewandowski, the Colombian that Porto signed was Falcao, the Brazilian that Porto signed was Hulk and the Uruguayan that Ajax signed was Suarez.
Yep. Sometimes your £5 million gets you a talented psycho.
No more plonkers becoming Gooners, that’s what I want.
What is his footballing age?
3
lol , its sooo offical , that arsenal.com aren’t even going to publish it
Havent seen a lot of him but i thnk hes talented.hes got a great future ahead of him bt i thnk hes gna b injury prone,hes gona be 1 of those players that are hot during the first half of the season but get injured.
how do you know?
Some folk here seem to just hope for the worst. I don’t understand such people…
Seems pretty level-headed, have a good feeling about him
we cleared alot of reserve and youth players recently. good to replace with players who potentially can be great. more of the same please
Let’s hope he’ll be like Rosicky (not out for 18 months, but kicking on as he’s spent too much time on sidelines 🙂 ).
He seems like a well grounded chap so lets hope it works out well for him and us.
Vying for Szczesny’s spot eh? Odd fellow
Aww bless the lad. Would definitely be happy seeing him at the club. Not sure we’re quite “top eight” at the moment, but we’ll see this summer. Definitely one for the future.
Not top 8!!! Fucking top 5 at least
I dunno mate. Hate to bring it up, but we finished fourth in the BPL, and I’d put three Spanish clubs, two German clubs, a French club and a partridge in a pear tree above us too. I don’t need to name those clubs, I’m sure.
Not to say that we’re out of it – just, I don’t think we’re there yet. Top ten, maybe!
6th officially: http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html. that’s quite an achievement considering the upheaval we have had at the club in the past 5 years…
6th in terms of finances. Not in on-field performances.
Jesus (even he couldn’t save Arsene’s “downward spiral”) can’t you zealots even admit the truth in your unmitigated and unbridled support of our manager.
@Sigh – I’ve got little faith in Arsene now, but I still love my club, and I certainly don’t believe we’re in a massive downward spiral – we’ve just suffered because our opponents have strengthened and we haven’t. I’d welcome Yaya here with open arms, and be excited about what he could do. The only reason I’ll be negative is if he’s the only striker reinforcement at the club this Summer, which would be a massive mistake. Getting a cheap, talented player alongside others, however, is to be celebrated. If Yaya doesn’t make it, then at least we’ve given it… Read more »
Just read another article saying that this deal is not going through
Apparently:
“Ya-ya’s A No-Go”
Sorry
say no go?
chill out ’til it’s official…
wake me up ‘for Sanogogo!
This guy is just a future project,wenger should buy a finished product,nt raw materials.
Buying this kid mean
-No fee paid
-relatively small salary
-lots of potential
-only 19 so won’t need to be registered in the 25man squad
-we get to have a 3rd striker in case the worst happens
wait till wenger shops for limbs, head etc etc separately and assemble them!
Frankenwenger?
Ah, new to football eh? I’d just like to point out that any team is allowed to sign more than one player in a transfer window. Welcome to the wonderful world of football.
apparently the compensation fee has all ready gone to tribunal and is around £300,000 for him.
A friend who watches French football says he’s good but has had problems with injuries.
Diaby II?
Henry II anyone?
no pressure then
Sanogo I.
When they make it official it may become a day we will all look back on with joy and pride that we were able to capture such a great player.
At £300K he is certainly worth a punt.
Look on the bright side. We terminated Denilson’s contract by mutual consent today.
That is worth an awful lot of £300Ks
I swear I don’t understand the negativity behind this signing. everyone connected with french football says he is a FREAK of a finisher (which isn’t all that common for someone at that age). Injuries aside, I have a VERY GOOD feeling about this guy, and as a free transfer we can’t go wrong.
For all those wanting Wenger to buy a ready made squad, get back to the play station, REAL supporters get behind their club!!
That’s right. “Real” supporters support mediocrity, our fourth place trophy and nearly a decade of no tophies along with not even being a threat to teams who were once considered to be our rivals. But above all “real” supporters simply support the manager no matter what the overall cost to the club is. For “real.” “Fake” supporters are the ones that know the team shold be doing better and know that injury plagued LIGUE 2 signings won’t improve our lot or end the nearly decade of nothingness that losing to Bradford, Blackburn, Norwich, et al is simply not good enough… Read more »
seriously smoke some greenery and stay off the hard stuff. the guy is a third string striker this year with potential for the future. we’ll probably bag a striker from Madrid in a few weeks to compete for the day one start up top. calm down, go get some booty and release your stress geez
No stress here, except when it comes to zealots who tell fellow Gooners, who don’t share their glass half full outlook, to go and support another club or that they aren’t true fans. Given the fact that these “no-true fans” are still supporting the club despite approximately a DECADE with no trophies and not a hint of being able to sustain any real challenge for any trophy I would say these individuals are actually the “truest fans” of all. Just because we are not all over zealous sycophants that defend any and every move or non-action by Wenger does not… Read more »
Nearly a decade. A fan since the Invincibles season, eh? Good on you. It’s a shame you feel that the team has let you down since the heady days that you first supported them, and more of a shame that you see the past eight years as failure. You do realise that you could have a lifetime of no trophies as a Gooner? Football support is like that for the majority of supporters. We have no right to expect more in a competetive sport. We can hope for more, but it is not our right to win trophies. We have… Read more »
that’s like saying I beat my kid and send him to school with a black eye but I support him because I’m at home with him everyday. that’s not support that’s abuse. I’m not saying having an abject view isn’t possible but being cynical about every little fucking thing and whining like you have female parts between your legs isn’t support you’re just bitching like a wife. one thing to say “I hope he isn’t our primary signing” & another to go on a bitching tirade about how he’s not good enough and always injured. he hasn’t even signed, he… Read more »
Sigh, can I just say buddy, your grasp of the bigger picture is appalling. Arsenal have remained in the top flight longer than any other English club. They’re only one of two clubs to go an entire season unbeaten. They’ve won 13 First Division titles. They’ve also won 10 FA Cups. In the last DECADE, they’ve been ever-present in the Champions League, they are also the only English club to reach the knock-out stages of the Champions League in both of the last two seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see more, I’d love to see treble winning… Read more »
Is the plan to loan him out, or stash him as a 3rd striker? A loan would probably benefit him, looking at what happened with Lukaku.
But a season amongst the squad, learning our values and getting a taste of the first team, would be more valuable. Then let him have his loan if he is not quite ready.
I think he will grow while training around good players. Lets hope this deal is just the appetizer and in no way stands in the path of signing a striker this summer
Sanogo to Arsenal, Good dats plus ONE.
Remember it was the same dumb fans that said same negative stuff when OX was signed. Welcome the kid please and wish him good health.
What a shame that Wenger has to make a personal appeal to a LIGUE 2 player as a means to ensure that he doesn’t join the massive club known as Lille.
Oh how far the Arsenal has fallen huh guys? Ahhh, nevermind.
No, it isn’t a shame. It’s a decent way to do business. It’s the way you begin to build loyalty and respect with a player. It doesn’t always work, but it’s the right way to do things and is better than getting hired by a corporate face and only meeting the manager in your second season at the club as can happen at lesser clubs like Chel$ki, $%$s or Citeh.
Sigh, I’d say it’s quite fair that a nineteen year old would weigh up continued development in familiar surroundings with a better club in his native country, versus taking the risk with the upheaval of going abroad and moving to an even larger club where he may not play as much football.
Sigh, let’s assume you’re twenty years of age or older – can you tell us what your personal experience was like of being offered two jobs when you were nineteen, one domestically and one abroad? Which did you choose?
Or have you not walked in Sanogo’s shoes?
I see a lot of Kanu in this guy. I wish him the best!
‘Sigh’ must be a troll.
No supporter could have their head wedged that far up their own arse.